Black Rock Studios' last title was Pure, an ATV racer that dealt out a phenomenal amount of vertical experience. Lots of tricks and crazy stunts. It has remained in rotation at my house thanks to a 10-year old that has long since eclipsed my own skills at the game. And it looks like the studios' follow-up, Split/Second, will finally take Pure's place in that rotation.

Certainly not without a few imperfections, Red Dead Redemption is almost unquestionably the best Western-themed game ever, with a great Old West story, an amazingly detailed and expansive landscape that most Rockstar sandbox games are famous for and overall engrossing gameplay that will keep gamers riding off into the sunset for dozens of hours.

As a fan of the Western, Red Dead Redemption hits its target squarely. Perfection may be impossible, but this game gets closer than most, and it sets a new standard for the Western game genre.

Ending with a patented twisted ending with a twist, The Tomb of Sammun-Mak is yet another great point & click adventure of the hilarious and bizarre lives of the Freelance Police, to be continued in episode three, They Stole Max's Brain!

Naruto Shippuden: UNH3 isn't a bad game, but it does at times feel more of a chore playing than it is actually having fun.

The enemy AI is predictable, typically running straight at Jack; ordering Shadow around is hit and miss; there's zero help when it comes to targeting enemies (i.e. no lock-on function); and the animation can be disjointed and completely bizarre.

Even if you’re a fan or owner of FIFA 10 there is something more here for you to enjoy and minor annoyances aside, this is a solid title that will keep you kicking into the wee hours of the morning.

Costing only $5 bucks, PS3 gamers that enjoy old-school arcade-style gaming won’t find a much better value than the next-generation brick-breaker Hyperballoid HD.

But with a great new graphical presentation and the immensely upgraded gameplay interface that really improves the gameplay, the first episode of the third Sam & Max season is an entirely unexpected gaming treat.

Fisher never wanted to come back to Washington, D.C., and resume his Splinter Cell lifestyle, but with a very good (although short-lived) and very good-looking single-player story along with another strong co-op mode (both offline and online) gamers will be more than pleased with Fisher’s stealthy combat return.

While these elements may keep Just Cause 2 from toppling the "GTA government for sandbox supremacy," its explosive presence is one that must not be ignored.

It's a fun game that is unlike anything else really on the Wii right now so go pick it up and give it a slash.

Viewing this title from an adult perspective is wrong. After watching my son play for a number of hours, I can tell I'd be bored to tears with repetitiveness of the whole thing -- fighting, leveling-up, feeding the dragon, fighting, and repeat. But as proven by at least one player, this could very well appeal to the pre-teen gamer in your house.

I had a certain expectations going into C&C 4 and they was utterly destroyed, even knowing about some of the changes beforehand.

If you are looking for the 30 seconds of perfected and repetitive combat found in major North American developed shooters, then Metro 2033 is probably not for you.

It's a fitting end to the series (well, at least Kratos) but it remains extremely close to the lines laid down by the previous two games in both form and content so as not to upset long-time fans.

I think it's great that Nintendo is offering an incentive to kids to get them moving with the Pokéwalker. That's pretty much the only thing new happening with HeartGold, everything else is typically addicting of the Pokémon series.

DICE also has a long history of supporting their games and there are already plans in place to offer DLC in the coming months. This has all the markings of a long-term investment in fun.

If you’ve got pre-teen kids they are going to love this game and the co-op mode will allow you to join in the fun. When the kids are not around, and you think nobody else is looking, pop the disc in yourself. You just never know what you’re going to find down that rabbit hole.

Heavy Rain is an essential title for an adventure game fan but I don't think I can limit the recommendation to "fans of the genre." It's involving in a way that most games don't even aspire to.

The steep level curve remains the biggest hurdle for Borderlands players, as being even three levels below an enemy will result in mismatched battles that usually won’t end in your favor. For players still under 30 and have yet to complete the main mission, it would be best to hold off on the DLC.

It’s a quality game, I just felt like I’ve been here before. If you’re new to the SOCOM experience, by all means give it a whirl.

This genre is notably absent from the console world. A number of real-time strategy games have made in-roads in establishing this almost PC-exclusive genre on consoles but until mouse and keyboard get the nod, it has hit a wall. I'm just glad it has done so with a steel drum beat.

