The Hawk may have competition, but it still flies higher than anyone else.

Ultimately it is the lack of polish found pretty much everywhere in the game that makes it feel like less of a sequel and more like a pricey Star Trek: Armada MOD.

As far as truly providing the sights, sounds and (most importantly) the feel of college basketball, this game just doesn't get it done. Brick!

A great game from a gameplay standpoint but fails pretty badly when it comes to the story. As a result, even though I've given it an A-, it turns out to be one of my biggest disappointments of the year.

A good handheld shooter, but it's also a step back for the Gradius series as a whole. While the graphics are definitely a cut above the SNES Gradius III, the lack of difficulty and a weapon edit mode really knock the replayability down.

Dark Summit won't rock your socks off, but it looks good, plays good and has plenty to keep gamers heading down the slopes again and again.

This kind of ["mad rush"] gameplay isn’t uncommon in most real-time strategy games, but for a game that is so creative in every other aspect it is a real shame to see it suffer in any way from such old issues.

Does what the first one did and ups the ante with more characters and grooves, but doesn’t do too much new from the first.

Syphon Filter 3 is a quality film with B-movie gameplay. The visuals, music, and CG are all top-notch, but the chewy gameplay center gets old after a few bites.

It’s the control that sets Victorious Boxers apart from "Knockout Kings" and "Ready to Rumble" – it’s nearly perfect.

A highly polished and much improved product that gives longtime fans, and especially newcomers, a fantastic diversion to enjoy and become addicted to all over again on a shiny new DVD-Rom disc.

This is a better game than "Wave Race: Blue Storm." It may not have the wave physics that Nintendo's racer has (or many waves at all for that matter), but it runs away with the look of the water, control, and playability.

There’s a dramatic war story and fantastic scenary, and the trademark Ace Combat arcade gameplay is more solid than ever.

Unfortunately despite the novel approach, the execution of this racer fails to create a classic.

The colors are drab, and the textures really are bad enough to make you wonder if you're really looking at Doom on the SNES.

If RPG gaming were a diet, Dragon Warrior 7 would be several truckloads of raw meat. It ain't pretty, but there is a lot of it and it sure does satisfy. It'll also give you a heart attack in large doses.

If you really get into the way the game handles you will find hours and hours worth of stuff to keep occupied thanks to the horde of gameplay modes and challenges to accomplish.

When taken into consideration against Rockstar Games’ other major holiday release, "Grand Theft Auto 3," though, the repetitive nature of Smuggler’s Run 2 almost makes it not worth mentioning.

You can combo off of everything in this game. Seriously I mean everything! Cars, people, sidewalks, buildings, rails, ramps, stop signs... The list goes on and on. The funny thing about all this is Neversoft's Highest Score screen shows a high score of 9.4 million. Yes, my jaw dropped too.

Still a high-quality brawler after all these years. Just don’t expect much that's new.

A high point in the series.

Stands apart as the best soccer game on the PC, and one of the best footy games on any platform, period.

Look up the definition of 'weak-sauce' in Lewinson's Dictionary and you'll find the following: sloppy control, inconsistent player physics, cheating AI, incorrect play mechanics...you can see where this is leading, can't you?

An excellent tennis game, easily the best one out there.

There's no two ways about it folks: NBA 2K2 is the best-playing basketball game on the planet.

Who among you is a fan of the old school games that forced you to learn boss patterns, enemy locations, arbitrary death, to the point of I'm-gonna-throw-this-joystick-out-the-window-and-bean-some-poor-schmuck-out-for-a-Sunday-stroll frustration? Well, here's your game.

More time has been spent on making sure Project Eden included as many smart, engaging puzzles as possible, rather than incorporating half a billion polygons and the latest in vector shading techniques.

Silent Hill 2, ICO, Devil May Cry, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 are all must have titles in their own right, but with that said, I've had the most pure, unadulterated fun with Grand Theft Auto III than any other title this year.