Overall, wish they'd focused more on world design (making it larger) than the jokes.

There is no solid gameplay to back up what is, at the onset, a graphically engaging 2D engine, complete with special effects.

If you’re a diehard gridiron fan looking for an accurate simulation of the sport, you’ll likely want to stick with EA Sports’ Madden NFL 2002. With that said, NFL Fever looks and sounds awesome, and plays fast, so if it’s an arcade football game with all the trimmings that you’re after, NFL Fever 2002 would be an excellent addition to your playbook.

Unfortunately, if you don’t often host gaming sessions with your buddies, you won’t get the same satisfaction competing against AI bots, especially with the lack of a reward system.

Easily one of the best fighting engines in a hockey game to date.

An excellent and vast real-time strategy game that is complex yet fun to play, and which provides almost unlimited replayability.

A testosterone soaked soap opera. With a storyline that will keep you deciding who to trust and what really is going on right up until the end, it’s a great bit of entertainment.

This game has such a high replay value that it’s worth so much more than the SRP on the package.

Solid but unspectacular.

Spyro has definitely not lost its audio-visual lustre since its first inception, but it has some ways to go to dislodge Mario on the handheld platform.

Dark Majesty doesn't make this a more social game than before, so the onus on making this a sociable experience is up to you.

AVP2 is still scintillatingly scary. All of the trappings of the film licenses, like the ominous beeping of the marine motion tracker are included and done well.

The AI overall is vastly improved.

While the graphics aren’t as smooth as they should be and some of the levels have been edited for content, Doom still shines when it comes to its frenetic and exciting gameplay.

A masterpiece on so many different levels, and this review is barely able to convey my sheer respect for this game.

Stronghold is a very interesting game; a game which has no equals, not because it’s that outstanding, but because there’s been so few games that can fight for the title of castle sim champion.

A little repetitive, and it’s lacking in strategy, and the scenarios can take forever to play.

Mediocre.

An excellent arcade boxing title. Obviously inspired by the popular Punch Out series, Boxing Fever offers a little more strategy and a fantastic two-player mode.

There are no bugs or technical problems, the production values are excellent, and the gameplay is fun. What more could you want? Well, ok, a longer single-player experience would be nice.

I strongly recommend this game. It is the best, most enjoyable and most addictive game I have seen in 19 years.

That creativity, however, is all but lost here because of some poor execution on the developer's part.

The game just has so many problems that I don’t think future patches will help it any.

If you are a die-hard puzzle fan you will definitely be able to enjoy Snood as a fun game, and not for a graphic technology demo as so many others have complained about.

While the game lacks visual flair and can become a little repetitive in the later stages, fans of the show, particularly younger gamers, are sure to enjoy the familiar theme, characters and wackiness.

Beautifully crafted. The story-driven gameplay is compelling and the atmosphere is a visual and aural masterpiece.

Throne of Darkness could have been a great game, but its convoluted controls and unappealing gameplay really tore down the fundamentals that make a good game.

The grand environments create a fantastic stage for the adventure and the detail found in the textures, lighting and environmental effects are nothing short of superb.

While it stays true to the roots of the classic novel and original films, the game lacks creativity, particularly with respect to puzzles, visuals and combat. When all is said and done, Planet of the Apes simply isn’t very entertaining.

A couple of years ago, Red Faction would have been a stellar title but now, it’s simply a very good one.

A fun game, but it’s just a little bit too difficult for the mainstream audience.

A modest if unspectacular golfing experience.

I thought the gameplay was good enough to make up for the deficient engine, and I found Arcanum to be a worthy successor to the Fallout series.

Shattered Galaxy has the best advancement system I have seen in an RTS game so far and it really makes you want to keep playing.

It kicks some serious ass. We’re talking impressive graphics, great story, excellent atmosphere, great music, hilarious (though sometimes forced) one-liners, great puns on games/movies, you name it, it’s there.

Poorly designed. The frustration brought on by the lack of lives, weak visual detail, spotty collision detection and general difficulty is just too much to overcome.

The thing that ultimately forces me to give it a low rating is how damnably short it is – the game ending just as you are starting to get involved in the plot.

If you are one who knows what the term 'powerslide' means in racers, you'll undoubtedly want to pick this one up.

One quintessential problem plaguing WWII Online is its incompleteness.

It is a glorified rail shooter, in the vein of Virtua Cop 2, among others.

The length of the game is roughly equal to the time spent viewing the film, plus or minus the time needed to get popcorn.

