A lot of the early press has been favorable. The game outs you in control of Batman, as he fights off famous villains in the quest to take back control of Arkham Asylum, which has been overrun by The Joker.

I’ll be posting some promo videos on my youtube account. I will provide the link later.

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To this point, you really need something comfortable because we all know most gaming sessions don’t last an hour. They last hours and hours. And that’s a lot of time to be sitting on your rear.

Most gamers have access to a couch or comfortable chair. Others prefer a gamer’s chair, which range from bean bags to more sturdy offerings.

If you’re like me, you probably have both to choose from. Prior to Christmas, the Gamer’s Den had a recliner and a bean-bag chair that was seeing its final days. After Christmas, there’s a University of Georgia bean-bag chair (for my wife) and another one just for me that’s sure to make my ears bleed.

And that could be a good thing.

Christmas with the in-laws provided the Euro V Rocker. The name gives away one of the major functions, it rocks. However, there’s more to it than that.

The chair, made of durable material draped in leather, has two speakers at the top. It has an AC adapter to provide power and the chair connects to your television with stereo cables. Here’s where the fun begins.

This chair is loud. But honestly, it’s not painful to sit in it and play at the same time. The sound output is good and mirrors that of your TV.

The HDTV I have in the Gamer’s Den supplies 5.1 surround sound through its speakers, thus giving the same effect through the chair. Combining the chair’s sound with the television at full blast creates an immersive effect that’s great with first-person shooters and sports games.

You can also hook up an MP3 player to the chair if you’d rather listen to some tunes while playing. Also, there’s a headphone jack to mute the sound if you have others in the room who may not want to listen to a lot of explosions.

I found the V Rocker at several places Online for around $80. There’s also a wireless version and one that has armrests and also swivels. Those retail for a bit more.

I like the chair and it will also be nice to sit and watch Blu-Ray movies. It’s comfortable and doesn’t weigh much, so you can move it out of the way for easy storage.

When’s the next generation?

We are currently in the next generation of gaming, with all three consoles now vying for your dollars. There has been much debate as to how long this generation would last, especially with previous ones having around a five-year lifespan before new hardware was announced.

There have been many rumors that both Nintendo and Microsoft are close to creating new consoles. However, Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division president Robbie Bach recently told the San Jose Mercury News that the company is focused on improving the 360’s software library and upgrades to the system rather than concentrating on a new console at the present time.

Bach believes the lifecycles of these consoles will be longer than those of the Xbox, Nintendo Gamecube and PlayStation 2. The 360 was released four years after the original Xbox, and Bach believes factors such as the untapped potential of the new devices, as well as the current economic climate, make it more prudent to extend the life of these high-powered machines.

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In simple terms, there really aren’t any “ugly sweaters” when it comes to purchasing games. Of course, there are poor titles out there, but if you get one of the items soon to be listed, then you’ll be fine. Your favorite gamer will rejoice when discarding all the wrapping paper on Christmas morning. Heck, they may even say “thank you.”

Here’s a rundown of easy choices, broken down by each gaming system.

PlayStation 3

The list begins with Resistance 2. Get this game and your gamers will lock themselves away for hours and hours and hours.

The next must-have is Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. The sweeping saga of Solid Snake comes to an end, or at least an end for a year or two. The story and immense cut scenes are worth the price tag alone, but the action will blow you away.

Other titles that can bring a smile to a gamer’s face include MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, Little Big Planet, Fallout 3, Grand Theft Auto IV (if they have been under a rock and haven’t played it yet), Call of Duty: World at War and any sports game centered around football or basketball.

Some accessories worth getting include the wireless Blu-ray remote control, any Bluetooth headset and the wireless keyboard, which will be especially important once PlayStation Home is released.

Finally, since the PS3 also plays Bluray discs there’s no excuse not to buy The Dark Knight. While not a video game, it is the best movie of the year and will look even more spectacular in crystal-clear high definition.

