If you don't know a Liu Bei from a Lu Bu, you're not going to be interested, but those who understand the thrill of taking down the thousandth enemy in a single battle will enjoy it. Just be sure to give the new Renbu system a chance.

A markedly better game than its predecessors.

A markedly better game than its predecessors.

Add to this equation a staggering variety of weapons (with accompanying cryptic icons) all capable of reducing your fellow competitors to fused hunks of flaming track detritus, a masterfully produced techno soundtrack and some clever online features and you've got a game that has essentially taken up permanent residence in our PSPs.

The staggering lack of quality apparent in Dark Messiah of Might and Magic Elements has left us incredibly disappointed.

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.

We have immense respect for what Lost Odyssey tries to do: be a back-to-basics JRPG with modern technological trimmings on the 360. Unfortunately, it's less a celebration of what made older RPGs great and more a crude relic of their past.

After the high quality of the first two episodes of Season Two, it's disappointing to see the series misfire as it reaches its midpoint.

Incredibly original and thoroughly entertaining.

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.

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 visuals and story aren't going to bring anyone new to the fold, and you have to be a very dedicated sort to want to invest the incredible amount of time necessary to play a single game from start to finish. At $39.99 dollars, though, you do get a lot of game for your money.

The amazing visuals, 60 fps action and phenomenal cut-scenes make for an enjoyable experience. DMC4 doesn't completely outstrip its predecessors, but it's a fun romp nonetheless.

It's an enjoyable run through the world of demon slaying. It's significantly more fulfilling than the disappointing "DMC2" even if it's not quite the leap forward that "DMC3" was (or at least, the rebalanced Special Edition was).

Altair's Chronicles occasional control speed, framerate, and camera issues make us think that this would have been a superior game in 2D, but no one's returning our calls about making classically-influenced 2D platformers for the DS.

The game is serviceable if not stellar and comes packed with plenty of extras designed to make fans of the franchise drop dead from sheer joy.

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.

It's unapologetically cheesy in presentation, from the one-dimensional characters to the terrible dialogue to the awkwardly awful stereotypes, but it's oddly endearing.

You'll get more of a physical workout with the Wii version of the game, but this is a perfectly fine way for you to get some of that Olympic spirit without having to break a sweat.

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 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.

Frame-rate issues, unimaginative combat and adventure gameplay, and multiplayer that sags leaves Unlimited Adventure in the position of not quite being able to compete with the One Piece games of the last generation.

One of the most gleefully "WTF" experiences you'll have in gaming this year. How many games offer you shadowy agency figures named after porn stars, obsessions with masked pro wrestlers, and a violent weapon that borders on copyright infringement, all while "Heavenly Star" from Lumines II plays sporadically throughout the game's shopping locales?

We do wish that the changes that worked so well in Dual Strike hadn't been so casually tossed aside here. In fact, looking at the two out of context, we'd presume that Dual Strike was the later game. But the quality of design here is as phenomenal as ever, and we expect to be playing Days of Ruin for quite some time.

The steep learning curve for Pirates of the Burning Sea is a shame, because underneath that crusty exterior is a brilliant naval combat game and one of the more interesting economic models ever introduced to the online gaming scene.

If you're a parent buying this for your kids so that you can save yourself thirty dollars, we can't really blame you. But if you're out of middle-school and decide that this is worth your money you have no one to blame but yourself.

As much as we enjoyed playing Katana, we really can't recommend it to most gamers. While the Wii Remote sword combat is the best we've seen yet, there are other games on the horizon that will likely do it better ("Dragon Quest: Swords" or "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" perhaps?).

They've packed Sam and Max's world with so many great characters, locations, running gags and plot points that they seem to feel like they have to cram them all into every episode.

While the experience isn't particularly compelling, you can conceivably play Circle of Doom for hundreds and hundreds of hours.

There have been worse football games out there, but not a lot. If you've got young gamers in your household, sit down with them and break down a Madden playbook instead of forcing NFL Tour on them. Unlike its spiritual predecessor NFL Street, there are no Gamebreakers here. Instead, the game itself is broken.