Why are the loading times so excruciatingly long?

A pretty average adventure. I think if Presto Studios made a mistake, it's that they tried to make the game too much like the original Myst. They got the look and feel right, and they created a good set of puzzles, but, like Myst, they completely ignored story elements and character interaction.

Off-Road Redneck Racing is available at a budget price, but with all the bumps in the road, it's simply a mediocre ride.

The levels are short and there are lots of them (about 40 total, not counting bonus levels), the weapons are varied as are the aliens, the locales are well-drawn and fun, and the screen is almost continually packed with stuff dying. What more could you want in escapist arcade entertainment?

Sometimes fun and satisfying, but more often than not it is slow, boring and repetitive.

The best Resident Evil title to date for the PC. The simple reason for that is the improved gameplay, particularly the enhanced puzzle elements and the addition of Nemesis and the game-altering choice screens he brings with him.

But while AOK managed to hit every note just about right, Cossacks mixes together some harmony and cacophony (continuing the metaphor) and doesn't quite achieve the same elegance of gameplay.

Instead of being funny, Tropico stops somewhere around being congenial, and instead of offering complexity, it offers meaningless options. The result isn't a bad game, but it is disappointing.

Pointless, worthless, lifeless, colorless, flavorless dregs from the very bottom of the gaming barrel. An idiotic, dull, awful, dreary waste of time and hard drive space.

Redefines the team-based warfare genre with its vehicle combat, high-adrenaline missions, and mind-blowing graphics that will have you drooling over your keyboard, while dodging spinfusor discs. Shazbot, this game kicks ass!

Terrifying for all the wrong reasons. The gameplay is repetitive while the combat is frustrating and unrewarding. The graphics are outdated and the sound is unimaginative.

It has a very solid story which actually makes sense, a good atmosphere, and very good graphics. Definitely a recommended title.

Isn't the greatest expansion pack around. However, it only costs $20, and although it only has 12 quests, those quests should give you 50 hours or more of gameplay.

Even with what must add up to 30 tables and sub-tables and side-tables, you end up with a very I’ve-solved-this-table-so-why-play-it-again mindset. I’ve solved Forgotten Island, and now I’ve forgotten it.

The greatest tragedy that befalls a game is not inconsistent visuals, as these can be easily overcome by compelling gameplay, but rather, poor direction.

Though this game features cartoon-like violence with human creatures to kill, these shortcomings are all culturally based (who says cartoon violence isn't bloody or shocking? and who says we only have to kill humans?).

Technically correct but uninspired, unbalanced, and lacking in some production values.

Combat is where the most distressing gameplay fault emerges. There is essentially no friendly AI so if your character is hit, he/she will not return fire, much less find a place to hide or run away from the threat. This makes for tedious micromanagement.

It’s far from perfect but High Heat Baseball 2002 is as good as it gets… for now.

TimeGate Studios have wrapped the entire title in a scintillating storyline.

Something could have been done on the developer's part to reach out to this target audience and indeed, to the audience that needs to be introduced to Romance of the Three Kingdoms; something that AOE excels at. If you can get past this threshold, there is a gem underneath, if only a little unpolished.

An excellent game, true to Fallout tradition in all respects. Unfortunately, one of those respects is a cavalcade of bugs and a product rushed to the market.

Unfortunately, the additions and improvements weren't impressive: the new campaigns were bad and much shorter than the ones in Earth 2150, the opponent AI might have actually gotten worse, the engine tweaking didn't do a whole lot other than increase the minimum system requirements for the game, and the new units, weapons, and buildings were hit and miss.

The clunky controls, limited radar system, lacklustre presentation and repetitive gameplay all contribute to a game that would have been better off staying on the N64.

Some of the additions are commendable, particularly the player editor, improved statistics, free agency, and post-game wrap-ups, but this game just doesn’t feel like baseball.

FPS fans will be delighted, as will adventure game fans, horror genre fans and the generally quest-obsessed. On that note, if you decide to get this game, load it up, turn off the lights, crank the speakers and enjoy ... BOO!

I liken Blade of Darkness to a popcorn flick. Check your brain at the door, this one’s all about the special effects and boisterous fighting scenes.

It has its share of problems, but its puzzles are reasonable, it will give you somewhere around 15-20 hours of gameplay, and you can get it for $20 or less.

There are no aggressiveness levels for me to set in M:H, and I've got to walk the troops all over the frigging planet, probably took me 25 minutes, to find this schmuck and off him. Definitely not the taste you want to leave in my mouth the day before I'm writing your review.