Xbox 360

Jealousy of those 360 owners starts with Left 4 Dead. This zombie thriller takes survival horror to new levels. It’s great to play alone, but more fun with a buddy or two.

Xbox also has the exclusive Gears of War 2. This is a superb follow-up to the original. There’s lots of action, lots of explosions and lots of noise, which are hallmarks of a good experience.

Other titles sure to please include Fable II, Saints Row 2, Prince of Persia, Mass Effect (like GTA IV, if they didn’t catch it the first time), Call of Duty: World at War and, again, any sports game.

The most important accessory for the 360 is a hard drive. The 360 Arcade model doesn’t have much memory, and you need many gigabytes to save progress in games. Microsoft is offering a 20-gigabyte hard drive and three month’s worth of Xbox Live Gold for only $29.99 for a limited time on its Web site.

Nintendo Wii

Supplies of the console are more plentiful, but you may have trouble finding some top games such as Wii Fit. However, there are some slightly older titles still worth a look.

You can start with Mario Kart Wii, which has all the bells and whistles of the old games. It comes with the nifty steering wheel peripheral and provides hours of fun for you and your friends.

First-time Wii buyers should pick up Wii Sports. This continues to be a top seller and comes with an extra Wiimote, which is always nice.

Other games for Wii owners include Animal Crossing: City Folk, Wii Music, Star Wars The Clone Wars, and WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009.

Nintendo was at the forefront in putting out new peripherals and accessories pretty much right after launch. The newest toy is Wii Speak, which is a microphone that sits atop your television and allows for voice chat with friends using the Internet. Wii Speak is only $29.99 and comes bundled with Animal Crossing for $69.99.

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Resistance 2 is the followup to Resistance: Fall of Man, which was released in 2006 as a launch title for the PlayStation 3. The original gave glimpses into what the PS3 was capable of, and the newest rendition takes it several steps further.

The game is set in 1953, two years after an alien invasion by a race known as Chimera. They devastated Europe in the first game and now have made their way across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States. The situation in Europe was bad and it’s even more terrible in our homeland.

You return as Nathan Hale, a soldier who is halfman, half-Chimera, with the alien virus coursing through his veins. He requires treatments to avoid becoming 100-percent alien, but that’s not your concern. After all, his alien abilities help you heal, which is a bonus with everything that arises.

If Spinal Tap wanted to add an 11 button to its amplifiers, then Resistance 2 ups the action level to, oh, about 50. What started as decent-sized battles in the first game have transformed into what seems like insurmountable odds in the second edition.

There’s no time to catch your breath, which is a good thing. Well, good to test your skills, but not for your nerves or blood pressure.

Just when you think you’ve cleared a level another horde of enemies comes forward. Most of the time this happens when you have little ammunition left, leaving you scrambling for a new weapon and some cover.

You always have to be prepared, and the challenges put forth keeps you on your toes. The boss fights are colossal, in more ways than one, with many final-level enemies often 100 times your size. Plus, the game throws in secondary enemies while you’re trying to figure out how to kill these massive beasts.

Everything in this game is bigger than the first. That fact is most evident in the online play.

You can play in one of the many modes, including Team Death Match, Capture the Flag and Skirmish, which features, get this, up to 60 players. That’s right, 60. That’s an entire neighborhood or a person from each state and 10 countries battling with no lag.

There’s also a co-op mode for up to eight people. This version takes you beyond the original storyline and gives you more hours of enjoyment. And all of this, including the single-player mode, comes with full trophy support, a new feature recently added by Sony.

The impressive graphics are amped up in Resistance 2. There are no frame-rate problems, no screen tearing and the character models are rendered well. The immense battles continue without a hitch, making me wonder why other game companies haven’t been able to do the same thing that Insomniac Games did with the two Resistance games and subsequent releases.

But that’s a debate for another time. There’s no need to question what you get with Resistance 2.

You get an impressive game that is tons of fun. One can only imagine what the trilogy in this series will bring.

