So it should come as no surprise that Skyrim is everything you’ll want it to be and more. Gone are things you thought you’d miss, like weapon’s degradation and the level of granularity for upgrading skills, but don’t. Added are things you never knew you wanted, like duel wielding weapons/spells, a streamline character creation system, and crafting systems for potions, weapons and armor.

There’s someone out there that’s going “They dumbed it down for a console audience” – and that was my first impression as well. However, after spending over 50 hours in Skyrim, I’ve noticed two things: 1) There aren’t a terribly large amount of mechanical differences between Oblivion and Skyrim and 2) The changes that were made were things that we were hampering the experience for new players.

This game begins like most of the others. Four hundred years have passed since the Oblivion crisis. You’re a prisoner on your way to be executed for unknown crimes along with a ‘traitor’ to the empire and head of the resistance. You’re about to be killed when a dragon, which hasn’t been seen in ages, lays waste to the town. It isn’t just any dragon, but the prophesied Aludin The World Eater, a dragon said to bring about the end of days.

Players then learn they are ‘Dovahkiin’ or ‘dragon born’ meaning they are one of few capable of speaking the dragon’s language, used to cast special magic, and might be able to help slay or banish Aludin.

The main plot has plenty for you to do and will see you running all over Skyrim. To make things more interesting, dragons randomly populate the world – so you can expect a ‘boss’ fight of sorts at random times when dragons show up.  Furthermore, there are a number of side quest lines you can complete like joining the Mage’s College of Winterhold, joining the Dark Brotherhood, the Thieves Guild and more. There are also innumerable smaller quests that populate the world, along with randomly generated quests that the game’s AI comes up with on the fly. There is almost an unlimited amount of game for you to enjoy.

That being said, I found that the ending of Skyrim’s main quest line somewhat abrupt. I was in the last quest and didn’t even realize it when I started my final combat and ended the game.  It wasn’t nearly as personal and didn’t grant me the satisfaction completing Oblivion did.

The one other criticism is that Skyrim, like all games in the Elder Scrolls series, is glitchy. Very glitchy. Aside from my console locking up once, getting stuck once and a giant killing me and launching me into low orbit over Tamriel – my experience had no game inhibiting hiccups.

If you’re into open world games, this is it. I haven’t played Uncharted 3 or finished Modern Warfare 3 – but I think my search for this year’s Game of the Year is over. Bluntly – I’ve not had as much fun playing anything else this year.

The Good

The only game you’ll ever need: Skyrim is huge. You could probally invest well over 100 hours and still not experience all of the content.

Streamlined, not dumber: Many mechanics are somewhat streamlined while layering new content on top of it – this does not mean that they’ve ‘console-ified’ it. They’ve also made early decisions less critical.

Pretty! Oh so pretty!: … For an Elder Scrolls game. A lot of time has gone into overhauling how the game looks and it pays off. It may not be the best looking game of this holiday season but there’s something impressive about a entire town’s guard fighting a dragon.

The Bad

Runs out of fire: I found the main storyline’s ending couple quests to be … lacking. Your mileage may vary.       

The Ugly

I can haz DLC?: You know its coming. It’s just a matter of when.  Oh, and no horse armor, please.

Since the ending of the last game, Gotham has closed Blackgate Prison and Arkham Asylum in favor of opening a new super prison in a walled off section of city called ‘Arkham City’. In this rundown part of the city, criminals roam free and are looked over by Tyger, a private security group, who report to Dr. Hugo Strange. Strange has a plan for Arkham City and its society of super villains… and an ace in the hole: he knows that Bruce Wayne is Batman.

Where Arkham Asylum played it safe by confining itself to a small group of well constructed villains from Batman’s rouges gallery, Arkham City opens itself up, offering up more of Batman’s villains than Asylum and interconnects them well. Mr. Freeze, Victor Zsasz, Penguin, Two Face and more are present, including a terminally ill, Joker.

Arkham City succeeds where most superhero video games fail because it treats the character with the utmost respect. The story feels intelligent drawing upon the lore behind Batman’s villains and incorporating the story from the first game creating an experience that pushes closer to perfection.

