The random beatings you can inflict on people always makes for a good laugh when you’re with friends, and the versatility of this game provides you with the best of all worlds.

One of the year's best surprises, offering a wonderful mixture of strategic gameplay, imagination, and colorful story telling.

I really enjoyed the missions, and even though they could be tough, the movie-like atmosphere makes for a truly compelling gaming experience.

While the average base capture can be pretty repetitive, there are huge difficult battles every so often that are more fun than anything, and these will keep me coming back for awhile.

Bright, colorful visuals relay a fast-paced shootout across several stages of intense first-person gameplay.

A triumph of gameplay over technology, Culdcept offers highly rewarding and deep gameplay emphasizing the formulation of individual strategies to overcome challenging opponents.

While some may find it extremely difficult due to the emphasis on realism, Korea provides a healthy challenge best conquered by learning the game’s well-designed controls and interface.

A must-have expansion for any serious monument builder, with the added attraction of being able to skip those frustrating levels for anyone having difficulty completing the original game.

Super Mario Advance might be nothing more than a beefed-up port of an old game, but hell, it’s a Nintendo classic.

The only thing I can complain about is the sound, but the added features and modes definitely make this worthy of a purchase in my books.

While Mario has aged well, A Link to the Past feels a little old. Unlike other GBA ports, the game definitely shows its age graphically, especially when compared to Four Swords.

An excellent racing game that has plenty of depth and unlockable features.

One of the most enjoyable multiplayer games on Xbox, and is probably the best arena-party fighting game on the system.

The multiplayer is outstanding and there are tons of unlockables.

The single most immersive action gaming experience I have ever had. Every element – graphics, gameplay, sound, story – works together to form a very cohesive unit and blow your little gaming mind.

The controls are tight and deep, the Dynasty Mode is great, and the gameplay is realistic and fun.

"Dark Reign 2" gave me everything I was expecting: solid gameplay, great graphics, and a fun way to kill several hours.

One of my favorite games of the year. I think once the novelty of the Diggles' antics wears off there is plenty of playtime left.

The fact that players must watch their units and stockpiles carefully is an extra, and welcome, dose of realism. Nothing is worse than having a mutiny on your hands or losing your structures to your enemy.

Definitely one of the more interesting governing and building game out there. It is unique in a lot of ways, and the gameplay is excellent.

It's extremely fast, it's even more intense, and it has replay value to boot. What more could you ask for in an arcade racer?

The game is held back from greatness by a few gameplay issues that sometimes create feelings of repetitiveness (in campaign mode), confusion (losing track of heroes and important characters in battle), and frustration (heroes dying because you cannot locate them in pitched battles, and accidentally misdirecting troops due to erroneous mouse clicking).

This game is truly a remarkable trade sim, and the number options available to you through the course of this game is staggering. While the game is not without it's problems, they are easy to overlook in light of the many strong points of the game.

JO is a fun game with plenty of action and unique areas but I just had a feeling that I had done all this before.

For the first time I truly felt like I was on the track controlling a fully functional Nascar vehicle, and I believe that is what they were trying to accomplish.

More beautiful than the game’s musical bliss however, is the controls.

Very average racer, but nothing more than that.

Another problem that I found with the audio was that the voices of soldiers and prisoners did not match up at all with the movement of their mouths.