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 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. Medal of Honor: Airborne just screams of a game with lots of interesting ideas that no one actually sat down to play and decide if they were fun.

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.

Open Warfare 2 combines the franchise’s polished gameplay with several new modes and a robust online component to create the best Worms title in many years.

Open Warfare 2 combines the franchise’s polished gameplay with several new modes and a robust online component to create the best Worms title in many years.

An exercise in futility, a poorly designed and frustrating experience that questions how loose of a definition we should give to the word “game”.

Even with the profanity, the game manages to pull off a high degree of charm that could give this new IP a lot of legs if they can clarify the target audience in a sequel.

You're going to need the patience of Job to persevere in the early stages, but if you manage it then you're in for one of the best multiplayer experiences available.

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.

If MHF2 had gone the extra mile to delivered Infrastructure mode, well, there would be no stopping this game. As it stands, it's an engrossing, complex adventure game that rewards the player willing to invest a lot of time in exploring its subtleties.

In the end Stuntman: Ignition feels like opening night at one of the many big-budget blockbuster movies it spoofs - an expensive ticket and a long wait can get you the perfect seats for some very rewarding action.

Feels like opening night at one of the many big-budget blockbuster movies it spoofs - an expensive ticket and a long wait can get you the perfect seats for some very rewarding action.

Curious newcomers will want to sink their teeth into one of Guild Wars’ other three campaigns first, but if you’re looking to get a bit more out of the Guild Wars experience and want to prep yourself for its coming sequel, Eye of the North is a great interim solution.

This game is definitely good for those of you who long for the carnival experience and can provide a really fun multiplayer experience as well. In the already very crowded Wii mini-game collection this one may not be the best, but it’s worth checking out.

With several gameplay modes tailored for addicts and casual players alike, hitting the links with Tiger is an extremely refined experience, which no doubt stems from EA Sports’ decade long tenure with the license.

Minor issues with the presentation and level design prevent it from achieving its full potential, yet it's still an enjoyable experience.

GRAW2 may be a few months late but the wait was definitely worth it and patient PS3 owners have been rewarded with one of the best titles for the console yet.

In the end, while not a perfect incarnation of the Ghost Recon series, GRAW2 still manages to be one of the strongest FPSs on the PSP and is well worth your time.

I hate this game. It's an embarrassment, a misfire in every respect. A game that thought it could compete with the big boys and ends up being one of the worst experiences you'll find on the 360.

Just as the film industry has had David Lynch and Stanley Kubrick, or the music industry Laurie Anderson and Phillip Glass, or the art world its Salvador Dali, so to does the videogame industry have its own creative maverick in Jeff Minter. I'm glad he exists and I'm ecstatic that he's still doing what he wants, how he wants. Best 400-points I've ever spent.

Bioshock has got everything that a great triple-A title needs, and it’s got it in spades. Intense combat, amazing and deep story, beautiful graphics, awesome sound – yes please.

Bioshock has got everything that a great triple-A title needs, and it’s got it in spades. Intense combat, amazing and deep story, beautiful graphics, awesome sound – yes please. Add to that the level of customization and the multiple endings, and you’ve got something worth talking about.

Dragoneer's Aria misses the mark in critical categories, especially in light of recent competition. You can do far worse than Dragoneer's, that's for sure...but with Brave Story out, you can now do far better.

If it weren't for the horrible way in which you have to find critical information, I'd happily recommend it to anyone with a passing interest in tactical combat games.

Persona 3 is an amazingly unique title for the Playstation 2. Even if you're not a fan of dungeon crawls, Persona 3 deserves your attention for its maturity alone. Gamers that are sick of typical JRPG settings will love the new atmosphere and relish the creepy style.

Luminous Arc just comes across as a competent game with no single aspect that excels or attempts to push the genre forward. It's basically a generic strategy RPG that benefits from supporting WFC, though even this aspect is bare-bones. You could do worse...you could do better.

