IGN

The campaign, which is very good, is Halo 3's weakest point. It doesn't capture the cavalier spirit of the original Halo, but you'll still have fun playing through it. There's no first-person shooter on 360 that can equal Halo 3's blend of cinematic action, adrenaline-pumping shootouts, and male- (and female)-bonding gameplay. Look beyond the gameplay and you have a rich feature set unlike anything ever delivered in a videogame.

There's no denying how awesome the replay and Forge features are but they're not the core of the game. Don't get me wrong, the single player campaign is very strong, the action is tight, and the AI is F.E.A.R.-killing. But for every positive, there was an area of the game that left me wanting more the backtracking, the overly cheesy storyline, the underwhelming visuals. And multiplayer feels too much like a HD-version of Halo 2 with a few gadgets you can toss around. Which to Halo fans is fine but compared to other online shooters, I get the feeling that Halo 3 is staying a little too close to its roots.

Single player's good, without question, but the sheer weight of hype alone brings inevitable disappointment. It would have had to have troubled the very best single-player games ever to reach for those highs but it doesn't. But it all pales into insignificance against the tech-brimming majesty of the multiplay. Again, the conventional multiplay aspects would have left most reviewers a sweaty mess on their carpets, but Bungie's innovations have pushed the boundaries on not only what multiplay does, but what multiplayer is.

There are a lot of mindless shooters on the market, but none of them immerse you in John Woo's world. And that's where Stranglehold stands out. This is the true sequel to Hard Boiled, which means Stranglehold is more about style than substance. So, not surprisingly, the story is melodramatic and forgettable and the adrenaline-pumping action is the star of the show.

Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights has its share of strengths and weaknesses. The track design is generally pretty good and the layout of the Career mode is nice. However, some aspects of the car customization are poor and the controls could have used more tuning. If you love customizing cars and racing them, you'll find some things to like here. But certainly don't expect perfection.

Eternal Sonata is a great RPG to give to your kid, but it?s also put together well enough for older gamers to enjoy. If you haven?t had much experience with RPGs, Eternal Sonata would be a great way to get your feet wet. Hardcore RPG fans might find the game a bit lacking, but we found enough to enjoy in the game to keep the limited role-playing elements far enough out of mind from start to finish for the game to keep from growing stale.

Guild Wars is one of the most flexible games out there. It's an online RPG that can be played as a single-player game. It's a dungeon crawler and a vicious PvP contest. Yet its PvE content that's designed to be played for hours on end doesn't provide as many rewards for dedicated play compared to other games of this type. The core gameplay, which remains unchanged for Eye of the North, is still a lot of fun.

Don't let the average score fool you into thinking this is a simple matter of mediocrity. This will be a polarizing game. There are people out there especially the hardcore computer-RPG nuts that have been rocking Elder Scrolls since Arena who are going to love it. These are people numb to a world of bugs and glitches who can enjoy deep role-playing at the expense of spit and polish.

Kingdoms is definitely an expansion focused on adding lots more content than enlarging the game design and its appeal to you will depend on how satisfied you are with the basic format of the core game. True, there are some surprises in the way the new campaigns play out but, dog warriors and Greek fire aside, Medieval 2 fans will be in very familiar territory here.

For years, 2K's brand of hockey was a step above EA as a true simulation of the sport. But give credit where it is due, EA finally chucked its desire to marry arcade fun with its simulation and finally got hockey right. NHL 08 has a few nagging flaws -- occasionally suspect team AI, clipping issues, and a lack of ESPN flavor -- but it has nailed the gameplay. And really, isn't it gameplay that matters most?