You can check out my complete list of review scores here.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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There’s no question both of those games are excellent titles and big sellers. If you’re good with a guitar or a set of drums, and you can keep up with the fast-paced notes on the screen, then those are for you. If you’re like the rest of us you need something a little more accessible.

Enter Nintendo with Wii Music, a game made for just about everybody.

There’s little fear when you boot up the game. You’re greeted by a friendly character, who guides you through the mechanics to play each instrument. The Wiimote and nunchuck are at the forefront, as well as the optional use of the Wii Balance Board should you own one.

You can practice with each instrument to delve further into the mechanics and sensitivity of the Wiimote. You also can jump right into a jam session by yourself or with a band, which plays along to the beat to help you create your song.

Jam sessions can be saved as videos, where you make an album cover and rate your recording, giving it a score of 0 to 100. Up to 30 videos can be stored on your Wii’s hard drive, with lower-rated productions replaced by higher-rated ones as you go.

There are more than 60 instruments. These range from the obvious, such as an electric guitar, drums, saxophone and violin. There also are offbeat “instruments,” which include hand clapping, a singer who makes strange sounds and a cat and dog suit for short and long meowing and barking notes.

The more jams sessions you finish the more instruments you unlock. Eventually the whole set will be at your disposal and that’s when you get down to business.

The song play list isn’t exceptionally deep, with about 50 songs to play throughout the game. This was a major knock by some other reviewers, but it’s a good starting point. Perhaps future editions of Wii Music will allow the ability to upload songs, which would be turned into a MIDI format for use in the game.

The fun part is you can play the song as it was intended by following bouncing notes to keep track. Or you can go your own way and make it something truly creative that doesn’t resemble the tune at all.

My first renditions were nothing like the song, nor were they particularly pleasing to listen to. But there was a second time and a third and a fourth and I was improving. Lessons in the game allow for even more improvement and focus on memorization skills, which is a benefit for all.

This is what makes this game so pleasing. You don’t have to be a master musician, and you don’t have to be the best at pushing buttons on a fake guitar at high speeds.

There’s plenty to do in Wii Music, from putting together all the pieces of a song by yourself or with friends or competing in one of three minigames. This was fun and the replay value is high. And it proves again that Nintendo has a knack for making good games.

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BioShock, the critically acclaimed game released in 2007 for the 360 and personal computers, was then what was deemed an exclusive title. However, more and more games are receiving limited exclusivity, much to the chagrin of owners of one system or the other who feel they have an edge over the competition.

Game companies aren’t like failed banks. There aren’t a bunch of idiots running the show, and BioShock’s developer, 2K Games, saw an opportunity on a new system to make some more dough.

The PS3 version is virtually the same as the others, but with a few tweaks. There’s a new level, called Survivor, which ramps up the difficulty. There also will be downloadable content in the near future, which is always a fine addition to any game.

For those unaware of the story, BioShock takes place in the underwater world of Rapture. What was once a breeding ground for strong minds in science and art quickly became a world bent on drug addiction, gene modification and a perverted pursuit of perfection.

You find out more of how things went terribly wrong through diary entries you pick up along the way. The local folks you meet, all of them angry by the way, also gives a glimpse into how twisted Rapture has become.

Battles with general enemies are fairly difficult, with the use of simple weapons such as a pistol, shotgun and machine gun. The key is using Plasmids, which allow the use of your body as a weapon by utilizing electricity, fire or ice, for example. Apparently, the 360 version required a download of more Plasmids, but all of them are available from the start in the PS3 version.

BioShock plays out like a typical first-person shooter, though the addition of using more than just bullets to destroy your foes is appealing. You can choose to blast your way though, but that often leaves you respawning again and again. BioShock makes you think more, which is a bonus.

The boss battles are plenty, and most surround the mysterious Little Sisters and Big Daddies, who protect them. This was all anyone heard about when the game came out last year, and how the Big Daddies were quite difficult. It’s more than true, and I found myself anticipating and also dreading the many encounters.

