The maps are definitely more professional and imaginative than your average third party mod. But the most tragic thing is the sad reality that those who don’t keep up with the official EA packs may find themselves in minority once the second booster pack comes out.

Simply put, Syphon Filter is the best PSP game to date. The singleplayer campaign is diverse and compelling, and what it lacks in terms of length is more than made up for by the equally wonderful multiplayer component.

The story isn’t much, but the game itself is always fun to play - providing a strong, but fair challenge as you progress, while delivering the most thrilling car chases in gaming.

Considering the product they started with was already a masterpiece, it becomes apparent that the title deserves the ultimate praise, as do those who created it.

I’ve got to give it big kudos for being something that feels absolutely unlike any other FPS out there in many ways. I think it’s worth supporting for that reason alone.

The story isn't much, but the game itself is always fun to play - providing a strong, but fair challenge as you progress, while delivering the most thrilling car chases in gaming.

Easily the most complete Xbox 360 title to date, offering an intense and challenging singleplayer campaign and a robust multiplayer component that is sure to keep soldiers on the virtual field of battle for months to come.

It’s creepy and it’s involving, but it has some annoying technical problems (the game must have locked up on me over a dozen times while I was playing it), the engine isn’t very sophisticated, and the puzzles are hit and miss.

Overall, Pursuit Force has all the elements of an exciting high-speed Hollywood pursuit: fast cars, loud guns, and daredevil jumps. The gameplay does get a little repetitive at times.

Burnout Revenge is one of the best games out there in terms of sheer, mindless game playing joy.

If you think you’d be up for a fantasy RTS title that takes its combat halfway seriously, you owe it to yourself to at least try the demo. If you like that small taste, you can be sure that the retail version is a full course.

Its graphics wouldn’t have been "awe-inspiring" 15 years ago let alone now.

BLACK is the kind of gun opera you’d expect from director John Woo, starring Chow Yun Fat. It’s explosive both in its technical presentation and gameplay, but it’s a very short experience.

It expands on the original game with quality missions and offers significant upgrades to co-operative multiplayer.

The core gameplay mechanics remain in tact and the presentation is as solid as ever. Combine that with the addition of several new and improved game modes, such as Career Mode, Multi-Season Mode and King of the Diamond Mode, and you’ve got a baseball simulation that is sure to entertain baseball fans throughout the entire season.

It’s quite depressing since mixing The Apprentice with even the most run of the mill tycoon game would net you a decent product. Instead, we have something here that is amusing for maybe a few minutes and that’s only for Apprentice fans who have nothing much to do on a rerun night.

BLACK is the kind of gun opera you'd expect from director John Woo, starring Chow Yun Fat. It's explosive both in its technical presentation and gameplay, but it's a very short experience.

Fight Night Round 3 is a fantastic boxing title that really delivers the action in a realistic way for fight fans, and those discovering the sweet science for the first time on their home console.

It’s fun, it gives you a lot of options for how to play, and the interface is clean and easy to use. But it doesn’t look or sound great, you’re not given any control in combat, and the lack of multiplayer means you’ll have to rely on playing computer-controlled opponents, which is never a good thing (even if there are a lot of AI options, as there are here).

Tycoon City might be fun enough if you’re more familiar with New York City (and if you want to, say, place a comedy club where your house is) but otherwise there’s just not enough to it to be any fun.

Touch ‘n Roll suffers from trying to shoe-horn in features just to make use of them.

A fantastic boxing title that really delivers the action in a realistic way for fight fans, and those discovering the sweet science for the first time on their home console.

A fantastic boxing title that really delivers the action in a realistic way for fight fans, and those discovering the sweet science for the first time on their home console.

Overall Rainbow Six: Lockdown isn’t a bad game. I was just disappointed considering all the hype and the past record of excellent games in this series.

The computer AI doesn’t cut it, the units do retarded things sometimes, and the multiplayer game is either too long, or too uninteresting compared to other RTS games available out there – I would much rather play "Warcraft 3" or "C&C: Generals."

Getting Up is a solid game, but not spectacular in any way outside of the tagging interface. It also does a lot of things well, but features a disturbing amount of product placement that takes you right out of the adventure while also needing some fine-tuning with its controls and camera.

