At its core, this is the Assassin's Creed we've grown to love in recent years, and it still serves as a pretty good time sink -- plus, it's a necessary bridge to next year's already-announced follow-up. But obligation shouldn't be the primary reason to play something, and sadly, that's too often the case in this humdrum campaign.

It's fun while it lasts, but it certainly won't blaze any new trails as far as virtual rockstardom goes, and diehard fans of Rock Band should hope that the devs return to their hard rocking roots for the next genuine installment. [Feb 2010, p.89]

When Dead to Rights is good, it’s damn good…pity that parts of it are such buzzkills.

At its core, this is the Assassin's Creed we've grown to love in recent years, and it still serves as a pretty good time sink -- plus, it's a necessary bridge to next year's already-announced follow-up. But obligation shouldn't be the primary reason to play something, and sadly, that's too often the case in this humdrum campaign.

A nostalgic experience with the Resident Evil franchise should always include number two.

Brainless action-shooting doesn’t get more engaging than AFO. But without depth, the destruction eventually gets repetitious and tiring to the eyes.

Challenges are also oversimplified. Where single-player challenges in previous Worms games had cool objectives such as shotgunning targets and parachuting to grab mid-air items, Challenge Mode in Open Warfare is merely team combat.

It just turns out to be an object example of how even the prettiest eye candy can't mask flawed mechanics for long, and how gameplay that aims for greatness can stumble and wind up slumming it in Mediocre Town.

A sloppy single-player campaign met with matchless multiplayer makes for an unbalanced first-person shooter experience.

It's a mere...er, shadow of the cartoon, but it's also a lively workout...While this is far from "Onimusha," "Shinobi," or "Ninja Gaiden," initiates fresh to the genre should find it a worthy first challenge. [May 2004, p.70]

Illbleed scores major points for twisted originality, even if unfocused and clunky execution keeps it from turning horror on its gory, severed ear.

Word Searcher Deluxe offers a great value for fans of the word puzzle genre, but it's clearly geared towards a very specific clientele. With plenty of puzzles, a local co-op mode, and downloadable content, word search aficionados looking for a new way to play their favorite newspaper-to-arcade game should check this title out. Everyone else may find the game lacking.

Armageddon's not bad, it's just plain. The game feels like Volition started from scratch, but accidentally threw out too much of what made the last game great.

It all works quite well and should prove entertaining to the little ones. The quirky humor and gameplay will be a little too simple for more mature tastes but younger gamers should definitely tune into this one.

The sex appeal factor is just okay, so it’s not going to blow you away if you’re mainly in the market for eye candy or compromising situations.

Non–Dragon Ball Z fans, however, may have a hard time not only grasping the quirky DBZ story, but also wrapping their fingers around the repetitious controls.

A sloppy single-player campaign met with matchless multiplayer makes for an unbalanced first-person shooter experience.

It won't replace scheduled sessions with Team Fortess 2 -- nor is it as good -- but Lead and Gold is extremely fun and has an exceptional amount of potential if Fatshark is willing to fix some of its more glaring issues.

Despite my gripes, Shank is a badass game. It could've done with a little more content (maybe a boss rush mode?), but it's a hack-and-slash murderfest that can easily stand toe-to-toe with the likes of Castle Crashers and Scott Pilgrim.

If there's a problem with Rabbids 3D it's that it's a little too forgiving, despite the game's best efforts to be otherwise in its latter half. Still, given the as-of-yet anemic selection of 3DS releases available, Rabbids 3D is one of the better options.

Armageddon's not bad, it's just plain. The game feels like Volition started from scratch, but accidentally threw out too much of what made the last game great.

You can easily beat the game in one sitting -- pretty disappointing, especially for "Strider" veterans.

Despite it's aesthetic weaknesses, Sempai Legends is a good trading-card game and definitely a match for its competitors.

Wacky camera angles that can be frustrating and difficult to adjust during heated battles plague every level.

It's a little repetitive, but smooth controls and varied weapons make this pig's tale an addictive game of revenge.

A very, very, very old-school platformer that doesn’t have enough standout new features to keep it fresh in this day and age.

Even if you strip away the Robotech coolness, you still have a decent action game that entertains but doesn’t surprise.

Valkyria Chronicles 2 isn't at all a bad game, but it is frustrating, both for newcomers that need to master the combat system and for fans that have to unlearn habits formed around the first game.

No one can deny the Tiger Woods PGA Tour franchise the rank of golf sim head honcho, but sometimes even the best needs to change - and soon. [Jan 2006, p.48]

Quantum of Solace is a good first-person shooter that, in my opinion, is the best Bond game since Goldeneye.

Bladestorm is a fun medieval experience, and veterans of the tactical action games will enjoy, though it may be a good jumping-on point for those new to the genre.

The graphics aren’t much different from those in FIFA with players still having that stiff, android feel.

Daunting price point aside, Rocket Knight is a fun, albeit short, adventure with a variety of gameplay that doesn't reinvent what was great about the 16-bit era, but instead serves to remind us how much fun it was.