But, like all good games, there’s a reason to defeat the Big Daddies. You receive a force called Adam from the Little Sisters, which can be used for additional powers in the game such as telekinesis. The more Adam you gain the better chance you have of surviving.

BioShock is decently rendered for the PS3. Playing at 1080p full HD was a letdown, as other games, such as Resistance: Fall of Man, looked better. Many of the textures aren’t too deep and there is plenty of framerate hiccups. Again, I understand this same problem occurred on the 360, so it isn’t an isolated issue.

Rendering aside, BioShock is an exhilarating game and worthy of your PS3 collection. This is the tip of a string of great games to be released on all platforms in the next two months, and it shouldn’t be missed.

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Wiis are more plentiful, but don't expect to find one if you wait until Christmas

Nintendo is doing its best to appease the masses by saying there will be more Wiis available this holiday season. The company all but assured consumers there won’t be a shortage like the ones seen at the holidays in 2006 at the console’s launch and also in 2007.

The plan is to ship 50 percent more Wiis this holiday season compared to last year, according to Nintendo. The company admits it can’t pinpoint demand exactly, but the brain trust at Nintendo is smart enough to know people still want one.

What does that mean for our area? Probably not a whole lot, as we are a smaller market. If we lived in Atlanta, New York, Chicago or Los Angeles I’m sure we wouldn’t have any trouble finding a Wii close to Christmas.

The best advice I can give is if you want a Wii, or you want to purchase one for someone else, then buy it now. If you see one at the store it probably won’t be there long. Availability at area stores varies.

Wal-Mart typically has a large supply when they are shipped to the store, but are typically gone soon. Best Buy is in the same boat, and they usually have smaller quantities.

One call placed to GameStop on Tyndall Parkway Tuesday led me to believe that the best thing to do is head to several stores and hope to get lucky. The person who answered the phone said GameStop gets Wiis about every two to three weeks. They said the store had Wiis in stock as of the phone conversation.

A similar call to Wal-Mart produced the same result. The person on the phone said there were Wiis on the shelves and the store receives new shipments every Tuesday. They confirmed the suspicion that they go quickly.

This, of course, was taking their words for it and without any actual sleuth work by going to the stores. But the good news is you should be able to find one in October or maybe even in early November.

It may be increasingly difficult to find them as Christmas approaches. Even with heavier supplies, the demand will be high and the lines to grab the Wii will grow. If you walked into Wal-Mart today you might only have to wait a few minutes to get yours.

Another avenue is checking Internet sites such as wiitracker.com, which scours the Web for the Wii’s availability. The site tells you if the Wii is in stock and what deals can be found. On Tuesday, the site displayed a Wii bundle from Circuitcity.com for $400.

Metal Gear to the 360?

Rumors of an Xbox 360 port of Metal Gear Solid 4 were fired up at the Tokyo Game Show. IGN.com quoted a Konami representative as saying the company is looking into having the game on the Microsoft console.

Metal Gear Solid 4 released exclusively on the PlayStation 3 earlier this year, and creator Hideo Kojima has said the game was optimized for Blu-ray discs. But he also voiced some displeasure with the finished product due to his grand visions, so it’s not a great leap to think he might want to try it on the 360.

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The first game I chose was Endless Ocean. Yes, I’m aware it came out earlier this year, but it was a bargain title, listed at $29.99, so it worked its way into this latest column’s theme. You see, theme is important.

Endless Ocean

The game’s title speaks for itself. You begin by choosing your character, deciding hairstyles and the look, and then you’re placed on a boat to explore the fictional Manoa Lai Sea.

The aim is simple. You guide your boat to points on the map, dive and explore the water and chronicle your discoveries of various sea life.

Finding fish is easy, and all you do is wiggle the Wii remote to engage the animal. You can tickle the fish, stroke it or feed it. The more you do the more you learn.

You do the same for other animals, such as dolphin and penguins, which show up and hang out on your boat early in the game. You also can befriend animals and train the dolphin to do tricks.

