I had a great time dismembering members of the Empire for four hours, and what little story exists has some great potential, but the hugely missed marks and brutal technical problems really bring The Force Unleashed 2 to its knees. It's tough to recommend this to even the most devout Star Wars fan, since they'll feel the sting of disappointment worse than those who'd simply dislike it as a mediocre action game.

The bar for music games has been irrefutably raised. Like magic, gamers can now be transformed into musicians... provided they don't run screaming for the hills at the first sight of a barre chord.

Fable III is the better game when held up against the glitchy, twitchy gameplay of its predecessor, Fable II, but the heavy-handed moral of the game's story leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals does have a lot of fun elements, but it's also full of aggravations of varying sizes.

NBA Jam is exactly what you'd want and expect from a NBA Jam game, even one being released in 2010. Everything that made the series great in the mid-90s is intact, yet just enough was modernized so that it doesn't feel too dated.

Ultimately, I think MoH is an interesting attempt to address war in a respectful way, and it should find its niche as a legitimate alternative for gamers who don't want to jump on the Call of Duty bandwagon.

Dead Rising 2 is filled with quirks and lingering flaws, but they're easily shrugged off when delivering the business end of an Electric Rake -- that'd be a car battery and rake joined with duct tape -- to an unsuspecting zombie, as the pure joy of creation and destruction alike come together to create an enthralling action experience that's still unlike anything else out there.

Despite my gripes, Shank is a badass game. It could've done with a little more content (maybe a boss rush mode?), but it's a hack-and-slash murderfest that can easily stand toe-to-toe with the likes of Castle Crashers and Scott Pilgrim.

If you've played a Pokemon Ranger adventure before, just be aware that Guardian Signs isn't much of a departure from the last two titles in the series.

There is more running back and forth than I would like but I still enjoyed the Unwound Future. It's a terrific title for fans of the franchise.

Ninja Theory's take on the "Journey to the West" story is one that I'd gladly revisit, and novelist Alex Garland deserves a ton of credit for helping produce this adaptation.

Overall, the result is an efficient, memorable, and entertaining DLC release that's easily worth the $15 budget price.

In effect, Front Mission: Evolved is an arcade game on a console platform, through and through. Even its multiplayer component, with its limited loadout of deathmatch and capture the flag modes, feels very much like arcade co-op.

EA Sports MMA isn't perfect, the lack of UFC fighters is a huge gaping hole that is impossible to ignore and the number of special moves available are fairly slim. Those problems are overshadowed by smooth animations, intuitive controls, and incredibly dynamic online features.

This laundry list of complaints might seem like a game breaker, but that I could suffer through them repeatedly during my marathon New Vegas weekend and still walk away feeling not only satisfied but hungry for more says something about the power of the formula that Bethesda has crafted.

Super Meat Boy is a thank-you card addressed to great game design. It recognizes and embraces everything we've come to love about the indie scene, even going so far as to include it – Braid's Tim and Gish's Gish, for instance, show up as playable characters.

It does offer some interesting variations on a tried and true shooter formula, but I can't recommend this to anyone looking for a deep and compelling experience. If all you want is an adrenaline rush or to feel like a total badass for short, explosive bursts, however, then it's something worth considering.

Despite some very obvious issues, Sengoku Basara is a gleefully self-aware package of big, stupid fun.

But if you're not a fan of this genre, don't be fooled by the hype – this is a solid rail shooter, but it's certainly not worth spending your money on, especially in this crowded and star-studded holiday shopping season.

Kirby's latest adventure is an unabashedly adorable and addictive affair, even when suffering from a limited reward system and lacking difficulty.

But expert scribblers will no doubt find Super Scribblenauts' enhanced approach a major net positive over simply receiving a larger batch of levels, while the rest of us finally have a user-friendly way to experience this immensely creative idea.

Developer Novarama deserves praise for what they've accomplished with "augmented reality" gameplay on the PSP. Even though the actual game isn't anywhere near as engaging as it could be, it definitely brings more to the table than what I've seen from most other Pokemon knock-offs.

As long as the gameplay take a much-needed dose of Ritalin the next time around, I'm highly anticipant of a bigger, better sequel.

That said, Lords of Shadow, when weighed against both the Castlevania legacy and the games it tries so hard to emulate, doesn't add up.

The story and dialogue aren't deep -- the play and art are the stars of the show -- but what little there is comes off as morally confused.

If you're still interested in seeing what Hydrophobia has to offer, the Challenge Room and unique story definitely stand out as bright spots amid the otherwise murky gameplay. Otherwise, you're probably better off saving your Microsoft Points for something with a little more polish and replay value.

In the end, though, Quantum Theory bears the terrible imprimatur of the also-ran. While it's a noble effort on Tecmo-Koei's part (this is, after all, their first foray into this genre), it just doesn't have that "oomph" that a killer action game hits you in the sensory cortex with.

When it comes right down to it, Atelier Rorona just feels good to play. If you're craving a charming, character-driven game that doesn't involve a looming world-ending crisis and you can deal with a lot of repetition, you'll certainly want to give this game a go.