If you're looking for a profound single-player experience, you'll be annoyed by the issues with the artificial intelligence, but if you plan to play with a friend, this game is well worth checking out.

No game has this sort of RPG/RTS mix, and I got just as much a kick out of getting a new spell or a new suit of armor as I did in guiding my hordes into battle.

Typical sneak/shoot-'em-up action that relies too heavily on remade content and brittle gameplay. Although it was novel four years ago, games have come much farther than this.

It takes far too long to get good.

While I wish the multiplayer offered more, as it would no doubt extend the title's replay value, it's just not exciting enough given the current number of quality online action titles on the Xbox. The single-player experience is enjoyable, if not revolutionary.

Despite my gripes, there's enough good stuff in here to justify the purchase. Think of "Pit Fighter," "Spy Hunter II," and the like as elaborate mini-games that you can try once and then ignore forever. No matter what your gaming tastes, you'll get your money's worth.

It's just a shame that the multiplayer options weren't fleshed out further, as playing this with seven other guys online would have probably resulted in a much more attractive package.

Despite all its strengths, it's just much too buggy and unpolished to recommend wholeheartedly.

It's simple to get into, so the kids can get in on the action, but even skilled players will find something to sink their teeth into here. While some will be drawn to the voice acting and the nods to the series, the fighting is fun enough to keep everyone happy.

I can't help feeling that the Super Monkey Ball franchise was made for the Nintendo Wii. The tilt control feels far more intuitive than using analog sticks to direct the motion of your little encapsulated simians, and it works wonderfully.

F1 is a tough sport, but it's a wonderful one. Championship Edition captures that astonishingly well, although it stumbles with fully implementing the online features, and the lack of force feedback is murderously noticeable.

This is, in a nutshell, a piece of dung covered in gold dust.

Unfortunately, for PS2 owners, a vicious beat-down is delivered by the GameCube's less blurry, less angular crowds, and it wins by a split decision.

Provides a great, online fantasy-gaming experience, albeit one that's not quite as grueling, unforgiving, or complex over the long haul.

While many aspects of it are excellent, the gameplay is flawed enough to occasionally frustrate and sometimes make Magic Pengel feel less like a game and more like a chore.

Despite my gripes, there's enough good stuff in here to justify the purchase. Think of "Pit Fighter," "Spy Hunter II," and the like as elaborate mini-games that you can try once and then ignore forever.

If you have a choice, between getting the GameCube and PS2 version of the game, go for the GameCube. The semi-frequent load times are significantly shorter on Nintendo's system, and the graphics look slightly better.

By the end of my roughly eight-hour, straight-forward Space Marine adventure, I couldn't help but feel Relic Games missed out on a golden opportunity to take what is a good game – and a strong debut for the Space Marine franchise – and elevate it to great.

It's easy to recommend this package, as it offers up a pair of games that are not only still relevant, but plenty of fun to boot.

And while the title may never be mistaken for the deepest game on the PS2, Destroy All Humans! could very well be one of the funniest.

A pretty fun game. And with a 15- to 20-hour main quest that you can play through with three different characters (and again in co-op play), you'll definitely get your money's worth.

Blitzkrieg can sometimes be entertaining in spite of these problems, but it's not the great WWII RTS we've been waiting for.

It's pretty much the perfect rental. Genji: Dawn of the Samurai is fun, action filled, and magnificently produced ride that's definitely worth experiencing once (just not for $40!).

It's still a Meteos game, and it's still lots of fun. However, the changes made to ease up the difficulty make it less fun to this seasoned veteran.

Big Brain scores points for its friendly and colorful art style and variety of activities, and there a lot of reasons prospective students will want to enroll. The problem is there's not much to keep you from dropping out after a few days.

The key syllable is port. Prince of Persia: Rival Swords sits alongside games like "Star Wars Battlefront 2" and "Tony Hawk's Project 8" as ambitious versions of great console games that still come up short.

Its combat system is a little slow, and the learning curve may be a bit steep for some people. I also had a few lockups during gameplay, which are a MAJOR bummer if you have not backed up in a while.

Throw in some amazing graphics and entertaining mission design and you have a fun, action-packed title that should appeal to trigger-happy pilots everywhere.

This expansion pack is worth every last cent to a fan of Icewind Dale.

One of the game's biggest deficiencies is the camera, which doesn't work well when you're in attack mode.

If you're looking to get a few more hours of fun out of your aging black box, Need for Speed Carbon isn't a bad way to do it.

Some of the new additions that House Party brings are fun, but it doesn't change the game all that much.

If you own a PS3 and an Xbox 360, then go ahead and opt for the 360 version. It has better online support, sharper visuals and richer colors. But if you only own a PlayStation 3, rest assured that you'll enjoy this version anyways.

The game lays out so much for the player to happen across and take an active part in that you're able to suspend your disbelief and feel like your actions actually mean something.

You'll need to know what you're doing before you'll have any hope of enjoying it, but once you've made it, the effort will pay off.

