PC

Since the original Deus Ex made its auspicious debut in 2001 to a resounding ovation from gamers and industry insiders alike, Warren Spector has had a great deal of expectations to meet in crafting a sequel as ambitious as the first. And Deus Ex: Invisible War is certainly no half-baked sequel.

Game Description: The Simpsons: Hit & Run propels you on a journey through the myriad streets of Springfield in a racing game with the ability to continue objectives on foot. After Homer notices a mysterious satellite equipped van parked outside his home, he takes it upon himself to discover the truth behind mysterious events happening in his town of late.

Can one game plagiarize another? How similar can one game be to another before that similarity becomes a legal matter? It's a sticky issue, since plagiarism is a literary term, and video games tend to be very short on obviously protectable material such as character, plot, and dialogue. So just how much of a video game's content is intellectual property?

According to ESRB, this game contains: Comic Mischief, Mild Language, Violence

Game Description: Returning from work you listen to a frightened and cryptic voice message from your brother, a talented architect redeveloping the old Dowerton station in Dorset, England. Boarding a train to meet him, you travel to Dowerton alone, wondering what adventure you may be embarking on... When you arrive, the train is empty and the station is deserted. You begin to explore--the train tunnels, the station, the adjoining hotel, and the grounds--and discover that although no one is there, you are not alone. Finding artifacts, ancient documents, and a valuable journal, you realize that the area holds a history of disappearances and hauntings dating back centuries.

Chiding a game for being a perfect embodiment of its genre is dangerous, and runs the risk of missing the point altogether. But I can't help feeling that the genre lacks one crucial feature that forever cripples it: there is no risk of failure.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Mild Violence.

Brad's right—Freedom Fighters' juvenile take on world politics is indeed a missed opportunity, particularly during these volatile times. It could have been the videogame equivalent of Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket or Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. Instead, the game is content being as politically shallow as Stripes.

Game Description: In True Crime: Streets of LA, you play as Nick Kang and comb the streets from inside a variety of vehicles as you embark on a series of 20 missions working for the law. Missions range from stopping robbery attempts to arresting jerks based on tips gleaned from informants., The streets of Los Angeles are being overrun with criminal scum and it's going to take a renegade ex-cop like you to clean them out for good. Drive, fight and blast your way through a massive, unpredictable story packed with exciting, ask-questions-later missions.

Being one of the larger cities in the world, it's natural for LA to have a fair amount of crime; and being the media capital of the US (if not the world) means that said crime is usually treated as a spectacle (O.J. and Michael Jackson being two of the latest, greatest examples). Combine the amount of crime, the media-centric lifestyle, and a natural population of drivers who aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer and you've got a natural equation that equals the latest "action crime" videogame epic.