Merely adequate. There's some pretty glaring problems that simply overshadow the good areas of the game. Hopefully a sequel will straighten these out, because there is the potential for a truly great game here.

Full Auto is a blast to play...at first, but it doesn’t have a lot of staying power. Before long you’ll have raced around every track, fired off every weapon and seen most of the car classes.

If you're looking for great, satisfying combat, look no further, but be ready and willing to wade through the story.

If you can look past the iffy graphics, Drakengard 2 has a lot to enjoy. The fighting is fun and has enough variety to avoid monotony, so give it at least a cursory look.

While finishing the campaign might do justice to the exploits of American armored divisions in WWII (you beat all the Germans in the end), this game as a whole doesn’t do any justice to the role of armor.

Getting Up is a solid game, but not spectacular in any way outside of the tagging interface. It also does a lot of things well, but features a disturbing amount of product placement that takes you right out of the adventure while also needing some fine-tuning with its controls and camera.

In their time, many of these could be considered great titles, but there’s nothing new here. There’s old here. There’s some very old here. Some very, very old here. If they had done something, included another Generals expansion packlet just to give me the inkling that perhaps they had put some work into this collection rather than just stuffed it into a box, I might be more favorable towards it. But they didn’t.

It’s something you’ll play for a little while but you’ll soon realize that watching the real thing is far more exciting. It sounds better. It feels faster. And you’ll get to see the podium and hear the anthem of the victor’s nation.

It’s something you’ll play for a little while but you’ll soon realize that watching the real thing is far more exciting. It sounds better. It feels faster. And you’ll get to see the podium and hear the anthem of the victor’s nation.

It's something you'll play for a little while but you'll soon realize that watching the real thing is far more exciting. It sounds better. It feels faster. And you'll get to see the podium and hear the anthem of the victor's nation.

The Online Everywhere system is an excellent demonstration of what continual online connectivity can provide, the precision throwing system is a nice addition to fielding and the Load and Fire system is a great addition to how baseball games will be played from now on.

The Online Everywhere system is an excellent demonstration of what continual online connectivity can provide, the precision throwing system is a nice addition to fielding and the Load and Fire system is a great addition to how baseball games will be played from now on.

The quick mini-game presentation can be very engaging, especially for players interested in short bursts of play. However, if you're looking for a large amount of depth or a lot of replayability, you might not be as satisfied with Ape Escape Academy as you would be with the console games.

Unlockable costumes, characters, and achievements only serve to keep you going. It may not be as technical as a Virtua Fighter, or as tournament-friendly as a Street Fighter, but it is a ton of fun.

The plot is inconsequential, the characters are less than one dimensional and the game is radically overbalanced, amongst other issues.

Control issues, load times and graphical hiccups do wind up making this a much better collection of titles for the console than for Sony’s handheld.

Although it's a good idea to revisit the older Gauntlet franchise, this isn't exactly the way to do it. The plot is inconsequential, the characters are less than one dimensional and the game is radically overbalanced, amongst other issues.

About as good as we could’ve wished for. It maintains the Prince of Persia feel of daring-do, while improving or adding variety in some areas, and discarding mistakes like excessive combat and marketing-spun attitude.

I sincerely hope that another PoP game is in development, because it would be a shame to lose everything a sequel could offer.

About as good as we could've wished for. It maintains the Prince of Persia feel of daring-do, while improving or adding variety in some areas, and discarding mistakes like excessive combat and marketing-spun attitude.

About as good as we could've wished for. It maintains the Prince of Persia feel of daring-do, while improving or adding variety in some areas, and discarding mistakes like excessive combat and marketing-spun attitude.

The level design and AI is monotonous, but there are some elements where the vehicles come into play and dinosaurs enter the picture (haven’t fought one since Turok) that show glimpses of imagination.

One of those hit-and-miss games. It gives you some things to think about and the tactical missions work well enough, but those missions are too similar, and they just go on and on and on, well past the point of tedium.

It's a solid exercise program and something that fully demonstrates the EyeToy's flexibility for gaming, fulfilling the concept of player/game immersion.

