The game knows about a dozen different ways to kick ass and just about all of them happen to be pretty entertaining.

Sure, the wonder of experiencing Rapture for the first time is gone, and yes, the engine is really starting to show its age, but the most important element -- BioShock 2's narrative -- lives up to its heritage.

Where the game will put a huge smile on your face is in the number of mini-games you'll be able to play.

The first time was rapture, the second time's been solid, but a third visit to the depths would make me wonder if creativity's been lost to the abyss.

Here's to Nintendo for finally removing its blinders and giving us the chance to make our own decisions.

As long as you are aware of and accept Diablo 3's online limitations, I wholeheartedly recommend it. A week after launch, the servers are up and running smoothly, though "scheduled maintenance" still brings them down from time to time, usually in the wee hours of the morning. But solo players who would rather live their gaming lives offline -- or have less than perfect faith in the stability of their internet connections -- should probably hold out for the offline-friendly Torchlight 2 instead.

An outstanding game that successfully combines two genres while never feeling as though it's neglecting either of them. The missions are well thought out and fun to play, with the bizarre weapons only adding to that fun.

The beauty of all these additions is how utterly natural they feel in the context of the game.

It's got a simplicity and elegance that you just don't see in PC games anymore: It's pure gameplay, fun from the opening credits onward. As a player you'll be constantly engaged.

What I'm not so sure about are the mini-games. These will help you practice your stroke/throw, but they're not much fun. The pitching mini-game is especially annoying.

I've been sucked in by the splendor that is Dark Age Of Camelot. I've had nothing but good times since I started playing. Servers have been stable and the NetImmerse engine has withstood the steadily increasing flow of new players without a hitch.

The meat of the game is in the career mode, which is incredibly deep, but takes a real time commitment to get the most out of.

The best expansion pack I've ever played.

This game exemplifies the sleeper hit; its unique feel, solid gameplay, and great aesthetics offer up something a little left of center, but it's something that anyone who's remotely interested in the genre should be checking out.

It might not be the next "Halo," but with scads of unlockable content, a solid multiplayer mode, and a decent single-player storyline, TimeSplitters 2 has enough appeal to be a worthy addition to your Xbox collection.

One of the best arcade racing games I've played.

Huge, humorous, exciting, and addictive -- exactly what we've come to expect from the series.

All about the thrill. Whether you're immersed in a tense, low-speed cat and mouse standoff, praying you don't nail a spike strip at 200 MPH, or simply drinking in the carnage you hath wrought, you'll find little else like it.

A dream come true for most racing gamers. It takes the very best elements of the home console series so far and presents an incredibly slick racing experience -- all in perfect 16:9.

The PlayStation 2 version of the game is my favorite of the three...The Dual Shock 2 has a slight edge over the Xbox Type-S controller and huge edge over the GCN pad. For most gamers, I'd suggest the PS2 version over the others.

Held back from being an EXCELLENT game by the fact that it features no really interesting characters or roleplaying, it only has a few simple quests, its story is paper thin, it has a few technical issues, Battle.net is unreliable, and the gameplay is ultimately shallow and repetitive.

SSX is special. And the reason for that is the incredible replayability and the pure game design it offers.

How exactly did they manage to make Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 a better game? By making it more varied, and thus, more replayable. By far, the biggest upgrade to the game is the new GameFace II system, which allows you to create a player who looks like just about anyone you could possibly imagine.

Not even a terrible introductory sequence can take away from what is otherwise a fantastic game. Sure, the story is goofy, and at times the fighting is offensively clunky. The world isn't as colossal as the first Witcher's, and the ending is a bit of a tease. But in a time when I rarely bother to finish single-player games, I'm happy (and slightly embarrassed) to say that I'm already several hours into a second playthrough of Assassins of Kings. And I can't think of a better compliment than that.

Underneath its cutesy veneer Plants vs. Zombies is hardcore. Well done, PopCap. Well done.

It's not a flawless package; some of Paradise City's terrain could be easier to navigate with do-it-yourself waypoints, and the inability to restart a race is irritating. However, there's so much to do and wreck that you'll invest tens of hours in single-player before you even tap the d-pad to jump into the online experience. Paradise is undoubtedly the first must-own racing game of 2008.

