If "serious" is the last thing you associate with hockey games, you’ll have a blast hammering out checks on Hitz' rink - especially since Midway’s rolled back the price a notch.

In short, it's one of the best value PC games you'll ever buy.

Stellar cell-shaded graphics, excellent voice acting (with Patrick Stewart reprising his cinematic role as Professor X), and multiplayer mayhem that make Legends look and feel like the A-list game that it is.

The question isn't if it's worth your time. It clearly is. The real question is if -- for only ten dollars -- you're ready to spend every free second you have in front of your computer, dominated by Critical Mass. It might be a blasphemous comparison, but this is an obsession of mine that's nearing Tetris proportions.

Overall, Puzzle Quest 2 is a sharper title than the last two games in the franchise. With tons of quests, various ways to customize your characters, and an improved combat system, fans of the original Puzzle Quest are going to have their hands full with this sequel.

Follows up last year's comeback player of the year with control tweaks and makes its formidable franchise mode even better. [Apr 2006, p.97]

It's amazing what a little touch up in graphics and sound can do for a tower defense gameplay-based title. And Hidden Path Entertainment's Defense Grid: The Awakening is a prime example of that sudden transformation of taking a unoriginal. well-known style of video game and turning it into a masterpiece for your PC.

Age of Zombies doesn't play that differently from any other shooter on the App Store, but it has enough personality to easily warrant my recommendation.

All told, this is a great debut for the Prince of Persia series on the PS3 and Xbox 360. [Jan 2009, p.74]

Touches gloves and starts swinging with terrific controls and deep, exciting gameplay. It's too bad that the lackluster graphics and sounds prevent it from becoming a truly memorable champion.

Ghost Master's truly bloodcurdling flaw is its lack of customization options: There are no character creator, level editor, or multiplayer options.

A refreshing surprise—it puts back the “miracle” into the Miracle Boy’s reputation by being a top-notch freestylin’ cyclist for the PS2.

In the realm of today’s high-powered next-gen role-players, BOFII is an excellent time-killer—not to mention one of the better entries in the series.

Deceptively engaging.

The best part of Island Thunder is its price tag... Though it may seem to be a simple add-on, Island Thunder has enough features to make it feel like a brand-new game.

The single-player NFL Challenge mode can destroy your enjoyment in short order, but as long as you have real-life friends to join you, NFL Street is a blast—and a much-needed shot in the arm for the genre.

More than just a port of a PlayStation 2 fighting game—it’s a port of a very good PlayStation 2 fighting game... The GameCube version suffers a bit on a few fronts, most notably its controls and graphics.

If you can get past its gimmicky aspect, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat becomes an interesting spin on the side-scrolling hop-n-bop action genre that ultimately relies on endurance as much as reflexes. [Apr 2005, p.82]

Though maddening at times, it's easy to see Another World's rigidly scripted cinematic nature as a precursor to modern linear blockbusters like Uncharted, making it a fascinating, albeit antiquated curio.

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 is still a spectacle, but compared to the first time around, the hype feels far more subdued.

Nintendo's got the party magic when it comes to four-player multiplayer good-times, too. No matter how you might manhandle the A.I., playing with your pals is the best way to enjoy this tennis match.

The further you get from the starting levels, the more you'll have to deal with smudged content. The voice acting will mysteriously disappear, along with the quests, the single-player story, and the engaging instances.

But if you're looking for a good, simple RPG that you can pick up and play without chaining yourself down, you should definitely choose Dragon Quest IV this fall. [Oct 2008, p.91]

The only problem lies in the hefty system requirements that are required to produce all this eye candy; if you don't have the rig necessary to run it at a high enough setting, you miss out on the true beauty of the game.

About the only shortcoming Ace Combat 6 possesses is an intimidating visage, especially if you're using the Ace Edge flight stick. This is definitely a hardcore game, not one intended for casual play given its attention to detail, simulation-style controls, and general difficulty.

It's disappointing really because Bully offers incredibly entertaining gameplay that's worthwhile, but the improvements that should have come with the jump to the more powerful Xbox 360 hardware just don't pan out.

Gone is the non-linear design of each mission. Each objective is now clearly marked one after another, eliminating secondary (optional) objectives and different ways of approaching a target, which were key and exciting components in the original Ghost Recon game.

Takes as many steps back as it does forward, and ends up teetering precariously over the brink of being a disappointment.