Each step he takes causes a vicious rumble and together with his war cry, you know you're just one mistep away from certain death.

Mediocre at best. If you’re trying to find a simple racer to appease someone who is confused with such daunting tasks as, say, reciting the alphabet, then Ridge Racer 6 might be what you’re looking for.

The singleplayer campaign lacks polish and as a result, some of the objectives are confusing and ultimately meaningless, and the levels feel disjointed. Where Perfect Dark Zero excels is multiplayer, co-operatively and competitively, with a vast selection of cool weapons, a number of clever game types and a seemlingly endless number of options.

If you can look past the thin multiplayer component, the questionable decision to let player's health regenerate, and the fact there's not a lot of replay value in Call of Duty 2, you'll find a very worthy successor to the franchise.

With an interesting premise, four campaigns and a large amount of depth with the researchable technology tree, Earth 2160 allows hardcore strategy fans the option to tailor make their own units and plans for galactic conquest.

Smashing a street thug over the head with a crowbar and then snapping his neck with your bare hands has never felt this good. Condemned: Criminal Origins is all about delivering a disturbing atmosphere and brutal melee combat. In that regard, Monolith has hit the nail on the head.

All in all, Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland is exactly the kind of fun you were expecting in such a title, and if those expectations aren’t sky-high in terms of graphical prowess on the new system than this title is for you.

A monster of a package. I was expecting a cheap tie-in game and ended up playing one of the best titles that the DS has to offer, and one of the better games in the Tony Hawk series. Marvelous.

If Magna Carta had a less frustrating combat system, it'd be a perfectly good, if slightly self-parodying, RPG.

If you enjoy easy-going, slow-paced games, if you like watching the “Law & Order” television series (or, really, any police procedural series), or if you just have some time to kill, then you might like Criminal Intent well enough.

This videogame is a soulless, shambling zombie wreck. It is rife with bad graphics, AI, gameplay, voicework, plot (if it can even be said to have a plot), and weapons.

It proves that placing more attention into the gameplay and taking these few characters on a massive journey can still be appealing to both the hardcore RPG fan and the mainstream gamer, and could spark a flash of imports as players seek out older Dragon Quest titles to play.

Shadow the Hedgehog has a couple good ideas that are ruined by sorry gameplay. What happened?

It’s been missing for a while, but the simple inclusion of the police catapults Most Wanted into one of the best racers in recent history.

This game is junk, period. Please, spare yourself the agony and stay far away from this title... enjoy a second play through of Vice City or San Andreas instead. The sheer number of fun-ruining bugs in this game is the stuff smashed controllers are made of, so don’t even bring yourself down to the level the developers take you for when they decided to release this thing.

If you can forgive the button mashing simplicity and the other hiccups of the fighting system, you'll find an enjoyable action RPG title in a beautiful environmental setting.

While Operation Spy has moments of enjoyable gameplay, it's hampered significantly by repetitive game mechanics found in previous EyeToy titles and a lack of depth to the story premise.

The stages are huge, well-detailed, and genuinely fun to poke around in. As far as side-scrollers go, it's high quality.

Everything, from the brutal police state of the city, to the rundown tenements, to the ugly toxic sludge, to the gleaming sci-fi labs, looks beautiful. The textures are rich and sharp, bricks actually look like bricks and wood looks like wood.

This game is junk, period. Please, spare yourself the agony and stay far away from this title… enjoy a second play through of Vice City or San Andreas instead. The sheer number of fun-ruining bugs in this game is the stuff smashed controllers are made of, so don't even bring yourself down to the level the developers take you for when they decided to release this thing.

Shadow the Hedgehog has a couple good ideas that are ruined by sorry gameplay. What happened?

It's been missing for a while, but the simple inclusion of the police catapults Most Wanted into one of the best racers in recent history.

Shadow the Hedgehog has a couple good ideas that are ruined by sorry gameplay. What happened?

It's been missing for a while, but the simple inclusion of the police catapults Most Wanted into one of the best racers in recent history.

A perfectly fun dungeon crawler-style game, and probably about as close as you'll get to "X-Men Legends" on the DS.