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.

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.

Superstar Challenge alone is worth it in my book. Those that are adjusted to the next-gen experience on the home consoles might find that the PSP version comes up a little short in the features department, but the gameplay is still tight. This is definitely the best PSP Madden yet.

A huge improvement over previous versions. It's obvious EA wanted to treat the DS platform as a unique entity and not a place to dump a half-assed port. While the graphics won't be winning any awards, it's at least passable now and won't make your eyes bleed.

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.

If you've played Crazy Taxi and its sequels, then you've played this new version. It controls well, looks fine, sounds good...but it's Crazy Taxi, a game that is better off remembered instead of regurgitated.

Glory Days 2 took me completely by surprise. It's the perfect game that I didn't even know I needed. If you're looking for an action game with more depth than just moving and shooting, you should definitely take a look.

Even if it’s just to have chess or checkers to play online, you may want to look into this title. The camera support adds a little bit of extra fun to a very bare-bones package.

Brave Story stands tall not so much as a brand new experience with innovative gameplay, but a solid homage to the genre that manages to get every aspect just perfect.

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.

Nintendo didn’t change much with Mario Strikers Charged, and they really didn’t have to. The transition to the Wii is a comfortable experience, and the online mode, though a bit clumsy, is a welcome addition.

It offers a lot of options for your 800-points and 16-player team battles can be quite enjoyable, but there's just not enough meat on its bones to constitute a satisfying meal.

There is simply nothing here worth playing, nothing here worth buying and it stands as yet one more clue (as if they need any more) that Koei needs to move on to greener pastures and bury this franchise once and for all.

Multiplayer may have been a saving grace, but you won't find any infrastructure play on offer, meaning you'll have to find up to three other people within local WiFi range if you want to get your game on. The original Alien Syndrome was all about co-op alien killing, but the ball has been fumbled in this remake.

Although Final Fantasy II isn't one of the better Final Fantasy games, it's an interesting cog in the 20-year history of the series, and shows how much the series has grown and evolved since its inception.

What we’ve got here is a stripped down version of a great game. It’s nothing short of a complete re-hash, but in the case of Guitar Hero that’s not necessarily a huge problem.

NASCAR 08 is a decent effort at bringing this series to the next-gen platforms, but ultimately doesn’t have the muscle to be a first-place finisher.

With its expanded Epic Game, 12 new scenarios, tons of mods from the community, 10 new civilizations, 16 new leaders, corporations, espionage, random events, 5 new wonders, enhanced space victory, Apostolic Palace diplomacy and enhanced AI, this is the best $29 you'll spend all year.

You’ll wonder why you bought this game when you could just be picking random numbers out of a hat. When you see this title on the shelf of your local retailer, if you’re smarter than a fifth grader your final answer will be “No Deal.”

The most well-rounded and customizable game currently available on Xbox Live Arcade. The graphics are crisp, the animations fun and the options are many. It's so good, it even makes up for Bomberman Act Zero. Yes, it's THAT good.

The game's still not perfect, but the end result is a college football title with the depth to appease fans of the sport yet simple enough to attract newcomers. Hardcore fans might be disappointed with the presentation, which doesn't always feel like college football, but there's no denying that the gameplay has been tuned to perfection.

There is a lot here to like if you're willing to look past the redundant quests and better yet, Radiant Mythology is a good entry point for newcomers to the series.

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.

If goofy, over-the-top minigames are appealing, then Virtua Tennis is the only game in town. If you happen to take the sport of tennis seriously and want more of a simulation, then Smash Court Tennis 3 fills the bill well enough. The only problem I have with both of these games is their overall refusal to advance the genre beyond what we've seen countless times before.

It satisfies on many levels – easily accessible and involved gameplay coupled with great graphics and a cool story.

