But we can't get behind playing it for very long, even as fanatics.

The moaning and suffering of hit civilians can be quite disturbing in their realism, as are the fire effects and animations. While the graphics fail to evoke the surreal atmosphere that was intended, the sound plays its part superbly.

If you're the patient type, you may be able to tolerate the poor interface, ignore the sound, and find workarounds for the bugs, but most gamers will just become frustrated. It's a shame, there's obviously a very engaging and interesting game lurking under the mound of minor issues.

As much as we're sometimes awestruck by Genji's eye candy, we're more frequently struck dumb by how unwieldy the camera is. Isn't this the next generation? Wasn't the irritation of being attacked from off-screen and being unable to control your perspective distinctly last-gen?

Why not make a game starring Sonic and only Sonic, where he's running around on his own two legs, without any weapons besides his own body, in an action/platformer? Crazy? Yes, but it just might work.

You can get through the game in probably about five or six hours, and there's not much incentive to replay it. This march to glory might be short, and it's sometimes awfully low-rent.

It is fair to say that had Legends of Wrestling possessed the wealth of options present in the aforementioned "Smackdown," it would be the ultimate wrestlefest.

Typically, poor graphic performance is just a sideline to how a game performs, but here the lousy shadows and contrasty scenes detract from the action just as much as the dreadful AI and thin premise. As a result, Bullet Witch should be completely avoided.

Our expectations have been comprehensively destroyed by what is a truly mediocre title. Save the world from a race of parasitic aliens? We'd rather have a nice cup of tea, thanks all the same.

Gameplay in The Elly Kedward Tale feels even more linear than either of the first two volumes (is that even remotely possible?).

A game about nothing...a dungeon crawl so formulaic as to be forgettable.

Not quite an ambitious failure, and not a qualified success either, the game pays the price for falling between the stools of arcade adventurousness and simulation seriousness.

Despite all these problems, the response and assistance available from Game Masters is plentiful and a refreshing change for an MMORPG.

There's a very limited, repetitive number of enemy types (whose quickly depleted voiceovers get annoying), and the core combat is solid, but uninspired (circle-strafe, reload, repeat).

The enemy AI seems to be a mixture of wunderbar and dumkopf - they frequently rumble you when you're convinced you're well concealed, yet sometimes you can swing a punch at them from one foot away and they totally ignore you.

Mindlessly amusing at first, Fistful of Boomstick is ultimately a fistful of monotony and derivative gameplay, saved from gaming's abyss by the humor and life injected from its infamous lead character.

Comes off lacking; the action is often repetitive and unwieldy, the platforming is iffy due to control quality, and the look and sound of the whole enterprise are on the uninspired side.

In the spirit of generosity, we'll offer that there's about 30 minutes of entertainment to be had. Any fan of "Grand Theft Auto"'s goofy violence will grin as the shark tears people limb from limb. Hours of doing that and little else for hours, however, will dull the enthusiasm of even the most bloodthirsty gamer.

Challenging and strangely enjoyable.

It has a decidedly limited range of licensed cars, an unsatisfying handling model, a dull course and a difficulty level that's way out of whack.

What's here is engaging and contains a compelling, in-depth story to complement the gameplay.

A bad game. Bad deeds deserve punishment, so I vote to have the entire Army Men development team plastifricated for unleashing this "game" onto the world.

Bad taste and bad execution that ranks up there with the worst racing games and the most unfunny Benny Hill sketches make it a truly awful experience in every way.

A relatively short game, occasionally repetitive, and has a few poorly structured missions. And we would've liked to see more anime sequences woven in between missions, too.

Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza sucks. All that follows is exposition thereon.

For all its problems, Vendetta is a laugh and offers some fun moments, although has little or no value once placed against some of the better console FPSs.

It would have been much easier to justify a purchase if Battle for Naboo was released closer to a budget price.

Much like Dante and "Devil May Cry 2," let's hope this is just a sophomore slump, and this series will come back stronger in a future installment. If not, it truly is dead to rights.

Even if you're absolutely infatuated with the Cars premise, this is no way to show the love.

There's certainly plenty of action here, but with dull, monotonous settings and boring sound design, it's easy to slump into tedium, bashing away at enemies simply because they are there.

There's something wrong with the game, though, which comes down to two fundamental problems: interface and gameplay. Smart has called it "idiot proof," but the truth is that the game is still way too cryptic.

A passing diversion, totally bereft of the addictive zeal of the original. In this case that's a step forward, if only a very tiny one.

And while the game generally looks and sounds just fine, you'll come away thinking about the interminably dull dialogue passages and unconvincing characters.

