Stories by: Mitchell Dyer

Critics and fans alike lauded the first Skate title for its innovative control scheme and serious approach to skateboarding, but let's be honest: fans were just happy to have an alternative to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater's reliance on ridiculous tricks and insane combos.

Two members of my squad have taken too long to radio in our extraction, and the third just impatiently ran off into the storm in search of them.

In Dragon Age's first DLC pack, unexciting battles against too-familiar foes replace the core game's engaging storytelling. Generic genlocks fling arrows at you while darkspawn lumber toward you in a laughable attempt to take your team down.

Because of my age (21) and my sex (male), I am not a primary candidate for Twilight-ification. In fact, I'm almost convinced that I have a genetic predisposition to despise the cheesy romance and angsty vampire melodrama. The way my younger sister described it, it sounded like trashy Buffy fan-fiction except much, much worse. But I became curious as to why Twilight was such a huge deal and with my morbid curiosity piqued, I started reading the novels. At first, I read it with the detached interest of a curious observer but soon, I became hooked. I lived in a state of denial for a while, going so far as to create an alternate Twitter account dedicated solely to trashing the series but it wasn't long before I had to admit to myself that I actually liked Twilight.

While most games come with both a multiplayer and single-player component, the fact is that they're either one or the other; both modes are often included to fill out the feature list but often a game is either a single-player game with a multiplayer mode tacked on or, as was the case with Left 4 Dead, a multiplayer title whose single-player component is nothing more than an extended warm-up for the online festivities.

I dreaded my first race in Need for Speed: NITRO because I couldn't think of a more inconvenient way to drive than pointing the Wii remote forward and tilting it side to side, especially in a balls-to-the-wall arcade racer. The "street" imagery -- ridiculous car mods and an uncomfortable amount of bling -- didn't lift my spirits either. Then something happened as I started playing. There's a co-op career mode? And it plays like Mario Kart with cops? And I can paint profanity on the side of my Volkswagen van? Word, dawg. Word.

Obviously, simulation racing isn't the most organic evolution for the series. Sure, ProStreet had a dose of realism injected into it, but it wavered indecisively between circuit sim and arcade racer. So it's appropriate that the latest NFS title is called SHIFT because it's obviously trying to "shift" the franchise in a new direction.

Let's face it: the apocalypse has been done to death. Nowadays, everyone and their neighbor has some futuristic tale to tell, but this innovative title from 2K Games somehow manages to breathe some new life into a somewhat tired genre.

Forza 3 inspired some mixed feelings in our reviewer Mitchell who thought that the game's slick modes and pretty graphics had a lot to offer but it somehow failed to keep him glued to the driver's seat. Read on to find out why, despite the game's obvious quality, he kept putting the controller down.

Even an endless list of cars can't compensate for Gran Turismo's shortcomings.