IGN

Nothing about the gameplay will really surprise anyone (though the addition of reinforceable squads is pretty neat) but it doesn't particularly matter. The factions are balanced very well, the battles are entertaining enough to make excitable gamers pee their pants, and the pace keeps players attention stuck to the screen at all times. Relic kicked ass creating a great piece of entertainment.

There's a very likable, very direct approach to its combat. It uses high quality visuals and sounds to implant a legitimately Star Wars experience into our heads, but it's careful to never beat us with the franchise. There are large, epic battles. There is a great emphasis on cooperation, and it's a very intuitive game. On PC, unfortunately, the problems are all amplified by an overwhelming amount of competition that simply makes Battlefront look a bit simplistic.

If you're looking for a game that really and truly lets you create your own story and build your own history and world, this is the one for you. The series is unique and lovely, and while the premise may be four years old, the feeling you get when playing The Sims 2 isn't. Deeply entertaining and addictive! All of the new features were very welcome additions to me. There were some little things that bugged me, but overall, I'm very, very happy.

DOOM 3 is an entertaining experience as long as you don't go in with any ideas that this is going to revolutionize first-person shooters. It's a pretty basic game when it comes down to it. Everything works brilliantly, but at its core, DOOM 3 has you running from room to room shooting things without much else in between. I was expecting that kind of gameplay, but I was also would have liked to see AI that was a little more deviously evil than mindlessly evil on at least some of the enemies.

Overall, Sacred is one of the better action RPGs to come along in a while. There's a massive amount of depth, and the number of characters provides a lot of replayability. It also presents some interesting ideas that could be the potential direction the genre could go in. The somewhat clumsy combat schemes and ignorable plot are the two largest things that hold Sacred back, along with the instability issues.

I started out loving this game. It had so much of what I'd been missing. Sure, it looks fantastic, but it also plays well and is satisfyingly long; each of the 20 levels should take you about an hour or more to play through, if you don't get risky and keep your head down.

If you're a fan of 1942, you'll have fun in Vietnam. If you've never played a Battlefield game and want to try, this is probably a good way to get into it with combat that may be more familiar due to the more modern weaponry. Hopefully EA will be releasing a demo in the future that will allow new players a chance to try the game out for a little while, but if you can't wait, I'm guessing most people won't be too upset by this purchase.

A huge selection of new maps, gorgeous graphics, improved game play, and the return of Assault are generous enough. But the addition of Onslaught, with its powerful vehicles and tactical variety, makes UT2004 into a multiplayer behemoth, offering enough action, depth, and expansion possibilities (just think of the mods here, people), to justify keeping UT2004 on your hard drive for a long, long time. Has Epic provided an alternative to a glut of military-themed shooters? Hell yes they have. That, and then some.

Yes, the nigh-eternal foibles of cinematic horror games are still here, scattered about, but the product as a whole is still one of the best things going in horror gaming. Really superstitious and/or ADD-afflicted types might want to steer clear for their own special reasons. Everybody else with a reasonably high-end gaming rig, the residents of Silent Hill welcome you.

Knights of the Old Republic is an outstanding game because it covers every single angle in terms of audience expectations. It's got enough Star Wars to satisfy the fans and enough pure fun to draw in people who normally wouldn't get into role-playing games. You'll see this on several Game of the Year nomination lists if not at the very top soon enough.