It's not a matter of the game bringing forth 140 hours of fun, rewarding gameplay, but 140 hours of watching-the-paint-dry monotony. You're better off checking out the wealth of "Diablo II" mods than plodding your way through Blade & Sword.

While it's tough to give NeoWave a recommendation, there's no real reason for interested parties to avoid it. KOF is still KOF, and this game is what it is.

If you've been off the Dynasty Warriors wagon for a while, this may bring you back. It offers some new depth and motivation to fight lots and lots of stupid bad guys, and should keep a smile on your face until the next inevitable sequel.

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.

While the cute little Elebits may not pack quite enough power to shine a spotlight on the game, there's at least enough juice to warrant some attention.

With its easily whipped arcade sequences, utter lack of strategic depth, and painfully unrewarding still-screen ending sequence, DotC provides an experience about as vacuous as the cheesy flicks that inspired Cinemaware's birth.

If Lost Planet was a budget title, we'd have an easier time recommending it. The main campaign is short, multiplayer matches are nowhere to be found, and you'll need a lot of computing muscle if you want to run it with a decent level of detail.

I just can't get over how cheap a lot of the game feels. Whether it's the dated looks, its frustratingly difficult latter portion, or its awkward storytelling, Prototype often feels like a budget title that unfortunately doesn't have a budget price.

Once again, GameCube owners are left out in the cold with a version of a game that's mildly inferior to its hardware rivals.

Of the three versions, the Xbox Finding Nemo is the one to get … if any are really worth getting. The numerous problems with the core game ensure all but the most hardcore fans are going to pass on this one.

Depending on whether or not you think the game is laughing with you or at you, you're either going to appreciate the joke or feel like one of Pavlov's dogs as you helplessly salivate at each turn of the vending machine crank.

It's hard to really bash NHL 2K9 other than to say it's a little bit of hockey-lite. "NHL 09" offers more realism and gets our nod for overall long-term value.

We have to admit to being a bit disappointed at how similar Star Force is to the Battle Network games. We were hoping that Capcom would take this opportunity to reboot the series into something fresh. Instead, we have more of a sidestep than a step forward.

Playing NFL Head Coach and having a good time while doing so is a daunting task, one far more challenging than taking the Browns to the Super Bowl.

A bland third-person stealth adventure with sub-par combat and annoyingly stylized death sequences.

The ease of defense and careful consideration that must be paid to offense is refreshing. However, there are a host of issues, the pathfinding in particular, that turn what should be an entertaining game into a title best left on the shelf.

Offers too little, too late to make an impact on Xbox 360. The stunt aspects may be worth a rental to check out, but "Saints Row" bullies this game around on all fronts -- giving it a wedgie in graphics, a wet willie in physics, and the ol' lead pipe to the kneecaps in terms of side missions.

Almost fun enough, but overall too shallow to be worth a solid purchase to anyone.

It's possible that the very touchy controls and high learning curve on many tracks may keep some players away, but there's a great racing engine here.

TNA iMPACT! players will likely be torn about how they feel about the countering system, as it's easy to learn yet difficult to master.

Top Spin plays well, has some good online, and basically chokes in every other category.

One of those games that's much more enjoyable in small doses. A quick race while you're sitting on the bus or with your kid brother/sister in the doctor's waiting room is a great way to pass a bit of time. When played in longer stretches, though, many of the game's annoyances start to really grate on you.

Cut out about 50% of the units, make the maps smaller and tighten up the bleeding edges to make a new strategic model and we might really have something. The pacing's right, the idea's right, but stuffing the entire PC version of Supreme Commander onto the 360 is just more than the poor machine can handle.

Not much better than last year's unimpressive console games. However, the smooth control, portability, and uniqueness of the experience -- this is the only FPS for the DS at the moment -- help differentiate it enough that some folks might enjoy it.

Between the simple card system, the short length, and the anime look, Fighter's Battle feels like a game that was meant to get younger players interested in the Dynasty Warriors series. Longtime fans may be irked by these changes and the lack of a story, but it's still a DW game at heart.

Odama is simply beyond strange. It's rock hard, annoying and yet intriguing all at the same time. It's also a pinball game, a strategy game and more over, a game that you'll either love or despise; or even a little of both.

This is an entertaining shooter with many good points, but nothing's particularly outstanding or original here. Members of the Old West FPS posse should snap it up faster than Doc Holliday could clear leather, but city-slicker varmints oughta just wait till it hits the bargain bin at the local general store.

There's a good game here, but it's buried underneath layers of mediocre to substandard cosmetics and an unforgiving learning curve.

Even though I had some fun with the Shining Tears, most of it stemmed from nostalgia and imagining what this game could have been.

Yes, a lot of the gameplay is boring and clunky, but through books and movies we've come to think of Harry and crew as friends, so the true fan will be able to look past a lot of the game's quirks and have a relatively decent experience.

There's a fair amount to like about SCT3, but its greatest weakness is that there are two other games out there that stack up extremely well against it.

Atari needs to be willing to lay down some bank to polish up the graphics and sound, write a much more compelling single-player adventure, and add some online goodness.