The downside is that if you're looking for that next great leap off the turnbuckle and into your living room, you may instead have to settle for a pretty satisfying leg drop to hold you over until next year. Slow and steady worked for Hogan all those years, so it may be good enough for you.

Like getting the ant farm as a gift four birthdays in a row, the introduction of a "new" Settlers game is becoming a trite, if comfortable, old joke.

Once the initial learning curve was surpassed, things became much easier, making it fun to just sit back and enjoy Evil Islands' gameplay.

The game shines when you focus entirely on building up your cities and taking care of your people.

If you want arcade style racing complete with high-speed corner bending, annoyingly foppish announcers and the most fun driving you can have without smashing the other guy off the road... then you want to pick up Ridge Racer 6.

A capable arcade racer crammed with goodies … and a perfect cure for anyone suffering post-"Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4" doldrums.

The gorgeous graphics combined with the terrific sense of speed (at least at higher levels) are certainly as fun to watch as they are to interact with, and the control is accurate enough to allow precise movements.

Once the initial shock value wears off, you're left with a very challenging and rewarding video game. You might, however, want to keep a barf-bag handy just in case.

I think we all kept focusing on the negatives because so much in D&D Online works so well, that it could have been absolutely great.

Midway's got your party covered. The included games are dying to be played in pairs or groups. In fact, many of them -- "Xenophobe" and "Timber," among others -- probably shouldn't be played solo.

Where DTR2 struts its stuff is in the two areas that matter most -- physics and artificial intelligence. Driving these cars just feels right.

It's also almost exactly like "Age of Empires II" with a facelift and a few new perks. It fails to really innovate in any area; instead offering a few new perks and a few things that'll have you saying, "That's kind of cool!"

An excellent downsizing of a cutting-edge game for a lesser platform, retaining the essential gameplay of the original while deftly imitating its audiovisual aspects.

kept waiting for this game to become fun. It doesn't really.

Aside from these few relatively minor negatives, F.E.A.R. 3 is a very solid shooter that covers a lot of the right bases -- I just wish the developers had put as much imagination and creativity into the single-player campaign as they did into coming up with new multiplayer modes. And, you know, actually made it a bit more scary.

With so much going on at once, you'll occasionally lose track of your character (especially during four-player matches), but you'll probably be having too much fun to notice much.

The biggest drawback of this game is the inclusion of Venom as a playable character. He draaaags. He can't web swing (but he can cover vast distances with his leaps), he relies on brute strength rather than finesse, and you must also devour people in order to keep the suit from killing the man inside.

The graphics won't amaze you and you may be under whelmed at the multiplay, but it'll put a smile on your face and give you fond memories of the waning days of the original Xbox.

Aside from these few relatively minor negatives, F.E.A.R. 3 is a very solid shooter that covers a lot of the right bases -- I just wish the developers had put as much imagination and creativity into the single-player campaign as they did into coming up with new multiplayer modes. And, you know, actually made it a bit more scary.

If you're into WWII shooters -- and judging by the sales of every single Call of Duty title ever, you are -- but you're looking for something with a little twist to it -- which, judging by the sales of twisty straws, you are -- and you don't mind the color green -- and judging by the number of Irish people in the world, you don't -- you should get yourself a copy of Wolfenstein.

For most of the game I felt like I was too powerful and things never really felt challenging. Again, I'm thinking that this is partly by design since the game has a mainstream license and will attract many casual gamers. (Damn casuals always ruin everything.)

For all that, though, The Secret World succeeds as a thinking man's MMORPG. Many of its features demand intellectual prowess as well as the usual dose of combat mastery, and none of its competitors come close to matching its affection for the esoteric. It has its issues, to be sure, and all of the investigations and sabotage missions available won't stop a good amount of players from spending 20 minutes with its combat and dismissing it as a substandard World of Warcraft clone.

Hardcore Sonic fans will definitely want to check this one out, as it offers a strong storyline and entertaining writing that's on par with the best fan fiction.

Take away the armored masks and you'd have a hard time telling Army of Two: The 40th Day from a glut of other third-person shooters. It's not bad enough to be especially memorable, and it's not good enough that people will talk about it for very long.

The game clearly leans backward rather than forward in some respects, but it bears repeating: What it does in the tiny PSP world, it does well.

Despite some clunky inventory management and some frustrating camera angles, this'll be a game that you'll go back to whenever you're up for a couple of hours of mayhem and swordplay.

For some reason, the excellent racing engines from TOCA and Colin McRae were seemingly abandoned, replaced by a lackluster arcade-style physics model that feels like you're driving a slot car rather than an actual automobile.

The game hasn't changed drastically since its leap to the PS2, but two years of minor tweaking has made this the most accessible title of the franchise.

If you're a series veteran, or found yourself wishing the previous PS2 entries had less number-crunching and more action, you'll probably love RTK9. I'm squarely in [this] category, but not because I disliked 7 and 8's RPG elements; I just appreciate KOEI's willingness to keep tinkering with a 15-year-old franchise.

