Subtract the balancing issues and the system requirements and it's not nearly as good as it could be, but I enjoyed my time with it.

It doesn't have the "wow" factor that the first game had and is somewhat forgettable after you have played it through.

The real fun begins when monsters begin to show up and you must fulfill the requirements for recruiting a Hero that will bash its head in before too many people get gobbled up by the wandering nasty.

More of a strategy-focused game than a real dog-fighter, Allegiance is as simple or as complex as you want to get. Just don’t expect to save the universe from the cockpit of your starship.

If you were one of the ones that sobbed every time "Return to Krondor" was delayed, you'll go through Wizardry like an adult going through their childhood home. In some ways, it's a piece of living history.

It’s very frustrating, and enough to make more sensitive gamers nauseous. You’ll get angry and start swearing at the TV.

The save game system and the control scheme add to the difficulty more than they should.

Titles such as "Etherlords" have blown the genre open, and in comparison Disciples II seems markedly dated.

I would have also liked the game to last longer. An, average monster's life span is three to four years. That can be played through in about one or two sittings.

It's a decent expansion pack, but nothing so bold that it would cause heart palpitations.

I like the new modes because each one puts the player on the defensive at some point, and I love being the centre of attention in a multiplayer game and facing overwhelming odds. Yeah, I'm a masochist, sue me.

Definitely not for the casual gamer or anyone into pretty graphics, Sid Meier’s Antietam! is great game nonetheless, providing an accurate and historic simulation of one of the bloodiest (i.e. casualty-filled) single days in American history.

Perhaps the coolest part of WarioWare is that it has lots of nods to Nintendo history. There are minigames based on classic Nintendo games, like The Legend of Zelda (touch the fairies to rescue them) and Metroid (pull alien critters off of Samus), and many more.

The biggest drawback I found with the game in general was not being able to adequately distinguish other players from the background.

A fun and original game, but I wish they cut back on the difficulty level.

The excellent castle management and siege combat is tarnished by the cumbersome interface and mediocre real-time combat.

It definitely has a strong boardgame feel, although it's not as hands-on as the popular "crayola rail" games, nor as addictive as the recently released "Monopoly Tycoon."

Even the new additions to the franchise lack enough depth to warrant picking this up if you already own "Here Comes The Pain."

I have two minor complaints--Stitch can't fire when crouched, which would make the game a lot easier. That's my second beef--as shooters go it's pretty challenging.

Kohan is one of the few that not only mixes resource management and solid tactical play, but a couple of turn-based wargaming conventions to boot.

Pretty good, though we should go ask the pitchers if they have any sandpaper or emery boards we can use to take off the noticeable rough edges.

While flight sim or "Pilotwings" fans will dig the emphasis on pure flight skill rather than on possessing an itchy trigger finger, they may still be put off by the drab visuals that would look more at home on the N64 than the PS2.

Playing through a slow-as-molasses round of Mario Party can be an excruciatingly tedious experience. Frankly, I just kept dozing off waiting for my turn.

Prime rental territory; it's one of those games that will be adored by some and abhorred by others, with hardly any middle ground.

A pleasant little trip.

Ridge Racer V is liable to give players flashbacks to the Commodore 64 days when you could start the game loading, go off and eat lunch, and then return to play the game.

Despite the repetitive combat and other shortcomings, I found Wild Arms 3 to be pretty engrossing.

As Samuel Johnson once said, “He who has not played "Midtown Madness" will find this game a treat indeed; others may be visited by an unsettling sense of déjà vu.” And that’s also a direct quote. I think.

The in-game menus are terribly slow to load, f’rinstance, and the era-specific theme music in Evolution mode will quickly drive you over the edge.

The most important thing to do before setting out to play Earth 2150 is to remember to synchronize your watch, because it does not count to be slow in this game, or things will burn up.

Really, the whole cartridge is more like an added gimmick to the Game Boy games than an actual stand alone product.

RPGs live and die on factors other than graphics and while LUNAR is weak in the graphic department (other than the first class anime sequences), it makes it up in spades in the more important areas such as plot, characterization and game system.

