Duke is a nice trip down nostalgia lane if you have been missing Duke's smug face over the years and want to get reacquainted with the jeans wearing meathead but if you have already been there, there's really no real reason to return.

Even with a couple of minor demerits that tend to fade into the background when you're playing a multiplayer game with friends, Risk: Factions is a great addition to the Xbox Live Arcade library.

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.

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.

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.

While the underlying game might be straightforward, nothing about it is simple, because the interface always wants more sacrifices.

With Green Day: Rock Band, just as with The Beatles: Rock Band, Harmonix has proven themselves adept at creating a musical experience that distills down the unique strengths of a band and plays to those strengths to near perfection.

It's still not the serious no frills golf sim a lot of fans want – but it's getting there.

It still blows my mind that the most hardcore golfing experience in video games today is found on the console universally decried as being too "kiddie" but that is the stone cold truth.

As a story and a game, Peace Walker is wonderfully open-ended, encouraging you to replay missions, level up weapons, improve your staff, unlock gadgets, and even go online for head-to-head action or special recruitment missions.

Ultimately, Jolly Rover is a funny, well made adventure game.

It's more a fine super-patch than an extension or elaboration on the game as it stood.

Snoopy Flying Ace may not do anything that arcade dogfight games of past console generations didn't already cover but it remains a unique title in the XBLA catalog and I'm glad that I gave it a chance despite its questionable provenance.

All of this hammers home the notion that you’re playing a really nice tech demo and not a complete football game—and the $10 discount price of $49.99 isn’t enough to warrant a purchase.

All of this hammers home the notion that you're playing a really nice tech demo and not a complete football game-and the $10 discount price of $49.99 isn't enough to warrant a purchase.

The abysmal AI, the absolutely disastrous PC controls, boss battles that all but throw out the gameplay style that got you there in the first place, and the complete and total illogic of some of the gameplay systems (like the aforementioned “shields”) all serve to derail what should have been as memorable a game as I’ve played this year.

No matter how you slice it, though, UFC Undisputed 2010 is another blissful, brilliant recreation of the sport.

No matter how you slice it, though, UFC Undisputed 2010 is another blissful, brilliant recreation of the sport.

Longtime Mario fans will gobble this up and love every nanosecond, while casual folks may find themselves letting the game play for them more often than not.

While the dark spooky woods environment can get a little tedious - as can the combat, the story telling is compelling enough to keep you moving forward and just when you finally think you know what is going on, the game will turn it upside down, flip you the bird, and have you rethinking everything all over again - right up until the credits roll.

In the end, Red Dead Redemption is going to please a lot of gamers who are simply starved for a new world to explore and the Wild West, even though the game takes place at the end of that era, is ripe for the taking.

What Red Dead Redemption does best is allowing players to do whatever they want, whenever they want in a setting unlike any other.

Split Second's longevity isn't in its innumerable tracks. It's in finding new ways to better yourself in its smaller set of them.

Split Second's longevity isn't in its innumerable tracks. It's in finding new ways to better yourself in its smaller set of them.

The excellent platforming still remains, but this Prince seems to have lost a little of himself in coming back to his roots.

The excellent platforming still remains, but this Prince seems to have lost a little of himself in coming back to his roots.

Sure, there's still plenty of room to cram more into the game (I'd love to see some kind of proper multiplayer support), but as it stands, this expansion pack is definitely worth the purchase.

While the multiplayer does add a little something to package, it’s obvious that the campaign – the true co-op campaign - is where the main focus is. As good as the game looks, and as huge as the bosses are, it’s not all that fun to go through alone.