Sure, the online functions decently, but it's merely allowing thousands of gamers with buyer's remorse to play a mediocre game.

It's faithfully done, easy to play, and a showcase of pop-culture references and parody. You won't get many hours of game for your 40 dollars, but you will get some laughs.

A fun way to spend a few hours if you enjoy the television show. It's faithfully done, easy to play, and a showcase of pop-culture references and parody. You won't get many hours of game for your thirty dollars, but you will get some laughs.

Taking flight as the NiGHTS character is once again an engaging gameplay experience.

MX vs. ATV Untamed isn't the greatest motocross game ever, but it's so much damn fun that you probably won't care. Note to Rainbow, though: fire that janky, poorly rendered blonde you have carrying the sign before races and insert some live-action shots of two beauties in your commercial. You'll sell way more games.

MX vs. ATV Untamed isn't the greatest motocross game ever, but it's so much damn fun that you probably won't care. Note to Rainbow, though: fire that janky, poorly rendered blonde you have carrying the sign before races and insert some live-action shots of two beauties in your commercial. You'll sell way more games.

There's a steeper visual disparity between this and the HD-gen versions than many multiplatform games, partly because Rainbow wasn't behind the development of this version. However, if you're not interested in how modern a game looks or feels and you just want to go big now, you'll probably enjoy Untamed.

In spite of framerate drops, inconsistent online multiplayer, and other serious issues that weigh it down, there's little doubt that the five games in this package exude Valve's attention to detail and show off the developer's talent for making great titles.

Season 2 will help satisfy series or genre fans' lust for collecting things by virtually golfing, but by failing to add a satisfying online experience to the game -- the first game's real weak spot -- 2 is more expansion pack than true sequel.

The sheer exhilaration one gets when watching horribly damaged walkers amble into an enemy base, exploding and taking out half the opponent's infrastructure can't be underestimated. Unfortunately, a poorly designed single-player campaign can't help but limit the game's appeal and the multiplayer, while awesome to play, has that Games for Windows LIVE nonsense tied around its neck like an anchor.

Character choices aside, if you can get past the occasionally spotty controls and the somewhat sluggish combat, you'll have a decent time with this game, especially if you grew up watching Godzilla and King Ghidorah duke it out on Saturday afternoon TV. Just don't set your expectations too high.

The Golden Compass isn't the worst game based on a movie, but it's close. It's a combination of uninspired platforming, poorly implemented mini-games and slow and broken storytelling.

The Golden Compass isn't the worst game based on a movie, but it's close. It's a combination of uninspired platforming, poorly implemented mini-games and slow and broken storytelling.

The Golden Compass isn't the worst game based on a movie, but it's close. It's a combination of uninspired platforming, poorly implemented mini-games and slow and broken storytelling.

If you've played any of the previous Tenkaichi titles, you know exactly what to expect here -- a relatively shallow button-masher that does a darn fine job of letting you relive the Dragon Ball experience.

If all the different Puzzle Quest releases were playing a certain reality show, the Wii version would be the first to get voted off the island. The Xbox Live version and even the PSP version with its annoying bugs are better-looking versions of the same game.

If you can say that you're looking forward to having ice cream for breakfast, lunch and dinner for a week than this is a great title for you. If, somehow, you're totally out of great DS and Gameboy games to play on the go, Galaxies makes for a passable time killer on the road.

It will both entertain and educate you about the basics of magic. It would have been nicer if the selection of tricks was more balanced, but overall it's another cool use of the DS.

It's a rare thing when a game comes along with the power to move a player emotionally... Mass Effect takes interactive entertainment to breathtaking new heights.

This brain-dead combat is perhaps the worst part of Double Smash. Slowly plodding through the stale levels, fighting the same enemies, and using the same techniques to win grows old almost immediately.

Factor in reasonably priced downloadable content, and you've got the recipe for one of the year's best games, bar none.

It's an experience like no other in videogames, and it's amazingly realized considering it's really the first time anyone's tried it.

