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Trinity Universe
I really appreciated the weirdness infused in Trinity Universe, because it's a welcome change from the status quo. Over the years I've poured tons of hours into many stuffy RPGs that took themselves way too seriously; it seems like all of those epic quests to save the world from destruction are moody and overly dramatic. That's why Trinity Universe stands out: Protecting a colony settled on a trans-dimensional hunk of space rock from wayward sushi, stuffed teddy bears, errant UFO's, traffic cones, and other bizarre junk that floats in from other galaxies puts a little zany spice into the mix. Unfortunately, it's not quite enough to mask the mediocrity that seeps into the game's quirky flavour.
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Transformers: War for Cybertron
Transformers: War for Cybertron is launching at an odd time for the franchise. Rather than follow the events of the successful movie franchise, it instead focuses on appealing to the thirtysomethings that grew up watching the original animated series in the 1980s.
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ModNation Racers
ModNation Racers is a racing game that evokes Mario Kart (and Little Big Planet). However, it deviates considerably from the Nintendo kart racing stalwart.
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Skate 3
Critics and fans alike lauded the first Skate title for its innovative control scheme and serious approach to skateboarding, but let's be honest: fans were just happy to have an alternative to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater's reliance on ridiculous tricks and insane combos.
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Nier
Nier is an average game at best, which is why it's so strange that I fell in love with it. It's a really strange feeling: there are numerous things about Nier that I found completely irritating, and yet, I was completely enthralled by it, becoming more engaged the more I played. Nier bills itself as an action/RPG, but really, it's a 3D action game that makes use of well-known RPG elements.
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Super Street Fighter IV
Fighting game fans have long been used to the necessary evil of the upgrade. A game comes out, people find a multitude of exploits and bugs, and designers step in to release a new version that adds fixes while also throwing in a few extra characters or modes to sweeten the deal. The Super NES alone had three different versions of Street Fighter II, for example, forcing gamers to spend extra money in order to get the latest version.
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Yakuza 3
It surprises me that the Yakuza series is often compared to Grand Theft Auto. Both games involve criminals in some way, but that's about where the similarities stop.
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God of War III
Talk about high expectations: as the final chapter in what is arguably the most successful action game franchise ever created, God of War III has a lot of things it needs to accomplish. One, it has to be a huge commercial success; two, it has to showcase the full capabilities of the PS3 hardware and raise the bar in terms of visual quality and gameplay refinement; and finally, it has to cap off the series' narrative arc in a way that not only meets fan expectations but brings all of the threads together into a cohesive and satisfying end.
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Final Fantasy XIII
I'm having a hard time admitting to myself that I don't like Final Fantasy XIII. By all accounts, I should love it and instead, I'm disappointed by it. It's not because Final Fantasy XIII is a bad game -- it's because it's not the game I wanted it to be. My disappointment runs deeper than that, though. I have a longstanding emotional connection to the Final Fantasy series and it feels to me like XIII is trying to break it off in an awkward, mean way. It's like a boyfriend I've been on-again, off-again with since middle school invited me to coffee. He can't just tell me "It's over," so instead he tells me he's married and lets me figure out the rest.
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Greed Corp
Before 90 per cent of households played videogames on rainy weekends, families would sit around a table and whip out a board game. You’ve probably heard of them – Monopoly, Chess and Scrabble are pretty much all that’s left, but once it was a thriving industry.
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White Knight Chronicles
White Knight Chronicles serves as a lighthearted and entertaining romp through a colourful medieval world, albeit one that never really breaks the archetypal JRPG mold.
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Vancouver 2010
All Sega gets for their efforts with Vancouver 2010: The Official Video Game of the Winter Olympics is a bronze.
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Heavy Rain
Fear is an easy -- dare I say cheap -- emotion that many games attempt to elicit from their players, with varying results. The emotion itself is fleeting, and the weight upon the outcome of the overall game is generally naught. Love, on the other hand, is an emotion that most developers stray away from, as the difficulty inherent in evoking such a broad mental state is immense.
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MAG
It's suddenly very quiet. I'm lying prone in the high grass with a scoped ATAC 2000, ready to pop up and nail any enemies foolish enough to try to come and clear my charges from their AA battery. We've been lucky so far: Only a couple minutes in and we've already taken down their bunkers, forcing them to spawn all the way back in their main base. If we can successfully keep the bad guys away from the AA, our drop planes will be free to buzz the battlefield -- meaning we'll be able to parachute onto the middle of the map rather than slogging in from the distant edge.
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Dante's Inferno
Game design feels like one big round of "follow the leader" sometimes: when a game does something successfully, everyone else tries to put their own spin on it. Grand Theft Auto 3 had that effect, leading to a bevy of like-minded titles that aped the concepts that made it so great. The God of War franchise has also left its own indelible mark and it's finally starting to show with titles like Bayonetta and Darksiders following in Kratos' deity-sized footsteps. Dante's Inferno is another chip off the old Grecian block but it exists somewhere in the middle of those two aforementioned titles: unlike Bayonetta, which took the formula and gave it a total glam makeover, Dante's hews closer to the tried and true; yet, unlike Darksiders, which was a little too familiar for its own good, it actively tries to do something different.
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Video games blamed for rickets surge
Computer games are being blamed for the surge in the number of children suffering from rickets.
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HP 2509p LCD monitor
A 25in LCD monitor with a stylish design, the HP 2509p's good looks come at the cost of efficiency. It provides reasonable image quality, but is let down by a highly reflective screen.
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Guitar Hero: Van Halen
If you're an obsessed Guitar Hero junkie like me, you probably have a list of bands you're hoping Activision will turn to for standalone Guitar Hero titles.
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James Cameron's Avatar: The Game
When Ubisoft and James Cameron announced the Avatar video game, they made it clear that they wanted to create a title that would not only raise the bar for movie tie-ins, but usher in a new era for the medium itself. That's a rather lofty aspiration, especially given the unfortunate track record already solidified by countless licensing disasters, but with these two powerhouses of entertainment joining forces for a brand new interactive entertainment experience, nothing could go wrong... right?
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Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
Few gaming franchises have maintained the consistent high quality found in Insomniac's Ratchet & Clank series of action platformers. From Ratchet & Clank's Playstation 2 debut to last year's short, but oh-so sweet downloadable continuation in Quest for Booty, the lombax/robot duo has set some well-earned high standards for other third person action hybrids to follow. A Crack in Time proudly continues this tradition with a slew of innovative new additions to the game's tried and true core formula, all the while keeping the trademark wit and charm that's served the series so well.