The graphics and sound may have more flair than the original, but the guts are the same. Revisiting it for the second time is fun because MGS itself was great, though it’s still just revisiting a game many of us have already played.

While Battlefield 2142 could stand to remind us a little less of Battlefield 2, its awesome technology has shown us a future worth paying for and dying in.

It looks simply unbelievable, the gameplay and control is easy and intuitive, and the bullet time makes it the premier action game on the PC.

Despite its generally underwhelming fighting system and lack of depth, this is a solid, satisfying action epic.

It’s also a terrific drinking game. Just remember to use that Wii-mote strap, before you accidentally knuckle-ball your unrestrained and quite-real controller—rather than an imaginary, massless bowling-ball—straight ‘into’ the candy-colored Boom Blox world residing just beyond your thousand-dollar flat-screen TV. Trust me on this one.

There's a feeling that sinks in after awhile that "Diablo" was more direct, more enveloping, more focused than Diablo 2.

The only thing missing from the game is a decent story for the single-player mode. I understand that this is a game made for online play, but you get this really great animated opening that kind of lays down a general plot and that’s it.

The definition of an unexpected surprise. It's got a completely generic concept, but its execution is exceptional.

All in all, Madden NFL 12 lives up to its franchise's basic standards as a hard-hitting realistic football game. Besides all the new fancy updates and sparkly things that dangle on the screen, loyal Madden-ists and newcomers can enjoy mostly everything Madden has to offer.

Taking the 2D online brawlers in the marketplace into account, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is easily the friendlier of the bunch in terms of new players jumping in.

A game that equals the movie's cultish charm and, in some ways, surpasses it. If you don't believe us, come out and play.

All in all, Madden NFL 12 lives up to its franchise's basic standards as a hard-hitting realistic football game. Besides all the new fancy updates and sparkly things that dangle on the screen, loyal Madden-ists and newcomers can enjoy mostly everything Madden has to offer.

To put it frankly, unless you are some die-hard, old school fan of Pro Evolution Soccer, save your pennies and stick with FIFA. PES 2012 isn't a terrible game at all, but head-to-head, it's not the one controlling the ball; it puts on a show that your little brother might like.

A terrifically funny, beautiful and great sounding game. A few bugs may mar the experience at points, but they don't hamper the fun.

With outstanding physics, an unmatched sense of speed and a wealth of game types, it easily blows the doors off the competition. And that’s all the realism I need.

Every 2D-shooter fan needs to have this game in their collection. Shmup releases of this caliber are extremely rare outside of Japan.

Many wars and battles did Rau fight. Honor and fear were heaped upon his name. In time, he became a legend by his own hand...but that is yet another story.

Wipeout Pulse is nothing short of being an addictive, sleek, hypersonic racer that should be in everyone's pocket.

Although Pandora Tomorrow’s single-player game is hurt by the PS2’s hardware limitations, it still represents an excellent stealth experience coupled with one of the best multiplayer modes around.

These minor hitches notwithstanding, Burnout Paradise is an excellent, solid ride for both solo and online gamers, with superb control, high production values, complete freedom, and so much obsessive, secret-hunting, gotta-catch-‘em-all lasting gameplay incentive that it’s almost ridiculous.

It actually offers less new material than ESPN NFL 2K5, which struck a chord with its VIP system and Weekly Prep. However, Madden’s gameplay is more consistent and more solid than ESPN’s, especially in terms of playbook depth and passing, and ultimately that’s what distinguishes the champ from the challenger.

If you're a DS9 fan, this is a good one. Heck - even if you're new to the series, the game can be entertaining.

With its excellent graphics and myriad game modes, ESPN NBA Basketball is a good, strong title. The gameplay quirks like rebounding difficulty and the canned animations are there and can be frustrating, but are easily overlooked when you take in the big picture.

That all of this has been accomplished on the PSP by a little-known developer with a rejected project is a stupendous surprise.

It's bigger, longer and smarter than "The Two Towers."

What's here is just as wild and wacky as the original and it's a benchmark game for the Wii. If you own a Wii, this is one game you don't want to overlook.

