“Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza”

Platform: PC/Windows

Genre: Action

Publisher: Sierra Studios

ESRB Rating: Mature

3 1/2 stars

Bruce Willis is back in his signature role of the ’90s as Detective John McClane, a New York City cop visiting Los Angeles kind of. At least his voice is back, along with some of the favorites from the first “Die Hard” movie, including the villainous Hans Gruber and your chubby, twinkie-eating buddy, Officer Powell. If you liked the movie, this game will hold your interest, as it makes up for a lack of intricate gameplay with pretty cool re-enactments of the original movie scenes.

Your job is to defeat the evil terrorists taking over Nakatomi Plaza, and you’ll do it running through a maze of a building and completing objectives, always with one thing in mind: staying alive. You’ll also get a good bit of help from the computer if you get confused or lost.

Three gameplay settings give you a choice of game difficulty, but even the hardest setting is playable after a short time. The graphics look OK, but there are some issues with arms poking through walls and the like. The voice-overs aren’t bad, either, with much of the audio lifted directly from the movie.

“World Series Baseball”

Platform: Microsoft Xbox

Genre: Sports

Publisher: Sega Sports

ESRB Rating: Everyone

3 1/2 stars

“World Series Baseball” is full of long home runs and precision pitching, but also captures the nuances of the game that make baseball unique.

Players and stadiums look great, with signature batting stances for most of the stars and realistic player movement that gives you the chance to make diving catches, off-balance throws and, of course, the 6-4-3 double play.

The beauty here is the game within the game. If you’re planning on pitching away from the hitter, shift your fielders to give yourself the best chance to get him out. Situational hitting and good pitch control are available if you want them.

Franchise mode gives you the chance to build a team that can finally knock off the Yankees, but be prepared to commit some serious time to your new club. You can draft not only players to stock your farm system, but also managers and scouts.

For those who just want to play, you can suit up against a “Legends” team that includes Hall-of-Famers Reggie Jackson and Harmon Killebrew, among others.

“Command & Conquer: Renegade”

Platform: PC/Windows

Genre: Action

Publisher: EA Games

ESRB Rating: Teen

2 1/2 stars

If you’ve been playing video games, especially first-person shooter games, you’ll know by now that there has to be a little something extra to keep you excited. Although “Command & Conquer: Renegade” tries to fill the bill with vehicles, excellent graphics and weaponry, this game gets stale quickly.

The evil Brotherhood of Nod is mining Tiberium, a toxic chemical with mysterious uses. However, they want it pretty bad and have captured some scientist-type people who you have to rescue. Along the way you meet up with an old vigilante girlfriend, zip around in humvees and tanks and basically blow up everything in your path. Fun, but nothing new.

Many of the levels are spacious, so luckily you have EVA, a little computer on your arm that is used to keep you pointed in the right direction. However, you still spend a lot of time just running around.

The graphics are good, but the game runs slow on older machines, so you should have something with some juice to get the most out of this.