While I would have liked more cohesion in the plot and more depth in the combat, the overall package is filled with enough fun and surprises to keep you playing through the end.

Only graphical impoverishments, a terrible secret-unlock method, and a lack of features prevent perfection.

The combat is electric and there's so much to explore and discover that it'll take quite a while before most players discover that the universe isn't as deep as it could have been.

Despite the beefed up single-player game, Drive's lack of online play keeps it from taking top honors from "Sega Sports' NBA 2K3."

A damn good game, Combat Command 2: Desert Rats has nearly all the strategic depth of much more complex titles at half the cost in learning time.

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.

While the gameplay will mostly appeal to the hardcore fans of the hobby, almost anyone will get a smile as they watch the cars roll by.

If you're up to its challenges, Steel Beasts offers an accurate, involving, and rewarding simulation of modern tank warfare.

The downside to this aspect of the game is that (as mentioned) it can be downright frustrating to get to the point where you are actually even a minor 'player' on this regional stage.

Certainly an improvement considering how bad some of those earlier games were -- but yet Test Drive really has a ways to go before it will ever reach the status of a "Triple-A" racing title.

Land Warrior is the best distance squad combat game on the market.

Gone are cumbersome mechanics like hiding bodies and sheathing swords to run faster; back are gruesome one-hit kills, fun grappling hooks and those lovely poisoned rice balls.

Not a perfect game, but it does a decent job at what it sets out to do.

Impressive for a handheld title. It just happens to lack the same joyful rush granted by superior titles such as "Mario Kart Super Circuit," "F-Zero," or even Konami's underrated "Krazy Racers."

Though Homeworld2 may technically be a sequel, it too doesn't distance itself very far from the original, and in some ways feels like a mission pack itself. However, that doesn't stop it from being a completely addictive -- if sometimes incredibly difficult -- addition to the Homeworld universe.

I personally am totally in love with the game, but then I have a strong Robotech/Battletech/Anime upbringing. It is certainly not for the squeamish.

The environment, the quests, and the huge world you're in overcomes some of the technical issues with the game.

An engaging storyline, high-quality cut-scenes, a cast of unique heroes and a whole stampede of missions make Desperados a shining silver star.

One of the most beautiful games ever to grace the PS2.

It would be truly great to be able to control and command a series of formations as a group -- something that is done in actual wars. But we can't have everything and actually what we have is pretty good.

While AoM sports a new graphics engine and three unique factions, on the whole it plays very much like its predecessors. Too much like its predecessors, if you were hoping for a truly different game experience.

Anyone playing P.T.O. IV is much less interested in graphics than gameplay, and P.T.O. IV delivers heapin' helpings of the latter.

RealMYST really is a great game. If you enjoyed the original, you'll be transfixed by how the worlds have changed yet stayed eerily the same.

While Electronic Art's blatant clone, "Simpsons Road Rage," has much improved graphics, a two-player mode, and free ride option, Crazy Taxi still comes out ahead in pure controllability and gameplay.

One of the most original games of the year. Despite certain shortcomings and some frustration, Sanity provided me with a tremendously entertaining, 28-hour long experience that is seldom seen elsewhere.

It's got the racing dynamic of EA's "Need for Speed" and Acclaim's "Test Drive" series, but the speed and abandon of "Crazy Taxi" and "Driver."

A decade of shooters combined into one polished package; the single-player mode is filled with great action and a wide variety of gameplay, and the innovative multiplayer mode should hook veteran fraggers almost immediately.

Creative, weird, wild, and endlessly replayable.