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.

The basic design of the game is quite sound and if Piranha Bytes could clean the game up, it might end up becoming a classic. As it stands now, my nightmarish trip through the world of Gothic 3 made me want to send my disc on a one-way trip into an incinerator.

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

Provides a number of strong enhancements to a game that already offers immeasurably high replay value.

Dumbing a game down for consoles is one thing, but it's another thing entirely to give the player so many advantages that the game is no longer fun.

The physics of whacking your opponents with the bat are also ... well, whacked. More often than not, a smacked enemy flies in front of your kart, slowing you down and putting you at a disadvantage.

While I cannot dismiss its flaws, I can easily ignore it and move on to better examples of this unique form of expression from the early 21st century.

The few good puzzles contained within aren't worth the time and risk that you might not even be able to complete it.

Its sloppy controls and poor presentation will likely turn off even some of the most diehard fans of the ATV Offroad franchise.

Everything about Raw Danger gets old quick, and that's not the mark of a quality gaming experience.

The landscapes, from the desert to the jungle, are good-looking, with enough differences in the terrain to keep it interesting. The change that the time-of-day makes on the environments is especially beautiful.

Offers a unique racing format and getting to keep track of your defeated rivals definitely adds an addictive "gotta catch 'em all" quality to the thing. The negatives -- questionable driving physics and some less than state-of-the-art graphics -- are easily outweighed by all the game has going for it.

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.

Unfortunately, what starts off as a fascinatingly fresh idea eventually breaks down. For all the compelling aspects of building your empire, the game's strategic model is actually pretty shallow.

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.

If you've never seen the allure of the Mega Man Battle Network series, this latest installment isn't going to win you over. Even if you are a fan, the heavy sense of déjà vu might have you feeling a little apathetic by now.

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.

For fans of Clive Barker, Jericho could provide some degree of entertainment, and as we stated at the beginning of this review, it's not totally devoid of rewards. At the same time, it's difficult to recommend a game with so many lackluster elements in a world full of Gears of Wars and BioShocks (both of which managed to be scarier than Jericho).

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.

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.

The biggest problem with Miami Vice is that it's composed of too many parts, and too few individual parts really do anything well. The closest that the game comes to being rather fun is in the Drug Wars-inspired segments, but they're not enough to carry the game alone.

For those who are interested in some slightly-skewed nostalgia and the freedom to manipulate their characters' skills on a microscopic level, Final Fantasy II is a perfect time sink of RPG pleasure.

But it's impossible to ignore the unfinished feel of the "final" product and even though it received a patch almost immediately after release, a lot more support is needed to make this a game worth investing a lot of time in. It's simply not finished yet.

Bottom line: this is a bad basketball game. The last Sony-published hoops title, NBA ShootOut 2004, was extremely solid, so these massive leaps backwards befuddle me to no end.

While Vexx eked out a win on the Xbox, its PlayStation 2 outing is held back by considerably worse graphics, longer load times, and stiffer competition.

An average game that tries to be more than it really is.

Most of the racing is exciting and a treat for the eyes, but there should have been more in the way of multiplay.

We really wanted to like Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm, but the series is stagnating in gameplay that was obtusely old-fashioned ten years ago. It's unfortunate, but the magic is long-gone.