The unique blend of wonderfully bizarre settings and enemies make Death Jr.'s return a fresh gaming experience. It's "Nightmare Before Christmas" meets "Alice in Wonderland." Prepare yourself for one crazy trip.

As a highly competent, technically polished, but otherwise straightforward first-person shooter, F.E.A.R. is a safe bet for the Xbox 360 action fiend. It may not replace "Halo 2" in your FPS collection, but it sure as hell beats playing "Perfect Dark Zero" for the fourteenth time.

Carbon almost always manages to feel as finely tuned as any of its high performance sleds, and with downloadable content on the way, it seems safe to think that it'll be an adrenaline generating favorite for a good long while.

The game is gritty and dull to a fault and it doesn't have the same sense of humor that made the past titles so entertaining. What humor there is tends to be painfully blunt - the first four hours are like one long un-funny redneck joke, for example.

A broken game - which is a shame, because with a bit more effort it could have been something rather intriguing. It takes some significant gameplay risks and attempts innovation in both its single player and multiplayer modes.

Though sometimes slow and laborious, .hack//G.U. Vol.1 Rebirth is a well thought out update to the series, and is a welcome addition to the growing dot hack family.

We wish good luck to anyone looking to pry any comic collector they know away from this game long enough to complete a sentence.

In all, Petroglyph did a commendable job bringing in a new faction and fresh features and units to an already enjoyable game.

Behind the sharper graphics and the bigger kit of options, though, there's still an unfortunately shallow, repetitive game.

For those looking for a nostalgic adventure game experience, you'll be pleasantly surprised, at least in function. For anyone else, Touch Detective offers a quirky and off-kilter, albeit short and at times frustrating, adventure.

A decent title with challenging puzzles that will reward your patience and dedication. It's probably best as an extended rental but some of you might find that it's worth the full price of admission.

Reservoir Dogs should be a game that puts you right in the middle of a gang of thugs. But instead, arguments about the meaning of Madonna lyrics and trading stories about near misses with police make it a disjointed game of multiple perspectives and confusing timeframes.

Heroes is easily the worst MOH game yet, and yes that includes the PlayStation versions that came out over half a decade ago.

For those with patience, a good sense of direction, and an interest in the obscure, you owe it to yourself to try the game out. If you have a short temper or enjoy the mundane, it's best you avoid making contact with this one.

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.

At such an enticing price, having to subscribe to the episodic format is a small concession for such great content found in Sam & Max.

Where the game really shines is in its story, which offers class-based warfare amid jocks, nerds, bullies, greasers, and preppies. As Bully progresses and Jimmy finds himself enmeshed in his struggle to survive, the game blossoms, and players will find themselves desperate to see what happens next.

The A.I. has also gotten smarter to the point that if you are caught out in the open, you're as hosed as Brittney's post K-Fed career. Sure, you can try to forgo the use of cover and concealment but bloody wounds and humiliation will be your only reward.

Battlefield, in its best moments, is one of the most perfect and pure online experiences around. It's too bad 2142 isn't a major evolution over the titles that came before it but it's entertaining enough, and as the old saying goes, you shouldn't look a gift hovertank in the mouth.

Not all the missions are wildly inventive, but the majority are satisfing and entertaining, and each is more fun than the original title's simplistic collection quests.

Heroes is a relatively simple game that, at times, feels like "X-Men Legends" with DC character models. Still, the chance to take control of some of the most beloved superheroes on the planet is one that you just can't pass up.

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.

Tremendously fun. The subtle nuances and sheer competitiveness still make it the best realistic golf experience out there. There are nagging issues that continue to get overlooked, but whether or not you've been playing the game in years past, Tiger 07 is a must-buy for cyber golfers.

You'll laugh out loud in your time spent with Work Time Fun. You'll even become thoroughly immersed in what you're playing, despite its ridiculousness, and for thirty bucks, this is a game you should definitely consider adding to your PSP collection.

Heroes is a relatively simple game that, at times, feels like X-Men Legends with DC character models. Still, the chance to take control of some of the most beloved superheroes on the planet is one that you just can't pass up.

Not all the missions are wildly inventive, but the majority are satisfing and entertaining, and each is more fun than the original title's simplistic collection quests.

But as good as the action is it's the replay value of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon that makes it unbelievable. There's so much to do outside the main arcade mode that you'll feel almost overwhelmed with choices. [Dec. 2006, p.115]

When compared to past Tales games, Abyss has only really changed a handful of aspects. However, those changes are obvious upgrades and have made a huge difference in the overall gameplay experience.