"The 2009 holiday season got off to an amazing start for PlayStation, with all key retailers showing a significant increase for PS3, PSP and key holiday titles over Black Friday and the holiday weekend," Sony told Kotaku in a written statement. "In today's economy, consumers are drawn to items that offer the most value for their money, making the PS3 an ideal choice for those who want a comprehensive gaming and entertainment system all in one package."

Losing ground to EA's Skate franchise, Activision tapped developer Robomodo to help take the Tony Hawk franchise in a whole new direction, eschewing standard controllers for a new plastic skateboard peripheral, attempting to bank on the success of peripheral-dependent titles like Guitar Hero. In Tony Hawk: Ride, players stand atop the included skateboard peripheral, tilting and raising the board to pull off tricks as high-tech sensors track the board's movement.

It's definitely a bold move, but as any skater can tell you, bold moves have a nasty habit of ending in a face-plant.

Loved
The Novelty: The concept behind Tony Hawk: Ride is certainly an intriguing one. A skateboarding game that uses a plastic skateboard controller had my attention from the moment it was first announced, and I have to admit that at first I was a charmed by the novelty of the whole thing. When you first get on the board and finish calibrating everything there are moments of giddy enjoyment. They quickly fade, but I'm giving Robomodo credit for at least trying.

The Board As An Object To Stand On: A plastic controller with delicate innards that can handle close to 300 pounds of frustrated man jumping up and down on it without shattering into a million pieces is a worthy piece of plastic indeed. I've broken real skateboards doing less.

Hated
The Board As A Game Controller: While it's great for standing on and looking vaguely ridiculous, the Tony Hawk: Ride controller falls short when it comes to actually controlling the game. At times it seems too sensitive, while other times it doesn't feel sensitive enough. In the game's "casual" difficulty, which guides you along on rails with diverging paths, one doesn't have to worry about steering, instead focusing on performing tricks using a combination of tilting, lifting, and turning the board. At no point in the Road Trip career mode did I truly feel as if I were in control of what I was doing, attempting to do one thing and doing something completely different instead. I particularly had difficulty getting the game to decide whether it wanted to ollie or manual.

Switching from "casual" to "confident" takes you off of the rails, giving you full control of your movement, which is great if you want to ride around in circles while the camera breaks. It takes a great deal of patience to master movement... unfortunately much more patience than I possess. Adjusting the sensitivity of the board helped, but not enough to make "confident" difficulty entertaining. It feels to me as if the game was designed with casual play in mind, with not as much fine-tuning done for the more advanced modes.

Another point against the board that must be mentioned is the fact that while it features many of the controls of your standard Xbox 360 controller, many of them simply don't work at various points in the game, requiring the use of a normal controller to navigate menus. Why would you go to the trouble of adding all of those buttons if you couldn't use them? It makes no sense.

A Visual Throwback: While previous entries in the Tony Hawk series gave you interesting places to skate, Ride's levels are mainly linear, meaning there isn't that much to see. The visuals are drab and uninspired, which wouldn't have been as much of an issue if the gameplay fell into place, but here we are. It's a definite step backwards for the series, but the board probably won't register that step anyway.

Loading Time: The only thing worse than looking silly trying to control your skater as he or she speeds through the various courses in Ride is standing still for ridiculously long periods of time, staring at the loading screen. It doesn't help that between each new course or new challenge you have to not only wait while the game loads but also indicate your riding stance (goofy or regular), over and over again. It's frustration on top of more frustration, with a side of frustration.

Glitching Is Not A Skateboarding Term: Little graphical and gameplay glitches abound in the game. Oftentimes my skater would clip right through obstacles, or drop from seemingly solid ramps to the ground below. Furthering the feeling that the game was designed with the casual on-rails gameplay in mind, the graphical hiccups only intensify when you take the training wheels off, not aided in the least by the aforementioned camera.

All The Small Things: On top of the big issues I've detailed here, there are a bunch of other nits I have to pick that didn't warrant a full Hated paragraph on their own. Issues like tutorials that don't quite tutor; online multiplayer that consists of playing alone and comparing scores after the fact; and an overall lack of information provided in the menus and navigation. It's hard to care about unlocking new gear when the game won't tell you what that gear is.

During one of my play sessions with Tony Hawk: Ride, my girlfriend looked up from her random knitting and said, "It's a pity you can't play it with the regular controller. It looks fun." For me, that simple statement sums up everything that is wrong with the game. Ride is a game built completely around a plastic skateboard controller that doesn't come close to getting the job done. Since the board is required to play, it drags everything else down with it—the integrity of the Tony Hawk franchise included.

Tony Hawk: Ride was developed by Robomodo and published by Activision for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on November 17th. A Wii version of the game was developed by Buzz Monkey. Retails for $119.99 USD. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played through the Road Trip mode on the Xbox 360 version on casual difficulty. Played through first stage on confident before giving up out of frustration.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

With the major motion picture purely focused on the Sands of Time storyline, Ubisoft puts it's cel-shaded franchise reboot on hold in order to deliver a new tale that will be more familiar to fans of the Jake Gyllenhaal version of the prince. The announcement backs up claims made by GameDaily back in June of last year regarding a movie tie-in game. It also answers a question raised by the Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands trademark that popped up in September.

We're not sure if The Forgotten Sands will be a direct movie tie-in featuring the likenesses of actors playing the parts in the film, or simply a side-story in the Sands of Time universe. All we know so far is that the game will feature "fan-favorite elements from the original series," along with some new innovations.

Speaking during Ubisoft's second half 2009 financial results, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot says the game will target both the hardcore and the more casual gamer.

"The goal is to reach both audiences, the core and casual gamers. It will be a game that will have lots of combat, with the possibility for gamers that are not as good - a level for beginners. In that sense we are trying to cover both groups."

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is due out in May for consoles and handhelds.

"Nintendo DSi XL realizes beautiful game screens even for those who look at them from an angle," Iwata said earlier. "You do not have to peek closely into the monitor of another player's video game to get a good view anymore. Nintendo DSi XL is going to offer a new play style, where those who are surrounding the game player can also join in one way or the other to the gameplay. When you look at the home console video games, you can understand that the fun of great games can be conveyed to and shared by those who are watching the player play."

Over the weekend, I tested this out by having a few people try the the DSi XL: Three adults between the ages of 25 and 35, two of whom had never played with a Nintendo DS, let alone a DSi XL. The third has owned several DS consoles and is quite familiar with the platform. Besides the adults, a pre-schooler checked out the DSi XL for the first time as well as my older son and wife.

Impressions? The obvious, and the not-so obvious.

The screen, they noted, is big — that, of course is the point. The two who have never played with a DS (not everyone in Japan likes video games!) said that it was easy to see when they or others played with the DSi XL. They didn't think the DSi XL was too big or heavy and when they were shown a DS Lite, their reaction that the screen was "too small." Keep in mind, their first first-hand exposure to the DS platform was via the DSi XL.

The third tester pointed out something I hadn't even thought of. She said that because the DSi XL screen is so large and lacks privacy, she would not feel comfortable playing the XL on the train. The people sitting next to her would be able to see what she is playing easier than if she was playing a DSi or DS Lite.

(In Japan, people are so worried about privacy on the train that book stores automatically wrap any purchased book in a book cover so others cannot see the title. One company even makes "Mail Block" privacy screens for cell phones.)

The third tester also pointed out that the DSi XL seemed heavier and bulkier, making it less portable than the other DS handhelds. The other testers did not seem to mind, one saying that if he had to hold the DSi XL for several hours, then it might feel heavy. This, if anything, shows just how strong first impressions are. Their concept of the DS starts with the XL — that is the DS as they see it.

And how did the "multiplayer" go? Nobody really go into watching others play the DSi XL — not because something is wrong with the DSi XL, not that at all. Instead, they'd start talking to each other, start watching TV, etc. If Nintendo created dedicated software that somehow focused non-playing players to watch the screen, then Nintendo could do something revolutionary with handheld gaming. The kids, however, had no problem watching others play — that is, while waiting their turn.

Why buy 15 games when you can one game that contains 15 games? That must be the selling point for All-In-1 Gameboox which makes its debut this week, with 82 five-star reviews and 57 one-star reviews. Last week's Star Wars game is off the list. But can you explain the return of Brothers in Arms, which was released over a year ago?

New Intro: What follows is the correct list of top-grossing games as of today on the iTunes App Store. Kotaku's Brian Crecente usually compiles this list and, failing him instantly, I pulled from the wrong list earlier today. Please find the corrected list below, along with the original list — based on the top 10 paid gaming apps in the iTunes App Store — just so we all have something to laugh at me about.

So no Brothers in Arms resurgence. No Shrek Kart Racing. Sorry about that.

Which do you think should be the top game?

Check out all of our iPhone game reviews.

