DEAD RISING BY CAPCOM (4 stars)
Platform: Xbox 360.
Rated: M.
Remember when survival horror games involved the occasional zombie encounter in a lonely hallway, where you refrained from violence as long as possible in order to conserve ammo? Those days are gone. Now you'll contend with hundreds of ghouls in an enormous mall, and anything you pick up is a weapon, whether it's hedge clippers from the hardware shop or a stuffed animal from the toy store. The level of carnage in this mall almost makes shopping on Thanksgiving weekend seem tame.
There are a few minor irritations amid the bedlam. Some of the nonplayable characters you're tasked to protect are so lacking in AI, you'll wonder if they have enough brain matter to interest a hungry zombie, and the unforgiving single-save system can be more painful than any of the punishment you dish out to the undead. But the hilariously inventive violence and a story worthy of George A. Romero himself make this a gory delight that even the living should sink their teeth into.
BARNYARD BY THQ (3 stars)
Platforms: PlayStation 2, GameCube.
Rated: E10+.
Rather than follow the clichéd, pseudo-Lion King narrative of the Barnyard movie, this game lets your anthropomorphic cow engage in all the wacky games the animals play when the farmer's back is turned. The best part is that when navigating from the "gopher golf" mini-game to the "mailman taunting" mini-game, the third-person view shows you the back of the cow, so you can ignore the irritating fact that your male cow has an udder.
PAINKILLER: HELL WARS BY DREAMCATCHER INTERACTIVE (3.5 stars)
Platform: Xbox.
Rated: M.
At last, a game for all the gamers who wished that Doom 3 hadn't evolved from the mindless demon-slaying action of its predecessors. Forget about growing suspense and narrative twists. Your purgatory-imprisoned protagonist barely has enough time to pump lead into the hordes of hell-beasts that charge ceaselessly from every possible direction. Only the hardest of the hardcore should give this a shot.
WARPATH BY GROOVE GAMES (2 stars)
Platform: Xbox.
Rated: T.
If you're starved for an Xbox first-person shooter and are thinking about buying this generic Halo rip-off because of its budget price, consider this: You can purchase used copies of Halo 2, Oddworld Stranger's Wrath or Doom 3 for $30 or less, so don't bother. And if you've already played those games, then still don't bother—you've been spoiled by too many good first-person shooters to possibly enjoy WarPath.