But for the rest of us who don't want to make a career out of a game and preferred the new direction that "Company of Heroes" offered, Commander is bound to be a huge letdown.

The new Weapons system is a fun addition, and actually manages to make the game a bit friendlier to new players. The gameplay itself is solid, but the overall presentation is still lacking. Here’s hoping to a more robust online mode and a better use of the ESPN license in the 09 iteration.

Though it is more approachable than previous versions, Virtua Fighter 5 still takes a lot of work before it becomes fun, and sixty dollars aside, it may be too big an investment for most casual gamers.

If you like your puzzle games like Puzzle League or Meteos, then you'll want to stay clear of Picross DS. However, if crosswords or brain-benders like Sudoku is more your style, then you will love this version. It has a lot to offer and the ability to create and share puzzles ensures a long-life span.

Stalker attempts to be many things, which is a lofty and worthy goal, but its inability to deliver is a huge disappointment. It wants to be an RPG, offering you an inventory and items with modifiers, and yet has no implementation of experience, skills or adjusting your attributes. It also wants to be a free-roam, huge world, Oblivion/GTA hybrid, but comes across as having bitten off more than it could chew.

When it comes right down to it, Sid Meier's Pirates for the PSP is a good game but a bad port.

In the end, you can't help but feel that Jade Empire lost its focus in the design phase. No one element really works, no one element really stands out.

In short, Assassin’s Creed is two hours of a really good video game repeated ad nauseum for many more hours. It’s fun, but can get very boring.

The new Weapons system is a fun addition, and actually manages to make the game a bit friendlier to new players. The gameplay itself is solid, but the overall presentation is still lacking. Here’s hoping to a more robust online mode and a better use of the ESPN license in the 09 iteration.

If you already own FS2004 and have a moderate computer, my suggestion is to put the $70 towards some addons to extend the life of FS2004, and wait to see how the DirectX 10 patch fares.

Silent Hunter features countless bugs you'll find on every machine, and this is unforgivable. It's a betrayal to a loyal fanbase and a detriment to gaining new fans. Unfortunately, it's also an exact replay of what happened two years ago when Silent Hunter III shipped. Deja'vu all over again, as Yogi Berra once said.

If you like to feel you're playing a platformer with punishing boss battles, then you just may love it. If you've grown up playing American or European shooters, then you are bound to be disappointed by most of the design decisions.

Much like an orchestra with a flat brass section, Eternal Sonata strings together a great battle system and beautiful presentation to the backdrop of an out-of-tune story and lacking character development.

The story won’t leave you in tears and the gameplay doesn’t break the mold in any way, but as the first epic Japanese RPG on the Xbox 360, Blue Dragon is adequate.

The easy learning curve is something that always made the series a good bet, but with games like Skate emerging onto the scene with a more intuitive control scheme, it may be time for old Tony to learn a new trick or two.

Tomb Raider’s puzzles remain just as challenging as before, and you’ll spend plenty of time just looking around rooms trying to figure out how to move on to the next area. Thankfully they never get boring.

ZX Advent delivers a solid 2D platformer that is difficult to find elsewhere, forcing a players to rely pretty heavily on their skill to see them through. Mega Man fans will have their desire sated.

If you can get past the frustrating gameplay mechanics, Medal of Honor: Airborne can be an enjoyable experience. The presentation is fantastic and the multiplayer is surprisingly fun, but unfortunately Airborne’s new features feel like a desperate attempt to get one more iteration out of this aging series.

This is supposed to be the big racing title at launch, the game that should convince guys like me to buy this system, and it just plain doesn’t.

I was most impressed with the look of Eets. You may have seen the older PC game, and if so then you know what to expect here. The only way I know how to describe the characters is as cutesy with a serious edge. The characters, especially Eets himself, looks like you could pet him but at any moment he might just bite your head off.

Liberation allows you to play co-op with another friend, heading out together on the same boring missions that comprise the campaign.

The game does get a little repetitive, though the increase in difficulty in later levels will keep you on your toes. Multiplayer is pretty much a joke that was better left untold. It's hollow, void of much point and has all the signs of something that was added at the last minute so the box could say “Multiplayer”.

The many multiplayer possibilities should buy you a lot of time with the title, but the single-player campaign is just entirely too short (while the tutorial is mind-numbingly long).

While the gameplay is fairly easy, Starfox Command is a step back in the right direction for the franchise after the missteps during the Gamecube years.

A nice homage to the days when you had to line quarters on the rim of a cabinet just to secure your spot in line.

Players who never experienced the RPGs of the 80s are bound to scratch their head and wonder where all the graphics went.

The more you know about football then the more you'll get out of this game. There are some superb play-calling aspects on offer, like the ability to change routes on the fly for your receivers, but again, this is something only the hardcore will make use of.

I had a blast playing it for the first hour, and the next hour or two was still fun. But as time went on, it quickly dwindled into something stuck between a linear action title and a sandbox game, with neither of those done well.