Disappointingly, The Conduit offers no incentive to convince current FPS gamers to put down Halo or Call of Duty, and it presents no easy transition into the genre for those who’ve never played an FPS game before.

Another major annoyance is the save system. You can only save at designated statues, and there are only two or three per level.

Though the objectives are overly simple and quite repetitive, the game is well programmed with decent graphics and a solid pace, and the cooperative aspect should make for many lively slumber parties. Just don’t expect it to keep the grown-up ogres entertained for long.

Feel free to take Lara out for the weekend, but don’t go looking for a long-term relationship.

PSOv2 really doesn't give fans enough to warrant the steep dip in the wallet. With the right online experience, PSO can be a really fun game, but between the original and Version 2, the scales just don¹t add up.

It's hard to recommend this incarnation to anyone who has already experienced the PC version, which is probably most of you since the game is so widely played. It's pretty much just the same exact thing. For those who missed out, you could buy Half-Life for half the cost of CS Xbox and download Counter-Strike PC for free.

It’s a kinder, gentler MMO - Nerfed PvP, language filters, and all.

A well-integrated story and a nice selection of characters help the cause, but the overly simple gameplay and poor character balance steal away some of its powers.

Unfortunately, though beating the crap out of Rancor is cool, it's quite flawed, thanks to the wonky camera and targeting system.

While the graphics and overall presentation rock, the gameplay is hampered by a lack of depth, length and intricate strategy, leaving this warrior a few medals shy of the full spectrum.

The only thing that redeems this game from total mediocrity is the multiplayer, and the more people you have (up to four) the better. Like Mario Party, it’s nearly pointless to play alone, but gets more fun with a group and a case of beer.

I wish Sega had taken more time with "Zombie Revenge;" removed the loading times, made some graphical improvements, hired actual voice actors, and added another mission or two.

The unimaginative single-player experience and that awful, awful chatter almost leaves this plane in full retreat. Despite some snazzy graphics, it’s really the terrific multiplayer that manages to snatch a mild victory from the jaws of this near-defeat.

Hamstrung by an awkward control scheme, Fight Night Round 3 for the PSP fights an uphill battle from the start and never manages to snag a belt. But by way of its content and delivery, this contender at least makes it into the middle rounds.

For the things that Conan gets right - big breasted naked lasses, blood and guts - it gets two things wrong - the use of magic, the god-awful voice acting. Otherwise, this is just another entry in the burgeoning God of War genre, neither offering anything in the way of innovation nor testing the limits of next-gen graphics.

Filled to the brim with equally good and frustrating bits, this War turns out just like any other.

Ultimately, Kinect Sports is a rough launch title that's all about the novelty of Kinect.

This PS2 version is the least likely to be asked to the Prom. Compared to the others, Spidey's PS2 world is grainy with jagged edges. There is a lot of noticeable slowdown from numerous onscreen NPCs.

The fact is, if you already own a Tiger game for a current-gen machine, you own a better one than this. Numbers don’t lie, and neither do we.

Too Damn Repetitive. But at least you get to kill bad guys, and lots of 'em.

The pickiness of the lens attachment doesn't help, either, so you'll have to be seriously committed to your body to get the most from this program.

Wii Fit is the Cliffs Notes version of exercise, and as anyone who’s ever tried a fad exercise program knows, there are no shortcuts to fitness. Nintendo obviously means well, but the balance board will soon enough end up in the same place where every other piece of home fitness equipment does: the garage sale.

It ain’t a keeper. The online game is more disappointing than comet-induced extinction, and there is no reason to play the single campaign twice.

The biggest problem for Mortal Kombat vs. the DC Universe is that it’s just meh (Yes, it's now a word, so I get to use it). You will neither love it nor hate it. Instead you will find yourself in a fighting game limbo where you feel kompelled to keep playing because you love one of the respective franchises, or you’ll just play for a while until a sense of disappointment and betrayal sets in.

