Catherine is one of the sexiest video games to come to these shores in quite a while. And you too will quickly learn, after perusing this gallery, why Vincent Brooks has such an irresistible attraction to her!

Love Is Dead!

Don’t you dare ask for her Xbox 360 LIVE name, she’s obviously into local co-op play!

As the calendar winds its way toward the holidays, gamers out there have much more than visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads. Truth is, what’s dancing in their heads is nothing like sugar plums at all. Serious gamers envision daring rescues, narrow escapes from death, racing at break neck speeds, with a little bit of guitar music thrown in for fun.

You can help ensure those dreams become a reality for gamers on your list this holiday season! Check out our list of the top 10 Xbox 360 Games and wrap up something sure to please. As these are the hottest Xbox games going right now – shop early before they are out of stock.

Click on any product image below to see price, availability and to purchase from Amazon.

Top 10 Xbox 360 Games

But first, if you don’t already have one Buy Your New Xbox Console Here

Or – if you are looking for the top Xbox Kinect Games, check out our list here.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Hardened Edition

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

Fallout: New Vegas

Need for Speed Hot Pursuit

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

Medal of Honor

Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars

Fable III

Rock Band 3

DJ Hero 2 Stand-Alone Software

XBOX360 Digest is reporting on a new look for the XBOX 360 dashboard. The screenshots they have show an updated UI with a very clean look for the menus. I would tend to agree with the speculation that the new XBOX Dashboard will likely be released on or near the time we see XBOX Kinect delivered.

So what do you think? Take a look at the screenshots available on XBOX 360 Digest and let us know if you like the new look.

Gears of War 2 has been out for a few months, and one of the game modes that I’ve been having the most fun with is Hoard. My friends and I like playing co-op, and this is Epic’s take on what’s known in other games as Defend.
Think of it like this – you’re going to be outnumbered, greatly outnumbered, by increasingly hostile and effective opponents, and you and your friends need to find a way to survive. We’ve played through a number of times, and here are some strategies that may help you and your friends do just that.

Work as a Team

This goes without saying, but that can lead gamers to sometimes forget one of the basic rules of defensive play: Teams are stronger than their individual players. Maybe it’s a gestalt thing, but it’s true. Good communication with your mates, knowing where everyone is looking, coordinating movement to contact and concentrating fire actually work. Use those 8 or 10 extra pairs of eyes and ears on your team to get intel you wouldn’t otherwise have. And whatever you do, try to stick together, yes?

Find a Defensible Position and Set Up Shop

If you’re working together, your entire team should move to a location that is most easily defended. This is easier on some maps than others, but look for spots that have cover, long sight lines, and as few potential directions of attack. On some maps, like Gold Rush (from the combustible pack) there are spots that force the horde to attack from one direction. The balconies on Day One are pretty easily defended if you can keep your head down and watch for Locust getting directly beneath you. In genera, getting attacked from one direction is better than getting it from 2. And getting it from 2 is better than getting it from 3 – you get the idea.

Find Ways to Slow Your Enemy

The AI in Gears of War 2 is pretty sophisticated, but it’s not really smarter than you are. There are some things you can count on. For example, if you put enough fire on an enemy or a group of enemies, they’ll look for cover. This works for most light enemies, but even Maulers will take cover behind their shields and slow down if you’re firing on them. Most of the other Boomer class Locust (Boomers, Grinders, Flamers, and Butchers) will keep on advancing, and I believe Bloodmounts also don’t care too much about the pitiful bullets you’re sending at them.

You can also set traps using explosive and ink grenades at bottlenecks and along obvious attack paths. Do this at the beginning of the round and you may halt a flanking attack.

Another way to slow the advancing hoard is to collect the shields dropped by defeated Maulers and plant them in the ground. This is, I believe, the only way to actually obstruct the enemy. A couple shields placed at key locations on a ramp or stairway can cause a nice bottleneck that you can exploit with concentrated fire – after all you’re still playing as a team, right? One thing to remember is that any planted shields (and other dropped weapons) will disappear about 15 seconds into a new round, so be quick about grabbing a shield or two as the round starts, and then replant it after the timer has elapsed.

Pick Up Weapons and Ammo

One of the things you’ll start noticing is that the hoard not only get stronger and more accurate, they also spawn bigger and badder weapons as each block of 10 rounds progresses. By round 4 or 5 (of each 10-round block) you’ll be fighting boomers and grinders, and by 7 or 8 you’ll see Kantus and Theron Guards. Each of these enemies carries decent weapons, and you might do well to pick up a mulcher from a fallen grinder and turn its business end toward those damn Locust. Remember, fallen weapons will disappear shortly into each round, so you need to move fast to grab that nice torque bow before it vanishes.

