IGN

• PSP
• 9 / 10
• États-Unis

• X360
• 6 / 10
• États-Unis

Top-down shooter fans will definitely enjoy Raiden IV. However, a great arcade game doesn't always translate to a great console game. That is the case here and the end result is a package that feels entirely out of place. There isn't anything particularly special about this release -- the presentation, visuals and sound leave a lot to be desired -- and the pricing is completely out of line with the competition. This should have been a $10 game on the Xbox Live Arcade. Only hardcore shooting fans with a lot of extra pocket change should consider buying Raiden IV.

• X360
• 7.7 / 10
• États-Unis

• PS3
• 7.7 / 10
• États-Unis

There's no denying that leveling up Iron Man, unlocking Deadpool, and getting Spidey's alternate outfit is fun, but we've done this so many times before. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 adds in Fusion powers, characters, and a bunch of boosts, but in the end it's not enough to keep this from feeling like extremely well-worn territory. I don't have that spark to see and do everything because I feel like I've seen and done everything before. The Stark Tower hub is nearly identical, the cutscenes don't look good, the audio logs to find aren't interesting, and the presentation of the Civil War really doesn't do the emotional storyline justice. In the end, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is fun at times, but it's nothing impressive overall.

• PS3
• X360
• 6.6 / 10
• États-Unis

Come for the blood, bullets, crude language, seedy characters and piles of dead bodies, but don't expect to find any lasting kind of satisfaction. With overly repetitive enemy encounters and an unsatisfying slice of slow-motion-centric action, Artificial Mind and Movement's WET, like the styles of film it apes, is filled with imperfections. It hits on a lot of the presentation elements, but when its issues are related to gameplay they're much more difficult to endure compared to something like bad lighting or cheesy special effects.

• X360
• 7 / 10
• États-Unis

• PC
• 7 / 10
• États-Unis

Provided you're willing to put up with the blandness of the first few hours of gameplay, Divinity 2 can be an interesting, rewarding experience. There's little here that's really unexpected or surprising, but what's presented in terms of content is executed well enough. The exploration, item drops, and narrative get better, especially once you manage to unlock your Battle Tower and dragon form. Unfortunately, the combat and enemy behaviors remain stilted and awkward the whole way through, and the range of character skills consist entirely of genre standards that fail to generate any real excitement. Every bit of quirky humor and personality built into the game is matched by clichés in other areas that'll make veteran gamers roll their eyes, but the promise of better accessories, weapons and armor are enough to keep you roaming across the game's zones, smashing apart enemies and uncovering new dungeons. It's an entertaining, rainy day role-playing game.

• PS3
• X360
• 8.7 / 10
• États-Unis

NHL 10 is a great hockey game, don’t get me wrong. The action is as good and as authentic as I’ve ever seen from a hockey outing and fans of the sport who didn’t pick up last year’s game have no reason to miss out this time. This package is as complete and all-encompassing as any sports game out there with great multiplayer and single-player modes. The biggest problem that fans of the series will have is that it just isn’t all that different from NHL 09. There are “new” modes that are tacked on pieces from things that we’ve seen in the past and the gameplay refinements are a mixed bag that feel as though they could have been tuned just a bit better before launch. Nothing is a bad or poor choice that even comes close to ruining the experience, but there could have been more done to expand the core gameplay and offering of modes.

• X360
• 7.5 / 10
• États-Unis

Sonic & Knuckles is a solid entry in the series, and it's cool to see the "lock on" technology of 1994 included here. I'd still like to see SEGA put more effort into the visual presentation of the Vintage Collection. The "graphics smoothing" option always makes the games look worse and the dull blue background could use a lot more personality. But for $5 you get a fun Sonic game, and new content for any previous Sonic titles you've downloaded. This is a good value for Hedgehog fans, and a helluva lot more fun than most recent games in the series.

• PSP
• 9 / 10
• États-Unis

• PS3
• X360
• 8.6 / 10
• États-Unis

IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey has almost all the bases covered. It can be an accessible, forgiving flight combat game for novices, a challenge for veterans, and a true test of will for the ultra hardcore. With some sharp plane models, a number of gigantic and realistic settings, and a flurry of effects onscreen, the game manages to look and sound just as good as it plays. Throughout its campaign and single missions you'll take on huge swarms of fighters in World War II-style dogfights, using your machine guns and tactical knowledge to fly away victorious. It draws you in with its strongly realized setting, gives you plenty of planes to play around with across numerous missions, and offers up four multiplayer modes in which you can test the limits of your piloting talent. This isn't a game that seeks to amaze with some kind of gimmick or flash. Birds of Prey is more subtle and sturdy, where the strength of its play mechanics and attention to detail make it one of the best choices for console-based flight combat.