There are various missions, such as being a tour guide or finding an artifact. You receive missions through e-mail and can choose which ones to do and when to do them.

Successful missions unlock items, such as night diving gear or new wetsuits. The game is fairly laid back and the rendering of the water and fish are decent given the Wii’s capabilities. The major drawback is there is no voice acting, so all conversations are in subtitles. This grew tedious and made the game less enjoyable.

As simulations go, I suppose this is as close to diving as you can get without actually getting into the water. It’s not a great game, but it’s not bad, either. Again, my thanks to GolinHarris. I’ll be in touch.

Score: 2½ controllers out of 4

Ratchet and Clank:Quest for Booty

This nifty $14.99 game is available by download on the PlayStation Network. It’s short, lasting a little more than four hours. It bridges the gap between the successful Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and the next game in the series due out sometime next year.

This is exactly what I expected. You get smaller doses of enemies and surroundings, as well as a little less humor than you’re accustomed to in these games. But, as I said, it’s what was expected. The missions, while not overly challenging, are fun. The enemies aren’t overly challenging, either, though on the game’s most difficult level they’re a bit tougher. Boss battles were tricky at first, but once you learn the patterns it’s no problem.

It might sound like I’m a bit ho-hum on this game, but I’m not. On the surface, it’s just another Ratchet game, but that’s exactly why it’s a must-buy for PS3 owners, especially for fans of the series.

Now if only they had a way where you could virtually “trade in” your downloads for cash like at the local Gamestop.

Score: 3 out of 4 controllers

Cheap avenues

There are plenty of options available on Xbox Live, PS Network and Nintendo’s Wii Shop Channel. Most of these titles are less than $15 and provide hours of enjoyment. New offerings are out each week.

Of course there’s the PS3 Greatest Hits or Xbox’s Platinum Hits at reduced prices.

PS3 recently released 11 Greatest Hits, for $29.99 each, including Rainbow Six: Vegas, MotorStorm and Warhawk.

Xbox 360 owners have a larger library of titles, for the same price, which includes Crackdown, Spider-Man: Friend or Foe and Kameo: Elements of War.

Be sure to check out my complete review list.

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However, we’ve been in the lull for several weeks, and the next batch of great titles still is a few months away. This was never more evident than when I took a recent trip to the nearby Gamestop.

I traded in five titles, and with my Edge Card 10 percent increase for trade-ins, I received more than $115 in store credit. A quick scouring of the used games on the PlayStation 3 side led to meandering to the Nintendo Wii section. Then back to PS3, then back to Wii and so forth.

In the end, there was nothing that grabbed my attention. So I paid for reservations on Resistance 2 and Call of Duty: World at War, both of which will be released in November. I’m hedging on my Call of Duty reservation, as the series returns to the World War II genre, which is way overplayed.

A decent throng of games is set for release in September. The brunt of the action ramps up in October on all platforms.

PS3 owners were treated to Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty, which is available for download on the PlayStation Network for $15. The next game in the popular franchise is a four-hour adventure bridging the gap between Tools of Destruction and the next edition due out in late 2009.

For the Wii faithful you have Mario Super Sluggers in stores this week. This game is arcade at its best, mirrored in Mario Strikers style with over-thetop action and fun for all. And, of course, the Xbox 360 folk have a constant array of updates on Xbox Live to tide them over until their lives are lost in Gears of War 2.

Here’s a glance at top titles tentatively set for release over the next three months. I say tentatively because you never know when games will be delayed.

To prove this point, the 360 exclusive Left 4 Dead, featuring loveable zombies, was pushed back to late November. This is one of those titles that hopefully will be ported to the PS3 because it looks pretty good. Other 360 exclusives include the new batch of Scene It trivia (Oct. 28) and the highly anticipated Gears of War 2 (Nov. 7).

Sony combats those releases with the MotorStorm sequel (Oct. 7) and Resistance 2 (Nov. 4).

