A mindless hack-and-slash experience with little to distinguish it from the many similar titles that preceded it, this rehash of last year’s "Castlevania: Lament of Innocence" engine is a good excuse to blow both steam and a free rental at Blockbuster.

A good game all-around and a great continuation of the planned six-part saga, Episode II still falls short of what you'd expect from a supposed epic.

Sega should have known better than to pick after Activision’s pile of rejects.

A terrible movie spawns a mediocre-at-best action game that compares poorly with both the motion picture it’s based on and the comic book that inspired them both.

Too bad the game’s bloody battles (starring Agrippa) far outpace its stealth segments (featuring Octavianus), resulting in an uneven experience that makes players anticipate half the game and loathe the other.

From generic level designs to Nina Williams’ busted right analog control, and from amateurish voice acting to an unbearable amount of never-ending loading pauses, this game is inexcusably poor and no fun to play whatsoever.

An absolute blast to play, especially with friends online or off. If you love action RPG's then I can't imagine you'd find a better one than this.

From its patchwork gameplay and its broken control scheme to its first-generation PlayStation 2 graphics and third-tier sound effects, nothing about this game is even worthy of a mention.

A poor man’s ".hack" clone with characters/sounds from the Virtua Fighter series poorly tacked-on for no reason other than name recognition.

When the smoke clears, it's just another third-person action game.

Suikoden IV’s unimpressive graphics, generic audio (except for the voice-overs), infuriating battle frequency and watered-down strategy (less party members = less variety of attack combos) aren’t going to cut it in 2005.

Gameplay aside, Mercenaries is loaded with tons of unlockables such as the ability to play as Indiana Jones, as well as opening up new vehicles and weapons (like the portable airstrike). Now how cool is that?

The online play is fantastic, the new wall moves add to the arcade feel and the music simply rocks. I highly recommend this game!

Hours of deep strategic gameplay, excellent music and interesting stories (particularly in "The Dual Darkness' chapter of the saga) make Growlanser Generations a keeper for RPG strategists in need of a noggin-shaking fix.

A textbook case of a videogame sequel done right.

MegaMan X8's return-to-basics approach makes for predictable but reasonably entertaining gameplay antics IF you're a diehard fan of Capcom's series.

Kuon has beautiful graphics and haunting sounds (including a choice of English or Japanese languages) that go to waste on a survival horror experience that isn’t the least bit original or frightening.

The ill-advised addition of needlessly graphic displays of violence, backtracking galore and contemporary music/voices take attention away from Warrior Within's excellent new combat maneuvers, still-outstanding environmental puzzles and lengthier quest. The PS2 version is also saddled with periodic bouts of slowdown and no online support whatsoever (sigh!).

Two years after its predecessor conclusively proved it Ghost Recon 2 reaffirms it: the PS2 doesn't have the RAM to do justice to Red Storm's intense A.I. routines and team-based gameplay justice.

Despite carrying on the legacy of one of the greatest First-Person Shooters of our time, GoldenEye: Rogue Agent fails to match up to the N-64 classic in almost every department... well, as far as a fun factor goes.

The low price (under $20) and handful of AAA classics still manage to make this an appealing purchase proposition IF you can tolerate its noticeable shortcomings and/or have an appreciation for the industry's history.

Poker videogames need either brilliant Artificial Intelligence for offline single-player games or excellent online modes that factor in human fallibility for multiplayer competition. World Championship Poker lacks the former, and the latter isn’t up to the standard of online poker websites.

The shortness of the experience, reliance on a barely-improved gameplay formula, melodramatic storyline twists and stepped-up quality of its competitors (particularly Sam Fisher's "Splinter Cell" games from Ubi Soft) prevent us from scoring Snake Eater higher.

2005 is taking its first step to becoming one of the top games on the market by adding all the new features.

It's a flawed and shallow button masher (very few moves and no technique) but also visually alluring and reasonably entertaining for a second-tier fighting game.

Despite new licensed wrestlers, dozens of new songs and new additions meant to appeal to rural America’s prurient interests (i.e. porn stars as playable wrestlers) Backyard Wrestling 2’s bad graphics, poor collision detection and awful dialogue sink it into the pit of holiday expendability.

The most fun I have had playing online as far as the first person shooter genre goes. This is one of those games you will want to have for sure just to see how good online play can be!

This isn't a terrible or bad fighting game, just an uninspired one.