If the fatigue bug had been fixed the way EA promised it would be, and the game had the same options that other versions had, I’d give the game the same score I gave last year's version: a 7. As it stands, with the lack of features, the lack of innovation with the game play and the higher price tag; I don’t feel comfortable giving this game anything higher than a 5.

True fans of the AND 1 Mixtape Tour may be able to look beyond the many flaws of the actual basketball in this game because the presentation offers a dream come true.

PureSim is a game I want desperately to love, even to the point of staying up 'til 2 a.m. because it's a fix for my baseball addiction, even if it's still a clumsy fix. PureSim is also a game that infuriates me at times, and maybe that's a note in its favor. An atrocious game I wouldn't waste time getting angry with (well, in most cases. A TRULY atrocious game might be another story). I'd simply put it down and move on. WIth PureSim, that's easier said than done.

Essentially, it's new levels for a pretty decent game, without really bringing anything new to the table for your $19.95.

But if you have played it, or if you still own it, then there’s no gripping reason to reinvest the time—and most importantly, the money—into the Xbox 360 edition.

It's an awkward position to be in for a game that's not bad - just not as good as it could have been.

I had an enjoyable time when all was said and done, but the length and general quality of the experience left me wanting more--perhaps the polish only a sequel can deliver.

The thing is, though, there’s no multiplayer mode in PQ, so you can’t see who can complete a given puzzle faster (other than by playing single-player and uploading your score afterward), but that also means no opportunity for increasing challenge factors.

On its own merits, it is hard to justify paying $60 to buy Gun. It is a solid game, but when you can have essentially the same experience on Xbox for less money, I do not see the point in buying it for the Xbox 360.

There aren't enough courses - six feels more like an appetizer than a gourmet feast - and no obvious expectation of future additions via Xbox Live.

Because it’s not a terrible game, especially on a currently under-served platform, there are no really strong arguments I can give to avoid the game.

This is an enjoyable game of football that’s great to watch and play. On the other hand the countless omissions EA left out of this game are maddening.

But I still would have to advocate passing, particularly since The Matrix: Path of Neo still hovers at a full MSRP price point for what is essentially Enter the Matrix with a facelift.

Sometimes the graphics were actually surprisingly good, such as the detail on the planes as I gunned them down, or the rust on the vehicles. But other times, like when all the glass windows burst the same, or every office in the game has the same desk, chair and bookshelf, Call of Duty 2 begins to show its age.

A better word for the new story might be laughable. I understand the rationale behind the change, but the ending is ridiculous. Thankfully the book’s ending is included, so you can see what really should have happened.

While I would have liked to try the multiplayer, the sparsely populated servers listed didn’t give me much incentive to try a five-disk installation for a third time.

This is not intentioned as damning with faint praise but the fact that the mini-games are the most fun part of the gameplay does say something.

If you've played the PC version and are looking for something new, you are likely to be disappointed as some of the newer and richer features have been stripped away to fit it onto the console.

A nice update to the series. But especially with the way other historical RTS games have advanced the genre, I was expecting more innovation from the game (and developer) that started it all.

A pretty straightforward arcade street racing game that could have been much more with a bit more attention to customization and the inclusion online multiplayer.

I really wanted to like Oogie’s Revenge more than I did. The Soul Robber was fun to use, and the game did a great job of recreating Tim Burton’s vision. However, the constant backtracking, poor camera, and repetition make it hard to justify anything more than a rental.

When I finished playing Resurrection of Evil, the one question I had was why a bunch of stupid demons are able to consistently own humans on Mars when they are outwitted by a sidestep.

Even with some warts, Black & White 2 is still pretty good. Heck, no god is perfect, right?

The fighter missions get repetitive; everything else is too varied for its own good.

Lockdown has a steep learning curve and an unfair difficulty level for all players not intimately familiar with the Rainbow Six setup.

Enjoy swinging around New York to your heart’s content, but stick to a rental for this title.

Ultimate Spider-Man is best enjoyed when viewed as a separate path for the franchise, one whose bright graphics and teenybopper storyline add a refreshing parallel to the realist movie versions.

What so frustrates me about Genji: Dawn of the Samurai is how the game seems to desire this average result from the onset; there is nothing in the game that looks remotely ambitious.

There are certainly the trappings of an epic fantasy game here, but lack of attention to latecomers to the series and horrid pacing and voice acting drag this game down to something that's fun to play if you can get the story out of the way and can get a solid grasp on the control scheme.

The thing is, the hooks just don't sink that deeply. It's a nice time waster, when I have time that needs wasting, and it's certainly worth packing along for those transoceanic plane flights or interminable car trips through, say, rural Kansas, but Frantix ain't making the trip to a desert island, if you catch my drift.

