A definite must for racing fans who don't have the similar "NASCAR 4" and for hardcore gamers who want the latest tracks and don't care about the price tag.

In the long run, I'd suggest that you pass this game by and save your money for one of the hotter releases later this season.

I hate to say it, but this latest Metal Gear Solid isn’t just painful to play in a stealth-action sort of way, it’s painful to play in a bad game sort of way.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks to this fun throw-back is the over-abundance of these random fights.

Although the graphics and sound are not noticeably improved, that won't affect the experience as Activison takes us back into the Xmen universe.

It's on the low, low end of my FPS scale, right there alongside "Undying" and sitting on top of "Daikatana." Lot's o' fluff, no polish.

Loco Roco isn’t a bad game. It starts off strong, but as you progress through the levels you start expecting some sort of twist to the gameplay, but it never comes.

I can sum this up with one tired phrase. Been there, done that. There’s a little bit here that’s new, and the game looks great (and just like "Doom 3"), but this is really just covering the same old ground.

PC users may be disappointed, however, as the core of the game is still essentially the same.

If Monolith could have tied the level design and action more closely to a real storyline, worked to smooth the engine a little, and created a few new types of monsters, Blood might have risen another notch or two up the 3D food chain. As it stands, the game is a little too uneven to be successful.

Younger gamers will find a decent challenge and a great introduction to adventure/mystery titles, but this game is the perfect example of a niche market game. Well executed and visually complete, this game is for Fans Only.

The variety will give you motivated to keep playing.

It is so easy to die in this game that you may not notice you’re dead until after you realize you’ve been shot at.

My one complaint with this game is the flashing text. If you don’t have a 2nd player, the game continuously flashes ‘Insert Controller’, which can’t be turned off.

This lack of variety in empires also leads to limited possibilities for opposing forces in your random games, to say the least. You'll spend a lot of time facing the Koreans.

Although this game obviously isn’t for everyone, it has solid features and great multiplayer functionality. If you’re into sports titles, this is a must have.

Creepy, glowing red eyes, odd rituals, and other suspenseful items seem to be aimed toward a bit more mature audience than the average Nancy Drew reader, and the title’s E rating (compared to the much more tame Danger on Deception Island’s T rating) confused me even more.

During the mulitplayer portion of the game, I also encountered some pretty big design flaws, which you might call bugs, but I hesitate to do so. A tag team match can't be ended the normal ways each time, and I've played with three of my friends for a half hour or more without being able to end a single match.

The scantily clad female characters, the brutal mob beating, and pool-of-blood style of violence get this game an M rating.

The pack in mic that comes with the game is pretty sharp and sturdy, although it's not like you have a choice since there aren't any alternatives on the GameCube.

What Karaoke Revolution Party does offer is a new diverse song selection with around 50 songs with the potential to download many more and hours of party entertainment.

It’s bigger and better, yes, but still essentially the same game – a boon for some and a whole bunch of “boos” for others.

For those looking to move beyond standard RTS gameplay, this is not the place to look. While E: BD has no glaring problems, it also has no standout features to separate it from every other RTS game out there.

If you’re into jacking monsters out of their XP, treasure, and items for hours on end, La Pucelle: Tactics is for you.

But the game just isn’t The Sims. You can’t just do whatever you want and the mission driven game is just a little too simplistic to be overly fun.

For me, it's the depth of a game that keeps me playing it for hours and not setting the difficulty so high that you are forced to spend hours just repeating a level. I know, Capcom traditionally makes Mega Man games tough, but at some point a game has to be fun to play as well.

The biggest flaws come in the storyline and lack of new material, this game really fails to add anything interesting to the MechWarrior universe.

Nice graphics, solid sound, and easy controls...But, since it missed the boat regarding that special something (fun for extended lengths of time) and it really can be “too much” in the options department, I honestly must say this is for the real race fans -- not the casual gamer.

First, I had a problem actually singing and performing the songs well, and second, I managed to cheat my way through most of the songs by humming really loudly.

Hits the right notes all around, providing a fun, action-packed experience. If it were only a bit longer, it'd earn the highest marks, but as is, it's worth a rental, if not more.

This is an enjoyable game, to be sure, but if you’re trying to choose a GTA title where you had none, this definitely isn’t the one to start with.

