Even with the game's various problems I kept finding myself excited to play and looking forward to the next chapter to see which characters would be along for the ride.

Given a little time, Tropico 4 proves itself an excellent strategy title, which makes it a rare gem on the 360. It's not the perfect port of a PC game to the console, but if you can slog your way through clunky controls and a somewhat steep learning curve, it provides an incredibly deep, rewarding experience.

The game's combat system and excellent graphics makes up for a weak second half storyline and ho-hum characters that bring the go down a notch and I have no problem recommending it to role-players that find themselves mostly ignoring those aspects of these games.

At the end of the day X-Men Origins: Wolverine offers a fun, albeit repetitive romp as one of comics' most savage characters.

A true expansion in every sense of the word.

The backstory is light, the characters are sometimes charming (and sometimes goofy) and the world is everything you'd expect to find in a Japanese RPG.

Overall, Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 is a relatively by-the-numbers enhancement of the previous game. Normally these sorts of increments would be frustrating, but considering the tremendous value the game presents to causal Magic fans it's easy to overlook another purchase when compared to the alternative. For the cost of a few booster packs, Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 provides a balanced, enjoyable experience that Magic fans of all levels can enjoy – at least until next year.

The storyline is very difficult to understand and just won’t make sense to newcomers at first, the gameplay is hard to stomach until players start to comprehend all the little “undocumented features” that the game’s brief tutorial utterly and completely fails to explain, the mission objectives get repetitive, frustrating, and even boring as the campaign moves on, and the game engine definitely demands a kick-ass system to ensure an experience that is at least somewhat smooth.

A pretty solid arcade volleyball experience with a plethora of fun characters and humor geared towards the male adolescent in us all. But once the humor gets old, turning it all off reveals that underneath it all is a pretty solid gaming experience.

In the end, the game does end up being rather short -- toping out at around thirty hours -- but it still makes sure to satisfy.

Really, it’s not a bad game, and is clearly targeted at the casual market and the younger generation, and considering that audience, it’s at the very least worth a rental.

Now I’m not going to lie here. It took me about 5 or 6 tries to get that guilty verdict. Hey I’m not a lawyer ok! But the challenge did make it interesting.

The game hardly lays out a convincing tale, which leaves gameplay to perform double duty.

Here is a drama with characters we care about, built by us, and written in the verse of that now-familiar Sims vocabulary, finally harnessed to tell great stories that are too big for any sandbox about day-to-day life.

$30 is a fair price to pay for a truly excellent, old school platforming experience.

Because of the technical problems, it's tough to solely recommend the PC version of Kong over the other platform versions.

The solo game is decent enough but without the ability to play this game with friends it simply loses its edge.

Right now the baseball game to beat on the PS3 is Konami’s "Professional Baseball Spirits 4," and even with the language barrier, it’s still a more enjoyable game.

Once you get past the inevitable Pokémon comparisons and let Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 serve up its own brand of monster hunting mayhem, there's an enjoyable combat model and monster synthesis system to be had here.

This is a game for people who feel "regular" soccer is too slow and methodical. It's like watching those old And One basketball tapes or going to a Globetrotters game. It's technically soccer but it's faster, looser, not terribly realistic and ideal to play against a buddy when there's 30 minutes to kill and you want to get in a handful of matches and talk a little smack in the process.

Final Fantasy – Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates is a great game if you plan on purchasing it with the intent on playing it primarily with other people.

Here's a fair litmus test. If you're on the fence about this game, and you have a Wii, spend $5 on the Virtual Console version of The Legend of Zelda. Spend an hour or two with it. Did you enjoy that? Now imagine it with gorgeous graphics and a lot of self-referential humor. That's 3D Dot Game Heroes, and while it's not for everyone, it's one of the most unique, charming and fun PS3 exclusives released so far this year.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 is close. It's so very close to being a truly great golf sim and the Kinect support is far and away better than I could have possibly imagined.

You've seen these gimmicks in other games, so it's ultimately a familiar grammar involving water, gravity, light beams, and so forth. The charm comes from the execution and the funky artwork.

Crash Course certainly isn't a bad piece of content, it's just not a slam dunk if you have to pay for it.

Over all PES 2008 for the 360 is a mixed bag – it plays better, it looks better and you can edit everything; however it still doesn’t have the variety shown on the Wii or PS2, and the online play is only bearable if you can find an opponent to play head to head on the same console.

What this game lacks in originality it more than makes up for in execution and puzzle fun.

Even with the game's various problems I kept finding myself excited to play and looking forward to the next chapter to see which characters would be along for the ride.