Should have been a campy romp; instead, it's barely more enjoyable than "Run Like Hell," with a camera that constantly fights you and combat that constantly bores you.

A novel game with a unique new mechanic for building towns and cities with personality. Casual players will find a lot to tinker with as they sculpt towns out of their dreams or nightmares. More serious gamers will be able to plumb the depth of the title over the course of the weekend.

An uneven difficulty level, not much variety in quests and battles, clunky and temperamental controls, and the lack of any type of multiplayer will all quickly frustrate you.

Though we found plenty of things to annoy us, the basic gameplay and extravagant character roster (once unlocked) should be enough to satisfy most fans.

It's an improvement over last year's effort, but it still remains a strictly niche product.

For the past decade or so, the Need for Speed series has been all about illegal street racing, but Need for Speed: ProStreet completely sells out this most tantalizing aspect for some cheap (or, rather, extremely expensive) product placement.

What action there is proves solid and enjoyable, even despite the tossed-off nature of the single-player campaign. But the four-player limit severely hobbles the scope of the matches, and the lack of Internet play completely sabotages the game's multiplayer ambitions.

If you're looking for a brutal campaign requiring every ounce of military strategy and luck, one that requires you to throw your best general right into the thick of things while laying waste to everything you touch, you might want to give Rome: Total War -- Alexander a whirl.

If you can accept that nearly all the engaging moments come from non-interactive movies, and much of what the player is allowed to take part in is more frustrating than terrifying or exciting, it could also be worth playing.

It's fun as a chat room, but has a lot of growing to do as a game.

Won't hold up to extended play anyway because of the too-small question set. It's a shame; it's a well put-together game otherwise.

The constant action means the Harry Potter series has always lent itself well to the video-game format, and thankfully (albeit surprisingly) EA has mostly improved upon their winning formula, while upping the ante visually and adding welcome multiplayer features, easily making the Goblet of Fire their best adaptation yet.

The Sixaxis implementation here is unnecessary. More damningly, the game is clearly not a next-gen product, visually.

The real draw here should be competing with other players over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connect. Sadly, it's far too difficult to really get anything resembling a fulfilling online experience out of Pokémon Battle Revolution.

Right out of the gate, Spider-Man 3 is going to smack you in the face with some of the worst next-gen graphics you have ever seen.

Right away I can tell you that if you played the first one, your opinion of this game will more than likely be the same.

With PlanetSide being constantly updating and patched, this expansion may become indispensable somewhere down the road, but it's not worth the admission price right now. Take that $$$ and buy a few Code Reds instead, because as all the good players know, the action is best late at night.

The game's lack of personality is underscored by its lack of difficulty. Playing through Samurai Jack is about as challenging as watching an episode of Samurai Jack.

All of the elements were there to make this an addictive and challenging title. Instead, it's a slow-paced and confusing jumble.

If anything, the integration of posing like show characters to unleash their powers will have DBZ haters grinding their teeth louder and longer than they would for the PS2 version. Certainly, the actual fighting mechanic is just as so-so as it was there.

You can grab certain small buildings, which is nice, but only the ones that glow red. Why not all of them? That in itself would add considerably to the "hell yeah" factor.

Perhaps the single biggest fault of Shadow Ops is that the game simply offers nothing new to the genre and lacks any personality.

Anyone who loves Pac-Man will be thrilled. Anyone looking for something completely unique and original may be disappointed.

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.

If you've got a 7-10 year-old who enjoyed the movie, feel free to tack another star on to the score; otherwise, consider yourself warned -- this is not your father's Spider-Man 2.

Even the most hardcore country fan will go through what's here in one or two sittings, and with very few extra tracks to unlock, the game just doesn't have staying power.

The overall feel of controlling Seth is noticeably imprecise. While the controls aren't bad enough to be a great hindrance to the action, most gamers will likely find the lack of refinement in Seth's movements to be at least a slight annoyance.

Though this game does manage to shine in some aspects of the presentation, the actual gameplay doesn't manage to pass higher than ordinary.

We have to admit to being a bit disappointed at how similar Star Force is to the Battle Network games. We were hoping that Capcom would take this opportunity to reboot the series into something fresh. Instead, we have more of a sidestep than a step forward.

The more I played it, the less I enjoyed it. It's a rudimentary beat-'em-up game which borrows the combo compliments of "Devil May Cry" and the buy-a-combo system of "The Two Towers," and thinks those elements by themselves are enjoyable, which they're not.

The Sims 2 Pets expansion pack could be a good purchase for PC gamers, but buying it for $39.99 on consoles is the kind of choice that will only satisfy the kind of people who keep a place for their cat at the dinner table.

It's the non-descript gameplay between [the cut scenes] that bogs Futurama down. The unbalanced and tedious action will try your patience.

Too bad money is so ridiculously easy to accrue that Fable III's silly shift into a morality tale about the burden of the crown falls flat.

If nothing else, this game certainly captures the dumb, single-minded spirit of the films. I'm not a fan of the series, but I did have fun with Redemption, despite its total lack of depth. For a while, that is.

RPG fans and fans of titles such as "Monster Rancher" and "Magic Pengel" will probably adore it.