• PS3
• 5.9 / 10
• États-Unis

This shallow, generic brawler is coasting on nostalgia fumes and the TMNT brand. Ubisoft didn't ruin the original arcade game -- it just wasn't great to begin with. Virtually nothing has been added to the gameplay, so you're paying a premium for updated graphics that many people don't even like. This would have been more digestible as a straight $5 port of the original game. But when you consider that the fantastic Shatter was recently released for $8 and has much more going for it, the Turtles could have stayed lost in time. It's an archaic game design that might tickle your nostalgia bone but won't hold your attention for more than an hour.

• WII
• 9.3 / 10
• États-Unis

Guitar Hero 5 on Wii isn’t a must-own game because of one standout feature or option; it’s the total package through and through. True, some gamers – myself included, to a certain extent – are getting tired of the GH formula after three years and an astounding nine games, but if you’re still down to rock on Wii there’s no better game on the system than Guitar Hero 5. The list of advancements is seemingly never-ending, including better audio quality, better visuals, always online connectivity, no friend codes, first support of high capacity SD cards (up to 32 gigs) on Wii, full album and track packs, reworked, superior online, a new GH Tunes editor, upgraded Mii Freestyle with WiiConnect24 sharing, career mode with a new challenge system, local multiplayer battles with free- for-all and team play – don’t worry, we’re almost at the end here – the new party play mode, reworked fixes based on user feedback from World Tour including band moments and band member saving, and the dominant, must-play Roadie Battle on Wii. Yeah, that’s one hell of a run-on sentence, and if you think reading it took forever playing through all of it is going to dominate your life. The soundtrack has a few misses in there – some songs are just too easy and belong on Band Hero – but for the most part you’ve got a list that’s a more than impressive value. Add in the ability to import music from World Tour and Smash Hits, as well as DLC carryover for the first time in a Guitar Hero game and you’ve got a package that’s well worth every cent you’ll pay. It’s a technical achievement on Wii, it’s a dominatingly deep music game, and there’s more to see and do on Nintendo’s system than any other version out there. Proof once more that when it comes to Nintendo third party developers, Vicarious Visions is in a league all its own.

• PS2
• 4.5 / 10
• États-Unis

While Guitar Hero 5 is a no-brainer on Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360, the PS2 version is definitely one to avoid. The series has moved on from the PS2 tech, with the Wii game now showcasing its own exclusive tech. With no system to scale down from PlayStation 2, fans are left with a game that lacks many of the features and overall polish that make Guitar Hero 5 so good in the first place. If you want 85 new songs on a self-contained disc –- and that’s all you want -- then Guitar Hero 5 is still a fun compilation of songs. With no online play, no downloadable content, no GH Tunes or music studio, and a gimped down Party Play and Career mode, there’s no way we could endorse the latest Guitar Hero offering on PS2. The Guitar Hero series may have gotten its start on the PlayStation 2, but the real rock experience moved on long ago.

• PS3
• X360
• PC
• 8.4 / 10
• États-Unis

Dirt 2 is prettier than its predecessor, has more varied tracks and a functional multiplayer offering. What it doesn’t have is a focus on pure time-trial rally races, which is really what I expect from a rally game. The other disciplines are fun to dabble in, but I’m old school and want a bit more tradition from a racing game. Dirt 2 is a solid racing game with some really fun events and a slick menu system, but it could use a little less of the arcade action and a bit more of the sim. I think the vast majority of racing fans are going to love what Dirt 2 has to offer, but there will be a few who long for the days when a hill climb was considered the ultimate racing experience.

• PC
• PS3
• X360
• 9 / 10
• États-Unis

Need for Speed Shift is a glorious return to greatness (and even excellence) for EA's seminal racing franchise. Slightly Mad Studios has delivered a driving experience that, while not completely accurate in terms of its simulation aspects, is practically dead-on in terms of what it's like to race around some of the world's best racing circuits. The career mode could (and should) have been a little better, but the act of driving is basically phenomenal.

• PC
• 9.3 / 10
• États-Unis

It may not be a radically new Resident Evil 5, but the PC version of the game still manages to hold its own with an improved control scheme and extra Mercenaries mode. While the addition of costumes is somewhat minor, and you may require a few upgrades to your computer to take full advantage of what the game has to offer, you're exploring a great story and excellent gameplay. Plus, the inclusion of 3D is a harbinger of what gaming will probably become, and the effect is extremely nice if you have the opportunity to take advantage of it. Umbrella's virus hasn't completely evolved, but it's definitely worth isolating yourself with a copy of RE5 for a while.

• PSP
• 6 / 10
• États-Unis

The Bigs 2 isn’t necessarily a bad game of baseball, but it just doesn’t pack enough new content to make it worthwhile for those who invested in The Bigs the first go-round. It would have been nice if the developers had taken the time to port some of the cooler features from the console versions as well as added some PSP-centric mini-games. As it stands, those who didn’t play The Bigs on PSP might want to give this one a try, but everyone else should steer clear.