If you enjoy arcade-like vehicle response, solid background music, and simplistic racing controls with heavy emphasis on air and abusive nitrous, then this title will meet all of your needs and more. If you're looking for something to replace "Forza" or "Gran Turismo," please look elsewhere.

Ivy the Kiwi? is a curious beast and certainly worth at least a rental, but it certainly isn't for everyone. Like Let's Tap before it, it feels more like an experiment instead of a tightly focused game.

What we have here is a game that tries to hit all of the bases and instead misses every last one. It doesn't measure up as a Monster Rancher game, it doesn't measure up as a standalone RPG, and it doesn't measure up as a worthwhile PlayStation 2 title so far into the system's run.

Tim Curry fills in doing the voice of narrator Lemony Snicket, and he does a fine job being dry, sharp-witted and, well... Tim Curry.

An interesting romp and a nice technical achievement; fans of Max Payne or anyone interested would do well to check it out - but should be warned that the game is not the end-all be-all of isometric shooters on the GBA.

It's more so bland than bad, with most of the game play revolving around finding keys and such. This coupled with the fact that there is really no reason to replay the game once you've beaten it makes the game average at best.

Even genre fans may be annoyed by the slow pace, "2 hip 4 u dawg" dialogue, and overall feeling of survival horror déjà vu.

Like much else in The Raven Remastered, the music is serviceable but feels like a missed opportunity to leave a stronger impression. That's probably a good way to sum up The Raven Remastered: serviceable but underwhelming. The title shows plenty of promise with its characters and story, but the sluggish gameplay, questionable acting, and mediocre audiovisual presentation drag it down. Mystery fans and avid Christie book readers will find something to like with The Raven's narrative, but the rougher edges make it a tough experience to recommend to all but the most dedicated and patient of players.

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.

It's not very difficult, it controls great, and the graphics and sound – while not majestic in any way – are fine.

All in all, Brakes Are For Losers is a fun retro-inspired arcade racer. It doesn't excel anywhere, but it doesn't have to. It's a decent enough experience at a very low price point in case you're craving an isometric racing frenzy.

Unfortunately, it all adds up to be a less-than-stellar experience for Battlefield 4. There is little doubt that the game will see patches to address some or all of these issues, but as it stands, it has an underwhelming single-player campaign and an unstable multiplayer mode that severely hampers enjoyment.

The core game play didn't really strike me as anything too special. Running and jumping, endlessly swinging my dagger in levels that could use some better design, eventually got on my nerves.

The game's very playable, but it's just not very much fun. More imaginative level concepts and a better implementation of the rolling game mechanic could've resulted in a brilliant title.

If you loved doing Fed Ex quests in World of Warcraft, imagine having to do nothing but those from beginning to end, with uninspired, sometimes annoying characters and overly clichéd performances throughout, and that's Jack Keane.

Most importantly, the Master Class is hard as hell--but if you wish to be at all proficient at this game, the Master Class is required. This is where most people fall off the bridge—yours truly included.

NBA 08 is roundly good at what it does; it just doesn't do much. In today's top-tier sports games market, it's not a bad game. It's just, save the engaging Upside Progression System and unique Games of the Week challenges, behind the times.

All in all, I think that Shortest Trip to Earth has a niche appeal. It's extremely detailed and management-heavy, so if that sounds good, you may enjoy it. There are tons of modules to experiment with, a variety of resources to trade and manage, so many crew members with different skills, and what seems to be a longer campaign than FTL featured. They have certainly added a lot of stuff to the basic format, but it feels rather unpolished. Too much of what was added feels like busy work instead of interesting decisions, or it creates so many choices that the game can slow to a crawl as you sort through the options. The game begs for better ways to manage the management and display options to the player.

Elebits definitely has its moments, but they are few and far between, often buried between lengthy spurts of tedium.

The character’s irrational beliefs make the story impenetrable, and the rest of the game doesn’t hold up well in the face of the PS2’s RPG library.

With overly long levels, it's built for road trips, but will quickly become played out within a few days. If you have to buy a Harry Potter game for the road, consider getting the DS rendition of Goblet of Fire.

Delivers a simple, action-oriented, fast-paced "RTS light" experience.

Only true strategy nuts should get Panzer Tactics DS, since they tend to prefer gameplay over graphics and other niceties. For a PC-era game, it doesn't translate over to the handheld all that well.

Overall, Hood: Outlaws & Legends is a strong effort that has a lot going for it. It's different and often fun, and when it works, it works. The current experience is dampened by a lack of meaningful content and a few balancing issues that frustrated me to a point where I had to stop playing — but I always came back for occasional matches. If Sumo Digital manages to keep the momentum going with much-needed updates and additional content and if the community stays active, Hood could be a very fun multiplayer title across the board. Until then, I'll wait to see which direction Hood takes over the coming weeks.

With the frame rate issues of previous versions truly fixed, this is about a good a tennis sim as the system is capable of providing. Given the limitations of the controls, though, I would suggest you leave the racket sport to the living room. Or Wimbledon.

Fans of realism in the sport may enjoy it, but even for them, it's basically a retread.

The game is stable and generally fun if lawn games are your thing, and you overlook variety in the game types not yielding much diversity in their style of play.

If not for issues with the touch screen, and especially the simple yet deep problems set off by Shin'en's camera angle choice, I might have gone as far as to write my letter of recommendation for Nanostray to sit in non-Japanese shmup classic status, along with Amiga greats like Apidya.