Round 3's meaty punching action delivers more bone-crunching thrills than just about any other fighter out there. It won't go easy on you, but once you've risen to its punishing standards, this is pure, addictive, long-haul fun.

While some classic arcade games (like old episodes of the "Thundercats" cartoon) are more fit for reminiscence than actual play, Time Pilot proves that what was mind-blowingly awesome back in the day can still detonate brains just as well now.

The only thing that's hard to adjust, in fact, is the tension in your muscles. GTR 2 is hugely better than its predecessor in exactly the area that matters.

The pruned unit selection, simple relationships and fixed playing field give DEFCON more in common with chess than most RTS games. It's not a game to get lost in for hours on end, but it is one you'll get the urge to play again and again for months to come.

[An] incredibly fresh and successful take on skating controls, as well as a wide-open city with six-player online options (we liked the Deathraces and the Spot Battles). Skate is logical, authentic, and blissfully organic. Robots need not apply.

[An] incredibly fresh and successful take on skating controls, as well as a wide-open city with six-player online options (we liked the Deathraces and the Spot Battles). Skate is logical, authentic, and blissfully organic. Robots need not apply.

What it may lack in length, it more than makes up for in absolutely every other aspect. The battle system is addictively fun, the multifaceted story is riveting, and the graphics are amazing... we couldn't ask for much more.

The game's greatest feat is adding strategy to the first person shooter and getting the player - whether working alone or with others - to occasionally stop, forget about the gun and just think. You'll be amazed at how well it works and at how good it feels.

The only downside - and it's huge - is that as of this late March 2007 writing, the PS3 Oblivion does not support additional content the way the 360 and PC versions do.

An enormous amount of top-drawer content for $29.99, and newcomers may rightly mistake it for a full blown sequel. Highly recommended.

With most RTS games shifting towards fast action at the expense of real strategy, it would be an unforgivable sin for a strategy fan to pass by this game on the shelf and not pick it up.

It's a port of a damn fine game - losing very little in translation and lending itself perfectly to a handheld frame of mind. Additionally, it retails for quite a bit less than your typical PSP release.

GRAW 2 doesn't blow its competition out of the water like its predecessor did, but it easily matches them. Not bad for a "rushed" sequel.

This game is a lot of things: thoroughly unique, frequently challenging, and sometimes quite disturbing. But most of all, it's a fantastic experience on many levels.

Getting your head around the combat is key to having a good time. Once mastered, you'll find an immersive action romp full of original challenges, incredible environments and interesting characters. This game might have been around for years, but the intensity of the gameplay has yet to be bettered.

Aside from the half-functional multi-player and a brutal learning curve, there’s nothing about IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 that isn’t amazing. Superb aircraft flight modeling? Check. Amazing looking aircraft? Check. More than 220 different aircraft and around 200 missions? Check.

This ain't Baseball for Dummies - mastering your skills takes practice, but we like that. If it were easy, there'd likely be little reason to play for long. As it is, we're addicted to both our franchise and online play; 2K Sports' famously robust internet leagues and websites return to embarrass all other comers' usually feeble online offerings.

This ain't Baseball for Dummies - mastering your skills takes practice, but we like that. If it were easy, there'd likely be little reason to play for long. As it is, we're addicted to both our franchise and online play; 2K Sports' famously robust internet leagues and websites return to embarrass all other comers' usually feeble online offerings.

This 15-30 hours of gameplay is a must-play for anyone, even if you didn't finish the main game.

This 15-30 hours of gameplay is a must-play for anyone, even if you didn't finish the main game.

When all these ingredients – story, gameplay, and character customization – are thrown together and stirred, the result is an irresistibly scrumptious strategy RPG that would be an absolute shame to pass up.

Beyond its quality, its unexpectedness is what makes Odin Sphere doubly special. It came from absolutely nowhere and reminds us that people are still struggling to make the games of their dreams.

Sporting a beautiful look and feel and more modes than you can shake a stick at, it’ll cure your football fever all season long.

Easily the best football game yet for the Xbox 360. Sporting a beautiful look and feel and more modes than you can shake a stick at, it’ll cure your football fever all season long.

Chains is short for a GoW title, taking us about six and a half hours to complete on normal difficulty. True, the unlockable difficulty levels, challenge modes and goofy bonus costumes give it more longevity than that, but another level or two wouldn't have hurt. That said, Chains is still an impressive piece of work.

Gameplay on the 360 is almost perfect, but for the mushy d-pad on the wireless controller. Precise jumping (of which there isn't all that much, thankfully) or very quick direction changes aren’t always easy. You definitely have to want to look past some of the issues this creates. But when the core game is this great, that’s pretty easy to do.

Dark Resurrection doesn't have all of the extra features you might expect from a console release of a Tekken game, but this is offset by the pretty fair price and the fact that you can finally play the game on any size TV screen you have and with an arcade stick (like, say, the Hori Fighting Stick 3), to boot.

Far better than any other flight game on the 360 - and it also happens to be a technical showcase for HDTV fanatics everywhere.