Given that all you're doing is shooting everything around you, it's almost essential to give the player a continual sense of progress and achievement by opening up new locales frequently. Otherwise the whole exercise collapses under its own redundancy.

The dialogue frequently doesn’t make sense, then, and the plot often makes even less.

I was looking forward to it, but left very disappointed. It’s completely playable. Being about 7 hours long helps but I spent the entire game waiting for it to get good, to make sense, to make a case for all the incongruous elements of design, gameplay and story, and then it ended.

Remarkably lacking.

If effort counts, then Red Orchestra is not a bad game, and it might even be a very good one. But playing games is about having experiences, and the experience of playing Red Orchestra will leave 95% of the gaming community out in the cold. That other 5% will have the time of their lives though.

I was looking forward to it, but left very disappointed. It’s completely playable. Being about 7 hours long helps but I spent the entire game waiting for it to get good, to make sense, to make a case for all the incongruous elements of design, gameplay and story, and then it ended.

The gameplay is limited in scope and the maps are repetitive in theme, if not design. The visuals are decent enough, but definitely not up to the standards of most modern releases.

If you're already wary of Japanese strategy RPGs, then be sure to stay even further away from Gladius. It's got as many menus, and its battles are slower and less rewarding. LucasArts clearly tried to make everything look and feel good, but Gladius is ultimately done in by the leaden gameplay.

The rest of the Grand Theft Auto series is dirt cheap now, and offers better gameplay in a far more massive world, with vastly superior graphics. So, unless you have absolutely maxed out on all things GTA, it’s unlikely that Liberty City Stories will be anything but a minor curiosity.

Despite a solid concept behind it, NHL Hitz 2002 has neither the gameplay nor the presentation level to deliver.

Though it has numerous pros, courts, and options - including a player creation section that would make World Of Warcraft jealous - and looks as good as Wimbledon on NBC, it is ultimately undone by the most obvious of gaming mistakes: bad controls.

Gameplay as a whole is woefully unbalanced, leading to death after death for no good reason. Each time, you will question your desire to persevere; it's a losing battle.

Nexus plays like a great game that misses the mark almost every step of the way. It’s slick, complex, and ambitious. But the potential here is never realized.

If you're already a fan of point-and-click adventure, then you'll probably dig it. If not, then get out the tissues and be prepared to be bored to tears.

The story could easily have been told in a third of the time, leaving room for more substantial narrative and perhaps even more inventive level and game design.

It's just one gruesome kill after another until the violence loses its punch. Too bad that happens after the first couple missions. If you want a stealth game, there are better ones out there. If you want blood, do yourself a favor a buy a tube of red dye #5, instead.

Top Spin 2 shares a lot of traits with its predecessor, but they’re overshadowed a bit by the maddening difficulty and A.I. fluctuations and graphics that don’t really scream “next gen.”

The lack of variety in the levels was a major factor. But even more so was the constant loading and unnatural, abrupt transitions.

Though it has numerous pros, courts, and options - including a player creation section that would make World Of Warcraft jealous - and looks as good as Wimbledon on NBC, it is ultimately undone by the most obvious of gaming mistakes: bad controls.

It takes a little effort, maybe, but you can make a game for kids that doesn’t bore a more experienced player.

An otherwise solid playing game that comes up short in the control and play modes, especially when compared to "NBA Street V3," which is clearly the better option for those new to the arcade b-ball franchise.

It seems like the slightly retarded love child of Meteos and Tetris DS – a clunky excuse to use the stylus more than a fun experience. Both of those games – despite their own flaws – are miles better than Pokemon Trozei!

It just fails to reach the bar set by the best racers on the system, not to mention it doesn't come close to enjoying the level of polish or fun present in the console iterations of Underground.

Chief among the defects of Rocky is that despite the game's well-conceived interplay of jabs, uppercuts, blocks, power-punches and what have you, it's too easy to cheap-shot your way to victory.

A marginally entertaining third-person shooter whose only real asset is a decent level of personality.

The result of meddling with Joe's mechanics is pure mediocrity. Though lefties will scream in frustration, the action is never bad, merely bland.

Between the dull punchfests, the insanely accurate enemies, and the extra difficulty created by forcing the player to rely on autotargeting, completing Dead to Rights quickly becomes an act of will.

It's exactly what you'd expect in a licensed third-person action/adventure. But that's the problem. We liked the additional characters and multiplayer options, but the gameplay and graphics are uninspired.

The Game Boy can be a surprisingly capable platform, but Revenge of the Sith just isn't ambitious enough to become a master in its class.

By diluting the elements that set NFL Blitz apart from other football games, Midway has left the door open for its game to be compared to "Madden NFL 2004" and "ESPN NFL Football." Unfortunately, there is no comparison.