Cryostasis manages to be more of a psychological trip than most games in the past five years, and it’s fantastic to play through. If you’ve found yourself disappointed with the style of horror games in the past few years, give it a try – you will not be disappointed.

Definitely worth the $49.95 express ticket to Eden.

Still a great game, but just wait until next year for the real show.

While the sometimes automatic nature of Ms. Splosion Man is enough to make me turn it off for a few minutes every session or two of playing, the rest of the game just screams "I'm too hard and you better quit"... and I'm the sort of player who digs a challenge.

If Resident Evil 5 is a new flavor of game for the long-running franchise, it's also a strong, spicy one—with occasional chucks of co-op wasabi to goad your inner action hero into fits of running and gunning... albeit, not at the same time.

Its attention to detail is a quality not often associated with a franchise about brawny, aggressive men wearing outlandish, skin-tight costumes – manly cosplay, if you will. That THQ and Yuke's have finally decided to let players do what they want with their content by loosening their restrictions shows how much they've listened to the fans.

While not innovative in any way, AOM: The Titans is everything you should expect from a quality expansion. Plenty of new stuff, but also gameplay refinements and the attention to detail that shows the developers cared about their product.

Despite some slightly dated looks, the deep plot will draw you in and the near-invincible power will continuously tempt you to the Dark side. I can't make any promises for "Episode III," but The Sith Lords will not disappoint.

Its attention to detail is a quality not often associated with a franchise about brawny, aggressive men wearing outlandish, skin-tight costumes – manly cosplay, if you will. That THQ and Yuke's have finally decided to let players do what they want with their content by loosening their restrictions shows how much they've listened to the fans.

While the depth of sims like the "NBA Live" series is missing, NBA Street manages to capture the excitement and energy of the street ball most of us are far more familiar with.

The game’s hidden strength, though, is in its visual presentation.

Despite its lack of serious innovation, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is another fun, high-quality RPG. Its humor, gameplay and delivery combine to create an excellent romp through familiar terrain.

It is as streamlined and pretty as its older brother, plays just as well, and still gives you that unique college ball experience. NCAA Football 11 will not be riding the bench this year.

You won’t want to invite the camera over for coffee or anything, as it can be quite unruly, occasionally getting stuck on terrain. The game also experiences some occasional slow-down and the very last battle seems a little unfinished. But make no mistake: Sly 2 is a great game.

Sonic CD's overall package is bare-bones, with the option for the original Japanese music and a time trial mode being the only notable additions to the game, but with the tiny price point (only 400 MS points) it's an easy thing to forgive.

The vehicles aren't the only things basking in graphical splendor. The entire game amazes...[but] I did notice that the load times are a little hefty for a system with a hard drive.

The warm, fuzzy, post-apocalyptic world has all the little details and exactly the right tone. The immersive story has kept me up until the wee hours of the morn on many occasions.

How in the world they managed to squeeze all the info from the console versions into this one without the PSP suffering a heart attack is beyond me, though it proves that the handheld can handle some depth.

Conduit 2 has awesome multiplayer... for a Wii game; the connection is a little slow, and there was some lag every now and again.

Solid gameplay with plenty of new improvements make Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny another fine blade.

It doesn't change the face of the Warcraft world, but it does bump the experience up another notch. En'shu falah-nah, my brothers. See you on the field of battle.

Meets my expectations with beautiful animations, well-written enemy AI, and a shorter but still engaging single player mission.

Just walking around the town is its own reward, with numerous nods to past episodes. On the other hand, like any of the episodic Telltale games, knowledge of the prior titles in the series isn't required to jump into Bogey Man, but seriously recommended!

It’s bigger, longer and smarter than The Two Towers.

Slam Bolt Scrappers is packed to the brim with risks. And it's also full of rewards. Despite the chaotic nature, the infrequent failures followed by "Wait, what just happened?", and the lack of online multiplayer, you should still go spend money on Slam Bolt Scrappers right now.

