Understanding the limitations of weak story, consolitis, and mundane gameplay, you may still opt to try yet another survival/horror game with an impressive atmosphere and novel approach. Remember, I’ve given you fair warning!

Did you enjoy “Sanitarium” and Agatha Christie's first mystery? If you can answer "yes" to these questions, then I highly recommend The Black Mirror as a "journey into darkness" well worth your time and effort.

For the moment, Nosferatu is a terrific idea, beautifully realized, that is a just a patch or two away from greatness.

I will say this: those who love “X-Com” will like this game. Those who love strategy will like this game. But no one will ever love this game.

Frankly, Max Payne 2 makes me confident that the best is yet to come for gaming, that the awesome narrative and creative capability of this medium has yet to be explored to its fullest extent.

If you can overlook the annoying aspect of having to start over and only being able to save at the beginning of a new episode or when you quit the game, you will experience an amazingly hard but also wonderfully fun game.

Nothing extra special, not great, not terrible. Just Nancy Drew doing what Nancy Drew do.

If you love the T.V. show and/or have any interest in this kind of detective game, Law & Order: Dead on the Money is a must-purchase.

I don't know why we are subjected to an endless barrage of these kinds of games being fobbed off on us in some kind of misguided effort to turn back the hands of time, gaming-wise.

If you've ever wanted to enter the puerile world of your Sims with a team of bizarre spirits, then this is the game for you.

Despite all my griping, Dark Fall really is an impressive first effort for the one-person design team and is actually better than some recent big-company releases. I'm not sorry I played it but neither am I gaga over it. How's that for decisiveness?

The Great Escape is an enjoyable, thrilling and suspenseful accompaniment to the classic film.

Knights of the Old Republic is fast-paced, linear, and consistently entertaining, and the goals are always clear. This was a nearly perfect gaming experience, at least by my standards.

An ode to "Myst" for all point-and-click lovers, a very worthwhile indie project. Let's hope some of those who enjoyed “Myst” sit up and take notice, as this is a complex and cleverly designed game.

A tremendously valuable expansion to the world of “Morrowind,” adding a new story and an environment of real depth and complexity.

For the inability to save at any point, for obtuse camera and fighting controls, for subpar level design, for irritating crash and sound bugs, and for the failure to make any effort to improve the technology behind this console port, “Matrix” enjoys the dubious distinction of a Rotten Egg award.

The high production values, unique setting, beautiful graphics, and lack of old chestnuts in terms of puzzles make this a refreshing alternative to the usual generic Egypt-Atlantis-maze-sliding-tiles pabulum we've been force-fed for the past few years.

If you're a fan of the show, like me, this may be a "required purchase" for you. If you are more of an adventurer, looking for complexity and character-related puzzles, as well as decent length (more than seven hours), then CSI will likely disappoint.

Of the 300-plus games I have played, Zelda: Wind Waker ranks in my top three of all time. It's elegant, enchanting, engrossing, beautifully stylized, perfectly polished-a gaming work of art-a masterpiece.

Simply stated, TOS is a mediocre puzzle game at best. It really is a shame because the designers came so close to crafting a game that would forever reside on your shelf with the classics.

As breathtaking as Clock Tower 3 is to look at, the gameplay is somewhat ... blah. I think it was the sameness of it all—find an item, return said item to its owner, watch incredibly gorgeous cutscene, meet up with mentally unbalanced mini-boss, destroy him/her ... lather, rinse, repeat.

“Rayman 2” was a better game, but Hoodlum Havoc nevertheless ranks as one of the best platform titles available. It's polished, smooth, and done with care and affection. The levels are gorgeous, inventive and worth exploring.

Unlike its predecessor, playing this game is not an exercise in rage management—it is challenging but logical, difficult but fun.

I always appreciate it when a game treats its players as if they were intelligent adults, and Post Mortem does that in spades.

It breaks the mold with its setting and manages to stay traditional in gameplay.

Dark Cloud 2 has a great story, lots of adventure, unique characters and monsters and Spehda! What's not to love? This one is a keeper!

What it will do is make you use your brain in order to survive and escape from the wrecked and sinking city. For that, Disaster Report gets a thumbs up!

To sum up, Unreal II is disappointing, not so much in terms of what it is as in terms of what we expected, what it hints at, and what it might have been.

An exciting and diverse experience, easy on the beginner yet providing harder modes for the more experienced player.

A magnificent tribute to the 1983 coin-op Lair and a highly entertaining game for today's players. It offers a simple, almost relaxing format of fighting/jumping/adventuring set in a huge and vividly colorful castle. What more can one ask from a video game?

Despite being plunged once again into the dizzying swirl of an interface-whipping adventure game, I enjoyed my sometimes-perilous trip through Lord Montcalfe's mansion.

In spite of the lovely world, the complexities of managing fairies, together with the difficult fights, brought this down to a thumbs up rating.

I probably got very close to the end, but I just couldn't endure it any longer. The wretched camera angles, the lackluster level design and the repetitious gameplay were more than I could take for a full 25 missions.