Halo Wars is the next big real-time strategy game from Ensemble Studios, creators of “Age of Empires.” Designed exclusively for the Xbox 360, Halo Wars allows you to take charge of the human UNSC armies and see the Halo universe from a totally new perspective. Halo Wars takes place before Halo 1 during the UNSC’s first deadly encounters with the Covenant.
Players lead the crew of the UNSC’s “Spirit of Fire” from initial skirmishes to an all out war against the evil Covenant. [Ensemble Studios]

PUBLISHER: Microsoft
DEVELOPER: Ensemble Studios
GENRE(S): Real-Time Strategy
PLAYERS: 6
ESRB RATING: T (Teen)
RELEASE DATE: March 3, 2009

Our Review

The tutorial was informative and quickly introduces the simple control scheme, and much like my first Halo experience, I found the button layout intuitive and very approachable.

The first demo mission had a simple objective – collect some marines and retake your base. You spend some time guiding a warthog through a series of waypioints, picking up additional marines and fighting some isolated covenant along the way. Eventually you arrive at the base, and you throw all the marines you’ve gathered into the assualt. Needless to say, the Covenant don’t really stand a chance.

The second mission starts with you rebuilding the base you just took, and you get a look at the supply and provision aspect of the game. Assembling new structures like barracks and generators is very straightforward, and before too long, I found myself with a sizable force of UNSC Marines, warthogs, and a few scorpions. While training up, my base was attacked by a couple lone Covenant drop ships, so I installed and upgraded some turrets. After I was certain my base was reasonably well defended, I took my force out into the field.

Soon, I encountered a Covenant base, and launched an attack. Combat was smooth, and it was very easy to control the entire UNSC force. After a short battle, the covenant forces were defeated, and the enemy base was laid waste.

There also extensive cut scenes that gave some back story, and it’s clear that Halo Wars is doing all it can to fill some very big shoes. Even so, I think this is going to be a pretty popular RTS – especially with Halo fans – who may not even notice this isn’t a Bungie game.

The biohazard threat has not ended: Just when it seemed that the menace of Resident Evil had been destroyed, along comes a new terror to send shivers down players’ spines. Chris Redfield, returning Resident Evil hero, has followed the path of the evil literally around the globe.

After joining a new organization, Chris heads to Africa where the latest bioterrorism threat is literally transforming the people and animals of the city into mindless, maddened creatures. He is joined by a new partner, Sheva Alomar, who lends her strength, intelligence and sharp-shooting skills to the mission. In order to survive, Chris and Sheva must work together to take on the challenges of discovering the truth behind this evil plot. Utilizing a revolutionary new 2-player co-op mode of gameplay, players assume control of either Chris or Sheva and experience Resident Evil in new ways. In Resident Evil 5, Capcom has players fearing the daylight as much as they have feared shadow in previous games. [Capcom]

PUBLISHER: Capcom
DEVELOPER: Capcom
GENRE(S): Third-Person Action, Adventure, Survival Horror
PLAYERS: 2
ESRB RATING: M (Mature)
RELEASE DATE: March 13, 2009 (Capcom)

Our Preview

I tore into the Resident Evil 5 demo for XBox 360 like a rabid grizzly bear into a fat weekend hunter. Unfortunately, there were enough flaws in the demo to make me hope for better things come release day. First off, let’s set aside the things Capcom has done right.

Look and Feel

RE5 looks amazing. There’s no other way to say it. The environment detail, characters, lighting, effects, almost everything about the graphic quality of this game will NOT disappoint you. For me, one of the minor nits was the cheesy feel to enemy body disposal. Rather than simply fading away, Capcom has chosen to make your fallen foes melt in away in a bizarre bubbly mess that is completely at odds with the artistic direction of the rest of the game.

Another thing I loved about the demo was sense of immersion. I’m not usually a cut scene fan, but in this case, the cut scenes really added to the story because the quality of the in-game play was so close to the rendered cut scenes. You see this a lot these days, but Capcom has done a good job blending the missions and story-driven cut scenes so that the distinction between them is fairly seamless.

Gameplay

The control scheme is pretty intuitive and easy to grasp, but the one major flaw that I’ve found in the demo was the wonky camera and slow aiming system. Aiming is essential to a shooter, and I can forgive slow aiming in most cases. Here, however, the camera gets in the way. Since you’re playing over the shoulder, the camera can get hung up in a wall or whatever is behind your character during a fight. I found this to be annoying, and the one thing you DON’T want to do in a game demo is annoy your potential customers.

Have you played Resident Evil 5 yet? What did you think?