Gameplay is fun fun fun, with the two caveats that there is too much too-tiresome combat near the end of the game and there are two or three unfair puzzles in the adventuring part, unfair meaning nigh unbeatable by anyone at all without outside help.

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.

The Blackwell Legacy is an outstandingly written and acted adventure game, only held back by limitations of the fairly primitive game engine and, perhaps, some design decisions. It readily gets a "Thumb Up" from this reviewer. As one who particularly enjoys story and narrative, I found The Blackwell Legacy to be compelling, involving, memorable.

Part platformer, part pure action, part open-world adventure, there are a number of ways to enjoy Dead Rising.

Overall, Heretic Kingdoms is fun, fun, fun and destined to be a sleeper hit. The few niggles never really affected my enjoyment of the game. With its engaging story and completely different skill system, it's definitely worth your while to pick it up and play.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

It is really the same old fable of greed and evil and hope and redemption wearing a fancy new dress and the latest shade of Revlon lipstick.

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

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.

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?

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