Where Arkham City pushes story a clear step further, combat is a step forward, then a step back. Gone is the combat’s rigidness, but it’s replaced by inconsistency. Moves that should connect don’t, timing seems less important – it overall feels less solid than Arkham Asylum did. At the same time, it’s less structured and more varied. Gadgets, combos and character upgrades play a greater role and enemy encounters are more organic, with less rigid combat vs. stealth setups. So maybe it’s more like half a step forward, half a step backward.

The formula from Arkham Asylum hasn’t changed – Arkham City still follows a Metroidvania design philosophy: play, find a bunch of things you can’t get to, play more of the main story, get a new gadget, go back and find those places are now accessible. However, where Arkham Asylum fell apart towards the end, Arkham City excels and provides the most satisfying jaw dropping ending I’ve seen in a while.

That is, unless you have the Catwoman DLC installed. The DLC, while fun, sabotages the base game’s pacing. If you buy the game new, download the Catwoman DLC after finishing the base game.

Overall, Arkham City inches us closer to Batman perfection and provides another demonstration of what superhero games should be. Perfect? No. Am I eagerly waiting to hear about the inevitable third game? Yes.

The Good

I am batman… again: Rocksteady took the idea of ‘If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.’ and applied it in most of the right ways – save for combat which feels … off.

Everyone hates the bat: The villains list for Arkham City is impressive to say the least. Chances are your favorite is here.

More content than there are gadgets on Batman’s utility belt: Arkham City has a plethora of side content you can explore at your leisure (even after the end of the game) including 400 Riddler trophies – and there’s even more if you have the catwoman DLC.

The Bad

Just out of reach: Combat is deeper in this game, but it feels just slightly off. I found that I was ‘out of range’ of certain enemies at some points or that I couldn’t pull off attacks like I used to in Arkham Asylum. It’s more nitpicky than anything, but it is frustrating when you need to restart a fight because your ‘flow’ is knocked off by the game responding weird.

The Ugly           

No keys: No Batmobile this time. And the Batjet only makes a quick appearance. While no vehicle play is probably for the best until they can get it exactly right – let’s hope we get the keys to the kingdom next time around.

Rage tries to be many things. A first person shooter, driving game, mini-game collection, role playing game, and open world game. Unfortunately, it fails in a multitude of ways.

Most of Rage’s first person shooting feels clunky. Most weapons feel loose and weightless and combat doesn’t get interesting until the more advanced weapons. Most enemies either take cover or running straight at you, making gunfights feel bland.

Rage has many minigames. There’s a luck based dice gambling game, a music rhythm game (this seemed glitched as each of the five waves had the same notes), a ‘war’-esq collectable card game, and a version of five finger fillet. None of these is terribly good; they’re just brief, shallow distractions.

The ‘RPG’ elements are limited to looting corpses and picking up random items. You can sell these items or learn recipes to make stuff you’ll likely never use.

The driving is the only thing that resembles anything remotely fun and amounts to maybe ten percent of the game. Races are mostly optional, but you can participate to get extra parts for your cars.  Otherwise, driving is only done in the two overworld locations getting from linear mission to linear mission. So much for ‘open world’.

The third of the game’s three discs has multiplayer racing and co-op missions, but these don’t help raise the experience beyond mediocrity.

Even Rage’s story is weak. ID Software’s titles are never known for their stories; Rage is no different, despite its feeble attempt. It has a razor thin plot, some of the least compelling cast of characters ever, and the story feels like the prolog for something greater, but it ends abruptly.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: In the not too distant future, humanity goes underground in vaults arcs to survive a nuclear holocaust asteroid colliding with earth. Some stragglers left on the surface pick up the pieces; others go crazy from radiation turning them into ghouls mutants. One group of vault arc dwellers, called the enclave authority, use advanced technology to rebuild the government through force. You awaken from your vault arc and eventually join the resistance.

In spite of everything, Rage is beyond pretty. Running at 60fps, it feels smoother and has more detail than any console game – but like most ID games, it feels like the technical demo waiting for someone else to make a game with it.

It’s impossible to recommend Rage. It’s a bland mess of half-baked ideas strung together incoherently. Even its most promising ideas prove frustrating because they weren’t developed into anything fun.