It's simultaneously innovative and derivative, and it's a game, I suspect, that gamers will either love or hate, with little space in between.

Purists may scoff at some of the on-road physics and the ability to play with time, but there aren't too many games that deliver as intense of a racing experience.

It's a huge improvement over the first title in nearly every area. In fact, it nearly makes the first game obsolete.

It's at once entirely expected and a crying shame that this game won't catch on in the same way that, say, Street Fighter IV did, as BlazBlue packs what may be the best online play ever seen in a 2D fighting game (it is -- at worst -- neck-and-neck with the amazing Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix in this category, though the option to replay ranked matches certainly gives it a tantalizing edge).

Amazingly, this rally racer also happens to be the best-looking game on the Xbox. The car models are bleeding-edge realistic, with licensed decals and aftermarket streamlining. The collection of tracks is wildly diverse, with feet in nearly every continent.

Even though it's a text simulation without flashy graphics, realistic ball physics, or signature batting stances, it's approachable, accessible, and downright fun. If you have never tried a text sim, OOTP6 is an ideal starting point.

If you've never play MC3 before, or if you're the best MC3 player in the world, you owe it to yourself to snag Remix, pimp out some rides, earn some phat cash and experience one of the best racers for the Xbox. It's really quite that simple.

For those willing to take on the still-steep learning curve, however, and for whom diplomacy is more than just trading Ironworking for The Wheel, EU II is possibly the best historical strategy game there is.

The gameplay is easy to pick up, yet has lots of depth due to the feat system. The graphics and sound are excellent. And there's plenty of replay value, especially for Forgotten Realms fan boys.

The new multiplayer, when it works properly, makes a very cool addition to the Splinter Cell franchise. Pandora Tomorrow's single-player campaign plays it too safely, though, mostly offering more of the same.

When one considers the lackluster quality of many console-to-PC ports these days, it's truly refreshing to see an experience that comes jam-packed with so many bells and whistles and such exceptional visuals. If you're a PC gamer who's never burned out, Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box serves as a fine introduction to the series.

FIFA 09 is jam-packed with new content, from clan-based player support to real-world stat updates. Although it feels more like an incremental update than a revolutionary overhaul, EA doesn't need to reinvent the wheel so much as smooth out its edges.

Jeanne manages to capture perfectly what we want from a tactical RPG: to make us care about the characters through a well-done but not distracting story; to give us enough choices in customization to make preparing for battle and spending our resources meaningful; and in providing us with battles that feel like certain doom from the first turn, even after we've won dozens of them.

It's kind of like DICE has trained for a game development biathlon, resulting in its first game where the single-player mode is just as good as the multiplayer -- and that says DICE has what it takes to be among the best in the business.

FIFA 09 is jam-packed with new content, from clan-based player support to real-world stat updates. Although it feels more like an incremental update than a revolutionary overhaul, EA doesn't need to reinvent the wheel so much as smooth out its edges.

If you're a college football fan, NCAA Football 06 is the game you've been waiting for your whole life. It might even be the best football game ever made, professional or collegiate, which, given the competition for the title, is really saying something.

While it's not without its flaws, Fight Night Round 4 is still one of the most entertaining games of the year, no matter what gaming category you think it belongs in.

The reason that Sins of a Solar Empire works is that it truly respects and celebrates both styles of strategy gaming. It marries the grand scope and Nietzschian will-to-power embodied by the best "4X" conquer-the-universe titles with the adrenaline-fueled immediacy and moment-to-moment decision making of a great real-time strategy game.

If you can buy into the idea that the ending you get is your ending, and that your characters are really your characters, then you just might find yourself feeling moved by a videogame.

Where MechWarrior 4 really shines is in combat. The fluid movements and the greater detail in the battles are almost as much fun to watch as they are to engage in.

The pace is slow, but it's a lot of fun and very rewarding. However, the game suffers from unattractive graphics, bad sound in places, and a few bugs. If you can get past those points, however, you'll find a whole lot of deep gameplay.

They don't win points for innovation, but this is still one of the best multiplayer games you can buy.

