Playstation 3 Holiday Buying Guide: Top 5 Games to Gift

5. Assassin's Creed - Perfect for the Adventure enthusiast and Graphics whore, after all PS3 is the more powerful machine.
4. Motorstorm - Perfect for the Racing nut who likes to get down and dirty and enjoys a little more action over finesse in his racing.
3. Rock Band - Perfect for the whole family. Read our review about this MUST BUY game.
2. Rachet & Clank: Future Tools of Destruction- I haven't played this particular Ratchet, but have played all the others. They are solid games that deliver on their gameplay and humor. Always enjoyable for all ages, plus they're great platformers.
1. Uncharted: Drakes Fortune - Made by Naughty Dog, one of the premiere Sony developers since PS1 (Crash Bandicoot, Jak & Daxter) they always seem to create a new trilogy for a new Playstation. This game looks to be a fantastic adventure with spectacular animation and a variety of run/gun and platforming gameplay.

Rock Band Review

Simply put, Rock Band IS the Best Music Game Ever. Here's why: It's Fun!

Gameplay: 10/10
Pros: 3 Unique Experiences in the Drums, Guitar/Bass, and Singing
Band World Tour mode IS phenomenal and a true step in music game "campaign mode"
The Guitar Hero gameplay that Harmonix pioneered works great and is slightly tweaked for the better and across the other instruments.
Very approachable gameplay allows ANYONE to find an instrument and enjoy
Cons: Difficulty of the Drums is extremely steep compared to the other instruments
Band World Tour should allow you to complete the game (play all the challenges) on every difficulty rather than require you to play on Hard or above to unlock certain things...This results in you kicking some of your friends out of the band to beat certain challenges and thus taking away from the whole play with 3 of your friends aspect.

Graphics: 10/10
Pros: Fantastic Animation, Great lip-syncing, tons of venues, great effect filters and different choreography for each song make this the best looking Music game I've ever seen. The create a rocker mode is deep enough to offer tons of variety, but casual enough to create a character in a few minutes. The User Interface is also way better during gameplay, less intrusive and slicker looking. There are no complaints here in the graphics department.

Sound/Music: 9/10
Pros: Nearly all the songs are performed by the artist...and boy is that better than having covers. Tons of tracks span many decades and there's a much better mix of songs. There aren't the slew of "hard metal tracks that suck but are really hard to play" like there were in the final venues of Guitar Hero II. 45 Tracks with 13 Bonus Tracks shipped with the game and there are already a ton of downloadable tracks online that integrate perfectly into every mode.
Cons: The 58 tracks don't compare to the 80ish that are in Guitar Hero III. However, each track does give you more since you can play it for 4 instruments. Some may complain about the downloadable content (why didn't they include it if it was ready on day 1?) but ultimately it's Great to be able to shell out $1.99 for specific songs you really like and the best part is that they seamless integrate into every facet of the game.

Lasting Appeal: 10/10
Pros: The Band World Tour mode can last forever! I've put in over 20 hours probably and still have little "NEW" indicators by a bunch of cities. Then there's still all the more traditional solo careers...only about halfway through medium guitar, 6 songs into Easy Drums, and 20 songs of easy Microphone...The gameplay is great and there's always something new to strive for in Rock Band. All the above work has only netted me 90 achievement points...yikes!
Cons: Band World Tour is currently only Local Play...supposedly there will be a patch which will really cause this game to explode.

Average: 97.5%
Tilt: +0.5%

The fact that I played till 1:30am the first day I got it and then took the following day off to play it some more is a real indication of how great this game is...then over the weekend I had several different sets of friends (some who don' t even like Video Games) come over and enjoy the game is a testament to how good Rock Band is. The "Band" Co-op gameplay is well worth the $170 price tag and blows the competition out of the water (sorry GH3).

Verdict: 98%

Xbox 360 Holiday Buying Guide - The Top 5 Games

5. Assassins Creed - Perfect for the Adventure Fan who loves gorgeous graphics and animations.

4. Call of Duty 4 - Perfect for the Action Nut who wants to solve political problems with bullets rather than words.

3. Mass Effect - Perfect for the SciFi Nut and RPG nerd, but approachable for others. Mass Effect has an incredibly engrossing story and has gameplay that offers some broader appeal than the typical RPG.

2. Rock Band - Perfect for the whole family! Rock Band is an amazing achievement. I have only had it for a week and have found that the game is approachable to everyone from young kids, to gamers, to adults, even to the skeptical female who hates games. With 3 different instruments to master and multiple difficulty levels, everyone can find something they can handle/enjoy in Rock Band.

1. Halo 3 - The perfect gift for anyone with an Xbox 360. Simply put this game is a must have, an instant classic, and insanely fun to play.

Undertow Live Arcade Mini Review

In short, Undertow is a steal at 800 MS points so enjoy and download away!

THE GOOD:
3 Different Races, 4 different units
Interesting Single Player Campaign/Story

Gorgeous Graphics

16 Player Multiplayer (with bots)

Co-Op Story mode online and split screen

Easy to learn Controls

Deep Strategy

Fantastic Balance and Map Design

THE BAD:

Campaign is too short

Can't Play as Alien Race (yet?)

Ranked Matches can be hard to find (Player matches much easier)

Undertow is one of the best looking games to come out on Xbox Live Arcade yet. I'm pretty sure it is the first one with ingame cinematics and voice acting as well. Undertow's gameplay is simple on the surface...think Geometry wars...but offers 4 different classes, 3 upgrades for each class and cleverly designed levels that all bring out the deeper strategies of the submerged, chaotic gameplay. The key strategies in this game revolve around the 4 classes of units, how you upgrade them through the course of a match, and how you dynamically change classes/use them in different situations. I wont' go into all the units, but basically there is a versatile, quick scuba diver, a slower, stronger powersuit, a quick submarine, and a slow lumbering underwater tank. The vehicles are good in the open waters where as the divers and powersuit units are best for the underwater caverns and tunnels. The game is an absolute steal at 800 points and puts a lot of the other Live Arcade titles to shame. It offers a complete package with single player, co-op campaign, and a very addictive multiplayer experience in a beautiful, Unreal (literally) package. Download the Demo and you'll see what I mean.

Gameplay: 9/10

Graphics: 10/10

Sound/Music: 8/10

Lasting Appeal: 9/10

Verdict: 90%