Call of Duty: Black Ops

Call of Duty is the Goliath of the video game world. The series has sold millions of copies and catapulted itself from a solid, World War II shooter to the sprawling multiplayer playground and Hollywood-style campaign that we know today. Call of Duty: Black Ops takes much of what made Modern Warfare 2 great and slightly expands and modifies it. That’s not to say that there aren’t mistakes to be found within Black Ops, but Call of Duty fans are going to be happy with Treyarch’s latest effort.

Red Dead Redemption

The American West has made actors famous and writers rich. It has inspired children on the playground and grizzled country singers alike. Its stories of heroes and bandits, gold rushes and simple homesteaders have been fictionalized and romanticized to the point that they’re known the world over. And yet, videogame makers have either ignored the setting or attempted to squeeze it into existing game conventions with limited success. That has all changed now that Rockstar, the group made famous for its Grand Theft Auto series, turned its eye towards the Wild West. No game maker has approached the period with as much passion and power as Red Dead Redemption. This is the new bar that all Westerns must strive to reach.

ModNation Racers

At first glance, this game is just another kart racer with HD graphics. It comes with a career mode, a plethora of colorful characters to race against and earn for your stable, and an experience point-packing online universe. But as you settle in behind the controls, you’ll find ModNation is so much more than just a kart racing game.

God of War III

God of War III is a tour-de-force in terms of its visuals, and it’s even more brutal than any of its predecessors. Yes, this is a very M-rated game, one filled with blood, gore and detached limbs, but what’s important is that it all makes sense. Greek mythology was filled with violence, and Kratos’ latest doesn’t hold back in all the right ways.

Halo: Reach

This is the end of the Halo road for Bungie — the group is set to move on to a new original game next while Microsoft takes over responsibility for the franchise’s future — and that sense of this being a finale is in Halo: Reach. It shows clear reference to past games, refines well-established game mechanics, adds a few exciting twists, and polishes the rest to a glossy finish. The result is one of the most complete, fully-featured packages you’ll find in gaming.

Fable III

A half-century has passed since the events of Fable II. The industrial age has come to Albion, and with it oppression, despair, and hunger. Children toil in factories while beggars line the smog-filled streets. A ruthless tyrant — the son of Fable II’s hero — sits on the throne, squeezing the life out of his subjects. Albion needs a new hero and that’s where you come in. As the brother or sister of the despot king, it’s your charge to amass an army sizable enough to overthrow the king and restore hope to Albion.

Super Mario Galaxy II

There’s no denying that Super Mario Galaxy is the foundation for Super Mario Galaxy 2. The sequel uses the same engine, same controls, and same basic concept. So if anything, the reason why Super Mario Galaxy 2 is so damn fantastic is mostly due to the fact that the team learned from the first game: what worked, what needed fixing, and how to improve on such an already masterful Wii creation. The result of that effort is one of the most refined and most fulfilling videogame experiences of this generation, which has taken gaming to unfathomable heights with the option to Buy LoL Smurf Account and various other personal gaming accounts.

Metroid: Other M

This Wii sequel, developed in collaboration between Nintendo and Tecmo’s Team Ninja (best known for its work on Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden series), is sort of a hybrid of a retro remake and a contemporary sequel: classic and familiar gameplay elements repurposed in a current generation experience. Metroid: Other M has been designed to utilize the Wii remote exclusively as its only way to play. This, along with a return to the third-person scrolling camera, brings back the feeling of the old-school Metroid experience, and ultimately Nintendo and Team Ninja succeed in that effort.

Kirby’s Epic Yarn

Kirby’s Epic Yarn is a fantastic game that might skew a little younger than experienced gamers might be comfortable with, but the subtle level challenges and the incredibly creative art direction is well worth the experience. This is an amazing looking game that embraces traditional plat-forming designs in fresh new ways.

Mass Effect 2

Mass Effect is one of my favorite games of the past decade. Despite its technical shortcomings, BioWare’s first in what it promised to be a trilogy took the role-playing genre to new cinematic heights. Mass Effect 2 is a better game in near every way. From the very first scene, you will be hooked. And the farther you dive into this epic action role-playing game, the better it gets. It fulfills the promise of its predecessor while continuing to push the boundaries of what we should expect in a videogame.

Fallout:  New Vegas

In New Vegas, the fun Fallout 3 formula is intact, with more polished combat, high-quality side missions, and the exciting setting of the Vegas strip. Unfortunately, the bugs also tagged along for the ride. If Obsidian and Bethesda had polished up the game by fixing the AI, improving the animations or even gotten it to run smoothly, perhaps it would feel less like a giant expansion of Fallout 3 and more like its own game. Be that as it may, Fallout 3 was a great game, so as similar as it is, Fallout: New Vegas is still a fun ride that offers more for fans of the series to enjoy. If you can look past its shortcomings, this is definitely a wasteland worth exploring.