Feels like a confusing, unworthy amalgamation of all sixty-seven Hitchcock projects.

The worst, and most important thing about F1 Career Challenge, is the jerky handling I mentioned earlier. It takes about an hour of game time to get acclimated to it. Even after that, the cars are nearly impossible to drive smoothly, and it never really feels like you are in total control.

While initially exciting, the thrill of the speed will wear off within the first hour or so, leaving you with a poor arcade racer that's neither exciting enough to last beyond the initial play nor realistic enough to provide the depth of a real racer.

PS2 owners get the worst console version of a weak game.

Primal Prey isn't deep or imaginative, though it does have its moments...Still, the core gameplay isn't rewarding enough to make you want to keep searching for those moments.

If you've already been spoiled by the likes of GT3, you will ultimately be disappointed with the lack of GTC's car selection and customization.

Had the potential to be a much greater game, but the terrible missions really drag it down. After a while you get tired of having to rely on the strategy guide to find the only way through a map's wacky mission scripting.

The core gameplay is undeniably skill-based, but the frustration from the somewhat obtuse controls and just plain sloppy mechanics prevent it from reaching its full potential.

With all of the current A-list titles available, the flaws in Dragon Rage really scream out at you.

The generic nature of the challenges, graphics and controls forces me to propose that gamers try something else.

An entirely average platform romp skewed for a dumbed-down audience that doesn't live up to expectations.

A sad mess that not only has virtually nothing to do with the movie or the ride, but is a pretty poor game in its own right.

WTA Tour Tennis tries to be a "hip" tennis game, unfortunately it falls flat on its face.

Repetitive, ugly, short, nonsensical, and boring -- a beat-'em-up that gets almost everything wrong, and that's wildly overpriced at $50.

Looks and plays like it's ten years old.

What's worse is that the aforementioned combat system is more frustrating than losing a heel on prom night. Ultimately you're left with a game that's based on a really interesting idea, but as a whole is executed poorly.

A very mixed bag. The graphics will swing from impressive to tolerable to utterly nauseating in a split second, the customization options are almost nonexistant but offer a very quick and easy entrance into the game.

Simply too short to be a worthwhile addition to your PS2 library. Saving people and property is a mild diversion at best.

Underwhelming.

The biggest issue I had is that basically all of the AI drivers show a complete lack of road smarts.

Boring.

If you can get past the horrors of the interface and the terrible voice acting, you may find a pretty good, original story buried within.

It's unplayable out of the box and incomplete even when patched. But if it can survive, there're signs that WWII Online could be a winner.

A chunky mess of a game that bears some resemblance to the Crazy Taxi I know and love, but one which is lacking most of its fun.

With overly elongated levels, forced backtracking through previously explored stages, and increasingly eye-bleedingly giddy color schemes the further through the game you progress, Altered Beast: GotR is a slightly disastrous attempt to replicate the side-scrolling nature of its source material.

A borderline disaster. I say "borderline" because there are a few things which save the expansion from being a total flop, but they are few and far between.

Whether it is the long loading times, the low framerate, or the poor control, there is really no reason for anyone except a hardcore fan to purchase this game.

HH 2003 isn't a particularly awful game, but rather it's a bit dull and unrefined. It should have had a lot more conditioning before being released for the public.

Fail[s] to live up to its potential. What's left is simply a frustrating and tedious single-player game.

You'll likely spend more time laboriously and tediously pumping out units and then frantically chasing after them than doing anything rewarding or intelligent...Real War plays like a tired, third-rate RTS copycat.

There's just not a whole lot of game here, but what there is, is pure Britney. It's as shallow as the diva herself.

Wasn't great in 1995, and it's even less impressive in 2002.

Not even Eliot Ness and the Untouchables could bust down the doors and reveal the fun in Gangsters 2.

The gameplay is fast and furious and fun for about three fights. Unless button mashing becomes the latest fitness craze, Knockout Kings 2002 will not impress you or your fitness instructor.

It's like any "Resident Evil" game but with dinosaurs instead of zombies. It's also not a very good conversion. Recommended only if you are a survival horror fanatic. Everyone else… be afraid. Be very afraid.

You barely exchange two sentences to Trinity, and she ignores almost everything you say in favor offering pre-scripted responses before quickly dumping you back to the hacking interface.

