It seems a bit convoluted and rather forced, yet if you play it in the dark late at night, it will still spook the bejeezus out of you.

With a little more foresight into the viewpoint, things could have become infinitely more playable and turned out to be a far more rewarding experience.

A fresh gaming experience with slick Live play, and it even comes with a full color instruction booklet. Phantom Dust may well make you question why you spent 50 bucks on your last game.

Not a bad game, but with its lack of replayability and quick playtime, it's just not a keeper.

In fact, if you have an Xbox and the money for this, I highly recommend using it to purchase "Kung Fu Chaos" instead, which adopts Melee's fighting system, but adds purpose and several gallons of hilarity to the mix... and is cheaper to boot.

If you have no other console sitting under your television, you are left with the very worst version, the b-side of the b-side, the version with more P-Diddy-esque muck clouding the surface, the version with more of the good stuff ripped out with nothing to gain for it, and a few months wait to boot.

The gameplay, cars, and tracks are new and offer a fresh take on an awesome series.

Not just the best superhero game to date, but it defines what a fantastic superhero game should be.

What impresses me the most about BIA more so than any other shooter about WW2 is that BIA treats WW2 much more in the same vane of "Saving Private Ryan" and "Band of Brothers."

The level of detail to which you can personalize and tweak MLB 2006 definitely makes this game one to consider.

The tutorials are well worth the investment and the gameplay is solid, although it can still be tightened. The engine might be dated in look, but it runs smoothly, and a great deal of effort has gone into the code to model physics of the egg-shaped rugby ball.

You should pick this one up only if you can handle a certain level of broken in your fighting game mechanics, and only if the control lag doesn't bother you.

It is a fun game, and that is ultimately the most important goal for a developer. However, there are so many stark shortcomings that I cannot help but warn people away from spending more than bargain-bin prices on it.

An exquisitely produced and incredibly fun first-person romp through the Star Wars universe with a blaster rifle in hand.

Takes so long getting to the meat of the story that all but the most die-hard of players will have gone elsewhere to eat long before then.

It offers an incredible story in a medium that is still struggling to elicit a wide range of emotions from its audience, and the authenticity and attention to detail cannot be rivaled by another other game.

Elevates boxing games from a niche genre to a legit market.

The new venues are astoundingly rendered, and the crowds are more than cardboard cut outs that react uniformly. To speak plainly, I have never seen a sports game look so realistic in my life.

Scrapland is the symbol of what games without multi-million dollar ad campaigns should not be. Trying for something unattainable is synonymous with creating something subpar. And that's all Scrapland is, when it's said and done.

Deception on the Gamecube is Deception minus online play, plus two characters everybody wishes were in the first runs of the game.

It easily beats out former champ, "Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots," for Boxing Game of the Millennium.

Passable, though there is not enough new to it to really recommend it, and its flaws stand out like a sore thumb.

The stages are downright breath-taking.

If commanding a highly configurable fleet of ships through scripted missions, micromanaging your efforts both in the pre-mission ship design stage and during every step of combat, appeals to you, then this game is what you want.

The cutesy graphics and character design certainly won't draw anyone but the young, and what it offers in gameplay will primarily appeal to those who are already fans - not intense enough for action gamers, not devious enough for puzzle gamers.

If the developers had focused on making this title more of a 2D shooter on rails instead of trying to recreate the Ace Combat experience on the GBA screen, it could have been more enjoyable.

The basic “buy, race, upgrade, race, buy, and repeat” routine is still there. There is no damage, no online, and the soundtrack is questionable. However, everything else so close to perfect, it’s hard to resent these shortcomings.

While retro fans are sure to appreciate its nostalgic sense of game design, the simple-minded combat and primitive graphics severely take away from its entertainment value. And since the main selling point of Ys is that it plays just like old games... well, why not just put this game down and go play some actual old SNES RPGs?

It just isn't as good as other offerings in its genre, and it offers occasional, frustrating glimpses of a much better game.

It is certainly a good start, but it's nowhere near the level at which "NBA Street" was when it was first introduced into the market.

If you've always craved for a bit more strategy in your Dynasty Warriors game, Kessen III may fit the bill.

I already filled you in on the great control scheme, and the amazing depth and variations of play, so in the final analysis, EA Sports' MVP Baseball 2005 is by all accounts a home run for those of us who would rather have root canal than watch a real baseball game.

If you crave strategy and realism, Dangerous Waters is a simulation that'll have you playing for years to come.

