Even playing on the easiest setting, the difficulty regularly spikes to bowel-clenching impossibility. This wouldn't be so bad if the checkpoints flowed a little more freely, as most of the difficulty spikes tend to arrive after a protracted battle has already left you tattered and bleeding.

The visuals and story aren't going to bring anyone new to the fold, and you have to be a very dedicated sort to want to invest the incredible amount of time necessary to play a single game from start to finish. At $39.99 dollars, though, you do get a lot of game for your money.

The amazing visuals, 60 fps action and phenomenal cut-scenes make for an enjoyable experience. DMC4 doesn't completely outstrip its predecessors, but it's a fun romp nonetheless.

It's an enjoyable run through the world of demon slaying. It's significantly more fulfilling than the disappointing "DMC2" even if it's not quite the leap forward that "DMC3" was (or at least, the rebalanced Special Edition was).

Altair's Chronicles occasional control speed, framerate, and camera issues make us think that this would have been a superior game in 2D, but no one's returning our calls about making classically-influenced 2D platformers for the DS.

The game is serviceable if not stellar and comes packed with plenty of extras designed to make fans of the franchise drop dead from sheer joy.

The reason that Sins of a Solar Empire works is that it truly respects and celebrates both styles of strategy gaming. It marries the grand scope and Nietzschian will-to-power embodied by the best "4X" conquer-the-universe titles with the adrenaline-fueled immediacy and moment-to-moment decision making of a great real-time strategy game.

It's unapologetically cheesy in presentation, from the one-dimensional characters to the terrible dialogue to the awkwardly awful stereotypes, but it's oddly endearing.

You'll get more of a physical workout with the Wii version of the game, but this is a perfectly fine way for you to get some of that Olympic spirit without having to break a sweat.

It's not a flawless package; some of Paradise City's terrain could be easier to navigate with do-it-yourself waypoints, and the inability to restart a race is irritating. However, there's so much to do and wreck that you'll invest tens of hours in single-player before you even tap the d-pad to jump into the online experience. Paradise is undoubtedly the first must-own racing game of 2008.

It's not a flawless package; some of Paradise City's terrain could be easier to navigate with do-it-yourself waypoints, and the inability to restart a race is irritating. However, there's so much to do and wreck that you'll invest tens of hours in single-player before you even tap the d-pad to jump into the online experience. Paradise is undoubtedly the first must-own racing game of 2008.

Frame-rate issues, unimaginative combat and adventure gameplay, and multiplayer that sags leaves Unlimited Adventure in the position of not quite being able to compete with the One Piece games of the last generation.

One of the most gleefully "WTF" experiences you'll have in gaming this year. How many games offer you shadowy agency figures named after porn stars, obsessions with masked pro wrestlers, and a violent weapon that borders on copyright infringement, all while "Heavenly Star" from Lumines II plays sporadically throughout the game's shopping locales?

We do wish that the changes that worked so well in Dual Strike hadn't been so casually tossed aside here. In fact, looking at the two out of context, we'd presume that Dual Strike was the later game. But the quality of design here is as phenomenal as ever, and we expect to be playing Days of Ruin for quite some time.

The steep learning curve for Pirates of the Burning Sea is a shame, because underneath that crusty exterior is a brilliant naval combat game and one of the more interesting economic models ever introduced to the online gaming scene.

If you're a parent buying this for your kids so that you can save yourself thirty dollars, we can't really blame you. But if you're out of middle-school and decide that this is worth your money you have no one to blame but yourself.

As much as we enjoyed playing Katana, we really can't recommend it to most gamers. While the Wii Remote sword combat is the best we've seen yet, there are other games on the horizon that will likely do it better ("Dragon Quest: Swords" or "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" perhaps?).

They've packed Sam and Max's world with so many great characters, locations, running gags and plot points that they seem to feel like they have to cram them all into every episode.

While the experience isn't particularly compelling, you can conceivably play Circle of Doom for hundreds and hundreds of hours.

There have been worse football games out there, but not a lot. If you've got young gamers in your household, sit down with them and break down a Madden playbook instead of forcing NFL Tour on them. Unlike its spiritual predecessor NFL Street, there are no Gamebreakers here. Instead, the game itself is broken.

Sure, the online functions decently, but it's merely allowing thousands of gamers with buyer's remorse to play a mediocre game.

It's faithfully done, easy to play, and a showcase of pop-culture references and parody. You won't get many hours of game for your 40 dollars, but you will get some laughs.

A fun way to spend a few hours if you enjoy the television show. It's faithfully done, easy to play, and a showcase of pop-culture references and parody. You won't get many hours of game for your thirty dollars, but you will get some laughs.

Taking flight as the NiGHTS character is once again an engaging gameplay experience.

MX vs. ATV Untamed isn't the greatest motocross game ever, but it's so much damn fun that you probably won't care. Note to Rainbow, though: fire that janky, poorly rendered blonde you have carrying the sign before races and insert some live-action shots of two beauties in your commercial. You'll sell way more games.

MX vs. ATV Untamed isn't the greatest motocross game ever, but it's so much damn fun that you probably won't care. Note to Rainbow, though: fire that janky, poorly rendered blonde you have carrying the sign before races and insert some live-action shots of two beauties in your commercial. You'll sell way more games.

There's a steeper visual disparity between this and the HD-gen versions than many multiplatform games, partly because Rainbow wasn't behind the development of this version. However, if you're not interested in how modern a game looks or feels and you just want to go big now, you'll probably enjoy Untamed.

In spite of framerate drops, inconsistent online multiplayer, and other serious issues that weigh it down, there's little doubt that the five games in this package exude Valve's attention to detail and show off the developer's talent for making great titles.