I was mildly entertained by Chicken Shoot’s quirkiness. I appreciate simplicity and sometimes, we all need a wee bit o’ guilty pleasure. But it made me wonder if it was all just some sort of marketing scheme for KFC as I found myself craving lots of fried chicken after a while.

It’s an accessible and easy-to-master Wii game, providing simplistic gameplay and a neat art style. It’s certainly not "Call of Duty," but on the Wii that may be a good thing.

Most players probably won't have the patience to deal with the controls, which are cumbersome at best, so only the most hardcore adventure fiend will find any semblance of enjoyment here.

Vampire Rain takes what could be an amazingly fun, unique concept and basically throws it in the trash. Uninspired and forced stealth, guns that don’t get fired, undead that won’t die and more are all here.

You may be tempted to want to try to relive those memories with a game like Hot Wheels Ultimate Racing, but this isn’t the way to do it. With far more entertaining stunt driving games on the system (such as GripShift, for example), you’re better off just leaving this game on the side of the road.

Visually, Super Stardust is stunning. It's easily the best-looking downloadable game for the PS3 and I'll go so far as to call it a killer-app, much like Geometry Wars for the 360.

Sudoku purists will be upset by a number of things in this game. All puzzles appear to be randomly generated, so there’s no way to track which ones you have or haven’t solved yet.

Very similar to most Michael Bay films - graphically intense, but shallow in terms of character and story. Add to that boring combat and you have a game good for fans of the upcoming movie only, though not even Transformer fan in general.

Very similar to most Michael Bay films - graphically intense, but shallow in terms of character and story. Add to that boring combat and you have a game good for fans of the upcoming movie only, though not even Transformer fan in general.

Similar to most Michael Bay films - graphically intense, but shallow in terms of character and story. Add to that boring combat and you have a game good for fans of the upcoming movie only, though not even Transformer fan in general.

This game is one of those rare instances where the stars align and every element combines to create something fresh, original and great. Kudos to the entire crew at Triumph Studios...you've lived up to your name.

The key to Nervous Breakdown is that it continuously introduces new challenges and concepts that keep it from feeling stale.

The controls and goals are decidedly simple, the story is definitely classic and non-violent, but that’s not to say it’s only for younger audiences. Just about anyone can have a good time with this game, at least for a while. The Wii version is well done, and the controls feel well implemented. It’s funny, it’s fun, and it’s just plain easy to enjoy.

A game that’s built on a foundation of great gameplay with an intense and unique story. The look and sound of the game are awesome as well.

The nature of game lends itself well to the PSP, offering a nice pick-up-play experience that doesn't bog you down with details or an hour worth of 9-innings.

It's not the breakthrough title that Nintendo set it up to be.

The extreme care taken with reproducing the world, characters, and story of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix results in certainly the best Harry Potter game yet and a perfect counterpart to the film.

The extreme care taken with reproducing the world, characters, and story of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix results in certainly the best Harry Potter game yet and a perfect counterpart to the film.

The terrible frame rate, frustrating navigation, and bland gameplay result in a title that only the most diehard fans of Harry Potter should play. If you’ve got another system besides PSP, do yourself a favor and pick up the far superior home console version instead.

The extreme care taken with reproducing the world, characters, and story of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix results in certainly the best Harry Potter game yet and a perfect counterpart to the film.

The minigames aren’t anything you haven’t seen before on the DS, but they do a good job of breaking up the tedium of travelling Hogwarts.

An extremely fun and well-designed game that sets a new standard in terms of graphics and sound. If it proves successful, we will hopefully see a slew of shooters arrive for the platform, shooters that will hopefully implement WiFi Connect so we can all start going head-to-head.

Quite entertaining. It’s not going to be enough to draw in new fans to this type of gameplay. Let’s face it – this is a love it or hate it genre.

With graphics and sound like this, only the staunchest of racing-game-haters will be able to skim over this game on the shelves of their local retailer. When you get into the gameplay, it’s pure fun and pure fast – the perfect combination for a racing game. DiRT is easily one of the best looking racing games we’ve ever seen, and provides an amazingly challenging and fun experience – at least in single player mode.

