The ease of defense and careful consideration that must be paid to offense is refreshing. However, there are a host of issues, the pathfinding in particular, that turn what should be an entertaining game into a title best left on the shelf.

Being able to explore Hogwarts as not one, but all three of your favorite characters is, as Ron would put it, brilliant. But older gamers will find little challenge in the game's simplistic block puzzles.

Being able to explore Hogwart's as not one, but all three of your favorite characters is, as Ron would put it, brilliant. Older gamers will find little challenge in the game's simplistic block puzzles.

Let the kids have their fun. Just play it a little once the kids have gone to bed.

While it doesn't let you bang away with the 1000-plus monsters available in the Yu-Gi-Oh! games (at least not yet), it does offer somewhat deeper and more complex gameplay.

The game is actually ten times more deliberate and strategic than even the most realistic squad-based shooters, and if you try to approach it like one of those, you're going to die a dog's death ... ten times over.

It's simply too good and too tasty to ignore. Not to mention it's the first decent step towards next-next-generation visuals.

A fantastic game -- it's easy to pick up and play, has great character and depth, and is even better with a friend.

A terrific game. All of the stealth gameplay, intricate level design, Byzantine story branches, and delightfully larcenous action makes a welcome return in this edition. The godfather of stealth-action games is back. Unfortunately, while Thief: Deadly Shadows stands as an equal to any of the previous games in the series, it doesn't exceed them - nor does it move the franchise forward as much as it was obviously designed to do.

Fans of River City Ransom on the NES and brawlers as a whole will love this version.

More fun than not, but the repetitive nature and framerate problems dampened my enjoyment. I couldn't help feeling that it was a PC game slapped on a console.

A quirky and sometimes frustrating puzzle action title that fails to do its two famous mascots justice.

As a play-alone game, it's well worth the money, but without even moderately acceptable multiplayer support it's going to have an uphill fight to find a larger audience -- and that's a shame because it deserves better.

While the yin and yang of treading the fabled thin blue line is intriguing, the gameplay of True Crime is hampered by a host of negatives. It's a fun game, but it's hard to recommend to hardcore PC gamers.

It obviously has its share of problems, but plopping down $20 (or less) for an innovative concept like this isn't a terrible decision. I can see some people really loving it, and I don't blame them.

Thanks to the huge amount of customization options, this game offers much more depth of gameplay than what's found in your average fighting game. If only so much tedium wasn't involved in accessing all of it.

Just having new characters to play with is a nice advancement, and I ended up having more fun playing the game than I thought I would.

It's not the most original or innovative of games, but when was the last time you got to face off against Dracula, the Wolfman, and the Frankenstein monster in the same sitting?

At the least, however, players shouldn't be scolded for anticipating games that are not rushed, boring, and feature broken gameplay that lasts less than the time it takes to watch the film's they're based upon.

It just lacks the depth, polish, and length of titles like "Prince of Persia" and "Ninja Gaiden." That said -- if you're looking for a quick burst of fun that won't require you to free up hundreds of hours, there are a few famous monsters that need to be offed.

While it's no masterpiece, Omega Strain is worth playing for online junkies who've grown tired of the endless hours of "SOCOM II." Those that lack a network adaptor should probably rent first.

Another innovation with questionable value is the onscreen confidence meter. A cool idea to make the game seem more realistic, it just doesn't seem to work all that well.

Quirky, innovative and charming, La Pucelle: Tactics is at once one of the best tactics games out there, as well as one of the best RPGs.

Overall, the controls prove powerful and intuitive, granting this game its ultimate top-notch status.

Amazingly, this rally racer also happens to be the best-looking game on the Xbox. The car models are bleeding-edge realistic, with licensed decals and aftermarket streamlining. The collection of tracks is wildly diverse, with feet in nearly every continent.

So much of Red Dead feels like it's caught between two camps -- arcade and more modern third-person action -- that it all feels compromised.

So much of Red Dead feels like it's caught between two camps -- arcade and more modern third-person action -- that it all feels compromised.

It's very derivative, and beyond a few puzzles requiring you to use all four characters in tandem, there's not a lot that's new here. At the same time, it's mostly enjoyable while it lasts.