The controls just aren’t responsive. You’ll never feel like your player is doing what you want, when you want.

The groundwork is laid here for something truly interesting and special if a follow-up is made, but this initial outing is merely average.

Point and click newbies may find some of the puzzles challenging but most people will be wishing for more adventure and depth to Touch Detective.

Mild annoyances in the interface, a design mode without anything to design, and some questionable racing physics keep the game from the top of the podium. With that said, Apex is an enjoyable and mildly addictive title with plenty of arcade action for racing fans.

It has that "just one more turn" kind of addictiveness that all good turn-based strategy games have in spades.

The touch controls work well, and while Honeycomb Beat suffers from a dangerous amount of redundancy, the gameplay is relatively fun and original.

The beefed-up single-player is nice, but when the main focus of the game comes up so short, it's hard not to feel disappointed.

On the other hand, if all you want out of your video game is a bloody binge, Dead to Rights II is the gaming equivalent of sitting alone in a dark room and downing shot after shot of cheap, hard liquor. If you're in the mood, it gets the job done just fine.

In particular, it's disappointing to see that extra processing power hasn't gone to make the horses feel more responsive and real.

The lack of any camera controls is somewhat annoying, but seldom intrusive, and the ability to save at any time is especially welcome.

Even with the weak campaign, O.R.B.'s compelling and interestingly paced skirmish mode more than make up for it.

If some of the difficulty settings didn't feel so unbalanced, we'd have liked more time in North Africa, as that campaign feels the most fresh out of the three.

A pleasant change from "The Sims" that is tailored to those who would find the constant reinventing of personal style an appealing diversion.

We would have liked more maps and a solid fix for the sound problems.

It’s a testament to the game that despite all of these problems, Sacred is still fun to play. No really, it is!... But there’s still no excuse for releasing a game in such shoddy condition.

If you're up for the puzzle-like gameplay and the repetition, Prisoner of War greatly expands what a stealth game can accomplish.

Rumble Roses will probably go over very well at fraternity houses, bachelor parties, and the bedrooms of sexually frustrated teenage boys everywhere. It's too bad that there's a pretty good game underneath all the fluff here.

Solo players could find it a chore, Older gamers may find reason to snore, But if you share with a friend You’ll enjoy it for a weekend And yearn for a few hours more.

Poor touch controls and a lack of dedicated online multiplayer drag down an otherwise serviceable portable Dynasty Warriors game. Fans of the series will find things to like in Next, but the offering is mediocre at best.

The game could also benefit from more dynamic camera angles and a more exciting presentation with color stat overlays, sideline close-ups, and so forth. The developers opted for a realistic, on-court feel by removing play-by-play announcers, but the crowd and music fail to pick up the slack.

Even though fans of the series will have seen most of this before, Battle Network 5 is a very strong game in a technical sense.

Given that there is no ability to create your own rider or play online, the feature set is substandard to other extreme sports titles on the market.

Another problem that's at odds with the kid-friendly design is a surprising number of vague objectives.

More about the story it presents than the game play used to advance the plot. Luckily, said story is so compelling that it largely makes up for the sins committed in other aspects of the title, keeping the game interesting despite the trial-and-error mission setup and sometimes-confusing objectives.

For all its lack of innovation, there's an involving, if convoluted story here, and some commendably spooky moments.

The engine is a couple years old and not as cool-looking as contemporary games or even "MechAssault" for the Xbox... Also, the audio is unremarkable.

A little bit of humor and a fun bunch of characters go a long way towards making all the dungeon-hackery go by smoothly.

Sloppy combat controls hamper the fun, and the lack of online play really limits the multiplayer appeal on the Xbox. Just the same, it's a great-looking, enjoyable take on a classic.