I say this because I wish someone would’ve done the same for me. I went to the movie store recently and rented this game after a momentary lapse of judgment. Only when I went home and put the game into my new Wii did I realize my mistake.

It’s important to keep in mind that games like this are rushed through development. The developers have a hard deadline to meet that coincides with the movie’s theatrical release date. It doesn’t get the polishing and attention to detail it deserves, and so the final product is a piece of crap that scarcely resembles a good game.

Most of us know this, but we rent these games hoping they’ll be better than their predecessors. After all, we love the series that inspired them. Heck, I finished Deathly Hallows after it had been out less than a week. However, I have never played a good Harry Potter video game. Ever. And Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is no exception, despite being released on a next gen console.

In case I haven’t convinced you, I’d urge you to seriously consider the slap treatment mentioned above. If you come to your senses and don’t even bother giving this game a try, you’ll be a much happier and slightly richer person for it.

Those who played the original game will be pleased that the sequel remains true to form while introducing plenty of new elements. Kratos is betrayed by Zeus and sent on a quest to regain his godhood and take his revenge. Along the way, he gets to pick up bad-ass moves and weapons to spread the carnage. I don’t want to give away the juicy bits, but some of the new game features include aerial combat on the back of a pegasus (more macho than it sounds), stopping time to complete puzzles, and a lot of swinging by your chains.

The content and storyline of the game are just as fulfilling as the gameplay itself. It’s not too complicated to choke a literary critic and not too simple to bore an average player. Long-term objectives mesh up nicely with immediate objectives, so you never lose sight of your ultimate goals. The game in general features a fairly even mix of puzzles and action, both challenging enough to keep you on your toes.

Perhaps the only criticism I have would apply to any game that features puzzles. I’m not a fan of getting stuck between the action, and some of the puzzles are hardly straightforward. You will either have to think your way through or have a walkthrough open for the tough spots. If you can figure it out on your own, more power to you; I prefer to enjoy what little time I can devote to playing, so I’ll usually give a puzzle several solo attempts and then hit the guide for the answer.

All in all, it’s an excellent installment to the genre. I can only hope the folks over at Sony keep producing sequels as excellent as this. Maybe then, God of War will become a household title like Final Fantasy.

Bear in mind that God of War 2 has just about as much replay value as its predecessor. That is, it’s got secret treasures and extra difficulty levels, but the game itself is pretty short, maybe 20 hours or so. Buy it if you’re into that sort of thing; if you prefer a good once-over like me, rent it.

My first impression of Bully was how sedate the whole game turned out despite the hype. Sure, there’s violence, but it isn’t even that graphic. Likewise, there’s misbehavior, crime, vandalism, etc., but it’s certainly not as shocking as some would lead us to believe. Word to the wise; don’t listen to the Jack Thompsons of the world. Their only agenda is to slanderize decent games like this, and Bully really doesn’t deserve such harsh criticism.

What it does deserve is a lot of praise for great design. The gameplay is smooth, with lots of variety and a sort of matrix/linear hybrid storyline. Much like its Grand Theft Auto predecessors, you always have the option of pursuing the core plot while at the same time retaining the freedom to do side missions or just mess around. And thanks to its well-detailed, dynamic environment, exploring the world of Bully turns out to be very rewarding, so you’ll find yourself venturing from the game’s central script all too often.

The real draw here is the setting. Instead of a criminal toting guns and courting prostitutes, you’re a juvenile delinquent sporting a sling-shot and sneaking kisses with coeds between classes. On the one hand, it’s the same GTA-style game that we all know and love, but on the other it’s a completely different spin on the tried-and-true concept. This gives the game a familiar yet refreshingly original feel.

Overall, the game has enough variety and easter eggs to keep a dedicated player busy for days. The replay value alone makes buying Bully more than worthwhile. Even if you’re not a big fan of the genre, though, it’s still worth renting for a weekend of solid gameplay. Having seen how Bully turned out, I’d be shocked if there wasn’t a Bully 2 somewhere in our future, whether the Jack Thompsons of the world like it or not.

Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus is a continuation of the original storyline three years after Meteor fell on Midgar. Strangely enough, the only character that you get to play the entire game (with the exception of one level as Cait Sith) is Vincent Valentine. I found this odd at first, considering he was an optional character in the original game. Still, his back story was already rich enough to give his character real depth, so it wasn’t an altogether bad choice.

Besides the fact that you only get one character, this title has many other huge differences with established Final Fantasy standards. For one, combat is real time and integrated into the world environment. There are no breaks between walking around and fighting, as in most Final Fantasy titles. In fact, the game play bears very little resemblance to the turn-based, menu-driven feel of its predecessors.

