There are many things I expect from a modern Ratchet game: pinpoint controls, inventive weaponry, visuals worthy of an animated feature, and a zany, Looney-Toons-style sense of humor. A Crack in Time fully delivers on those bullet points, then goes on to surprise with an outer-space-roaming open-world structure, time-manipulating puzzles that could be described as “one-player co-op,” and a story that builds to one of the most exhilarating crescendos of any game this year—including Uncharted 2. This is the adventure I always imagined I’d get to play, way back when I was a kid pushing NES buttons.

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About our scale… the number of words in our review reflects the score of the game. In practical terms, you could assume that games reviewed in 49 words or fewer should be avoided, games reviewed in 50-75 words would make a decent rental, and games reviewed in 76 words or more would make a solid purchase.

Looking for the arcade football successor to NFL Blitz? You can keep looking. With Madden Arcade, EA has attempted to create chocolate-chip cookies using the ingredients for a turkey dinner. As a result, it never really has the flavor of an arcade game. Instead it looks and plays like what it is: a stripped-down version of Madden 10.

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About our scale… the number of words in our review reflects the score of the game. In practical terms, you could assume that games reviewed in 49 words or fewer should be avoided, games reviewed in 50-75 words would make a decent rental, and games reviewed in 76 words or more would make a solid purchase.

GTA IV and its expansions have received mountains of hype and praise for advancing the series in terms of story and character, but it’s this little dynamo that has re-energized the series where it counts for me—the gameplay. The DS version released earlier this year was a strong reminder that GTA was once more about the moment-to-moment pleasure of playing and less about exposition, stripper mini-games, and digital phalluses. The PSP version takes what was already one of the best games of the year, and makes it one of the best handheld games ever.

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About our scale… the number of words in our review reflects the score of the game. In practical terms, you could assume that games reviewed in 49 words or fewer should be avoided, games reviewed in 50-75 words would make a decent rental, and games reviewed in 76 words or more would make a solid purchase.

How bad is it? Just wretched enough to set back race relations in this country four decades.

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About our scale… the number of words in our review reflects the score of the game. In practical terms, you could assume that games reviewed in 49 words or fewer should be avoided, games reviewed in 50-75 words would make a decent rental, and games reviewed in 76 words or more would make a solid purchase.