After "MOH: AA," this latest installment is something of a letdown. The improvements seem to be almost all cosmetic, perhaps at the expense of the gameplay.

While it is exciting to reach each new plateau of intimacy, until the Big she-bang, there simply isn’t enough variation to keep the game going.

What Crusader Kings does not do is expand the "Europa Universalis" audience by making this style of play comprehensible to those who have never played a "Europa Universalis" title.

Parents looking to keep their little ones entertained for a while will appreciate the collectibles and secret areas in the game (which warrant some replay value), and children should appreciate the simple charms of yet another weird Unreal engine total conversion.

A great game to pull out if you have a few friends over, but online multiplayer would have made it worth keeping close to the console, to pop in for regular, online smash-'em-up racing. Even without online multiplayer, it's still worth checking out.

Takes the Test Drive franchise in a new direction, moving from road races to no-holds-barred, collision-friendly racing and demolition derby-style events.

Honestly, the plot isn't bad, it just feels irrelevant, and because of that, shallow. There's only so much sophistication that can be added to a tale in which the forces of Hell emerge beneath a Martian base.

Watching the story unfold is engaging, but the pace of Echo Night: Beyond is already slow, and its easy to see how players who get stuck, wandering the hallways of a Moon base looking for a clue, could easily walk away, never to return.

Fighting is entertaining, if simple, and Catwoman can execute some impressive sequences, tumbling and leaping from perch to perch. The game simply isn't particularly noteworthy – it could use more gameplay, a more robust story and a friendlier camera.

A long game. You could probably speed through the game in a mere fifty hours, but if you choose to follow all the sub-plots, side quests or indulge in the myriad collectables, you really can fill the more than eighty hours of time that Namco claims this game will take a dedicated player.

Despite its simple technical underpinnings, Missing is an unbelievably elegant game. You get an exceptional story that breaks the boundaries between the game and real life, along with impressive sound and art direction.

A decent game, though the sim aspects aren't as well fleshed out as those in other baseball games available. And the over-the-top elements don't add enough to overcome those shortcomings.

Fundamentally, the problem with Soldner is that it is unresponsive. Even if the game were much less ambitious in scope, it simply doesn't work well.

The downside to the Ripper is that legal complications prevent you from taking samples that last very long, and not more than twenty can be used overall. Combine that with the inability to take MTV Music Generator 3 online to share or save your created songs, and the game seems limited in the long run.

This game is for someone who wants to turn Indy Racing into a lifestyle, not for a casual player looking for a five minute break from "Halo." It's a good game for its audience, but isn't going to break out of its niche.

For anyone with even a remote interest in turn-based strategy games on a console, from expert tacticians to the casually curious, Front Mission 4 is a great game of explosive wanzer combat.

Psi-Ops can be a gruesome toy at times (and one that earned its M-rating), but it is delightful, and much more open-ended than its linear plot might suggest. With your many powers, and an environment full of objects that can be manipulated with Scryer's mind, there is so much to do in Psi-Ops that it's hard to put down.

With brilliantly conceived creatures executing every last living thing on Carnate, interrupted only by brief spells of suspenseful silence and a smattering of hallucinations, The Suffering is an exercise in terror, meant to be played with quality surround sound, late at night, with the lights turned off.

The only time you see The Vin is in short cut-scenes and third-person sequences such as climbing up and down ladders and while healing at medical stations.

It's not necessarily innovative, but it is fun and particularly suited to people who have only short burst of time to play on the GBA.

Think of it as an intricate, first person <I>plural</I> quest game; it might be more of a really excellent team-based massively multiplayer Superhero "Quake" than the Superhero version of "EverQuest" or "Dark Age of Camelot."

Briefly, as good-looking as it is and as interesting and novel as its character skill/profession system is, Lineage II feels much like yesterday’s MMOG. To the extent you’ve enjoyed such games all along, this may not be an issue. But many of what seem like minor advancements in the genre are missing here, such as a centralized market system for selling goods.

The online multiplayer component may not be deeply compelling, but the lighthearted monster design, lack of pretense and serious carnage make this game easily worth the $20 price tag.

While there are some very basic, jam-the-buttons-as-fast-as-you-can, fun moments to be had with the game, in general, there are similarly-styled, better games at comparable prices.

To call the game simple fun is to ignore Painkiller’s proof that straightforward play in elaborate environments with creative, demonic enemies and a sophisticated sense of style is tremendously entertaining. This is a first-person shooter that can be enjoyed in brief sessions or a protracted weekend of play.

The problem is that Alias should be a stealth/action game, and it ends up using action as a crutch to prop up a merely adequate stealth aspect.