Only fans of the license should buy this game. It’s got almost everything you’d expect from a Transformers: The Movie game. It’s got robots, it’s got explosions, it’s got Peter Cullen. What it doesn’t have, unfortunately, is fun gameplay.

This game may not be a pillar of innovation or creativity, but it is fun. The combat is straightforward and the single player campaign is short, but fans will definitely have a good time here. The game is structured very well for a handheld platform and there’s enough replayability to keep you coming back for a while.

All of the negatives to be found in SimCity DS are terribly unfortunate as all of the elements that made SimCity a classic are here, unfortunately hampered by ill-conceived design choices and a total lack of style.

Technically very solid, with a well implemented control scheme and good enough graphics and sound, but the tedium of doing nothing more than grinding through the exact same thing over and over again really kills it.

The new Wii controls definitely make it worth plaything through again. At $29 there’s almost no excuse for not picking this one up, especially if you’re looking for the best demonstration of the Wii Remote yet.

All in all, this game may not be a pillar of innovation or creativity, but it is fun. The combat is straightforward and the single player campaign is short, but fans will definitely have a good time here.

Technically, it’s fairly solid – the controls work and it looks and sounds OK, but there’s zero fun here.

It borrows so heavily from the format of "Marvel Ultimate Alliance" that you’ll likely be hard pressed to find anyone who won’t tell you to simply play that game instead. Considering all the bad movie games we’ve seen in the past year, saying that this is one of the worst should really mean something.

Now, this iteration of the classic game shows that with some love and polishing, these old favorite games of ours really do stand the test of time, and even outperform some new games.

Taking into account the shortcomings of the platform when dealing with this type of gameplay, RS:V pulls it off fairly well. It’s still not great, but you can have fun with it for a while if you’re not frustrated easily. Don’t, however, expect anything near the caliber of the experience that you may have already had with the far superior 360 version of the game.

Monster Madness could’ve been fun. It looks good enough to hold its own, and the general concept is pretty cool, but the execution just falls flat of the standards we should all hold for “next-gen” games.

Assuming you actually take the time to understand the cryptic controls, you’ll find yourself never having to use your ninja abilities because you can simply hack and slash your way to the objective.

The first problem is the relatively small area you find yourself flying in throughout the missions.

Pac-Man Championship edition is a welcome change for the Pac-universe. There’s enough variety, newness, and challenge to keep old fans and new players entertained for a long time. This is definitely a great example of the way that retro games should come to the Live Arcade.

One of the best games of its type on the DS. Though I personally prefer the direction that Puzzle Quest offers, Planet Puzzle League holds its own by offering so many ways to play and all presented in a style that would make Q Entertainment proud.

A more accurate name would have been Tank Crap.

Though Microsoft's Games for Windows Live is an interesting system, they shouldn't have used a poor port of Halo 2 to demonstrate it, and instead focused on creating a great new title for the PC.

It’s loaded with extras and great touches that push it over the edge of greatness, so much so that the bland graphics are quickly forgotten.

This is a great game. If you’re willing to abandon your preconceived notions as to what a Shadowrun game should be and simply accept it for what it is, you’ll find a deep and complex first-person shooter that is tons of fun and packed with variety.

Besides the tired gameplay, Mario Party 8 has some serious presentation issues that will make you wonder if you’re still playing a Gamecube game.

Ultimately, Crush stands tall as a successful experiment in game design, offering up a shiny new puzzle concept that could very well set a new standard for future clones.

The biggest problem with all of this combat is that while it may sound cool and complicated, it’s boring, unchallenging, and requires absolutely no tactical consideration.

A great game that should appeal to those zealots and casual players that eat this stuff up. The features and game modes offer a lot of options, the presentation is excellent and the text-recognition actually works and works fast.