A game caught between markets. Gamers who want a pure FPS shooter have much better options to look into. Gamers who want tactical, squad based shooters will consider this a watered down, arcade version of the genre.

If the game focused more on the highway racing, and improved the track selection, everybody would be better off. However, as it stands now Ride or Die is a game that provides more lasting enjoyment as a scratching simulator than as a racing game.

The vestiges of goodwill created by 187: Ride or Die's gameplay initially might have the game growing on you... but the terribly forced gangsta dialogue of the game fixes that nagging issue extremely quickly.

More of the same for the franchise - a solid game, with an inspired (if a bit overdone) presentation.

Hopefully if Climax releases another PSP version, they work the kinks out, because this one needs some polish.

Just a poor shadow of what Myst really is, so most users would be better off skipping it and grabbing the PC/Mac version.

An enjoyable, if heavily formulaic, RPG to get the PSP life cycle kicked off.

A good game... but just barely.

Comparable to the PS2 version, except with much longer loading times.

A game that, while it can’t compete with the hockey titles available for the PSP’s big brother, still has a solid look and feel to it, despite the gaping hole left by the lack of commentary.

While this game makes "RedCard 2003" look like... I can't even think of a non-offensive comparison... it still hasn't gone quite far enough.

An interesting study of a series in transition, but ultimately not a compelling purchase. KoF 2002 is a failed attempt to recall "KoF '98 Dream Match," and 2003 is, while more accessible to new fans, lacks the eye-candy if not necessarily the depth of newer games like "Guilty Gear X2."

A solid game, but largely derivative. Pick it up if you haven't played the first.

There's only two puzzlers on DS to date, and Zoo Keeper trumps "Mr. Driller" with the inclusion of single-cart multiplayer. Worth a pickup, if puzzlers are your thing.

The most depressing thing about Black Monday is that parts of inspiration or beauty occasionally shine in the abyss of missed potential. This game is alright, but aspires—rightfully so—for much more, and misses the mark.

When you're trying to sell a game to a non-hardcore crowd, don't make it frustratingly hard for no reason.

Taken as just another game, rather than as a part of the larger Bond iconography, it's really a fairly enjoyable time. Rogue Agent doesn't go on the "best ever" list the way "Everything or Nothing" did, but there are worse ways to pass a Saturday afternoon.

Definitely worth a look for fans of the series and newcomers alike, but there are better choices out there.

The wasted potential here is like a swift kick to the face. Still, it's worth a play if you live by the gospel of QCF + P.

Above average- it's just far from amazing.

Guilty Gear Isuka does a lot of new things. They just aren't fun things.

Though the game may have its frustrating moments, the amount of assistance the computer gives the player is ridiculous. For example, one "ghost shot" is allowed per hole. What this does is show you exactly how far and where the ball would land (and subsequently bounce) if you got a perfect shot. This is a HUGE help (and very cheap) help with chipping.

It's got all the bad hair and pretty boys, but none of the fighting soul.

These treasures are glass jewels in tin settings.

There are better shooters around, but if you’ve long hankered for vehicular Star Wars mayhem, Battlefront was made for you.

With lackluster sound, generic, objective-based (and painfully straightforward) gameplay, and graphics being the only saving grace (and only half the time at that), it’s difficult to recommend Shellshock as anything more than a rental for fans of the genre.

The sense of freedom ultimately serves to highlight the inevitable limitations.

Innovates itself into a corner. Tactical RPG fans are going to dig on the creative character development but they'll be the only ones interested in putting up with the awkward controls and even more awkward gridless combat.

If you're a hardcore puzzle fan that lives life at Level 9/High 5, or have a buddy to tangle with, Puyo Pop Fever is a worthy purchase.

For a one man project, Starshatter is a graphical tour-de-force. Infinitely customizable. Once the problem areas are tweaked, Starshatter will shine.

Showdown isn't a terrible wrestling game, but it isn't a very good one, either. It's an improvement, though, so if using the stars of your youth is a draw, this one is worth a rental.

The learning curve is practically a cliff, but enthusiasts will have plenty to get out of this one.

Unfortunately, while brevity is the soul of wit, even at $29.99, it's hard to recommend a purchase of a game that can be beaten in a rental, and offers nothing beyond that in the way of replay value.

Cooperative multiplayer and the basic gunplay thrills don't quite make up for bad control and ugly graphics.

In the end, Shrek 2 is going to appeal to a pretty limited market. Older gamers aren’t going to want to bother with it much, but young children who idolize their movie heroes (and why do you think "Finding Nemo" sold so well?) will probably eat it up despite its mediocrity.