There’s a hell of a lot of work here that doesn’t add up to a tremendously great game. I think games like this really serve as an example of how important it is to pay attention to the gameplay. Games need a good control feel, it’s as simple as that.

There are a number of issues that make the game more difficult to play than it should be including an unfriendly interface and lack of instruction book that at least shows the game's capabilities.

Just average. Although it has some nice original features, I could never get over the strange controls.

Using Greek mythology as its base, Titan’s Quest takes a solid, balanced, and low risk gameplay approach. Although it’s not going to redefine a game genre, RPG fans will be more then satisfied.

It has strong multiplayer capability with the PSP’s wireless functionality, and a satisfying single player game.

A title most gamers will probably want to leave at the store. However, if you're a serious fan of music and all the design that goes into it, this may be one of the better PS2 titles you could buy.

Mostly, this game is just another semi-realistic FPS.

While Ape Escape 3 provides for an entertaining time, its age is showing through, even with the charming sheen a large army of monkeys helps create.

Unfortunately, the only thing I can say that really held true for my gameplay experience is that THAW didn't stand out to me.

The graphics are solid and set the right tone, the story line will keep you playing to the end, and the gameplay will keep your Spidey sense tingling.

Black can be summed up in one phrase. One dimensional. It plays like a great action movie, with a few problems, and literally doesn't give you anything but that.

The gameplay is inherently slow by design so those of us that have short attention spans should be wary. If you like the TV series however, Law & Order: Justice Is Served offers an entirely new way to enjoy the show.

Relatively unique in the fact that it makes clear use of the Hanseatic League and has many references to the history of that large organization, this title still fails to present worthwhile gameplay, leaving the character to shuttle supplies from town to town, without much reward or entertainment value.

The bikes in this game perform much like real motocross bikes, something that isn’t too spectacular if you’re a fan of more fantastical racing games.

If your old DDR game needs a song update along with some new features, give it a shot.

You will find yourself fighting the controls never really finding a comfort zone. Once you manage to work within the limitations of the controller, you will find the second exception. The online play is a bit laggy and unstable.

In fact, for serious fans, I’d say the greatest credit to this title is that I couldn’t discern any flaw or difference between it and the Gradius arcade versions.

It gets very, very low marks for 'tossing down with the rest of the boys' and taking part in the cliché and amorality that most Star Trek games aspire to.

With its strong point on quantity, Dave Mirra’s Freestyle BMX 2 fails on the quality of rider control and in distinct graphics.

A lack of variety and challenge however stand in the way of this game being a resounding success.

What really drags this game down is the fact that it uses, reuses, and re-reuses the maps – sending you back through the same dungeons over and over again to collect this key or open that new passage.

Without a well-developed plot to lure you on and with redundant combat exercises to challenge and improve your ability, this is one Action title that may be best to pass on.

The controls in V-Rally 3 are frustrating, having less to do with real world physics and more to do with turning my childhood RC racer into a full blown rally car.

Only slightly different, Another Age fails in the fact that it is nearly a cookie-cutter copy of the original game. If the original was excellent to begin with, why not play it again?

Although Space Colony puts forth a decent effort in meeting the aspects of a life simulator, the flow of the game can be cumbersome. Unfortunately, the other aspects of the game don’t make a strong enough presence to overcome this and even seem out of place at times.

Ultimately, this game has its merit, as it makes for a decent story and some entertaining psychic powers, but poor gameplay makes for an extremely frustrating game, until you're pretty far along.

There isn’t so much gameplay here that you can’t beat it in a couple of days, and the fact that the levels aren’t completely free open really reduces the game’s sense of scale.

A generic, rest on your laurels title from developer Epic that, while beautiful to look at, is a bloated (3GB mandatory install), largely plotless shooter that is disappointing given the pleasant surprise that the original "Unreal" was.

It’s just really flat out good looking.

It has an interesting plot with lots of wandering around shooting off the limbs of the walking dead. However, you shouldn’t expect too much out of the dialogue or the background music.

I enjoy playing SimCoaster, but after fighting its poor video performance and choppy sound for several hours, the game became more frustrating than fun. Underneath all the bugs there is a great game here, but Bullfrog sent it out to the stores way too early.

The true travesty in Quake 4 is the multiplayer functionality. Almost regressing, Quake 4 only supports 8 player multiplayer games, doesn’t support game browsing, and generally takes forever to get you into a ranked game match.