Position	Title	Price	Weeks	Last Week
1	Call of Duty: World at War Zombies (Activision)	$9.99	2	1
2	Monopoly (EA)	$4.99	2	5
3	Tetris (EA)	$4.99	12	4
4	Bejeweled 2 (PopCap Games)	$2.99	14	2
5	Scrabble (EA)	$4.99	15	8
6	The Sims 3 (EA)	$6.99	12	3
7	Need for Speed: Undercover (EA)	$2.99	1	-
8	Madden NFL 10 (EA)	$6.99	1* (returning to top 10)	-
9	Implode! (IUGO Mobile Entertainment)	$1.99	1	-
10	Rock Band (EA)	$6.99	1* (returning to top 10)	-
Position	Title	Price	Weeks	Last Week

Consider that the earliest Zelda game was all caves and magic swords, with nothing more high-tech than a boomerang and a whistle. Several Zeldas later, Link was sailing ships, taking pictures with a camera and, as of a week from today, driving a train in The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks on the DS.

So I wrote to Aonuma: "Spirit Tracks features a train, which may be the most modern piece of technology included in a Zelda game. How modern do you think the Zelda universe can get? Could it include, for example, a radio? A car? A gun?"

In an e-mailed response, Aonuma said: "Technology actually was not a major concern for us when we decided to use the train. In The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, the boat was the key mode of transportation. Now that Spirit Tracks takes place on land, we needed a new way for players to get around, and felt that the train offered the best sense of exploration and discovery. We don't think it feels out of place in the game world. Trains are also a popular mode of transportation in Japan. My children and I still feel a great sense of adventure when we ride trains in Japan."

Note how un-Zelda-like some of my suggestions were. Final Fantasy can get modern and even futuristic. Even World of Warcraft manages to include motorcycles. But a Zelda game with even more modern technology?

I don't see Aonuma ruling any of it out based on what he then said to me about future tech:

"Regarding use of other forms in technology in the future, as long it adds to the overall game experience and is something we feel the player would enjoy, we wouldn't be afraid to implement it. As a matter of fact, we have used the Hook Shot in several previous games, which would be considered a very modern type of technology, even by today's standards. "

So maybe Link can have a cell phone some day. Though I doubt they'd go that far. I don't see the gameplay benefit of an iPod over a fairy. But a car... then who would need a horse any more?

Penny Arcade

published Nov. 23

PvPonline

published Nov. 25

ActionTrip

published Nov. 23

2P Start!

published Nov. 25

EXTRALIFE

published Nov. 25

Dotgif

published Nov. 25

Ctrl-Alt-Delete

published Nov. 25

Dueling Analogs

published Nov. 25

Nerf NOW

published Nov. 25

Rooster Teeth

published Nov. 24

Monday Night Crew

published Nov. 23

Virtual Shackles

published Nov. 23

But that's also the role Evan Longoria, the newly minted Silver Slugger and Gold Glover from Tampa Bay, takes on as the cover man for MLB 2K10, an endorsement announced this past week.

A cynic might view the selection of Longoria - a third-year player from a small-market franchise - as a budget choice for 2K this year, especially in light of MLB 2K9's underachieving performance last year with a Cy Young award winner (San Francisco's Tim Lincecum) headlining it. Longoria on MLB 2K10 is also well overshadowed compared with NBA 2K10 and NHL 2K10, which landed Kobe Bryant and Alexander Ovechkin, easily the top stars of their respective leagues.

But Chris Snyder, 2K Sports' director of marketing, insists the title wasn't settling when it signed Longoria. His team starts looking for the MLB cover man about two months into the season, meets with a pool of candidates at the All-Star Game, and bases the choice on his willingness to contribute to the game, not just its promotion.

"If Albert Pujols or A-Rod want to be in a video game, and give us that kind of time commitment, certainly we'd listen," said Snyder. "It's not that younger players have more time, it's more about them seeing video games as an avenue to promote themselves and their teams, and to be a part of something cool."

Longoria, who goes back to Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball on the Super Nintendo, is part of a generation of sports superstars now in its middle- and late-20s that has been playing modern, 3D sports simulations since at least their teenage years. It's a perspective that brings an innate enthusiasm for the product.

"Whatever I can do to further the realness and the gameplay - as far as things like the data, or the way I step in and out of the batter's box - any kind of input I can provide, I might not ever get this opportunity again," Longoria said.

Increasingly, we're seeing this kind of athlete input. An aside comment from Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals gave NHL 2K10 its "Is Party Now," marketing slogan. Although he wasn't the cover athlete, Edmonton's Zack Stortini consulted with EA Sports' NHL 10 on its new first-person fighting mechanic, and also the finer points of how physical play can be a tactic affecting team morale. Top mixed-martial arts fighters have also visited EA to weigh in on early builds of EA Sports MMA, sometimes with hilarious results.

And although, yes, the majority of a purchase decision will be for the game inside the box, it's why the person appearing on its front is in fact a consequential decision, Snyder said.

"It does matter, not so much for the star quality of the athlete, but what they bring to the table in making the game better," Snyder said.

Fair point. But clearly, Bryant was tabbed for NBA 2K10 - the centerpiece of 2K's sports catalog for going on five years now - as a statement about that game's excellence in the studio's 10th anniversary year. What statement does Longoria make about MLB 2K10?

"It's not so much a message about Evan and the game inside," Snyder concedes. "We start working on 2K10 immediately after 2K9 comes out, and we don't have the cover athlete locked and loaded. But our goal is still to put out the best game possible."

Still, Longoria's announcement is the first public detail about this year's game, and many peoples' assumptions are still built on last year's. "We know MLB 2K9 wasn't a 90-rated game," Snyder says, "but hopefully this shows that we are taking the necessary steps to repair that, and put out a product people are proud to plunk down their dollars for, and for Evan to have his face on."

Longoria's role will be largely advisory, the game-within-a-game rather than the fundamentals of how it is played. "This game's 10 years old now, and every baseball game has catch the ball, hit the ball, throw the ball," Longoria said. So he'll be consulting on subtler aspects - individual matchups, his tendencies and others', how a hitter might guess the next pitch and jump all over it. It's one thing to be standing at third base and see a hunch play out; seeing a video game conform to those expectations is a surefire sign of quality.

"From a major league baseball player's standpoint, that's what really furthers the game for us," Longoria said. "We're fans of video games, we play them, too."

As an example, in his meetings with 2K Sports so far, Longoria's been asked about the tendencies of pitchers he's done well against, and seen those who have given him trouble in real life - such as New York's Andy Pettite - and judged their in-game difficulty.

Snyder said Longoria rose out of "a stable of guys" the team works with throughout the years in a role that is part consultation, part audition. Longoria also worked with 2K through a local GameStop tournament last year, helping his candidacy.

Snyder wouldn't name any of the other ballplayers in the consulting pool when I asked, but did say they were there because of their willingness to contribute. "We touch base with these guys throughout the season, picking their brains on baseball, asking them if they would be willing and able to jump in and help critique the game, and tell us what he'd like to see changed," Snyder said. "When you've got an athlete willing to lend time and expertise, that's a big deal."

But in the end, to be on the cover of this kind of product is primarily an honor. Longoria mused that his career is still young enough that its highlights - a World Series appearance in 2008 and two All-Star selections among them - are only starting to sink in. The significance of a video game cover likely won't strike him until "maybe a 10-year-old kid brings a 2K sports box down to the field for me to sign."

And he went to lengths to reflect his success here back to his teammates, and to Rays lifer Carl Crawford in particular.

"Carl's played his whole career in Tampa Bay, and he's been a part of some really bad teams," Longoria said. "If there was one other guy to have on the cover with me, it would be him. I feel like I stepped into an organization that was ready, ready to do nothing but go up. The year that I had (in 2008) and going to the World Series, it propelled me and a lot of guys who've been really good players into the spotlight. I think Carl has been one of the best players in the major leagues for seven years now. But he didn't have this opportunity, and it's just thanks to him and to the team for me being in this position."

Stick Jockey is Kotaku's column on sports video games. It appears Saturdays at 10 a.m. U.S. Mountain time.

We'll wait 'til the numbers come in before declaring it a tame Black Friday, though, and maybe blame it on the Bay Area rain. Feel free to share any of your own Black Friday shopping photos in the comments — especially if it was a madhouse in your area.

On a night earlier this month, the people packing into the club didn't come to listen to the famous sing. They came instead to stand on a stage, face the crowds and play popular video game and karaoke replacement Rock Band.

The real draw, though, wasn't the chance at a moment in a spotlight once used by jazz men and musicians from the 20s to today, it was the chance to play video games and raise money for children.

Call it gaming for good or child's play for charity: At least once a year video game enthusiasts around the world find interesting and eclectic ways to raise cash for those in need.