The Good

Magic the Rage-oning: Rage Frenzy, Rage’s card game minigame, is the most fun of the minigames. You’ll find cards in the world and collect them to boost your deck, but it’s unfortunate there aren’t more cards, unique cards, and online play.

The Bad

The Thing Resembling a Story: Rage’s story reminds me of a zombie. It gets up, shambles around, don’t really go anywhere, then keel over.

The RPG mechanics: The collecting of stuff, in-game economy, and crafting systems are very ‘me too’ but shallower than most.

An Empty World: If you spend tons of time building nice outdoor environments – put some content into them. Even worse, don’t have a message pop up that says ‘HEY – LET’S DO A SIDE MISSION NOW’ – it breaks the immersion you’re working so hard to create.

The Ugly

This is ZZzzzZZZzzz….: Rage is late to the party. By six or seven years. Released earlier in the 360’s lifecycle – I might feel differently, but compared to shooters, Rage doesn’t play well and attempts to compensate in other areas for it’s primary gameplay mechanics feeling sloppy. Rage commits the greatest crime of ANY entertainment medium: It’s boring.

Final Recommendation: There are other, better FPSes out there. Pass on Rage.

Notes: Our copy of Rage for Xbox 360 was provided by Bethesda for the purposes of this review. Campaign was completed to 100% on normal – played all of the mini games and a bit of multiplayer.

“Knights of the Old Republic 2” and “Neverwinter Nights 2” aren’t terrible games but they don’t hold a candle to their predecessors, and this year’s “Alpha Protocol” was a downright abortion. So I booted up “Fallout: New Vegas” with low expectations.

Fundamentally, “New Vegas” is nothing more than a glorified retail “Fallout 3” mod. Sure, it’s an entirely new world with new quests and new characters, but also new bugs. A lot of new bugs. This game needs the Orkin man and Terminix folks to join forces with the makers of Raid bug spray. I encountered plenty of glitch game issues, some broken quests, horrendous loading times, issues where I got stuck in the terrain, and more. However, “New Vegas” is a conundrum in that it’s fun in spite of itself and at some points, even better than “Fallout 3.”

“New Vegas” sees you as a courier who’s taken a job to deliver a “platinum chip” to the city of New Vegas, but on your way, you’re ambushed in the Mojave Desert and are shot in the head. You wake up to find the chip gone and revenge the only thing on your mind. But through getting your revenge you’ll end up taking part in a grand plot that will seal the future of New Vegas and the denizens of the Mojave.

When you aren’t getting stuck in mountains or having weird dialog problems, you’ll be doing major and minor quests for any number of the hundreds of NPCs in the game. You’ll find yourself aligning yourself with one of four major factions, some of which prove mutually exclusive as the game continues. These different factions have different ideologies and affect the ending of the game. Companions you pick up and the minor factions you find will also play into the ending you get, making each decision even more meaningful.

The VATS pseudo-turn based combat system is back along with the skill and feat system of “Fallout 3.” In fact, most of the gameplay systems are relatively unchanged. The lockpicking and computer hacking minigames are back, some of the skills are tweaked ever so slightly, there are some new crafting elements that have been expanded upon and the companion system has been upgraded. The companion system probably received the most work, as your compensations can now store items, equip things you’ve given them, be healed and given rudimentary directions. Some even have their own quests.

All in all, “New Vegas” can be best described as “‘Fallout 3,’ but sometimes better and with more bugs.” If you didn’t play “Fallout 3,” start there, it’s much cheaper. If you loved “Fallout 3” and can put up with “New Vegas’” quirkiness, you’ll probably enjoy it just as much.

The Good

What happens in Vegas… : “New Vegas” has so much to explore and is filled with a lot of the quirkiness and charm of the previous games. You’ll always be finding new things as you explore the wastes and the factions provide you with a decent level of direction and purpose in the world.

Nice Touches: Obsidian was smart. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.  So the majority of the game is left the same from “Fallout 3.” Minor tweaks were made, but nothing earth shattering.

The Bad

What the Frak?: I don’t know how in the h–l this game passed QA testing. I understand that it’s an open world game and they’re crazy to test, but there’s no reason it should take minutes to load regions of the world or save my game.

