After three games packed with at least twenty hours of consistently engaging platforming, action and driving, it's difficult to see Jak X as anything but an odd diversion. Even taken within the context of combat racers (as the title requests) there's little to make it stand out.

It's passably fun and offers cool ideas for the future, but in a world packed with incredibly addictive fighters, that's damning with faint praise.

Kudos to Neversoft and Activision for creating an amazing game, the sole competitor in its self-created genre, and curses upon them for distilling it to the point of absurdity.

Comparing World Poker Tour to "World Series of Poker" is like asking if you’d rather be short & fat or ugly & stupid. The generally competent A.I. and career mode make this one the better choice, but your best bet is to leave both flops on the table and find a new game altogether.

Great style and shambling zombie hordes make for some terrific undead moments, but it's a shame there are only a few of them in the game.

Kudos to Neversoft and Activision for creating an amazing game, the sole competitor in its self-created genre, and curses upon them for distilling it to the point of absurdity.

Comparing World Poker Tour to "World Series of Poker" is like asking if you'd rather be short & fat or ugly & stupid. The generally competent A.I. and career mode make this one the better choice, but your best bet is to leave both flops on the table and find a new game altogether.

Kudos to Neversoft and Activision for creating an amazing game, the sole competitor in its self-created genre, and curses upon them for distilling it to the point of absurdity.

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.

F.E.A.R. might well be the year’s best single-player PC experience, but it won’t win any awards for its multiplayer. Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Capture the Flag are the only game types, and there aren’t many maps.

The decidedly fragile environments and variety of units give players a sense of having something to fight for in both campaign and multiplayer beyond the unchanging battlefields of the typical turn-based strategy game. More depth and better delivery would have made this war far more civil.

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.

Like a goldfish in a bigger bowl, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance makes much of its newfound space without actually evolving into a new beast, and that's mostly a good thing. What it lacks in innovation it makes up for in sheer challenge.

A great presentation and even better writing can’t compensate for the fact that the game practically plays itself. This is a good comic book, but a below average adventure.

L.A. Rush tries to keep up with the street racing scene, but it’s all show and no go. Repeating races over and over isn’t exactly a draw and the lack of customization is unforgivable.

SOCOM 3 has the distinction of being the best online offering the system has ever seen. Those without a PS2 network adapter need not enlist, but for the rest this game is practically a tour of duty.

The gameplay is just as good as you remember it to be and the engine still hauls a great deal of ass, but considering it's had two years to stew, this tour feels a little too much like the last one.

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.

The result is more sad than monstrous, a beast you’ll put down not with hate, but pity. You’d be far better served dipping into the likes of F.E.A.R. than treading down this overgrown path again.

This could have easily been a great tribute to its SNES predecessor, had it paid any heed to what makes the tedium of an RPG tolerable... and that lies squarely in the saga that this game fails to describe.

L.A. Rush tries to keep up with the street racing scene, but it's all show and no go. Repeating races over and over isn't exactly a draw and the lack of customization is unforgivable.

The gameplay is just as good as you remember it to be and the engine still hauls a great deal of ass, but considering it's had two years to stew, this tour feels a little too much like the last one.

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.

The gameplay is just as good as you remember it to be and the engine still hauls a great deal of ass, but considering it's had two years to stew, this tour feels a little too much like the last one.

Even with the improvements to the A.I. and enhanced multiplayer experience, the game feels more like an expansion pack than a stand-alone product.

Even with the improvements to the A.I. and enhanced multiplayer experience, the game feels more like an expansion pack than a stand-alone product.

This is another fun, solid entry in what’s quickly becoming the most dependable series in handheld gaming. To truly become an unstoppable power, however, it will also have to become the most daring.

A solid all-around improvement over last year’s game. Still, EA should focus on really nailing the online play missing in "Winning Eleven" and stop embarrassing the franchise with petty control tweaks.