cCuld’ve been a solid basketball experience, were the controls tighter. The Career mode is a very creative addition to the sports genre, and a welcome one at that.

Imagine playing "Commandos" and having to fight the interface as much as the bad guys. It doesn't sound like a lot of fun -- and in fact it sounds like it might be too frustrating to waste time with -- but I sort of liked Cold Zero anyway.

NASCAR 2011: The Game lays an excellent foundation for future iterations in the series. The arcade-style racing is engaging and the sense of speed is executed beautifully. However, the all-too-simple Career mode and somewhat broken online play hold the game back from what could have been, and what hopefully will be in the near future. I can recommend this game to NASCAR and racing fans that follow the sport. For casual racing fans, rent or borrow it first to see if you've got to have it.

Commandos: Strike Force just feels like a game of half measures. The tree textures are straight out of 1999, the one-liners are repeated way too often, and the fighting just feels almost fun, rather than fun.

NASCAR 2011: The Game lays an excellent foundation for future iterations in the series. The arcade-style racing is engaging and the sense of speed is executed beautifully. However, the all-too-simple Career mode and somewhat broken online play hold the game back from what could have been, and what hopefully will be in the near future. I can recommend this game to NASCAR and racing fans that follow the sport. For casual racing fans, rent or borrow it first to see if you've got to have it.

The biggest issue most gamers will have with this package is the obvious lack of the original control input devices, like the steering wheel for "Pole Position," or an arcade-joystick for "Pac-Man."

As far as platforming 3D games go, DL3D is mediocre at best, but looking at the game from the perspective of how it compares to the original, it does a little better.

Apart from exciting moments that are few and far between, the game is dull and uninspiring.

The problem with Rock Manager is that once you create the song, there aren’t that many things to do, and what you can do doesn’t change much from scenario to scenario, and so it gets repetitive.

If the subject matter sounds intriguing, then "Zoo Tycoon" is a much better bet, especially since you can get it all bundled together now for a cheap price.

A disappointment. Though the gameplay is okay, it's nothing special, and despite the awesome license this game possesses, it’s sure to grate on anyone after a few hours.

Lords of EverQuest gets most of the fundamentals right but one of the most infuriating things is the unit's artificial intelligence. They never really attack or defend when you want them to.

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.

Overall, Urban Empire is a game that gets just about everything wrong. Your city isn’t a lot of fun to build or watch, and there isn’t a lot for you to do. The replayability is also poor, since there is very little difference between playing two different cities. Urban Empire just needs more things included, they need to work better, and they need to be explained better. Maybe that will happen with future patches, but I sort of doubt it, so Urban Empire is definitely a game to skip.

It’s a solid game that looks good and plays well, and its cooperative Echelon mode ripped straight out of Gears of War, Halo, Left 4 Dead, etc. is genuinely fun. The only problem is it’s not particularly memorable. Fuse can provide a weekend’s worth of entertainment, but I guarantee you’ll soon forget it.

A standard kart racer with a bunch of well-done, but hollow mini-games tacked on that gets old quickly in single player, but has its life extended with multi-player, where the added competition adds a great deal of fun to the proceedings.

Simplistic gameplay aside, the game is honestly funny when it's not being too lowbrow. Well, even when it's lowbrow there are still quite a few amusing moments.

Splatterhouse's most obvious flaw is that many of the abilities that are taken for granted in a modern beat-'em-up, like invincibility frames on a dodge or useful combos, are purchasable upgrades.

Fracture makes all the mistakes of the generic shooter and hangs onto the hope that its one gimmick is enough to bail it out. It isn’t. In fact, it’s not even close.

The Wayne vs. Wayne mode is loads of fun, but it's not worth paying $39.99 USD for. I just can't recommend Gretzky NHL 06 over either of the other two hockey video game franchises currently on the market.

Jagged Alliance: Back in Action is one of those games that I enjoy despite itself. It has an almost unlimited number of flaws, and yet, I can't help booting it back up over and over. It's fun to gradually capture town after town and steadily grow your army. Unfortunately, it's hard to play in anything other than small doses because before long, it once again starts feeling like a job. Similar to how the old Sim Tower really should have been named Sim Elevators, Jagged Alliance should have been named U-Haul Alliance.

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 authentic, with a running list of cards that resemble their real-life counterparts, the lack of any progress to download new cards or get new things is the most disappointing part of this game.

Yuke’s seemingly wanted to reinvent the wheel, and instead of getting a round one that moves you along smoothly, you get a blocky wheel that may move you forward, but will result in a much bumpier ride than needed.

As I was playing The Little Acre, I kept thinking that I should be liking it more than I was. It seems like it’s well-intentioned, but I found it more dull than charming, and more by-the-numbers than thought-provoking. Really, it’s like a shorter, less polished version of Anna’s Quest, and I didn’t even like Anna’s Quest that much. But on the brighter side, The Little Acre is cheap, and it might work well with children, and so for some people it might be worthwhile.

The nostalgia lasts about as long as DL3D does; just a few hours.

A decent Olympics title that’s manages to offer a variety of events while not burning out players by focusing on button mashing mechanics.

In the end, Blacklight: Tango Down is a good game with some lofty goals.