A rock-solid game. While it's not the Shining game I would have asked for, it's definitely one of the better hack-and-slash titles out there for the console market.

My first time through the game was the best eight hours of gameplay I've experienced in years, and it's game's only gotten better with subsequent playthroughs.

Despite the roughness and ever-present loadtimes, I can honestly say that The Con took me by surprise by being more interesting and engaging than I would have expected.

There's no denying that this year's game is a triumphant return to form for the franchise. It's nice to see skating back as the focus after the two Underground titles.

Due to the fact that both elements of F.E.A.R., the horror and the action, are crafted so thoughtfully they seamlessly merge together to create a, if not unique, then at least very polished experience.

While the basic premise of The Warriors on the silver screen remains intact in its videogame adaptation, it is confronted with a gritty sense of realism, which gives the original artistic vision of Hill a whole new angle. And that, dear Mr. Ebert, is art indeed.

Despite the half-done feeling of chapter five, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney remains the sort of game that I live for. It's intelligent, creative, and never ever loses its sense of humor.

Digital Devil Saga 2 isn't just about maturity; it has maturity, and that's a major accomplishment.

It may not be very original or innovative when compared to the rest of the games in the series, but Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow succeeds in bringing a similar level of polish and quality to the Nintendo DS.

There's nothing else on shelves quite like it, and it's a perfect example of the sort of out-of-the-box thinking that will transform Nintendo's fliptop from an ungraded GameBoy into a true next-generation handheld machine, conceptually as well as physically.

The co-op gameplay is what makes this game special, and while there are enough bugs and hitches in the co-op mechanic to ensure players will be annoyed a little on their way to the fun, it's still a worthwhile experience.

I may not have agreed— or even enjoyed—many of the choices that were made and implemented in the final product, but I have to admit that I'd usually take a flawed, unusual experience like Lost in Blue over most of the inspiration-free stuff clogging shelves today.

It's just about the perfect casual game, just right for people who are looking to kill ten or fifteen minutes at a time dodging dinosaurs and snacking on flies.

Frankly, I think the entire action-centric, Island of Dr. Moreau direction the game takes in its latter half is unnecessary. The game is more than suspenseful enough just by placing the player against impossible odds, and the game's lush tropical locales are much more compelling than the indoor corridors that appear a bit later on.

If video games were running shoes, Cold War would be the designer lookalike sold on the streets of Chinatown for nest to nothing.

It gets halfway there with an elaborate backstory and interesting premise, but it gets too stuck in standard FPS design conventions to ever really distinguish itself as anything special.

The developers obviously care greatly about the source material, and it shows in everything from the spot-on controls to the excellent voice acting.

Ultimate Spider-Man is nothing more than a bargain-bin effort that would be over and forgotten in an hour or two except for the pointless required side missions artificially extending playtime.

By forgetting some of the market expectations and putting a bit of themselves into their work, the game's creators (some of them at least) have made confident and convincing strides towards evolving the genre, and struck a balance between Eastern and Western gaming tastes that only Nintendo is normally capable of nailing so well. [Andrew "Fletch" Fletcher]

We Love Katamari is a loving, faithful rendition of Katamari Damacy—right down to its camera, which still wedges itself in places and sputters like an old lawnmower.

I would have liked a longer game with a little more challenge to it, but at the end of the day Genji does so many things well that I found myself willing to live with the flaws.

I don't think it's an overstatement to say that Quantic Dream's work is an achievement for dramatic storytelling and a bold step forward towards maturation of the medium. Games like this are what I live for as a player and as a critic.

A good game that will give gamers roughly twenty hours of offline entertainment and countless more online with friends. My biggest beef remains the fact that the game feels more like an expansion of last year's title as opposed to a new experience.

For fans of the show it's a wonderful new piece of new Animaniacs content. For everyone who isn't lucky enough to have seen the show, it's a solid piece of gameplay along with an opportunity to connect with some really wonderful comic characters.

One-on-one battles were a great way in the past to offer quick diversions in the middle of a longer AC campaign, but they are not enough to sustain a game all by themselves. Toss in the fact that the game's graphics are still as bare-bones as they were five years ago, and that there's virtually no new content with much of the material being recycled from previous games, and you've got something that would be a $20 add-on at best.

I honestly do think that Sir Daniel Fortesque is a good character with potential, but I would have much rather seen an all-new game with a nod towards current methodology than a rehash of something that honestly wasn't all that great in the first place.

These characters deserve a bigger canvas on which to tell their tale.

There isn't a plot to speak of, nor any gameplay elements beyond the fighting. But the fighting really is exceptionally fun for novices and experts, which makes this game extremely successful on its own terms.