What's basically an upgraded "Rivals" doesn't stand up to recent racers like "Burnout Legends." [Jan 2006, p.105]

Aside from a few minor changes--some added minigames, an excised level--this is the same game as its PS2 counterpart. [mar 2006, p.97]

The underlying game is solid and would have been great had Activision taken the time to iron out the myriad bugs and glitches.

Really rolls back the clock, but it also makes an excellent time waster, and its up-to-date visuals help take the edge off. A solid adventure. [Jan 2006, p.105]

This is an attractive, fun game, and if it had a better story and slightly more polish, it would be one of the best for the system. [Jan 2006, p.104]

Definitely reinforces the "toy" part of Eyetoy. [Jan 2006, p.90]

The only thing that really sets Flow apart is its music. While "DDR" occasionally throws a hip-hop-flavored track in with the J-pop, Flow is 100 percent Brooklyn block party, circa 1981.

The melee combat is competent, but when many enemies are onscreen, things turn into a bit of a button-mashing clusterf***.

Matches are still way too slow most of the time. Aiming issues make your wrestlers look clownish when they attempt to start a throw and instead just swing at air. And worst of all, tag-team partners--the bane of any wrestling game--are still dumb as dirt and simply don't do what they're told.

A cut above its peers. [Jan 2006, p.100]

The most challenging poker game yet - so newbies beware! [Jan 2006, p.95]

With only a few exceptions, it exceeds every expectation. Bravo, indeed. [Jan 2006, p.102]

You can scalp baddies, but there is no in-game benefit or reward for doing so. [Jan 2006, p.94]

Gameplay works when it's not broken, but awful story scenes and graphics make for boring stretches. [Dec 2005, p.118]

As you might expect, it's great for parties, but the solo modes leave a bit to be desired. [Dec 2005, p.126]

A supremely worthy successor to the most-frightening throne.

A by-the-book tactical RPG that takes no chances, but can be engaging. It's also short (campaigns under 15 hours) and whoever heard of a short RPG?

It never seems to target the right enemy, and it often takes too long to circle around and get an enemy in your sights before you're able to use the lock-on.

When it really comes down to it, what this game's about is no-frills rocking. And no-frills rocking is what it does very well. [Nov 2005, p.98]

Where Curse of Darkness succeeds is with its secondary features - the devil forging and the item-creation system. [Dec 2005, p.126]

With a better targeting system and more free-form gameplay, this could have been a winner. [Dec 2005, p.130]

Sure, the production values are a bit better in FRWL (I particularly like shooting grenades off of the enemies' belts) and there are some decent gameplay tweaks (such as the "Bond focus" aiming for precise shots and the lack of stupid stealth levels), but the overall game is just plain easier and more sedentary feeling when compared to the previous game.

The signature piece of Battlefront II is the ship-to-ship combat... This element makes Battlefront II feel much more like the complete Star Wars experience. [Dec 2005, p.108]

To put it simply, there are so many small fundamental problems--the passing feels stiff and has some weird bugs that cause the ball to fly off in random directions (not to mention the fact that the AI, while mostly consistent, does have a tendency to cheat a little bit when intercepting passes, at least more than any human opponent would).

Mutant Nightmare has improvements over its predecessors here and there, like a better camera and nice graphics, but when the basic game is this boring, that's about as useful as replacing the air freshener in a house build in the sewers. [Dec 2005, p.123]

All in all, this is about what we've come to expect from a competent World War II FPS: frequent moments of drama and tension and cinema interspersed with some fairly run-of-the-mill shooting.

A feast for creative quirk-seekers; a famine for lazy mainstreamers. [Dec 2005, p.130]

The voices are great, the gameplay's not half-bad - but the AI is such an impediment that the fun quickly drains away. [Jan 2006, p.99]