Back in 2004, Gran Turismo 4 Mobile was announced as a "flagship title" for the original PSP. Five long years later, Sony and Polyphony Digital have finally made good on that promise, releasing Gran Turismo as a launch title for the new PSP go ...

Gran Turismo racing sim for the PSP (finally!). Updated interface from GT4.Multiplayer. More than 800 cars and 35 tracks. Easier to earn credits to "collect them all

Install won't fit on a 1GB Memory Stick Duo. Most car models and tracks aren't updated from GT4. Limited customization

Gran Turismo for PSP is exactly what GT fans would expect from Polyphony and Sony: You can race on the Nurburgring on your train commute, and it's just as fun as it is on the PS2 or PS3.

The newest iteration of Microsoft's Halo doesn't leave you much time to catch your breath; Halo 3: ODST literally drops you right into the action. In terms of the Halo timeline this game sits right between Halo 2 and the events of Halo 3. In ODST, you ...

New multiplayer options. Different weapons. New main character

Some environments are too dark. Not a big departure from Halo 3 in campaign mode

Halo 3: ODST is a prequel to Halo 3, but with plenty of tweaks to the original game and new multiplayer options, this first-person shooter still feels fresh.

Creator Joel Rosenberg based Blocked, his simple and challenging $0.99 (direct) puzzle game for the iPhone and iPod touch, on the popular online game Rush Hour. In it, you use your device's touch screen to shift around rectangular gray blocks until a ...

Easy to play. Clean design. Challenging. Addictive

May drive you crazy with frustration

Don't let the neat, easy-to-use design of Blocked fool youits 100 levels can severely challenge your brain.

In The Sims 3, the Sims series has finally grown up. No longer are the Sims ($49.99 for PC and Mac; $9.99 iPhone or iPod touch) just digital action figures in a big dollhouse. The new Sims have personalities, goals, and unique body types and ...

Interface improvements. Finer controls for placing objects within a house. More character depth now available. Sims now have life goals to work toward, not just dead-end jobs

Items from the previous expansion packs not included in this version. You have to pay for cool downloadable items once your initial free online points run out

With The Sims 3, the series has evolved from a virtual sandbox into a well-thought-out world with three-dimensional characters.

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out was my favorite childhood video game, so when word filtered out last year that Little Mac and Doc were going to be back, I was all kinds of excited and began to block off large amounts of time on my calendar for this nostalgia ...

New Controls add greater difficulty. Classic characters return. New two-player mode

No Mike Tyson. Only 13 opponents

Nintendo has updated a video game classic and it's still a whole lot of fun.

Peggle is an über-popular casual game from PopCap, the masters of the casual gaming universe, and publishers of Bejeweled and Bookworm. Now the game is coming to the iPhone, and I think it just might be the best $4.99 you could spend in the Apple ...

Easy to learn, hard to master. Controls are very precise. Saves and replays your best shots

Game play quickly drains battery

Games often lose something when they're ported over to a hand-held platform, but Peggle only gets better.

The original Donkey Kong Jungle Beat came out in 2004 for the Nintendo Game Cube, and its "bongo controllers" quickly became a fixture of dorm rooms and living rooms around the world. In order to move Donkey Kong around in the game, you played a set ...

Fun, fast-paced action. Inexpensive. New levels. The action isn't the same old thing on every level ; game play actually changes markedly from one level to the next

No bongos! The game is pretty easy to beat and doesn't seem worth the effort to try to max out the points

Even without its trademark bongo controller, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat is still fun, and at this price it's a great deal.

Resident Evil. If you're looking for a sophisticated puzzle adventure, try another game. But if you want to whip out your ninja sword and slice your way through a zombie-infested future Tokyo, this is the game for you.

Fast-paced Action. Cinematic cut scenes look awesome, especially in HD

The cut scenes can get repetitive: If you mess up you have to keep replaying them over and over. Not for those looking for challenging strategy or puzzle-solving game play

If you buy only one Ninja-centric, zombie/parasite action slasher this year, it had better be Ninja Blade.

so that shouldn't have been a problem with EA's new Godfather II game ($49.95 direct for PC; $59.95 for PS3, Xbox 360). EA tried to make a game that expands on the classic film and fills in a few holes in its story line. I'm sure it seemed like a good ...

Some cool cut scenes from The Godfather: Part II. Familiar characters from the film make it into the game to help you out

Repetitive to the point of being boring. Open world is rough and buggy. Winning the game takes you to other locales where you do the same thing you did in previous areas. Once you get the hang of the game it's not very challenging

The Godfather II is an offer EA should have refused. The missions in this attempted homage to the classic film quickly lose their luster, and the open-world game play is kludgy and unfocused.

The beauty of the Puzzle Quest series is that it takes two very different types of games and combines them into fun and interesting packages. The base is essentially a simple role-playing game (RPG) in which your character builds up power through a ...

Successfully combines RPG and casual gaming. Good replay value

A bit tedious at times

Puzzle Quest: Galactrix is a game for those who've outgrown Bejeweled and want a little more from their casual games but aren't necessarily ready to make the jump to Command and Conquer or Halo.