There’s something oddly compelling about the game. When you’re not online, you’re constantly worried about what’s going on. Once you meet up with other players, that worry becomes dread.

The concepts are solid, the story is excellent, and the characters sustain. Aesthetically it is a beautiful piece of work. It's just not all that much fun to play, especially when bugs have left parts of the game incomplete.

An excellent "pick-up-and-play" title. The trouble is most will be satisfied enough by "picking up" the controller just once to play this.

The characters and the trials they face simply aren’t cut out for the game they inhabit, and the game feels shallow and incomplete as a result.

The game isn’t fun at all (including the pathetically limited multiplayer options which aren’t worth going into)...It’s just frustrating that Dark Sector, with all the trappings of a good game, could squander nearly every single one of them with bad level design, poor logic, repetitive combat, and no attention to what made its inspiration so…inspiring.

Gamers looking for a long involving experience will be disappointed that the story is not nearly as voluptuous as the female characters; at around 20 hours some will consider it too thin a quest.

There’s a multiplayer mode to be had, but it’s hard to recommend Juarez solely based on the fact that you can share the misery with friends.

But in the end, it’s just freaking sudoku. And the inclusion of one MILF-ish brit doesn’t go a long way towards making the whole package more attractive.

What we have here is the most basic and elementary of fighting games. It's nothing to look at, listen to, or play.

It's passable in short spurts, but if you’re looking for something deep and challenging, look elsewhere.

For the second time in under a year, EA fails to impress with a next-gen football game. 2006 FIFA World Cup comes off as a quick cash-in to make a fast buck before the big event in Germany this June.

But mostly, the game is so lacking in charisma and character that the miles sort of tick away, leaving less impact than a skid mark and the smell of burnt rubber.

Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars is easily one of the most original games to come along in a while. It has tons of style, a unique vision and all the makings of a wildly entertaining little franchise. Sadly, its first effort on the Wii isn't disappointing thanks to sloppy platforming, poor camera controls, and lack of any real innovation in terms of gameplay.

The game doesn't look bad, but it doesn't look good enough for an action game whose major draw is its audiovisual presentation.

Yet another DS title that feels like it should have been part of a larger overall game, rather than the entire focus of the product.

The game isn’t fun at all (including the pathetically limited multiplayer options which aren’t worth going into)...It’s just frustrating that Dark Sector, with all the trappings of a good game could squander nearly every single one of them with bad level design, poor logic, repetitive combat, and no attention to what made its inspiration so…inspiring.

Combat looks patently ridiculous. How many shots from a blaster does it take to kill a fluffy space bunny, anyway?

With copious patience and enough time, a path through the bugs and design flaws might lead to an enjoyable experience for some persistent players of ToEE. However, digging through garbage to find a gem is still digging through garbage.

Keep this one on the bench and hope that some off-season workouts can elevate it to starting status.

There's not nearly enough depth or substance to the game to recommend it. SoE is a game full of sound and fury, signifying a rental at best.

The cumbersome interface and lack of gameplay variety bring down the game.

It still plays too much like one of the old games to feel like a real online title, but the one thing that could have been done to make it better -- namely, a workable communication system for players -- was skimped on.

Now, if "Rebirth Mode" was more than just the original game with some half-hearted minigames tacked on -- if it sported updated graphics and a more intuitive control scheme, things would be different.

If you like big-eyed cartoon girls and master/servant fantasies, go right ahead and grab this. They’ll even chirp at you in squeaky Japanese if that happens to be to your taste. Otherwise, though, you can rest secure in the knowledge that you’re barely missing anything here at all.

While an online mode does help alleviate some of the issues found in the single-player game, the severe lack of content makes it really hard to justify a purchase.

The concepts are solid, the story is excellent, and the characters sustain. Aesthetically it is a beautiful piece of work. It's just not all that much fun to play, especially when bugs have left parts of the game incomplete.

Online, however, is a broken mess as of launch. In time, you’ll probably be able to add at least a point to our score, but as of right now, you’re better off waiting to jump into this demon-infested version of London.

The major control issues are a hurdle many gamers won’t want to overcome. They ruin what would be an otherwise fun game.

It borrows or attempt to borrow conventions from several popular shoot-'em-'ups, but in the end it's just a confused mess that's not very fun and not very impressive.

For anyone with a passing interest in the sport, we recommend dusting off those lawn darts and firing up the barbeque.

Tenchu just hasn't changed a whole lot since its inception six years ago, and that was hardly acceptable when "Wrath of Heaven" originally came out, last year. It's even less so now.

Fans of F1 racing may be able to put up with the game's lack of features and frustrating nature. This simply isn't a racing game, however, that will appeal to a mainstream audience or win any new fans for the sport.

