If the controls were a bit more comfortable, and the car battle mode wasn't so hard to control, it might have made the game a better experience overall, but still not near the magic of Rare's entry.

It doesn't come close to living up to the concept. Unexpectedly glitchy, terribly repetitive and incredibly easy, Just Cause might be fun for a rental, but even the most die-hard fans of sandbox games will want to look elsewhere for their fill.

I found the gameplay in The Sims 2: Castaway to be quite entertaining and, to a point, addictive, especially after delegating a large amount of the repetitive resource gathering to island primates and other castaways.

Ultimately, The Saboteur is a refreshing change from the usual WWII hodgepodge because it finally brings open-ended sandbox gameplay to such a historic era.

If you're looking for a fun, easy, and inexpensive way to learn Spanish basics, or if you have a DS and need a translation tool for future travels, you should definitely look into picking up a copy.

Wii-owning soccer fans will do fine to pick up FIFA Soccer 11 for their systems.

The title has great gameplay and presentation, but the issues that plague it — the sudden inclusion of out-of-place enemies and the woefully unbalanced multiplayer portion —tend to drag down the overall enjoyment level of an otherwise spectacular game.

Dawnguard adds more of what made Skyrim great, without feeling like it was tacked on at the last minute.

The load times have the added effect of killing a lot of the joy that can be gained from playing this game.

The kind of game that needed a lot more work before it was released. While it's great to play as football legends, the roster creation system is incredibly restrictive, and it's impossible to field the kind of team of which you've always dreamed.

Max: The Curse of Brotherhood is a solid puzzle game with some platforming elements, even if it isn't a particularly great platformer on its own. If you can look past the occasionally clunky controls and its inherent frustrations, you're in for a treat with the great level design.

Skybolt Zack is a gem of a game. The focus on speed and execution is well done, but the variety in levels and enemy designs ensures that the act doesn't get old. The various pathways do a great job of adding in some replay value, and the challenge modes give hardcore players something else to work with. Combined with a solid presentation, Skybolt Zack is one of those games that may be a pleasant surprise when compared to some of the bigger indie games in the field.

If you have a dedicated group of friends who are ready to toss down on some Mario-themed minigames and game board shenanigans, then you're probably good to go with Mario Party 9.

The biggest issue with MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries is that it hits you with all of its shortcomings at once. Keep playing, though, and the game establishes itself as a fun title that's worthy of the MechWarrior moniker. Play it with friends, and it becomes even more entertaining. Dated aspects of its presentation aside, the combat remains fun mission after mission, and it continues to test you as you become more powerful. Start blowing apart enemy mechs with a small array of PPC cannons and make a few big pay days, and you'll appreciate the game for what it is.

For the creators out there, check out the free version to see if you can come to grips with the system, but dive in to the Starter pack if you want a wider range of elements to jumpstart your creative endeavors.

The mini-games were without question added to increase the replay value of this game and they did such to at least some degree. I admit they are kind of fun and it is cool that they added them I guess I just would rather play one of my other multiplayer centric games instead.

Tesla vs. Lovecraft isn't going to win you over if you crave innovation. There isn't anything here that hasn't been seen in other twin-stick shooters, but there isn't much for those wanting something off the wall, either. The story is lacking, but the game provides a solid and lengthy shooting experience, and even though there isn't a shortage of that genre on the PC, Tesla vs. Lovecraft is good enough for fans to check out.

Phantom Doctrine's biggest issue is that it compares unfavorably to X-COM. That doesn't make it a bad game, but it emphasizes X-COM's tight design. With Phantom Doctrine, you end up feeling like everything's a touch too unfocused. The metagame is interesting but messy. The combat is filled with interesting ideas but weaker execution. A lot of this may sound really negative, but I had fun with Phantom Doctrine. Fans of X-COM-style games will absolutely find it to be worth playing; it just has so much potential that it's easy to zero in on the little things that it does wrong.

The game runs flawlessly and is extremely fast-paced. It may not be "Quake," but for PS2 to be able to handle speeds of this caliber is just amazing.

Pitfall's main game is very short, as I blazed through it in seven hours. While it does have a few secrets, such as the ability to play as Nicole and the unlockable Pitfall games you can find in a shrine near your starting point (complete with a giant Mayan monument to the Atari 2600), Pitfall is still a bit on the brief side.

Wasteland 3: The Battle of Steeltown DLC is a very nice complement to the main game. The story contained in the expansion pack is of the same caliber as what's in the main campaign, but it also does a great job of slotting itself into the campaign without feeling like a huge diversion. The environment is fresh, and the enemies are enjoyable to fight, especially those on mechs, but the gameplay mechanics introduced here and in the previous patches give Wasteland 3 veterans enough of a reason to return and try another run. It's good enough that we want to see what the next expansion looks like.

With strong production values, great visuals and an excellent audio score to back it all up, LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean is easily one of the best efforts in the franchise to date. No, it's not perfect, but the game has strong appeal across the board. It's also one of the few cases where a licensed game is better than the movie on which it is based.

The fights aren't overly strategic, but you are rewarded if you know the weaknesses of monsters you're facing; there are tons of these fights, and each is rather short unless you pump up the difficulty.

It is a lot faster paced than "Blade Warriors" and surprisingly you can somewhat button mash in this game (Usually doesn't work out though since the game requires a massive amount of skill).

This version fails to even live up to the console counterpart, as the controls suffer far too much on the PSP itself.

SingStar: Queen is the type of track pack that you want other music games to follow. It takes the songs from one band, puts it in a compilation for fans to enjoy, and retains features from the series' previous titles.

Most who manage to make it through to the end-credits of XIII will likely do so due to its consistently interesting and engaging storyline.

A veritable treasure trove for history buffs, aficionados of that particular time period, or people otherwise interested in how wars were actually fought through human history.