For the child around you, or the child within you, and any fan of the Potter series, Chamber comes highly recommended.

If you like first-person perspectives in RPGs and enjoyed “Morrowind” (an all-around better game), plus have a high tolerance for the aforementioned idiosyncrasies of Arx, then I would recommend this title to you.

Generally speaking Tribunal is a great expansion pack. It fixes bugs, adds new places to explore, enhances the capabilities of the game, and is very well written and designed.

There is nothing inherently wrong with Pharaoh's Curse, it's just that it's all, and I do mean all, been done before and I was bored the whole time I was playing.

Even though the graphics and sound are splendid, the almost across-the-boards flat acting and boring enemies along with the used and abused game play elements combine for one lame game touting more of the same.

As mentioned earlier, the first couple of hours are novel and motivating, but the next twenty, through four major missions, are much less involving.

If it sounds like NOLF2 is a lot like NOLF, and you're wondering why I'm complaining so bitterly, you have my sympathy. When I say they "gutted" NOLF2, I mean it, and I can back it up.

This is an entertaining romp with just enough variation, humor and story to hold your attention right to the end.

There is definitely too much of a good thing here—by the time I was ready to put this game behind me and move on to something else, I still had to spend another full day playing just to reach the "real" end.

Behaving very much like an R-rated “Sims” expansion pack but independent of that series, The Partners is a silly and entertaining piece of gameplay fluff.

It is really hard for a run-of-the-mill writer like me to do justice to Syberia in describing it. Ultimately all I can tell you is this: Play it yourself! It is not likely you will be disappointed.

Yet Mafia oozes class, polish, and style like no other game so far this year. To not "experience" Mafia is a far greater crime than any in the Salieri family ever committed.

So see the film, take a little break, then turn down the lights, put on headphones, and prepare yourself for the atmosphere, anticipation, apprehension, anxiety and action of The Thing.

Magical Mirror is light and lively fare for those Gamecube owners tired of hacking and slashing through piles of demons but wanting to have a gaming good time while relaxing on their sofas in front of their TV sets.

There is not much to say. Neverwinter Nights is fun, a lot of fun. It is also bland. Despite its figurative colorlessness, it has an addictive quality to it.

Still, if you like sweet, genteel heroes who absolutely cannot die and humorous, third-person adventure games filled with inventory puzzles and devoid of gore, it's certainly worth the price of admission.

A beautiful game to behold, with an excellent and efficient interface and control management scheme. The story is compelling, the puzzles are logical, and the characters are interesting.

It is a beautiful, exciting, rich, and well-written game. It is everything that a great CRPG hopes to be.

Some parts are done extremely right, and the wrong things, while wrong throughout, are relatively minor irritants. Besides, these days you just have to love a game with no mazes in it.

Playing The Final Cut was a similar experience to eating my Aunt Thelma's meatloaf. It's palatable but nothing to rave over.

Dungeon Siege could have used a deeper plot, more vocalizations and some good cutscenes, but like its predecessor-type RPG Diablo, it eschews deeper storylines and keeps the gamer busy with high-intensity fighting against rushes of unique enemies instead.

HOMM4 will infect you with what I like to call the "Turn Based Sickness." Symptoms include loss of temporal perception and inability to perform other functions (including bodily) until "just one more turn" has been completed.

While Jedi Outcast is firmly entrenched in the action genre, that shouldn't frighten away adventure gamers. If you've ever played an action/adventure game and have an interest in Star Wars, it's imperative to play this game.

In an age where you thought everything has been done before, along comes Freedom Force, shattering genre lines, daring to do something different, and instilling fun for all ages into a game—you can't ask for anything more.

If you can get past the horrible voice acting and the tedious backtracking, you're in for a good scare. If you dare.

At times it is an adventure game, then it's a flight simulation, at another turn a space shooter. Whatever it is, it's a great game that any Trek fan can't pass by.

If you take SAIS for what it is, a little time-waster with funny and interesting twists, and don't think of it as the second coming of “Privateer” or complex space strategy, you may well find it enjoyable, kind of inventive and creative.

Ghosts to Glory is one of the most addicting, angering, exciting, and unforgiving-as-all-get-out (when jumping onto moving targets) games that I have ever played! There is never a dull moment.

All in all, this is a sweet confection of a game that could have given more to chew on as regards some of the puzzles, but it was still humorous and fun, with some excitement thrown in besides.

It's a fairly even mix of the good—high production quality, some fun puzzles, pretty solid story—the bad—too linear, too easy, too many timed puzzles—and the ugly—the aforementioned underwater maze.

It really is an extraordinarily beautiful piece of work. For me, though, it missed the mark. I got bored with it about halfway through.

Shadow Hearts is in turn tragic and comic, deeply philosophical and completely fluffy, and overall a great gaming experience that I was sorry to see come to an end.

A fine RPG, very loosely based upon a simplified Dungeons & Dragons motif. The game mechanics are easy, leaving you to focus on the puzzles, the high-adrenaline battles, and the lustful visuals.