Likely the largest gaming group raising money for charity is Washington State-based Child's Play which has, with the help of more than 100,000 gamers worldwide, managed to raise more than $5 million in donations of toys, games, books and cash for children's hospitals around the world.

"Child's Play is the grass-roots gamers' charity: created by gamers, for gamers," said Kristin Lindsay, Child's Play Project Manager. "I believe that we receive the support of the gaming community because we represent the charitable voice that gamers want to have. We are sharing our love of gaming with kids in need, and giving back through play. It really does make a big difference in our partner hospitals."

And it's not just video games and recreation equipment that Child's Play funds. Recently the group started a grant program through which they offer one-tome support to smaller facilities including pediatric hospices, crisis centers, school and group homes.

While many people donate directly to Child's Play, other groups create their own community fund-raisers to help raise money for the organization. The largest by far, Lindsay said, is the Desert Bus for Hope drive, which brought in more than $70,000 in donations last year.

Two years ago British Columbia sketch comedy group LoadingReadyRun decided to start raising money for Child's Play. One of their members came up with the Desert Bus concept.

While the fund-raiser is actually a sort of an Internet telethon, it gets it's name from a mini-game found on unreleased video game Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors.

The object of the game is to drive from Tucson, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada in real time in a bus that constantly pulls to the side of the road and won't go faster than 45 mph. Completely the mini-game takes 8 continuous hours of play. Desert Bus can't be paused and if you crash or drive off the road you get towed back to Tucson and have to start over.

While the LoadingReadyRun accepts challenges to do silly things for donations during their telethon, the mainstay of the fund-raiser is the group playing the game non-stop. This year the group played the game in shifts for five days and 16 hours non-stop, raising more than $132,000.

"We all love to play video games, and we love the idea that we play a game (even a bad one like Desert Bus) and make a child's quality of life so much better," said LoadingReadyRun member Kathleen De Vere. "Child's Play is a very inspiring charity that does absolutely amazing things all over the world, and we are honored to help them with
their work."

And fund-raising isn't limited to the United States.

David Abrams, editor and owner of Tokyo-based Cheapassgamer.com, has raised more than $75,000 for Child's Play over the past five years.

"I decided to start to help collect funds for Child's Play simply because I was very impressed with the initiative Penny Arcade's founders had taken in creating the charity," Abrams said. "Child's Play was started partly as a response to the negative portrayal in the media of gaming and gamers and I wanted to help be a part of that response. Of course helping children is reason enough on it's own."

While some events, like Desert Bus for Hope and Abrams' online drive, bring in staggering donations, more than half of the cash comes to Child's Play through individual donations or smaller community fund-raisers like the one held in Denver earlier this month.

The Kotaku.com-sponsored fund-raiser brought in about 400 people from as far away as Florida and raised more than $6,500, a bulk of which came from people showing up at the worn doors of the club, cash in hand.

Once inside, gamers and developers crowded onto the decades-old dance floor, donating cash and dancing under an over-sized disco ball.

As the event's hesitant emcee, I split my time overseeing the door prizes we handed and threw out to the crowds between songs and talking to the many folks on hand about why they were there.

Plenty came to party, to have fun, to game on stage, but many more came for the cause.

As the event wrapped up, a young man approached me to shake my hand.

"I wish they had something like this when I was a kid," he said.

"Why?"

"I'm a cancer survivor," he said, "You have no idea what difference a few games would have made to me when I was in the hospital."

Well Played is a weekly news and opinion column about the big stories of the week in the gaming industry and its bigger impact on things to come. Feel free to join in the discussion.

NCAA Basketball 10 Review: Some Shining Moments
In which Owen Good explains how Dick Vitale can be tolerable.

Wii Energizer 4X Charging Station Review: Induction Into the Hall of Fame
In which Brian Crecente explains why the Wii remote jacket is not an impediment to usefulness (for once!)

Astro Gaming A40 Audio System Review: Sound Advice
In which Michael McWhertor ponders the value of $250 headphones.

Excitebike: World Rally Micro-Review: Race back to 1985
In which freelancer Matt Cabral praises a new game's graphics for looking 65-bit.

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles Review: Three's A Welcome Trend
In which a game angers me for not following its own rules.
(Pre-rendered cut-scene featured atop this post)

PSPgo Cradle Review: Dock and Go
In which Crecente resists all possible "cradle" puns.

Assassin's Creed Bloodlines Review: Thicker Than Water?
In which Brian Ashcraft applauds, respects, but also slams the game's camera controls.

Sound Blaster Arena Surround Gaming Headset Review: Who's That Sneaking Up On Me?
In which Crecente ponders the value of $100 headphones.

Appearing on the comparatively underpowered iPhone, Ravensword packs a near console-quality presentation. Featuring a large 3D open-world, an awesome variety of mythical beasts to slay, and some fantastic visual and audio tricks, it often rivals a PS2-era production.

Loved
Epic App: Intuitively using the now-common touchscreen directional pad and controlling the camera by swiping anywhere on the screen, adventure-seeking gamers embark on a robust quest to regain the amnesia-stricken protagonist's memory, recover the titular ancient blade and, of course, smite the hell out of evil. Sure, it's standard high-fantasy fare, but the impressive presentation, addictive action, and engaging quests keep things more fresh than familiar. You'll begin by slaying rats the size of puppies, but soon your blade and bow will be introduced to goblins, imps, zombies, sword-swinging skeletons, and ogres whose menacing presence swallow up a good portion of the iPhone's modest display. Your senses will be similarly stung by the screen-stretching environments; vast, diverse areas such as forests, graveyards, dungeons, and lava worlds can be fully explored for treasure when you're not busy hacking your way through the evil-doing hordes. Smaller touches, such as shop signs swinging when you walk into them, show the level of detail at work. The audio presentation is also very good, as a surprisingly rich score is complemented by immersion-amping details like chirping birds, crashing waterfalls, and the satisfying death cries of your freshly slain enemies.

Fun-poking Fantasy:Ravensword's subject matter may be all too familiar, but its light-hearted approach and delivery keep things fresher than a just-poured stein of tavern mead. Similar Tolkien-esque tales get bogged down with self-important characters and yawn-inducing exposition, but Ravensword keeps it simple, to the point, and often funny. The over-sized rats you slay, for example, are part of a quest that sees you replenishing the stock of the village's "Rat Donald's" restaurant-you'll later speak with a clueless villager who can't quite place the taste of Donald's secret rodent recipe. Everything, from NPC interactions to text descriptions of weapons and gear, often sneak in similar tongue-in-cheek references that keep things entertaining without ever becoming so silly that they pull you from the experience.

Hated
RP...Gee, Really?: Despite being advertised as an RPG, Ravensword is actually lacking many of the key ingredients usually associated with the looting-and-leveling genre. While it nails the high-fantasy presentation and hack-happy combat, it doesn't allow for any character customization. When you level-up, attribute points are auto-assigned, there are no skill trees, weapons and gear are stat-less, and magic is all but non-existent. Aside from their prices, there's no way to identify which weapons are better than others; you're left to assume the battle hammer will spill more goblin blood than a sword simply because it siphons more gold coins from your satchel at the blacksmith's shop. The implementation of armor offers a perfect example of Ravensword's style-over-substance approach; while the protective gear is realistically reflected on your in-game character-a nice touch, indeed-it only comes in two varieties, and, like the weapons, offers no comparable stats. Similarly, combat looks and feels great, but essentially boils down to mashing on the "attack" button. Other iPhones titles, such as the recent Diablo-like Dungeon Hunter actually have more character-building depth than this so-called RPG.

Ravensword has a lot going for it, not the least of which is its fantastic audio and visual presentation. It's an easy recommendation for action/adventure fans looking for an involving romp through a richly realized fantasy world. But despite an appearance evocative of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, expect to do more hacking and slashing than character customizing and gear tweaking.

Ravensword was published by Chillingo and developed by Crescent Moon Games for the iPhone and iPod Touch on November 17th. Retails for $6.99. A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Completed the game.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

After all, football is not like most other sports represented in video games. It is not a game of inches, of innings, of lines, or mechanical plays. It is, as die-hard fans of the game will tell you, more than a game.

It's an artform.

Few, if any sports on earth are so free-flowing, so open to an individual player's interpretation of how the game should be played, and how they'll go about playing it. It's why arguments over who is the "best" player in the world are often pointless; Pele and Maradona are incomparable, as are Best and Beckenbauer, Figo and Zidane. It's like arguing whether Picasso is better than Van Gogh, or Mozart sharper than Beethoven.

What makes the game such a joy to watch, and gives the players the freedom to express themselves individually, should make a video game adaptation a nightmare. In American Football, for example, things are very structured. There are self-contained plays, there are limitations on what is happening at any one time. It's very mechanical. A lineman blocks, within a small area of the field, and that's that. A field goal is from a fixed point on the field, with the kicker making the same approach every time. You see where I'm going with this.

