Defiance's story and visuals really shine through. The combat may be repetitive, but it's solid and fun and the well-paced plot does a great job of tying the knot with the long paths of Kain and Raziel. [Jan 2004, p.80]

EA's newest iteration of FIFA features improved play on the pitch, but doesn't provide enough gameplay modes to justify a $60 price tag unless you live and breathe the World Cup, or want to play as every country FIFA recognizes--including American Samoa. [July 2014, p.73]

Nice gameplan, poor execution. [June 2009, p.79]

Frame rate gets choppy and detracts from the experience. [Jan 2003, p.66]

What's here is only half a game. Live play may be brilliant, but the single-player experience is sorely lacking. [Jan 2004, p.78]

All that backtracking might've floated back in the day, but now it just feels repetitive and tedious. [Holiday 2005, p.90]

For a game that's meant to be a goofy and irreverent take on the usually stuffy golf world, Outlaw Golf 2 is a surprisingly good golf sim. [Nov 2004, p.77]

Yes, Universe offers more and more and even more of the same formula--but for the DDR faithful, it's a winning one. [Apr 2007, p.88]

This won't be a welcome addition for newbies, but if you've breezed through "Bemani," the aggressively challenging Pump It Up: Exceed will reward you. Just be prepared to earn it when you step up. [Oct 2005, p.102]

With just a five-area adventure mode and a points-focused championship mode (and no multiplayer). there's a lot less content here than in, say, the recent "Geometry Wars 2". [Nov 2008, p.80]

For all the unique thrills and spectacle the series still delivers, Forgotten Sands never quite reaches the dizzying heights you want it to. [July 2010, p.78]

Despite all its new features, PES 2009 is packed with problems. [Jan 2009, p.75]

The fighting engine won't win any awards for realism or responsiveness. (At times the punches lag behind your button presses.) But ultimately it's good enough for what the game is. [Dec 2002, p.142]

Phantom Crash isn't a game you can simply pick up and play, but for mech fans and those gamers always up for a singular adventure and a time consuming (but fun) weirdness - this is definitely your ticket. [Nov 2002, p.144]

Devotees of the old TV series will be thrilled. [Nov 2002, p.116]

What kills ASB '04 is simply how it plays. Hitting is incredibly difficult and pitching doesn't "feel" very good. [Apr 2003, p.81]

Feels bare-boned and unrefined compared to the other two. [Oct 2003, p.74]

We wish Infinity Ward had been bolder with their design decisions, sure, but everything from the campaign to the competitive multiplayer to the alien-battling version of Treyarch’s zombie mode remains outright fun. Imperfect and unsurprising maybe, but fun nonetheless.

The entire time I was playing, I kept thinking how this cool premise should have made for a better game. Alas, it never realizes its potential. [March 2005, p.78]

You might think calling NBA Live 08 "much improved" is a backhanded compliment, but its first two years on 360 really did leave it no place to go but up. [Nov 2007, p.84]

The volleyball is amazingly simple and compelling, while the rest of it has a tongue-in-cheek sensibility that knows exactly what it is - good cheescake fun with solid gameplay to back it up. [Mar 2003, p.72]

While it’s one of the most attractive and polished fitness games we’ve ever played, we can’t help but feel like Zumba Fitness World Party could’ve been so much more. Its breadth and depth of content make it an interesting destination to explore, but when we need to push ourselves, we’ll stick with our copies of Core and Rush for now.

Your Shape won't replace a real-life personal trainer, but it does delivers as close an experience as you can get, in the comfort of your (hopefully Kinect-sized) game room - and that's no easy feat.

While we can't ding EA for extra content, we wish that content had come in the form of more co-op! [Feb 2010, p.80]

The huge number of levels and their often epic scale is backed up by a worthy storyline. [Mar 2003, p.40]

It'll take a little while to get the hang of Vince's structure and layout, but he controls so tightly it's fun to get lost for a while. [Dec 2003, p.158]

The track design is hit-and-miss, usually featuring aggravating blind curves that can quickly turn a comfy lead into a last-place finish. [Sept 2006, p.80]

Fuse together "Grand Theft Auto's" open-ended game world, "Mercenaries" militaristic vibe, "Far Cry's" tropical vistas, and the movie "Desperado's" titular hero, and you got Just Cause in a nutshell. [Nov. 2006, p.72]

Even with Kraftwerk-esque electronic tunes and adequate multiplayer, it feels too much like a mediocre Flash game--making it tough to justify dropping five bucks on the experience. [May 2007, p.77]

While the lifelessness of a black-and-white tone sucks the life out of Paris, it doesn’t strip The Saboteur of its personality. It’s a beautiful and unique world that’s well-constructed and believable, whether you’re snapping soldiers’ necks at the Eiffel Tower, rescuing POWs, or cruising the countryside in a stolen sports car. Très bien.

It's single-player may be mediocre, but the online play will put a big exclamation point on the end of your summer. [Oct 2007, p.72]

One of the best add-on adventures in recent RPG memory, but take our warning to heart: save early, save often, and expect the unexpected.

