Where the developers chose to, they pulled off a great first-person RPG complete with sneaking, combat, dialogue, an interesting story and of course role-playing elements... On the other hand, its combat is not that strong and yet for some reason someone at Troika or Activision saw fit to include multiple prolonged sequences of it. Furthermore, the balance of the game is really thrown off by those fights.

If you can get past the brick-handed interface and get into the game itself, odds are you'll enjoy it.

They replicated a lot of the surface that made the original so good but F.E.A.R. Extraction Point ultimate feels hollow when you finish it, thanks in large part to a storyline that’s less of an expansion and more of an extended ending to the original.

The interface problems, with the help of poor unit AI and netcode, are the key reasons for our frustration with Generals otherwise outstanding gameplay.

Bottom line, if you're looking to get sucked into a game and feel like you are a part of its world, this one is not going to cut it.

Just keep in mind that this isn’t "Baldur’s Gate," that the focus of play is far removed from the tactical combat mechanics of yore, and that you’re mostly adventuring solo.

The game artificially creates work for the player - ie, having to switch a sniper to shooting mode is patently ridiculous.

There's no way it's worth the $59.99 they're asking. Based on the length of time you'll spend playing, it's comparable to being charged double- or triple-price for a movie ticket, when you may already be hesitant to pay the regular amount as it is! If you want to play it, rent it for 360 or PS3.

A really solid first effort for Playland. This game has the strong possibility of evolving into a very good series. Level design is mostly solid. Production values are suitably high, if not up to the work that Valve and id are doing these days. Weapon choice is varied. And best of all, the game has some character.

If you have an Xbox or PlayStation 2, those are by far the better platforms for Madden 2003.

Yes, yes, no doubt Valve will release more maps soon and the community is already churning new content out, but are we expected to pay for an updated mod that was free which offers less content than the original but that’s supposed to be ok because the community will fix it? Huh? That’s logic I can't wrap my head around.

The multiplayer just isn't interesting enough to bother with while the single player game offers no replayability to speak of.

There are a lot of little reasons to get Black & White 2, but none of them comes together with quite the synergy that would make them more than the sum of their parts.

Just one of those strange games that has it all on paper, executes the design properly and yet doesn’t capture the imagination.

To be truthful, Titan mode is really the only significant addition to the game. This could just as easily have been an expansion pack for Battlefield 2, featuring Titan.

Doesn’t live up to its illustrious predecessors. So many changes has cost the game its identity.

If gamers will take the time to move beyond the initial frustrations (and politics) as well as any conditioning suffered from years of frenetic shooters, they will find a game that is both challenging and refreshing.

Bottom line: Duke Nukem Forever was not worth the 15-year wait, nor is it worth paying the full $50. However, I cannot deny that I thought it was both fun and funny, which at the end of the day is what this franchise is all about.

There is no excuse for a game to perform so badly at the lowest settings, especially on a system which meets the recommended system requirements. Unless you have all the latest hardware, don’t bother with UT2K3 for a while.

There is nothing flat out wrong with X, it's just that after you finish the game (either story or achieve your long-term goals), there's nothing left to do. This is where the genre is supposed to be strongest - the freedom to do whatever - yet X somehow misses the mark.

Dark Crusade had done everything already, but the two new races and better campaign are a decent addition when the price gets down to a decent level, that is.

SimCity 4’s biggest flaw is that it’s not a SimCity. It’s some third-party interpretation of what SimCity should be like, with some grand new features. The new features are implemented but the designers totally missed what makes a SimCity.

Assassin's Creed was scheduled to be a trilogy from the outset, so hopefully Ubisoft will take a fresh look at some of the problems here and correct them in the future. Right now, though, this is more of an almost-there concept than a fully realized game.

The adventure is too buried under the business sim, which is a bit too inelegant for its own good, and the strategy is hobbled by a really lame combat system. At least it's better than Bethesda's recent "Pirates of the Caribbean."

Not terrible. Not stellar. Just average. There’s quite a bit to like about this game, but there’s just as much that makes you say, “meh.”

I have no desire to punish myself repeatedly trying to beat a game. On the other hand, if you do crave that kind of challenge, I cannot think of a game better suited to deliver than Shadowgrounds.

The ability to be the cop and call up backup such as the chopper and spike strips is a noble attempt but just not enough. They are fun to use but a few tweaks do not make a game.

The engine is dated, the story is shallow, and the replay factor is quite low. Aside from going through the game once, there really isn't much you would learn or gain by going through the game a second time.