Turn-based historical wargames have always occupied a special niche in PC gaming history, but they're not known for their accessibility. Birth of America attempts to bridge that gap somewhat by focusing squarely on combat and eliminating much of the micromanagement that accompanies most wargames.

Orcs and elves have been done so many times at this point that it's easy to be jaded about the arrival of yet another fantasy game. So it's a credit to Warhammer: Mark of Chaos that the game makes you sit up and pay attention when its gloriously detailed 3D units come up onscreen.

For UFO conspiracy buffs, the great Tunguska explosion of 1908 is the Russian Roswell. Although the devastation of the Siberian blast meant that nobody got the chance to pick up any E.T. corpses and store them away for later autopsy on Fox, tinfoil hatters still think it was caused by a UFO crash.

It was back in 2002 when we first met Sam Fisher, a jaded but extremely talented secret agent who was sent all around the world to take care of the most sensitive, covert operations conducted by the United States.

Released earlier this year for the PlayStation 2, Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening - Special Edition was a budget-priced, updated version of one of last year's toughest, best, most intense action adventure games on consoles.

Like other games of this sort, ArchLord lets you create a single character to adventure in a persistent world, fighting monsters and performing quests to gain experience levels and in-game wealth to upgrade your character's items and abilities by purchasing new weapons and armor or new magic spells to cast.

Considering the rabid fan following and the long wait, it's not a surprise that Heroes of Might and Magic V was picked apart by certain members of the hardcore fan base. It was criticized in more than a few quarters for a dull campaign, some glitches with the camera system and multiplayer, and simply for being too updated a copy of the late, great Heroes III.

A long-running gag in the Peanuts comics and cartoons has been Snoopy's fascination with World War I air battles. Specifically, Charlie Brown's pet beagle likes to imagine that he's a famous flying ace engaged in dogfights against the legendary Red Baron.

Agatha Christie's mystery novels remain popular to this day, thanks to their skillful and compact blend of British sensibilities and tight plot. Murder on the Orient Express is perhaps the late author's most recognizable title, so its transition to an adventure game was a certainty in light of last year's adventure adaptation of another of the author's works, And Then There Were None.

Don't mock Left Behind: Eternal Forces because it's a Christian game. Mock it because it's a very bad game. The real-time strategy/adventure game from Left Behind Games based on the best-selling series of novels from Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins will even let down born-again types who expect the Rapture to beam them up to heaven any day now.