If you’re looking for puzzles, then there are any number of adventures better suited for you. But if you like the idea of hanging out with Gil Grissom and the rest of the “CSI” team, then Dark Motives can provide a weekend’s worth of enjoyment.

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.

With an addictive soundtrack and a near verbatim translation of the story and gameplay, you'll find that all the praise Jet Grind Radio got for the Dreamcast is well deserved.

BF1 isn’t exactly forgettable, but it adds little that’s new to the genre. I could probably, literally dig up my review of the very first Call of Duty, and 90% of it would apply to this game as well.

As sequels/prequels go, S:CS is a good one. It introduces a new engaging storyline, adding some features but by and large leaving the good things about the first game alone.

if you’re looking to take your tactical skills online, Island Thunder breathes new life into the multiplayer experience, and the promise of additional missions in the coming months via Xbox Live is icing on the cake.

It's imaginative, it controls well, and the puzzles are solid and challenging without being repetitive. It's simply that a basic weakness in the engine makes The Haunted Mansion a far more frustrating experience than it really needs to be.

It is unfortunate there isn't a free campaign mode in this game like Rome: Total War or any of the Total War series. Such a feature would have taken this title to the next level and mitigated the shortcomings of an overly rigid single player campaign and a reduced multiplayer component. Still, it is one of a kind.

The Tactical Arts System, along with the introduction of Origins and the inclusion of menial tasks like gardening and cooking provides an inimitable gameplay experience. However, graphical and sound flaws might dissuade newcomers to the genre.

If the less than stellar updates to the Dynasty Warriors series has left you cold, take a look at Empires: You may just rekindle that conquest flame.

Anyone with an affinity for RPGs and a love for the bizarre should check out Criminal Girls: Invite Only.

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.

Special attention was paid to capturing the athletic tumbling abilities that Spider-Man exhibited in both the comic books and the movies, and it shows. The incredibly agile moves that a player can pull off with Spidey are astounding.

Broadening the racing arenas to include a complete city, the number of race types and vehicles significantly increases the number of things to do in the game. However, the quirks of the world map, lack of visual speed and other gameplay issues keep it from surpassing the original title.

I’m torn between calling Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus brave or merely unexpected. The core of The New Colossus remains as good as, and largely unchanged from, the earlier game. It’s great, explosive, and violent. The other half, so to speak, the heavy emphasis on story doesn’t drive the FPS experience so much as shift your focus into directions that FPS games don’t normally go. That’s not to say that FPS games don’t tell a story or even a complex story (Bioshock told an incredibly involved story and even explored the extrapolation of a Randian economics as a political movement), but they rarely (AFAIK never) attempt to tell a story so full of sadness and self-examination. The two parts sometimes fit well, sometimes less than well, and I think individual gamers will react very differently to the result.

Outside of the problematic issues that hinder the Slam Dunk contest, dynasty mode and hiccups with gameplay, NBA Live 2005 still manages to deliver a decent basketball experience for fans of all kinds.

As it stands now, Biomutant is a flawed, but super-fun game that is well-worth picking up as long as you come into it with an open-mind and are prepared for an experience that may not top the charts visually, but offers a fun blend of combat that can’t be found anywhere else.

The game remains worth playing because for the most part, it avoids tinkering with successful formulas, while still incorporating distinctive aspects like its levels and complex objectives.

It’s quite tricky to evaluate this rendition of the Bard’s Tale compared to the older titles in Fargo’s legendary series. This is particularly true when you consider that this Bard would’ve skewered it with his wit.

Here’s the kicker for those of you who already completed the Instincts chapter in the previous Xbox version: you cannot unlock the Evolution chapter in Far Cry: Instincts – Predator without finishing the Instincts chapter first (unless you know the cheat code, of course).

Included in this very good expansion pack is what amounts to a patch for AOE2. Their 'you want us to clean up some gameplay issues for AOE2, you've got to buy the expansion pack' attitude gripes my cookies.

While NBA Live 06 makes a couple of steps forward with the Freestyle Superstar Controls, it manages to make a couple steps backward at the same time.

DiRT 4 isn’t the greatest entry in the series, but it is still quite good. It lacks the feeling of life that prior games had and trades that in for a more sterile feeling. It’s a shame too because the festival setting injected a lot of fun into things, while the casual atmosphere let you go at your own pace through your career. Now, things are more rigid and while the core game is still fun, it feels like you have to do well as opposed to simply having fun being its own reward and better play resulted in faster progress. The core mechanics are excellent, though, and anyone looking for a high-quality rally racer will find one here. Series veterans who have become lapsed fans may not be won over by it, but should at least give it a rental while newcomers should give it a whirl as a rental and then give it a buy if they fall in love with it.

Over the top gameplay coupled with nicely timed humor and the inclusion of online play makes this a great way to pass the time during the summer. Now if they can expand on the idea and drop some of the realism, Slugfest could become a true classic in the sports gaming pantheon.

All in all, if you’re one of the lucky ones that avoided the first version due to low scores or bad word-of-mouth, then this one might just do it for you.

MX vs. ATV Alive is a blast to play. The controls are perfect, the gameplay is engaging thanks to the collision system, and the vehicles, riders, and tracks all look great – not to mention one of the best online racing experiences this year. It's a shame that these elements are packaged into such a bare-bones game. For $40, I can definitely recommend it to fans of the series. In the future, however, here's to hoping that THQ will take these same gameplay mechanics and build around them a full-fledged racing career experience.

The control scheme and the dependency on rote memorization, not to mention the immense difficulty level diminishes the quality of the game.

MX vs. ATV Alive is a blast to play. The controls are perfect, the gameplay is engaging thanks to the collision system, and the vehicles, riders, and tracks all look great – not to mention one of the best online racing experiences this year. It's a shame that these elements are packaged into such a bare-bones game. For $40, I can definitely recommend it to fans of the series. In the future, however, here's to hoping that THQ will take these same gameplay mechanics and build around them a full-fledged racing career experience.