At around 30 bucks, Ghost Squad is a great addition to your library if, and only if, you are into light-gun games that aren't heavy on the realism (ie, most of them). It's absurd and comical, and those aren't necessarily bad things. In our case, we certainly had no trouble laughing our way through some surprisingly entertaining light-gun action.

Legends isn't a horror of a game. It's just a game that wouldn't have been greenlighted on the PS2 trying to cash in on the Wii's popularity and gullible gift-buyers.

Though it has a few blemishes, Revenant Wings still manages to be a good deal of fun. The way combat is handled is logical and enjoyable, making up for the missteps.

If you can say that you're looking forward to having ice cream for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a week than this might be a great title for you. Other than that very particular market, it's tough to see Galaxies being worth the recommended price.

While Time Crisis 4 has its fair share of graphical, gameplay and control faults, its fast, fun on-rails shooter action will appeal to anyone looking for a break from controller-based shooters. Just don't expect anything spectacular.

But New Blood's single-player experience has all of the frustration of the original without the promise of eventual success. It's all stick and no carrot.

It's an offensively bad use of a cherished license, and it's an offensively simple and thoughtless strategy game.

It's an offensively bad use of a cherished license, and it's an offensively simple and thoughtless strategy game.

If you're a longtime Unreal Tournament, fan, you'll find plenty to like in UT3 -- just keep in mind it's not the instant classic its predecessor was. With any luck, that will be remedied with the next UT release -- hopefully we won't have to wait another three years for it.

While the majority of the game holds its own, presentation-wise it definitely plays the part of little brother when compared to 2K's NBA game.

While not perfect, College Hoops 2K8 has really raised the bar on virtual college basketball for the season. The new 6th Man Meter and Maximum Passing features both add depth and strategy and the addition of high-school blue-chippers to the Legacy mode adds, well, a whole lot more basketball to the disc.

Despite the addition of the 6th Man Mater and some improved passing and shooting aids, this year's version of College Hoops seems tired.

A thoroughly uninspired piece of hack work that gives you plenty of reasons not to buy it. Pick any one you like and save yourself the sixty bucks.

Its wide variety of game modes and options lets you create a multiplayer gaming experience to suit any time frame, and the huge number of mini-games sets a very high, very consumer-friendly bar.

It's great for family gaming and the competitive edge offered makes it attractive to core gamers. If only Nintendo had bothered to include global ranked high-score leaderboards.

It might not have the running time of other titles on the market, but the leanness of the experience and time invested are fulfilling, plus the replay value is strong...In a sea of great first person shooters, you won't get a better action game this year.

A sequel that's good but not great. It's got mini-games that will hook you immediately, a stronger emphasis on group play, and some genuinely hilarious moments. It's also got some bad mini-game mechanics that are recycled throughout the experience that drag it down.

Honestly, we still prefer Most Wanted to ProStreet even though ProStreet offers significantly improved tire smoke that actually wraps around the wheel wells of your car, because Most Wanted had cops that chased us and provided a really compelling reason to drive as fast as humanly possible.

Crysis pushes the envelope in the graphics department and experiments with some freewheeling gameplay. The end result may not be a perfectly polished game experience, and it might require a monster system to really appreciate, but it's hard to fault a game for pushing so far past the bleeding edge.

Instead of a true stealth engine, you have awkward "hide spots" to accommodate the free roaming. Combat is either too easy or too hard, lacking the brilliance of a dedicated action title. And the free-roaming, bound as it is to mission objectives that would be fine in a more linear game, is just unsatisfying. Each element of the game is individually interesting, but as a whole the package feels incomplete and patchwork more than innovative.

For everything cool that the game does, from the heightened tension of breaking into a prison to a shootout in a Tokyo nightclub to some amazing chase sequences, it shoots itself in the foot with a terrible cover system, artificial incompetence, and a multiplayer mode that sums up everything that's half-baked about the experience.

Instead of a true stealth engine, you have awkward "hide spots" to accommodate the free roaming. Combat is either too easy or too hard, lacking the brilliance of a dedicated action title. And the free-roaming, bound as it is to mission objectives that would be fine in a more linear game, is just unsatisfying. Each element of the game is individually interesting, but as a whole the package feels incomplete and patchwork more than innovative.