Although it's diverting, there's nothing new here - occasionally you can fire weapons (including on top of a moving train) and there's one bizarre sequence where Mac has to outrun his pursuers and try not to get shot or have his leg chewed off by a vicious dog.

Pure movie tie-in fodder.

Despite its relative good looks, Dead to Rights: Reckoning is more an exercise in frustration than an enjoyable diversion. Not even the four player WiFi deathmatch mode is enough to save this one from the bowels of the budget bargain bin.

The lackluster visuals, an unsophisticated setup, and tepid pacing render it more curiosity than keepsake, even for series die-hards.

Pure movie tie-in fodder.

Despite what high-school productions of Macbeth may illustrate, swordfighting is actually pretty hard work. So is making a good movie-based video game. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End for Wii fails at both of these tasks, and leaves you with a metaphorical pain in the neck and an all-too-real pain in the shoulder.

For experienced gamers, War Times is routine and simplistic... Still, Strategy First's effort will please real-time strategy enthusiasts looking for a throwback to the genre's glory days, and is fitting for armchair generals and WWII buffs that are RTS newcomers.

It's a shame that the whole thing seems so rushed and inexpertly executed.

The game is very pretty, yes, but it's far from pretty enough to warrant punishing yourself with this one-two blow of poor controls and terrible targeting.

Team Ninja has headed in exactly the wrong direction: more throwaway minigames, the same frustrating friends system, less focus on the volleyball. Instead, it winds up seeming just as superficial as the bosoms of its stars.

Never more than a cheap imitation of something great, thanks to a host of technical problems and an overall lack of polish.

The only problem with Iridion 3D is that while it looks a million dollars, its gameplay isn't worth a rusty dime.

As if mocking its own pompous title, Pokemon Battle Revolution is, amazingly, a step back for the historically reviled console Pokemon games - there's plenty of style, but less substance than ever before.

The adventure boldly promised by the title is lacking, leaving only a half-hearted tale that's trailing dozens of frustrated players and broken controllers in its wake.

Like many games of this style, there is some vague, half-guilty pleasure in the mechanical repetitiveness of the game's combat. But ultimately, X-Men is in the time-honored tradition of licensed games -- rushed, derivative, and well worth avoiding.

There is one reason to look into this dim sequel: it packs in "Turtles in Time," the excellent four-player arcade release from over a decade back.

"Ragingly adequate." It looks, plays and feels like a budget paean to Diablo in most respects.

Even backed by "Metal Gear Solid 2" technology, Cy Girls' long stretch of frustrating puzzles will leave players feeling more blonde than Bond.

The inclusion of the gore and the adult content, will no doubt sell the game, but to be honest it does not add anything to the game. Harvester is not terrible, far from it, but it does not offer anything substantial enough for it to be considered as one of the better games from the genre.

Creature Labs has decided to create a Pac-Man game that not only bears no resemblance to the original but is an absolute travesty of a title that certainly wouldn't have got a release without the Pac-Man licence.

Unfortunately the game is not going to be any kind of a challenge for the more seasoned PS2 owners amongst us.

It's a schizophrenic game that tests poorly as both a brawler and a fighter. 80 percent of the game is too easy, and the balance is cheap and simply not fun.

Comes off lacking; the action is often repetitive and unwieldy, the platforming is iffy due to control quality, and the look and sound of the whole enterprise are on the uninspired side.

Pure movie tie-in fodder.

There's a very limited, repetitive number of enemy types (whose quickly depleted voiceovers get annoying), and the core combat is solid, but uninspired (circle-strafe, reload, repeat).

A game which is wholly unsatisfying and verging on unplayable.

In the spirit of generosity, we'll offer that there's about 30 minutes of entertainment to be had.

Along with the captivating Roman setting, Galilea/Antik has succeeded in humanising a grand strategy game. That's a tremendous accomplishment all on its own.

Yet these Gangs of London prove to be more like the Jets and Sharks from "West Side Story;" mildly amusing, to be sure, but potentially only dangerous to an 8-year-old boy who still has accidents when mom forgets to turn on the nightlight.

A dull game. Even if you've always wanted to know what managing a casino might be like, Casino Tycoon will likely fail to keep you occupied for more than a couple of days, even counting the game's challenge mode.

Multiplayer is better, but it'd be the scurvy dog indeed that talked his friends into buying this cash-in.

And while the game generally looks and sounds just fine, you'll come away thinking about the interminably dull dialogue passages and unconvincing characters.

Like many games of this style, there is some vague, half-guilty pleasure in the mechanical repetitiveness of the game's combat. But ultimately, X-Men is in the time-honored tradition of licensed games -- rushed, derivative, and well worth avoiding.

