Twisted Metal

This Twisted Metal packs the best multiplayer the series has ever had. But you still have plenty of options if you want to wreck shop solo and face off against massive boss characters. Unlike past Twisted Metal games, the latest Twisted Metal divides its story between just a small selection of characters, including Sweet Tooth, Dollface, and Mr. Grimm. During Sweet Tooth's campaign, everyone's favorite demonic clown runs into the Brothers Grimm -- the first major boss. An intimidating encounter, considering the "boss" is actually two house-stomping monster trucks equipped with a small nation's worth of weapons. This battle will heighten blood pressures within moments. Both trucks unleash devastating ordnance onto the stage causing buildings to erupt and cars to swerve in response. The trucks also release a shockwave attack that requires a well-timed jump to avoid.

RAGE

The RAGE story setup is simple: the world was nearly wiped out by an asteroid and you emerge from an underground vault. Blinking in the bright light of the sun, you take a few moments to admire the scenery and are then abruptly attacked. Id's wasteland is not a friendly place. Most of those you meet in Rage desperately want to kill or capture you, and gradually you begin to find out why. Despite the presence of upgrade systems, mini-games, side quests and car racing challenges, Rage is primarily a shooter. It's a fairly traditional shooter, too, favoring smaller zones of combat instead of the open spaces seen in Far Cry 2 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Larger explorable areas exist in id Software's wasteland, but they're merely playgrounds for the vehicles.

Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle

Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle primarily takes place one year following the events of Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva, in the fictional city of Montdol. Montdol, sometimes referred to as the city of miracles, is a sleepless, European-inspired town in the middle of a carnival as the game begins. Legends state that the town was created with the power of the Mask of Miracle, an artifact capable of granting wishes to the person who wears it. The mask has been donned by a man known as the Miracle Gentleman, who has used the mask's power to transform people into things such as statues and horses.

LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars

LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars covers seasons one and two of the popular animated series. Fans of the show get to act out their favorite moments (albeit as adorable LEGO characters), playing a variety of characters ranging from powerful Jedi to the lowliest droids. And like the other LEGO games, players have to use each character's unique abilities to overcome enemies and environmental puzzles. The puzzles and combat in LEGO Star Wars III aren't amazing. You might occasionally be surprised at a moment where a puzzle is genuinely clever, but they mostly either held my hand entirely or made the solution so obfuscated that they were frustrating rather than rewarding to solve.

Journey

In Journey, the player takes the role of a robed figure in a desert. The game features no map or instructions, only a large mountain in the distance that the player journeys toward. While traveling the player can encounter other players, one at a time, if they are playing online. Players cannot speak to each other, but can help each other in their journey or not as they wish. Players met online will not be identified with a username and voice or text communication will not be possible with the other player. According to designer Jenova Chen, "it's about two strangers who meet online.

Kingdom Hearts Re:coded

Jiminy Cricket organizes his two journals chronicling Sora's journeys one of which contains the "Thank Naminé" line he had written at the end of Chain of Memories when he discovers a second line he doesn't remember writing: "We must return to free them from their torment" (rewritten as "Their hurting will be mended when you return to end it" in Re:coded). King Mickey has the contents of the journal digitized to investigate this second message, only to find the datascape has been corrupted with bugs, which take the form of red-and-black blocks. Mickey thus guides a virtual Sora named "Data-Sora" through multiple worlds in the datascape to debug the journal, which includes destroying the digitized Heartless that appear.

PixelJunk Shooter 2

Pixeljunk Shooter 2 places you in control of a tiny vessel, which, in case you didn't play the first title, has been eaten by a gigantic alien life form. Spoilers. You have to battle your way through the guts of the alien and through a bunch of other stages, rescuing scientists and collecting gems in order to progress. Along the way, you get to blast foes, go for the high score, and solve some really cool puzzles. OK, maybe puzzles isn't a fair term; Pixeljunk Shooter 2 challenges you to see how certain elements like lava, volatile gas, ice and water in the environment play off one another. For instance, you might have to use water to cool lava or use lava to blow up some volatile gas that's filling a cavern. Just like the first game, each stage is full of moments where you intuitively figure out what elements you need to mix together in order to progress.

SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs

In SOCOM 4 you play as Cullen Gray, the Ops Commander on a five person NATO team, trying to stop a crazy revolutionary from destroying a waterway and taking over an unnamed Southeast Asia country. Only Gray and Forty-Five, the two playable characters, get any sort of character development. The other three are just there. If you want a better story than "five dudes defeat an entire army" look elsewhere, but the voice acting is well done, even if some of the lines are ham-fisted ("Here's his pen. Make sure you stab him with it."). SOCOM 4 is a squad-based game with a few stealth missions thrown in. As Ops Com you can issue commands to your team, moving them into position, marking enemies, or making sure the squad keeps it tight as you infiltrate enemy bases.

Tomb Raider: Lara Croft Reborn

The game begins with Lara devoid of any weapons, tools or essentials such as food and water, which the player must search for in order to survive. ections of the island are restricted to the player until Lara is able to perform specific physical abilities achieved via a "skill system", or obtained the necessary equipment to advance. Fresh from academy and in search of lost relics, a 21-year-old Lara Croft journeys to an island off the coast of Japan aboard the Endurance, a salvage vessel helmed by Captain Conrad Roth. Before anchoring at bay, the ship is cleaved in two by an unforeseen storm leaving Lara separated from any other survivors and washed ashore. She must endure both physical and emotional torture in order to survive the island.

UFC Undisputed 3

UFC Undisputed 3 feels better and more accurate than any other mixed martial arts game before it. Great modes like Title Mode, Title Defense, and Ultimate Fights have returned, along with a ton of new features. There are the big features like Pride mode, the addition of Bantamweight and Featherweight divisions, and a streamlined career, but also a host of little things, like "finishing the fight" by attacking your opponent until the ref pulls you off for a TKO, ring entrances, leg TKOs and a variety of new submissions, that give the whole package an extremely polished feel. The unprecedented amount of depth in UFC Undisputed 3 and its newfound accessibility make it a great return to form for the franchise.

Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten

As with all Disgaea series games, combat is carried out in a turn-by-turn based stratgey. Allies can be deployed into combat, each with their own special skills and "Evilities", additional abilities that are applied to every character. Enemies and allies may be picked up and thrown, just like previous Disgaea games. However, Disgaea 4 adds a new feature to its grabbing system, allowing any friendly character on the field to pick up another adjacent friendly character, and continuously pick up allies, in a tower fashion. When in the tower formation, the movement range of the stacked characters increase.

Nintendogs + Cats

The game retains much the same style of gameplay as the original Nintendogs, including various breeds of dogs and cats as well as training exercises included in the first game. But, the tricks have been changed, for now when you teach your pet tricks, there is a limit to how many tricks you may do per day, and you now get a tutorial for each trick as you keep playing. You now no longer need to say the exact same name of the trick (e.g In addition to touchscreen and microphone input, the game also employs the system's camera along with facial recognition technology to interact with the player.

DJ Hero 3D

The game doesn't feature a turntable peripheral, so don't expect a direct translation of the console game. Instead, it's a touch-screen recreation: as notes flow down the on-screen turntable, you tap, stroke or scribble the stylus on the lower screen to follow along with the mash-up beat. You tap when a ball hits the beat line, you slide left or right when you have arrows telling you move the slider, and you scribble up and down to "scratch." All in time to the beat. While the in-game graphics were certainly on par with console versions – a testament to the power of the 3DS processor – the stereoscopic 3D effects were a bit on the weak side.

Project Draco

The game is a sci-fi yarn in which humans colonized an unnamed planet inhabited by dragons. The humans are able to befriend the dragons and control them. Enter Project Draco. The game is a Kinect rail shooter, but promises 180 degrees of freedom. You can control an array of dragons. Lean forward to go forward, and tilt your body left and right to go left and right. The screen is filled with enemy monsters that players shoot down with their dragon. Your right hand controls your main weapon, which varies from dragon to dragon. The game's developer, Yukio Futatsugi of Panzer Dragoon fame, wouldn't give an exact number of in-game dragons, but did offer that it would be more than five.

Academagia: The Making of Mages

Academagia: The Making of Mages is a whimsical fantasy life simulation and role-playing game set at the renowned Academy of Magic in the rich and dangerous city of Mineta. As a newly arrived teenager in a strange, vast school, you'll embark on adventures great and small, train your familiar, make friends (and enemies!), and master the shining arts and subtle laws of spell-casting. Day by day, you'll attend classes, build skills, compete for the glory of your College, and explore the history and powers of an ancient world of flying islands and fallen empires.