Lord of the Rings: War in the North meets us at a very strange time in our gaming lives. Eight years after the Peter Jackson films rekindled interest and at least a full year before the projected release of the next LOTR movie, it’s hard to avoid the initial feeling that LOTR: War in the North just sort of missed the school bus. Granted, LOTR games were made long before and will be made long after Peter Jackson’s association with the license, so the real question is whether or not this latest game, independent of the movies, has anything to offer.

The short answer is that it really doesn’t. What purports to be a co-op centered action RPG really just turns out to be a button mashing slug fest played entirely alone. Certainly the game would have benefitted by not being released so close to the RPG powerhouse known as Skyrim, but even in that event, while there may have been more people playing the game initially, it’s hard to believe that the game’s community wouldn’t be every bit as dead as it is today.

Despite an overall level of polish in the game’s appearance, honestly even die-hard LOTR fans will be hard pressed to squeeze real enjoyment from this title: the combat itself is excessively dull when you consider that it is the core of the entire game and any other features you would expect to find standard in an RPG all seem to have their own unique version of “fail,” constituting an inescapable series of annoying kinks that just remove you from the experience.

Left click half a dozen times, wait for the button prompt to appear, then hit the jump.

Way back in the day platforming games used to be the game of choice for both gamers and developers. Kings like Mario and Sonic were the inspiration for many. When crappy movie tie-ins and licensed games released, they were dismissed as poor Mario rip-offs. In this day and era of high definition and 3D graphics platformers have been replaced by action games and first person shooters, with platforming seemingly relegated to downloadable titles and the occasional Mario or Sonic title.

For those that miss the old days of pure platforming fun, Rayman Origins is here to make everything better. The spunky hero himself has a long history, dating back over 15 years to the original PlayStation. However as a platformer Rayman has been fairly absent for a while, his brand mostly used with the popular Raving Rabbids games. Origins marks not only a return of Rayman but also a return of the platforming genre.

Use your ears to hover across the jump.

The perennial Call of Duty series has essentially become a sure thing for Activision. It seems that each year's release shatters sales records and it appears that Modern Warfare 3 is already well on its way to doing so again. Luckily for gamers, the developers haven't been lazy when it comes to Call of Duty and every year they make strides to improve all aspects of the game, whether it be introducing giant set pieces for the single player, adding cool  new cooperative modes or simply evolving the insanely popular multiplayer.

As much as people may push against the yearly installments, Activision has yet to come up short with a Call of Duty game, offering deep, rewarding multiplayer systems and summer blockbuster-esque campaigns that are thrilling to experience. Gamers have come to expect a certain formula from these games and Modern Warfare 3 definitely does not stray from the path. However is this year's offering enough to ask us to dive in for another serving of Call of Duty or is the meal starting to become stale after all these years?

Hit the jump in slow motion while everything explodes around you.

The problem is, it’s just that sort of thinking that can lead to disappointment. If you step into the world of Skyrim expecting your jaw to hit the floor the way it did when you first emerged from the Imperial sewers, you will feel that disappointment. Now before you grab your torch and pitchfork because I said “Skyrim” and “disappointment” in the same sentence, understand this: Skyrim starts out good – not great, but good. Then it gets better.

The level of excellence the game eventually rises to may mean little if you can’t shake that initial disappointment though, and it certainly is persistent, particularly so if you spent any amount of time exploring the frozen island of Solstheim back in 2003. That doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy Skyrim, it just means it’s going to take you longer. Thankfully, there’s plenty to keep you occupied until you decide to come around.

Acrobatics isn’t a skill anymore, so you don’t have to spam the jump.

Tower defense games seem to be one of the big hit genres recently. It’s a style of game that is so simple in concept that it allows developers to approach from all kinds of directions and infuse the gameplay with unique elements. Dungeon Defenders fits right into this mold as a tower defense game with plenty of extra stuff on top to differentiate it from everything else out there.

Dungeon Defenders promises plenty to keep gamers interested. Sure there are all the classic tower defense things like barriers, hordes of enemies and an object to protect but this title adds things like customizable characters, four player cooperative play and more loot than you can shake an angry sword at.

Hurry and hit the jump before the enemies smash your crystal!

Guardian Heroes is an interesting bit of video game history. Originally released for the Sega Saturn back in 1996 it was only available a couple of years before the Saturn was discontinued. Still, that small window of availability didn’t stop critics from praising the game or deter any fans from gushing about it on internet message boards.

As such, the recent re-release of Guardian Heroes for Xbox Live Arcade takes advantage of the rarity of the original title compared to everyone’s seeming love for it, and allows players to get their hands on a piece of recent gaming history they might otherwise never have played.

The question is, does this remix carry the same charm and quality as the original did in 1996? Gaming conventions have certainly changed in the last decade and the bar for quality has definitely risen, so is this just a case of, “those were the good old days of video gaming,” or is there something more here than pure nostalgia? The answer is a bit of both.

Hit the left bumper and move into the foreground to interact with our review...

id Software is commonly known as the company that essentially created the first person shooter genre with Wolfenstein 3D. They then continued to popularize and evolve the genre with Doom and eventually Quake. It's been fifteen years since we've seen a new series from them; instead id has relied on the strength of their three big titles. New IPs aside it has still been seven years since id released a big game, 2004's Doom 3. Their newest game, RAGE, is looking to change their pattern of releases and bring id back into the limelight.

