NBA Live 09
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
If you're a basketball fan and a gamer, you probably feel compelled to buy a new NBA game every year for updated rosters if nothing else. This year, the one to buy is not NBA Live 09.
Fallout 3
Windows PC
Fallout 3 follows in the auspicious footsteps of role-playing/shooter hybrids before it, Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion and BioShock, widely accepted as Game of the Year in 2006 and 2007 respectively. '08 just might be the year of the Fallout. But maybe not...
Fallout 3
Xbox 360
Fallout 3 follows in the auspicious footsteps of role-playing/shooter hybrids before it, Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion and BioShock, widely accepted as Game of the Year in 2006 and 2007 respectively. '08 just might be the year of the Fallout -- on Xbox 360, anyway (the PC version could've been better).
LEGO Batman: The Videogame
Xbox 360
Seems this trippin'-the-plastic-fantastic thing just doesn't get old. LEGO Star Wars, LEGO Star Wars Complete, LEGO Indiana Jones and now LEGO Batman. So what's next? LEGO Terminator? LEGO Desperate Housewives? LEGO Jerry Springer?
NBA 2k9
Xbox 360
The battle of the basketball sims between EA Sports and 2K Sports has been going on for several years now and heading into the end of this decade, 2K Sports has edged its way into the lead, surpassing gameplay and presentation every iteration.
Saints Row 2
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Another entry into the go-anywhere, do-anything, simulated criminal behavior in a sandbox genre, THQ's Saints Row 2 is so flagrant in its courtship with controversy that it all comes off as quaint.
NHL 09
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
It would seem you only need to hit EA over the head with a 2 x 4 five or six times before it realizes a better hockey game. Then, like a bonus, it realizes the best.
NHL 2K9
Wii
How can a hockey game look so crappy and still be best-in-class? By being the only hockey game on Wii, of course. Best crap graphics money can buy, as it were.
D.I.P.R.I.P. Warm Up
Windows PC
Though "die in pain, rest in peace" seems a weak slogan for a car-combat game, D.I.P.R.I.P. is nonetheless a solid smash-bang vehicular shooter, mainly because it's based on Valve Software's superlative Source code. Think Half-Life 2 goes destruction derby.
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
As yet another WWII shooter, you might be inclined to dismiss Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway as derivative. But you shouldn't.
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