And as for being playable, well, the game is such a bore than most gamers would prefer to let this one rot in the closet than pull it out for another go in their 'Cube.

While none of the changes on their own amounted to much, overall, they all made for a much smoother and more authentic baseball title.

It's got major lasting power, a truckload of modes, thoughtful tweaks, and most importantly, solid gameplay.

Packed with a solid gameplay, a substantial amount of levels for a lengthy experience, some really, really cool special powers, and a really enjoyable storyline.

Simply put, when Nanobreaker’s not frustrating, it’s boring.

Monolith did attempt to reduce the ratio of movies to gameplay, and succeeded, to a degree, although they did also shorten the game by half or so.

The developers also do a great job of placing you right into the action, including the national anthem, flyover, and the obligatory “Gentlemen, start your engines.” If you've seen it in a NASCAR event, you will see it in the game.

After the initially painful learning curve, the game suddenly snapped into place, and things got fun; collecting the cards and participating in tournaments had great appeal.

If not for the weak animation, I would say that Constantine looks surprisingly good. Instead, its static appearance cheapens the overall look of the game.

A very solid piece of work, one of the finest that the developers have brought to the table.

A mediocre "licensed" title, obviously made to capitalize on a recent film. Considering how poorly the movie fared with the critics, is the game score any surprise?

I figure in about five years, Shadow of Rome will start showing up in magazine articles about “cult” games, or the best-kept secrets on the PS2.

It's like a Tootsie Pop, only the sweet chewy center is covered by the bitterness of gameplay mechanics and camera troubles.

The epic struggles of the universe are told in a cinematic, moving style. The interpersonal conflicts are brought out through rich dialogue and well thought-out storytelling.

With its Street Challenge mode, six-player ability, online play, and improved graphics, NBA Street V3 is a great package and worth every penny you spend on it.

There's enough variation between the two games to keep you coming back to both versions, and plenty of characters and moves to keep you thoroughly occupied.

For parents looking for a good game for young children, this would be a great purchase. I personally prefer Piglet's Big Movie, but that is for the slightly older kids.

With gameplay stuck in a mid-90's fad that was in itself considered arcane by any gamer's standards at the height of its popularity, Legacy of the Spirits troubles me with its thrown-together, "let's take advantage of a passing craze before it completely dies" feel.

With gameplay stuck in a mid-90's fad that was in itself considered arcane by any gamer's standards at the height of its popularity, Legacy of the Spirits troubles me with its thrown-together, "let's take advantage of a passing craze before it completely dies" feel.

In today's fast-paced world of instant rewards and gratification, he feels way outdated. It's sad in a way, like the passing of an old friend who has given so much to the world, but it is unfortunately Pooh's time to go.

Call me crazy, but I like things simple. I prefer "NBA Street" over V3 despite the unlockable stuff and refined gameplay elements in V3. The camera angles were wonky for my tastes and the in-game announcer came close to ruining the whole game for me and my issue with the gameplay timing is perhaps my own.

One of the best arcade sports titles to release. Ever.

The choice of game modes make it absolutely perfect for any child you can think of, and while the main game will not take all that long to finish, the unlockables, minigames and virtual playground will keep them coming back for more for a good long while.

The only real weakness of the combat engine at all is the lack of any sort of auto-targeting system, which makes using ranged weaponry frustrating.

May not be a huge innovation from the last chapter, but it does fix a good amount of physics and character control issues.

Mediocre at best, and nail-bitingly frustrating at worst. A couple of interesting concepts lay mired beneath poorly executed game design.

To be fair, it hasn’t broken any new ground, didn’t dazzle me with its graphics, and included that same annoying pseudo-speak that all of these games seem to integrate.

To be fair, it hasn’t broken any new ground, didn’t dazzle me with its graphics, and included that same annoying pseudo-speak that all of these games seem to integrate.

I only have a few complaints about it; camera movement and first person x and y speeds were a bit slow for my liking.

To be fair, it hasn't broken any new ground, didn't dazzle me with its graphics, and included that same annoying pseudo-speak that all of these games seem to integrate.

While this game lives up to Square-Enix's well-deserved reputation for quality gameplay, it lacks the depth of their best and most famous titles.

It's not something you can play for weeks and weeks on end, but rather a game you can play for three minutes or three hours and still have a blast.