Deep statistics are offset by a clunky interface. A deep career mode is offset by annoying seasonal goals. Hi-res graphics are offset by frame rate issues. Great musics and stadium songs are offset by flimsy on-field sound effects.

Blitz is no work of art. It's quirky, bizarro entertainment that grabs you like a swift kick to the testosterone sack and is best played live with guys in an M-rated atmosphere.

The open-ended levels seen in the original Tenchu are replaced with mostly linear levels that have artificial bottlenecks, forcing the player to follow specific paths.

This game makes me a little sad, because it's a fun action-RPG with a lot of potential that just feels a little bit undercooked.

The missions are unimaginative (even compared to the original), navigation issues prevent you from ever attaining a movement rhythm, and the various narratives are a mess. But worse still, the combat isn't as tight as it could be and the world itself just seems less polished than its predecessor. Yet, for those moments when the game shines, it shines brightly.

The glitches and sense of sterility make everything feel just a little out of alignment, but Totaled!'s arcade-sy core and multiplayer mode still make it fun. [August 2002, p.82]

But even though it offers some worthwhile moments, it unfortunately squanders most of its vast potential on a heavily scripted experience that doesn't take full advantage of the compelling world around it.

Does a fair job of showing off the PSP's technical prowess. As a fairly straightforward hack-and-slash RPG, Untold Legends fits the bill. Just don't expect it to match the bliss that is "Diablo II."

The between-level load times are also slow, but the greatest concern is the unhelpful and idiotic friendly A.I. that leaves you alone, fending off hordes of attacking wolves while your siblings stand stupidly by.

Tiger for the Wii is a lot like the real sport of golf: wonderfully fun and tremendously frustrating. But unlike the real deal, it just isn't always worth the aggravation.

Make no mistake: you can have a lot of fun with The Force Unleashed. [Oct 2008, p.88]

The game’s endless top-down horde-shooting and limb-hacking is an absolute blast with four people (the five characters complement each other well), but the friendless may find Hunting and Reckoning to be a lonely, repetitious profession.

If you played Shiren, however, you may find Pokemon to be too forgiving for your dungeon-hacking skills.

Explosively paced and tougher than Chuck Bronson, the game is also a suffocatingly linear one whose difficulty hinges upon repetitious trial and error, requiring you to play through levels repeatedly to memorize layouts and enemy patterns.

So while Spyborgs' target audience might leave a few scratching their heads, it really shouldn't deter those who remember and enjoyed repeatedly beating up various things through the use of combos and co-op teamwork. Because ultimately, this rare Wii game has a lot more going for it than its questionable target demographic.

There isn't much originality in the tower defense genre, but browser-port GemCraft adds RPG elements and additional modes that help separate it from the masses.

Wii Music is probably Nintendo's most well-meaning game ever.

The Live series makes a strong come back this year with NBA LIVE 10, so what if it took a decade on the pine watching 2K take home all the hardware? There's no shame in being the Sixth Man so long as you keep improving to a full fledged starter. With that said, I don't remember the last time I saw somebody go out and buy an Aaron McKie jersey.

Tropico 3 had a very clear progression of campaign missions, and while Tropico 4 does have a campaign, it seems more focused on intra-mission tasks rather than overall goals.

It's hard to find fault with the concept behind Third Age; from a marketing perspective, Final Fantasy and LOTR probably seemed like a perfect match. But you can't crudely shoehorn two disconnected franchises together without bringing something unique and worthwhile to the table.

Imperium Romanum has some significant problems - it's a buggy mess, has horrible combat mechanics, and doesn't really get across what the problems with your city is - but in spite of these problems there is still a good amount of fun to be had.

It's twisted fun for a while, but then it starts to get old.

It's repetitive and (to be honest) gets dull after a while, but the sheer scope of Xtreme Legends keeps it engaging for a reasonably long time.

The people who will enjoy Frogger the most are the die-hard fans of the series looking to celebrate its 30th anniversary alongside Konami, and anyone with a 3DS looking for a worthwhile challenge.

A game that looks and sounds great, but sometimes feels more like work than play.

It's a good little title that's enjoyable but ultimately of limited appeal. [Sep 2007, p.80]

Our first run through the game clocked in at little over four hours, which was quite disappointing. The game does have a ton of collectibles to find, including some cool Xbox 360 Achievement Awards, but just don't expect an epic 20-hour experience.

Road of Devastation may not be quite as robust of an expansion to Dead Nation as fans had hoped for, but there's enough new content here to make it worth the price of admission.

Overall I had fun with Revolt. It's not exactly groundbreaking, but it's a solid shooter that certainly provided plenty of fun and challenge.

Without any new gameplay developments beyond the Cup (which, in all fairness, should’ve been in FIFA 2002 in the first place), there’s little justification for its full-price $50 tag—it’s more like a $25 add-on pack.

An RPG classic revitalized and re-engineered from the ground up, this decades-old adventure holds its own in this remarkably solid remake.

It's fun while it lasts, but it certainly won't blaze any new trails as far as virtual rockstardom goes, and diehard fans of Rock Band should hope that the devs return to their hard rocking roots for the next genuine installment. [Feb 2010, p.89]

Alien Hominids control scheme doesn't allow for players to fire diagonally. Also, the console version is intended for 2 players--single player games are frustratingly hard due to the cheap AI.

