When you think of city-building game franchises, chances are pretty good that The Settlers isn't the first name that springs to mind. Although German developer Blue Byte may have been topping the charts in Europe with these sedate simulations of medieval life for nearly 15 years now, the series has never gained the stateside prestige of something like Sim City or even Caesar. But this second-rate status might be coming to an end with the latest addition to the line. The Settlers: Rise of an Empire is the most fulfilling game in the series, adding easy-to-play charisma to the usual Middle Ages economics and trimming much of the micromanagement that made playing past releases in the series as much fun as doing your homework.

The life of Hugh M. Hefner, the man whose lifestyle Playboy almost seems named after, is the stuff of dreams. Or, as it might seem in Cyberlore's Playboy: The Mansion, the stuff of good PR. You'll take control of a virtual Hef to try to build the Playboy empire while rubbing elbows with celebrities, frolicking with Playboy Bunnies and Playmates alike, and throwing a seemingly endless string of parties along the way. Oh, and you'll publish a magazine or two. Yet despite the bacchanalian context, this Sims-style strategy game comes off as cold and mechanical, capturing none of the devil-may-care attitude you'd expect and casting Hef's idyllic lifestyle as a hollow grind established purely for the sake of selling more magazines.

The presentation in Bold Moves is straightforward and unglamorous. The cars themselves look fine, and there are no frame rate issues to complain about. The race environments–mostly urban reproductions of Los Angeles and surrounding areas–are dull, lifeless, and an absolute bore to look at (which, come to think of it, is a pretty apt description of downtown LA). Even the more rural tracks are repetitive and devoid of any kind of background movement that would help keep this game visually interesting. Worse yet, it's a racing game with no visible sense of speed. Even the most powerful cars in the game offer little, if any, thrill and are characterized more by their slippery handling than by their sheer power.

Ford Racing 2 veers somewhat from the path taken by its forgotten predecessor. Whereas the original featured a barely adequate dozen drivable Ford automobiles, the new game sports more than 30 vintage, current, and concept models. Whereas the original zeroed in almost exclusively on a "career," the new game steers clear of such intricacies in favor of a wide variety of "challenges" that range from traditional head-to-head racing to solo slalom and time-limited affairs.

Bee Movie™ Game allows players to race, chase, fly and blast their way through the adrenaline-fueled world from the feature film and beyond. As the witty and courageous Barry B. Benson, gamers are propelled on an exciting adventure to save the bees’ production of honey. Bee Movie™ Game features over 15 levels, addictive multi-player mini-games, compelling side quests, plus a wide variety of never-before-seen content co-created by DreamWorks Animation and Activision exclusively for the game.

Bee Movie™ Game allows players to race, chase, fly and blast their way through the adrenaline-fueled world from the feature film and beyond. As the witty and courageous Barry B. Benson, gamers are propelled on an exciting adventure to save the bees’ production of honey. Bee Movie™ Game features over 15 levels, addictive multi-player mini-games, compelling side quests, plus a wide variety of never-before-seen content co-created by DreamWorks Animation and Activision exclusively for the game.

Xpand Rally puts you behind the wheel of a tuned-up WRC machine in over seventy races in five sceneries, using a modified version of the Chrome engine with fully movable obstacles, dynamic day time and weather changes, full collisions simulation and a complex car damage system. The driver can even sustain leg injuries and concussions. There is much more freedom than in other rally games. In the freestyle mode, for example, there are no invisible borders, you can compete off-road with no restrictions to tracks.

You play as Robin Hood; as you start the game, you'll be defending Sherwood Forest from the Sheriff of Nottingham. This first portion effectively serves as a tutorial before you take over the entire region of Nottingham and eventually go to war with the lords in the other areas of England. The reason the entire island is in turmoil is that King Richard has been abducted and is up for ransom in Austria. Richard's evil brother, Prince John, has declared Richard dead and seized the throne of England for himself. You are tasked with gathering up enough money to pay Richard's ransom, raising armies of your own to fight for control of each of England's counties, and eventually attacking Prince John and overthrowing him from his seat of power in southern England.

The single-player portion of Postal 2: Share the Pain is largely the same as before. Rather than adopt the conventionally linear structure of most first-person shooters, Postal 2 has a more open-ended structure reminiscent of the recent Grand Theft Auto games, only you're stuck running around on foot. The cars lining the streets are apparently just there to mock you. As The Postal Dude (that's actually his name), you're tasked with completing a series of mundane errands over the course of a work week. You may attempt to complete these errands conventionally–for example, on Monday all you need to do is collect your paycheck, cash it, and then buy a carton of milk–but you'll probably end up resorting to violence, and not just because you can.

Postal 2's gameplay never manages to do any better than the game's clever initial concept, either. Though you can explore the rest of the city between missions, there isn't much reason to do so. The entire single-player game can be finished in about 10 hours. Once you've finished that (and have possibly conducted a few murderous rampages to see what they're like), you'll probably be done with the game. Unlike Grand Theft Auto III, Postal 2 has no cars to drive, though decorative cars are scattered around the city and create fairly large explosions when destroyed, much like the exploding barrels found in other first-person shooters. This should be a lesson for future clockwork city game designers: Urban mayhem is much less satisfying without vehicles you can drive.