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.

There are dozens of different match types to explore, functioning online multiplayer, and many different ways to customize your experience. 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.

It's not necessarily the best wrestling game put out by THQ this year, but it's easily the most innovative.

Fast-paced action and a great presentation are hampered only by the steep learning curve for what should be a simple point-and-shoot experience.

In many ways, the controls are dead-on, but the awkward shooting controls hamstring the action.

If you've played any of the previous Tenkaichi titles, you know exactly what to expect here -- a relatively shallow button-masher that does a darn fine job of letting you relive the Dragon Ball experience. Those looking for anything else will be disappointed, but if you just want another excuse to beat up Frieza, this game will suit you perfectly.

It's good to have a better Rayman Raving Rabbids installment on DS than the one released last year, but we have a feeling that Ubisoft could have done much more on a handheld system that offers many great examples of mini-game collections.

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.

We haven't been huge fans of Need for Speed: ProStreet on other consoles, but the Wii version is by far the absolute worst one. It's not even so much the muddy, washed-out graphics (though they are quite awful, even by Wii standards) as it is that a significant number of features seem to have been stripped right out of the game and replaced with a control scheme that is agonizingly frustrating.

It succeeds as a conversion. It succeeds as a more mature racer. And it succeeds as a pure shot of vehicle-fueled adrenaline that you can take anywhere.

Honestly, we still prefer Most Wanted to ProStreet even though ProStreet offers significantly improved tire smoke that actually wraps around the wheel wells of your car, because Most Wanted had cops that chased us and provided a really compelling reason to drive as fast as humanly possible.

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.

Sonic Rivals 2 is a faithful return to Sonic's roots. Aside from a couple of speed bumps, this is one title that should be welcome in any fan's collection.

Fans have been waiting years for a true Contra sequel, and now it's arrived. Whether you're a fan of the series or someone looking for a challenge, you'll find a lot to love here.

It's exactly what diehard gamers feared that the casual gaming revolution was going to inflict on the industry: shallow, gimmicky software whose main selling point is that no one is too young, old or uncoordinated to be able to play it. Buy a real videogame or buy a board game, but don't be a dummy and let Smarty Pants walk away with your 50 bucks.

Its simple elements are well-blended in an adventure that only lasts about eight hours but still manages to fill its time with great fighting, fun puzzles and a general nostalgic atmosphere.

Though support for the Wii's new Zapper can't quite make up for the fact that the on-screen reticule is never quite where you want it to be, and the dollars-per-hour ratio would give any gamer pause, Medal of Honor Heroes 2 boasts enough polish and design acumen to be worth an expensive few days on the front lines.

Though it's hardly sufficient to make you forsake home console warfare for handheld ops, and the dollars-per-hour ratio would give any gamer pause, Medal of Honor Heroes 2 boasts enough polish and design acumen to be worth an expensive few days on the front lines for those who simply want another WW2 shooter experience.

Even with the support of the upcoming feature film (which supposedly donated art assets), it still manages to oscillate between looking positively stunning to heinously ugly.

Our sights weren't set especially high for Beowulf, so at least it didn't disappoint. Even with the support of the upcoming feature film (which supposedly donated art assets), it still manages to oscillate between looking positively stunning to heinously ugly.

The PlayStation 2 version of Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords comes highly recommended, even if it's not the most attractive version available. The Xbox Live version, and even the PSP version with its annoying bugs are better looking versions of the same game, but you can't lose with any choice you make.

The bad multiplayer choices compromise a game that's otherwise very enjoyable: Dinner with Friends is fresh and well-made, with responsive controls and lots to do, but when it comes to sharing it with friends it lacks even the basics of fun. The best thing is to play it alone, trying to unlock all the available items.

A solid port of a fairly awesome game. If not for the high system demands and random slowdowns, it might actually compete with the 360 and Wii for the best version available.

A thoroughly uninspired piece of hack work that gives you plenty of reasons not to buy it. Pick any one you like and save yourself the sixty bucks.