Mind you, this isn’t a bad thing. While it detracts from the Final Fantasy feel that we’ve all come to know and love, the game play is still quite enjoyable. It’s more of a third-person shooter with elements of melee combat thrown in for flavor, similar in feel to Devil May Cry or Resident Evil 4. Vincent will have the opportunity to assume the forms of the Galian beast and Chaos, just like his old limit breaks, and he’ll make use of the Potions, Ethers, and Materia that every Final Fantasy VII player knows by heart. And while you might not get to play them, most of the old characters make cameos, so the game isn’t totally disconnected from it’s past.

The amount of time it will take to beat this game is another element that makes it different from the other Final Fantasies. Whereas the RPGs are usually 30- or 40-hour ordeals, Dirge of Cerberus is easily doable in less than 10. On top of that, even with the extra mission scenarios thrown in on the side, the game itself doesn’t have much replay value. As always, I say rent it for a weekend of solid game play, but don’t waste your money buying it; it’s simply not worth the value.

It’s worth noting that I read XPlay’s review of Dirge of Cerberus and found their rating (2 out of 5) to be startlingly low. I’d say that their observation that the game has too many cut scenes is fair. I certainly found myself wishing they’d lay off the plot for a few minutes so I could have fun killing things on more than one occasion. Still, to say that this ruins the game entirely is an exaggeration.

I realize I’m biased, but long-time Final Fantasy players like me actually enjoy the story. To read this review makes it sound like the plot isn’t something the reviewer even cares about. Given that the title is a spin-off of a beloved game rather than a different game entirely, I’d say it’s a safe assumption that it was made largely with the original game’s audience in mind.

The conclusion, then, is that old fans of the series will probably love this game for what it’s worth while other players might not have as much fun. I, for one, thought it was a good installment. It certainly wasn’t as good as the original, but then there aren’t many games that can match such a landmark RPG.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of the game for me was the lack of plot. You are a warrior fighting colossi in order to resurrect your dead lover. There really isn’t more to it than that. None of the characters, including the hero, are ever even named, with the exception of the hero’s horse and the mysterious being in the temple.

Despite this, the game comes off as richly detailed and highly enjoyable. Instead of throwing together cut-scenes and poor voice acting, the designers put their effort into the game environment and the monsters. It’s a return to basics for an industry that has largely forgotten that a simple game can often be more fun than a complicated one.

The finished product is a game with so much visual appeal that every minute of play looks as polished and realistic as a cut-scene. It doesn’t matter a bit that there isn’t anything to do between the temple and the next colossus. The vast landscapes are so richly detailed that you could spend hours just riding around taking in the scenery. It’s really a breath of fresh air to play a game with so much aesthetic appeal.

The colossi are obviously where the majority of the work was done, and it really does show. In a game of only 16 boss fights, I wasn’t bored for a second. Every boss is a unique challenge in and of itself, and no fight is straightforward. You’ll spend ninety percent of the game clinging for dear life to the back of a massive, beautifully-detailed giant in a desperate bid to strike a telling blow in one of its weak spots.

Of course, no game is perfect. The horse was very realistic, and perhaps the only element of the game that I thought was too realistic. I ended up swearing in frustration every time the dang thing bucked on a rocky outcropping that it could have easily been made to jump. Also, several of the colossi, particularly the bull, pushed the distinction between challenging and frustrating.

These were, of course, minor problems at worst. The only major flaw of the game was the game play itself. Each colossus is a puzzle. Like any puzzle, it’s great fun to try and figure out the first time around. After that, however, there’s really no point since you already know the answer. Thus, the game has very little replay value. On top of that, there are only 16 colossi to fight, which doesn’t make for a lot of play time. I finished the whole thing in about 10 hours.

For it’s few flaws, Shadow of the Colossus is well worth renting for a day or two of good, solid fun. It may not have all the bells and whistles of other games in the adventure genre, but it more than makes up for it. You’ll walk away remembering each colossus and the epic confrontation to take it down. It is a game that does what it was intended to do and does it well.

From what I saw, Kingdom Hearts II lived up to its predecessor. It has beautiful graphics and a fast-paced play style that keeps you hooked the whole way through. The story, while somewhat more confusing with the advent of the Nobodys, is nonetheless compelling. All together, the game makes for several days worth of solid entertainment.

There were, however, a few criticisms that I had. First, the initial segment of Kingdom Hearts II has you collecting Munny from mini-games in order to proceed. I watched my wife play through this and get increasingly frustrated. Granted, the skills you master in these mini-games help you deal with the rest of the game in very direct ways. Nonetheless, it’s important to hook players from the very beginning for them to want to keep playing the game at all.

