The Show remains the most realistic baseball game on the consoles, and continues its tradition in trying to address what the core user base demands. There are directions I'd like to see Sony take the franchise, but it remains about as safe a bet as you can get in this industry.

As much as I want Team Madden to tighten the screws on its franchise modes and ship the game in a state that plays more like real football before altering in-game settings, it's impossible to deny that Madden NFL 11 simply plays a better game of football than its predecessor.

Most of the game is fantastic. Even with its hiccups, this is a game that is hard not to give a blanket recommendation to because as far as NBA games go, this is still the king of the virtual court.

The mechanics are solid, the quest is meaty, the graphics and animation are beautiful, and the world is a pure pleasure to spend time in. Plus, we're talking about a game based on the voyage of discovery of a badass little girl with an octopus for an arm – what's not to like?

Ultimately, though, it's about the basketball on the court and that's where NBA 2k12 truly shines. It doesn't make any huge leaps from last year's version to this year's -some of the carryover problems are frustrating and it does need more precise control- but that doesn't stop it from being one of the best sports games on the market and a must buy for any NBA fan.

Bugs and roster issues aside, for $20 this is a no-brainer for hockey fans – it's one of the best, if not the best, hockey games of all time and no fan of the sport should miss it.

Take any thoughts of how the game is based on a movie out of your head, as The Bourne Conspiracy is a compelling action game built on mostly solid gameplay ideas.

The perfect example of how to do games right on the Wii. Sure, you can't model every individual snowflake, but you can still provide a great looking, stylish game.

A significant step up for this series. There are still holes that need to be filled such as the Legacy mode results and some on the floor AI gaffes, but on the whole this is the best college hoops game around and it will take a Herculean effort for EA's March Madness to be able to compete with it.

General Knoxx may suffer some as a result of all of the fiddling, but in the missteps you can see the start of something bigger than what Borderlands was originally intended to be.

It is however obvious that the life cycle of the PS2 has just about reached its peak, and new hardware is desperately needed to avoid the kind of framerate and texture quality issues glaringly present in this title.

Assassin’s Creed 2 isn’t perfect – the controls continue to requite a bit more fine tuning but it’s also impossible to deny that the sequel improves upon the original in almost every conceivable way.

The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile is a big surprise and not just because there's a music game reference out of nowhere or an unexpected nod to ancient text-based adventure games. This is a very nicely put-together package of quality content with plenty to differentiate itself from other XBLA offerings.

Despite a non-existent story and poor characterization, Vanquish manages to breathe life into an otherwise stagnating genre.

Plants vs Zombies is no exception with all of the charming and addictive tower defense strategy excellence ported over to the DS with great results. Sure the frame rate may chug a little, but if it happens, it's because your overstocked lawn is on its way towards raining chlrophyll tinged death on slavering, undead hordes.

Though Battlestations: Pacific doesn’t have a slew of new features from its predecessor, it does have the same solid gameplay that put the series on the map.

The interface is slick and easy to maneuver, the graphics solid, and the gameplay familiar and yet open enough to allow you to breathe a bit. Sure, the Diablo formula gets stale after a while, and this is no exception, but if the game does nothing else it proves that this genre fits in perfectly on the console—a pretty big achievement, really.

Surely, if you already have a version of the game, two or three new boards won’t sway you into a re-purchase, but this is the definitive classic pinball sim on consoles.

Along with the fantastic storyline which gets more intricate and complex as the game progresses, and the hack and slash style gameplay that many action RPG gamers will recognize and feel comfortable with, Dungeon Siege 2 is definitely worth checking out for some hectic sword swinging action.

If the first two games left you wanting more, more is exactly what the third game in the series offers.

It’s just enormously cool that this title exists, despite the fact that the only other title in the series is a 22-year old NES game. It’s stylish, fun, and offers a very solid retro experience.

Ultimately, ZHP is a great little game for the PSP that doesn't take itself too seriously. In other words – it's what people have come to expect from a NIS America.

And while it is clearly geared for a younger crowd, it nonetheless shows off well the DS experience – something that no other system currently has a prayer of duplicating.

Both “x-treme” racing fans and racing aficionados alike will find something to enjoy, making it the possible Great Uniter of racing videogames.

Unique, challenging, and a ton of fun. The game proves that baseball is baseball and when it's done right it doesn't matter if you're using Pedro or a young freshman from Kansas. It's still the National Pastime.

Its multiplayer is disappointing, but the single player experience which is the real meat of the game is as solid as it ever has been and marks a great entry for the franchise onto the DS.

Darksiders has set 2010 off to a running start. With gory hack-and-slash action, challenging dungeon puzzles, an intriguing (albeit sometimes annoying) guardian demon, gorgeous scenery and a story that begins with killing mankind, you get a little bit of everything.

It also ends up being around twenty hours, so there is plenty of fun to be had in it.