What was supposed to be Red Faction’s raison d’être – French for “cool feature designed to make it seem like more than just a cheap Half-Life clone set on Mars”--[the Geo Mod technology] turns out to be its biggest disappointment.

It's a fun game. The more people you get gathered around the PlayStation (up to eight) to play, the more fun it is.

It's damnably fun and addictive. Besides, only a complete jackass would miss the opportunity to see Blitz as it was truly meant to be.

A flawed but fascinating adaptation of the imaginings of one of horror's most influential writers.

AID:TNN comes off, despite its graphical wizardry, a little…sophomoric. The majority of the cinematic cuts and voice acting are god-awful-bad, and not even in that charming, maybe-they-meant-it, B-movie Resident Evil way.

The courses, while looking extremely good, are just not varied enough.

The limitless possibilities that Unlimited offers with its tools can be easily overlooked by the fanatical aspiring mayors of PC-land.

If you are the obsessive type who likes to control every little happening, the trade of every historically-accurate bushel of grain, then Patrician II will supply a lengthy, stream of satisfaction.

If you liked the original Phoenix Wright and can get past the fact that not much has changed (or improved), you should enjoy yourself.

If only Sega and the IVF could both learn that lesson and promote volleyball on the merits of the game and of the athletes who play it, rather than their femaleness and enforced lack of clothing.

As far as multiplayer goes, Rune comes with seven deathmatch levels that, much like the single player version, quickly become monotonous. (Oh look. We’re back here again.)

This game has all the usual punching, kicking, jumping, and the occasional use of gadgets that you’ve seen in other sidescrolling type games. It plays reasonably well, and it has lots of unlockables.

There's a lot of survival in this survival horror, but very little horror. Occasionally it manages to surprise you with some good monster placement and give you a little jolt, but that's all.

If you like a little humor mixed in with your punches then give this one a workout.

If you're looking for a fighter to just pick up and play with your friends, it's a fine addition to your library.

If it's depth you want you'll be disappointed, but if you want to lose yourself in a high-speed car chase or force your buddies into a head-on, this one's for you.

What is up with the baby?

I'd say this is better than "Sim Theme Park," and worth getting, but if you've already got "Sim Theme Park," you'll probably wonder where the fresh meat is.

If you've already got last year's Bomberman Tournament for GBA, you probably don't need this one as well, unless you're a Bomberman freak.

While the PC version of Jedi Outcast blows the GameCube version out of the water, this is still a very good shooter with a lot to offer Nintendophiles, despite the disappointments.

For fans of the Transformers license, this game has lots of cool extras to help disguise the fact that it’s really just an average action game.

The sprawling environments are the game's strongest points and greatest weaknesses---it's terrific to run down the stairs in Andy's living room, or go sliding around on zip-wires in the basement, or flying through the air with the help of a reclining chair launch-mechanism...but at the same time, there seems to be an uninspiring deadness to the world around you; it simply isn't interactive enough.

Through no fault of the developers, some of the physics of riding a bike (as opposed to a skateboard) make this game less fun than playing the Tony Hawk series. Think about it, a skateboard can go both ways, a bike cannot.

The game world doesn't provide quite enough in the way of possible control schemes, so you're left with an awkward one no matter which you choose.

A deep, intense, and well-written space combat simulator, but more implementation masks many of these good traits and can frustrate all but the serious gamer.

A really good example of real time strategy. Maybe the best, but it didn’t do anything to revive my interest in a tired genre.

There's nothing remarkably groundbreaking, but it is a good game overall. One problem however is that this game is replete with glitches.

If you like swordplay, if you like good story, if you like Asian ambiance, you'll like The Way of the Samurai.

A far cry from the grittiness of "Rainbow Six."

There isn’t a single satisfying mode you can play Mario Party 3 in, and the sad thing is, all of this boredom could have been solved with one very, very simple option; let the player set the level of game animations they desire.

DOA XBV's laid back approach is refreshing. Like a real vacation, nothing is particularly urgent in the game, which is almost unheard of--almost every game out there is about WINNING or DYING.