BioShock 2 is a stellar first-person shooter adventure with plenty of boogey men scares and thrills around every black corner.

It's good to see Level 5 doing big RPGs again, and White Knight Chronicles is a solid first effort in what could be a new series.

The only unequivocal improvement that can be found comes through the game's morality system. What makes up for the shortcomings in the individual aspects of the gameplay is the rich plot and the interactions between your alter ego and the members of your new crew.

Suda 51 has been praised for his madcap style, but criticized for his gameplay mechanics. It's unfortunate that No More Heroes 2 does little to fix his flaw as a game developer, but it also showcases his eye for insane detail and offbeat humor.

MAG is a solid effort by Zipper Interactive. It falls short in some areas, but proves to be an enjoyable experience that offers something not previously seen in any other online shooters for the Playstation 3.

Whether gamers decide for the go-at-your-own-pace adventure mode, or the more frenetic timed mode, Mole Control successfully updates the classic Minesweeper into the modern era of casual gaming with gameplay that is indeed challenging and entertaining.

While it may appear that Glory of Heracles is overridden with negatives, it still equals an overall solid RPG adventure, with a well written localization that helps establish its charm when the graphics fail to do so.

Army of Two: The 40th Day is a fun experience, with some really awesome set pieces -- the zoo level in particular -- and if you have a buddy handy, I'd recommend it.

Olympic fever has really hit a fever pitch here in Vancouver just days before the official start of the games, which is probably why I've seen so very few copies of Vancouver 2010 on store shelves. (And conversations with some managers tend to confirm that.) People want to play so it's fortunate they'll be playing a good game.

These puzzles thankfully improve on the last episode's heavily unbalanced array of mostly bewildering conundrums. And after a not-so-funny fourth episode, the fifth raises its rib-ticklers to previous levels of hilarity.

Spirit Tracks is a solid experience in a familiar world. Fans of Zelda can really do no wrong by getting this game.

Avatar does look awesome (even better, I'm told, when you're playing in Stereoscopic 3D) but there's so little fun here that your money is better spent elsewhere.

The real test of any exercise game is whether it works. That's a pretty simple measure. Getting on a scale pretty much tells you everything you need to know. Over the month I've played with Your Shape, I have definitely lost a few pounds.

If you're looking to revisit the Serious Sam franchise, or looking to add to your collection, or even if you've never played it before in your life, it's hard not to recommend Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter.

Assassin's Creed II is a fun game and I recommend it.

Granted, at the $40 price tag you'd probably be better off investing more money and grabbing DDR, Rock Band, or Guitar Hero for an experience that is going to last longer, and is ultimately more satisfying.

It remains to be seen if LittleBigPlanet’s portable community will be as dedicated or creative enough to continually pump out user-made levels, which has allowed the original PS3 version to enjoy repeated success even years after its launch, but regardless of whether you own both consoles or not, Sackboy’s portable world tour isn’t one you want to miss.

The God of War Collection is the equivalent of Disney releasing a remastered version of Snow White: you know precisely what you're getting (because you've probably already seen it) but it looks and sounds so good you can't help but pull out your wallet to buy it again.

When the storms kick up on Hard Rain making it really easy to startle a wandering Witch, escaping the mall in Dead Center, running around a rollercoaster track in Dark Carnival, running a gauntlet of abandoned vehicles across the bridge in The Parish, reviving a dead Survivor in Swamp Fever as a Tank could be heard somewhere behind me and managing to down the Tank with the guy I just saved. Even just writing about it makes me want to jump in and play some more.

Some features could still definitely use some refining, but basketball gamers will still find plenty of hoops dreams fulfilled with the overall quality of NCAA Basketball 10.

The Wii may be more focused in hooking in a new generation of easy-going players, but for Nintendo fans from the early days, this game was made for you.

If you imagine a game where you have the starring role in a "realistic" Roger Moore/Timothy Dalton-era James Bond flick, with more emphasis on shooting things that move and less on scoring with sultry women, then you have a pretty solid idea of what Modern Warfare 2 is all about.

I guess what surprised me most about this game is that the controls are not as tight as they should be for a fighter. Delayed responses with an often wacky camera, is in active contrast to a game that should have those in sharp focus.