Outbreak's gameplay differs little from that of the previous two installments...All that said, though, Outbreak is the most engrossing .hack yet from a story standpoint.

A spotty story and monotonous gameplay keep Dark Cloud from rising to new heights.

If you have nostalgia for the franchise, you'll probably love having this on their iPad, but those unfamiliar with FMV games might be more than a bit befuddled by Dragon's Lair.

We give the nod to NBA 2K7 [over "NBA 07"] for its superior in-game management and franchise development mode.

Digital déjà vu. Your brain knows that it’s a brand-new game…but you never quite shake the feeling that you’ve played it all before.

Dark Sector isn't a bad game but its considerable potential is squandered thanks to some iffy design decisions and inconsistent gameplay.

Bet on Soldier attempts to up the ante on the genre, but instead deals a conservative hand that only FPS fans will want to check.

Vice City Stories is a fun game that lets you jump into right into the action, but don't expect anything special or new from this game.

The most charming part of the game is how the music you hear while you play is tied directly to your art project. Each "mood" is a base groove, that starts off pretty slow and lacking in energy, but as you add color to the environment things get pretty jammin'.

But in the process of making Field Commander appeal to a more hardcore audience, Sony Online Entertainment also made the game far blander than it should be. Unit design is purely uninspired and the story and accompanying dialogue are as trite as the next game.

Would have appeared more innovative and garnered a higher Fun Factor rating if not for its blatant similarities in presentation, features, competition modes, FMVs, and even screen layouts with "SSX Tricky."

Learning how to navigate and apply the many different options and variables will take some time and practice, and while I'm not saying that putting in the effort isn't worth it in the end, I am saying that today's market seems less likely to embrace a title that has a learning curve as steep as Brett Michael's declining rock-credibility.

Peggle on-the-go means you might end up accomplishing more while you're actually at your desk-a perk-but if that seems like small consolation, then you're better off sticking to the classic version. Plus, you'll save $9.99.

This visually stunning space shooter lets you battle among the stars, but pilots may be bored by the monotonous shooting and the lack of an alluring story.

A good, well-crafted action game, but it definitely shows its age. It’s also quite possibly the hardest SNES game ever made, which, by the way, makes it too hard.

No two matches -- even between the same teams -- ever feel quite the same, and it's that element of surprise that just might, at least offline, make Pro Evolution my go-to soccer game this season.

No two matches -- even between the same teams -- ever feel quite the same, and it's that element of surprise that just might, at least offline, make Pro Evolution my go-to soccer game this season.

New Legends could go down as one of the best bad games ever made.

The game surfs on the well-executed difference among the Alien, Predator, and Marine gameplay styles, but the strategy lacks depth and defaults to the throw-piles-of-guys-at-the-enemy style of gameplay.

Miles Edgeworth is worth picking up if you're an Ace Attorney fan, as the cameos are delightful -- keep your eyes peeled for Lotta Hart! -- and the cases are still interesting enough, even though they're far too easy and much too predictable.

While it was a decent games for the PSOne, especially popular with the kiddies, it seems a waste of the PSP.

At the low price of $10, I have no qualms about recommending it. Bumps and all, it's still a hell of a fun ride.

The clear-a-room combat can get a bit repetitive, but the diverse cast of crazies -- and the equally varied ways to silence them -- should keep horror fans hacking, slashing, beheading, and eviscerating through the ten-plus hour campaign.

Collisions are far too bouncy-what should be minor dust-ups send your car cartwheeling through the air, and many of the timed missions have far too little breathing room.

A mild-mannered blood-spattered adventure that's worth a one-time run through, and doesn't have a warrior's tenacity for a long-term fight to the legendary halls of action gods.

Far from perfect but still an incredibly entertaining play, Afro Samurai captures all of the style and substance from the hit TV show with amazingly innovative combat and absolutely stunning visuals.

Despite the flaws in some of the camera angles, Blood Will Tell is still an enjoyable game. Even if you have to gruel out some time with the local monsters in between, the boss fights are really what this game is about as they come plentiful.

It's a little rough around the edges, so we'd still recommend Resident Evil 4 as the premiere Wii survival horror game, but if you want to dismember the undead in a non-lightgun setting, it's a pretty solid choice.

Although its gameplay is derivative, Yanya Caballista’s ludicrous B-movie plot, wacky animation, and cartoon-inspired zaniness give it entertainment value.

After years of claiming that they have to get the "gameplay right" before moving on to other issues, it seems that Tiburon has, for the most part, done just that. So, the foundation seems to be in place, but as with the Detroit Lions, Madden 12 is probably still a year away (sorry, Lions fans). But take heart: it'll be a good year nonetheless.

Unsurprising, but still pretty hilarious.

However, I realize there is indeed a market for this kind of game, and for those looking for a fun (albeit masochistically hard) old-school RPG, there is no better place to go than The Dark Spire. [Apr 2009, p.80]