Reminds me of Sony's own "The Getaway" - a game rich in atmosphere with gameplay that doesn't keep up.

Generally disappointing. It's a decent game, but just nowhere near as enjoyable or impressive as the many new FPS recruits who have recently landed on the retail battlefield.

[It] isn't a bad game by any stretch, it's just a confused one. Is it a simulation? Is it arcade action? It's both, I guess, but it doesn't do either as well as other games.

NHL 2K7 plays a solid game of hockey thanks to a frozen lake’s worth of content, but rough controls, unforgiving AI and redundant tutorial content are the equivalent of thin ice for beginners.

If you're a survival-horror fan, you could do worse than to try following a teenage romance story while battling mutated creatures generated from genetically unstable hallucinogenic pollen that multiply through an infection that spreads like an STD all set to the awesome sounds of the Boston string orchestra and Children's Choir.

Your mileage with Scene It? Movie Night will honestly rely heavily upon how much you're into movies and whether or not you could use some socialite fodder to keep those co-workers you don't really know why you invited over entertained.

Lots of options and simple control makes Kessen III about as accessible as war strategizing can get. Unfortunately, the action is pretty repetitive and the button mashing grows tedious, leading to only a two-star general.

"Ancient" is a good way to describe this fun ripoff. For those special few who cannot get enough of the hack-and-click action RPG thing, Titan Quest will effectively scratch that itch. However, its lack of substantial innovation, problems with loot and technical hiccups keep it from conquering Olympus.

Devil May Cry 4 is riddled with too many flaws to really enjoy completely. It’s disheartening – there’s a kernel of a good game beneath all the terrible writing and poor design decisions.

Despite some decent multiplayer and a few neat features, Area 51 is a much less intriguing game than military facility. We wish it were a little more out of this world.

You have to appreciate the fluid control and decent gameplay, but the lack of depth and marginal delivery should keep it from gobbling up your cash.

Once you get the game completely set up and ready to play, you expect something just as fun as Dance Dance Revolution, but no more than 10 minutes in, you realize you have been most definitely let down.

Generally disappointing. It's a decent game, but just nowhere near as enjoyable or impressive as the many new FPS recruits who have recently landed on the retail battlefield.

Arkanoid DS is a great old-school title, but it comes off as trying to be a hip skateboarding, Pepsi-drinking old dude that just needs to wear his age proudly.

If you own either of [the console versions], you’d have to be crazy to buy this game for the 360, because all you get for the extra twenty dollars are some disappointingly jaggy graphics.

Really meant for four players and is simply a game you either love or hate.

Though the objectives are overly simple and quite repetitive, the game is well programmed with decent graphics and a solid pace, and the cooperative aspect should make for many lively slumber parties. Just don’t expect it to keep the grown-up ogres entertained for long.

If you decide to by Time Crisis: Razing Storm, you will do so for the sole benefit of owning Time Crisis 4 and Deadstorm Pirates, two excellent arcade titles structured around the concept of "fun for the sake of fun".

I’ll give EA credit for trying what few companies have the cajones (or cockiness) to do –stick an RTS on a television. Unfortunately, the result of their effort is somewhat inconsistent and misses the smooth, intuitive play of the original.

If you played the first few FEAR games and you want to know what happens next to the faceless, characterless, protagonist then you could do a lot worse than FEAR 2: Project Origin. I really can’t recommend this to players that are new to either the series or the genre. The lack of reiteration of the first game’s story is rather perplexing.

It presently seems content merely treading ground already covered in "Half-Life 2," "Doom 3" and "Quake 4." Despite its lofty intentions, this brave’s promise of innovation is as empty as the tears of a fake Indian chief.

Kids will enjoy the easy to master controls and Disney characters, but there isn't enough meat for the older, discerning gamer.

The PC version featured some jaw-dropping graphics, but the PS2 version will put your jaw back on. It doesn't look bad, per se, but it hardly holds a candle to the PC.

