Gamers

Open-world games from opposite ends of the spectrum, "Fallout 3" and "Fable II" offer different experiences, while both focus on going one's own way.

As "Alien" proved decades ago, a spaceship is a great place to unleash monsters against an overmatched crew. The extreme isolation of deep space is nerve- wracking enough; throw in a slobbering monster or two, and things really go south.

Taken as a pure game-play experience, "Little Big Planet" is as simple as can be.

Warhammer: Battle March, Wipeout HD, more

"Armored Core: For Answer" posits the typical cheery sci-fi game scenario of Earth's future: Having ravaged the land, humanity now lives in huge structures called Cradles that float high above the dead wastes that huge corporations still battle over for resources.

LEGO Batman, Kirby Super Star Ultra, Insecticide Part 1

De Blob, TNA Impact, Super Mario RPG

Sometimes a good, dumb action game is just what the doctor ordered. Take these two.

"Mega Man 9" looks, sounds and plays exactly like classic "Mega Man" titles for the Nintendo Entertainment System. But calling the game a throwback doesn't sound right.

Mario's jerk of a counterpart hasn't had a game of his own since early 2007's "Wario: Master of Disguise." But now he's in the spotlight again with "Wario Land: Shake It!"

Once again, Square Enix has taken one of its classic role-playing games and updated it for the new millennium.

When "Rock Band" arrived on the scene late last year, it was a pretty big deal. It took the idea of a game played with an instrument-shaped controller and expanded it into a four-piece ensemble with a microphone, and a special drum kit and guitar controllers.

There's a part in the most recent Harry Potter film where Dumbledore and Voldemort face off. All the fabulous powers of magic that have been hinted at in the previous four movies come to bear at once as the two wizards manipulate fire and ice and wind and water in a titanic duel.

Welcome to the fall. It's the time to rake leaves, watch football and enjoy the latest sports video game releases.

A good-looking strategy game that at first resembles the "Fire Emblem" titles, "Yggdra Union" has its own spin on turn-based tactics.

"Spore" is the ultimate sandbox game. It allows players to go nuts designing their own life forms, evolving them step by step from their single-cell stages into land-based creatures, then moving on to command a growing tribe, a worldwide civilization and a space-faring empire.

The second in Square Enix's "Final Fantasy Fables" line starring the series' mascot yellow bird, "Chocobo's Dungeon" is a dungeon crawl in the vein of the "Pokémon Mystery Dungeon" titles.

It's a strange coincidence that "Space Siege" and "Too Human" would arrive so close together. Both are sci-fi takes on the "Diablo" dungeon-crawler formula (minus the random dungeons), and both deal with the balance between humanity and cybernetic enhancement.

Available only through Toys "R" Us stores, "Soul Bubbles" is a mellow little puzzle game about guiding vulnerable souls to the next world.

Early in the Xbox 360's life, gamers saw a flood of old arcade games released on the fledgling Xbox Live Arcade, and it was good – kind of.

Ivalice has become Square Enix's favorite world to visit.

"The Bourne Conspiracy" serves as a banner example of how to make a game based on a movie.

"Soulcalibur IV" may not be the quintessential one-on-one fighting game, but it's certainly the quintessential "Soulcalibur."

In "Hail to the Chimp," several members of the Animal Kingdom are vying for election to the newly established presidency, and they have to secure enough clams (not a euphemism – these are actual clams), the largest and most easily swayed voting bloc, to win.

As someone who has played every version of Madden football, it has been intriguing to follow the game's evolution on its 20th anniversary.

Updates and re-releases of classic games are common these days as game makers target the nostalgia of the first generation to grow up with a console hooked to the TV.

"Guitar Hero: Aerosmith" is the latest title in the popular rhythm-game series, and its focus on the veteran Boston rockers limits its appeal.

A defensive title with an amusing visual gimmick, "Defend Your Castle" isn't a great game, but it's a fun one to watch. The player guards a construction-paper castle on one side of the screen, using the Wii Remote to stave off invading stick-figure men with button heads who wield Popsicle sticks and other everyday-object weapons.

The Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console has been a great way to revisit an impressive (though not comprehensive) selection of vintage games, not only for past Nintendo systems but for such one-time rival consoles as the Sega Genesis, Turbografx-16 and Neo Geo.

World-building games are nothing if not massive and involved.

"Hellboy: The Science of Evil" is a decent enough action game and not bad for a licensed product, either.

The first "Battlefield" game to be exclusive to consoles, "Bad Company" adds a little personality to the cookie-cutter soldiers of the series, as well as a proper single-player campaign.

A little more than two weeks ago, Blizzard Entertainment announced that "Diablo III" was well into development. For the legions of fans who still play the classic RPG "Diablo II" eight years after its release, this was terrific if not entirely unexpected news.

The "Spore Creature Creator" isn't actually a game. It's a teaser for the upcoming game "Spore," scheduled for a September release on PC and Mac.

We last saw Solid Snake in action nearly six years ago in "Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty." And that was only for the first couple of hours of the game, after which the gruff, stealthy hero was reduced to supporting a whiny upstart called Raiden, to the dismay of many fans.

The word "Extreme" in a video-game title tends to trigger a reflexive cringe in most gamers, especially when applied to a remake of a genre classic.

Just as the original "Command & Conquer 3" made the jump from PCs to consoles, so has its first expansion, "Kane's Wrath."

"Boom Blox" could be called Knocking Things Over: The Game. It's a physics-based puzzle game – the player must use the Wii Remote to throw baseballs, bowling balls, bombs and other items at stacks of blocks.

Most "Pokémon" games are basic RPGs in the "Final Fantasy" and "Dragon Quest" style, with the player controlling a Pokémon trainer and sending his little pets into battle.

Three shooters, three time frames, countless bullets: "Conflict: Denied Ops" takes place in the present day, "Frontlines: Fuel of War" is set in the future, and "Turning Point: Fall of Liberty" covers an alternate past.

With "Big Willy Unleashed," "Destroy All Humans" and its resident alien troublemaker, Crypto, move forward another decade, into the 1970s.

Master ninja Ryu Hayabusa returns as the hero of "Ninja Gaiden II" when his clan's mountain village is burned (again) and bad guys make off with an ancient and powerful relic (also again).

First the "Star Wars" saga was made into a charming video game starring LEGO characters; now it's Indiana Jones' turn.

As if girding himself for battle, 19-year-old Joe Hill of Placerville hunkered down in front of his flat-screen monitor and ran his hand, lovingly, over his multi-colored, back-lit Saitek Cyborg keyboard.

Forty years in the future, the world relies on private military corporations for military work.