IGN

• PC
• 7.4 / 10
• États-Unis

I always mentally grade Sims expansions (of which this #11 in the whole series, and #4 of the Sims 2 series) based on their usefulness. When it comes down to it, Pets is hands-down the least significant and useful of the Sims 2 expansion packs. That's not to say it's bad; it's really not. But the lack of clothing options for human Sims and the lack of new, non-pet-related objects really hurts. As great as pets are in the short-term, they aren't and never have been the draw of the game. You'll be spending more time with your human Sims than your pets, so why must the entire expansion be geared toward the four-legged creatures? If you're a Sims 2 fan and have no expansions, grab Nightlife first. Conversely, if you're a big enough Sims fan to own all the expansions so far, go ahead and drop the money on this one as well. This expansion, in a nutshell, is definitely made for the Sims 2 fans, not the Sims 2 newbies.

• PC
• 9.2 / 10
• États-Unis

• DS
• 2 / 10
• États-Unis

Crash! Boom! Bang! looks good, sounds pretty okay, and has had a decent amount of focus put into the multiplayer support of the Nintendo DS. It's just a terrible, terrible game with poor organization. If even a fraction of the mini-games in this product were any fun we could at least see some merit, but this Nintendo DS sends the once A-list mascot into an area usually reserved for generic, nameless furry videogame heroes for bargain budgets. Dimps is usually responsible for some significant handheld works (the Sonic series, mostly), but Crash! Bang! Boom! is easily one of the worst games on the system.

• PC
• 8.7 / 10
• États-Unis

Adventure gaming might not be back yet, but this long-awaited sequel does a lot to renew my faith in the genre. The point and click format certainly isn't going to supplant real-time strategy or first-person shooting as the PC's bread and butter but the gameplay here is almost incidental to the experience. The real joy of playing Sam and Max is in watching the hilarious interactions unfold and in spotting the throwaway jokes hidden in magazine racks and picture frames. The only real downside here is that the game doesn't quite approach the level of screwball humor sound in the original game. It wavers on the edge sometimes, like it wants to fall over into absurdity but just isn't sure enough to take the plunge. Since this is the first in a series of episodes, we're hoping that the developers are just getting warmed up.

• PS2
• XBOX
• 8 / 10
• États-Unis

So we've established that difficulty is an issue, as it was in the original; it's not always a cakewalk, but you won't really struggle to progress through the storyline. Thankfully, Destroy All Humans! 2 provides enough variety and a quirky cast of characters to make it a worthwhile purchase for fans of the first and for gamers with a taste for the distinctly original.

• DS
• 7.1 / 10
• États-Unis

After the horrifying experience that was last year's Spyro: Shadow Legacy, I wasn't expecting much out of Spyro's second outing on the Nintendo DS -- after all, the same development team responsible for that dragonic atrocity was put to the task of "restarting" Vivendi's property on the dual-screen handheld. My resistance to the game melted away as I got deeper into the game -- I was a little disappointed to find out that the adventuring element was almost completely removed from the design. But I continued to warm up to the game as the action heated up. The touch-screen targeting is pretty clever, as is the way the designers change up button and touch screen control during the action. The game still needs a bit tightening up -- the framerate's a bit of a drag at times, and the boss battles are very uncreative, but overall this action-ized Spyro game is a solid and surprising design on the Nintendo DS.

• PC
• 8.2 / 10
• États-Unis

• PC
• 7.7 / 10
• États-Unis

• XBOX
• PS2
• 8.5 / 10
• États-Unis

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon may not be the definitive collection since it does leave some characters out, and some of the final endings may be weaker than others. However, the inclusion of 62 total warriors is a massive achievement. Throw in a fun, albeit short Konquest mode, a diversionary mini-game, a new fatality system, and perhaps one of the largest character creation modes we've seen, and you have a great title that will keep Mortal Kombat fans busy for months.

• PS2
• PSP
• PC
• 7.3 / 10
• États-Unis

Cabela's African Safari makes videogame hunting more fun by actually treating it like a videogame instead of a simulation. With each hunt lasting only a few minutes there's no need to stress out about blowing a long chase and having to do it all over again. For those with a short attention span and an urge to go hunting, this one's for you. It's not very serious, it's more than a little goofy, but it's fun.

• GBA
• 5.5 / 10
• États-Unis

Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends has a great look to it, and a few interesting gameplay elements, but it ultimately falls short. The levels are too specific to one element and slightly too long to be a fun kids game. The game looks nice at a glance, with good character designs, but there's not a lot of movement coming from them. Foster's isn't the worst game ever, but it's definitely a skipable one.

• PC
• 3 / 10
• États-Unis

• PS2
• 2.1 / 10
• États-Unis

Why the Backyard franchise can’t get its act together is beyond us. It has the backing of professional teams, has been around for years, and has actually been selling relatively well. Rather than putting a bit of extra effort into the product, however, Backyard Baseball 2007 is just another cash-out, putting professional players on the cover of a lackluster bugfest in the attempt to fool consumers $20 at a time. The franchise has all the potential in the world to be a huge hit with younger players, but insists instead on slapping official licenses onto a total waste of a product. The gameplay is buggy and unbalanced, the graphics look amazingly dated, the audio is a total mess, and what little fun that can be found will grow tiresome in a few hours of play tops. When games like Mario Baseball exist, there’s simply no reason to give cash to underachieving products. Younger gamers deserve better.

• PSP
• 9 / 10
• États-Unis

• PSP
• 4.5 / 10
• États-Unis

I have to admit to being rather disappointed in Gangs of London. There was a lot of promise with the game, particularly because it touted five perspectives on taking over the city, as well as a game sharing feature that would let friends play a demo that would be unique to their personal PSP. But after playing the actual title, there's no way that I'd want to subject friends to the bland missions, continually infuriating AI and gameplay issues and repetitive story structure. While Gang Battle and some of the Pub and Free Roam modes are engaging for a while, they won't make up for the exceedingly sloppy play of the Story Mode.

• DS
• 7.9 / 10
• États-Unis

The FIFA series started strong last year, took a slight dip during the World Cup, and now it's back for 2007. Its impact isn't as strong as the first go-around, but it's still pretty significant. It's a good continuation that builds upon the version released just a few months prior. There's still room for improvement and with the Nintendo DS continuing to gain momentum in the market a 2008 rendition next year is almost inevitable. And when that happens, we expect online play. No excuses this time.

• PC
• 8 / 10
• États-Unis

• PSP
• 7 / 10
• États-Unis

There's not a ton to say about MotoGP on the PSP simply because there isn't a lot there. The Season mode is as basic as it gets, and there isn't much besides that. The riding mechanics are fantastic, however, and that's what makes the game a nice pickup for motorcycle racing fans.