Lunar: Dragon Song is the first original game in the Lunar series in over a decade. Like the last game in the series, Lunar Legend, Dragon Song was published in the US by Ubisoft instead of the now-defunct Working Designs, the company responsible for localizing and publishing the rest of the series. Unfortunately, the difference in quality control shows.

Condemned: Criminal Origins uses a gritty, first-person perspective to convey the horror of a whole city turned into homicidal maniacs. The game's developers have claimed such movies as "Silence of the Lambs" and "Se7en" as their inspiration. Like those movies, Condemned is about a desperate manhunt for a serial killer, and the path to that final confrontation is savage, visceral, and unnerving.

Like Gauntlet and Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance before it, Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom pits a single player against swarms of literally tens of thousands of roaring, hissing fantasy monsters. It sounds exciting on paper, and other dungeon hack games manage to make it fun and addicting. But KUF:CoD is such a joyless and gloomy experience that it's robbed of almost any potential charm. Even Christian gamers with the patience for this sort of thing will likely find themselves turned off by the bloody and sloppy gameplay.

In 20 years of video gaming I can't remember a single game that invokes the name of the pagan god Ba-al as a means of achieving victory. Culdcept Saga proves that there's a first time for everything. According to Culdcept Saga lore, when the goddess of creation made the world, she shared her abilities with the Cepters, enabling these chosen few to alter the world around them. The Cepters carry decks of magic cards that can summon monsters and cast powerful spells. The story takes a back seat to the gameplay, which is totally addicting because you, the player, are a Cepter.

Silent Hill 4 is a weird game to review. It started out its life as a game separate from the Silent Hill series but was converted over to Silent Hill halfway through development. None of the development teams from Silent Hill 1 through 3 worked on it except the series music composer, Akira Yamaoka, served as the producer. The game plays similarly but differently to past games to the series. Does the changes to the classic formula ruin the Silent Hill experience or does it serve to better it?

I have enjoyed Camelot's "Mario Golf", as well as Sony's "Hot Shots Golf" series. Both Mario and Hot Shots offer a cheery cartoon golf experience with deep gameplay on wacky golf courses. Super Swing Golf is like the other two in most ways. All three games use a traditional three-phase button control scheme where you push a button to start your swing, push again to gauge your power, and push a third time to set your accuracy. One advantage Super Swing Golf has over the Mario and Hot Shots games is the addition of motion control, and the good news is that it feels like real golf more than Wii Sports Golf ever did. Unfortunately, its severely uneven gameplay and borderline child pornography place it in a class far below the competition.