I found the controls very sloppy for an FPS, and almost downright unresponsive during short periods when there was a big explosion or several grenades going off at once (seemingly independent of whether or not the explosion was actually in my field of view at the time).

Despite its shortcomings, which include awful commentary, puzzling automated club and shot selection, fan interference, and a bug in the Tiger Challenge mode, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 does introduce some wonderful new features to the series. Photo Game Face goes a long way to help players create a golfer that’s truly in their image; the EA Sports Gamernet adds a wealth of content for the online community; and the additions and alterations to the swing controls make the game a little more accessible than it used to be.

A tremendous game. The visuals are a little muddier, the SIXAXIS controls are for the most part negligible, and the online lobby system isn’t as sophisticated as the Xbox 360 version, but those are all minor issues in the big picture.

BioShock is one of the best games of 2007 for any platform, not so much because it offers new wonders - there are a few - but as a result of meeting high standards, as any diamond should.

BioShock is one of the best games of 2007 for any platform, not so much because it offers new wonders - there are a few - but as a result of meeting high standards, as any diamond should.

If Jeanne d'Arc was a PS2 game, it'd be one of the last great games on the system. As a PSP game, it's definitely a reason to own the system, although it has a surprising difficulty curve that may frustrate some players.

It’s not going to wow you or keep you up at night, and I doubt it’s going to make any adventure gaming Top Ten lists, but it’s pleasant and accessible, and I enjoyed it enough during the 5-6 hours I spent with it that I feel comfortable giving it a modest recommendation.

Persona 3 is, despite that complaint, one of the best RPGs on the PS2, and in fact, on any console. It has characters you'll care about, a combat system that's easy to get into but hard to master, enough of a difficulty curve that you'll feel like you're working for your victories, and a truly bizarre and memorable soundtrack.

The game still is not much to look at, however, and still does not even come close to the other next-gen versions in terms of options, creating players and teams, etc. If you're new to the series and looking for some fun, go pick this one up, but if you're a hardcore Maddenite, I'd recommend going with one of the other two next-gen versions.

Prank TV is basically a bargain clone of that bargain game, and it’s as bad as that description makes it sound.

Boogie works best as a party game, if you really get into it, but with a $60 price tag, there's just not enough for me to recommend this song and dance number.

While there’s definitely a learning curve with respect to the controls and the fact you’re performing double duty as a pilot and army General, the combination of aerial combat and real-time military strategy is a rather enjoyable mix.

Considering it contains less than two thirds of the number of songs offered in Guitar Hero II, it really should have been at least $10 cheaper.

One would think that racing against others online would be the best part of this game. Unfortunately, the online mode is subpar and barely playable.

A very good football game. It's not without it minor flaws, such as some clipping in animations, weird AI issues from time to time, and some awkward looking hits and collisions. None of these tend to affect the gameplay at all, however.

Thanks to its depth and ease of use, it can be greatly enjoyed even by folks who aren’t usually into tennis games, as it’s got an easy learn curve and even includes a training mode that concisely explains things for players who might feel overwhelmed by the intricacies of the game.

Ultimately the brevity of PaRappa the Rapper is what makes it such a tough game to recommend.

While Carcassonne isn’t quite as deep as Catan, it’s certainly an easier game to grasp.

The enthralling tactical shooter gameplay and adjustable difficulty make it an experience that can be enjoyed by all. Do not bet on black; do not bet on red... take sixty dollars of your hard earned cash and place it on the rainbow. To win. It’s a sure thing.

The Game is the best twenty-dollar game you will ever pay sixty dollars for, and in this case you can rest assured that there really isn’t any “more than meets the eye.”

It can be said that Transformers: The Game is the best twenty-dollar game you will ever pay sixty dollars for, and in this case you can rest assured that there really isn’t any “more than meets the eye.”

Its story is one of the most interesting and engaging stories (albeit dark) that I've ever seen in a video game.

Its story is one of the most interesting and engaging stories (albeit dark) that I've ever seen in a video game.

Despite its slight gameplay and extensive loading problems, DiRT still delivers the most exciting and rewarding racing action I’ve experienced on the 360, and the finest rally racing experience I’ve ever had in a game.

Despite the few things done well in it, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer remains a bland, poorly-done game.

Despite the few things done well in it, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer remains a bland, poorly-done game.

