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.

Shadowrun’s impressive array of skills and magic gives standard first-person shooters a run for their money, but its lack of game modes or rewards or even a rewarding feeling slows this game to a walk.

It's a shame that with such outstanding production values and such a beautifully realized story and world, Dreamfall doesn't do more as a video game. It adheres quite strictly to its adventure roots but fails to provide a satisfying challenge.

Though it sees a nice addition in the lockdown stick, the game stays stubbornly true to its already paid-for code, repeating the fouls of its past and failing to graduate to the next level.

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.

Kinect body "controls" work surprisingly well.

Small tweaks like the Floor General and Freestyle Air make it a smoother all-around product than March Madness 2004, but the margin is so slight that owners of last year’s game shouldn’t feel compelled to buy this one, too. The bubble is starting to break.

Despite a big, engrossing story and some improved combat features, this second step in the Xenosaga series doesn’t manage to live up to its prior success. Hopefully, the next game will tone down the excessive storytelling segments and continue refining the combat.

The story is full of incredible stupid clichés, the dialogue dubbing is just horrifying, and there's not much that made me feel quite so embarrassed as my boss and a coworker walking in on my playing Naruto, in the middle of one of the titular character's strange and tangential rants.

Strikeforce is a great step toward finally integrating the online universe with Dynasty Warriors and an unexpected excuse to lower your head as other gamers pass you by. You’re not hiding or hanging your head in shame, you’re just looking for items.

The next Slugfest would be vastly improved if they ditched the attempt at Franchise authenticity and focused on fixing the mechanics and core baseball dynamics. Midway has some rules to learn before it breaks any more of them.

While EA scored big with the original, each successive Street has felt more and more like the repetitive plays in the identical playbooks - rote exercises to be performed in the endless pursuit of bling.

A victim of its own ambition. The good core elements are still here, but are lost underneath a gray cloud of control and graphical issues.

You have to credit Evil Dead: Regeneration for almost living up to its name by breathing some new life back into an abysmal video-game franchise. Still, this regeneration is a far-cry from a revolution and must be content with being familiar, satisfying, and diminutive.

Die hard X-Men fans should enjoy the game, if only because the characters remain faithful to their comic book origins...As a fighting game, though, MA2 is nothing special, as all the features have been done before and in fact better in other games.

Allowing the gamer to actually wander around Pokemon Island on their own would have added a much-needed layer of depth and exploration. It's also safe to say that the appeal of this game is very limited to Pokemon fans.

The story is full of incredible stupid clichés, the dialogue dubbing is just horrifying, and there's not much that made me feel quite so embarrassed as my boss and a coworker walking in on my playing Naruto, in the middle of one of the titular character's strange and tangential rants.

If you dig the sort of masochistic experience found in bullet hell shooters and beat 'em ups like Alien Hominid, there is a challenge, albeit a repetitive one, in Dead Samurai.

If you’re a One Piece fan through and through, and if you don’t mind the slow grind of finding items as long as the action is fast and furious, then this is booty in your video game treasure trove. But as much as there is enough swashbuckling to make you a badass pirate, there is just as much to make you a grubby landlubber.

Simple controls and decent graphics help, but the limited gameplay makes Next Dimension a rental rather than a buy.

And despite its groovy style, XIII isn't much more than a run-of-the-mill game. Its presentation is definitely worthy of a look (particularly if you own an Xbox) but its gameplay is about as straightforward - and in some cases boring - as it gets for an FPS.

Has the core of great puzzle game, from the range of game modes to the interesting characters. Unfortunately, the sluggish if workable controls put a damper on the overall feel.

Overall, World in Conflict is not bad, but if you've been keeping up to with other RTS titles, it will not come across as much other than a well-written single-player experience.

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

Online multiplayer in Hell’s Highway depends too much on your teammates adhering to their assigned roles.

Call of Duty 3 feels too much like a collection of outtakes from the other two Call of Duty games. It’s silly, fast and hilariously fun, but it’s also sixty bucks.

Let's Tap is pretty entertaining. It will go into rotation at get-togethers, just not set to Visualizer. It'll sit, unused on the shelf in the meantime, however, because a little game I like to call Let's Dust is more fun than Let's Tap if one has to play alone.

A surprisingly decent driving game. It has modes for every mood and no glaring flaws, although its short length and numerous frustrating bits will surely turn people away. But the game is also very demanding.