But football is all over the place. Ten of the eleven players could be anywhere on the pitch at any given time. The ball can go anywhere, in any direction, in the air or along the ground. Possession can change hands ten times in two minutes. It's a playground, a well-manicured sandbox.

None of which seemed to matter while playing FIFA 10, which both looks and plays as close to the real thing as any sports game I've ever played. So how do you model a video game, which by its very nature is a long string of pre-determined actions and reactions, on something so free-flowing and unpredictable?

The answer is both simple and very, very complicated: you go and bury yourself up to your neck in the sport.

After all, it's hard replicating something if you're not intimately familiar with it. So we caught up with the brains behind FIFA 10 to see how the team go about turning what for the developers is a lifelong obsession into something millions more would call the same thing.

MATCHDAY PREPARATION

According to FIFA 10's producer, David Rutter, it all begins with the development team's diversity. "We're in the process of building a ‘team wall' at the studio with pictures of all the guys showing where they're from and what teams they support", he says. "At last count we had people from 18 different countries, speaking 10 different languages".

And the variety doesn't end with the developer's passports. The teams they support reflect the corners of the earth from which they all hail. Being a Western studio means support skews heavily towards the English game – not just Man United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs fans, but also less glamorous sides like Leicester and Queens Park Rangers. There's plenty of international support as well, from Barcelona to Inter to the…Vancouver Whitecaps, the studio's local team.

Being, you know, important to the job, EA Canada staffers are able to indulge that support in a number of ways. Live games from all the world's major leagues are broadcast both on TVs in the studio and streamed to the developer's monitors, while for more real-world research they also have a number of season passes to the aforementioned Whitecaps (who, interestingly, engage in an annual showdown with Microsoft fanboys the Seattle Sounders). And that's just the local stuff; with members of the team always travelling across the globe, they also take in games across more prestigious competitions, like the Premier League and Champions League.

For a more hands-on approach to studying the inner workings of the game, the team can draw on the knowledge of some former players. One of FIFA's gameplay producers, Aaron McHard, was a former member of the Jamaican national team's youth squad, while Kantcho Doskov, an animator, is one of the best "tricksters" (think juggling, balancing, etc) in the world, having been a finalist at the Red Bull Freestyle Championships.

For everyone else — the team's Sunday league superstars — EA Canada have built the developers their own football pitch on the site, so they can pop out and do some "research" whenever the urge takes them.

THE GAME PLAN

In order for the game to play like a realistic game of football, the actual players on-screen needed to do a decent job of mirroring their real-life counterpart's abilities and performance. After all, it's no good to anybody if Wayne Rooney can't shoot, Lionel Messi can't dribble or David James suddenly learns how to keep something out of his net.

To make sure FIFA's players act like real players, then, EA have gone Roman, managing their "scouts" in multiples of ten. So, there are ten core database managers at EA Canada. Those ten then supervise another 100 "football experts", who are the ones actually inputting each player's individual attributes into the game. Then, below those 100, there are another 1000 or so hardcore fans from all over the world, who go over each stat with a fine-tooth comb and provide feedback.

And if that's not enough, Rutter also says the development team are constantly receiving "feedback" from Premier League stars themselves, satisfied (or dissatisfied!) with their numbers.

With the attributes in the database, it's then over to the animators, who have an equally important task ahead of them; just as it would stand out if Wayne Rooney wasn't scoring, so too would it stand out if he ran around all legs and arms like Peter Crouch, instead of all shoulders and potato head like he should.

Every year, professional players are invited into the studio to perform motion capture work on every aspect of the game. Dribbling, free kicks, shooting, tackling, throw-ins, penalties, slide tackles, you name it, it has to be captured. Sometimes, these are "professional" in the sense they're local players. Other times, they're "professional" in the sense that they've captured moves performed in the studio by the likes of Ronaldinho, Miroslav Klose and Sergio Ramos.

KICK OFF

During FIFA 10's initial marketing push, much was made of the introduction of 360-degree dribbling, something that sounded minor but actually promised to revolutionize the way the game controlled. Once the game was released, however, things turned out a little differently. Sure, the 360-degree movement was a big improvement over previous years, but it wasn't the best part of the game's controls.

No, that went to something intangible. Something you couldn't really put on the back of the box. It was like the Force, all around you, binding everything together.

"I do think a lot of the fluidity of 10 came, not just from 360, but from improvements to our trapping system which is the system that controls how the player moves and controls the ball", says Gary Paterson, the game's creative director. "This system was improved in lots of different ways to ensure that it was as fluid as possible and this I think made a big difference to the feeling of fluidity."

The other key aspect of gameplay is the ball physics, which determines how the ball reacts to things like player contact and weather. For a game built entirely around the movement and collision of a round ball, it's obviously very, very important.

"The process we go through is like this", says Kaz Makita, executive producer on the game. "We will build a foundation of how we want the ball to behave in different situations, then test the different situations in game. We focus our testing on how we want the ball to behave and we go through a process where we refine it until looks, feels and plays authentically.

"The big challenge is how the ball interacts with a player because these interactions are limited by the number and variety of animations, something we are constantly updating each year. We make huge improvements each year with ball and player interactions but sometimes the variety of animations do not enable us to satisfy realism. We built a new animation engine so we could create a much deeper library of player behaviours, which enables us to create deeper, more authentic ball movement, but the challenge remains to build animations to fit with ball physics that look and feel authentic."

Patterson adds: "I guess the ball physics has two components: the physics formulae and the variable constants that we pass into those formulae... We have some very smart guys here who have been able to provide us with accurate ball physics formulae, but getting the constants for how a football passes through the air is very tricky. So much so in fact that we contacted a Physics Grad at a local university to help us define them. I'm pretty happy with the results but I think we will continue to tweak and tune."

Realism, however, only goes so far. "Once you have the ball physics, you have to use it authentically, and this part is just as tricky", Paterson says. "For example how much spin should be on a cross, what does a shot look like when the player miss-kicks it? All these things obviously affect the authenticity of our game and this is perhaps where we bend the rules a little to try and ensure we get a fun game. For example, in real life, crossing the ball is very inaccurate, many crosses go too far, or out of play, but in FIFA this would be very frustrating and upset the balance of the game (as you would be discouraged from crossing), so yeah, we have to bend reality a little bit."

NEXT WEEK

While FIFA 10 is currently king of the sports games, both in terms of sales and critical approval, the "10" after its name and the fact it's from EA Sports means it will only remain so for another ten months or so. Once FIFA 11 rolls around, changes have to be made. After all, just because it's the most realistic sports game on the market doesn't mean it's perfect.

So, what can we expect from next year's game, as the developers continue to strive towards presenting us with the perfect game of football? "We have been having a lot of conversations this year around game speed and game difficulty, as some of our gamers want slower and harder gameplay, more simulation" says Paterson. "This is a tricky one as it would mean we would have to alter one of the core gameplay concepts that we have built the game on thus far…"

The first contest has you sending in a photo to prove how metal you are for a chance to win a kick-ass Mishka Brutal Legend Tee.

The second involves a bit of Tekken Cosplay with a chance to win a limited edition Tekken 6 Wireless Fight Stick.

If you'd rather not face the hordes of shoppers today, why not spend your timing entering contests instead?

Amazon.com: The Black Friday video game deals are in full swing, with more game discounts being revealed all day long. Right now you can get bargain prices on Forza 3 and Halo 3: O.D.S.T.

On the console side of things, Amazon has a 120GB PlayStation 3 bundle that comes with inFamous and Killzone 2, with a $10 Amazon promotional credit included.

Best Buy: While most of Best Buy's Black Friday goodness is sold out online, there are several great deals in stores, including a $299 120GB PlayStation 3 bundle with LittleBigPlanet and Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time; an Xbox 360 Elite bundle for $399 that includes Pure, LEGO Batman, and a bundle of Wall-E, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, Sonic the Hedgehog and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2; and the two limited-edition Nintendo DSi systems, each with bundled software and a $20 gift card.

Brutal Legend: The Brutal Legend blog has posted a deal tracker so you can find the best possible price on Brutal Legend on Black Friday. Check it out here.

Capcom: The Capcom store is dicounting PC titles from 20-75% off for Black Friday, with free shipping on $25 worth of toys, books, and other fine Capcom-related products.

Dell Direct: Dell Direct is selling a Nintendo Wii bundled with New Super Mario Bros. Wii and an additional Wii remote for $249.99, which saves you the price of that additional remote.

EA: The EA Store has downloadable PC titles on sale for 30% off, including the latest releases like Dragon Age: Origins.

EA Mobile: More than 30 EA iPhone and iPod Touch titles have been discounted by up to 50% for the holiday weekend. From casual titles like Littlest Pet Shop and Sudoku to big-name games like Command & Conquer: Red Alert and Rock Band, now would be a great time to download some EA to your Apple device.

