The Darkness II takes players down a brutal and personal path as Jackie Estacado, wielder of The Darkness — an ancient and ruthless force of chaos and destruction. Based on the supernatural horror comic book series created by Top Cow Productions, Inc., The Darkness II breaks out of the sea of conventional first-person shooters with its fervid Quad-Wielding gameplay, which will allow players to slash, grab, and throw objects and enemies with their Demon Arms while simultaneously firing two weapons. The game is layered with the use of dark versus light, steeped in deep and twisted storytelling, and engulfed in stylistic violence that is visualized through a hand-painted graphic noir technique that stays true to its comic book origins.

Rico returns to action in the sequel to Avalanche Studios’ gargantuan action game. Just Cause 2 stars Rico Rodriquez, back to wreak havoc once again, this time with a new destination — the huge playground of the South East Asian islands of Panau. The sequel features more stunts, vehicles and weapons than ever before and an incredible overhauled grappling hook system.

A bold new direction in open-world freedom, storytelling, mission-based gameplay and online multiplayer, Grand Theft Auto V focuses on the pursuit of the almighty dollar in a re-imagined, present-day Southern California.

For the most part, the reaction to the last few Need for Speed games was the same: “Why aren’t they more like Need for Speed Most Wanted?” “Where are the cheesy cutscenes and the over-the-top cop chases?” It seems as if EA heard those cries, because for better or for worse, Need for Speed Undercover feels like Most Wanted.

Heists figure into some of the most legendary plots in movie history, and now with Payday: The Heist, this cinematic trope becomes an interesting shooter concept. Overkill Software has done a great job with this innovative idea, which throws up to four players into robberies modeled along the lines of those depicted in flicks like Ocean’s Eleven and Heat. The PC/PlayStation 3 game is geared for multiplayer, although the artificial intelligence is good enough that you can play solo without missing out on too much of the crazed intensity offered up by robbing banks and shooting it out with the cops who invariably want to stop you from making off with any ill-gotten gains.

Considering Virtua Tennis was once the king of tennis games, its latest iteration is particularly disappointing, doing little to keep up with competition from 2K’s excellent Top Spin 4. The graphical tweaks are nice, and the new minigames are fun, but at its core, Virtua Tennis 4’s position-based shot mechanics are essentially identical to those in the 1999 arcade original. They’re easy to pick up, but they feel dated and unrefined by today’s standards, giving fans of the series a distinct feeling of deja vu and making you crave greater control over the ball. It’s not as if there’s fun content to play through either. The career mode is inherently flawed, the online options limited, and the Move implementation is terrible.

The world of Albion is brimming with a vibrant personality that few imaginary worlds are able to match. While strolling down cheery forest lanes with a soothing melody permeating the air, it’s easy to lose yourself in the fantastical atmosphere that encompasses this adventure. The quirky citizens you meet along the way are all too willing to make jokes at their own expense or send you on a ridiculous side quest that will leave you laughing at your given duties while admiring the stunning sights along the way. And it is these elements that make Fable III such an enjoyable adventure, even though the other aspects of your journey are not nearly as interesting. Subtle changes have further simplified the already uncomplicated gameplay mechanics of Fable II leaving an adventure that hardly requires any thought to complete. Streamlined combat and limited morality options make the life of an adventurer somewhat predictable, and a lack of emotional connection to any of the characters–including your dog–makes your entire journey feel slight. But even with some stumbles along this golden road, Fable III’s enticing aesthetics make it a pleasure to traipse through this fairy tale land.

Beyond the limits of civilization lies an island, a lawless place ruled by piracy and human misery, where your only escapes are drugs or the muzzle of a gun. This is where you find yourself, trapped in a place that’s forgotten right from wrong, a place that lives by the principles of violence.

The world of Tyria, as imagined in the massively multiplayer Guild Wars 2, is an endlessly intriguing place, stuffed with mystery and adventure, gifting you with gorgeous sights and personal stories that etch themselves into your memory. These are the kinds of stories you tell for months to come–and they arise from your own spontaneous experiences. There’s the one about how you and your guildmates emerged from chilly waters into an ominous thunderstorm, captured a tower from the enemy, and escaped from a roaring crowd of necromancers and rangers before they could deliver you to the devil. Then there’s the one where a giant lightning-breathing dragon landed in a dark-misted field, and you joined a legion of soldiers to cleanse the land of its blight. Guild Wars 2 strips away the traditional game of “follow the waypoint,” allowing you to feel like part of a vast living landscape rather than the tool of a thousand and one taskmasters.

In this third Guild Wars campaign, players must fight to hold back the night as a mad ruler attempts to free an outcast god and bring darkness to the continent of Elona. But players won’t fight alone. Guild Wars Nightfall introduces new customizable Heroes who level up, follow player instructions in combat, and use skills and equipment of the player’s choosing. These Heroes will follow the player through savage coasts, ancient monuments, and poisonous deserts during an epic story that spans twenty missions and hundreds of quests.