Noby Noby Boy appears to be confusing from the outset, but it's a surprisingly rewarding experience once you've cut through its eccentricities. It offers a lot but appears to be about nothing.

Whatever your inclinations, Tropico 3 is an enjoyable city simulator that offers the same sort of replayability that others of its kind do; this one just emphasizes experimentation with moral behavior rather than perfecting a building grid.

Falls short of what I think it intended to accomplish. The guts [are] there with the good control and tight physics model, but the presentation is not up to the level it should be.

The story integrates so well with the faux-online theme that it drives you to continue playing almost as addictively as the real social interaction of a legitimate online game does.

Any fighting game has progressively harder enemies, but the bad guys in this game beat you as much with their intelligence as they do with their attacks.

Not just a way to make a quick buck off of diehard Buffy fans, it's a game that is as deep and fun to play as anything else on the system.

For fans of the previous Bomberman games, the DS version is easily one of the best in the franchise.

Sorry, it's been an epic wait for the tech upgrade... It's a good game, but too often resorts to recycling a number of first-person shooter clichés instead of breaking new ground.

What's crucial to fans, though, is that many of the issues that have plagued the previous Ultramix releases have been completely ironed out this time around.

You'll have fun fighting in Defiance, and feel lucky, because it happens quite often. But if you've been following the series, you'll also know that it's quite heavily reliant on aimless wandering and boring box puzzles.

In the time since its release, the developers have done a great job of supporting the game and a small but steadfast community has built up around it. Whatever problems Savage may have now, it seems to be a game with enough dedication behind it that it'll only get better over time.

Plenty of new objects provide enough variety to make it worth the price, but the lack of effort on Maxis' part to fix the problems in the game is disappointing.

Drop-dead gorgeous... [but] one of Hegemonia's major failings is that its real-time combat is usually simplistic and dull.

The folks at SCE Studios San Diego have once again brought their A-game. They've somehow managed to cram an incredible amount of action into their fourth PSP hoops release.

Pales in comparison to the PlayStation 2 version.

There's no multiplayer, no online play, and only a couple of difficulty modes. But it does its work extremely well, and it's safe to say you won't play a similar game this year.

While the overall game experience ranges from frustrating to epic, there's something special about the title as a whole.

Rugby lovers will love how far this franchise has come since last year's version.

Everything is just as wonderfully crafted, over-the-top crazy, and mouse-crushingly intense as it was in the full game. It's more Painkiller, and that's what you'd expect from an expansion, right?

In terms of gameplay, longevity and room for growth, however, Bloody Roar: Primal Fury just doesn't have the legs to compare to the likes of Sega's "Virtua Fighter" series or Namco's "Tekken" and "Soul Calibur" games.

Unfortunately, in the process of fixing the game, they ended up stripping much of what made the first game so endearing by allowing the numbers to take precedence over the personality. What Black & White 2 gained in competence; it seems to have lost in soul.

More than a gimmick but less than a broad, full-featured experience, Pursuit Force might not be deep or addicting enough to become an actual pursuit, but the satisfying arcade-style gameplay and high marks across the board for audiovisuals make it a great distraction or diversion.

If you're not a big follower of Star Wars, you may want to just pick up "Age of Empires II" from some bargain bin. You'll probably have just as much fun.

With three diverse factions, an immersive 3D battlefield and nearly unlimited replay value, The Moon Project is leading the way for the next generation of real-time strategy games. An early candidate for the best RTS of 2001.

The combat system is one of the best you're likely to see in an action game of this sort. It's so solid that Crimson Sea 2's "kill everything that moves" formula doesn't become stale or tedious until quite late in the game, which is a huge accomplishment for a game based on such a simple concept.

Look past the gratuitous, fleshy outer casing and delve deep into the tight stealth/action gameplay provided. Manhunt delivers.

The game shipped with passable production values, dated graphics, and a minimal number of play modes, so it's hard to consider this a good value at the $59.99 price point. On the other hand, if you're a die-hard football fan and want to once again experience 2K's style of play, then this is your only option.

Sadly, with ultra-generic gameplay and a muddled story, there's very little in Emergence to hook gamers into future installments.