All in all, Dragon Ball: Raging Blast is like a steak that sizzles and looks great but tastes as if they cooked all the flavor out in the pan.

Despite the complaints, Attack of the Saiyans is still a decent RPG adventure, particularly for those who are new to the genre and could use a good entry point. But for fans of both Dragon Ball Z and RPGs in general, there are many other titles on both fronts that are more worthy of their time.

While Reflex still retains the familiar gameplay and gritty urban outlook on war that made the original game such a massive success, it’s still difficult to recommend this severely downgraded port, even if the Wii was the only system available to players.

Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage may appear to be a kids game and while it’s certainly kid friendly I think it’s going to appeal to snow boarders of all ages.

In the end what I was left with after my first play-through was the longest lasting RPG experience I've had in years, and possibly the most emotionally involving computer RPG I've ever played.

It’s great to see Electronic Arts put some effort into a platform specific release instead of the sub-standard ports the Wii often tends to get. Highly recommended for fans of the series, just bring your wheel to the party.

Repetition aside, Rabbids Go Home is still a worthy title just short of becoming a Wii classic.

However, despite the once-again difficult and confusing complexity of some of the puzzles and the dramedy-filled story, The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood successfully brings gamers to the threshold of the Tales of Monkey Island's final chapter.

However, despite the story and characters being a bit dullish and uninteresting, GTA gamers are given a definitive reason to see this three-part story to its conclusion with the core GTA gameplay – replete with the standard vehicle manslaughter opportunity gamers have come to know (and in many cases love) ? remaining as gratifyingly volatile and as ever.

Tekken 6 may not be completely what I was hoping for, but it is a very solid entry to the series. Being able to fight others online is reason enough for any Tekken fan to make the purchase and newcomers will be treated by being introduced to a great game.

Tekken 6 might not be as rapid as something like the blink-and-you-die that Street Fighter has become, but it's fast enough to provide a challenge (especially for one without an arcade stick) and completely crush the causal button masher.

So, unless you're gifted, I'd probably give DJ Hero a pass. If there were more guitar modes to create a "party" vibe I'd probably have something different to say.

Be that as it may, the strengths of A Crack in Time overcome its weaknesses and on the whole is a fun experience.

You can certainly play this game offline, but you'll find that the artificial intelligence leaves a bit to be desired (as is often the case) meaning that the minions you face up against are pretty easy to defeat. The online play works well and is easy to get into with the matchmaking abilities built in.

In the end, Torchlight is a very solid dungeon exploring action RPG.

There's nothing that Nostalgia does that's explicitly bad - the storyline isn't great and the writing is drab, but it's serviceable, and the battle system is solid without doing anything really interesting.

Gearbox has churned out another hit with Borderlands, an original IP with original style, flare, graphics, and gameplay in a land of sequels, spin-offs and clones.

The tongue-in-cheek tone of the game almost seems to mock you as much as it mocks the real life despots of the Cold War. If you can shrug that off, you'll find a decent little sim.

The environments in this game might be pretty cold but I’m happy to say the game is pretty hot.

There isn’t anything overly new or innovative in Revenge of Piccolo. It’s just a very straightforward brawler that will appeal to younger fans of the Dragonball franchise.

While it doesn’t quite hold up to the sports titles found in more powerful consoles, the quick-placed play and the easy-to-use controls make FIFA a fun distraction for the casual crowd, and even for gamers who hear the name “Zidane” and think of the main character from Final Fantasy IX, instead of the guy who considers head-butts as compliments.

With a visual downgrade and a quieter audio track, there is definitely something lost in the translation, and with Liberty City and Vice City Stories performing much more adequately, this PSP port may not have enough weight to keep it from drowning in obscurity.

You could say that it is a competent video game that fans of the franchise will enjoy. But you could also say that Bakugan fans are goddamned idiots.

I really like the fact I can pop open Space Invaders Extreme 2. play for ten minutes and feel like I've had a satisfying game experience.

The worst part of Brütal Legend is that the single-player portion of the game feels like training wheels for the multiplayer part. Granted the training wheels of Death have 7 chrome exhaust pipes, are covered in blood, and hum Def Leppard's "Rock of Ages" while smashing through a landscape of battered rock album ruins and occasionally spewing flames, but training wheels nonetheless.