The online multiplayer mode is worth playing, and it's a fun game to play when you want to give your thumbs a break from Madden. However, Head Coach should have learned a lot from the two-dimensional predecessors and web-based fantasy football games whose audience it's attempting to appeal to.

A decent real-time tactical simulation, but a fairly unpolished one that doesn't address many shortcomings of the original.

More importantly, the action at the game's heart is only so-so; it's competent in execution, but just doesn't seem terribly compelling to play through. It passes time, but it's not exciting or fun.

The mix of sword combat and platforming is just about right, and though most of the boss battles were simple pattern-based matches, the designs were sometimes cool enough that I was thrown back to the old days of bashing away at hulking robots and monsters.

It's not going to spark an adventure-game revival but it's clearly worth checking out if you like being spooked and don't mind a story that's a bit tough to follow.

It's just not user-friendly. The HUD is a mess, and I struggled to decipher how damaged vehicles were -- either mine or my opponents'. Your level objectives aren't easily displayed, and neither is a radar of where your enemies are or what the track looks like.

While you can drive almost every Corvette made, the game doesn't feel realistic enough to give the impression that you're behind the wheel of one.

If you're just a casual fan of the fighting genre, there are certainly better choices out there that would provide a better overall experience.

Ravaged didn't help itself with its $25 price tag, either. It's not an unreasonable cost by any means, but with a growing number of strong free-to-play shooter options and Valve doing the Valve thing by charging $15 for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Ravaged seems slightly overpriced by comparison -- especially without bots to give it value when no one else is playing.

The game feels a bit rushed, as if it could have used a few months more in developments, particularly when it comes to balancing some of the combat.

Dedicated and studious players might be able to look past the limited information on how to play if they're familiar enough with the genre and don't mind learning by trial and error, but less patient newcomers will be left on the proverbial sidelines.

The duels themselves are flashy and enjoyable, but the story mode surrounding them is almost as dull as actually being in class.

But while the combat and destruction portions of playing as the Saboteur are fun, the story and effect you have on the world are disappointingly underdeveloped.

If you're new to the whole Dance Dance "thing," then you'll have a blast with Mario Mix. Interacting with a game via the dance pad is quite a bit of fun, and there are enough things to unlock and other diversions to keep you busy for a while.

Sadly, the only multiplayer mode included is a downloadable demo you can distribute to your friends -- we would have loved a cooking contest a la Iron Chef, where the highest scoring player across a series of mini-games would win the fame and glory. Still, the mini-games can be fun.

I honestly don't remember playing a wrestling game with an engine this bad in years, and I've played quite literally every wrestling game out there.

If a sequel comes along with a greater variety of mini-games, more playable characters, and plenty of new dialogue (the two hosts' back-and-forth conversations get old quick), we'll be happy to play it. With this one, however, you might want to wait for a price drop before joining this party.

The cast of fighters is shallow, filled with too many slow bruisers.

If you hadn't played or owned the Xbox 360 previously, you're getting a rather short, mostly entertaining table tennis game. However, for those of you who've played the 360 game, double-dipping would be a mistake. You're paying the same price the 360 version released for to get a graphically downgraded and stripped version of what was a rather exceptional 360 game.

Lots of one-liners, lots of humor, and a healthy dose of action. The story isn't an epic masterpiece, it's an Evil Dead plot. It's nowhere close to being the best, but it sure is fun.

Dancing and singing simply takes too much coordination, and the steps aren't timed well enough with the music to make them feel as natural as they should've.

The only problem is, it doesn't take long for combat to feel repetitive, because all non-boss enemies are dealt with in the same way -- whip, whip, whip, grab, swing, toss, repeat.

As cool as the visuals can be, they're ultimately like a flashy paintjob on a car without much under the hood. The amount of unimaginative busywork and lame repetition in this game is really unfortunate.

For a somewhat mind-numbing, predictable but still entertaining (if only because of the absurd dialogue and engagingly convoluted storyline) RPG, Wild Arms 5 doesn't add a whole lot to the franchise, but it's worth the fairly minimal price if you're looking for a solid way to spend a weekend.

Beyond the familiar SeaWorld rides and shows, this game doesn't offer anything you can't find more of in earlier games.

Squats squarely in the middle of the pack in terms of quality. With the exception of a brief infatuation with "mutant mode" and a few set pieces involving squadmates, the gameplay is serviceable, but standard.

Operation Surma isn't a total disaster, but it's the bottom of the stealth-action barrel, and only those gamers who've played literally everything else in the genre should bother with this one.

It's hard to deny that the game has some immensely enjoyable moments. It's just too bad that they're too often surrounded by so much clutter.

Jericho's gameplay comes off as a decidedly "lather, rinse, repeat" affair where you enter a new area, kill the monsters that spawn and run at you and then move onto the next area and perform the monotonous experience all over again.

Even though the difficulty ramps up dramatically halfway through Career mode, dedicated gamers will be able to complete the whole thing in a day, if they don't get tired of the somewhat shallow and repetitive gameplay before then.

A dull game accompanied by a truly horrid save system.