In RAGE you enter into a post-apocalyptic world as a newcomer who has recently emerged from an Ark. These giant pods hold humans destined to rebuild society after the destruction of the world from a giant asteroid. However your Ark was heavily damaged, with everyone else on board dead, and upon exiting you find the world already rebuilt but certainly not in a good way. Earth has become a wasteland filled with warring bandit factions and vicious mutants. The few settlements left are barely surviving and the closest thing to government, the Authority is a group feared by all who ruthlessly seek out all Ark survivors.

Hop in your buggy and take out a few bandits as you speed towards the jump.

Fallout: New Vegas has had quite a run. Now that the fourth and final DLC pack has arrived, it seems that 100+ hour journey is coming to an end. And what more fitting way to do so than the story of the Lonesome Road; the tale of Ulysses, the original Courier 6, who refused the task to carry the Platinum Chip, thereby setting your own journey in motion.

Traveling the Lonesome Road takes you into The Divide, a place of nuclear scorched earthquakes with inhabitants to match. The Divide has a history and as its story unfolds, you learn how closely that history intertwines with your own. Of course discovering what all that means and finding out the reason Ulysses has called you to this place is half the fun of exploring The Divide, despite some minor gripes with the way the story is told.

Grab your best gear and leave your companions behind – you can always return after the jump (we just hope you won’t want to).

Rotastic is a new 2D arcade/puzzle game developed by Dancing Dots and published by Focus Home Interactive. It didn't exactly create much buzz before its release so let's see what we can learn from its horrendous title. Everyone bring out their dictionaries.

-tastic

-adj combining form
jocular denoting excellence in a specified area: the fun-tastic theme park ; their poptastic new single

Judging by just the title of the game itself, it seems that Rotastic wants to deliver excellence in rotating and a lot of it. After playing it though, I can report that this did not turn out to be the case. Sadly, the apparently thrown together title isn't even the worst thing about this Xbox LIVE Arcade game.

You play through the game as various Vikings and creatures that swing from suspended points in the air. There are seven worlds to unlock and each world contains about ten levels. To clear each level you are tasked with various objectives. These include collecting gems, avoiding monsters and hazards or destroying objects.

You only use two buttons to control your actions on screen. You push A to release/attach to a point and either LB/RB to reverse the direction of your swing. Things starts off nice and easy during the beginning levels but once things get a little more complicated, any mistimed attachment can lead to death. Combine that with the need to replay levels and limited controls, Rotastic ends up being a very furytastic experience.

I know what you're thinking. How could a Viking trapeze game be bad? Take a swing past the break and I'll let you know.

The Gears of War franchise is one of the most successful franchises this generation and Epic Games has finally released the third and final title featuring Marcus, Dom and the rest of Delta Squad. To give them a proper send off, Gears of War 3 is the biggest, baddest game in the series yet. They've added major upgrades to every facet of the game and also added a brand new mode that is sure to steal plenty of hours from gamers.

Set eighteen months after the events of the last game, we find the Coalition of Ordered Governments in shambles but the brave people of Sera are surviving as best they can. They've struck a vital blow to the Locust but in the wake of their battle a newer, deadlier monster has risen: the Lambent. On top of a brand new foe to face, Marcus Fenix also learns that his father is alive and may actually have developed a way to save the planet once and for all. Gears of War 3 is the thrilling conclusion to the trilogy so you can expect a wild ride with plenty of big battles. On his mission to find his father, Marcus will certainly have many of his questions answered but the main question remains: does Gears of War 3 live up to the massive amount of hype behind it?

Grab your Retro Lancer, lower your head, and charge towards the jump.

Twisted Pixel makes some of the most unique games out there. Primarily known for their enjoyable downloadable titles like The Maw and 'Splosion Man, they always seem to be coming up with unique concepts and gameplay ideas. They are also adept at infusing humor into their games in a way that definitely sets them apart from other developers. Naturally their first retail game, as well as their first Kinect title, is going to make a lot of people pay attention.

This game is The Gunstringer and the premise behind the game is anything but simple. You play as a cowboy who was betrayed by his posse and manages to come back from the dead to exact revenge. This basic idea is built upon by another completely ludicrous setting: the entire game is actually a play that actual people are watching in a theater. The cowboy is actually a marionette and his entire world is crafted with crude objects like empty paper towel tubes and fabric. As such the game exudes charm every step of the way, but does this cool concept get swept away by poor Kinect controls or does The Gunstringer prove to be a great example of what Kinect can do?

Pretend you're holding a marionette and fling your hand up to hit the jump.

The Warhammer 40,000 universe is definitely already well established on PCs with the popular Dawn of War series. However consoles are a different story entirely but all that is set to change with Space Marine, a third-person action game from THQ. Taking a big move away from the real-time strategy gameplay of its PC cousin, Space Marine focuses instead on a small group of warriors and non-stop action.

As you might have figured out from the title, this game features Warhammer 40K's most famous character: Ultramarines, more commonly referred to as Space Marines. You play as Captain Titus, the leader of a small group of these genetically enhanced warriors, as you arrive upon an Imperial Forge World that is under invasion by a massive horde of Orks. As a mighty Space Marine it is your job to cut and shoot through thousands of enemies in order to drive your foe off the planet.

Grab your chainsword and strap on your jump pack.