It's just that LoW2 is missing that certain something … namely compelling gameplay.

Hardcore and casual gamers alike, however, will tire of it very quickly.

The game plays like a warped fighting game, and practically everything about it screams frustration.

An unexpected technical achievement for the GBA, but that doesn't make it a fun game -- it most decidedly is not a fun game.

A mess that 36-plus months of development time couldn't flesh out.

Extremely low replay value.

Although several light years ahead of the quality present in "The Sum of All Fears," the major reason the PC original received such kudos ... -- online multiplay -- is missing.

A simplistic beat-'em-up that turns out to be little more than a generic brawler at best.

Poor framerate, small cast and moves, and poor replayability among other issues. "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater" sells millions for a reason -- this just isn't it.

Yet another superhero game for the junk pile, ripe with so many run-of-the-mill bullet-points that even diehard fans will be turned off.

The AI is stuck in neutral, the races aren't exciting enough to get your engine running, and the missions feel a bit flat.

There's just not enough skill, diversity, or excitement involved in Savage Skies, and certainly not enough incentive to keep slogging through the repetitive missions.

Not half as fun as the full console versions.

A mediocre game. It's certainly not the worst I've played, but neither does it have the spark that draws gamers in.

Geared towards a younger audience, Mickey is mind-numbingly simple, and it's a shame that such impressive visuals had to go to waste on such a disposable game.

Divested of any real spark, Tokobot runs out of steam quickly, mires itself in mediocrity, and never manages to rise above it.

The real issue here isn't so much that Armageddon is a mediocre game -- which it is -- rather that it's such a letdown after its excellent predecessor.

Even playing on the easiest setting, the difficulty regularly spikes to bowel-clenching impossibility. This wouldn't be so bad if the checkpoints flowed a little more freely, as most of the difficulty spikes tend to arrive after a protracted battle has already left you tattered and bleeding.

The real issue here isn't so much that Armageddon is a mediocre game -- which it is -- rather that it's such a letdown after its excellent predecessor.

Outside of some annoying platform-jumping bits, the game's environments are mostly non-interactive and serve only as gloomy backdrops on which to thrash countless bio-mechanical baddies.

Despite how oddly compelling I found many of the diversions found herein, I couldn't get too into this game's dated fighting mechanic.

Unless you're very forgiving, impervious to frustration, or blindly love all things Monkey Ball, Super Monkey Ball Adventure probably isn't your idea of a good time.

A solid little game. Of course, if you're going to be investing in an animated movie-licensed game for the system, your money would certainly be better spent on last month's surprisingly good "TMNT."

Not a complete misfire -- the graphics and sound are fine, the control is tight, and WayForward continues to show the flair for character design first seen in Shantae -- but there's no saving a game where the core gameplay element is completely bland and uninteresting.

Just about every aspect of the game seems a half-hearted effort...Twenty hours with this game is ten hours too many.

Bullet Witch just doesn't have the legs to last more than a few days. That's a dreadful pity too, because with a little more attention to detail and some good old-fashioned craftsmanship, it might have been a winner.

Just be warned that you'll be sitting through a lot of black screens before you get to the good parts. And even then, they might run a little slow.

Unfortunately, similar products have been around for years now, and unless you're not old enough to play competitive poker on an online gambling site (most of which offer free games as well), it's hard to justify picking this one up.

About 10 years too late. If it had come out around the time the films first started appearing (1995), it may have set the gaming world on fire. As is, it's just another freestyle also-ran.

There's really no reason to go back and replay it. I have to admit a certain amount of nostalgia in the early going, especially as I remembered cool parts of the game, but that's not a compelling reason to fork over the bucks for this remake.

In part, Skin wants to be a party game, but the multiplayer modes do very little to expand on the solo game. You'll find run-of-the-mill split-screen competitive modes and the occasional variation on tag, but the underlying mechanics are all identical to what's in the solo missions.

That dark, propulsive song is a great mood-setter, but some memorable ambience can't fully make up for frustrating and uninspired missions, clunky combat, a horrible save system, and other flaws.

It's too bad that the action-packed feel of the sport hasn't been captured with this release.

I don't think it's awful -- I just think I experienced the entirety of what fun the game has to offer in just a couple of hours, and then repeated this until the credits rolled.

