Those 15 deaths, the difficulty imbalance, the weapon irrelevance and manual camera notwithstanding, the game was fine. But you know, those are all really big issues that drag down a game's score. Ratchet and Clank: Full Frontal Assault also is dreadfully boring, so I can't rate it anything higher than "average."

The game misses the mark in several ways, but with the right programming and more analysis into whether toddlers are really the most appropriate target for this sort of product, we could be witnessing the birth of a whole new educational medium. It's just not there yet.

Still, Hollywood likes things that go boom and look good doing so, much like Michael Bay's Transformers movies. The game industry operates much the same way, but the best games within it also introduce a fresh experience, something Transformers: Fall of Cybertron fails to do. Yes, Grimlock and the Combaticons are new, but for all practical purposes they're just multimedia window dressing on an otherwise evolutionary, not revolutionary, title.

An intriguing plot tries to turn an action-oriented (and bloody) game on its ear, but the gameplay is too repetitive at its core to make you feel like you've really experienced something unique in the ever-growing world of sandbox games.

I may not have been the biggest fan of the previous two Resident Evil outings, but I could respect the elements they introduced to the series and understood the reasoning behind them. Not so much with this one. I recommend you pass on Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City altogether and wait for the next "real" entry in the Resident Evil franchise.

The campaign grows tedious in spite of its mixed-up gameplay, and the remaining mini-game modes are enjoyable more for their novelty and humor than for their actual gameplay. I'd still recommend the game for serious Star Wars fans, but if you're more of a casual fan and/or just have a passing interest, it's better worth renting than a full-on purchase.

Occasionally touchy controls and an inexplicable feeling of repetition undermine an otherwise creative tactical puzzle game.

The episodes and scenes are entertaining, but there simply aren't enough of them to justify a full purchase. Pound for pound, unless you're hell-bent to perform MTV programming, Yoostar 2 is definitely a better deal.

The gameplay is what really matters, I suppose, but although the swimming motions are pretty intuitive, the ramp-up in difficulty and lack of true leveling-up render the game a bit tedious after a while. That, combined with the nagging issues above, make it hard for me to recommend Michael Phelps: Push the Limit even for the biggest of Michael Phelps fans.

It's tough to recommend this game to newcomers to the Monkey Ball world based on the two rough game modes, and the otherwise decent Challenge mode likely isn't long enough to justify the high price tag of 3DS titles. The use of 3D is novel, but completely unnecessary – as we've all played these games at home since the Gamecube launch.

Between those passive tendencies, the lack of strategic combat, a smattering of trite escort missions and the lack of much R in the RPG equation, the total X-Men Destiny package ends up kind of boring. It would've been nice to see Silicon Knights right its up-ended ship, but this game makes me seriously wonder if the studio's ship has already sailed.

Technically, Goldeneye 007: Reloaded does nothing wrong, and in fact my hat's off to Activision for bringing a classic game to the modern era. The gameplay, though, in spite of its tweaks here and there, just doesn't have the impact as when Goldeneye was the one N64 game everyone owned.

Unlike a lot of hastily thrown together minigame collections, Carnival Island seems well thought out – it even has a story mode. The 35+ game modes will surely have at least one that will appeal to almost any gamer, and the cute collectable pets will keep the collectors happy.

Entertaining at times and overly basic at others, this sophomore outing is 'average' on the whole. Whether that speaks to the game itself or the expanding library of Kinect options is still up in the air, but the result is the same.

Even though four sports are included on this disc, none of them stand out as something that needs to be played.

Major League Baseball 2K11 has the fortunate (for 2K) distinction of being the only Xbox 360 baseball game, and one of just two on the PS3. However, it has the dubious distinction (for gamers) of being the one sports game this year that fans should absolutely avoid. If that means taking a year off of baseball, I definitely advise taking that vacation.

Had this not leveraged the Ghostbusters license, we'd probably not even be talking about this game.

There's just not quite enough variety to hold my (or my son's) interest, and the occasional collision/gesture detection snafu doesn't help matters either.

Brink can be awesome and annoying, euphoric and inexplicable, all in the same breath. Unfortunately, fist pumps are followed by fits of controller throwing all too regularly to make this one score much higher.

The game can be fun, but it's strictly a multiplayer affair, and it needs more meat. As it stands, it feels a bit like the publishers' way to lead owners into a world of endless microtransactions.

Spider-Man Edge of Time isn't a completely bad game, as the mechanics are all in place and nothing really is broken within the game – but it's not necessarily what I'd call a good game either.

Short of the opening music, which is awesome and sounds like a demonic mariachi band, I can't think of many redeeming qualities in Shadows of the Damned. It's not in the same craptastic league as Thor, which suffered from horrible gameplay and production values; it's just a waste of time.

Duke Nukem Forever aspires to take gamers back to a different period in the gaming continuum. What it will really do is inspire you to take it back to the store for a full and complete refund.

Unless you're absolutely die-hard about hard rock and heavy metal, Brutal Legend is one game you can relegate to a rental.

Unless you're absolutely die-hard about hard rock and heavy metal, Brutal Legend is one game you can relegate to a rental.

My recommendation: let Wolfenstein stay in the other dimension and away from your Xbox 360 or PS3. There are other shooters this fall that can scratch your FPS itch a heck of a lot better.

My recommendation: let Wolfenstein stay in the other dimension and away from your Xbox 360 or PS3. There are other shooters this fall that can scratch your FPS itch a heck of a lot better.

The Conduit is decent, but I wouldn't pay $50 for it; maybe $30. Between cheap enemies and not enough polish, The Conduit just falls short.