Destructoid

Skate 2 is going to require a serious investment of time on your part if you want to get into it. I'll be honest with that. But once you do, the game provides a rather intuitive and fun experience that's worth the work you put into it. The camera is one of the most immediate problems that needs to be fixed, but Black Box has done a good job with the title, and if they can keep making substantial improvements with each title in the series, then they'll be the undisputed frontrunners for the new generation of skating titles.

Even with these flaws, though, there is no denying that the game is fun to play, and it's extremely well-made. Hidden Path set out to perfect the basic tower defense game, and they've come fairly close -- the lack of a map editor and multiplayer are really the only major problems with the game (if you can even call them problems).

All that said, apart from game-breaking glitches, graphical cock-ups, no HUD and a hidden map, the game's alright. The story, while not totally enthralling, is rather interesting and there are even a few witty pieces of dialog. The villains are all hilariously obvious and certain characters such as Pan are rather likable. It's just a shame that the character animation is not, with the often over-used models twitching like something from the PS2 era.

Destroy All Humans is, at best, a mediocre exercise in boredom and at worst, a glitchy mess of incompetent design. It's lazy, it's dull and it's hideous to look at. Clearly rushed out in time for the holidays, you will effectively be abusing a loved one if you give them this as a holiday gift.

Sacred 2 is definitely worth checking out, particularly if/when the game is patched. If these kinds of games aren’t your cup of tea, there’s nothing new here that will change your mind or your opinion of the genre. If it weren’t for all the bugs, Sacred 2 would get a better score, but as it stands now it needs some significant patching to reach its full entertainment potential.

If you aren't pissed off about having to install it to your hard drive to avoid graphical issues and you like a strategic element to your battles, you may really enjoy the game. The truth of the matter is though, my standards for the genre are high, and I feel that if Square had spent a little more time clarifying the muddy parts and fixing the technical issues, this could have been a terrific game.

On the whole, it's a mediocre game and a disappointing follow-up to the quite impressive Legend. It does very little to further the series and offers much frustration in exchange. Fans of Tomb Raider will no doubt love it, as it is still superior to many of the titles past the first, but Underworld will not do anything to change the minds of people who have less of an affinity for the games.

With Prince of Persia, the team at Ubisoft not only reached the bar they set for themselves with previous titles, but in many ways delivered a game that transcends expectations while setting a new standard for the series. Ubisoft has taken Prince of Persia in a wild new and magical direction, an enormously fun and gratifying game from beginning to end.

All Sonic Team needed to do was to maintain the sheer fun and thrill that makes up roughly 40% of the experience and we'd be looking at a must-have title, and a score verging on a ten. As it stands, silly mistakes and ignorant design choices have trashed this game's hopes of being anything more than a decent rental at best.

Resistance 2 is a great shooter with outstanding multiplayer components that transcend its lackluster single player campaign. The campaign’s scale and the ingenuity displayed in the boss fights will give players an experience they have never had before, but it ultimately collapses on itself with poor design and execution in both level and story progression. The audio and visuals are excellent set pieces and definitely aren’t a detraction. The problems with the campaign aren’t brought into the fold in the two separate multiplayer components, which are above and beyond any PlayStation Network title thus far.