Perfectly walking the line between arcade racer and sim, it delivers fantastic, deep, engrossing racing action without the endless twiddling of a sim or the ridiculous control of an arcade racer. There are no weapons or powerups, either.

Poor AI, routine melee combat and unimaginative gameplay consign Rune to the hellish abode of the bored.

As dopey as the AI is, it really is a lot of fun to jump into a level where you know that you're completely surrounded and outnumbered and gun the hell out of everything that moves.

Prolonged exposure to this latest Bond adventure reveals that TWINE is, despite the gorgeous visuals and top-notch presentation, at heart a relatively shallow experience -- decent, but not quite good enough.

The games themselves look good and play even better, but only against other humans. It's just not fun to play minigames against a computer, no matter how well they're both programmed.

It's not a horrible game, but the one other pool game available at launch, "Q-Ball: Billiards Master," is just a tad bit better.

The golf ball "rolls" like a ping-pong ball on an air-hockey table...TW2001 slices into the rough when it comes to actually playing the game, and that's a shame, as nearly everything else is top-notch.

Whether standing on its own or against the legion of fine racing alternatives out there (from "Gran Turismo" to "Wipeout"), this is one racer we'll probably leave in the games garage.

Some incredible AI programming, a great sense of style, clever design and tons of replay value and you've got our new favorite puzzle game.

So clever in its conception and execution that we can't see anyone not finding its worth in least a few of the many delights it has to offer.

Never thought we'd have to say it, but this latest Army Men title is really pretty darn good.

Melodramatic dialogues precede and follow each fight, and they're handled with the same mildly illiterate aplomb as most anime translations -- meaning that they're longwinded, heavyhanded and occasionally unintelligible to all but the most diehard of fans, which is just how we like 'em.

The second incarnation of Jack is less than the first, but better than all of the others.

Hey You, Pikachu is bright and saccharine, the videogame equivalent of a "Brady Bunch" marathon with a pre-sugared cereal chaser.

Nothing on Dreamcast comes close to matching this game in terms of action and fun.

Some of the controls could have used some tweaking, the enemy AI tends to be pretty bland and, overall, we've done most of this before. However, it's got just the right mix of several other games with touches of originality, and it kept us coming back.

The few weaknesses come from repetitive gameplay in the single-player game, simplistic tactics that often boil down to "get 'em," and steep system requirements.

Ugly visuals and a much uglier framerate fail to bolster a lackluster stunt system that's neither visceral nor deep.

A passable shooter that will please Nintendo-owning fans of the genre, but it won't win any awards for originality, ingenuity or design.

Smoother than The Glide, bigger than The Diesel and cooler than The Iceman, NBA 2K1 is as about as good as basketball gets.

The multiplayer won't hold most people's interest for more than a few rounds, but the creative level design as well as the minigames will keep most platform fans munching to the end.

If you're a 500cc motorbike fan, you're all set, it's pure genius. Otherwise, this is a detailed, fun and addictive racing game with a twist.

Controlling the lethal moon buggy can be awkward, and there really is no depth to the game beyond shooting and driving, but there is plenty of fun to be had.

It contains an interesting and cleverly told story and takes great pains to build an atmosphere, then smashes the whole house of cards to the ground, violently, with a cheap cop-out ending.

Players who preferred last year's fast, arcade feel can boost up the speed in the options settings, but fans of more thoughtful, deliberate play will likely enjoy the challenge and pace of this year's iteration.

Beautiful graphics, huge courses, great multiplayer and infinite replayability round out the package to make this hands-down the best game on the PS2.

Featuring major improvements over last year's KK2000 -- including brilliant commentary and much improved player control -- this updated version is easily the best boxing game on the market.

Delivers on every level -- gameplay, graphics, sound and, especially, originality. Greedy as we are, we can only complain that there isn't even more goodness.