Holiday Buyers Guide for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC

Just giving you a list of my recommendations on the best games of 2010 and what games you should buy for you're loved ones or yourself if you haven't already. This list will only include Xbox 360, PS3, and PC titles

Mass Effect 2 (Xbox 360): A fantastic sequel and an RPG with both a great story and combat. While people who haven't played the first Mass Effect may feel lost with the plot, the information given is substantial enough that you can find yourself lost in this beautiful space opera.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 (Xbox 360, PS3, and PC): As long as you don't buy it used, this game comes in with a VIP code that gives you access to additional maps, while the first three map packs were clearly pulled from the game to punish those who bought the game used, DICE has offered continual support to one of my favorite shooters of 2010. People who have played Call of Duty might find this game overwhelming because of the giant battlefields, all of the vehicles, and the lack of "twitch combat", but anyone that pursues it and gets into it won't be disappointed

Red Dead Redemption (Xbox 360 & PS3): Fantastic story, many things to do within the wild west universe, solid shooting, deep and interesting characters, and a decent multiplayer component alongside. This is one of the best open world games of all time, even though it doesn't take place in a bustling city like Grand Theft Auto. Plus there is the downloadable Undead Nightmare expansion that costs only $10 and provides hours of gameplay plus a new multiplayer mode.

Starcraft 2 (PC): the successor to one of the greatest RTS (real time strategy) game of all time (at least according to popular opinion). This game is the only one real good real time strategy game to come out this year. This game features a very fun and varied campaign, highly competitive, balanced, and fun multiplayer, and support for a variety of custom games in special game types online that are brought to you buy Starcraft's modding community.

God of War (PS3): This is a very short, but sweet single player epic. Badass, for the lack of a better world, describes this game. There is so much violence and destruction, but the game and the universe it encompasses is so beautiful.

Halo Reach (X360): There is no Master Chief this time around, but this game is still amazing regardless of his presence. The game follows the story of a team of six Spartan super soldiers known as Noble Six as they try to save their planet from inevitable destruction. While the single player is fun and features 4 player co-op, the real staying power of this game comes from the multiplayer. There is a co-operative mode called Firefight where you are supposed to stand you're ground against oncoming waves of the alien covenant. Besides co-operative multiplayer, there is a deep competitive multiplayer component that features normal maps and modified maps that use Bungie's Forge 2.0 tool. For those that have played the previous Halo's one notable new addition to the game is a little something called armor abilities, where Spartan's can use special abilities or equipment such as a jet pack, , a hologram, invisibility, and much more.

Civilization 5 (PC): While Starcraft 2 remains king of real time strategy this year, Civilization 5 and its predecessor have remained the king of turn based strategy, and it doesn't really change here. For those who haven't played the previous "Civ" games, you're objective is to lead a civilization and guide it to victory and prosperity by running and managing you're civilizations actions. It's actually not that complex of a game, and the new addition city-states add an interesting new factor.

Call of Duty Black Ops (Xbox 360, PS3, and PC): Another installment of one of the most popular series of shooters, this game had the biggest entertainment launch in history, and that is majorly because the game has such a fantastic online component and very fun competitive multipalyer along with the fun single player that plays out like a Michael Bay movie. Anyone that likes shooters should get this game, and I assure you that those who disliked Modern Warfare 2 will be happy with the changes and improvements made in this game.

This is, in my view my favorite games of 2010. However other games I would like to bring to you're attention are Assassin's Creed 2 Brotherhood and Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, Super Street Fighter 4, Heavy Rain, and MAG. The ones listed above however, are my absolute favorite titles I have played this year.

Battlefield: BC2 Map Pack 7 and Vietnam

In other news regarding map packs, Battlefield Bad Company 2's new map pack is coming tomorrow which is free to Bad Company 2 owners that entered in the VIP code that came with the new copy of their game. The four new maps are Oasis, Harvest Day, Heavy Metal, and Cold War, and each of the maps are supported on all four of Bad Company 2's game modes. In even better news, we finally have a release date for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam (an downloadable expansion for Bad Company 2. It comes out on December 21 right during the holiday break. I have 3 weeks off during the Holidays and if I am not skiing, I will be online playing all of the great multiplayer games that came out this year.

