By all means, if you’ve got a couple of thousand hours you’re looking to burn, Empire: Total War is fine way to do it.

NBA 2K11 does not do anything earth-shattering or drastic. There are no highly-touted changes to the controls, animations, or gameplay. This is because none was needed. 2K Sports has tweaked a few things here and there, beefed up Association mode and online features, streamlined My Player mode into a manageable affair, introduced new presentation elements that create a true-to-life NBA experience, and spanned decades of greats with a Legends mode that is simply awesome.

An intriguing juxtaposition of pieces of incredibly intense FPS action that had me on the edge of my seat combined with puzzle-like sections of such opacity that they made me want to kill myself.

The Final Score is indicative of content quality and not the package itself.

If you’re familiar with the original, you’ll find a peculiar blend of nostalgia and surprise here, along with a faithful update of the survival-horror mechanics that put the genre over the top; if you aren’t, this is a tense, suspenseful ride, with likeable characters and a surprisingly grounded plot. I’ve got more than a few nitpicks–Claire needs better guns–but if this turned out to be the pilot project for a new generation of survival horror, I’d be ecstatic.

In the end, I have to say that Borderlands 2 serves as a wonderful example of how to make a sequel work.

If you can look past the thin multiplayer component, the questionable decision to let player's health regenerate, and the fact there's not a lot of replay value in Call of Duty 2, you'll find a very worthy successor to the franchise.

Unfortunately, some of the upgrades also winds up diluting the strength of the game just a bit. Revenge will still fulfill your need for speed.

It proves that placing more attention into the gameplay and taking these few characters on a massive journey can still be appealing to both the hardcore RPG fan and the mainstream gamer, and could spark a flash of imports as players seek out older Dragon Quest titles to play.

Simply a brilliant game. Sacrifice seems to be a relatively flawless experience, perhaps because there's nothing like it out there, but also because this game exhumes quality.

Combining a great storyline, great gameplay, great graphics and an enjoyable multiplayer experience, Age of Mythology is guaranteed to delight RTS fans everywhere.

Overall, I enjoyed the time I spent with The Walking Dead. It's not a great "game" since its puzzles and action sequences are short and easy, but it has all the right elements - including excellent writing and voice acting - to make it an absorbing interactive movie. Plus, with about 15 hours of content, it's reasonably priced at $25. So if you've been trying to find the perfect Christmas gift for the zombie fan in your family, then The Walking Dead might be just the thing.

Easily one of the best sports titles that have come along recently. The expansive and highly replayable Street Challenge mode can absorb gamers for months, and the level of customization is truly massive.

If you give it a chance you just might find yourself locked in the trance that so many have come to enjoy.

77,000 people wanted to relive their glory days of Baldur’s Gate and paid for the luxury of doing so. The result I think is a remarkable recreation of that flavor of gaming.

With such an expansive game, it was bound to have multiple technical issues. Not only did I, and other people, experience these problems for quite a while before the game finally worked, but even after a patch was released, random crashes and other problems still occurred. Technical issues aside, this is still a great game.

As a 360 game, Symphony is weird. The Achievements are insanely easy and seem to have been chosen at random. None of them require any real thought to accomplish, either. Symphony is the easiest two hundred Achievement points you will ever earn.

Consequently Fable 2 is a game that should be played accordingly to be enjoyed to the maximum, which is to say everything should be sampled and nothing overdone.

The bottom line here is that this is still The freakin’ Beatles in a triumphant rhythm game début. The music is fantastic, the presentation is out of this world (sometimes literally), and all done with the utmost respect and care.

L4D2 may be more of the same, but in a thoroughly pleasing sense.

Unless you're genuinely lacking anyone to play it with though, Left 4 Dead is easily one of this year's must-have games.

Unless you're genuinely lacking anyone to play it with though, Left 4 Dead is easily one of this year's must-have games.

L4D2 may be more of the same, but in a thoroughly pleasing sense.

Its depth and attention to detail simply is unrivalled compared to what arcade racers considered 'realistic' beforehand.

As it stands, however, it feels like I'm missing ten hours' worth of gameplay. It's a testament to the strength of the rest of the game that I really want those hours.

With an enormous amount of customizable options, absorbing story mode and large mod community, T.H.U.G. provides just about anything a gamer could want in a skateboarding title without grabbing a board and hitting the streets. Combine that with the ability to "place" yourself into the game with the face mapping feature, and you have a product that could easily be considered one of the best games of the year.

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit is one of the generation's best racing games.

The story is original, compelling, and told in a way that builds suspense. It's the other stuff, 10% of the game tops, that Mass Effect could have done without.