Comes up short in a number of ways. Would you really notice a big difference between playing the last game again on a higher difficulty and running through the new one with your eyes half-closed? That's the $50 question, and it's one that unfortunately must be answered in the negative.

It's a bit rough around the edges, but powerful psionics, extensive gun combat, and a great story make up for whatever polish the game is missing.

Endless Space easily earns a strong recommendation to fans of this genre. But I also can't quite call it a great game, because it lacks the flavor that makes games like Alpha Centauri, Sins of a Solar Empire, or Civilization so great.

As a real-time strategy game, EndWar is an intimate and deeply nuanced experience.

An excellent puzzle title that takes more time to grow on you than many short attention-spanned gamers might be willing to invest. Nevertheless, it's an entertaining, fun, and challenging title that can truly be played in the sorts of bursts that are natural to handheld gaming.

It's deep, lengthy, and has a lot to offer to those who are willing to take the time to appreciate it.

At least The Thing starts out strong. It's the sort of game you don't have to feel bad about not finishing.

It's offensive, psyche-damaging, brutal, makes no sense, and is unforgiving and violent. And damn good fun.

It will alternately excite and frustrate you, but for the time being, there is no better baseball experience on the PS2.

It has plenty of meat to go along with the sweetness, and is part of your well-balanced gaming diet.

Though it's a fairly robust expansion, most of its content isn't immediately accessible, nor is it even readily apparent, especially for beginning players.

If you can survive some occasional stretches of lunacy from your board of directors (something all NHL GMs must learn to do eventually), there's a remarkably compelling hockey experience waiting to be had with NHL Eastside Hockey Manager.

Perhaps the worst aspect of this mode is that the difficulty level seems unexpectedly bipolar. Each challenge is either trivial or unreasonably hard.

The game never strays from what captivated audiences more than thirty years ago, and provides a rich experience that gamers simply won't be able to refuse.

The characters are sweet but the story is bland. The battles are sexy but sometimes overstay their welcome. The graphics are great but the music is forgettable.

Great stuff, with the most intense dogfighting and most spectacular production values I've ever encountered in a flight-action game.

Either way, unless you despise RPG combat to the point of cursing the heavens and hitting your eyes with rusty nails at the sight of active-time battles, you'll have nothing to regret after spending a few hours in Tycho and Gabe's company.

If Donkey Kong Country 3 was released today as an original title, it would redefine 2D platform gaming.

Hopefully, some day in the future, id will see fit to give gamers a more robust multiplayer experience worthy of the DOOM name. Until then, the single-player campaign is still strong enough to carry the title and provide action junkies more than enough to satisfy their itchy trigger fingers.

The game's fighting mechanic was a little thin to begin with, and without an online version to lend it some legs, it gets old real fast. Playing with the GameCube controller isn't too hot, either.

It may not have every team, every stadium, every tournament, and every player out there, but there's plenty enough in its gameplay to satisfy any video game soccer fan.

It's not exactly a stellar game, but the capable story and unique battle system make it a solid addition to the GBA library.

Every bit better than the original, and in many shiny ways. The multiplayer is a blast, it looks great, the game modes are expanded exponentially over the first, and the game dances on the fine line of being fairly realistic without being too over-the-top crazy.

Definitely not a game for everyone... but it's an intensely satisfying and mind-bogglingly replayable game for those gamers willing to wallow in Asian history and pure strategy.

The physics provide a near-perfect blend of arcade and simulation sensibilities: It's not so over-the-top that it's still believable, but it's also not so realistic that you'll need an intimate level of knowledge about tires, engines, and gear boxes.

A greater challenge wouldn't have hurt, but this is a fun game.

For console owners, it's simply not worth the bucks to upgrade your PC to play this game -- Enjoy it on your console. On the other hand, if you've got the hardware for it (including a gamepad) and don't own a console, I'd recommend getting your hands on this game in an instant.

Perimeter certainly has its share of problems, from a bizarro-world storyline and ho-hum multiplayer support to lackluster artificial intelligence. But playing the game is just so much fun that it's almost impossible not to recommend.