It's a bare-bones product that's a missed opportunity, offering no compelling reasons to make it recommendable over the PC version, except to someone with an Xbox Live account and a completely outdated PC.

An excellent racing game overall and boasts such a sheer quantity of features and options that most other racing games simply cannot compare. On top of that, solid gameplay and a diverse, flat-out terrific selection of cars help give PGR 2 plenty of long-term appeal.

Recommended wholeheartedly. It looks fantastic and features responsive controls, some original play mechanics, a good story, and plenty of thrilling adventure. In the simplest terms: Do not miss out on this game.

Doesn't do much to set itself apart from the competition, and, additionally, it has some rather problematic flaws that deteriorate its gameplay to the level of subpar, at best.

Though its balance is a little questionable at times, Metal Arms has quietly come onto the scene to offer one of the most visceral and most satisfying shooting experiences in quite a while.

Unfortunately, humor is the only thing Whiplash seems to really nail, and chuckles alone aren't enough to carry an entire game.

Could have benefited from a better interface, but at its core, Battlegrounds is still a good game.

With each iteration, the series has offered more and more features, but with Inside Drive 2004, it's apparent that the developers at High Voltage still have a ways to go before catching up to their competitors.

While it definitely has a certain sense of style to it, the game itself misses its mark, and the total package isn't one that will hold the interest of most first-person shooter players.

While it accomplishes its goal of providing a fun WWII-themed shooting gallery, it doesn't really shine in any one particular area, resulting in a game that's competent but not very compelling.

Actually works shockingly well and pans out to be an engaging, if simplistic, skateboarding experience with some legitimately amusing gags and great presentational aspects.

Recommended wholeheartedly. It looks fantastic and features responsive controls, some original play mechanics, a good story, and plenty of thrilling adventure. In the simplest terms: Do not miss out on this game.

Though its balance is a little questionable at times, Metal Arms has quietly come onto the scene to offer one of the most visceral and most satisfying shooting experiences in quite a while.

Intense in spots, Fire Warrior carries little of the punch found in the tabletop game due to a positively antediluvian shoot-'em-up design and lots of key hunts.

This cheap PlayStation 2 port carries none of the punch that can be found in the tabletop game due to a positively antediluvian design that sees you running down an endless succession of corridors hunting for keys.

New players will immediately find in Frontiers a new race and character class, as well as some slightly improved visuals, but this expansion is still best-suited to those already addicted to a'EQOA."

It's not hugely innovative, and it has its share of faults, but its particular blend of features nevertheless gives it a fresh, fun feel.

Great. With just a bit more variety to its tracks and a slightly better career mode, it definitely could have been better, but it has great graphics, solid sound, and the sort of easy learning curve that makes it a driving game that anyone can excel at.

With just a bit more variety to its tracks and a slightly better career mode, it definitely could have been better, but it has great graphics, solid sound, and the sort of easy learning curve that makes it a driving game that anyone can excel at.

An admirable effort of it with a beautiful 3D graphics engine, but, unfortunately, the end result is hampered by some frustrating gameplay, poor AI, and bugs.

Some of the games featured just don't play the way they should, marring an otherwise stellar compilation. If you have any interest in classic gaming, this collection is worth a look, provided you can get used to its quirks.

While March Madness 2004 does a good job at capturing the feel of college basketball, a general lack of polish keeps it just a little short of greatness.

You could play through it for a good 30 hours--roughly one year in game time--and still not uncover everything there is to see and do.

A brief yet satisfying action game that faithfully captures the look and feel of a typical James Bond movie.

A fun and engaging spin on the traditional action RPG experience that blends equal doses of impressive technology, innovation, and humor.

A fun handheld game that should please anyone who's looking for an action game with teeth.

Very good. With just a bit more variety to its tracks and a slightly better career mode, it definitely could have been much better, but it has great graphics, solid sound, and the sort of easy learning curve that makes it a driving game that anyone can excel at.

While March Madness 2004 does a good job at capturing the feel of college basketball, a general lack of polish keeps it just a little short of greatness.

The game looks and moves great, the controls are responsive, and there's a nice variety of gameplay modes available. Still, considering the seven-year gap since "Mario Kart 64" was released, it's hard not to be a little disappointed with the limited scope of the game.

Very good. With just a bit more variety to its tracks and a slightly better career mode, it definitely could have been much better, but it has great graphics, solid sound, and the sort of easy learning curve that makes it a driving game that anyone can excel at.

A game that offers tremendous depth but also has an unwieldy user interface and a prodigious amount of micromanagement.

Wildlife Park might have been a fun distraction for theme park fans, but the poor design and execution cripple it in a crowded field of competitors.

The series is definitely starting to show its age, at this point, and only a fan could overlook some of the game's shortcomings. In the end, however, the formula still works.

