And if the thought of cleaning up virtual garbage and keeping your sim familiar with the toilet isn't your idea of fun, steer clear. Love it or hate it, this is still "The Sims."

If you've grown accustomed to 16 on 16 battles in other shooters, nothing, we repeat, nothing, will prepare you for combat in Planetside.

Remarkably lacking.

Despite the knocks against rivals mode and the fact that the new controls are mostly borrowed from what many consider to be a more simple golf franchise, Tiger Woods 06 is still a solid game. Where rivals fails, the more realistic PGA Tour mode is still fun, as is skills 18, a set of target-based minigames.

Thanks to next-gen graphical flair, elegant controls, and a sparkling sheen of packaging polish, Rockstar Presents Table Tennis manages a near miracle.

You don't need to be a golf fanatic to get hooked on this game, which is really the only thing that matters. Not only is it a showpiece for the system, but it's one of the best games available for Sony's portable.

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.

By far the best of the "Yu-Gi-Oh" games to make it to American shores. Fans of the card game will most likely love it.

The learning curve is steep, and the first half-dozen battles serve to show you the ropes. After this initiation, things pick up and Kingdom becomes quite compelling.

It's a short run-through -- especially if you don't seek out the secrets -- and probably won't test the skills of experienced gamers.

Despite the knocks against rivals mode and the fact that the new controls are mostly borrowed from what many consider to be a more simple golf franchise, Tiger Woods 06 is still a solid game. Where rivals fails, the more realistic PGA Tour mode is still fun, as is skills 18, a set of target-based minigames.

Far from a perfect game, MadWorld is perhaps the answer to gamers’ pleas for a hardcore title to arrive on the Wii. You’ll be able to clean up the city in a little under seven hours without breaking a sweat – but it’s seven hours of pure bloody mayhem that you won’t find in most twenty-hour games.

But what it does have is a visceral feeling of destruction few other games possess.

The increased emphasis on exploring different lots on campus serves to exacerbate the tedium involved in getting your sims from point A to point B, and the time traveling logic it entails.

Casual fans will be in awe at the sheer beauty and polish of the game. Hardcore fighting game enthusiasts will appreciate the adjustments made to the fighting engine. Players looking for the most bang for their buck might be disappointed with the sparse selection of game modes, but should look into the character creation mode to keep them busy.

If you are an "Everquest" regular, you'll have a hard time not buying the latest and greatest.

Oh-so-close to being the perfect handheld game. Its rich, entertaining gameplay can be enjoyed in nuggets, and simply put, it’s beautifully designed.

With tons of secrets to uncover, and a surprising array of different gameplay options, Mortal Kombat: Deception is a surprisingly fun package.

For a game that didn't need to do much to succeed, Madden NFL 13 went above and beyond to innovate the already-strong core gameplay.

Mediocre presentation also holds it back a bit, but Kohan II is otherwise a solid and unique strategy game.

Besides the fine graphics and well-balanced combat, Episode III does a lot of little things right, details in the interface like pop-up balloons for conversations (to make chatting in towns easier) and a thoroughly hyperlinked shop menu for quick and simple equipment updates.

Thanks to the numerous computer-related balancing issues and somewhat punishing controls, it can oftentimes be more annoying than fun.

A top notch conversion of a great board game. A good match generally takes less than an hour and there’s no clean up after you’re done. Well worth 10 bucks.

A step down from the audio and visuals, unfortunately, is the gameplay. The No. 1 culprit has to be the frustrating batting mechanics.

The most ambitious and complicated real-time strategy game ever made. This will make it a joy to devout fans of the genre, but an overwhelming mess to everyone else.

Crashing through flaming glass hoops while pulling off death-defying aerial stunts at 98 mph makes it a hard game to turn off once you've perfected it, and a thoroughly addictive two-player mode will help you get there.

With a great core story and plenty of incentive to replay, Fatal Frame 2 is a horror-themed title that anyone should consider playing. If you're brave enough, consider playing with the lights off.

It isn't as addictive or diverse as the great pinball videogames, but it'll quench your "Pokemon" thirst.