For the most part, however, Outlaw Tennis manages to pull off something I didn't think it could do: it blends goofball antics and serious tennis kind of nicely.

Despite its title, Forgotton Anne is far from forgettable. Its story is deep, its characters are nuanced, and its journey is emotional and powerful. Unfortunately, its stiff platforming and uninspired puzzles hold it back from being a must-play. For fans of adventure games, Forgotton Anne is a surprising gem that'll provide plenty of memorable moments over the course of its 7- to 8-hour run. For those looking for a more cohesive melding of story and gameplay, however, there are simply better options available.

A quick fix of fun gaming that really doesn't need to be lingered over.

With a vibrant historical backdrop, involving gameplay, powerful diplomacy and interesting strategy, Knights of Honor will have a home on my hard drive for months to come.

There's no getting around some of the technical and interface hiccups with Red Faction: Guerrilla, but if you can deal with the shortcomings, this really is a fun game.

The extreme sense of speed, beautiful graphics, precise handling and lines that I strive to perfectly hit every time I pick up my controller make for a nice addition to my X360 library.

If you enjoyed any Dynasty/Samurai Warriors or Gundam titles in the past and are ready for something familiar but different, this game's for you. Even after beating all of the core missions and campaigns, the game leaves plenty to do. Too bad they still haven't gone online with this franchise, but, yet again, maybe next time.

The Club succeeds in part, in that essential element of gameplay over lofty ambition — essentially, function over form, that most laudable of design goals ever — but falls far short of brilliance in presentation.

With a large cast of warriors and a diverting map system, character-building and charm-casting effectively replace storytelling to encourage continued combat, even if a slow-to-react camera and under-decorated environments make it a less-than-perfect execution of the huge-clashing-armies formula.

It's repetitive and technically deficient, but the fact that they managed to squeeze this concept onto a console woefully inadequate for it and still come out with a fun game at all is surprising, and provides hope for the future.

Sluggish controls, sketchy A.I., watered-down stories, and a frustrating lack of checkpoints block this game from stepping into the FPS V.I.P. room. On the good side, it does have atmosphere, varied gameplay, and interesting, authentic weaponry.

It's that safety in embracing the past that represents Age of Empires 4's most obvious flaw. In many ways, it plays and feels like the game is simply Age of Empires 2 with a very well applied fresh coat of paint. Love letter or no, between the rough issues with the campaign and the reuse of the multiplayer, it feels more like a remaster of an older game than of a new entry into the series. It is not easy to please fans of the long-running franchise while also attempting to attract new ones to it, and Age of Empires 4 finds itself in a strange no-man's land between those two goals.

It's not for twitch junkies, but gamers with a certain amount of patience will be rewarded with an engrossing game. I just wish that Headfirst hadn't thrown in so much jumping and climbing, and that the sanity effects weren't so detrimental to seeing what's going on onscreen.

With a price tag of just $30, this should be a no-brainer for anyone interested in the genre. Rogue Trooper may not do anything staggeringly new, but it combines action, shooting, stealth, and exploration elements successfully and is well worth a look.

While I wouldn't dare touch the single player mode ever again, I will still enjoy multiplayer sessions with friends, and, no matter how easy the game is, we will still have fun.

For anyone who likes racing games, particularly street racing games, Midnight Club: Los Angeles is definitely at the top of the pack this year. The customizable vehicles, music, online gameplay, varied game modes, and, most importantly, fast racing all combine to make this one of the best racers out there.

BattleForge largely succeeds in trying to blend together RTS and card games. It's a fast-paced RTS that really rewards players for being able to adapt quickly in the middle of battle.

The fact that it's simplistic means that it's easy to jump into and have fun with, and the length of the game is just right - not too long to make the experience a bore, but not so short that you felt cheated of your money.

Overall, The Bard's Tale is wonderful. Although it does lack in a few areas, the game's memorable characters and terrific sense of humor more than make up for any of these weaknesses.

Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure is more than a love letter to the series' die-hard supporters. It's a solid adventure title that's loaded with brain teasers, personable characters, and a great musical score.

Newcomers won't find any flash or forgiveness in the story or difficulty; this is a hardcore strategy game through and through. None of those points deter from my overall enjoyment of Phoenix Point, though. It's a fantastic game, and I'm excited to see what Gollup has in mind for DLC. I certainly plan to play more of this game and improve my tactics. At the moment, my only Phoenix-like revival skills lie in save scumming.

It has a linear story, turn-based fights, collecting and creating, and heaps of mini-games that will challenge and amuse. It's not perfect, though. For me, some of the fights were completely static and unbalanced, as I found what I considered to be a perfect collection of monster parts that would end most fights in two hits.

Grab the codes off GameFAQs, unlock all the tables, and enjoy.

The voice acting is great, the innovative game-play mechanics are a breath of fresh air, and the developers really did a great job of creating a wartime battlefield atmosphere.

A surprisingly fun little game that challenges you with some cool puzzles and sends you through a nicely lit, often-interesting mansion. Despite some problems with control and a little bit of an awkward camera, I was quite entertained most of the time.

In a post-apocalyptic GBA market saturated with reason after reason to "just buy a Nintendo DS, already," Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi: Kaznapped! is a surprisingly solid breath of fresh air.

It may not play much like a traditional Medal of Honor title, but it is easy to see that it is part of the same series, and not just because it shares a World War II setting with it's 3D brethren; the same method of executing a mission is very much intact in Infiltrator.

A remarkably faithful but also remarkably flawed version of a great party game.