This isn't just the best game released this year, or even the best Playstation 3 game yet, it's one of the best games released during this generation of consoles.

There are some cool visuals, a combat system I like, plenty of save points, and just the right amount of Korean-cum-Japanese craziness and campy ellipses to be enjoyable.

The graphics are big and bright for the most part, the actions required are (mostly) large and sweeping, and the rules straightforward enough that even the kids too young to read know what to do when it's explained to them.

The overall gameplay for the NBA Live uninitiated still clanks heavy off the backboard compared to its main competitor on the virtual hardwood.

NBA Live returns to the court with a solid outing this year

If portable Basketball on the go is what you’re looking for, you could do worse than The Inside. But the real inside scoop is the fun time-wasting mini-games, which depending on whom you ask, either compliment an otherwise generic sports package, or eclipses it.

Games like Valhalla Knights: The Eldar Saga ruin all video games for me. Dozens of people wasted their time making it. Thousands of dollars were wasted to make sure that you could see it in a store and not buy it. It wasted hours of my life. And now it has forced me to waste 600 words on the internet to describe what I said in my first two sentences. Which I will reiterate now: This game is terrible. Don't buy it.

Visceral could have gone the easy route and slapped them on the disc as a digitized graphic novel but they went the extra mile with some great audio and subtle animations that make them worth flipping through.

While Arctic Edge may not be the penultimate title to propel the series past its cult status, it still maintains the polished pedigree and crazy crashes that makes the series a well-respected franchise.

Lair of the Leviathan is the best-written episode so far (and as always, extremely hilarious) that not only shines a lost treasure's golden glow in its storytelling but through the completely new gaming environments, including the love-starved male manatee's innards and Guybrush's bottom-of-the-sea "love connection" excursion.

Big, bright, colorful, and a tidal wave quirkiness rolled into a ball, Katamari Forever can be a lot of fun if you just let yourself enjoy it.

This is the kind of game perfectly suited for kids. The graphics are big and bright, the levels are straightforward enough that there's never a situation where they'll get lost, and the co-op play means there's no shouting about "It's my turn!" as they clean-up the town with Cuisinart-esque implements, which are a lot of fun to use according my kids.

There never seemed to be alternate routes to take; there's one way to go and that's it.

Overall, this game makes you want to get to the next tier, pushes you to get to the next level so you are invited to international events, and rewards you regardless of your driving style. That makes it accessible to just about any gamer out there and is definitely worth your time to give the cars in here a spin.

All in all, NHL 10 is a lot of fun, as I can attest to the 50+ and rising hours that I've put into the game so far. People who purchased the previous year's version may want to hold off for another season for more additions to propagate in the franchise before re-upping.

Overall, for a game that was supposed to be more about the arcade experience of hockey it feels like a more complete solution than the “other product” and impressed me at every turn.

In what has been a really good year for comic book and superhero games, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is another highlight.

With lots of hours to spend exploring and a great combat system this purchase is money well spent.

While it may not be the sharpest blade from the forge, Muramasa: The Demon Blade is still a finely crafted work of art.

Never taking itself completely seriously despite the seriously challenging gameplay at times, Aaaaa! is a great indie game that goes outside the mainstream gaming genre, possessing a “now for something completely different” attitude with matching Monty Python-esque humor.

The lack of Arcade mode is disappointing, but Soul Calibur Destiny has plenty to offer for fans that want to take Soul Calibur with them on the go. I recommend any fan to pick this up.

It almost seemed as if the music game genre was starting to fade, however GH5 still manages to incorporate some interesting features and bring new things to the table, even if to does not have the same level of polish as the Rock Band games.

I can’t recommend Arkam Asylum enough.

There are plenty of characters and each with their own unique storyline. Dissidia will surely last many hours before a FF fan will get bored of it. I highly suggest a purchase.

The presentation and some spoken dialogue really do a lot to hold everything else together. Any puzzle/adventure games can be distilled into a collection of puzzles but the lines holding The Diabolical Box together make for a great challenge and an entertaining experience.

Despite clocking in with noticeably less gameplay than in Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, the Siege of Spinner Cay episode has a more involved storyline to submerge gamers in.

It’s not the most advanced shooter available, nor the best looking or the best sounding for that matter. However, it brings back a great nostalgic feeling and pays honest homage to the original.