This game sticks out because it has "Colin McRae" stuck onto the box, and for very little else.

It’s not a completely horrible game, but it’s a pretty niche market one, so I don’t see the majority of the readers out there enjoying it.

Like a breakaway that results in a lay-up. Where's the slammah jammah? As usual, the overall presentation, variety of game modes, and new additions are fantastic, but there are a handful of issues that hurt the game.

The only people who might enjoy the game are those who are interested in the time period or in old-style naval combat, and who can find others to play against in multiplayer games.

Extremely poor and frustrating gameplay, the lackluster visuals and limited controls.

When the night comes to a close and the vomit is all cleaned up, SimCoaster is simply not fun enough. The emphasis on micro-management and objective oriented gameplay really takes away from the overall enjoyment of designing and running an amusement park.

Oni brings to the table an explosive and refreshing hand-to-hand combat system. Despite its presence though, Oni falls victim to a variety of issues including repetitive level design, an awkward control scheme, numerous visual glitches and a lack of multi-player.

A solid game and a great introduction for those who are tired of the mindless carnage in RTS titles but aren't ready to cut their teeth yet in hardcore wargaming. Those who approach this game with a cannon fodder mentality will definitely be in for a rude awakening.

It’s this emphasis on storytelling that eventually spells the demise for this title. The story just doesn’t flow consistently throughout the game.

Even less, those hunters who have already experienced Carnivores won't see any weapons they haven't before, leaving only the animals and locales as new additions. This lack of new content will have Carnivores fans scratching their heads.

No better than the sum of its parts. The real-time strategy mode recycles ideas from Warcraft II and the role-playing levels do the same, only with Diablo. The potential for success is certainly present, but a number of issues arise throughout the game, among them a lack of a save game feature.

Unfortunately, American doesn't offer much in the way of multi-player. While there are 20 multi-player maps available with the package, skirmishes are limited to LAN play only.

This title boasts a very high replay value, an excellent soundtrack and some downright wicked tricks.

The AI isn't awful enough to really bother me. The lack of save feature is annoying. The graphics and sound are pleasant, and the gameplay works.

The graphics are superb, and although they may not have the photo-realistic quality and poly-count of EA's Superbike 2000, they have a style of their own. They remind me more of the SEGA arcade games (electric blue sky, sunlit sandy beaches), or the Need for Speed series' diversity in tracks.

Freedom: First Resistance does absolutely everything wrong, from the generic key-hunting puzzles to the lifeless environments. For everyone’s sake, let’s hope this is the first and last resistance.

The graphics changes help bring the Carmageddon series into line with what is now the standard of the 3D graphics bag of tricks. But underneath it all, it's still Carmageddon, and for me at least, I've had enough.

Besides these minor quirks, SC2 is a deep and complex foray into the Star Trek universe. The sheer amount of acronyms for the different spaceships alone is a testament to that fact.

The sound is probably some of the best I've heard in a game. The music, for starters, is almost perfect.

The gameplay differences between each species make this one of the most innovative games to come out in awhile.

It lacks entertainment, atmosphere, colourful visuals, solid voiceovers, challenging puzzles, a steady camera, good controls, and anything else a game should have. It's gar… gar… garbage.

An obvious port. The visuals are stuck at a maximum resolution of 640x480 and despite the new polygonal real-time environments, the developers still need to take advantage of the technology available on the PC.

Average AI and somewhat less-than-breathtaking graphics and sounds aside, it introduces some elements that I would like to see become part of the 3D RTS genre on a regular basis.

If you loved JA2 (like I did), then you owe it to yourself to play this. If you hated JA2, though, there is nothing in this that will make you change your mind: in fact, the higher linearity (compared to JA2) will likely turn you off even more, and you are probably better off waiting for JA3, whenever that will be.

"The Legend of Coffin Rock" and The Elly Kedward Tale are scary, but for all the wrong reasons.

The RPG elements are far from groundbreaking, but they provide a very entertaining quest structure that serves as the game's backbone. After that, it's up to you how you want the game to play out, and it works very well. The total package is a lot of fun, and hell, you get to be a pirate.

The graphics have been prettied up, but the rest of the game has been completely moronized and user-friendlized to foot the bill of I-don't-know-who.

Perhaps the most interesting addition in Tomb Raider: Chronicles is the level editor. With it, you can now create your own missions and scenarios to pass along to your friends in the mod community, but before you get excited, it should be known that this is one complicated tool.