Ultimately Puzzle Quest 2 isn't a bad game, it's just a disappointing one. There are other games in this genre that should get your greenbacks before you invest in this one, including the stellar Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes and the original Puzzle Quest. Measure your expectations accordingly.

Despite all of these somewhat questionable design issues, the title does deliver a rather enjoyable hop n’ bop experience that can easily burn a few hours without demanding too much investment of cerebral activity.

It's too simple, too short, and becomes boring far too quickly to recommend.

2006 FIFA World Cup is truly a game I really want to like. There’s enough in it to play for a while, however the control issues and the terrible, repetitive play by play really bring it down a notch

Even if I hadn't played the crap out of the game series on the PC, I would have still felt the game was lacking any significant punch to set itself ahead of the market for its time.

As bare-boned as Deathsmiles is, playing through the game a couple times is entertaining.

Runespell: Overture is good for an hour or two, the size of the demo conveniently enough, but beyond that, there's just not enough there to warrant spending the additional time playing it.

Need for Speed: The Run is a true black sheep trying desperately to fit in with its siblings, but simultaneously getting so much so very wrong.

Still hamstrung by the lack of voice communication among human players online and workman-like AI for non-human-controlled allied characters in the single-player mode, the game just fails to differentiate itself enough to avoid a comparison with the new "Resident Evil 4" kid on the block.

The bottom line is that it’s impossible to recommend this title to anyone who isn’t a fairly hardcore adventure buff.

You do not get a whole lot of replay value from it however...if you took this game to work with you and you work a 9 to 5 shift...you could be done before the day is over...you might even be done before lunch.

If you have the patience to put up with some very slow plot points, have never been bothered by an overuse of clichés in the JRPG genre, and are more interested in a JRPG with refreshing combat than a refreshing narrative, you'll get a kick out of The Last Hope.

The motion-controls certainly deserve praise, but its assorted shortcomings stifle the game’s good qualities. Lackluster, repetitive missions and a horrid ranking system prevent Wing Island from being more than a short-lived diversion for your kids.

Is it harder? Absolutely—but it's also not nearly as much fun, the witty banter between the Prince and Elika is gone, and the ending leaves the player, and the Prince, wondering just what all of the effort was for. Combine that with the short play time (about two hours) and the recycled enemies and you're left thinking that your ten bucks could have been better spent elsewhere.

Another problem that is baffling is that there are fewer characters available for the versus and online play match types than there were in the last game.

From a technical standpoint, C.O.P.:The Recruit is very impressive and tech-heads may find it worth checking out if only to see how smoothly it runs with such a large environment at play.

Halo is still a superlative multiplayer game, and with a group of friends, there's nothing quite like a well-tuned game mode or a white-knuckle finish to a Firefight. It's a shame that Halo: Reach couldn't add $60 worth of improvements to it.

Those looking at this game as a way to jump into the trading card genre, or just looking for a new way to make their’s Marvel, will be better suited with heading down to the Game Shop and entering the tutelage of the resident ten year old experts.

If you're not the type to shy away from enthusiastic Wii games, or loved any previous DDR games, then it's worth giving a shot.

Other playable modes offer a little variety to Legend Mode, such as Dream Mode, which opens up a story not seen in the manga for rabid fans to devour, and Challenge Mode featuring endless waves of enemies to slaughter again and again, but unless you're that devoted fan with every single episode of the anime series and every volume of the manga, there just isn't enough here to recommend.

It's a shame that the gameplay hasn't evolved all that much since last year's release and that there is a real lack of contrast between Pandora and Death Jr.'s character, but there's still a solid and fun game experience to be had if you give this title a chance.

Wait until next year when "Dynasty Warriors 6" comes out, buy Dynasty Warriors 5 then at the Greatest Hits price of $20, and then comfort yourself realizing that you’ll still be playing the same game the jokers who just shelled out another $50 for "Dynasty Warriors 6" are.

It's a mediocre survival horror game that demonstrates a lot of ambition on the part of Sega, but it clearly needed some more time in development.

In the end analysis the game just does not hold up. The broken frame rate makes it difficult to control and it just can't deliver on its promise of a massive online fighting game.

Activision is publishing an Aerosmith-focused game with a mere 31 tour tracks, a significant fraction of which have nothing to do with Aerosmith, and they’re charging people full price for the privilege.

If I was forced to choose a version out of these three I'd go with the Xbox 360 version simply because it looks better and nearly matches the level of visual quality found in the film.

Despite a litany of grievances, the multiplayer is at least moderately entertaining and I do think that die hard Castlevania fans will get some mileage out of it.

Etrian Odyssey requires patience and resolve to unlock the mysteries of the Labyrinth, with not enough reward in return. This is a game only for the hardcore. All others need not apply.