Futureshop: Canadians can have Black Friday deals too! Futureshop has popular EA console games on sale for $39.99 apiece, including Dragon Age: Origins, Brutal Legend, and Left 4 Dead 2.

Gameloft: Gameloft has reduced prices on a bunch of iPhone games to $.99 for the day. Terminator Salvation, Shrek Kart, Blades of Fury, Real Tennis 2009, Brothers in Arms: Hour of Heroes, Castle of Magic, and Hero of Sparta for less than a buck could certainly help you pass the time waiting in line today.

GameStop: For those of you living where it's not hit 11AM yet, you've still got time to partake of GameStop's doorbuster bundles, which include a $299 PlayStation 3 with LittleBigPlanet Game of the Year Edition and God of War I & II and an Xbox 360 Elite with Pure, LEGO Batman, and your choice of either Call of Duty: World at War or Bakugan.

Steam Sale: The Steam 5-Day 1-Day Sale continues today, with Left 4 Dead 2 at $37.49, Mini-Ninjas at $14.99, Dead Space for $14.99, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic for a measly $2.49. Plus, keep in mind that Steam also has LucasArts and THQ bundles on sale for $49.99, so if you've got a fan of either developer in your family, you've got them covered.

Be sure to check out our Black Friday tag page for all of the deals we've been posting over the past couple of months.

Remember, this is by no means a complete list. This is a starting point. A place for our friends in the comment section to share their own deals with each other, giving their fellow gamers a hand in finding the best deals going on during the busiest shopping day of the year. Sharing is caring!

Why?

Because they said they didn't like the pressure of having to think carefully about what they were going to write before they typed it and hit enter.

That's not what we want from Star commenters. That's what we want from all commenters. If you come here expecting a free-for-all of memes, trolling and insults, go somewhere else. There are plenty of places on the Internet that will welcome you with open arms.

On Kotaku we expect much more. Here commenting is a privilege, one we will yank away in a heartbeat for breaking our fairly easy to follow rules.

In a nutshell we want you to think before you type. We want you to behave and comment as if you were talking to a living being, face-to-face, not typing into the Internet Ether hidden behind layers of anonymity.

So in the spirit of holiday house-cleaning, it's time for a crash course in comments etiquette. What can you do? What should you definitely never do? What, in effect, do we want from you, our commenters?

Gawker Media blogs are known for their savvy commentary. Kotaku is, last I checked, the highest commented site in the group. We strive to let in a smart and plugged-in community, and we want comments that serve as first-rate contributions to the post at hand. We love new insight and inside information. We value informed response and welcome
spirited debate. Above all, comments should always further the discussion. "Lifehacker's Guide To Weblog Comments" is a great jumping-off point for the uninitiated.

We like to see good spelling and grammar, because we're nerdy like that. Capitalization and punctuation are important, too. These basic requirements go a long way towards making us all look better. Staying on-topic in a thread is essential — but now you can also take a topic to your own generated #hashtag page, then direct others there. Editors may sometimes caution that a thread has gone off-topic and should be moved to another forum.

Many readers have already discovered how to make their voices stand out via our #speakout page. Here you can share breaking news, leaked info, links of interest and timely video. Give us some substantive lines on why we should follow up, and your post may be promoted or featured on the blog. The #speakout page is also an excellent space to audition as a first-time commenter with a
juicy tidbit or to show off your investigative instincts. I may even start perusing that hashtag page for potential future writers. Strike that, I will be on the hunt their for good, original articles. Advertising and spammers will be summarily banned, but quality contributors have the spotlight.

In addition, there is now an informal commenter forum, #TAY, where the conversation is yours to guide. This is the place to add comments, liveblogs, pictures, video, and links that are relevant to your community. It's also easy to jump over here if you find yourself veering off-topic and want to take others with
you.

So: thumbs up to attention to detail, thoughtful typing and prodigious use of the 'Shift' key. Personal attacks, inappropriate behavior, off-topic rants in comments and idiotic memes are subject to bans and disemvowelling. Starred commenters should be aware that their privileges are not guaranteed, and should be careful in the comments they approve and promote. Commenters can be demoted for unruly or obscene posting. Baiting trolls helps no one, and we want the level of dialogue maintained to be high. But editors and moderators are equally on the lookout for our best contributors, too, to promote and star for brilliant efforts of the commenting kind, so let's see what you've
got.

A Guide to Proper Commenting

Over the week we've compiled a number of platform specific reference guides for you to use to help decide which games to buy and which to avoid when shopping for gaming friends and family this year.

Here's how you use the guides:
Click on the platform link.
Sort through the alphabetical listing for the game you are considering.
Read the summary, perhaps go to the full review.
Use the delicious brains in your head to decide whether to purchase said game as a gift.

We'll be updating the guide with more games as we continue to review titles through the remainder of the year.

Now have at it!

The iPhone Gamer's Gift Guide
The DS and DSi Gift Guide
The PlayStation Portable Buyer's Guide
The Wii Buyer's Guide
The PC Buyer's Guide
The Xbox 360 Buyer's Guide
The PlayStation 3 Buyer's Guide

We'll be giving away five sets of limited edition Tekken 6 fight sticks. That's three for the Playstation 3 and two for the Xbox 360. Here's the details for the contest.

To enter all you have to do is send in a work-safe photo of yourself dressed as a Tekken 6 character along with a haiku of why you like the Namco fighter.

The contest, which is open to North American readers, will run through Dec. 14. With the winners announced on Dec. 18 Just submit your photo and haiku here in comments. Make sure to say if you are entering for the PS3 or Xbox 360 controller in your comment.

The Limited Edition Bundle includes the Tekken 6 game, a limited edition Hori wireless fight stick and a collectible art book.

I make it hard for video games to be unpredictable.

Not that I make games. I play them. And by playing them, I try to examine them and test their resilience, as if tapping their fender and poking the tires, slamming the doors a few times to make sure they don't stick and assessing that, okay this thing is sturdy, before I've ever driven it.

I am, while doing this, hoping for a surprise.

I want to know everything about a game before I play it but also be caught off guard by it as it unfolds, and I don't want anyone calling that a paradox.

I want to know the scale of the thing and its scope. I check menu screens and Trophy lists to determine how many levels the game has. I start a game, just barely, and I check what percentage the game says I've completed, to determine how much more I've got. I check level lists. All in-game, of course. Consulting outside sources would be cheating. Through these means I determine that New Super Mario Bros. Wii has at least eight worlds and that Assassin's Creed II employs a rarely-seen level-counting trick.

This is, I believe, the psychology of the experienced gamer: he or she who can size up a game before having started it. It is, I propose, part of the act of playing a game. You will agree if you recognize playing a game as playing with the systems a game developer has created, and if you consider a key part of playing with systems the act of understanding them, testing them, looking for shortcuts or exploitable faults.

But that's not entirely fair, because it may be out of bounds. Few would deny that prodding at a gameplay system is the good sport. It is the act of getting better at playing a game and exposing faulty, porous game design. But prodding the level-numbering system of a game may be nothing more than an elaborate way of turning to the last page of a book, if not to read how it ends, but at least to size up the novel by measuring it, crudely, by a count of its pieces of paper.

This is a reflex that might best be turned off, because there is little gained but disappointment to know just when a game will end or how many hidden items it has tucked away in its corners. Therefore, you must understand how I can desire to know the whole thing and yet still hope to be surprised.

I can't turn this instinct off. But, like a good advocacy group, I can lay the blame for this part of my behavior on video games.

It was the draws-itself-as-you-go map of Super Metroid that teased to me the idea that a game knows how big it is before it will tell you. And it was the inventory screens of the Nintendo 64 Zeldas that taunted with a framework that showed me how much menu space there was to contain all that I could discover in the game, inviting me to guess at the items that would fill it and forcing me to recognize when I had reached a quarter, then halfway, then sadly, near-completion (already?) of a wonderful adventure. If only, I began to hope, I was being tricked and a new, empty menu would appear at the last minute, to reveal that this game still offered more.

(Main item screen of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, as seen at the beginning of the game)

(Main item screen of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, further into the game. PIC)

So we're at Wolfenstein, a first-person-shooter from August for which I had negligible expectations, a game I was certainly not studying in advance to know its scale and its scope nor one that I expected to, finally, thankfully, surprise me.

I played the game because it was out in slow August. I played it because a first-person-shooter with super-powers feels worth trying though, for me, seldom worth finishing. I tried it because it was being made by major studios, Raven and id, but oddly being disowned by the latter party and maybe neglected by its publisher. Such is the drama that makes a game more interesting.

I played it and enjoyed it and dared to tell people that I preferred its campaign to that of Killzone 2 and F.E.A.R. 2 and the rest of the 2009 first-person-shooters I had played by then, leaving a caveat for Modern Warfare 2, though I'm not sure I needed to.