The Golden Axe name is liable to do Beast Rider more harm than good.

Phoenix Wright: You still have a lot to learn, kid. If you’re going to make it in this world, you have to pave your own path.

A competent Contra game, but if you look at the 'ReBirth' in the title expecting to find updated visuals and new features as the name suggests, you are better off looking elsewhere.

Still, Faery is commendable for being among the first foray of the core RPG genre in the downloadable space dominated by twin-stick shooters and bite-sized platformers.

It just isn’t revolutionary in any way. Nothing about it grabbed me by the eyeballs and shook me around until my head caved in.

Still, Faery is commendable for being among the first foray of the core RPG genre in the downloadable space dominated by twin-stick shooters and bite-sized platformers.

But the evil control, level design and graphics from the Dark Side can turn a good jedi like Obi Wan bad.

I really liked the look and humor in Raskulls. I really did. Sadly, there's not a whole lot more to be had here. The single-player portion of the game is super short and I found very little to come back to after I completed the story, bonus levels or not.

Still, Faery is commendable for being among the first foray of the core RPG genre in the downloadable space dominated by twin-stick shooters and bite-sized platformers.

It does not have the breadth, the depth, or the legacy of its SmackDown competitor, but just like its counterpart on television, TNA iMPACT! doesn’t need all of that to stay alive. All it needs to do is get in, rough things up a bit, and get out. Bam!

Decent graphics and gameplay aside, it just isn't terribly fun, and we've already seen a lot of these gameplay ideas in better games like the "SSX" series.

Another battle boo-boo is the inability to lock-on to an enemy while using the third-person melee characters. First-person shooting is no problem, but trying to face a specific enemy while running around with a big sword/claws is a chore.

Legends and Killers is not an addition you absolutely must have.

Legends and Killers is not an addition you absolutely must have.

The music rocks. It's a combination of jungle, pop and a barbershop quartet and is thoroughly weird and catchy. The quirky approach to the composition helps give the game its attitude.

There are scattered elements throughout the game that come across as shockingly unfinished, or at least dismayingly unpolished.

With Skate 2 released just a little over a year ago, it's clear that Skate 3 was pumped out too quickly. The ideas are great, but the lack of polish is evident with every flip, flop, and flub.

I disagree with the "improved" character design, feel irked by the hateful camera, and in all, the game has aged in the short time between the PS2 and the Gamecube.

It’s a simple but elegant little package, just low-key and clever enough for regular gamers, with puzzle challenges that aren’t out of the ‘bot-claw grasp of younger fans of the movie.

The special teams AI, however, remains consistent with the PS2 version (read: it’s horrible) so there is still room for improvement.

Super Princess Peach is Super Mario for dummies. It's also Super Mario for girls, who, according to Nintendo, are just dumber versions of men that get all emotional when they can't find their vibro wands.

IO Interactive deserves credit for going in such a different direction from their usual shooter fare. Alas, the result is a beautiful game without a soul. Like a piece of gum, everything great about Mini Ninjas can be experienced in the first few minutes. After that, its sweetness is just a quickly fading memory.

The new arcade-style squad control may make things quicker, but it short-circuits the one thing that made Rainbow Six different: intelligent squad strategy.

It presently seems content merely treading ground already covered in "Half-Life 2," "Doom 3" and "Quake 4." Despite its lofty intentions, this brave’s promise of innovation is as empty as the tears of a fake Indian chief.

Mega Man ZX isn’t bad, with smooth graphics and fun, intuitive play mechanics, but its shallow Biometals and terrible map will leave you lost and under-stimulated.

Enjoyable in the briefest of playtime. While the overall concept turns Burnout's Crash mode into an addictive, destructive puzzle game, the graphics and sound will have you reaching for your console's power button.

Overall, Kane's Wrath feels like a final opus to the 'good old days' of the PC RTS. It's good solid fun for the hardcore RTS fan, but a huge pain for anyone that wants something more casual.

