You have a choice of either settling for a less attractive game on an older system, or paying more for a title that's lacking in features, but has awesome graphics.

You have a choice of either settling for a less attractive game on an older system, or paying more for a title that's lacking in features, but has awesome graphics.

You have a choice of either settling for a less attractive game on an older system, or paying more for a title that's lacking in features, but has awesome graphics.

Unless you spend a lot of time exclusively playing Xbox Live Arcade titles, though, it’s probably not worth picking up the full game as you might find you’ve seen and done everything with the trial itself.

The best multiplayer experience on the Xbox since "Steel Battalion: Line of Contact," and so far, minus the awesome controller, it puts that game to shame.

I honestly would have thought that this game would have become boring long before now. I mean, I have a combat technique that I used on 99% of the monsters that I come across, and all I’m really doing is walking around left clicking on everything ad infinitum. And yet the monster variation, the pretty scenery, the plethora of items, the character skills, the hope of finding better loot are all keeping it going for me.

More could have been done with this game. A little more creativity, a lot more programming, and I believe they could have had something quite good on their hands.

I liked Rush for Berlin and found myself returning to it many times. Unfortunately after about an hour or two, I would grow weary of the slow and repetitive progress I was making across the map.

Its quality bar is way lower than you might be used to. It’s the best $20 worth of GTA you could ask for, and it will serve as a nice stop-gap title before GTAIV sees the light of day.

It does not revolutionize any concepts in the genre but it manages to get the basics down right to make an enjoyable urban planning experience.

It’s an amazingly good, distressingly short game.

The gameplay gives you plenty of choices regarding progressing through a stage, and it looks good while you do so. It would've been very easy to churn out another boring murderfest, but instead we get a thinking man's game. Good showing.

The real issue is whether the frustrations of the game are balanced out by the rewards. Do you love assassin movies? Blood Money is one of the few games with the same theme, and although this might not mean much, it is substantially better than the rest. Are you a veteran gamer, alternately? Then for you, the challenge here should be tolerable. If I’d answered no to either of the above questions however, I would seriously consider another game.

The gameplay gives you plenty of choices regarding progressing through a stage, and it looks good while you do so. It would've been very easy to churn out another boring murderfest, but instead we get a thinking man's game. Good showing.

The gameplay gives you plenty of choices regarding progressing through a stage, and it looks good while you do so. It would've been very easy to churn out another boring murderfest, but instead we get a thinking man's game. Good showing.

There isn’t anything new here, but the format works as well as ever, and the 30 campaign missions are good for over 60 hours of playing time.

Overall, Steambot Chronicles is a tremendously ambitious effort that sometimes falls under the weight of its own innovation.

If you do enjoy the challenge of playing other humans and you have an interest in Ping Pong, you should definitely give Rockstar’s Table Tennis a try. You’ll be amazed just how well the game captures the essence of the sport.

X-Men: The Official Game isn't a terrible game, but it's not any good, either. It managed to dip down below mediocre and into the realm of "Why bother?" It's short, uninteresting, and probably won't keep your attention based solely on the fighting, either. It's an odd mishmash that just doesn't work out the way it was supposed to.

X-Men: The Official Game isn't a terrible game, but it's not any good, either. It managed to dip down below mediocre and into the realm of "Why bother?" It's short, uninteresting, and probably won't keep your attention based solely on the fighting, either. It's an odd mishmash that just doesn't work out the way it was supposed to.

X-Men: The Official Game isn't a terrible game, but it's not any good, either. It managed to dip down below mediocre and into the realm of "Why bother?" It's short, uninteresting, and probably won't keep your attention based solely on the fighting, either. It's an odd mishmash that just doesn't work out the way it was supposed to.

X-Men: The Official Game isn't a terrible game, but it's not any good, either. It managed to dip down below mediocre and into the realm of "Why bother?" It's short, uninteresting, and probably won't keep your attention based solely on the fighting, either. It's an odd mishmash that just doesn't work out the way it was supposed to.

Whether you think Rise of Legends is a masterpiece or whether you think it is a hard to swallow piece of fiction with a great strategy game underneath is dependent on how much you admire the backdrop that the creators have fleshed out.

Emergence should serve as a great launching point for Ritual’s experiment. It’s a solid game that knows its audience, and while it is pared down, that’s only as far as needed for a game half the length and cost of an average one.

Story elements and character development are ignored, the puzzles aren’t any fun to solve, and the game isn’t even enjoyable to look at.

If you’re a Lovecraft fan, you’ll want Dark Corners of the Earth because it’s great service to a fanbase that’s rarely treated this well. Any of the game’s problems can be overlooked considering what’s being given in return.

The audio is about what you’d expect from an Outrun game - nearly perfect. Both the remixes and original OR songs enhance the action, and accurately reflect the casual vibe given off throughout it.

The audio is about what you'd expect from an Outrun game - nearly perfect. Both the remixes and original OR songs enhance the action, and accurately reflect the casual vibe given off throughout it.