And if I had to explain why I liked it so much — me not being someone with an endless need to virtually kill supernatural Nazis and me having no affinity for earlier Wolfenstein games because I never played them — I'd have to say it's because I had tried, early, to size this game up, and better than anything else I played this year, it tricked me and surprised me.

I praise Wolfenstein because it fooled me.

The game isn't simply a first-person shooter. It is a shooter linked with a hubworld, an oddly unusual design for a game in the genre. It's built less like a Call of Duty — broken into levels you play in order — and more like Super Mario 64, with the Nazi-controlled city of Isenstadt taking the place of Princess Peach's castle. Doorways in that city to new shooter levels substitute for the paintings in Peach's castle through which Mario could leap to enter his platform-jumping levels. In Peach's castle and in Isenstadt you have some choice as to which level you'd explore next and you could have some fun just exploring the hub geography that connects them.

You'd think this would be a game structure a veteran gamer could accurately size up. It would feel all the more knowable if you saw in Wolfenstein's mini-map the implementation of a poor-man's Grand Theft Auto. Little icons appear on the lines denoting Isenstadt's streets and alleys, identifying locations where new major missions might be assigned or begun. As side goals emerge as well, the GTA scheme seems apparent: There will be essential main things to do and unessential though possibly fun tributaries to explore.

That's what I thought. That's why I was wrong.

There is something games could do but seldom do, and that is confound a gamer's level-size expectations. I played a few missions in Wolfenstein and assumed I had the measure of them, that I recognized the number of minutes and Nazis involved in each. Then I reached a level set at a farm, which I guessed to be an average-sized level and which, as it was unfolding, appeared to consist of a battle near a barn, a fight down a road, and a one-man breach of a farmhouse that would culminate in a stated goal to reach a basement. I even had to shoot a rushing horde of enemies from a second story window, which is often the sign that a level has reached its climax. But in that basement of destiny, which I fought hard to reach, was an elevator. And down that elevator was a vast military complex and the level's second half. I was radically off in my sense of how big this level would be. I'd been fooled and was happy for it.

(Concept art for Wolfenstein. PIC)

As I played more of Wolfenstein I realized that the game offered few clues with which I could guess the scale of its levels. I might as well have been predicting earthquake magnitudes. Some of my missions might have been side missions, others main, but I couldn't distinguish even when they were about to begin.

Down one street of Isenstadt I found a door to a building. Entering it started a new level, called the Officer's House. Having fought through that massive farm, gone through some other large levels set in a hospital and an archeological dig site, I guessed (wrong again!) that this level would be big. You play a level in a game based on an "officer's house" and you just assume you're going to be fighting through, maybe, a 25-room house? Or taking the battle out of the house across rooftops? Or up in a blimp? Or into the sewers? Anything to make it bigger than the terrain you'd cover just fighting in one officer's house. Except that's all it was. Just a short level. A short shooting mission in this guy's house. Just a couple of stories tall, nothing big, nothing that lasted too long. I was fooled again.

I don't think the Wolfenstein development team could have gotten away with sizing their levels so differently from each other had their game been structured like a Call of Duty or a GoldenEye or many of the other major first-person shooters. It'd seem like one level designer was lazier than the other or something.

But this game, dare I uncork some over-praise, could do this because its hub-city structure allowed it to unfold with the pace of a life.

When I wake up on a November day in my apartment I don't know where and when the major missions of my day will begin. The subway steps of Brooklyn may lead me to a brief trip to work or an odyssey involving crazy beggars, mechanical difficulties, and a painful stumble on the stairs. The door to the bank could lead to a quick withdrawal or a sudden inward-turning mental scramble to calculate credits and debits. Even that trip to bed and the drift to sleep might lead to a level of unknown size and scale, maybe a brisk dream or a restless night.

These are the rhythms and surprises of our days that games, no matter how realistic they supposedly have become, so rarely recreate.

Wolfenstein could well be a game whose parts are not as good as its whole. I can't tell. I can't see those parts as separate from the delight I took in being tricked by them. I've become confident that I can see a game from across the horizon and know what it'll be when it gallops to me, that I'll at least know how tall it stands. But not this time. And I was happy for it.

Maybe, after all, this is a valid way to play a game on top of the other ways you're playing it. Maybe it is part of the game to poke around the game to see how big it is and to think you've got it figured out before it has even begun.

That is all legitimate, if the designers play back. That is all fair if the designers recognize that innate zeal among gamers to know, understand and master — and if the designers assert that just when we think we have it all figured out, they have something new to throw us off.

I'd rather not be able to know a game in advance, despite my best reflexes to try. I yearn to be tricked.

My favorite among the games listed is Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, which probably isn't surprising. What is yours? Anything we didn't review that you would suggest?

Remember, the games listed aren't all recommendations. Instead we're providing this as a quick reference guide to help you decide if a game is a good gift or not.

50 Cent: Blood on the Sand

Price: $59.99
Rating: Mature
Genre: Third-person hip-hop shooter
Subject Matter: 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand tells the unintentionally(?) amusing tale of rapper 50 Cent as he struggles to reclaim his diamond encrusted skull from a Middle Eastern bad guy. He's assisted by his G Unit hangers on and some laughably outlandish moments.
Value: An adequately long adventure, made seemingly longer by endlessly looping 50 Cent songs. There are much better games to give this holiday season.
Buy it for: someone as a gag. Or a die hard 50 Cent fan fresh from a six month coma.
Read the Full Review

Assassin's Creed II

Price: $59.99
Rating: M
Genre: Free-running platforming adventure game
Subject Matter: Assassinations and conspiracy spent mostly in 15th century Renaissance Italy.
Value: Lots more content than the first game had, probably lasting gamers at least double the time they spent with the first Assassin's Creed.
Buy it for: People who were let down by the first game, people who like history, beautiful scenery, dynamic platforming, solving mysteries and games that might be the Game of the Year.
Read the Full Review

Batman: Arkham Asylum
Price:$59.99
Rating: T
Genre: Action/Adventure
Subject Matter: Join one of comic books' most iconic heroes on an adventure in Gotham City's insane asylum, where The Joker is on the loose.
Value: With character ability customization, bonus challenge maps and tons of riddles courtesy of The Riddler, Arkham Asylum offers at least three playthroughs' worth of fun.
Buy it for: Batman fans and anybody jonesing for a Mark Hamill voice over fix.
Read the full review

The Beatles: Rock Band
Price: The stand-alone game sells for $59.99, the Limited Edition Premium Bundle sell for $249.99, the Rickenbacker 325 Standalone Guitar and the Gretsch Duo Jet Standalone Guitar sells for $99.99.
Rating: Teen
Genre: Rhythm music game
Subject Matter: The Beatles: Rock Band is a musical journey through the history of one of the world's most popular bands.
Value: For those new to the Rock Band phenomenon and fans of The Beatles, this 45-track game is well worth a purchase because this is the only way you'll play The Beatles music in a Rock Band game. If you're not into the band, give this a pass.
Buy it for: huge Beatles fans.
Read the Full Review

Borderlands

Price: $59.99
Rating: Mature
Genre: First-person shooter RPG
Subject Matter: Borderlands targets the loot-hungry region of the brain, offering four classes with which to stalk the planet Pandora, shoot things and level up, acquiring cool guns, sweet armor and totally rad superpowers. As role-playing games go, it's shallow, but offers a constant stream of junk food gaming.
Value: Seeing all that Borderlands has to offer could take hundreds of hours. But the real value comes in the form of being able to play with friends on PlayStation Network or via splitscreen.
Buy it for: the loot glutton with an itchy trigger finger and a history of playing Diablo.
Read the Full Review

Brutal Legend

Price: $59.99 Rating: Mature
Genre: Action Adventure
Subject Matter: Brutal Legend is a heavy metal-themed action game that combines racing, shooting, real-time strategy, and hack and slash into one slightly disjointed mix.
Value: Brutal Legend is a game from Tim Schafer, one of gaming's greatest comedy minds, and the absurd humor carries the game a long way. It's the story of a roadie who gets transported to a heavy metal world where he must raise an army to free the oppressed inhabitants. There's plenty to do, though the odd mix of genres might be too much for some players.
Buy it for: Anyone with a strong affection for heavy metal music or sa twisted sense of humor.
Read the Full Review

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Price: $59.99 to $149.99
Rating: Mature
Genre: First-person military shooter
Subject Matter: Lead a team of elite commandoes in Modern Warfare 2 as they try to prevent a Russian invasion and global thermonuclear war. Then take the action online, going head to head against other well-armed gamers. It's loud, violent and a hell of a lot of fun to play.
Value: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's single-player storyline may be short, but the package more than makes up for it with ample cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes. Near endless replayability will be stoked with future downloadable content.
Buy it for: the Michael Bay action movie fan who likes his shooters bombastic and nearly devoid of a comprehensible story, one who doesn't shy away from ultra-violent fare.
Read the Full Review