The Ugly

That’s it?: “Fallout 3” originally wouldn’t let you continue playing after you finished the game and the public outcry made Bethesda fix this in one of the DLCs that was released. But for some reason “New Vegas” ends in a way that also blocks off your ability to keep playing, and for seemingly no good reason. And this is on top of the ending feeling somewhat weak to begin with. I’d rather just keep exploring the wasteland.

Alex Mason is a Special Forces soldier assigned to assassinate Fidel Castro, but is captured after the assault. This leads him on a journey to recover his memory and missing time as he goes about stopping an international incident between the US and Russia during the cold war.

The game’s story leads you down some predictable paths; I figured out the overarching plot about half way through the game. It’s not terribly deep but it does take you to interesting places such as Cuba, Russia, and Vietnam – you’re also tasked with flying helicopters and driving boats.

It feels like a very high budget movie in the same way that “Modern Warfare 2” did; but this is less of a character story than “Modern Warfare 2” was, lacking strong characters such as Ghost, Soap, or Captain Price. The only character worth their salt is Reznov, played by Gary Oldman; he’s holdover from World at War that gets you started on your path.

The campaign is at least as long as “Modern Warfare 2’s” was, if not longer, and has the standard set of completely multiplayer modes. On top of that, it is also packed with extras like Nazi Zombies, Dead Ops Arcade, and more. “Call of Duty” multiplayer is largely the same, you still level up, albeit seemly quicker than usual, and you still unlock gear. The main difference this time around is the ability to gain points through matches, wager them, and use those points to unlock specific things. A seemingly minor change ends up having pretty significant ramifications – allowing you to get things like scopes and weapon add-ons without making you jump through hoops.

Nazi Zombies is also back and includes two maps, one unlocked from the get go with the old characters from World at War and a special map that I won’t spoil here – but let’s just say you get the presidential VIP treatment. These maps are the classic World at War Nazi Zombie gameplay, but with Black Ops’s new weapons. Dead Ops Arcade is another included hidden map that plays a lot like the classic twin stick arcade shooters of old like Midway’s “Smash TV,” but with zombies.

“Call of Duty Black Ops” is a game where the package is greater than the sum of its parts. No one particular thing is outstanding, but there’s a lot to do that’s fun. A lengthy fun campaign, engaging multiplayer, Nazi Zombies, and Dead Ops Arcade – it may not be the best game this year, but it probably is one of the best first person shooters and most well rounded packages this year.

The Good

Bullets are their greatest weakness: There’s a lot to shoot and you should have a fun time doing it. “Black Ops” is never boring and you’re always itching to play that next mission.

What’s in the Box?:  As a package, there are few games that offer the breath of gameplay that’s in “Black Ops.” The campaign may have lost Co-op, but Nazi Zombie should fill the void.

The Bad

Leader and Follower: One other big complaint about the mission structure seems to be designed to lead players by the hand through the whole game – you’re constantly following a given AI player. It’d be nice to be the leader for once and feel like you’re actually in charge of something.

What the people want: There are only two Nazi Zombie maps; one of which is locked. This means that Activision will likely do what they did for “World at War” and make us pay through the nose for additional maps.

The Ugly

Status Quo: “Black Ops” is another big budget roller coaster of a game – but the peaks and valleys stick closer to the baseline rather than truly doing anything new or breathtaking. The big issue is that Activision seems to have found a formula that works and is going to run it into the ground..

“The Force Unleashed 2” is the sorriest Star Wars video game ever to be released.

I wasn’t even a fan of the first game, but it was a respectable effort and a sequel should have fixed all of its existing problems. Instead, “The Force Unleashed 2” is a shorter, simpler game. By shorter, I mean it’s only five or six hours long, start to finish. And by simpler, I mean they removed any sort of depth in regards to game mechanics or story. I’ve never accused a game of insulting my intelligence as a player, until now.

The game picks up with the light side ending of the first; this is mainly notable as your character, Starkiller, is dead. But that isn’t a problem for “Force Unleashed 2,” as you find that Darth Vader has cloned his secret apprentice and the Starkiller clone goes on a short jaunt around the galaxy to reconnect with old friends from the first game and name-worthy characters in the universe. But, if you’ve seen anything regarding how Yoda or Boba Fett is in the game, just ignore it. Yoda is in it for all of five minutes of non-playable cut scenes and Boba Fett is in it for even less than that.