With the variety of unique character choices, the interesting level-up method, and rocking multiplayer, Shining Soul II has its charm. Still, I can't help feeling it's still missing something to give it more oomph, at least in single-player mode.

If you want some quick fun and a chance to bring to life that wild race course you've dreamt of, TrackMania might be just the thing for you.

Simple and sublime, Custom Robo Arena was quite clearly developed with the little tykes in mind, but that didn't stop me from enjoying it.

For the hardcore military buff, ArmA's attention to real-world detail is unmatched; comparing it to something like "Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter" is like comparing "IL-2 Sturmovik" to "Combat." If this concept scares you, then run away: ArmA will eat you up and spit you out before you can figure out how to aim your M-16.

It offers a unique setting and design, but it's severely hampered by a mediocre combat engine.

In the end the bugs and problems simply aren't worth the tradeoff for the few interesting ideas the game does employ.

For those willing to endure the poorly-translated control scheme, the career mode is rather well done, as are the Rival Challenges, which really lend themselves to the short burst gameplay that's crucial to handheld.

Under a slightly clumsy-looking graphical exterior lies a phenomenally deep fighting simulation.

Injects a good dose of originality and fun into what can often be an unoriginal genre.

If you're the type of player who just wants to play the nicest looking football game in history, buying Madden NFL 06 is a no-brainer.

More importantly, choice is another element that helps take the Black Ops 2 campaign off of the carbon-copy conveyor belt of typical Call of Duty shooting. It doesn't make the same whole-hearted dramatic franchise leap forward that Modern Warfare did, which is disappointing, but after five years of more of the same, it's a big step in the right direction.

After years of living up to the name of evolving the beautiful game, Konami's latest Pro Evolution Soccer effort is an embarrassment for a series that has served as the dominant title in the genre.

It does an admirable job of re-creating a complex console game on the PSP ... admirable but for the ridiculous load times. They truly put a damper on the rest of the game, turning what would have been a fantastic, console-like experience into a decent, console-like experience.

Despite a couple of minor hitches, Star Ocean: First Departure is one of the best remakes Square Enix has brought to portable consoles.

While the script is the best so far of any of the episodes, Episode 3's abbreviated length makes it less of a bargain than the earlier installments. That being said, the entire Sam & Max experiment is shaping up quite well.

Some mindless button-mashing fun here, but that's about it.

The ability to quickly save your progress and not have to deal with lengthy and cryptic passwords, though, is an immeasurable improvement over the first game.

With the opportunity to choose to "save" your mission replay to the Xbox's hard drive after every undertaking, combined with the absolute treat of watching this enhanced, multi-camera replay, Wreckless takes the concept of replay to a higher level.

The game is fun to play, has solid control, and plenty of tracks, but nothing about it screams out for attention.

My disappointment in this disc's shortcomings is tempered by the sheer amount of great, classic gaming on offer.

So much of Red Dead feels like it's caught between two camps -- arcade and more modern third-person action -- that it all feels compromised.

It does a good job of emulating 29 games, but a lot of these games are less than exciting inclusions. Meanwhile, some genuinely classic Taito games are left out.

It's a visual treat; it has extremely solid gameplay and an enjoyable story. While there's nothing new here, everything is crafted with care and the polish shines through.

If you're looking to get a few more hours of fun out of your aging black box, Need for Speed Carbon isn't a bad way to do it.

I really liked the game when I got over the controls' initial crazy learning curve, but after a while, my overall interest began to wane.

Despite all that's good with the game, NHL 2K8's innovations are a few years behind the times, making it feel like a cheap rehash of what's already available.

You'll have fun fighting in Defiance, and feel lucky, because it happens quite often. But if you've been following the series, you'll also know that it's quite heavily reliant on aimless wandering and boring box puzzles.

While its mechanics can become tiresome the further you progress, ACE Team's signature presentation and wry humor manage to pull it through. Just like Zeno Clash before it, Rock of Ages as a whole is unlike any other game I've played or seen before, and that's a rare thing to be able to say.

There's no mode, though, where adding human players makes the arcade action more compelling. Whether playing humans or CPU, Infected feels pretty much the same.

It has plenty of gameplay, and provides a very intriguing story line. The game redefines the RPG genre and is worthy of anyone's software collection.

A decent offering and an affordable way for a player to build skills and eventually enter the fray in "Warbirds" online.

A truly remarkable experience. And, while the game itself may not have broken any new ground, the world it introduces more than makes up for that. It will leave gamers hungry for more.

What makes Nemesis of the Roman Empire truly stand out, however, is the artificial intelligence. On the easy mode, it's a breeze and presents very little challenge. On the tougher levels, it's a real bear that is sure to give veteran real-time strategy gamers a tough test.

In terms of sheer strategic depth, there's not a city-builder out there that can match it.