Had the camera views been acceptable, I guess I could have recommended this title to those who care not about plot but love fabulous graphics, unusual monsters, and very basic, predictable, repetitive slash combat.

With a novel, large and intricate set of societies, coupled with excellent graphics and sound, Gothic becomes one of the most immersive and believable single-play adventure/RPGs ever.

The PC game does little to replicate the depth of the rich, magical yarn that is woven throughout the Harry Potter series.

A classic. It's one of the best games of 2001 and a good shot in the arm for 3D shooters and the Xbox.

The attempt to put an emphasis on "adventure" in this "action/adventure" is most commendable; as is the use of a party with different skills.

Overall, the Silent Hill 2 experience is worth having, if just for the freak-out value. It's not that compelling a story, and the puzzles aren't too difficult, but it's gorgeous to look at and listen to.

It is very frustrating at times and loads of fun at other times and on the whole well worth a play through, with the magnificent ending making it all worthwhile.

All in all, Road to India spins a good yarn, it looks nice, and it's fun to play ... but it is most assuredly too short and too easy.

Billed as a real-time, team-based, adventure, strategy game, it may sound as though it suffers from an identity crisis. Yet if you are enthralled by solving puzzles and have an infinite amount of patience, this game is for you.

The Sting! has bite! It's a hit. There may be some rough edges (blocky graphics, clunky camera, spastic movement), but the overall play and fun far outweigh such picky faultfinding.

All in all, Anachronox is a long, rich, elegant, worthwhile, and above all satisfying gaming experience. The characters, story, and quests are really loads of fun. The goals are always clear, and if you get sidetracked you have no one to blame but yourself, and ultimately no harm is done.

The wide range of character classes to choose from, the forming and perpetual refining of each character, and the sheer breadth of customizing traits available all serve to solidify the replay value of this immense epic.

There are some gameplay merits of The New Nightmare—including two distinct and interwoven styles of play, an eerie atmosphere, an interesting underlying narrative, and generally more cerebral than monster-bashing activities (except for the last quarter). These strengths are diluted, unfortunately, by the multiplatform limitations imposed on the PC version by the developer.

Presto has raised the bar, taking gaming from a pastime and moving it into the realm of a legitimate art form.

A fine game for the adult adventurer who enjoys dark spy novels and also is willing to tolerate a bit of "consolitis" in her/his gaming experience.

Largely ignored by the mainstream gaming press, this fabulous epic of a game will draw you in with both its warmth and its ever-increasing tale.

Stupid Invaders is fun and funny, a masterful blend of high art and low humor. (I am glad that computer-generated odors are not yet a reality.) It is my new favorite game of all-time, displacing even “The Longest Journey” and “Grim Fandango.”

The Messenger is not a bad game, it's just that there are design elements that make sections of gameplay laborious rather than fun.

With McGee's willingness to be generic with gameplay and story, we are ultimately let down by excessive and pointless jumping, poor combat, and a rather empty, non-interactive narrative. It's a very pretty and novel game but also flawed.

If you like ancient Egypt, challenging puzzles with actual clues, and first-person exploration of fascinating environments, “Riddle of the Sphinx” is for you.

A magnum opus. Even though it does have some small flaws and a couple of things I would change, it is absolutely breathtaking in all respects. They just don’t get any better than this.

The million-dollar question ... is this game for you? If you're a steadfast-conservative adventure gamer, well, then, no. If you like to try new things, then the answer is a resounding yes!

Superb craftsmanship, inventive scripting, wonderful acting, brilliant enemy AI, and sumptuous graphics are all placed in a huge, varied, and intensely colorful 60s setting by a team clearly bestowing care and love on their work and product.

EMI is not a bad game but it will never join its brethren in the panoply of gods of the genre. I for one would like to see LucasArts get out of the sequel to sequel to sequel business altogether and focus solely on new ideas.

You find a spectacularly violent and wonderfully thrilling adventure composed of epic, earth-shattering battles between deities' champions, fought in a dreamlike landscape as weird and varied as it is beautiful.

Seriously scary and atmospheric without being horrifying, more of an elegant Vincent Price scare than an 80s slasher movie. Think Goth Disney, and you've got the right idea.

The frenetic pace and intense (sometimes frustrating) challenges of the 10 levels is absorbing, graphically most satisfying, quite varied and, most of all, funny.

Nicely designed, having all the best elements of adventure gaming: detailed prerendered scenes, stunning and accurate looking cut scenes, a well-developed storyline, and puzzles that are thought through.

Planescape is very, very special. Some might say it's too bizarre and weird, but I found it a refreshingly deep and thoughtful interlude in an otherwise cookie-cutter world of Samegaming.

GK3 is a long, difficult, immersive game with a strong, adult-oriented plot.

This is what other adventure games only aspire to be. It is extremely well-written, well-executed, and above all, fun to play.

I would recommend this game for the good story line and the beautiful graphics, but if you want a game that has more adventuring, look for another.