Any meaningful questions the story brings up are only paid lip service to and are left unresolved. The endings even wreak havoc on the established canon. But all could be forgiven if the gameplay was good, right? Well, sorta. The gameplay is almost exactly like the original “Force Unleashed,” except a bit easier to play and with fewer upgrade paths. There’s overall just less to do, though – the entire game can be completed in an afternoon, there are only 11 short challenge missions, and the light side/dark side path can be chosen at the very end, only requiring you to replay the last mission.

“Force Unleashed 2 is fun” … sometimes. But the lack of depth and new abilities really cripples the experience. It ends up being more of the same, but with absolutely no advancement over the previous game. If you wanted to compare it to the movies, it’s not “A New Hope” and definitely not “Empire Strikes Back.” At best, it’s “Return of the Jedi,” but only the parts with the Ewoks.

The Good

Quick Burn: The experience, start to finish, is five to six hours. Unless you played it again, but why would you want to do that?

The Bad

B-O-R-I-N-G: Short games can forgiven if the experience is creative, fun and mind blowing. Unfortunately, “Force Unleashed 2” just blows. The gameplay never feels challenging and you feel like a god among mortals. Most games with sequels have the main character suddenly losing all his powers from the previous game to level the playing field. Instead, “Force Unleashed 2” has you steam roll over 90 percent of your opponents as if you were

Second verse, same as the first: You’re Starkiller. You’re over-powered and slaughter empire troops. If you’ve played “Force Unleashed 1,” you’ve been there done that. If you haven’t, you’ll get almost nothing from this game.

The Ugly

Flash Familiar: “The Force Unleashed” series is notable as being part of the official Star Wars universe and just as valid as any of the movies. This allows it to fill in gaps in the universe in that time period void between Episodes 3 and 4. Unfortunately, all that seems to mean is that they just throw notable characters around without having them actually do anything rather than taking the opportunity to add new depth and an interesting story. George Lucas, you’ve failed me for the last time.

“Comic Jumper’s” humor is off the charts and often had me in stitches in much the same way “Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard’s” self referential, game themed humor plucked the right strings. Unfortunately, “Comic Jumper” also borrows “Eat Lead’s” inconsistent and often frustrating gameplay.

“Comic Jumper” is at its strongest when either the inept Captain Smiley or his wisecracking chest ornament, Star, are talking. The dialog is some of the best in any comedic game. The pacing of the jokes, interplay between characters and general campiness all work in “Comic Jumper’s” favor. At various points, all I could think about was think about how great a “Comic Jumper” TV series could be with its rich, expandable universe and interesting characters.

Captain Smiley stars in the appropriately named “The Adventures of Captain Smiley” up until it’s canceled due to the fact that everyone thinks it … well… sucks. Captain Smiley, now broke, is rescued by Twisted Pixel, the game’s developer, and given a chance to guest star in other hero’s comic books and earn money by solving their problems – there by hoping to save up enough to eventually re-launch Captain Smiley’s own comic. Many of Smiley’s own villains are also out of work and are hanging around or take up other gigs – even Smiley’s own arch-nemesis, Brad, is loafing around waiting to capitalize on Smiley’s misfortune.

Unfortunately, to get to all the funny stuff, you actually have to PLAY the game. It wasn’t until I watch Captain Smiley’s “mega man” based death animation multiple times that I started to “get” the game – “Comic Jumper” borrows a lot from old console games and early 90s arcade titles in terms of difficulty and design. There is no way to regain health; other than through the use of “super moves” which restore all your health (it’d be nice if the game told you these gave you all your health back) and have Twisted Pixel team members come kill all the enemies on screen. The game switches between side scroll beat’em up and shooting sections, quick time events, and moving on-rails shooter sequences. It even has elaborate pattern based boss fights.

The problem is that a game as funny and accessible as “Comic Jumper” is shoehorned also by its difficulty. Sure, you have unlimited continues and you aren’t really penalized for dying, but after dying in the same section for the 20th time, you’re probably going to give up – and some parts are just that punishing. Those in love with retro gaming will dig the classic vibe the gameplay gives – but if you’re easily frustrated, you might just wanna keep on trucking.