Its arsenal isn’t as robust as it could be, but it makes up for it with a flurry of awesome modes and some deadly fast gameplay.

It's a colorful, cute, and innocent title that will kick your ass if given a chance.

The once-impressive engine is starting to waver and there really isn't a great deal of new material here despite a good year and a half since the original game stormed shelves.

Open Tee 2 is a pint-sized yet full-sized update to the Hot Shots Golf series that challenges its PS3 brother and ultimately wins. It has all the features of Out of Bounds but replaces the horrible Mii-like online characters with a slew of customizable parts and allows you to permanently upgrade the vital stats of the entire character roster.

Escalation demonstrates new content that players want to see: multiplayer maps that clearly distinguish themselves from one another by delivering variety in both gameplay and design.

Kirby's Epic Yarn delivers fun, solid platforming with incredible style. The presentation and lack of difficulty may be a turn-off, but any platforming fan would do well to get wrapped up in this ball of yarn.

A great game for anyone who likes space COMBAT: it's fun, fluid, and well done.

It’s not gonna revolutionize the way you think of FPS gaming - that’s a job for "Half-Life 2," we hope - but Far Cry will give you a great 20-hour adrenaline shot in the arm. The impressive technology and sheer fun lead to a good choice for FPS fans with hefty rigs.

The new features are generally welcomed but don’t change the fact that this is largely the same game you probably spent way too much time with last year.

If you're looking for a great puzzler, Ilomilo is an awesome choice. This is probably the more mind-intensive out of the trio of Holiday promotion releases.

If you enjoyed Ninja Gaiden, Assassin's Creed, God of War, Devil May Cry, Dragon's Lair, Resident Evil, etc... then you will find something that you'll like in Ninja Blade, because there's a little bit of all of them in here. Just make sure that you have some eye drops handy for after all the quick-time events, since your eyes are going to be dry from not blinking.

Just don't expect anything new. Like the myths themselves, AoM's gameplay has been passed down from generation to generation for many, many years.

It all gets old a little too quick-even faster if you don't play with friends. But if you do, or you were a fan of the old-school NBA Jam titles (or you're just stuck in the 90s like me), then NBA Jam: On Fire Edition is a slam dunk.

Hundreds of hours of visually beautiful gameplay, but its frustrating incoherence will make many people cringe and put the game aside before they have even finished.

To my surprise, it's one of the better, more traditional adventure games in a while.

It's silly to think that a team like USC, with so many returning stars, would have the same number of impact players as Cal. Instead of picking a lucky number and binding every team to it, the designers should have bound the number of impact players to some transitional stat, like returning upper-classmen.

Like LostWinds, this is a game with style and soul, and it was clearly designed by folks who know how to combine good game design with innovative motion technology.

Some shallow gameplay mechanics and weird environmental limits keep this corpse from the most elite graveyards, but that shouldn't scare you away from grabbing this awesome, and awful, thriller.

Despite its uncompromising attitude, Demon's Souls is a rare and unexpected treat.

If you're a Resident Evil 4 veteran that has played through its many reissues over the years, there's not really much to be impressed by this release on the current-gen consoles. Even so, Resident Evil 4 is still a terrifying ride, especially if you missed it the first time around and would like to experience one of the most influential games from the past decade.

Sure, Beautiful Katamari is a little short on new ideas and online play has yet to prove itself. But the game is still blindingly bright, and a bargain at $40.

The foundation for the UFC Undisputed series has been remodeled so thoroughly that faulting UFC Undisputed 2010 for its optional Career mode and its questionable online business practices would almost be missing the point.

Who knew that having the frame of my vehicle obscure my view of the racetrack in a corner or that trading the inside lane for the clarity of my headlights during a nighttime race would bring me an enjoyment I've never found in sim racing games before?

It is as streamlined and pretty as its older brother, plays just as well, and still gives you that unique college ball experience. NCAA Football 11 will not be riding the bench this year.

Battlefield 1943 is an impressive feat - it's a fun and gorgeous-looking downloadable game. If its rigid online structure can somehow be made more user-friendly in future patches, it'll be even more of a sure-bet that many of us will be playing for a long, long time, especially if this type of co-operative unlocking of features becomes a standard in future content.