Critter Crunch

Price: $6.99
Rating: Everyone
Genre: Puzzle
Subject Matter: A puzzle game with bug eating, cute critters and sorta cut, sorta gross tecnicolor yarn.
Value: The good puzzle game mechanic is strong and addictive — add to that beautiful graphics, a lengthy adventure mode and super fun multiplayer and you have a good time. With barf.
Buy it for: Gamers with a strong like of puzzle titles and no fear of cute puke.
Read the Full Review

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood

Price: $39.99
Rating: Mature
Genre: First-person shooter
Subject Matter: Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is a Civil War era first-person shooter.
Value: With an engaging story, wide open maps and plenty of mulitplayer options, this game will take up quite a bit of your time.
Buy it for: First-person shooter enthusiasts, fans of the Wild West and Civil War buffs.
Read the Full Review

DJ Hero
Price: $119.99
Rating: Teen
Genre: Rhythm
Subject Matter: DJ Hero is a rhythm game featuring a replica DJ turntable so players can mix and scratch to the beat of original music mash-ups.
Value: DJ Hero features upwards fo 100 different DJ-driven mash-ups featuring songs from the 70's on up to present-day hits. Unlike the latest Guitar Hero or Rock Band games, however, it's only good for one or two players, so the party element just isn't there. The innovative turntable-based gameplay makes it a breath of fresh air in the currently band-centric music genre, but it certainly isn't as social.
Buy it for: Fans of eclectic music mixes and lonely Guitar Hero fans.
Read the Full Review

Dragon Age: Origins
Price: $49.99
Rating:Mature
Genre: Roleplaying
Subject Matter: An epic action roleplaying game set in a world besieged by evil inside and out.
Value: Dragon Age: Origins packs more than 100 hours of gameplay into this action RPG, with branching story paths that encourage multiple play throughs in order to experience it all. BioWare designed the game so it can be played by RPG gamers of any skill level, but mature content and strong sexual situations mean you might want to keep it in the high teens.
Buy it for: Anyone who has ever conversationally mentioned hit points.
Read the Full Review

EyePet

Price: £20 game only, £35 with PlayStation Eye (game currently only available in PAL territories)
Rating: E
Genre: Virtual Pet Management
Subject Matter: Using the PlayStation Eye, "directly" interact with a digital pet on your TV screen.
Value: Smaller kids won't mind the game lacks any real direction, they'll be happy to play it every few days just to check on their pet.
Buy it for: Kids who think Tamagotchi is so 20th century.
Read the Full Review

Fallout 3: Broken Steel

Price: $10 (Requires a copy of Fallout 3)
Rating: M
Genre: Post-apocalyptic role-playing game
Subject Matter: Fallout 3 expansion involving missions with a high-powered fighting force.
Value: High because it extends the level cap to Fallout 3, changes the game's ending and allows the adventure to be played infinitely once the story has "ended"
Buy it for: Fallout 3 fans who want to play more; essential for anyone getting any Fallout 3 downloadable content
Read the Full Review

Fallout 3: Mothership Zeta

Price: $10.00 (Requires a copy of Fallout 3)
Rating: Mature
Genre: Still a post-apocalyptic RPG
Subject Matter: It's Fallout 3 in space!
Value: Mothership Zeta gives the Fallout 3 player an entire spaceship to explore and make their own, some futuristic new weapons, and tacks a good five hours onto the regular campaign, making it a relatively fair value for your money.
Buy it for: Fallout 3 fans.
Read the Full Review

Fallout 3: Point Lookout

Price: $10 (Requires a copy of Fallout 3)
Rating: M
Genre: Post-apocalyptic role-playing game
Subject Matter: Fallout 3 in microcosm, set on a spooky island.
Value: Tons of content, and widely seen as the Fallout 3 downloadable content that best shares the strengths of the base game.
Buy it for: Fallout 3 fans.
Read the Full Review

Fat Princess

Price: $14.99
Rating: Teen
Genre: Action
Subject Matter: Capture the flag? No, capture the princess. And feed her cake, so she's fat and hard for enemies to cart her off.
Value: Single player weakness aside, the main draw here is multiplayer. That, and cake. Cake's always a draw. Always.
Buy it for: Gamers with a sweet tooth for multiplayer.
Read the Full Review

FIFA Soccer 2010

Price: $49.99
Rating: E
Genre: Round-Ball Football
Subject Matter: The best football game on the market.
Value: Almost endless. There are so many leagues and cups, and such a deep singleplayer experience, that it can be played to death until FIFA 11 is released. And that's before we even get to the 10v10 multiplayer…
Buy it for: Anyone who has even a passing interest in the world game.
Read the Full Review

Fight Night Round 4

Price: $59.99
Rating: T
Genre: Boxing
Subject Matter: Boxing
Value: Tons of fighters, good online options and no real competition.
Buy it for: Boxing fans or people looking for a fighting-based game that has longer-lasting fights.
Read the Full Review

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Price: $49.99
Rating: Teen
Genre: Action
Subject Matter: A arcade-style shooter loosely based on the live-action G.I. Joe movie.
Value: G.I. Joe is a movie tie-in strangely reminiscent of Konami's Contra series. One or two players take control of their favorite Joes from the movie and take on Cobra across multiple levels of run-and-gun action. There are a few unlockables catering to fans of the old cartoon series, but other than that this is strictly a movie-lover's affair.
Buy it for: Really, really big fans of the G.I. Joe live-action movie.
Read the Full Review

Guitar Hero 5

Price: $59.99 for the game, $99.99 with a guitar controller included
Rating: Teen
Genre: Music/Rythym
Subject Matter: It's Guitar Hero. You play a quintet of color-coordinated "notes" as they scroll downscreen to a new selection of music.
Value: Guitar Hero 5 offers a great suite of single and multiplayer modes, the most robust options yet for the series. What it doesn't offer is the series' most attractive soundtrack, despite an 85 song strong line up. Good for the new Guitar Hero gamer, but that money may be better spent on downloadable songs.
Buy it for: for Guitar Hero noobs who have extremely eclectic taste in music.
Read the Full Review

inFamous

Price: $59.99
Rating: T
Genre: Open-world action game
Subject Matter:Gritty adventures of an electricity-based super-hero from the makers of the Sly Cooper series.
Value:Designed to be played through twice to explore two distinct moral paths.
Buy it for: Super-hero fans and folks who like Grand-Theft-Auto style open-world games.
Read the Full Review

Katamari Forever

Price: $49.99
Rating: Everyone
Genre: Planet-building action
Subject Matter: Katamari Forever offers a greatest hits style package of the Katamari Damacy series' more memorable levels. Players will roll the titular sticky katamari over objects, building bigger and bigger piles of stuff to replace the universe's missing stars and planets and ultimately please the King of All Cosmos.
Value: At $49.99, Katamari Forever is the most expensive entry yet, a high price for a game that's largely rehashed content. But the content is vast and offers plenty to play. Sadly, there's no online component to help extend the experience.
Buy it for: the fan of quirky games who somehow missed every other Katamari Damacy game or the kid that longs to make snowballs in the summer time.
Read the Full Review

Killzone 2

Price: $59.99
Rating: Mature
Genre: Single-person shooter
Subject Matter: Killzone 2 takes the fight to the Helghast, with an invading force landing on Helghan.
Value: Even though this game landed back in February, you would be remiss if you forgot to check it out. Next to Uncharted 2, this is one of the top games for the Playstation 3. The chunky single-player experience backed by 32-player multiplayer matches makes this a very good deal as well.
Buy it for: Anyone with a Playstation 3 who some how missed this title when it first hit.
Read the Full Review

The King of Fighters XII

Price: $59.99
Rating: Teen
Genre: Fighting
Subject Matter: SNK Playmore's latest entry in its King of Fighter series is a return to its roots with 2D fighting and hand-drawn graphics.
Value: The game feels largely unfinished — though, the parts which are done should please the hardcore fans.
Buy it for: Die-hard SNK fighting game fans.
Read the Full Review

Madden NFL 10

Price: $59.99
Rating: Everyone
Genre: Sports
Subject Matter: The only video game licensed by the NFL, covering the current season.
Value: For the first time on the current console generation, Madden earns its must-own status among sports gamers. The fine-tuned action is slightly slower, creating greater big play potential on both sides of the ball.
Buy it for: Any sports gamer who doesn't yet have it. Madden is a no-brainer gift that any sports fan will enjoy.
Read the Full Review

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

Price: $59.99
Rating: Teen
Genre: Action RPG
Subject Matter: Tons of Marvel heroes take on tons of Marvel villains
Value: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 may not quite live up to the thrill of the original, but it is a more cohesive package overall, with a storyline ripped from Marvel's Civil War storyline and a good dozen hours of heroic fun for 1-4 players.
Read the Full Review

