I wasn’t thrilled with Restaurant Empire II, but I didn’t hate it, either. There is a lot of content to the game, with 34 scenarios to play, six types of restaurants to run, and hundreds upon hundreds of recipes to learn, but the game leans more towards quantity than quality, and I prefer the leaning to go the other way.

There are lots of things Starships does poorly, but at least as far as I’m concerned the lack of meaningful tech tree and shallow starship construction really don’t suffice in a game that, after all, has Starships in the title.

A very nice expansion pack. It gives you enough new things to do that even if you played Zoo Tycoon 2 a lot when it came out, you’ll now have an excuse to play it some more.

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.

The core gameplay is fast-paced and it controls like a dream. There isn't a lot to it, but what's here is a blast.

Contains many of the trappings found in bad science-fiction media -- poor dialogue, poorer voice acting, cool-looking firearms, and a story that seems cobbled together simply for an excuse to blow things up and spill some blood.

While it’s not a good ending, it is an ending, and given where the series has been headed in the most recent iterations I think we can all be thankful for that.

About the only nice thing I can say about Batman is that it’s short. It only took me about eight hours to complete the game’s five episodes, and I was happy when it was over. So obviously, I don’t recommend this game to anyone for any reason, unless you’re an obstinate fan of the Dark Knight.

Mad Riders has a few faults, but none of them are major. The core racing game is outstanding, and one of the best off-road racers on the market. It's worlds better than the MX vs. ATV games, and about as good as Pure. It's one of the few XBLA releases that is easily worth its full asking price, and is an easy recommendation as long as you liked Pure. If you did, then you'll adore this, if you didn't, then give the trial game a shot and see if it wins you over.

With extremely linear gameplay, a relatively flawed fear mechanic and basic combat system, Batman really isn’t breaking a sweat in this title.

Yakuza has always been known for its high-standards, weird humor and, most of all, insanely fun brawling. All of that is gone here. One could safely say that the zombie outbreak of Dead Souls has decimated Kamurocho of everything that would make anyone want to travel there, both literally and metaphorically. Spare yourself this dreadful misstep and play through Yakuza 4 a second time.

I was pleasantly surprised by what I found here. When it wasn't kicking my head in for little to no reason, Twinsanity's a fun and funny game that's well worth a few hours of your time.

I hope that Midway really delivers a top-shelf game next time around, because their first effort is mediocre.

It's the very definition of a game that is perfect for a rental because it isn't worth buying by anyone because there's only enough content here for anyone to enjoy it for a few days.

The concept and the creatures, not to mention the turn-based gameplay could’ve infused the strategy genre with a shot of adrenaline that it sorely needed.

The pacing of this game feels very natural, the stylish and varied missions are a breath of fresh air, and the graphical presentation makes it seem like you are participating in an impressively detailed animated cartoon.

The overly simplistic gameplay, re-hashed visuals, unbalanced level design, and generic storyline all factor in to make this hybrid of yesteryears best selling, finest games, a low rent middle class knock off. Nevertheless, the sheer visceral excitement of blowing stuff up and witnessing ultra-violent, unapologetically brutal cut-scenes and road rage is hard to deny.

I'm not a Star Wars fan, but I've had fun with several of the games before. The Force Unleashed II just isn't entertaining, though; as soon as you're able to start having fun with it, it pulls out an obnoxious boss fight or another uninspired level on you. I can't honestly recommend this to anyone but the most obsessive, completist fan of the series, and even he's probably going to have to justify this to his friends.

FIFA Street 3 single player lacks the depth that is needed to have players coming back for more.

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

The only one of the film's cast members to appear here is Robert Duvall, and every word spoken sounds like he was reading it while doing his taxes. The members of the Godfather cast who appeared in the first game knew when to 'git while the gittin's good' it seems.

The audio effects are disappointing but everything else is up to par. Unfortunately, it fails to become really meaningful and memorable, thus making it a good space action title but not one that will be talked about years later.

FIFA Street 3 single player lacks the depth that is needed to have players coming back for more.

But the puzzles work well enough, and it has just enough going for it to bring back fond memories of LucasArts adventures, and so it’s a reasonable enough purchase, especially at its $20 suggested retail price.

When it works (and when you have friends to play with), the game is a perfectly average hack-and-slash RPG. However, the laundry list of aforementioned issues not only hold the game back, but inhibit it to the point that it's not fun.

The problem: Samurai Jack moves much too slowly and his vertical leap makes the real life Michael Jordan at age 40 look like Tobey Maguire's computer-enhanced Spider-Man in downtown New York.

The most hardcore Matrix fan will probably eat this game up, but for action buffs, a rental will probably be the furthest trip down the rabbit hole those gamers will go.

Sacred Citadel offers up a lot of fun for beat-em-up fans, with a surprisingly high amount of depth in its gameplay making replaying stages with each character type something you’ll come to enjoy instead of dread like it many other beat-em-ups.