One of the shortest full-price console games in our memory. Despite impeccable voicework, the subpar visuals and dreadful combat controls forced us to dump it unceremoniously under a bridge in Jersey - never to be spoken of again.

Compared to Imageepoch's decent track record of niche RPGs, Time and Eternity is a resounding disappointment. And that's compounded by the game’s promising 2D visual concept falling short. As there is nothing especially remarkable with the game's world exploration, battles, or anything else for that matter, the only audience that would appreciate Time and Eternity is the one that buys anything publisher NIS America releases. Even then, this one's a hard sale.

From the dysfunctional camera to the bland and uninspired combat, it's an absolute chore to play through this game. It doesn't matter how great it looks on the outside - Bloodforge is rotten at its core.

The art design is solid, though technologically, the graphics don't impress at all. At press-time, the chat is nightmarish, and the user interface a pale shadow of other MMOs' well thought systems.

Our disgust was solidified near the end of the six-hour campaign, as the PS2 version's final boss fight is astonishingly cut short to insert an hour-plus of new fetch quests. We understand padding the game a bit, but lazily dumping these bland challenges within seconds of what should have been the conclusion shows a total disregard for the players who slogged through hours of sloppy programming to get to that point. And if the developer doesn't care, neither should we.

Turning Point's minimalist approach to everything - from its stale levels and sticky controls to its thin plot and absent character development - killed what could've been a really unique and engaging shooter and will disappoint hardcore fans of the genre across the board.

Though it starts out with what appears to be grand narrative ambitions, Clan of Champions quickly abandons any pretext that it's anything more than a brawler with robust customization options. More variety and ambition would've been nice, but Clan of Champions is still worth a look if your inner warrior has been feeling neglected.

Turning Point's minimalist approach to everything - from its stale levels and sticky controls to its thin plot and absent character development - killed what could've been a really unique and engaging shooter and will disappoint hardcore fans of the genre across the board.

As a final insult, some players are experiencing game-killing programming bugs that lock doors or remove crystals, making it literally impossible to complete the game. That is inexcusable.

Rock Revolution is inferior to its competition in every single possible way. If you absolutely have to try it, we urge you to think of it as a track pack of guitar-only songs for Rock Band or Guitar Hero and buy just the game (instead of the drums-included bundle).

If you have some disease that forces you to buy everything green and ninja-like, go for it. But then get help, man - digging this disaster is the gaming equivalent of eating donuts out of the garbage can; it just isn't healthy.

Xiaolin Showdown is a bad game, plain and simple. In a genre where speed and chaos is an important part of gameplay, Xiaolin Showdown’s fights are out and outright tedious.

Our main problem with History Great Empires: Rome is that the historic elements are only surface level and the strategy elements aren’t much deeper than that.

It could have been a contender, but The Science of Evil is merely above average, and leaves a sour reminder that the cynicism we harbor toward licensed games isn’t exclusive to the people playing them. It’s a real shame.

Rugby 18 is a dire simulation of the sport, with a paper-thin selection of modes, and relentlessly poor presentation.

To make matters worse, Iron Man 2 can be shockingly ugly at times, especially in the cut-scenes, which spotlight terrible effects, fuzzy and slow-loading textures, and choppy animations.

The biggest trouble of all is that Khemia borrows too much from earlier Gust games.

While Crash & Dash may look like a racing game, it’s really more of a party game in a racer’s clothing. It has a few moments of fun, but is plagued by its dreary, repetitive minigames, questionable controls, and fundamental lack of strategy.

Without addictive, refined gameplay in its short-lived play sessions or a worthwhile single-player experience, Puzzle de Harvest Moon comes across as a glorified minigame.

The soundtrack is a shocking state of affairs, the cars sounding how you think mud would sound if it could talk and in the background is a Europop house soundtrack.

This game might be worth a few bucks on your iPhone, but not forty bucks on your 3DS. This title is so easy, uncomplicated, and unexciting that we can't recommend it for anyone.

So while it's always nice to see an attempt to breathe new life into stealth action games, Dark retains and even amplifies many of the frustrating trappings that make the genre so off-putting for some. It's too buggy, imprecise, and narratively unengaging to be of much interest even to those in the market for this sort of thing.

The lousy racing also means that the reasonably attractive graphics go to waste, and that the only one of the middling engine sounds you’ll want to hear is your own, cooling down. At least the atrocious techno music is easily silenced.

WWII Aces is a decent title that is meant to be played cooperatively. So long as you have another friend close by, the $40 shouldn't sting your wallet too much.

You'd think slamming shells the size of watermelons into heavily armed rolling metal fortresses would be hard to botch, but Tank Beat digs a design rut too deep for even the most ardent artillery lover to climb out of.

And with only average graphics and no multiplayer modes to look forward to, the action quickly grows as old and moldy as the skeletons you're bashing through.

The cities are huge and beautiful, with country-appropriate cars, and while the gameplay is muddy, it’s easy to see how it could have been better. But as it is, DRIV3Ris all flash and little substance.

Screwjumper is another one of those Live Arcade games that feels more like it should be a bonus mission in a more fully-realized title. And not a very good bonus mission, at that.