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.