Ubisoft Montreal

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Or in this case, Prince of Persia or ICO? Looking at the question from a purely objective standpoint, Jordan Mechner's original take on the Prince clearly came first, but the matter isn't as simple as that.

Game Description: Play as an acrobatic Prince who can run on walls, swing off poles, jump and flip, sword fight, and slow down and even reverse time., The Grand Visir Jaffar has thrown a young prince into the dungeon. Jaffar has forced the prince’s beloved to choose between marrying his evil self...or death. Take the role of the prince and try to escape from the dungeon. You must fight through 12 levels of puzzles and guards, while keeping in mind the 60-minute time limit. Play The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and rescue the Princess in time.

Derogatory racial portrayals notwithstanding, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory is the most complete next-generation experience on a console yet. It has next-generation presentation, mature appeal, a hip and recognizable character, an ingenious multiplayer game, and smooth online play.

Game Description: Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu is a third person action game starring the Caped Crusader, Robin, Nightwing, and Batgir las they team up to stop a diabolical new character named Sin Tzu. You will be able to battle Batman's foes using an assortment of 35 martial arts moves and combination attacks.

It used to be that "beat-'em-ups" were one of the major staples of videogames. I know that I sure played a ton of Final Fight, Golden Axe, Double Dragon and countless other games that were all variations on the theme of "keeping moving right while smashing the absolute crap out of anything that moves." As the medium has progressed, the beat-'em-up has become relegated to the back burner. There have been moments of brilliance, such as the Dynasty Warriors series, but increasingly the beat-'em-up is only the mechanical underpinning for games designed purely to cash in on an existing license.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Violence

The ultimate example of a difficult game to review, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell possesses the best of what modern videogames offer as well as some of the worst from the past. Unfortunately in this case, the bad clearly outweighs the good and prevents the game from reaching its full (and considerable) potential.

Game Description: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell grants players access to the highest echelons of national security, where shadowy operatives have the freedom to do whatever it takes to safeguard America. The player controls Sam Fisher, a field operative of a secretive black-ops NSA subagency called Third Echelon. Sam Fisher is geared up to infiltrate high-security strongholds, seize critical intelligence, destroy threatening data, and neutralize the enemy—all without leaving a trace.

But for the first time ever, the developers of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell have tamed light and shadow to not only present the most groundbreaking lighting effects in videogame history, but to have it do their bidding. And they have effectively used light and shadow within the gameplay elements, validating the hard work and beauty of the game.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Blood and Gore, Violence