The game's surfaces all look picture perfect thanks to a new technology called GeoTexturing, and the lighting engine has improved greatly since the last time. All of the characters models and animations are fluid, especially when it comes to controlling Sam.

Leave true role-playing to "EverQuest." LoD, just like "Diablo II," focuses on action over role-play. If that's been your addiction since the game came out, this is your new fix.

Delivers exactly what you'd expect from a Half-Life expansion: it returns to the intriguing setting of City 17, delivers lots of tight action sequences and well-crafted puzzles, and is arguably the best-looking shooter out today.

This game simply doesn't belong on the PSP; it's too early for a game of this caliber to show up on Sony's little portable system -- hell, it took nearly five years before "God of War" showed us what the PS2 can handle. Not only is Dark Mirror a damn fine game, it may very well be the best game on the system.

Despite a few minor issues, Morrowind manages to shine on the Xbox. It is the first game to truly bring a wide-open role-playing experience to the console.

Does a good job of capturing the basic flavor of "SotN's" gameplay. Indeed, almost all of the special moves you can obtain have been lifted directly from Symphony.

All about an engaging single-player experience, one that's far better than that of the original game. It's a game where colorful locales, tense situations, stealthy infiltrations, and bloody battles all smoothly go hand in hand.

One major failing -- its gameplay lacks the depth and innovation it needs to differentiate itself from its famous predecessor. Don't get me wrong, it's not that it's a poor game -- on the contrary, it's very fun while you try out all the characters and absorb all the pretty visuals.

These new elements seem to have been thrown in merely for the sake of being different, and the result is a confused mishmash of ideas that is more banal and frustrating than fresh or exciting.

The gameplay, graphics, sound, and replayability combine to offer an exquisite mélange that fans of strategy and role-playing games must experience.

If you're a college football fan, NCAA Football 06 is the game you've been waiting for your whole life. It might even be the best football game ever made, professional or collegiate, which, given the competition for the title, is really saying something.

Even if Max Payne 3 does not transcend genre, it is at least an example of genre at its best.

If you have friends who enjoy videogames, this is one to play together. It's made specifically for that -- and yeah, it's got all the painstaking collectibles and supplemental multiplayer challenges you already assumed it did, so you're going to play it for quite a while. And if you just want a serious challenge, play alone and revel in the pure joy of death. Either way, it's a damn fine Mario game.

If "wacky," "quirky," or "freaking bizarre" turn you off, you may not pick up what this game is laying down, but unless you have something against having fun, you really ought to try.

A combination of solid Zelda-style gameplay and cinematic excellence push Beyond Good & Evil into the upper echelons of action / adventure games. This is what an interactive movie should be.

It makes fun of itself relentlessly, yet still manages to be earnest when it matters, and the gameplay around which it's built takes the best elements of the Mario games' trademark simplicity, and constructs out of them a compelling, engrossing RPG.

It's not the most original game this year, but it's one of the best you'll play on GameCube.

I'm so in love with this game. If you liked "Baldur's Gate" or "Planescape: Torment," you'll love this game.

The VR Missions alone could keep you busy for weeks. If, however, MGS2 didn't light your fire, your logs will remain unburnt by Substance.

Has the edge on the management and simulation side of the game. Its franchise mode is excellent and makes "MVP Baseball 2003"'s look like a Johnny-come-lately. On the flip side, "MVP Baseball 2003" has a slight edge in gameplay.

Not only is RalliSport Challenge one of the best rally racing games ever, it may be the most fun ever to rumble on a console.

Battlefield Premium members have access to Armored Kill right now, and everyone else who's interested will be able to buy it for $15 on September 25th. If you're still playing Battlefield 3, or burnt out from claustrophobia or lack of tanks, I suggest that you do.

A (mostly) pleasant surprise and a return to form. Considering how poorly the original trilogy aged (if you ask me), that's pretty... well, bananas.

Drips with style in every possible way. It's a brilliant game, but at times it's more challenging than it is fun.

One of the year's best, because it diverts from "GTA's" hyper-violent barrage of social satire and genital jokes to be something more subtle, but equally meaningful. Young people might not appreciate it as much because they're still living it. For that reason, don't buy Bully for your younger relatives. Buy it for yourself.