That’s what makes Pac-Man Championship Edition such a fun, challenging and ultimately addictive game. It compels you to keep coming back to best your previous high score and perhaps make an appearance on the Xbox Live leaderboards. That’s the sign of a great arcade experience and if you’re a fan of Pac-Man, you won’t want to miss it.

Considering people were claiming Halo 3 wasn’t stretching the limits of graphical prowess on the Xbox 360 in the recent beta test, it’s doubtful that a barely upgraded Halo 2 is going to wow anyone.

A standard kart racer with a bunch of well-done, but hollow mini-games tacked on that gets old quickly in single player, but has its life extended with multi-player, where the added competition adds a great deal of fun to the proceedings.

While it suffers from some crippling camera problems at times, has text that is difficult to read without an HDTV, and has quite possibly the most nonsensical plot I’ve ever encountered in a game, Wartech Sekno no Ronde is an incredibly fun game despite its problems.

Odin Sphere ends up being an unforgettable game due to its graphics and unique gameplay, but ends up being riddled with some major problems and puzzling game design issues that greatly reduce the amount of fun that can be had with it.

The beautiful graphics, relative ease of control and immersive gameplay round out the “expectedly cheesy” storyline to provide an intense gameplay experience that no fan of the genre should miss.

Just a poorly made game. Almost nothing about it works, and there’s absolutely no reason why you should buy it when you could play UFO: Afterlight (or even Silent Storm) instead.

The engine is a lot of fun, but the campaign is a disaster, and it appears that Altar Games hasn’t learned anything since releasing UFO: Aftershock two years ago.

If you’re looking to recapture the fun you had with the previous generation’s titles (which were FAR better), then please keep waiting.

If you’re a fan of the board game or strategy games in general, there’s no better way to spend your Microsoft Points.

Alpha Prime takes a little from each game but has a hard time carving out its own identity.

Lacking. It lacks original gameplay. It lacks excitement. It lacks anything that might set it apart from any number of entirely uninspiring RTS games that have come out in the last 2 years. And most of all, it lacks the level of interest required to have me write another word about it.

The real problem with Hot Dog King is that it doesn’t know what it wants to be.

Ok, so the Gibson X-Plorer guitar controller isn’t wireless, there’s currently no online play, and the downloadable Track Packs are a little pricey. Big deal. Xbox 360 gamers are still in for a real treat.

If you missed Two Thrones, or are the type of person who craves that motion sensing control, go pick this one up, because even with its flaws it is still Prince of Persia done right.

From a gameplay standpoint I would have been happier had they gone with a more open mission structure and something that feels a little less crushed by the weight of all the filmmaking going on. Still and all it’s well-polished, and undeniably continues the C&C legacy.

From a shear hours-per-dollar perspective the expansion pack is more than worth it. For those who explored every nook and cranny of Oblivion and were somehow craving more, have at it – you doubtless will not be disappointed. For those, like me, who maybe had enough, more time on the all-you-can buffet line isn’t really a good thing.

As a 360 game, Symphony is weird. The Achievements are insanely easy and seem to have been chosen at random. None of them require any real thought to accomplish, either. Symphony is the easiest two hundred Achievement points you will ever earn.

The combat mechanics – weapon feel, body point damage system, enemy AI, running and sneaking, encumbrance and fatigue – have all been simulated excellently and with real care paid to balance and playability. The end-of-civilization free for all environment is a very exciting and engrossing setting for an FPS.

Squinch your eyes shut during the movies and click blindly through the dialog segments as quickly as possible, learn to micromanage combat at a high rate of speed, and there is a game mixed in there that is both unique and enjoyable.

It boasts plenty of game-time, because even when you finish there are always more collectables to go find... in the middle of driving games and, of course, you can always go back and fight people for the heck of it.

The combat in the game is underdeveloped, unimaginative, repetitive, and simply not fun.

The game looks nice, the story is easy to follow, and most of the puzzles are easy to solve. But for me, the interface sinks whatever potential the game has, and I’d have to think that it would infuriate anyone playing an adventure game for the first time.

While it ends up being a disappointing game due to its bloated backdrops, poor music, and control problems, Tetris Evolution does a fine job at providing players with an enjoyable, basic game of Tetris on the 360. I think it would have been better suited as an XBLA download.