Marvel VS. Capcom 2

Price: $15.00
Rating: Teen
Genre: Fighting
Subject Matter: Marvel characters. Capcom characters. Fighting.
Value: Marvel vs. Capcom 2 contains one of the largest roster in fighting game history, with 56 Marvel and Capcom characters to choose from. The sheer amount of variety plus online multiplayer makes this one downloadable title well worth the price.
Read the Full Review

Mini Ninjas

Price: $49.99
Rating: E
Genre: Juvenile Bush Disguise/Phantom Removal
Subject Matter: Play as one of a band of adorable child ninjas on a quest to kill a bad guy and free the adorable little forest animals.
Value: A somewhat short singleplayer game, but the ability to play as one of several ninjas means there's plenty of replay value.
Buy it for: Anyone. Everyone. Kids will love the straight-forward combat, adults will find there's a great stealth and combat system lurking under the hood.
Read the Full Review

Modern Warfare 2 Combat Controller Camo

Price: $49.99
Rating: N/A
Genre: N/A
Subject Matter: This wireless controller features programmable buttons, better triggers and a Modern Warfare 2 theme.
Value: It's a bit pricey, but if you're a big fan of the game and like the idea of programmable buttons, it's probably worth the $50.
Buy it for: Fans of Modern Warfare 2.
Read the Full Review

Modern Warfare 2 Combat Controller Camo Faceplate

Price: $14.99
Rating: N/A
Genre: N/A
Subject Matter: This faceplate snaps onto your Playstation 3 controller.
Value: For $15 it's not bad, but not a great deal. Consider it a cheaper alternative to buying a new controller.
Buy it for: HUGE fans of Modern Warfare 2.
Read the Full Review

Modern Warfare 2 Combat Wireless Headset

Price: $39.99
Rating: N/A
Genre: N/A
Subject Matter: This wireless headset gives weak lip-service to Modern Warfare 2.
Value: The painful design and static-filled connection makes this a bad deal.
Buy it for: Someone you hate.
Read the Full Review

NCAA Football 10

Price: $59.99
Rating: Everyone
Genre: Sports
Subject Matter: The tradition and pageantry of college football's 115 teams, plus any schools you might choose to create.
Value: NCAA Football 10 is the deepest simulation of a sport, on and off the field, of any currently available sports title.
Buy it for: Any sports nut with a serious helping of school pride or leftover nostalgia for college days gone by.
Read the Full Review

NBA 2K10

Price: $59.99
Rating: Everyone
Genre: Sports
Subject Matter: NBA 2K10 celebrates the 10th anniversary of 2K Sports' best-in-class basketball simulation.
Value: NBA 2K10 offers a much more varied set of gameplay modes, both single- and multiplayer, than its challenger NBA Live 10. Its season simulation lacks the aspect of playing in this year's league but is deeper in all other regards. My Player, in which you create and control one player on his journey from prospect to all-star, is tough but a rewarding experience.
Buy it for: Serious basketball fans with some exposure to the sport in real life, either as a player or a devoted fan.
Read the Full Review

NBA Live 10

Price: $59.99
Rating: Everyone
Genre: Sports
Subject Matter: NBA Live 10 is EA Sports' current title covering pro basketball's upcoming season.
Value: EA Sports has poured a ton of effort into resurrecting the franchise. New controls enabling you to move players off the ball on offense and defense are easy to learn and a real plus. Dynamic DNA allows you to run your season simulation as if it were taking place among current league events in real life.
Buy it for: Basketball fans who prefer singleplayer sports gaming, want a very accurate league simulation, and an easy-to-comprehend control set.
Read the Full Review

NHL 2K10

Price: $39.99
Rating: Everyone 10+
Genre: Sports
Subject Matter: NHL 2K10 is 2K Sports' current title covering professional hockey's latest season.
Value: NHL 2K10 is still a runner-up to EA's NHL 10, but it is not without merit. It features the same robust multiplayer package as its NBA cousin. The action's a little arcadey, but it also is the only NHL title with the league's popular outdoor classic venues.
Buy it for: A casual-to-moderate hockey fan who enjoys lots of scoring action.

Read the Full Review

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising
Price: $59.99
Rating: Mature
Genre: Realistic military first-person shooter
Subject Matter: Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising is a relatively open-world tactical shooter that has players trying to take the fictional island of Skira from China.
Value: Plagued with problems this shooter doesn't deliver much for the premium price you pay.
Buy it for: hardcore fans of realistic shooters that offer no chance for mistakes or do-overs.
Read the Full Review

Pro Evolution Soccer 2010

Price: $59.99
Rating: E
Genre: Sports
Subject Matter: Football title encompassing international and club tournaments, manager modes and online play.
Value: Pro Evo's "Master League", a time-devouring game mode incorporating RPG and strategy elements, is the one area fans remain devoted to this series ahead of its rival, EA Sports' FIFA.
Buy it for: Football fans who like to not only play a good game, but also roll up their sleeves and get lost in a sea of statistics and growth charts.
Read the Full Review

Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack In Time
Price: $59.99
Rating: E10+
Genre: Third-person shooter (Ratchet sections); Third-person time-manipulation puzzle-platformer (Clank sections).
Subject Matter: The third PS3 Ratchet is still an action game, but has a stronger than normal narrative, as Ratchet discovers he's not the last of his species, while Clank discovers his origins.
Value: A bombastic single-player campaign full of spectacular cartoon visuals is designed to be replayed, with new content and missions available only after the first play-through is complete.
Buy it for: Jaded Ratchet fans who were waiting for the series to feel special again; fans of cartoon visuals who don't mind their entertainment feeling like a fun all-ages sci-fi adventure.
Read the Full Review

Resident Evil 5

Price: $39.99
Rating: Mature
Genre: Survival Horror meets third-person shooter
Subject Matter: The latest iteration in the famed survival horror game ditches a bit of the slow pacing and fear for a bit more of an action feel.
Value: A worthy addition to anyone's library, but perhaps not the sort of game you'll keep around after it's completed.
Buy it for: fans of Resident Evil and those interested in the premise of the franchise but not in the steady pacing of the gameplay.
Read the Full Review

Street Fighter IV

Price: $29.99
Rating: Teen
Genre: Fighter
Subject Matter: The next iteration in the storied and fabulous fighter brings with it a dynamic new look and a death grip on classic mechanics.
Value: Packed with playable characters both old and new and a mechanic that is timeless, the online play and in-room versus mode make this a great deal..
Buy it for: fighting fans, Street Fighter fans.
Read the Full Review

Tekken 6
Price: $59.99
Rating: Teen
Genre: Fighter
Subject Matter: Once you've mastered the moves of your favorite character, Tekken 6's 3D fights are all about timing and tactics.
Value: With 40 playable characters and a seemingly endless single-player campaign, Tekken 6 is a good deal for fans of the franchise willing to put up with some online issues.
Buy it for: fighting fans, Tekken fans, and maybe as a taste of something different for Street Fighter IV fans.
Read the Full Review

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Price: $59.99
Rating: Teen
Genre: Action adventure third-person shooter.
Subject Matter: A well-crafted story and pithy dialogue is backed by solid third-person shooter action, stunning Himalayan backdrops and a smattering of puzzles to solve and things to climb.
Value: The story-driven campaign will only take up about eight hours of your time, but the plentiful and creative mulitplayer modes are sure to be a lasting time drain.
Buy it for: anyone with a Playstation 3. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is destined to be one of the best games of the year.
Read the Full Review

WET
Price: $59.99
Rating: Mature
Genre: Third-person acrobatic shooter.
Subject Matter: Rubi Malone is a leather-pants wearing, wall-running, pole-spinning death machine. She can shoot two shotguns while flipping through the air, slide under tables to hamstring and gut with her sword, and regains health by swigging liquor.
Value: The single-player only game has a sizable campaign, fantastic music and troubled controls and camera work. It's sort of a mixed bag.
Buy it for: fans of Kill Bill and fast-paced action noire games.
Read the Full Review

Wolfenstein

Price: $59.99
Rating: Mature
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Subject Matter: World War II First-Person Shooter with Occult Tendencies
Value: While Wolfenstein is an excellent first-person shooter from a technical standpoint, the story is a bit far-fetched and the multiplayer is disappointing, especially in the face of games like Modern Warfare 2.
Buy it for: First-person shooter fans looking for a little something different.
Read the Full Review

WWE Smackdown Vs. Raw 2010
Price: $59.99
Rating: T
Genre: Pro wrestling
Subject Matter: WWE wrestling, with deep customization options allowing players to create and share their own characters, moves and — the big new addition — storylines.
Value: High value for those who will take advantage of the online play and content creation/sharing.
Buy it for: WWE fans, even those who don't like current WWE programming, since those disgruntled fans can create the WWE of their own liking using the game's deep editors.
Read the Full Review