Follows a very traditional gameplay formula, and even though it features it as a gimmick, transforming doesn’t give you much in the way of strategy, but it does deliver on action blastey goodness.

Although it isn’t topnotch in the gameplay department, it is faithful to the design of the X-Men and is definitely a collector’s treat.

At the end of the day, the missions do feel a bit repetitive and the objects that were leveled on one mission are mysteriously fine on the next, causing a certain amount of unevenness in the whole experience.

Definitely not a top level game, but it was a fun, albeit short ride.

Good graphics, excellent documentation, and plenty of Klingon scalawags can't save "Klingon Academy," not entirely at least.

It only offers about 15-20 hours of play on its own. One can only fight so many undead creatures before getting tired of it. This is not a game for the casual RPG player.

This is old school arcade racing right down to the shiny looking graphics. After playing "Need for Speed Most Wanted," I missed the obstacles such as oncoming traffic and hidden shortcuts.

Even with its difficulty problems, the only really bad thing I can say about this title is that its way too short, and there’s way too little to do.

The in-game music and sounds are horrid and repetitive; I played with the sound off after a few minutes of bad sampling and nauseating theme music.

IF you are not concerned with these other options and are looking for a game to play against you buddies on or off-line, you should be pretty satisfied.

Even with its less than intelligent AI, the game offers more than enough high powered fun -- especially for those of us who favor playing the sniper.

It is still a little too expensive for my tastes though, as Bomberman still doesn’t have that wide appeal that’s going to make it a good buy for everyone.

Even great visuals and sound can’t save a game from the dual curse of poor game control and little replay value.

If the game controlled better, and didn't fall victim to one of the most annoying problems that racing games can face, it might be worth it. For me, however, I'll be going elsewhere.

What really keeps this game from being a success is the issue of length. The main story isn’t particularly long, and though there are side missions to do for either faction, these aren’t nearly as engaging as the story missions.

The racing, judged alone, can be quite fun, but overall most gamers can't help but be disappointed in the games lack of a true multiplayer feel.

Aside from not producing the kinds of graphics that you’d normally see out of a PS2, Formula One 2001 also has a lackluster interface, unconvincing physics and damage engine, and a shortage of good audio effects.

The courses were original and I liked all the shortcuts the game contained, but the auto catch up feature and seemingly "perfect" AI really started to give me some heartburn.

Beyond the disarms and shot dodging, it's not worth much more than a rental.

Your classic RPG in shiny packaging, brand-new packaging.

Basically, Dance Dance Revolution: Supernova is primarily a party game and if you use it in that capacity, I’m sure it will be money well spent. The addition of a robust single player experience also adds a new dimension to the DDR series.

Offers a solid soccer game but misses on the extreme feel achieved from successes like "NFL Blitz" and "NHL Hitz."

The controls are simple enough to master that you shouldn't have to pause the game to look at the manual just to figure out how to pull off a stunt.

Unfortunately, it’s enjoyable for maybe a week. By that time, all five missions will have been finished and you’ll get tired of the bland graphics. If you were hoping for something similar to "Mechwarrior 4," keep waiting.

A worthwhile purchase for a big time fighting fan, just remember that with this one, you'll be left feeling a little deprived, and without much replay value, it will probably collect a lot of dust on the shelf.

It's far from terrible, but not far enough.

I've never seen a shooter that I could really consider a linear game before, but rather than let you destroy monsters your way, GUNVALKYRIE has too many movement puzzles that can only be solved one way that the designers anticipated.

There’s nothing new or innovative here to help revitalize this stale genre, but if you like your action fast and furious (and a bit mindless), then look no further.

The game is mostly held back by its lack of interesting visuals and sound and sometimes difficult interface.

As much as I love my PS 2, this version is the ugly cousin in the Max Payne family. Rent before purchase.

The problem is, most games of this type offer a significant price break, something that seems to be missing from this game.

I wished the visuals and audio were better but they do the job. An effective blend of two genres that as far as I know have never been melded together, and truth be told, I like this game.

This expansion has just as much potential to both infuriate and delight gamers, and will likely earn a split crowd of followers and haters.

It doesn’t stand out. There’s nothing here to get excited about, as the gameplay is standard fare, and like many Capcom games, your ears are gonna bleed when you hear the voice acting.

I didn’t like that the bike could detach. It’s supposed to be used to help you but it always caused me more trouble than it was worth.