Despite some bafflingly arbitrary concessions to the casual crowd, MotoGP 08 still caters overwhelmingly to diehard racing sim fans.

No, it won’t replace "Final Fantasy XII" or "Twilight Princess," but for some role-playing on the go, Magical Starsign isn’t a bad choice. Just don’t tell your friends.

Enjoyable in the briefest of playtime. While the overall concept turns Burnout's Crash mode into an addictive, destructive puzzle game, the graphics and sound will have you reaching for your console's power button.

This game’s single-player campaign is a decent diversion and serves up a relatively well-produced version of the PC series. Unfortunately, what it lacks in replay value and online play leads to a solider a bit too thin for his britches. Will this war never end?

"Everquest Lite." It's not a bad game and I give it credit for being the first true console MMORPG, but it gets boring to play since you can only go forward.

Unfortunately, though beating the crap out of Rancor is cool, it's quite flawed, thanks to the wonky camera and targeting system.

Thanks to good controls and a truly imaginative take on the AvP universe, Extinction turns out better than expected. You can tell the developers really loved the movies. It's just too bad they didn't take it far enough as a game, serving up a short campaign and failing to offer any extra modes.

What we’re presented with is a patchwork, yet not entirely unworkable mishmash of NBA clichés, as spliced with a series of fun but ultimately insubstantial mini-games and fan-service bonuses.

The physics and collision detection are adequate for minor collisions, but are cartoony and simply laughable in major ones.

There’s a lot of content on offer, and if you can get past its saccharine veneer, ProStreet could keep you busy for a long time.

With good mechanics and delivery, Table Tennis will certainly keep you and your impoverished frat buddies entranced for a bit, but the profound lack of depth makes it a decidedly hard pledge.

You get tiny little cinematic snippets here and there, but it never coheres into anything like an actual story.

A mediocre port of what can already be considered an old Dreamcast game. But on the other hand, it's a port of a good fun game, with the ever-important gameplay still intact. Crazy Taxi on PS2 is still a gut blow of fun.

It has the right elements of speed and control, but it just sticks too close to the mainstays of the genre to carve out a niche. There needs to be more uniqueness to Tube Slider besides the title.

Even with the controller glitches, which seemed not to bother younger players so much anyway, it's more fun with the Wii remote than with the DS stylus.

Even with its shortcomings, Battle for Naboo is pretty fun.

If you have any experience playing video games, you simply don't need Starfy. If you've been playing as long as I have, you'll recognize the cookie-cutter characters, the attempt at a mascot akin to every game of the early '90s, and will blow through it easily enough... if you don't give up from sheer boredom. If you're just starting out though, it definitely has a place... but this is a Nintendo system, so you know there's better.

If you're looking for something to relax and just have fun with, Scrap Metal is your game.

Singstar is still the best party karaoke game for the consoles, but it doesn’t quite step up to the next-generation with confidence. Instead, it steps up the Brit Pop, and that ain’t what we want. Not what we really, really want. Really.

Clunky shooting and passing.

The biggest problem for Mortal Kombat vs. the DC Universe is that it’s just meh (Yes, it's now a word, so I get to use it). You will neither love it nor hate it. Instead you will find yourself in a fighting game limbo where you feel kompelled to keep playing because you love one of the respective franchises, or you’ll just play for a while until a sense of disappointment and betrayal sets in.

When the camera isn’t doing funky things during melee combat, when you sneak into a base disguised as a soldier, when you’re soaring from building to building for the pure joy of it, or when you’re hitchhiking on a passing helicopter just because you can, Prototype momentarily feels fresh and fun.

Ditch the “Golden Axe” moniker and just call this baby “Beast Rider”. Like those old ‘80s barbarian fantasy flicks that also had their share of serious faults, Beast Rider is blunt, exploitative, and plenty of fun when no one else is watching.

No matter how you slice it, rampant dragon destruction is more fun than running around smacking bad guys with a dagger.