Scott Pilgrim hardly has an original idea of its own, and that's entirely the point: it's a wonderful homage to its predecessors, while still proving thoroughly enjoyable in its own right.

You'll ace every event in a handful of hours without much difficulty, and only the truly obsessive will pocket every collectible. But just ten bucks buys at least a few afternoons of enjoyable airborne antics.

Remarkably solid. [Oct 2009, p.80]

While BandFuse evolves the music game genre by allowing you to use real instruments, with so many oversights and foibles, sadly the progression stops there. [Jan 2014, p.69]

Early on, you’re given mindless, nearly scripted busywork like chasing after Bluecoats intent on lighting powder kegs, and overall, the first half of Infamy’s 2.5-hour journey is a jarring mix of rushed action and s-l-o-w activities, without the freedom of ACIII’s open world to balance it out.

While Tak 2 won't score points for innovation, it delivers enough humor and action to satisfy your platforming desires. [Dec 2004, p.82]

The graphics range from okay to great and the colorful cast of characters inject infrequent doses of levity into the proceedings, even if some of the dialogue is two monkey jokes beyond eye-rollingly lame. [May 2004, p.82]

Jack might be the star, but you'll have more fun with the supporting cast once his spotlight dims.

The most glaring fault is that the twitchy controls and the sometimes less-than-perfect camera angles can lead to frustrating falls, especially on the vertigo-inducing rail levels. [Feb 2004, p.80]

The challenge comes from learning how to avoid the enemies, not figuring out what to do...it provides a quick paced progressive story with a very nice game. [Sept 2002, p.89]

A rather wonderful follow-up, packed with personality, action, and a windfall of extra goodies. [Oct 2003, p.70]

We do recommend Baller Beats to anyone hoping to increase their b-ball acumen or try something new. If noise and space aren't an issue, it's definitely worth a shot.

Still, this is a smartly executed return to the kind of gameplay that made Castlevania great, and we'd love to see it grow into something more. [Jan 2014, p.85]

Battlestations may not be the deepest or prettiest WWII-themed 360 game on the shelves, but it still hits a solid broadside. [Mar 2007, p.80]

Lots of wise gameplay enhancements. [Dec 2009, p.65]

Feels a bit too easy, too slight. [June 2009, p.78]

Dreamfall's downfall may be that it's too ambitious. But control issues aside, its epic story has us wishing that we won't have to wait another six years for the series' final resolution. [Jun 2006, p.80]

The phrase "style over substance" comes to mind, which is a shame...Men of Valor adds up to not much more than a run-of-the-mill police action. [Dec 2004, p.68]

What it does deliver is a clearer, darker look at Wolf’s depressingly downbeat landscape, complete with trolls shooting smack and corrupt, greedy bureaucrats. It’s as mesmerizing as it is glum, using the series’ stark, black-and-neon backdrops as visual clues to Fabletown’s — and Bigby’s — split nature.

It's jolly good British fun, but more spontaneity would've made it blood brilliant. [Dec 2009, p.75]

We wish the developers had included some offline bots instead, though, or allowed players access to so much as the main menu when the servers are down, as they were on launch day. Thankfully, Hybrid's combat is so pleasantly addictive, it's tough to hold a grudge.

A lost gem. [Aug 2010, p.78]

Combining the cutesiness of a Pixar flick with the depth of a theme-park tycoon game, LucasArts' Thrillville series smoothly transitions onto the Xbox 360 with Off the Rails, a souped-up and entertaining follow-up to last year's Xbox release. [Dec 2007, p.76]

None of these issues ruin the tried-and-true fun of four-way deathmatch, but after so many years, we expected more refinement.

It's hard as hell, partially because it's meant to be, partially because the complex, non-adjustable control scheme is completely non-intuitive, and partially because the camera is simply too twitchy...[yet] we love the strangely gorgeous Gunvalkrie. [Apr 2002, p.72]

It's worth putting up with the game's frustrating failures for the chance to defeat 100 Agent Smiths. [Jan 2006, p.68]

The new Killer Instinct succeeds at stoking nostalgic fires while updating the action. However, a piecemeal season-based approach means that the initial incarnation is extremely light on content, revealing a fighter that’s as packed with vibrant combos as it is unfulfilled promise.

All told, Small Arms is straight-up, button-whacking action. [Jan. 2007, p.77]

With its non-branching storyline and no multiplayer, Force Unleashed is certainly less ambitious than the classic "Jedi Knight" games - and ultimately, its design makes it feel more videogame-y and less of an all-engrossing Star Wars experience than Xbox entries like "Jedi Knight II" or "Jedi Academy." But when the game is on, it's on. [Oct 2008, p.70]

A decent experience, but not one you're likely to spend much time with. [Jan 2005, p.72]

100% exact port of a stellar series. [Aug 2009, p.74]

That nostalgia isn't worth 15 bucks. [July 2009, p.84]

Whether you're seeking a simple, entertaining, and supremely effective method of getting in shape (no dumbbells or reps required), or just an extremely satisfactory substitute for your local Zumba class (even if you choose to play alone to avoid accidentally beating up your multiplayer buddy), you'll definitely want to pick up this game.