If you’re looking for the best wrestler out on the market, you need look no farther than Smackdown Versus Raw 2006. An expanded roster with storylines, added GM mode and deeper emphasis on ring psychology makes every match more dynamic and realistic.

It has all of the elements of a good game, and it can be fun at times, but the endless micromanagement gets a little tedious.

If you're the kind of person who owns each of the books in both American and British editions and saw each movie at midnight (twice, even), then you'll look past its flaws and enjoy it greatly.

The best shooter on the PSP to date, if not one of the best titles on the system itself. A solid single player campaign and a robust multiplayer experience round out Fireteam Bravo.

You're treated to an interesting plot, fun, sandbox-style gameplay, and atmosphere thick enough to choke a horse. It's honestly one of the most fun titles out there, and occasionally so over-the-top as to be downright hilarious.

Easily the most fun you'll have singing outside of the shower, Karaoke Revolution Party takes the next logical step for the franchise and delivers what's probably the strongest showing of the series yet.

A great horror game for PS2 owners and anyone who likes a good ghost story, but fans may find it to be a little too mired in its series's formula.

Easily the most fun you'll have singing outside of the shower, Karaoke Revolution Party takes the next logical step for the franchise and delivers what's probably the strongest showing of the series yet.

You're treated to an interesting plot, fun, sandbox-style gameplay, and atmosphere thick enough to choke a horse. It's honestly one of the most fun titles out there, and occasionally so over-the-top as to be downright hilarious.

Easily the most fun you'll have singing outside of the shower, Karaoke Revolution Party takes the next logical step for the franchise and delivers what's probably the strongest showing of the series yet.

You're treated to an interesting plot, fun, sandbox-style gameplay, and atmosphere thick enough to choke a horse. It's honestly one of the most fun titles out there, and occasionally so over-the-top as to be downright hilarious.

A large number of technical issues and some combat flaws, along with a number of less than stellar puzzle mechanics make this a game for hardcore Matrix fans or some martial arts action buffs instead of for everyone.

Every level is designed intelligently and none of the game’s flaws bring it down to a level that saps the joy from the whole experience, as long as you stay away from the co-op mode. Platforming fans have something next-gen to crow about.

Damn, this is an incredibly addictive game, if for no other reason that an extremely accessible and well made peripheral and a memorable song list that just about everyone into rock and roll likes.

A large number of technical issues and some combat flaws, along with a number of less than stellar puzzle mechanics make this a game for hardcore Matrix fans or some martial arts action buffs instead of for everyone.

In the year that it was away, NBA 06 included a new story mode that’s rather engaging, but hampered by the mini-game presentation that advances the plot of the game.

While the gameplay is adequate and the concept behind the title is a solid one, the brevity of the single player campaign and the drab multiplayer, along with some quirky features makes Big Red One a game to check out first before you buy it.

Battlefront II is also a great way to recreate those childhood fantasies of being smack in the middle of Hoth, Mos Eisley, Dagobah and the like, but in order to really experience the fun the game can offer you will need either a bunch of friends to play with or an Xbox LIVE account.

While the gameplay is adequate and the concept behind the title is a solid one, the brevity of the single player campaign and the drab multiplayer, along with some quirky features makes Big Red One a game to check out first before you buy it.

While the gameplay is adequate and the concept behind the title is a solid one, the brevity of the single player campaign and the drab multiplayer, along with some quirky features makes Big Red One a game to check out first before you buy it.

It feels like developer Awe Games worked out all of the dramatic scenes in the game, but then had trouble figuring out how to incorporate puzzles into the story, and then ran out of time before they could come up with an answer. As a result, the puzzles in And Then There Were None are equal parts laughable, bizarre, and inconsequential.

You'll need to bring your A game, as this is unapologetically difficult, but you'll be rewarded for your effort with one of the most polished shooters of this console generation.

Everything in this game is just right (even the weak single-player modes are forgivable), but the absence of multiplayer and no arcade version is not; and as a result, I don't see this game surviving on the market for any decent amount of time, even though I love it and it will have its rightful place along Soul Calibur 1 and 2 on my shelf.