“Comic Jumper” follows Captain Smiley and Star through nine different comic books in three different series, book ended by the end of Smiley’s old book and the re-birth of his franchise. The three different types of comic books allow for some hilarious interplay between Star and Smiley that even carries over into the game hub, where you can interact with Smiley’s villains and reminisce on certain things in their base of operations. The three different books, a “Conan the Barbarian” inspired world, a silver age style comic and a Japanese manga are all perfectly executed and are littered with enough small comic, game, movie, and cultural reference jokes, you’ll probably see new stuff even after playing each level a couple times.

“Comic Jumper” stands out among the rank and file as being a quality, unique, funny title with one grave flaw: It’s hard. If you like frustration, challenging games, old school games or are willing to bang your head against the wall to play one of the smartest and funniest titles this year, x-box live arcade or otherwise, give “Comic Jumper” a whirl.

The Good

Star & Brad: Star and Brad are easily my two favorite characters in “Comic Jumper.” Both have outstanding, fresh and consistently funny dialog that drove me to play even when I wanted to break my controller in half.

A Rich Tapestry: The fact the visual style, not to mention the main character’s style, change depending on the book is impressive  to say the least. “Comic Jumper” is a pretty game.

Ba-ba-brad! - I love the music. I made my wife change my ringtone to Brad’s theme song.

You, The Master of Unlocking: There are plenty of unlockables, including new levels for Twisted Pixel’s other game, “‘Splosion Man” (I’ve heard good things about that title as well). There’s also a small upgrade system to upgrade Captain Smiley throughout the game.

The Bad

You’re dead now. And now. And now.: You’re going to die. A lot. If you can deal with this, great. If you can’t, just hang it up.

Puddle Jumper: It’s a short lived trip. The nine comics end quickly with most probably being able to finish the game in a day to a few days. There are also challenges, but another couple levels, maybe in one more setting, would have helped to make this feel a little more substantial considering the $15 asking price.

The Ugly

A difficulty for my dad: Seriously, I can’t believe people are still shipping games without some sort of “casual” setting. My dad loved this game (he played the demo, still might buy it) – but I can’t help but feel he’s eventually going to get stuck and never be able to finish it mainly because the game is WAY too hard for him and he’ll miss out on all the humor. Developers, just put the casual setting in so EVERYONE can finish your game and experience all of the content you worked so hard to make.

Details: ”Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley” is $15 and available now on the Xbox 360 through Xbox Live Arcade. A free review code was given to us by the developers to conduct this review.

Chuck Greene and his daughter, Katey, escaped Las Vegas before an outbreak there destroyed the city and killed Chuck’s wife. The only problem is Katey has been infected and needs a drug called Zombrex every 24 hours to keep from turning into a zombie. To make the money to keep Katey alive, Chuck, a former motocross superstar, is forced into participating in the game show “Terror is Reality” where contestants win money by killing more zombies than one another. Of course, something goes horribly wrong, the zombies escape, infect the spectators, and Chuck is framed for setting them free.

Blue Castle Games picks up the ball from the original Capcom team responsible for the first game. But unfortunately beyond mention of events that happened in the first game, “Dead Rising 2” is pretty divorced from the original title. To make matters worse, many of the first game’s unanswered questions still go unanswered.

You’ll spend most of your time uncovering the mysteries beyond the outbreak, saving survivors, killing psychopaths and of course, maiming a plethora of zombies. You’ll get a number of hand to hand combat moves and items that can be combined into “creative,” often funny, weapons. Combine nails and a hammer, you’ll get a spiked bat. Combine a pitchfork and a shotgun, and you get a … pitchfork-gun. Combine gems and a flashlight and you get a light saber. OK, so maybe they all don’t make sense. Or are even realistic. But the zombies get dismembered and killed. Again.

“Dead Rising 2” doesn’t introduce too many changes over the first game, but online co-op and competitive multiplayer are both welcome new additions. Both have issues, but are fun in their own right. Co-op plays basically like the base game, but just with another person. So, yes, it’s fun to play the game with someone else; the experience is essentially the same. Competitive is much more interesting, though.

