The ingredients here--spooky creatures, fantasy worlds, exploration of death--all have a familiar ring to them. This looks like the kind of game that Neil Gaiman (a contemporary fantasy writer) would make if he created games.

The game moves along at a decent clip, but there are no real high points--no really hard, gritty, challenging sections that burn into your memory cells.

I could see the beauty that still lurked underneath her obvious heartlessness, but it was so much harder to spend time with her now. Eventually, our every assignation devolved into the bitterest of fights, and I’d storm off, vowing never to see her again.

Army of Two is a co-op focused game, much more so than even "Gears of War." If you pick this up, you absolutely need to be playing with a friend. It's borderline broken when playing alone, but if you are taking down tangos with a buddy, it becomes a much better and unique, experience.

Rally racing is all about control, and the PSP's controls leave a lot to be desired. Perhaps that's not Sega's fault (it's Sony's), but the rally games and the PSP D-pad or analog stick are a bad, frustrating mix.

The good news is that once you do hop inside the ring, you tend to forget about who is missing as you try to figure out how you can slam your head into a steel cage or get hit in the back with barbed wire and not get hurt (you can't).

In the end, 2K8 is a great distraction until the season starts, but if you want to put your time into a better game, EA's NHL 08 is the dynasty worth your dough.

Extreme Justice is no world beater, and you wouldn't call it deep; but it is a solidly crafted action game with a good amount of gameplay. If you enjoyed the first Pursuit Force, this one's even better. And putting away bad guys is always a good time.

Post play is not only a viable option this year, it's my preferred way to score, and I really can't remember the last time that was true in a basketball game.

Even though Rome is still plenty intimidating to anyone who has never experienced an EU game before, refinements to the interface and core gameplay make it surprisingly easy to sit down and start playing.

Post play is not only a viable option this year, it's my preferred way to score, and I really can't remember the last time that was true in a basketball game.

Off the Rails is a solid collection of minigames and a decent coaster creator, a nice party experience for the family. It's a shame the management system wasn't beefed up a bit more--even the little kids could benefit from creating their own theme parks from scratch.

The deep customization will have users tweaking for hours, and the online options offer a serviceable distraction from the offline campaign. Anyone claiming the PSP has no games should probably take a look at this one.

Even though it's not as good as previous installments, and is generally more of the same, the fundamental gameplay underneath is still quite amazing, even today (the gameplay excuses its 2004-era visuals).

The best part about Scene It is that you can get a bunch of achievement points! Sure, you may not know exactly why you're getting them every time, but if you can pad your GamerScore by 110 achievement points in under an hour, who cares if you understand how you get them!

For those who didn't check out the PlayStation 2 and PSP games, it will feel fresh and fun. For the rest of us? It's still fun, as long as you're not looking for much in the way of change.

Ultimately, however, the uniqueness and enjoyment of being able to create so much of the world yourself makes this one worth playing, even if the gameplay isn't as original and entertaining as the artistic parts.

Tony Hawk brings a mixture of joy and frustration to this reviewer. On the one hand, I still find I always have room to improve. On the other hand, this really is the same game we've been playing for nine years.

Twisted Metal: Head On--Extra Twisted Edition is an entertaining compendium that's lovingly conceived and composed. The gameplay's as wicked as ever, and the price can't be beat. The entire package transports you to an earlier videogame era, and you get the real feeling this is the last Twisted Metal of its kind.

Tony Hawk brings a mixture of joy and frustration to this reviewer. On the one hand, I still find I always have room to improve. On the other hand, this really is the same game we've been playing for nine years.

Dark Sector is bipolar rollercoaster ride that tops out at gorgeous, innovative, and striking (glaive, visuals, virus powers) and bottoms out at a bland, unoriginal, and buggy (gunplay, storyline, melee attacks). The extremes are both high and low, but at least Digital Extremes has a solid base moving forward to the inevitable sequel.

If you’re looking for a game for the kids, or you’re really into marine life, then Endless Ocean is worth checking out, but adrenaline junkies and HD fanatics will likely find themselves disappointed.

Sadly, The Club probably would’ve made a bigger splash had it been released in the early part of this decade, when games like this were all the rage.

The realistic physics and driving model works very well, but the setting and structure of the racing events ultimately brings it down.

Army of Two is a co-op focused game, much more so than even "Gears of War." If you pick this up, you absolutely need to be playing with a friend. It's borderline broken when playing alone, but if you are taking down tangos with a buddy, it becomes a much better and unique, experience.

Dark Sector is bipolar rollercoaster ride that tops out at gorgeous, innovative, and striking (glaive, visuals, virus powers) and bottoms out at a bland, unoriginal, and buggy (gunplay, storyline, melee attacks). The extremes are both high and low, but at least Digital Extremes has a solid base moving forward to the inevitable sequel.

Sega Superstars Tennis isn’t the best tennis game out there, especially since the actual tennis isn’t even as close to being as smooth or challenging as something like the Virtua Tennis or Top Spin games, but it can be just as rewarding for Sega fans and those people looking for a simple and fun approach to the sport.

Ultimately, it’s all pretty basic stuff. There’s nothing particularly fancy about the actual game mechanics and it’s somewhat odd that The Simpsons Game makes fun of various videogame clichés (such as not being able to swim, using levers or pads on the ground to open doors) and then turns around and uses them about a dozen or so times.