With tons of cameos from classic Marvel characters like the Black Widow, dialogue penned by Punisher writer Garth Ennis, and the sort of loving attention to detail that could please the most finicky of Comic Book Guys, the Punisher is practically a textbook example of how to do a good media-to-game conversion.

The Punisher isn't quite a top-notch must-own title, but is definitely worth more than a cursory glance from anyone who likes their action games to be a fun romp with big guns, large amounts of enemies, and fairly solid gameplay.

When it comes to multiplayer matches, this one will be the reigning king in my Gameboy for a long time to come, though I admittedly won't be popping it into my link port-less NDS again.

It's an unpleasant surprise that Tork turned out so utterly "blah."

The real problem is that Suikoden 4 fails to stand up to role playing games that came five years or more before it. The title looks, plays, sounds, loads, and I dare say is written like a first-generation import Playstation 2 launch effort.

What RE4 does is put the "survival" feel back into the survival horror genre. It's nice to see the originator back on the bloody cutting edge.

A fun and truly enormous action game based around that most perfect of gaming goals: blowing up anything that so much as <I>thinks</I> at you funny.

An immaculate production, with the combination of heavy firepower and loosely structured gameplay. If you like Doom, Halo, Serious Sam or any other game that's designed around mass mayhem and flaming wreckage, you'll be perfectly at home.

The good news is it's deep and complicated in the way it should be: learning the subtleties of the game and becoming successful, not in just learning how to play the game.

A much better game than the original. The single player, while still weak compared to multiplayer, is longer and more engrossing.

A fun game, but if you played the first, you played this one.

The main thing that it has going for it is that it recreates its franchise so faithfully that you feel as if you're completely in control of its world.

Good game, good story, flat presentation.

Something about the controls, the atmosphere, the universe it takes place in, the designs of the mechs ... something about all of these things makes me forgive a lot of the problems the game has.

It's a beautiful thing, Butcher Bay, done with style that you don't often see, particularly in a movie license.

Catacombs is an excellent expansion and does a tremendous job at filling the solo and single-group content void.

Nothing special as far as real-time strategy games go. It doesn't break any new ground, and it doesn't rise to stand on top of the pile of other games in the genre.

Collision detection problems and sloppy mechanics plague this otherwise fun title, and multiplayer is really the best aspect of the game.

Perhaps the best RTS I have ever played, despite the fact that the source material bores me to tears.

Tedious and only worth trying out if you can laugh at a game with very few redeeming factors. It's too long, it's too uninspired, and it just isn't much fun.

This game really has everything you could want, including one of the best if not the best stories of the year, and it'll certainly slake any gamer's thirst for adventure.

A really good game. Its gameplay, at heart, is pure Metal Slug.

It may not showcase a cutting-edge game engine or add brand new features to the FPS genre, but Painkiller: Battle out of Hell is, without a doubt, one of the most intense and straightforward FPS rides the genre has seen yet.

The most disappointing thing about Exigo is that the gameplay just isn’t all that exiting. Everything looks nice and is well-balanced, but there’s little here that hasn’t been done before.

Look past the bad-boy façade, and you’ll see that this new iteration is even better than the last.

It shows off the dragged-out combat and its new 'rougher, meaner' attitude like a four year old happily waving around what it found in the cat's litter box, and all of the really good parts seem to go right under the radar. You have to actively work to get to the fun parts, in other words.

Instead of making improvements, the development team made a game to appeal to a different crowd than their original audience, and I honestly don’t think the decision was a good one.

Somewhere between the halfway psychotic 2D graphics and the incredibly innovative, if slightly dated, gameplay, Mr. Driller comes extremely close to “classic” status.

The developers are obviously fans of the tough-as-nails older PC RPGs and were trying to emulate that experience here, but their obvious inexperience with development has created a glitchy, cookie-cutter type of game that does not belong on anybody's hard drive.

The focus on combat makes the game boring, and the lack of good puzzles and platforming of the same caliber as in Sands of Time make Prince of Persia: Warrior Within a slow ride that many fans should honestly stay away from.

Unlike its competitors, World of Warcraft boasts a magnificently done quest system. Each quest you take a detailed explanation written into your Quest Journal that gives you enough information ingame to solve it. The sense of immersion is greatly heightened through this as well.

The lack of true strategic possibilities is a vast shortcoming when such high quality alternatives are on the shelves.

This is about as close as any shooter's come to replicating the action-movie experience, with plenty of toys to play with and a great techno soundtrack.