Secondly, the game was too easy. My wife played all the way up to the final boss, eventually losing and offering me a chance to give him a go. Having never played the game at all up to that point, I beat the final boss on my second attempt. And, as much as I would like to claim that I’m just that good, I know this would never happen in a typical RPG. This echoes sentiments from other reviews, as I’ve read several complaints that you can go through Kingdom Hearts II repeatedly pressing the attack button and expect to succeed. Perhaps I’m missing something, but if you integrate any degree of complexity into the gameplay, why make it unnecessary to winning?

Still, the merits of Kingdom Hearts II far outweigh its few flaws. As a mix of the Final Fantasy and Disney genres, you won’t find another RPG out there with such a unique and varied gaming experience. Like most RPGs, of course, there isn’t a lot of replay value, so I recommend renting it for a weekend of fun at a minimum of expense.

My love of the genre started on the original PlayStation with the very first installment of the series. I played the game at night for full effect, and I got more entertainment value than I could’ve dreamed. Your character quietly tip-toes through a deserted city with the only sound being your echoing footsteps, when all of a sudden a zombie lurches out at you. That’s not to mention the constant fear you have of running out of ammunition. With a few exceptions on the PS2, all of the Resident Evil games are fantastic.

I must say that the latest addition to the series has not let me down, even though my expectations were admittedly high. My wife and I rushed to buy it the moment we saw it out, even though we make a rule to rent any game before doing so. This has been the only exception. I have since beaten it half a dozen times, and continue to return to it occassionally when I feel the need to take out some excess aggression.

The game has fantastic graphics, both in and out of cutscenes. The real-time combat keeps you on edge; give an inch and the fiends will eat you alive, literally in some cases. Good reflexes and precision are rewarded as well, because the enemies respond dynamically to being attacked in different locations.

One of the biggest ingenuities of this game is a unique player-driven cutscene system. You have to hit button combinations quickly in order to avoid certain hazards. Remember what I said before about the threat of imminent death at every turn? This game takes an already good premise to a new level, with player responsiveness being cut down to the split second to avoid disaster.

On top of all that, the game has a vast storyline. Even rushing with all of the best equipment, it still takes me 15 to 20 hours to beat. There is a great variety of different environments, from castles and caves to high-tech research labs and modern warzones. That’s not to mention the array of complex and challenging situations you must overcome. Trust me, this game will take you awhile to beat, but you won’t get bored doing it.

I could go on with more praises, but I think the message is clear. Resident Evil is a fantastic genre chocked full of great games, and Resident Evil 4 lives up to the legacy of its predecessors. Take it from me. If you have any interest in horror games whatsoever, buy this game. You won’t be disappointed.

To say I was sorely disappointed would be an understatement. A primary game feature is an archive of video clips from the movie that are strung together in a collage-like fashion to make them seem new. The characters are very nearly carbon-copies of those in the movie, with very little of the advertised customizable features of traditional RPGs. In fact, you can’t even name the characters yourself.

On top of that, the graphics of this game are lousy. The characters appear to run the same whether they’re going uphill or downhill in adventure mode. Combat mode is another story, with a turn-based system that echoes Final Fantasy; this feature was obviously the primary focus of game development, and didn’t turn out too horrible. The characters level much too quickly, however, and the skill system leaves a lot to be desired.

As with its predecessors, this game was a resounding disappointment. Had more thought and work been put into it, it could have been so much more. As usual, however, strict adherence to the movie and overuse of cinematic clips has turned a would-be RPG into a “choose your own adventure” version of the movies. That being said, I don’t recommend this game for any reason. In my opinion, the folks up at EA should be ashamed to put their name on it.

Fans of the series will appreciate the cinematics of this game. It’s chocked full of clips from the show and features all of the main characters you know and love, including Edward, Alfonse, Colonel Mustang, Major Armstrong, Lieutenant Hawkeye, and Scar just to name a few. The graphics are true to the animation, perhaps too much so at times.

Aside from aesthetics, however, the gameplay is fantastic. You learn to perform alchemic feats throughout the game, not the least of which allow Edward to create his signature weapons. I was partial to the sword, personally, but the hammer and spear were available as well, each with its own special combo moves. Al is always around to help, too, and can be ordered to help Ed perform special moves when necessary.

One of the game’s real appeals, however, is also its greatest weakness. The story-based structure is very exciting and makes for engaging gameplay, but it also limits the game’s replay value. Without so much as a higher difficulty setting, there is no real reason to keep going after you’ve beaten it for the first time.

Thus, this game receives my recommendation for rental rather than purchase. It’s a great way to kill a weekend, especially if you’re into the series or just anime in general. Don’t bother buying it, though, because it will have very little play value after you beat it.