My copy of Emperor's Tomb had occasional moments of severe slowdown and music stuttering. These instances never occurred during a life or death situation, but they were aggravating all the same.

Unfortunately, the included manual is among the least informative ever written and the in-game interface is more than a little clunky.

A good game for the patient strategy gamer who doesn't mind tripping over the occasional rough bit, and who thinks that "Starcraft" is really an action game.

If you're not going to mess with the editor, there aren't many reasons to get this new version if you own older copies of the game.

A hard working tennis game that has lots of guts, but not so much finesse. However, the plusses do outweigh the minuses by quite a bit.

Whatever the reasons, Lady Sia is able to remain enjoyable for at least half the time it takes to complete its quest, which is more than can be said of the majority of the new titles out this winter.

Straight-forward, fun, and original gaming.

I loved the fighting and I would love to see this engine used again, though I still wonder about what might have been with a little more money and a little more time.

A decent shooter and it has its merits, even on a console where new software is getting mighty scarce. However, if you were only going to own one, this probably wouldn't be it.

It's just too unnecessarily frustrating. Gunvalkyrie simply should have had a little more polishing.

If Racer Revenge wasn't a Star Wars game, such a generic little arcade-racer wouldn't even be worth mentioning.

Godzilla can't compete with top fighting games like DOA3, but then you'd be foolish to expect it to. It's probably going to appeal more to people who like monster movies.

Vastly improves on the original "Civilization: Call to Power" but still falls far short of the original, original "Civilization" series.

A solid action game that feels a little like Starfox, with different battle types that always amount to you shooting everything that moves. While you can't call it revolutionary, it's got good controls and a sense of humour, so I found myself liking it.

The writing is of the quality that you'll find in your average Jean-Claude Van Damme flick. It tries to be witty and satirical, but is adolescent and uninteresting instead.

It's got a marked cosmetic advantage over competition. When it comes to playability, though, this sucker doesn't even make the scoreboard.

Nothing if not original.

While entertaining in small doses, Creature Isle does not have the kind of countervailing payoff for these frustration as the first game.

I wish it had gone for more stuff, particularly given the power of the Xbox (like how about highly destructive environments, instead of blasting the odd box?), and given that House of the Dead II is probably the better game. But hey, why complain when you get two games in one?

It's definitely challenging and (once you have some clue what you're doing) fun, but the obvious depth and complexity of the combat system only throws the tepid shallowness of every other aspect of the game into sharp relief very soon.

Riddle of the Sphinx's immersive storyline, hearty exploration sequences and challenging puzzles make this three-CD set an enjoyable--albeit somewhat taxing--experience for the seasoned adventurer looking for a value-priced fix.

It is also lacking one incredibly basic feature--the ability to save your game! No battery backup, the game doesn't even issue level codes!

Fun and immersive while it lasts, but unfortunately it’s a short ride with little replayability (save, maybe, for the multiplayer modes).

A solid offering and will give the fans their basic nutritional requirement of strategy and Star Wars, although it's not what you'd call innovative.

A fairly well-developed game. It looks great and is to some degree fun to play. There is however, little that is new to racing games.

Just isn't very much fun... There's no zen underneath the zaniness, no pith under the perkiness, and no meat beneath the mirth.

Although a solid simulation, the game lacks the flexibility, beauty, and creativity to be more than a mid-range title.

While it is fun in short spurts, there are too many issues to make it a first round pick.

The game is a little bit tough to get into. The controls (mouse look and arrows keys to move) are a tad ungainly.

For some ridiculous reason, you use a six-hot REVOLVER as your only weapon.

It's really a case of great game additives making up for mediocre game design.

I don't think even the greatest purist will care for the save system.

Despite its terrific particle-effect, motion-blur visual doodads, it’s a rather simple game system, pointedly geared toward casual and even first-time gamers.

It just hardly seems like a worthy sequel to the series, and sadly, almost feels like a shell of what could have been a truly inspired game.

It has fewer extras, more pixelated graphics, and more frame rate chop than [its next generation] siblings, and the frame rate chop, especially, is an occasional damper on gameplay.