An excellent first start for a spin-off series, with a strong action element bolstered by a great sense of atmosphere that makes replaying campaigns on different difficulty levels a treat rather than a chore.

LEGO Indiana Jones may not be quite as engaging as LEGO Star Wars, but it’s still a lot of fun to play through. That’s doubly true with a friend. The quest isn’t particularly long, but there’s plenty of incentive for a second run-through (or a third …), and Indy fans will definitely have a blast re-living the original films -- LEGO-style.

The occasional high difficulty will alienate most players, though for those who can take the heat, Dropship is a great buy.

You'll often have so many paths before you in a dungeon it can be tough to wrap your brain around how exactly you can move forward, and the individual puzzles can be absolutely brutal.

Ditching the nauseating first-person camera altogether and instead focusing on delivering a playable behind-the-shoulder fielding cam would also be a good start. This one will be warming up in the bullpen until next year.

All the action in the game takes place in and around a single mansion. It may be a richly textured mansion with little visual surprises in every nook and cranny, but it's still just one house and can sometimes feel a little claustrophobic.

All of the games included here are fun--some more than others--but none of them will hold your interest for very long.

Although there aren't any online features or a training mode to teach newcomers the characteristics of soccer, the variety of game modes is astounding, and the gameplay is enthralling.

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.

Amped isn't the most fun-filled snowboarding game you can buy, but it's easily the deepest and most satisfying.

With so much replay value in the multiplayer and a solid single-player experience to be had [in Pac-Man World 2], don't be surprised if you come down with a case of Pac-Man fever all over again.

Can something be entirely derivative and almost great? Why not! Titan Quest does for action-RPGs what "Serious Sam" did for shooters and offers something enjoyable to mouse-poke-poke-poke until Blizzard gets off its collective derriere and dishes up a proper sequel.

Those expecting a completely revamped sequel will likely find the additions to be slight, but NFL Street 2 is nonetheless a great-playing game that's an unqualified blast with a few trash-talking, chest-thumping friends in tow.

To have transformable jets in the follow-up game to Warhawk feels like a natural evolution for Sony's flight combat series. Starhawk's multiplayer showcases this with superb results, so it's that much more of a mystery that the same can't be said about its other modes.

If a game can make you smarter, or at the very least make you feel like you're getting smarter, maybe our detractors will get with Dr. Kawashima's program and opt for making change and sketching mathematical symbols over tallying curse words and counting sexual acts.

It has everything the last version had, right down to the training and calorie-counting modes, and, aside from the EyeToy support and new songs, not much else. So, if you aren’t into watching yourself onscreen, the upgrades are minimal.

The bar has been set higher by "ESPN NHL 2K5," whose presentation, sense of realism, and play modes simply outclass, outshine, and outperform those found in NHL 2005.

Probably the game's biggest flaw is that it doesn't do anything new to woo over gamers who don't like platformers. But it does take a waning game style and pump it so full of energy, humor, and near-psychotic malevolence that you may have to play something tame such as "Ty the Tasmanian Tiger" just to come down afterward.

One thing 2K Sports continually proves, however, is that it can bring the game even when it doesn't look as sharp as the competition.

Understand going in to this game that you're going to die a lot. And you're going to have to replay the same scenes over many times before you get past them. And if you see Cthulhu, give him our best.

The new features aren't exactly earth shattering for this year's installment, but the game is fun to play and a noticeable improvement over "NBA Live 08."

Unfortunately, there's very little actual innovation in the gameplay here, and the overall package is just starting to feel old.

The tactical gameplay is refined and intelligent, yet easy to grasp, and the mix of a fun single player modes, and exceptionally in-depth multiplayer makes Field Commander not simply the best strategy game on the PSP, but one of the best on any system.

If you’re willing work though the interface and aren’t opposed to saving and reloading over and over again, you’ll find that Soldiers has legs. What we’d like to see in a future release is a cleaner interface and a more clearly defined design.

The game creates a distinctive, unflattering view of criminal life in the 40's, and the huge virtual city the Godfather offers is rife with missions and opportunities.

If you’re looking for some wholly new content to revolutionize the game for you, unfortunately this isn’t it. But, for $30, you can’t have everything.

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.

It's more successful than any other surfing game that's come before it, but its seemingly random waves and amazing physics don't entirely overcome its repetitive nature or lack of difficulty.