Does a great job of bringing street flavor to the videogame world, presenting an engaging – and fun – experience. There is no question – the game is sequel-worthy.

Both the online and offline portions suffer from a lack of depth in the demolition portion.

Total Extreme Warfare perfectly captures the world of professional wrestling, and does a fantastic job of drawing the gamer into it. The ability to completely customize a promotion, plan storylines and develop plots has never been executed even remotely as well in a wrestling game, and those gamers who are even casual wrestling fans would do well to pick up this title &#150; NOW!

Given the variety of characters, you're bound to find at least one whose play style is entertaining enough to justify riding out the rough spots.

Pandora Tomorrow isn&#146;t perfect, but it presents a great value &#150; it includes two, top-quality games for the price of one. It&#146;s also an improvement on the already brilliant original game. As such, Pandora Tomorrow deserves no less than the highest rating available.

A solid, though unspectacular, update in the series. While the FielderCam is unique and the Pick-up game is fun, these new additions alone don&#146;t make it a must-have, especially if you&#146;ve got last year&#146;s edition.

Unreal Tournament 2004 is close to a master work, containing tons of new levels, new modes, and a great excuse for upgrading your video card... It's polished to a shine, it plays like a dream, it's gorgeous, and best of all, it is an absolute blast to play.

It&#146;s a good game with tremendous ambition that often drags you out of an immersive experience and throws your focus on a few, flawed mechanisms of gameplay.

Wade Hixton is simple game, only flawed in that we would have liked to see so much more of it. However, for $20, it's hard to find a game that is as worthwhile as Wade Hixton. This truly is re-mastered classic gaming entertainment.

It&#146;s particularly good as a two-player, casual contest. You&#146;ll be hard pressed to find a better alternative for comic, 3D, turn-based combat on a console.

It also distinguishes itself among platformers by letting the player control the camera at all times.

While Corvette may not be particularly innovative, the gameplay isn&#146;t bad, though it lacks bells and whistles. Corvette fans are going to get a nice toy for their ten bucks.

For some people, the story will be compelling enough to make it worth playing through the single-player missions once, but the same effect can be comparably achieved by renting "Goodfellas" again.

Ultimately, the game feels like a solid scaffolding around which a really amazing game could have been built. On its own merits, Gangland isn&#146;t a failure. In fact, it&#146;s a flawed, but solid, game. Gangland simply falls short of its potential and its promises. That&#146;s the pity.

Drakengard is a lesson to game designers everywhere. Variety and color are not things to introduce gradually. Difficulty, sure, but we need fun throughout.

It's a good thing the levels are as great as they are, because you're likely to do a lot of backtracking. The gameplay doesn't require it, but the absurd placement of save points does.

Given its bargain price, Carve is perfect for casual racing fans, budget-minded gamers and fans of other genres who just want a racing game to keep around in case a few friends drop by. Hard-core trick-racing gamers should look elsewhere.

It is neither the best RTS nor the best RPG out there. However, SpellForce offers enough of a quality experience in both genres, packaged in a pretty environment that you could spend dozens of hours exploring as a Warrior of the Rune.

CoN offers so much enjoyable gameplay between different character combinations, items and difficulty levels that it is an exceptionally worthwhile purchase.

Fundamentally, the gameplay is just too linear. From the mission requirements to the layout of the levels, you don&#146;t feel like there&#146;s any freedom to explore. Constantly hitting buttons to fell enemy troops isn&#146;t enough to draw you completely into the world.

The experience with different human players gives it an edge, but the edge is much needed to counterbalance the lack of moves and environmental interaction. This provides fun but superficial gameplay that succeeds in small doses.

With all of the variables involved, racing is often quite frustrating, and you&#146;re more likely to spend more time trying to get back on track than actually on it.

Ultimately, the game suffers from a simple lack of polish, but in areas that severely detract from the gameplay experience.

As good as it is, a little bit more control over the game setup might make Crimson Skies even better. A button to auto-divide players into equal teams would save the ridiculous three-minute Dance of the Switching Flags that precedes each battle.

The major sense of Ghost Master is not one of powerlessness, but one of controlled possibility. Although you can&#146;t throw together any old team and expect to beat every level, the number of ghosts, powers and potential solutions to most problems make it unlikely that any two players will experience Ghost Master in quite the same way.

Doesn&#146;t feel interactive enough to be deeply involving. Much faster, higher level seasons or far more options are needed to make the Coliseum exciting.

If you&#146;re looking for a game that offers you absolute control over every aspect of your football league, Total Pro Football is just about perfect.

The other major drawback is the absence of specific plays that you could call in a given situation during a game. That said, Total Pro Basketball is a very solid offering, and, most importantly, fun to play.