It does some things well and some things badly, and overall it lands somewhere around average. Fans of the first game will no doubt like the sequel, but for everybody else it’s likely to be an iffy proposition.

God of War II begins with a bang louder than a falling Kraken and does not let up for the next dozen or so hours you will spend engrossed in its mythos.

If you already have played through this game on another system, the new controls probably aren’t enough to warrant a new purchase, as they are the only new addition. But if you haven’t had the 07 version, and are a Wii-control fan, this is a must have for the Wii.

For me, the controls are the root of the game’s issues in that they’re not ideal for a combat intensive game like Call of Duty. To compensate, the enemy AI is dumbed down. To compensate for that, enemy respawns, sometimes in unlimited numbers, are used. It’s a trickle-down effect and it’s a shame because the presentation is solid and the mission design is excellent.

I can’t think of another game where the developers apparently tried so hard to make it no fun to play. As a result, The Sacred Rings is just a bad game. The puzzles are tedious, the locations are dark, and the premise is silly (you actually spend more time trying to reunite two dead lovers than you do dealing with the Sacred Rings).

It caters to beginners, challenges experts and offers an impressive variety of ways to play Sudoku.

For $50, players deserve more than a badly-programmed mish-mash of the Burnout series. It’s easily the weakest console entry in the series yet.

Yes, there are pathfinding issues with respect to friendly AI, some of the missions will seem a little overwhelming with all the units you have to control, and multiplayer still doesn’t feature a cover system, but all that aside what you’ve got here is a singleplayer campaign that’s just as thrilling and intense as the original, and a robust multiplayer component that is sure to keep gamers coming back to the virtual battlefield for months to come.

The experience is a great deal more entertaining than the previous effort (Liberty City Stories), so if you enjoyed Vice City for the PS2 and don’t own a PSP, go ahead and pick this one up.

It’s not infinitely replayable, but it’s good for another 15 or 20 hours, which as expansion packs go is, I think, AOK.

The engine is unusual, but it doesn’t look especially good. The storyline is intriguing, but it’s a lot darker and more gruesome than you’d expect from a Sherlock Holmes tale.

A fantastic first entry for the series on the Wii. EA has done a lights-out job, and for SSX fans, this is a great sign of awesome things to come. The game is flat-out hard, and again, it will take you quite some time to master. When you do, though, it is just plain fun.

I’m willing to let the outstanding plot carry the somewhat lesser though still enjoyable combat engine and the thinness of the RPG elements of Jade Empire.

The sound in Homecourt is spectacular. From the excellent narration of the players’ tales to the on-the-court trash talk, the sound is awesome.

Supreme Commander is still mountains of fun; it's just that the gratification is delayed, instead of instant. I think this should be commended.

It's refreshing to play a title that is both old school in its gameplay, but new school in its storytelling.

I was a little annoyed when the ancient mysteries ended up revolving around the Knights Templar and the Ark of the Covenant. Haven’t those two things been involved in enough ancient mysteries without trotting them out for yet another?

Easily the best game I’ve played so far this year. Its highly-stylish graphics, mostly-smooth gameplay, incredible music, and fantastic voice acting combined to create an experience that I won’t forget, and one that I hope is enjoyed by anyone with a love for RPGs.

If you are a big-time college hoops aficionado, I believe you’ll be able to look past the flaws of this game and appreciate the college atmosphere and intensity it brings. EA is definitely on the right track.

Lost Planet brings to the table an awkward shooter with no story to speak of and whose general gameplay mechanics are somewhat flawed or incomplete. However, there are players out there who may just want to shoot some bugs out in the cold.

I hate to pound on a game that at least tries to be different, but Vigil needs a bunch more polish and a bunch more content before I’d even consider it to be a full game, let alone something worth buying, and so you should be wary of it, even at the $10 bargain price it has now.

A mess by almost any comparison. These aren’t tears of rapturous joy running down my cheeks – they are instead the expression of my realization that the Star Trek gaming curse has yet again resulted in a horrific shambling zombie monster of a Star Trek game.

The presentation is fine, and RoboBlitz's sheer challenge factor will probably attract serious platformer fans. It's frustrating, though, and all the moreso when a seemingly simple task just refuses to work for no good reason.

The sound effects are adequate and the music does its job, but it would have been nice to see some of these characters talk or emote a little bit, even if just for laughs.