“Dead Rising 2’s” competitive mode is stylized around the fictional game show in the game, “Terror is Reality.” It has nine different multiplayer events that are reminiscent of “American Gladiators,” but… you know, with zombies. Everything from driving around an arena with chainsaws taped to your motorcycle to sticking all sorts of novelty items on zombies for points. It’s fun, but it’s a little light on options. On the positive side though, you can take the money you earn in the multiplayer mode and move it into the single player game to give yourself an edge.

One of my biggest issues is with the heavy difficulty spikes in “Dead Rising 2’s” opponents. The psychopaths are set up in such a way that you may not know you’re going to fight one until you get there. Unfortunately, the psychopaths are so difficult that unless you go into a fight prepared and know the tricks for beating that boss, you’ll likely end up having problems.

Minigame Madness: There are lots of fun little distractions in “Dead Rising 2.” Many of them can help you gain experience and money, but most of all they’re fun.

So many zombies so little time: You can destroy zombies in so many ways with so many weapons that you’ll likely have lots of fun just discovering the various ways to cull the horde. It never gets old.

The Bad

A tale of many frustrations: “Dead Rising 2” has one fatal flaw and that is that often the game does seem brutally hard for no good reason. If you’re easily frustrated and discouraged, you might want to pass or check out the downloadable title, “Dead Rising 2 : Case Zero,” first.

The Ugly

Baby Steps: If anything is disappointing about “Dead Rising 2,” it’s that the enhancements made to the game are very minor. Co-op and Competitive multiplayer are major additions, but the single player game is relatively unchanged beyond minor tweaks.

Recommendation: If you like killing zombies and have patience, “Dead Rising 2” will provide lots of zombie killing fun.

The Covenant has come to the planet Reach looking for something and you and the rest of Nobel team will fight a war of attrition that you cannot possibly win. That’s right. Based on the rest of the canon story for Halo, Reach, and everyone on it, is completely destroyed. Meaning you, eventually, lose. For those that read the books, your disappointment will grow. At its best, “Reach” fails to deliver on the epic battles the book promises and at worst, the game flat out contradicts the book’s narrative.

Aside from the substance of the story, the way “Halo: Reach’s” story is told is without a doubt the best of the series and the road to getting there is build on a solid technical ground. This is the best looking, sounding, and playing game of the group. That being said, “Reach” reeks of “Been there, killed that.” Beyond being the most polished game in the series, there’s nothing really new.

Yes, equipment has been changed into “armor abilities” and there are some new powers, weapons, and maps. There’s also more customization. But “more” is not “new.” If anything, we have the last game, “Halo: ODST,” to blame for the lack of newness. Firefight was one of the biggest additions to the series, and yes, it’s back, bigger, and badder than ever – but it’s nothing we haven’t already experienced. This makes “Reach” feel like more of a greatest hits collection than a solid outing on its own.

Bungie has also changed the leveling system. It now crosses both the single player and multiplayer modes – everything you do in the game, from killing enemies, getting medals, receiving commendations (like meeting special objectives), and completing daily and weekly meta online challenges – nets you credits which serve as a form of experience points for your character, but also serve as currency for purchasing cosmetic armor customizations, death effects in multiplayer, and voices for your character in the firefight game play mode. This is the closest thing resembling something “new.”

Despite my reservations and dare I say disappointment, “Reach” is a decent game. Long-time fans will probably love it. It’s a great introduction for new comers and is probably the best of the series. But if you thought “Halo 3” was a bit weak or you were running outta gas on “ODST,” you might want to pass. Ultimately, “Halo: Reach” is yesterday’s Chinese food. It might be better than it was on the first day, but you know what to expect and no one magically added shrimp to your chicken lo mein in the middle of the night, no matter how much you wanted them to.

The Good

Nobel Indeed: “Halo: Reach” is the best Halo game. No lie.

Master Chef: They incorporated all the best elements from the other games. Forge, multiplayer modes, firefight, user generated content, single player, and stat tracking. It’s all here.

The Bad

It’s a duck: It is a Halo game. If you didn’t like the others – you probably won’t change your mind now.

Quack: Nothing new here. Just a duck.

The Ugly

It’s your canon – I’ll cry if I want to: You authorize the official books and then change the story? I was promised Saving Private Ryan and all I got was Pearl Harbor. All flash, no substance.