A lackluster follow-up to the exceptional Generations, particularly because the enhancements here are non-existent.

The control setup here is undoubtedly unique, and works great for the most part. It's just not intuitive or interesting enough to build an entire adventure game around.

The lack of character customization is another issue, with fixed classes and no input allowed on individual skills, attributes, or spells other than purchasing armor, weapons, and accessories each time you visit town.

Although it's an excellent representation of "Law & Order" in playable form, there just isn't much to play.

The most puzzling omission, however, is Garou: Mark of the Wolves (1999), which makes the Fatal Fury saga painfully incomplete.

The series makes a blind leap into a new genre, only to fall flat on his face satisfying neither the fans of puzzle or action games.

The novelty of the premise wears thin after about an hour. This is not good, especially for a game that takes about 25 hours to complete.

While The Moment of Silence does offer a compelling storyline that will keep you at least mildly interested through to the game’s multiple endings, the agonizingly slow pace of things within sections combined with the frequently laughable dialog will turn most gamers away.

While it's not the unplayable mess of the "World War II Online" debut, Eve is still firmly in the beta stage in all respects except monthly fees. [19 June 2003]

While being well-coded, it just doesn't offer the excitement which should come with the Race of Champions.

Game Over. And I couldn't be happier.

But anyone looking for a good brawler on the GBA needs to look somewhere other than Dragon Ball GT: Transformation.

The physics appear sound and there are plenty of ways to tweak your vehicle, but the game has no spark. Easy mode is too dull and not at all true to the sport, and normal and pro modes are too demanding.

Its galling brevity combined with the inability to actually watch many of your tricky labors make it a one-shot deal at best, with little replay value -- except perhaps in real life.

Light on substance and heavy on style. If you're a One Piece madman who simply has to have everything to do with the series, it's not a horrible game. It's just not exceptional. As a multiplayer party game, it's good for a quick fix every once in a while.

Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam isn't a sell out on par with hawking Bagel Bites but it's close.

Loose controls and repeating levels marred what could have been a break out hit for a series that desperately needed one.

There's just not enough to juggle in this low impact virtual theme park to keep sim junkies mesmerized. Roller coaster crafting is way too dumbed down to make the process feel like creation.

Both the 360 and PS3 versions aren’t the greatest first-person shooters ever made, but they’re decent enough to satiate your apparently endless need to keep fighting the same war over and over and over again. Don’t bother with this game on the Wii, though.

Unfortunately, when the best part of a game is the absurdly vulgar audio, there's definitely a problem in the overall design.

While Madden NFL 2005 is playable in its current form, most will tire of the shaky visuals and slippery controls faster than Mr. Madden slaps ham on a hoagie.

Soon enough, Dawn of a New World settles down to standard fantasy-quest plot starring standard fantasy characters.

Avoid this one; it's a hairball that's not worth coughing up the cash to play.

This is more in the line of a free Flash game on the web, or something Namco could have pitched at DS download kiosks.

While there are many characters to unlock and compete with, it takes a long time to see any of them thanks to the incredibly slow rate at which you acquire powerful cards.

We can't stress how much fun we had with Super Off Road. It truly is one of the more timeless arcade racing games.

Mana and magic system aside, the game’s primary selling point is the same as so many other RPGs: a couple dozen hours of content. And if merely killing time is the goal, then it could fill the bill.

Maybe our blue buddy needs to take a breather for a little while, replace his outdated circuitry, and make another run in a few years' time.

What ultimately makes or breaks NBA Jam is its computer AI, which is every bit as nasty and unfair as previous games.

Break ‘Em All was released, rather smartly, as a budget game, and while it’s an amusing diversion with a nostalgic bent, it’s clear that this classic game style isn’t holding up to the test of time.

Lost Magic for the Nintendo DS combines all the fun of drawing letters, trying to remember arcane symbols, dying repeatedly, cursing like a sailor at having died repeatedly, and getting carpal tunnel syndrome repeatedly tapping a stylus against a touch screen in order to fast-forward through a series of conversations that manage to be simultaneously inane and overlong.

Perhaps the single outstanding aspect of Legends is the visual presentation, which really works well.

Incredibly disappointing. Derivative, buggy, and underwhelming on almost every level, this is a game that is marred by distracting problems that should have been fixed well before release.

Armored Core V is what people have come to expect of mech-combat games: it's fun, pretty, and provides overall smooth gameplay; however it's nothing groundbreaking and is so impossibly confusing that only hardcore fans will truly enjoy it.

Can be fun in limited amounts, but amounts to one gigantic action binge—packing in extra characters and drawing out its action sequences to excess.

It’s got some excellent gameplay ideas that are marred by sloppy execution and balance issues. A lot of these problems could have been fixed in the PC port, but they haven't been.