And Nintendo has Wii Ware games, with many enticing choices to be had each week.

Games set for release on multiple platforms that are grabbing headlines are Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Sept. 16), Spider Man: Web of Shadows (Oct. 21), Fallout 3 (Oct. 28) and the next Call of Duty (Nov. 11).

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This isn’t to toot my horn. On the contrary, the story of this move revolves around my passion for gaming.

My wife was excited to have a larger kitchen. I was excited to see the room that drew my attention.

It was fashioned from what used to be a garage. New carpet and wood paneling frame the room, which has a window that allows just enough light inside for a peaceful atmosphere. My mind began to churn.

This was to be and now is the Milner Gamer’s Den. The back of the Den houses what I call the Fortress of Solitude, which is a two-level area screaming for children’s toys.

And in fact, if you ask our friend’s son, he would agree, calling it “his playroom.”

Currently the Den has all the gaming accessories, including the Nintendo Wii, the PlayStation 3 and all the controllers and peripherals in a nifty storage case. It also shelters my 36-inch Samsung 1080p HDTV, a table, a circular fan, a papason recliner and a gaming chair (soon to be plural, so long as a deal comes through). Future plans, when money is saved, include a new TV stand and wireless surround sound.

My wife was generous enough to allow me to create the Gamer’s Den. I think she’s happy that I have a place to make noise, while not disturbing the rest of the company in the living room. It’s perfect.

Ghostbusters no more?

Ghostbusters: The Video Game may not see store shelves after all. The merger of Activision and Vivendi Games led to expected picking and choosing of gaming franchises that will make money. Other less lucrative games and/or ideas may go by the wayside.

One of those is rumored to be Ghostbusters, which was not mentioned in the immediate list of a “strong fit with its (Activision’s) long-term strategy,” according to IGN.com. Crash Bandicoot, Spyro and Prototype are green lit as moving forward in the future.

Ghostbusters, a game centered on the movie from the 1980s, is tentatively slated for release in a little over two months. It’s possible the game will still hit shelves, and the likelihood is greater with the film’s starts such as Bill Murray reprising their roles. It’s also possible it will not.

Update, Aug. 7, 12:30 p.m.: IGN reported that Activision assured fans that the game will be released. However, the date of release is up in the air. IGN has a countdown clock pointing to a release a little more than two months away. A rumor is out that the company may wait until next year to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the film.

More Madden

Madden NFL 09 releases next week. The annual professional football game is again expected to be a top seller. This year’s rendition includes a few upgrades and tweaks in graphics, but it will probably boil down to being the same old Madden drivel.

Brett Favre is this year’s cover boy, which carries with it a jinx. He made news as being the only retired player to be on the cover. That was until he came out of retirement this week.

The interesting thing about Favre is that he’s not an active member of the game, at least the last time I checked a few weeks ago. He’s part of the all-time Green Bay greats team and has to be placed into the free agent pool to play with current rosters. This minor flaw could be fixed by launch or changed with a game update in the near future.

Update, Aug. 8, 10:43 a.m.: EA Sports announced there will indeed be a roster patch available for download on launch day that will have Favre as a member of the New York Jets. EA also will offer a downloadable cover featuring Favre as a Jet. There were no plans to repackage the game upon release. Oh, and EA predicts the Jets will win 11 games and make the playoffs with Favre.

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It wasn’t difficult to find real-time information on the event. Popular sites such as IGN and Kotaku had live blogs at each press conference. This was where you found out the big news and also where you found the fanboys, who loved to take the opportunity to flame the competition.

There’s really no need for me to get into the fanboys’ reactions. Fanboys are fanboys. They are annoying and they will go to their death feeling their favorite gaming system or company is better than all others and there’s nothing you can do, even with hard facts, to change their minds.

MicroSoft opened with news about a revamping of the Xbox Live interface, as well as the addition of avatars, which are like Nintendo’s Miis but with greater detail. The “huge news” according to some was that Final Fantasy no longer is a Sony exclusive.

