As we promised last week, here are a number of game reviews. Games can be hard to review, since they're so individual in their appeal. Nonetheless, I've tried to say what I think and why I think it. In addition, Richard Rubel has contributed several reviews. We'll start with Richard's reviews, move on to a few short ones from me, and finish off with some longer reviews.

Richard's rating scale is simple: One means the game is worthless. Five means it is arcade quality and you should have bought it already. The Overall rating is how much he enjoyed the game, and how much he thinks others will. The Repeat Playability rating is based on how long you should enjoy playing this game. Value is whether it's a good deal for the money.

I haven't had time to check out some of these programs as fully as I would have liked, but such is life. I also don't want to imply that only new games are good - Spaceward Ho! still offers tremendous play, and I feel that SimCity rates as best of the Sim series because it's the only one we can identify with on a gut level rather than an intellectual level.

By the way, Wordtris is one of the games I miss most, having bad wrists that require extra care, and I sincerely ask that if your hands start hurting while playing Wordtris or any other game, stop! It's not worth hurting yourself, perhaps for life.