We're glad to fire up our 360s for some Left 4 Dead 2, and the addition of four of the first game's campaigns (with the sequel's items, special infected, and new scavenge maps) is a nice touch. But we would have enjoyed our dip into Cold Stream more had Valve freshened the water a bit.

The controls are almost always downright woeful - mostly being either way too sensitive or barely responsive at all.

After just four or five enormously fun games of Scene It?, we’d racked up 27 Achievements worth over 600 points — great! We just can’t comprehend why there’s no online film festival.

Packs each and every turn with extreme imagery and wickedly macabre imagination. [Apr 2010, p.82]

Winning Eleven may still be a more joyful celebration of the sport, but FIFA 07's beauty and fluidity mark it as the early champ of the next generation. [Holiday 2006, p.74]

The world won't be able to resist comparing Kinect Sports to Nintendo's Wii Sports gold standard, and the newcomer doesn't disappoint. Bowling and boxing are the two overlapping sports, and in the Kinect edition they're just as responsive and immediately accessible as you'd expect after four years of playing the Wii-mote version.

Repetitive, sure, but when the combat is in big 'n' bold mode, it's fun and unique enough that you don't really care that you've just killed "guy with shield" # 4728. 'Tis an epic ode to chaos and confusion. [Dec 2005, p.102]

It clearly aims to include everyone and exclude no one, and that's just plain refreshing amid a holiday season stuffed full of deadly serious, high-learning-curve me-toos. [Nov 2007, p.96]

But at $20 for what is basically last year's quality game on original Xbox or $60 for the irresistible package on the 360 title offers, there's a lot to love on either platform. [Jan. 2007, p.76]

Warp's upgrade system isn't explained or implemented well: you're never reminded to use your currency at the innocuous upgrade stations, and we still don't know how we earn skill points. Plus, physics become a greater enemy than the puzzles in the final stage, resulting in a lot of frustration near the end.

When $30 nets you this much online-multiplayer insanity, it's easy to forgive many of Anarchy Reigns' missteps. Heck, at that price, you can ignore the grueling solo campaign entirely and the game's still a decent value.

Gangstas is a grand time reminiscent of the main game. It's not a must-play, but it is a good way to keep the Saints Row fun going.

Though Crimson Alliance lacks Torchlight's endless character development and the infinite replayability of its bottomless dungeon, it delivers something that addictive gem didn't: co-op play.

Strip away the campaign's half-baked tower-defense elements, and you're finally free to focus entirely on the heady business of hauling ass and getting air. [Dec 2011, p.71]

Serves up a piping hot platter of punishment, free of the FPS cliche's that mire other titles. [Dec 2005, p.115]

If you're morbidly curious or looking for a weekend rental, Urban Chaos is nowhere near as crummy as its first impression would lead you to believe. [July 2006, p.85]

With a greater focus on improving teammate intelligence and smoothing control quirks, UEFA could be a great soccer game. Until then, it remains merely good. [Apr 2007, p.90]

A good step in the right direction for a great franchise. [Aug 2005, p.81]

Hardcore Battlefield 3 strategists will be disappointed by the sudden emphasis on breakneck speed over deliberate tactics, not to mention Close Quarters' 16-player limit and infantry-only focus. But even they'll be sucked in if they give this add-on a chance.

The graphics are pretty drab and there are some pretty nasty glitches that take it down. [Dec 2002, p.108]

Playing with a buddy in same-screen co-op is your best bet to enjoyably sate your shooter lust. [Holiday 2007, p.70]

Its monk-like devotion to pure racing simulation is remarkable...and kind of a turn-off for the rest of us. [Feb 2009, p.80]

Flag-wavers for hexagonal turn-based strategy games, take note: Commanders' less flexible squares won't offer up the daunting depth of a full-priced title. [Apr 2008, p.76]

Narnia lovers will enjoy taking part in the classic story, but you'll likely play it once and put it away like a childhood toy. [Holiday 2005, p.83]

But with a core game that stands strong, and Live matchups that are fairly smooth, Samurai Shodown II remains an enjoyable beatdown for fighting fans. [Dec 2008, p.93]

You'll just need some patience and a love of the sport to value it properly.

Deep, wonderfully balanced Magic battle system. [Dec 2003, p.100]

The revolution, this year, belongs to EA's "Skate", but evolution remains Proving Ground's domain. [Holiday 2007, p.76]

Warlords is feel-good nostalgic fun, especially played against other humans - though it's missing one key ingredient: those spinner paddle controllers that let you block with fast, pinpoint accuracy in the game's original Atari 2600 version. That rush is something an analog stick just can't replicate.

GripShift includes a ton of new tracks and a brand-new deathmatch mode--which lets you face off against your pals on Xbox Live--but this game isn't worth the points. [Jan 2008, p.65]

Cars 2 isn't quite gripping or original enough to top the more notable racers that inspired it, and regrettably, its aimless career mode and lack of online play are slight downers. But kids' games and movie games are rarely this polished and entertaining, so we commend Disney for doing this one right.

Demon Stone is absolutely relentless. [Jan 2005, p.81]

On the whole, this inspired, if somewhat contrived, tale offers a satisfying close to the season. [Jan 2010, p.81]