It creates the most accurate representation of the world of Springfield ever put into a game, and it manages to make the gameplay surrounding it quite a lot of fun.

With solid gameplay feel, exceptional customizability, and a deep legacy mode, ESPN College Hoops is easily recommendable to any college basketball fan.

It's great because it combines elegance, interesting gameplay choices, and the attraction of card-collecting in what has to be one of the very best pure game designs of the year.

For three decades pop culture has ingrained the voices of these central characters into our lives and to have them not sounding like expected is a disappointment.

Although giving the game a human face would make playing it a much more personable--even a more realistic--experience, Solecismic is dead-on with all the core elements of play. There's no better simulation of big-league football.

The screen size and button layout of the GBA prove to be limitations that this otherwise respectable port of SimCity 2000 cannot overcome.

With solid gameplay feel, exceptional customizability, and a deep legacy mode, ESPN College Hoops is easily recommendable to any college basketball fan.

Whether you're a longtime arcade beat-'em-up fan or a younger gamer who's new to the genre, Double Dragon Advance is just what you're looking for.

Despite some issues with the game's online performance and artificial intelligence, Rainbow Six 3 delivers quite possibly the tensest, most serious first-person shooter experiences on the Xbox to date.

Unfortunately, this new presentation isn't fully realized, leading to awkward camera angles and needlessly confusing gameplay.

While Beyond Good & Evil feels pretty short, its interesting premise and impressive presentation pick up the slack and make it a game well worth playing.

Tolkien fans may enjoy the game's presentation of Middle-earth lore, but The Hobbit tends to rely too heavily on derivative, uninspired gameplay for it to stand up on its own.

A very good adventure game with impressive production values, but if it had actually shipped complete with the promised multiplayer, it perhaps could have been much more.

The addition of a few new fighters, a new mode, and some tweaks to the gameplay don't stop this from being a rather simple, shallow game.

Legends is a 15- to 20-hour long expansion that packs more of the same type of dungeon-crawling gameplay from the original--with an emphasis on the "crawling" part.

Feels like a rushed hack-job of a game, with just barely enough cohesive action to keep it from completely falling apart at the seams.

It's fraught with lots of minor gameplay problems that eventually add up to one major headache. Rising Sun isn't completely without merit, since it comes packaged with some nice extra materials and mostly solid production values, but the weakness of the gameplay itself undermines what could have been a much more enjoyable experience.

As great a game as Ratchet & Clank was, but, considering that Going Commando is largely the same as the original, at times it feels like more of a mission pack than an entirely new game.

Offering several new features, as well as improvements to the game's graphics, sound, and overall polish, NBA Live 2004 is a good game for Live fans and general basketball fans alike.

While PC strategy veterans will find that the gameplay is pretty basic, console owners starved for a real-time strategy game should find Goblin Commander to be a worthwhile experience.

This may be a touch disappointing to hardcore fans of "Crash Team Racing", but anyone looking for a solid kart racer should be quite pleased.

If you want a good rhythm game, look elsewhere. And if you want American Idol, just go watch the show.

Without a doubt, the worst basketball game released this year, college or pro. It offers a subpar effort--across the board--in graphics, sound, gameplay, and extras (like the simplistic dynasty mode, for example).

Merely a mediocre shoot-'em-up that can be finished in four hours.

A buggy mess that has nothing to do with the actual Crusades and even less to do with fulfilling, engaging gameplay.

A great way to relive some of the high points of classic gaming. However, poorly implemented customization options and sometimes less-than-perfect emulation tarnish what would otherwise be an incredible trip down memory lane.

It can be a challenging game, but that challenge mostly comes from having to slug it out through many battles against increasingly strong foes, rather than from having to make complex tactical decisions during those battles.

The game duplicates many of the same features found in the console versions of SSX 3 and has a free-flowing 3D graphics engine that is pretty much unrivaled by anything else currently available for the system.

The characters aren't nearly as popular as those in Nintendo's game, but the deeper gameplay makes up for that to an extent.

Ultimately it gets somewhat repetitive and can be completed rather quickly and easily.

A decent but plain racing game that doesn't really excel in any one category.

While PC strategy veterans will find that the gameplay is pretty basic, console owners starved for a real-time strategy game should find Goblin Commander to be a worthwhile experience.

Feels like a rushed hack-job of a game, with just barely enough cohesive action to keep it from completely falling apart at the seams.

This may be a touch disappointing to hardcore fans of "CTR," but anyone looking for a solid kart racer should be quite pleased.

Unfortunately, this new presentation isn't fully realized, leading to awkward camera angles and needlessly confusing gameplay.

Despite the game's uneven presentation, Links 2004 is still a good choice, especially for Xbox owners to whom online play is of paramount importance.