The production values of the game are just fine. The train looks authentic, the voice acting is believable, and there are several quality cinematic sequences sprinkled throughout the investigation. But what you do in the adventure isn’t all that fun or exciting, and so I’m not exactly sure who would enjoy it.

Rainbow Six Vegas represents a return to glory for the franchise, with a renewed emphasis on tactics, a brilliant cover system, new high-tech gadgets, challenging missions and a multiplayer component that’ll keep you coming back for more.

The controls are new and innovative, but to a large percentage of racing fans they won’t seem to fit.

I think it’s important that the developers allow players to drop the original vocal from the track. Not only does it make it difficult to hear yourself during playback, but it also counteracts the essence of the Freestyle Mode.

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz is one of the most fun Wii titles out there, and makes the best use of the controls.

If you are a fan of mini-games, then Rayman Raving Rabbids is easy to recommend. Though some games are repeated in different forms, and some controls problems are present, there is certainly plenty of fun to be had.

It can be a great service to fans of Fantasy Battles and medieval warfare in general; the issue is that it demands a perfect storm of circumstances to fully enjoy it.

The depth of the diplomacy, the many well-balanced factions, the intelligent layout of the interface, that all indicates to me a game design crew that really had its stuff together. While I don’t think as a game reviewer it would be appropriate for me to penalize a game for being too involved, I do think the pace of this game, the amount of plotting and planning versus the amount of payoff, is a little out of whack.

The graphic design seems a bit smoother than you might remember it from back in the day, no doubt due to whatever tweaks Konami has done to it for the Xbox 360.

It's short, at about 8 hours in length, and the last level and a half seems abrupt. I still feel like there’s a rail sequence missing when the squad tears away from the mansion in the APC... It also doesn't necessarily take the third-person shooter to new heights. What it does, however, is present one of the best looking and sounding games whose gameplay is as polished as it gets, with intense shootouts, exciting boss battles, and sleep-depriving online play.

In the end, I still feel as though Call of Duty 2 offered a superior singleplayer experience to Call of Duty 3. The later relies too much on the numbers game, particularly with the use of German respawns, and while the result is a more action-packed experience, the battles simply aren’t as memorable.

An anecdote: I was in the grocery store this past weekend when I heard a song playing over the P.A. I don’t remember the name of it, just that it was an old 80s rock tune. As I stood there in the dairy section, all I could think of at that moment was how cool it would be to play that song in Guitar Hero II. That’s the kind of infectious effect this game has, you’ll never listen to another rock song the same way again.

It's an MMORPG without the second M or the O, and while it's not perfect by a damn sight, it's better than the last few FF games have been.

The adventure is rich and detailed, the D&D freak can go positively orgasmic with statistics, and the user community is undoubtedly going to create nearly limitless modules for the less-initiated among us to explore and experience.

One of the best and most complete action games on the PSP. The decision to emphasize tactics pays off in spades thanks to an intuitive interface for controlling Captain Templar and the Tactical Command System, where you’ll get to occasionally command an AI teammate.

One can’t help but have the feeling that the series needs something new. The Empire system in this game adds a little bit, but it’s nothing revolutionary, and only provides a distraction from the same old gameplay. This “same old gameplay”, though, is darn good.

If you’re a soccer game fan, then you’ll either really enjoy this game, or really hate it. If you only have a 360, then it’s a definite must buy as a soccer fan. However, if you also have an Xbox or PS2, I have to recommend that you stick to the last-gen version.

Since the game is so friendly and upbeat, it might work as a family adventure, as long as you don’t mind a few sporadic instances of profanity.

Short of rewriting the entire story and redrawing the whole dungeon, the single player isn’t going to get any better. I do genuinely hope that this combat system appears in some future, hopefully better, game.

"X-Men Legends" on steroids. It’s bigger and better.

"X-Men Legends" on steroids. It’s bigger and better.

"X-Men Legends" on steroids. It's bigger and better.

There are some people who can play this game and instantly flash back to their arcade-rat days, but even then, UMK3 was never very good, and has aged extraordinarily poorly.

While the microtransaction and digital distribution models are in their infancy and still need some time for the market to straighten them out, the actions taken by the likes of EA (for charging money for uniforms, stadiums, and cheats in their sports games, all which are usually free) and now the makers of Lumines cannot be tolerated.