Trailer for Battlefield: BC2 Map Pack 7: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/vip-map-battlefield-bad/707948

Halo Reach Noble Map Pack out tomorrow

If you aren't busy playing Call of Duty Black Ops or you're just looking for an excuse to play some Halo again, the Noble Map Pack is dropping on digital shelves on Xbox Live tomorrow. I have been busy lately playing Call of Duty Black Ops, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, and Need for Speed Hot Pursuit multiplayer, but now with the new map pack I will have four games in which I can spend time playing. I am not sure I can even get to a reasonably high level in Need for Speed or Assassin's Creed 2 before Crysis 2 and Dragon Age 2 come out next year. And I haven't even replayed Fallout New Vegas yet and that game has a ton of content and stuff to do.

Here are gameplay commentaries on each of the three maps that are coming out tomorrow.

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/66634

Shift 2 Unleashed Interview

With the recent launch of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, the next Need for Speed title is going to forsake its arcade roots, and Shift 2 seeks to be a racing simulator that competes to the bigger racing titles like Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo.

http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/driving/needforspeedshift2/video/6284592?hd=1&tag=topslot;watchlink;1

Gran Turismo 5 Gamespot Now Playing

Gran Turismo is coming out tomorrow and here is an hour of gameplay as two Gamespot editors show you a little gameplay. I will warn you that the editor playing is not particularly skilled at this game so hardcore Gran Turismo fans will be annoyed by that. I personally don't care much for racing simulators because I don't like games that try to be realistic because realism isn't really that fun. I prefer racing games like Blur and Need for Speed where the driving is really smooth and easy, and you go at ridiculously high speeds while using special weapons to destroy your opposition, Arcade racers provide what I want from video games - fun. And while racing sims are enjoyable, it almost feels like my reason for not playing sports games. Why play a sports game when I can do the real thing? Arcade racers like Need 4 Speed and Blur are nowhere near the real thing, and that's why I play racing games like those. I am nonetheless, considering to buy this for my PS3, but I am not making any promises. Check out for an hour of gameplay on...

http://www.gamespot.com/shows/now-playing/?event=now_playing_gran_turismo_520101122&tag=topslot;img;1&hd=1&tag=hotslot%3Bimg%3B1

Gran Turismo 5 on shelves this week

So after 10 years of development Gran Turismo 5 is finally coming out on November 24. That's right, after the very successful Gran Turismo 4 on Playstation 2, PS3 owners will finally get their hands on the sequel they were waiting for. Let's hope that this game is PS3's beautiful answer to Xbox 360's Forza Motorsport. And while we are talking about this, lets look at a trailer to get the racing fans excited.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/title-cinematic-gran-turismo/707738

Bonus Round: The end of 2010

In this episode of the bonus round Shacknews’ Garnett Lee, Pach-Attack’s Michael Pachter and Hit Detection’s N’Gai Croal sit around and make their comments on the years end for the video game industry and voice their predictions on the future of Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony. Three out of four parts of the Bonus Round are not out, but next week the last part will be about the biggest disappointments in the game industry of 2010.

http://www.gametrailers.com/episode/bonusround/411?ch=1
http://www.gametrailers.com/episode/bonusround/411?ch=2
http://www.gametrailers.com/episode/bonusround/411?ch=3

What is Final Fantasy 13 Versus?

Final Fantasy 13 is actually a (or part of a) title held by three games. The first final fantasy was well recieved, but got criticisms for being linear in design. I for one, didn't finish Final Fantasy because I wasn't really into the story nor did I really like 6 characters that were prominently featured in the game. I personally didn't mind that it was linear, and I thought the game's combat system was clever. It was just that I didn't really have an urge to see a game that long enough to the end.

Nonetheless, Final Fantasy 13 Versus is a different game that's been in development independent of Final Fantasy 13, and unlike FF13, Versus is open world and it seems to have a more appealing story. To learn more check out this article

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/113/1135355p1.html

Dragon Age 2: Building on the Past preview

Check out this important interview that delivers the basic rundown of the plotline of Dragon Age 2, plus how you're actions in Dragon Age Origins will impact the game.

Black Ops day one sales set a new record

Last year, Activision said that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was the biggest launch in entertainment history, but within only a span of a year, that changed with a game called Call of Duty Black Ops. Within the first day, Black Ops has already racked up $360 million in sales, and sold 5.6 million copies in the first day.

So here is the question of the day...do you think the next Call of Duty game will be an even bigger entertainment launch than black ops, or will people realize that Call of Duty's formula has gotten stale? Sound off on the comments below.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6283887.html?tag=latestheadlines%3Btitle%3B1