Street Fighter IV 3D is an excellent fighting game that packs a reasonable challenge in one-player mode, but truly excels in multiplayer mode, where its lag-free fighting is surprisingly effective and fun.

This year's real highlight for Madden madmen is the buffed out A.I.: On defense, the game reacts more rapidly than ever to your offensive tendencies and in particular makes tough half time adjustments.

The tired, princess-saving formula never seems to change, but somehow Nintendo makes every visit to the Mushroom Kingdom feel like the first time.

Street’s sensational gameplay deftly combines competitive hoops and slick moves and dunks without delving into the realm of Jam’s absurd acrobatics.

With a ton of tricks, parks, and game modes, and the included park editor, THPS2 provides a great gaming experience with tons of replay value.

The new features, refined interface, and (above all) near-perfect sense of balance make this old dog feel vital and new.

A no-holds-barred chariot racer full of originality and pee-in-your-pants combat.

NHL 2001 takes this year's PlayStation Championship (against Sony's "FaceOff"), but it was a tight seven game showdown.

A landmark sports game. Not only is it the greatest football game we've yet seen, it's a masterclass in how to capture the essence of a sport. From they way it looks to the way it makes you think about how you play the game, FIFA 12 is brilliant, through and through.

A landmark sports game. Not only is it the greatest football game we've yet seen, it's a masterclass in how to capture the essence of a sport. From they way it looks to the way it makes you think about how you play the game, FIFA 12 is brilliant, through and through.

Whether you've played the original or not, Freespace 2 takes its place among the greatest space-flight sims of all-time.

Although this is said of almost every single new Rockstar product, Red Dead Redemption is arguably their best effort to date, if only because it distills all of the lessons they've learned from their previous titles into an engaging, expansive, and enthralling world. But the best part of Rockstar's open-world oater is its honest and open appreciation for the iconic Western genre. [Aug 2010, p.82]

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.

Whether it's the exhaustively full-featured leaderboards, gorgeous graphics, or community features, every element of Super QuickHook goes above and beyond what's expected of an indie game release on the App Store.

Not only is Thief an anti-shooter, it's also like an RPG without the trappings of levels, skills, and experience points. That's how it feels-again, as though I'm actually doing something.

Must-own material.

WCIII: FT follows Blizzard’s pattern of packing their expansion packs with just as much gameplay and story as the core game it augments.

Ninja Blade is a game full of awesome moments. It's not incredibly deep and it won't redefine the genre but it's a kick-ass title that will please action junkies looking for an adrenaline kick.

Continues to deliver well-balanced pigskin fun with awesome graphics, intuitive controls, numerous options, and lightning-fast onscreen action.

The gameplay area is huge.

A stellar recreation of the PC version. I've encountered absolutely no slowdown (or any other issues) during my time with the iPad edition.

This charming and challenging side-scroller impresses with its varied gameplay and colorful aesthetic.

Black & White miraculously pulls you in and doesn't let go until you've sacrificed many hours.

Few RPGs provide so deft a balance between the wandering monster-slaying and the NPC interaction phases of role-playing.

Like a new year’s line of automobiles, Onimusha 2 has a sleeker look, more bells and whistles, and improved standard features over its predecessor model, "Warlords."

Turok has more fire power more control over its environment, and more gruesome graphics than other corridor shooters. The rest are Doomed to failure.

It is rare that a game this difficult can be this entertaining, but Ecco delivers the goods with a huge splash.

A very strong contender for PlayStation game of the year. Its "rowdy rowdy" gameplay will keep your head spinning for days.