I've scored the GCN's LoW2 lower than the PS2 and Xbox versions because of its lack of the interviews featured on the other platforms... combined with the GCN's persistent slowdown.

Short games aren't immediately terrible, but even the short ones ought to have something to justify their length as much as the long ones.

The graphics are amazing, the gameplay isn't perfect, but decent, and the loading mini-game is very promising for what developers can do in the future with this new hardware. Unfortunately, the frame rate is atrociously choppy during replays, and the online is possibly the worst I've ever experienced with any online game that actually connected me with an opponent instead of just not connecting.

The novelty of the different musical styles just doesn't make up for the highly repetitive gameplay.

As excellent as the Square-sponsored source material is, the game is about as generic and bland as you can get.

The difficulty and level design problems are a real shame because when it's good, Narnia is really a lot of fun, but when the designers decided to make it really tough, they managed to sap most of the fun out of what should have been a whimsical action ride through the frozen land of Narnia.

Despite some smart moves on the part of the developers (voice talent, good graphics engine, franchise overhaul) none of them really pan out and bring much to the experience, leaving the game to flounder with its new but repetitive focus on combat.

It's just a shame that the gameplay flaws (seriously, why can't you tilt?) drag the entire package down so far. Maybe next time, Nintendo should just toss a few Koopa Troopas and Goombas into the "Pokémon Pinball" template.

Monster Bomber's gameplay is too picky and arbitrary-feeling to really develop a flow, and it ends up feeling like a once-simple concept has gotten stretched to the point of distracting complication.

If this new AvP were like a grapefruit, and you were like the Dole Fruit Company, you would probably buy it only for use in juicing, not to be eaten on its own, as it just doesn't have enough meat. And by "buy it only for use in juicing" I mean you probably wouldn't buy it at all, because it isn't very good.

The artificial intelligence is improved and ball physics are much more realistic than in the first game, but while FIFA Street 2 makes a good first impression, it gets bogged down by unresponsive player controls and repetitive action.

Straight fights in C&C4 play a lot like a boxing match between two guys with iron jaws and teensy weensy hands. You and your opponent can pound away at each other till you're both spent like an addict's last dollar, but nobody's knocking anybody out.

Unfortunately, the creators of Rise of an Empire have managed to make a Settlers game so narrow in scope and so lacking in player control that it's only slightly more interactive than dropping fish flakes in with the Neon Tetras.

The real downside to this is that you can't fail. You'll always uncover the real criminal, and you never have to worry about contaminating evidence using incorrect procedures.

Graphically, it's the best that NASCAR has ever looked, but once you get past the pretty picture, you're left with a racer with plenty of holes.

Considering how nice the game looks, it's a shame that the flighty control spoils it.

As dense and nihilistic as the source material, but not nearly as thrilling.

A missed opportunity. It's not that it's a terrible game (the graphics are nice, the character designs are sufficiently anime), but after about five hours I realized I'd been bored out of my skull for the last three due to the massive repetition.

The core game is unsatisfying because of the control scheme that seems Hell-bent on ruining your wrists; all that waggling is good for precisely nobody.

In the cold light of day it's simply another FPS that falls halfway between memorable extremes.

If you or a person on your Christmas list would like an adventure game with a good short story and wouldn't mind a few old-school arcade moments, Atlantis Evolution might suffice, but it's far from being a must-play.

It's just that the really sloppy platforming and box-moving, which take up a good chunk of the game, puts a big damper on any joy that we might find in shooting up bandits and cowboys.

Far from a bad game, but it seems content with being merely adequate, and nothing more.

If you're a gambler and need something to wean yourself off of the online poker sites, then you could do far worse than playing with the relatively benign token system at Pogo.com. On the other hand, if you're a gamer looking for a compelling puzzle diversion, then you could do far better.

While it has the series' trademark snappy dialogue, sultry vixens, and more double entendres than a classic Rodney Dangerfield routine, it's missing one thing: the fun. The mini-games dragged after only a few hours, and getting through the game felt like a chore.

Not quite as bad as the movie, but it is most certainly in the same ballpark.

We were hoping for more from The Lord of the Rings: Conquest, and we're disappointed that the game didn't do more with such a powerful license. Star Wars: Battlefront hasn't aged very well, and to get essentially the same game with a different theme left us wanting more.

All we get here is more of the potential and less of the execution, when it would be better off the other way around.