This isn’t so much news as the continuation of a trend. Exclusive titles are becoming a thing of the past and Sony still has much to offer.

Nintendo came on Tuesday and introduced Wii Motion, a peripheral that hooks into the Wiimote to give real 1 to 1 motion sensitivity. Fanboys laughed at the new device, saying the Wiimote was supposed to work well at the start. Well, what this does is enhances the Wiimote and will open a new realm of possibilities.

Sony was last and if you ask any MicroSoft fanboy, they’d say it was the end for the company. Sony introduced downloadable movies and television shows, in  high definition and standard definition, to be released at the PlayStation Store Tuesday night. This was a smart step to try and gain some footing, as MicroSoft had a firm hold in that department.

There also was news of a shorter Ratchet and Clank game available for download sometime this summer for $14.99. Plus there were other games on display as usual.

Fanboys have a way of seeing the gold in everything their fave does, but if you ask me none of the companies made any earthshaking announcements. All three had decent conferences and all three will provide gamers with nice options this year and into early 2009.

My buddy John and I agree that this is the golden age of gaming. There’s something for everyone and the choices we have now are amazing when compared to even five years ago. Even a fanboy could agree on that.

For more on E3, click here.

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GTA IV

I don’t waver from other reviews. GTA IV is a superb video game. It’s the Game of the Year, easily.

Rockstar went to great pains to make this what it is. They delayed the release more than four months to tweak every angle of the game. Nothing was spared.

This tops GTA: San Andreas in the details.

The use of the cellular phone is more interactive, where you can set up dates, activities and call acquaintances to increase your levels of trust and respect. You also can customize your phone with ringtones and wallpapers or phone in a song to receive a text message with the title and artist. And if you’re in a pinch you can dial 9-1-1 to procure a police vehicle.

There are other subtle touches such as the use of GPS in certain vehicles, providing more destructive environments and creating a truly free roaming world. Pedestrians act in their own way, with some getting into fights or being involved in car crashes. They also won’t stand by while you try to do your dirty work, either.

The detail of Liberty City, patterned after New York City, is striking and beautiful to gaze upon. The missions are more difficult and rewarding and the storyline is what you come to expect from Rockstar.

Enough said.

Score: 4 controllers out of 4 

Mario Kart Wii

The return of Mario Kart is a huge hit and just as fun as the previous definitive version that appeared on the Nintendo 64. This incarnation, exclusively for the Nintendo Wii, comes packaged with the Wii Wheel, which places the Wiimote in the middle of the peripheral to provide an immersive feel.

The goal is to win races. The more you win the more you unlock, including vehicles and more tracks. And believe me winning is addictive in this game.

This version also enables users to play Online against competitors from all over the world. You receive ranking points based on your finish and you can see where you stack up. You also can try to beat time trials on every track, and your standing is displayed among the thousands of other who tried their luck.

There is a mix of old and new. Fans of the original will find the use of classic tracks as a nice touch, while new gamers will enjoy the intuitive controls and better graphics.

Mario Kart is great solo, but even better with a group of friends. This game is competitive but gives you enough quirky stuff, including all those special powerups and weapons, to tone down the attitude. 

Score: 3 controllers out of 4 

Rainbow Six Vegas 2

I admit I was spoiled by Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. But weeks after playing both games I realized that Rainbow Six Vegas 2 not only didn’t live up to that game but it failed to advance past the first one in the series.

You are dropped back into Las Vegas, trying to stop terrorism and all that jazz. But the story goes by the wayside and honestly I couldn’t care less what happened to the characters.

This first-person shooter had clunky controls and a shoddy aiming mechanism. The ability to run was added, but even that was worse because you couldn’t fire while doing so.

There was no upgrade in the graphics and there were many glitches. The artificial intelligence was horrid and the addition of multiplayer was a nice move but not implemented nearly as well as in Call of Duty.

This game is average at best.

Score: 2 controllers out of 4

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