GameCube fans can finally put their 20-sided die away, as Tales of Symphonia is exactly what they needed. It's an ace on any system.

The simplicity and fairly low challenge bely shockingly addictive gameplay. While big-name, big-budget sequels may dominate this year's holiday season, Katamari Damacy is a quiet, almost invisible candidate for Game of the Year. This is not a game to be missed, especially since it's only $20.

Treasure will make you believe that robots are your friends.

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

A fantastic sophomore effort from Snowblind Studios, and is easily the best of the games spawned by the Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance engine Snowblind originally created.

The accompanying hard drive is a neat toy, and there's no denying that FFXI is addictive. $12.95/month after the first one, though? That's a fair bit o' jack.

Has everything a good game needs, but the non-interactive scenes overshadow the interactive.

I wish more games had the voice acting and overall audio quality displayed in Earned in Blood.

Golf vets may be bored, but everyone else will have a ball.

While running the studio does boil down too quickly into lather-rinse-repeat patterns of tycoon-style management, the moviemaking part of the game gives you an almost endless supply of replayability.

The Xbox version of Max Payne 2 cannot profess to be as sharp as the PC version, thanks to control differences between the two setups.

While the majority of gamers kick around inside Gran Turismo 4, I know where my racing allegiance lies. This game even manages to destroy the hallowed Burnout series to easily claim the arcade racing crown, and that’s no small feat. Grab your wallets and, uh, race to the store.

My uneasy feelings on Madden as a premiere example of videogame-as-renewable-commodity aside, the series continues its slow and steady march of progress.

Where it falls flat is in the delivery of the long-anticipated online play that should be the game's biggest selling point. If you've got enough buddies on Live or PS2 Online that you can get together a reliable carnage crew, go for it. You won't regret it.

More importantly, they also nailed all the aspects that made the film so great, and the much larger adventure their tinkering yielded is certainly appreciated.

Perhaps best of all, however, is the way each level has multiple paths and solutions, not only during the 3PS (3rd-Person Shooter) elements, but also during the fantastic driving levels – which utilize the Need for Speed engine – where you’ll often have an option between Bond’s various automobiles (yes, including the Aston Martin), or the Q-Bike, and even, on occasion, a helicopter.

Just because there's everything but the kitchen sink doesn't mean it's a good game. Luckily, Jak 3 is a good game.

The presentation is completely misguided, and the combat is largely unrewarding. Under all this, the platforming is as creative and addictive as it was in Sands of Time, but the polish and sense of wonder are sorely missed.

While the game play is certainly more varied than other titles available, and polished to an extent above that to which many games go, the short single player campaign may be all some players will be interested in.

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.

What Spiderman 2 boils down to is a lot of "Hell yeah!" excellence with just a little "Aw, damnit" thrown in for good measure. It's still an excellent game, and it's a superb example of how a movie license should be treated, but in the end, it probably won't crack any top 5 lists.

Addictive and entertaining, but a bit short on songs.

Perhaps best of all, however, is the way each level has multiple paths and solutions, not only during the 3PS (3rd-Person Shooter) elements, but also during the fantastic driving levels – which utilize the Need for Speed engine – where you’ll often have an option between Bond’s various automobiles.

If you have multiple gaming consoles, I’d strongly recommend picking the game up on either the GameCube or Xbox, both of which support four-player mayhem without something as impractical as a MultiTap.

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

Legend actually has a coherent plot that makes sense, even as fantastical things arise, which is more than I can say for the previous Tomb Raider titles, which seemed to be little more than glorified excuses to eyeball Lara's sweater puppies (nostalgists beware: they ain't what they used to be).

It's a hockey sim - a pretty darned good one, warts and all - and having a hockey sim in which I can lose myself has been a dream of mine ever since I first spent a weekend with Front Office Football.

A good game... but just barely.