The sense of immersion is greatly increased. It is a nice feeling, for example, to come across a Barbarian warrior, fighting to save his city, protect him from harm and use him like a football blocker to carve a path.

If you're a Resident Evil 4 veteran that has played through its many reissues over the years, there's not really much to be impressed by this release on the current-gen consoles. Even so, Resident Evil 4 is still a terrifying ride, especially if you missed it the first time around and would like to experience one of the most influential games from the past decade.

Who knew that having the frame of my vehicle obscure my view of the racetrack in a corner or that trading the inside lane for the clarity of my headlights during a nighttime race would bring me an enjoyment I've never found in sim racing games before?

Taken by itself, Homefront's campaign is just plain disappointing. A promising concept ultimately falls flat in the fast-paced, "I don't have time for reading" first-person shooter genre. Once you've accomplished all of the objectives in single-player, the game just "ends". Someone obviously wanted to leave room for a sequel. That person is saved by Homefront's well-designed multiplayer.

FIFA 12 should be applauded for its attention to detail. The little things make a huge difference with sports games and there are some minor details that help push this year's title past the rest.

Who knew that having the frame of my vehicle obscure my view of the racetrack in a corner or that trading the inside lane for the clarity of my headlights during a nighttime race would bring me an enjoyment I've never found in sim racing games before?

It’s a refreshing, original take on a series that values its source material but never takes itself too seriously.

Taken by itself, Homefront's campaign is just plain disappointing. A promising concept ultimately falls flat in the fast-paced, "I don't have time for reading" first-person shooter genre. Once you've accomplished all of the objectives in single-player, the game just "ends". Someone obviously wanted to leave room for a sequel. That person is saved by Homefront's well-designed multiplayer.

Easily the best way to enjoy NCAA Football 12 comes from Road to Glory mode, where your player can go from high school to senior year, all the while earning every step of the way through in-game accomplishments.

FIFA 12 should be applauded for its attention to detail. The little things make a huge difference with sports games and there are some minor details that help push this year's title past the rest.

Street Fighter IV gives the series the slap on the back it needs to catapult into the current and shake the fighting genre to its core.

Taken by itself, Homefront's campaign is just plain disappointing. A promising concept ultimately falls flat in the fast-paced, "I don't have time for reading" first-person shooter genre. Once you've accomplished all of the objectives in single-player, the game just "ends". Someone obviously wanted to leave room for a sequel. That person is saved by Homefront's well-designed multiplayer.

While there are a few different ending sequences based on a combination of your alignment and one very large decision you make towards the end, you won't need to play through the whole thing again to see 'em because the game actually allows you to change alignment mid-stream by simply going to the good or evil church and making donations. Whoops!

The only other notable problem with Burnout Legends is that it doesn’t really offer anything new to fans of the series. If you’ve played "Burnout 3: Takedown," expect a remarkably similar game.

Easily the best way to enjoy NCAA Football 12 comes from Road to Glory mode, where your player can go from high school to senior year, all the while earning every step of the way through in-game accomplishments.

DeathSpank would never even disappoint a filthy orphan, so he's sure as hell not going to disappoint a paying customer.

A barrage of good things. The graphics, sound, music, levels, and difficulty all come together perfectly. Naughty Dog has made Crash a much better game, something that is commendable when so many sequels come up short.

Playing this game is kind of like getting into a good book. The first few hours may be boring or even painful, but once you get into it, you'll be up until the wee hours of the morning flipping pages (or pressing buttons) trying to find out what happens next. And let me tell you - the story is first-rate and the plot gets thicker than a pint of Guinness straight from the tap.

Same great fun with some good tweaks.

The game’s hidden strength, though, is in its visual presentation.

Sure, the Hulk is really just a one trick pony of destruction, but what a satisfying pony ride.

Neversoft has refined the gameplay to the point of it being almost a meditation exercise, letting you grind, manual, revert and flip with a Zen-like calmness.