For every imaginative, interesting and appealing puzzle, there's one long, drawn out, dull key hunt. For every awe-inspiring graphical vista, there's a boring, black, featureless tunnel. For every sparsely spread save point, there's a (or rather, many) long plummets to unexpected insta-death.

Like many games of this style, there is some vague, half-guilty pleasure in the mechanical repetitiveness of the game's combat. But ultimately, X-Men is in the time-honored tradition of licensed games -- rushed, derivative, and well worth avoiding.

Like many games of this style, there is some vague, half-guilty pleasure in the mechanical repetitiveness of the game's combat. But ultimately, X-Men is in the time-honored tradition of licensed games -- rushed, derivative, and well worth avoiding.

While this game has some glimpses of the past greatness of the Tomb Raider franchise, Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness is so full of glitches and other frustrations that it's hard to enjoy.

The series' simplified gameplay takes a step backwards with Total Destruction, and the overall experience is decidedly mediocre. But sometimes, after a hard day of work, you just want to knock over a skyscraper.

Big Mutha Truckers 2 isn't horrible, but the game-play is merely average compared to other mission-based arcade racers. And while it tries to be funny with its racy dialogue and stereotypical characters, it fails more often than it succeeds.

It's even less successful as an adventure game because it's so superficial, small, and indistinct. There are very few memorable characters, although everyone has his or her own name.

Its control system is weak, the gameplay mechanics are basic and repetitive and The Rock is woefully underused.

Much like Dante and "Devil May Cry 2," let's hope this is just a sophomore slump, and this series will come back stronger in a future installment. If not, it truly is dead to rights.

The general lack of thought and polish is obvious in almost every aspect.

The most glaring problem is that all the tracks are inside the confines of generic stadiums instead of the open road.

One of the buggiest games ever released for the GBA, if not one of the buggiest games ever released, period. One flaw even makes it impossible to complete the game.

In the spirit of generosity, we'll offer that there's about 30 minutes of entertainment to be had.

Its control system is weak, the gameplay mechanics are basic and repetitive and The Rock is woefully underused.

There's very little middle ground in Nanobreaker. Either you're having a blast, playing through some innovative sections and loving the deep combat mechanics; or you're hating life, suffering through aggravating parts that are nearly as numerous.

The incredibly stupid AI is also a big problem since it is hard to overlook the mechanical flaws when the gameplay is only moderately engaging.

It just cries out for multiplayer, particularly when you can lay down a snaking path of gasoline for half a block and light it up; what a way to trap and kill your local or online friends! Alas, it's not there.

It's not so much inspired by Hitchcock, it's more like it imitates him, and imitates rather badly.

For starters, it's boring...You generally just button mash as quickly as possible and hope that the cops fall down before you do.

The ominous industrial-soundtracked wanderings change from tense to boring and finally kind of infuriating, as you find yourself being forced to visit and visit and re-visit again areas you've already cleaned out.

If you're desperate for a Prince of Persia fix then give the free first episode a try and you might, just might, like it a little bit.

A cookie-cutter "Age of Empires" clone...delivers a dose of good, old-fashioned fun.

XXX isn't without its charms, although they might best be appreciated in a quick two-day’s borrow from a cash happy friend.

Like many games of this style, there is some vague, half-guilty pleasure in the mechanical repetitiveness of the game's combat. But ultimately, X-Men is in the time-honored tradition of licensed games -- rushed, derivative, and well worth avoiding.

Graphically, you're in for a treat. What strikes you immediately is the great job the designers have done with the lighting effects.

The Xbox Music Mixer's laundry list of features are so poorly implemented that it simply isn't worth buying.

If gamers aren't put off by the distinctly lack-lustre character visuals, they will be by the dire English voice-overs, stilted and forced from a poorly translated German script.

Ultimately, the only ones likely to enjoy RTX Red Rock are the hardcore sci-fi buffs who can look past the flawed game engine and through to the core story. There is a lot of potential in RTX, sadly most of it is unrealized.

A fun hack-and-slash dungeon romp, with a good dose of RPG thrown in.

What there is, generally, is okay - fun, visceral combat, easy controls, reasonable graphics. It just needs more moves, more weapons, more variety... just more in general.

The backdrops and characters are all superbly detailed, with the characters themselves being in real-time 3D, while the backdrops are pre-rendered...A potentially good game spoiled by stupid bugs.

It misses on all counts beyond the purely visual - it's not similar enough to the movie to attract Shrek fans, it's not playable enough to attract platform game aficionados, and it's too difficult for the kids to enjoy once they've stopped laughing at the fart jokes.