A gallery of stellar rogues

In GoldenEye Rogue Agent, it’s good to be bad.

Instead of trying to save the world in the sequel to one of the best multiplayer games of all-time, you’re trying to rule it. After getting kicked out of the British intelligence service MI6, your character takes up Auric Goldfinger’s offer to work with him as he seeks world domination.

The play of this first-person shooter continues the high level set in 1997’s GoldenEye for the Nintendo 64. Controls are easy to understand, and weapons are easy to use. And as in any good James Bond movie, when the evil henchmen you shoot finally die, they do so with a lot of scenery-chewing theatrics. All the violence here is like a good comic book, albeit a poorly acted one.

Besides the great multiplayer modes -- which are as wonderful as its predecessor’s -- the best part of Rogue Agent is the graphics. The bases in which you carry out your missions are fully designed, movie-quality sets. The cut screens are more lifelike than Timothy Dalton. In the game, Goldfinger looks so much like Gert Frobe did back in the ‘60s, we expected a young Sean Connery to come dashing out next.

Details: All platforms; $49.99; rated teen (suggestive themes and violence).

**

It will make you jump

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is like an updated version of the PlayStation classic Tomb Raider, with all its high-jumping, wall-scaling, machine gun-blasting fun. Unfortunately, we also relived the frustrations we had whenever our Lara Croft missed a crucial jump.

Nevertheless, this futuristic thriller looks and plays great most of the time. After defeating an enemy using the melee attack, things slow down and get all “Matrix”-like, which is cool. But don’t make the same mistake we did and assume you’ll figure out the controls as you go. Do the training level first.

Details: PlayStation 2; $49.99; rated mature (blood and violence)

**

Go ahead, destroy it

Never has a game’s tagline been more descriptive than it is for Mercenaries. Under the title on the box it reads: “Playground of destruction.”

If you can see a building here, you can destroy it, and in some cases even climb on top of the rubble. Play is open-ended, so you can travel from city to city, killing bad guys and destroying their towns to earn more loot. Though it’s good fun at first, as with most playgrounds it gets a little tiresome after a while. Still, we imagine that when Mercenaries 2 for our PlayStation 3 is released someday, it will be a must-own.

Details: Xbox and PlayStation 2; $49.99; rated teen (mild language and violence).

**

Answer with your rifle

Another chance to suit up and join the battle with the greatest generation, Call of Duty: Finest Hour is yet another World War II first-person shooter. But it lacks the awe and amazement of a game like Medal of Honor: Frontline.

Gameplay is frustrating and great at the same time -- the enemy’s artificial intelligence means you rarely find the same guy doing the same thing in the same place. When trying to zoom in to shoot, your cross hairs disappear, forcing you to use only the sights on your ‘40s-era rifle, a nice touch. The graphics are good when you can see; some levels are too dark.

Details: All platforms; $34.99; rated teen (blood and violence).

**

Giving the gory details

What’s the old saying? Why buy the cow when you can get the milk free? Let’s see then, do we spend the 30 bucks to buy Alien Hominid for our PlayStation 2 or do we play basically the same game free on the Internet? Pluses: The graphics are fun and very stylized, and the game play is very old school. Minuses: Hominid is a lot more gory than the rating suggests and gets old quickly.

Details: GameCube and PlayStation 2; $29.99; rated teen (blood and gore, cartoon violence).