The two single-player campaigns are relatively short and not particularly challenging, even on the highest difficulty setting, and the AI can be frustrating at times.

The best game in the series yet. But that isn’t saying a whole lot when you consider that the sequels have always felt more like continuations than they did actual sequels.

Both Top Spin 4 and Virtua Tennis 4 are good games that have a lot to offer tennis fans. Part of me wishes there could be an amalgamation of the two, but as it stands I'll end with this: Top Spin 4 is a better game overall, but Virtua Tennis 4 would definitely be more fun to play for the casual fan. It's almost as if it's striving not to be taken seriously, what with the over-the-top mini-games and fancy dress events. Is that necessarily a bad thing? Absolutely not. Depending on what sort of experience you want, the choice is really up to you.

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.

It's fun, but a shallow fun, based on shallow characters ' maybe the perfect game for the kids from "Clueless" or "The OC."

From a presentation standpoint, graphically and in the sound effects department, ToV doesn’t seem to have changed much from the previous incarnations.

For me, the biggest problem with Liberation is the story; it felt underdeveloped and stands as a missed opportunity. Despite that shortcoming, and a few technical issues aside, I really enjoyed being able to take what is essentially a full-fledged Assassin's Creed game on the road with me. While not essential to the canon, this game is worth playing for anyone who is a fan of the series.

While TimeShift is perfectly adequate for killing a few hours, as a rental perhaps, it never elevates itself from merely okay, and if you only buy one shooter for the holidays you can do much better than this.

It may be the single cutest way possible to empty an Uzi into your friends' heads. If there's ever going to be another 3D installment, though, it'd be nice if you could set the map on a flat plain, rather than on an endless procession of islands.

A game that looks good and plays reasonably well, but is likely to test your patience more than your military skills.

As a companion to the movie, it certainly serves its purpose. But as a game that sparks new magic in the genre? That might need to wait for the next film.

Sega Rally Online Arcade offers up a streamlined version of what made Sega Rally Revo great, while also providing the same addictive gameplay that's made the series so revered for a decade and a half.

Although there could be more features such as a career mode, World Tour Soccer is an adequate first step onto the handheld soccer field.

Overall, Papo & Yo is an interesting game — especially visually — and it’s also a memorable game, but I don’t know that I’d call it a good game. The puzzles are largely easy, the story elements are largely missing, and the playing time isn’t large at all. Still, Papo & Yo is only priced at $15, so it might be worthwhile to pick up just to try something different.

Despite some technical issues and odd design decisions (namely the overly repetitious parts that elongated the game), if you have friends to play with all the better, as that's definitely the way to go.

With multiplayer in tow, Space Marine represents a pretty solid foray into third-person action, particularly for a developer which founded its reputation on real-time strategy.

Untamed ends up being plagued by far too many seemingly small problems that, on their own, wouldn’t be game-killers, but here, because there are so many and they’re so frequent, end up sucking the fun out of the game.

Due to the size of the screen, the already slim margin for error is made even slimmer, and the lack of aura bombs means you’ll have to fight through even the stickiest of situations.

Merely a basic port of a PS2 game without any significant tweaks or fixes to its problems, which is uncalled for given the Xbox’s improved capabilities.

The PC version is sometimes difficult to control (the mouse is severely underused, and you’re not given any options for redefining hotkeys), but the game itself is bright and happy and optimistic, it’s well made, and it includes enough content to be well worth its $30 suggested retail price.

As it stands now, it’s really a game for the most serious driving enthusiast.

It would've been nice to see more cars, deeper customization, or tighter controls, but FlatOut gets the job done.

In the end, Brink is another of those games that we see every so often; the games that have incredible potential and truly unique ideas but fail in their implementation. This could have been a great game, it could've been a hit and it could've given shooter fans a reason to return to a genre that has lost much of its originality over the last handful of years. Unfortunately for us and for its developer, the keyword here is "could've", because there's little here that makes Brink the genre redefining game some of us hoped it would be.

This title would have been better if the design was more polished and the controls were more sophisticated.

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.

At $10, Dustforce offers up a lot of value for platforming fans. If you love a hearty challenge, or simply enjoy a gaming experience that forces you to get better, then you’ll get your money’s worth.

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.

So ultimately I think I was happier with the idea of what the designers of Dead Money were trying to accomplish than what they actually created. They put a far above average plot and built a framework of gameplay that somehow managed to break away from the Fallout formula. In the end, however, it's just too much. Too much sneaking around, too many traps, too many reloads. And there are seven more of these things yet to come? God help us all.