Although it's certainly got Infinity Ward's fingerprints all over it, Black Ops is definitely Treyarch's baby. As a fan of the franchise, I'm happy to see that the future of the series is in good hands, and it'll (hopefully) be nice to see the folks at Treyarch finally get some respect from hardcore gamers.

Portable Ops feels like one of the few games to live up to the PSP's promise, in part because it translates the entire Metal Gear Solid experience into something that can be easily digested in small amounts...inarguably one of the best games to release on the PSP, let alone one of 2006's best.

Between its extraordinary collection of cerebral trials, its comprehensive menagerie of shape-shifting animal-tools, and its skilled use of almost instinctual motion control, Zack & Wiki reveals itself as an unexpected, must-own treasure.

By far, this game has one of the simplest, yet all-encompassing interfaces I've seen in awhile.

The squad-based combat is handled elegantly, from the simple control scheme to the ability to switch out to a birds-eye view to strategize, and injects some life into a genre we thought had been milked for good.

A bit like the Homecoming Princess. Sure, she looks nice, and is fun to play with, but you can't help looking at the Queen and wonder what might have been.

It's the online component of the game that places you down in front of your TV, and refuses to let you leave for days at a time.

Although the game is technically lacking and isn't for everyone, it's one of the most original and engaging titles on the market.

Spirit Tracks features some of the best labyrinths and inventive bosses in Zelda history.

DiRT 2 is extraordinary sensory overload. It's gorgeous, it's thoroughly addictive, it mends past problems, and it's fun. Really fun. But it won't please all the realists out there, and it may not feel quite so perfect over the long haul. At $60, maybe it should have.

Part of what distinguishes Disgaea from more run-of-the-mill SRPGs is its wicked sense of humor, which makes just unveiling the story a treat.

The Heisman difficulty level seems really balanced for the first time in years. The running game is great, with grind-it-out yardage available inside and game-breaking moves to be had outside.

After logging over a hundred hours on Dragon Age: Origins, I still want to continue playing. I want to unearth more of its secrets, to better know its characters, to see how the decisions I make can impact its world, and yes, to see more of its endings. I can't think of a better recommendation than that.

A combination of solid Zelda-style gameplay and cinematic excellence push Beyond Good & Evil into the upper echelons of action / adventure games. This is what an interactive movie should be.

I appreciated the places the story took me in the end, but the final series of boss fights not only felt forced into the game's plot, but also were so long and arduous that I wondered if I'd ever beat them at all.

A great expansion pack. It makes Shogun better, adds new units, modes, and campaigns, and yet doesn't disrupt the sweaty-palmed fun of the original.

It's not the most prolific game released recently, and with some real zeal you can probably thrust through it in a matter of hours, not days. But for the price…

My biggest gripe with NASCAR 2005 is the lack of polish in the graphics department. The framerate was a bit sluggish at times and I had a hard time getting past the jagged appearance of the cars.

By far the best feature of Substance is the audio. Supporting Dolby Digital, the sound effects, dialogue, and musical score are topnotch.

In my opinion, "Major League Baseball 2K5" is the better game. It's a close one, to be sure -- as each area that one game has a weakness in is a strength for the other title -- but I enjoyed the pitching and batting in MLB more, and fielding, one of its weak points, isn't as big of a deal to me.

If Call of Duty let you run free in the playground, then United Offensive keeps you on a short leash and yanks hard when you don't do things the right way.

The lack of an Elimination mode constricts the variety of gameplay and no additional skin-editing functions is irksome, but these issues don't prevent WipEout HD from doing what the franchise does best: go really, really fast.

Veterans players with plenty of Company of Heroes combat under their belt will eagerly dig into the new expansion pack as the new armies on offer are a lot of fun and will throw plenty of new twists into multiplayer games.

In a world where one of the most common gamer laments is there's no originality in gaming anymore, Psychonauts is an incredibly enjoyable breath of fresh air.

DiRT 2 is extraordinary sensory overload. It's gorgeous, it's thoroughly addictive, it mends past problems, and it's fun. Really fun. But it won't please all the realists out there, and it may not feel quite so perfect over the long haul. At $60, maybe it should have.