Too few arenas, repetitive action, difficult AI and bad weapon balance add up to a bad game.

A very strong, engaging story set in an interesting world. It's what will keep you playing despite the problems.

Anyone looking for a lengthy, varied platformer with hidden secrets up the wazoo and tongue-in-cheek humor should find themselves enjoying Night of the Quinkan more than they would have expected.

Skip it in favor of more traditional means of control. Mastering it is just too big of a hassle, and every other platform's offering has better multiplayer options anyway (a little thing called online).

It's refreshing to see an original portable game, but Scurge: Hive has some serious problems; mainly, the obnoxious time limit and frustrating enemy fights.

Anyone looking for a lengthy, varied platformer with hidden secrets up the wazoo and tongue-in-cheek humor should find themselves enjoying Night of the Quinkan more than they would have expected.

The first game that made me want to spike my PSP in frustration. In that sense, it manages to truly recapture the home console experience of being angry enough with a game to destroy equipment. Past that, it's a title mired with long load times and not-so-great controls.

If it sounds like I have a love/hate relationship with Risen 2, then guilty as charged. This is one of those games that's brimming with quirks, ranging from the minor (killed turkeys give you chicken meat) to momentously glitchy (complete a couple missions in the "wrong" order late in the game and an overarching quest breaks). And for all the artifact-gathering and hand-wringing over Risen 2's "big bad," the final fight is anti-climactic and relatively easy. But... for all its problems, I still recommend this game to RPG fans who are forgiving angels in real life, but unforgiving scurvy dogs in-game.

Fans of the series will no doubt like the ability to test the relative strengths and weaknesses of, say, the GAT-X103 versus the GAT-X207, but gamers unfamiliar with mobile suit mythology won't get that same buzz.

While there are some nice, new touches -- most notably, the improved controls -- the game's lack of depth and less-than-cutting-edge presentation make things seem incomplete.

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.

Sword of the Stars is full of solid ideas and offers interesting strategic challenges and fun multiplayer action to those willing to weather its quirks, frustrations and obscurities.

Wisely priced at 20 bucks, and its historical info alone makes it a must for anyone with an interest in video-game lore, but not one of the included games is anything more than a mild curiosity.

If a little more focus had been placed on adding depth to the game, 187 could have been a solid title for Ubisoft. Instead, comical use of lingo and the otherwise average presentation make 187 Ride or Die feel more like a poser than a player.

Red flags like the frustrating controls, uneven flow, and the lack of voice-recognition capability present in its other games make it appear that this one was rushed out the door in time for the season.

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 has a simplistic hand-to-hand fighting system, a jerky, broken camera, crappy, jarring level designs, and horrifically frustrating platforming elements. It pretty much just fails at emulating the combat-heavy action games that have inspired it, and you'll constantly remind yourself of this as you play.

Unless you're predisposed to buying anything that is related to the show, just ogle a few gameplay videos, fancy a screenshot or two, and call it a day without wasting fifty bucks.

May have the most interesting lineup of bonus features of all the video b-ball releases, but its sub-par gameplay keeps it from hanging on the same court as EA Sports' or Sega's game.

Due to the game's poorly crafted A.I., this isn't really a game to play alone. Much like actual paintball, Splat Magazine Renegade Paintball just isn't any fun without some friends.

The voice acting is more painful than ever, and continues to sabotage the series' attempts at dramatic storytelling.

It's still a decent game in the grand scheme of things, if you can get past a few fits of boredom and the desire to be Chewie.

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.

I just can't find enough new content here to recommend that you pick up this year's model. This old horse needs to learn some new tricks, or at the very least not forget the ones it's already learned.

Tales of Phantasia ends up looking like a fossil -- and not one of the cool ones with spikes and sharp teeth. More like a fern or insect, existing mostly to study the past and gauge evolution. RPGs have evolved far beyond this port.

Whether you see it as a fantasy-slanted Gears homage or a punched-up and streamlined dungeon-crawler, the end result is roughly the same: Hunted is an adequate diversion for co-op aficionados, but little more.

Awkward controls and handling largely dilute the fun of "kicking ass with the Force," especially during a few big moments toward the end. The Force Unleashed spins an entertaining yarn, but its gameplay prevents it from becoming a rich contributor to "Star Wars'" interactive tapestry.

Midnight Nowhere has a very creepy atmosphere, excellent puzzles, and great voice acting. If it weren't for the terrible translations, it might be one of the best adventure games of the year.