The variety of innovating aspects are balanced by multiple flaws, making this one strictly for the horror-obsessed.

It just doesn't have heart.

Solid, but not spectacular. Even so, I'm tempted to give WTS 2005 brownie points simply because I can play as West Brom without them being in the Premiership. Boing boing!

Ballers is, sadly, less than the sum of its parts.

Capcom may be good at 2D fighters, but when going to 3D, controls matter all the more.

It's not the Xbox version or even "SOCOM: Navy Seals," but this version of Rainbow Six 3 is decent, on its own merits.

All told, ASB 05 hasn't really taken any major steps towards self-improvement, opting instead for a status quo offering.

If you have a PS2, get that version. If you've got a PSX, and you absolutely must have baseball, rest assured that you can buy (or at least rent) this and have a reasonably good time.

Breakdown was meant for a rental from start to finish, assuming you have a strong stomach to handle the first-person camera. Stick with the game and it can offer plenty of satisfying fun to accompany the initial frustration.

If you can get past the atrocious camera and shut out the screeching voice acting, there's a pretty neat game waiting for you. Just don't trade in "Ninja Gaiden" to get it, eh?

Call it the sophomore jinx. A great rookie season had us anticipating more, but MVP needs more work before it can really be considered the Most Valuable Player.

Despite the small cracks in just about every gameplay function of the game, Gangland still manages to be addictive fun.

Right now it’s average in quality, and what should be amusing feels like a chore. It’s hard to make dragons unexciting, but somehow Drakengard manages to do it.

Worst game ever? No, not really. That was an exaggeration fed largely by the flames of my initial frustration. But it’s not really a very good game, either; probably slightly below average, in the scheme of things.

Some very interesting ideas are buried under a tide of sloppy coding and bad game design.

Really tends to disappoint when it comes to replay value. I expect strategy games to at least last 20 hours or so, but the multiple campaigns, single player maps and multiplayer gameplay will have a tough time reaching that magic number.

Perhaps worth a rental to R-Type junkies and those who love a solid 2D shooter, but nothing is really new here... and maybe that's the point.

The online experience as a whole needs some serious work. I’m not sure if it’s lag-related, or simply poor coding, but it’s not unusual to see cars sort of “stutter” their way ahead of or behind you in turns. Collision detection is also fairly shoddy online.

Apes the best parts of "Dark Alliance" without much innovation.

This is simply too flawed a title to recommend for purchase, especially in light of the competition, but it's a fantastic guilty pleasure.

Blade and Sword tries hard to be a classically-designed action RPG, but doesn’t seem to realize such a product comes years too late.

Since there's no way to rent PC games, most will want to pass on this and just buy an RC car instead. Good try, but next time, less physics and more fun.

Monster 4x4 is as wild as the trucks featured in the game; a real sense of control over your fate in the race is never established, since a wrong move can get you stuck thanks to some poor planning, and getting good turns and boosts seems more like luck than anything else.

Graphically, both King of Fighters 2000 and 2001 are nearly pixel-perfect ports. Unfortunately, this is as much a liability as anything. The character sprites are low-resolution, as befits three-year-old Neo-Geo games, and the backgrounds are muddy and annoyingly aliased.

If you do need a proper fix, just buy the movie and watch that instead, or rent another game. The wartime epic Dynasty Warriors 4 and ninja title Shinobi both make excellent candidates for replacing Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon on your ‘must play’ list.

Give it a rent if you're interested, but I'd recommend just renting an old "Ridge Racer" and having a blast with the past--or get another new, better racing game.

The sequel raises the bar in the amount of things included, but the awkward use of Dragon Worlds and the Story Mode, not to mention the choppy and average fighting engine, makes this game a fan-only affair.

Please do not buy this or even rent it. To do so would make you think less of Remedy and Max Payne 2, an absolutely terrific game on other consoles. Try another version instead.

This would be an OK title worthy of rental (if such a thing were possible for PC), but Warcraft III still blows the game away. Get that instead.

David Duchovny has an exceedingly flat voice. At no point does he ever really sound excited. Even when he should be excited, he really doesn't sound it. There's just a sense of resignation always seeping through.

The entire Ki Blast process is made meaningless, because regular fighting moves do more damage, specifically throws.

Once you've customized your car to the max, there's nothing else to do except change its color; you can't even earn new cars to customize or anything, as you're stuck with only the one car.

Translation problems occur in the flight from PC to Xbox, and the smooth style that made Jedi Academy irresistible fun on the PC is now clumsy and awkward.