It's fraught with lots of minor gameplay problems that eventually add up to one major headache. Rising Sun isn't completely without merit, since it comes packaged with some nice extra materials and mostly solid production values, but the weakness of the gameplay itself undermines what could have been a much more enjoyable experience.

Tolkien fans may enjoy the game's presentation of Middle-earth lore, but The Hobbit tends to rely too heavily on derivative, uninspired gameplay for it to stand up on its own.

It's fraught with lots of minor gameplay problems that eventually add up to one major headache. Rising Sun isn't completely without merit, since it comes packaged with some nice extra materials and mostly solid production values, but the weakness of the gameplay itself undermines what could have been a much more enjoyable experience.

This may be a touch disappointing to hardcore fans of "Crash Team Racing", but anyone looking for a solid kart racer should be quite pleased.

It's ultimately a pretty basic beat-'em-up, but the strong production values and a solid combat system make for a gratifying experience.

Recommended wholeheartedly. It looks fantastic and features responsive controls, some original play mechanics, a good story, and plenty of thrilling adventure. In the simplest terms: Do not miss out on this game.

Tolkien fans may enjoy the game's presentation of Middle-earth lore, but The Hobbit tends to rely too heavily on derivative, uninspired gameplay for it to stand up on its own.

Strikes a great balance between its fantasy and Egyptian-history-based elements to create a world that is rich with character, color, and originality, and its unique method of puzzle-solving makes it an easy recommendation to any fan of the genre.

It's not just another cookie-cutter shooter but plays differently in a number of key ways. So if you're looking for a unique twist on the single-player PC shooter, then Dead to Rights is worth your while.

Strikes a great balance between its fantasy and Egyptian-history-based elements to create a world that is rich with character, color, and originality, and its unique method of puzzle-solving makes it an easy recommendation to any fan of the genre.

Strikes a great balance between its fantasy and Egyptian-history-based elements to create a world that is rich with character, color, and originality, and its unique method of puzzle-solving makes it an easy recommendation to any fan of the genre.

The new single-player story mode and bonus games add a little more longevity to the game, the fundamental experience is still largely the same as that offered in previous Mario Party games. If you bought "Mario Party 4" last year, Mario Party 5 is hard to recommend.

Unfortunately, it offers very few thrills, and instead, an overly cumbersome control scheme and some insanely convoluted level designs suck just about all the fun out of what could have been an entertaining shooter.

There's little reward for all the indirect management you have to deal with, and the terrible interface sabotages the whole affair.

The hokey storyline, complete with bad B-movie live-action scenes, makes the whole thing feel campy and fun, and what Maximum Chase might lack in longevity it makes up for with sheer craziness.

It offers very few thrills, and instead, an overly cumbersome control scheme and some insanely convoluted level designs suck just about all the fun out of what could have been an entertaining shooter.

It's a collect-a-thon that's not so big, not so deep, and not so tall, and it's also devoid of the fun that's craved by all.

Despite its many positive attributes, its most important element--gameplay--simply doesn't seem to be advancing quite as quickly as it should.

Between its entertaining and engaging scenarios, the improvements and enhancements to the regular epic game, and the functional multiplayer, it's the expansion pack that Play the World should have been, and much, much more.

On top of its great gameplay and long list of options, SOCOM II is a great-looking game. The player models and environments look really fantastic, and the addition of foliage provides more cover while also making the levels look more realistic.

Gladiator does have some shortcomings, as its simplistic and frequently flawed gameplay can prove to be problematic. However, some excellent production values and an intriguing plot ultimately make the game most certainly worth checking out.

It is by no means authoritative, and it certainly won't convince newbies that the sport makes a worthy computer game.

It's still a relatively simple and short action game at heart, but a solid combat system, some extremely intense and cinematic levels, cool extras that fans of the movies will enjoy, and the option to play cooperatively with a friend all add up to make The Return of the King deserving of its name.

It's still a relatively simple and short action game at heart, but a solid combat system, some extremely intense and cinematic levels, cool extras that fans of the movies will enjoy, and the option to play cooperatively with a friend all add up to make The Return of the King deserving of its name.

As is the case with most party games, EyeToy is simplistic at best, but the way you play the game truly makes it a one-of-a-kind experience that just about anyone, regardless of skill, can enjoy.

Despite some new modes and rules, deep down it's undoubtedly more of the same and definitely targeted at hardcore Dynasty Warriors fans who already own DW4. Given that, it's definitely a quality product.

A competent, if lackluster, effort that will probably appeal to Middle-earth fans and casual gamers who haven't played a lot of real-time strategy before. If you're a real-time strategy veteran looking for something fresh and exciting, don't look here.

A good hack-and-slash RPG that will keep you occupied for hours just building up a character that's useful in all three of the game's separate play modes.

If you're an Xbox owner who either hasn't played these games or is looking to play them again, the Xbox versions of GTAIII and Vice City are the best ones available.