GAME ON

If you're one of the last Americans who still plays a real guitar instead of strapping on a plastic ax and pretending to be Hendrix, congratulations. For the rest of us unskilled musicians, Rock Band is as close as we get to feeling the satisfaction of nailing that killer riff or wailing vocals in front of a backing band. For the second tour, Harmonix delivers a tour bus full of killer songs, including a great mix of indie rockers (Dinosaur Jr., Jane's Addiction, The Replacements), hard rockers (AC/DC, Alice in Chains, Megadeth), and classic rockers (Bob Dylan, Allman Brothers, the Who). Owners of the original game can also import every tune from the first disc and all of their downloadable songs to create the ultimate set list of rock anthems.

If Fallout 3 is any indicator, maybe our pending nuclear apocalypse won't be so bad. When we finally leave our bunkers, we'll get to decapitate mutants, and there won't be a suburb or a Starbucks in sight. The story-driven action RPG takes place 200 years after a nuclear war has melted down the fabric of American life. When your father, a renowned scientist voiced by Liam Neeson, leaves the vault for the wasteland once known as Washington, D.C., you set out to track him down. Along the way, you'll find survivors, mutated beasts, rogue armies, and the occasional leftover nuke just begging for detonation. Fallout 3 plays like Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion injected with guns. Play the hero and save the meek or skip the charity missions to kick some ass. We suggest you detonate the nuke.

The concept of this quirky title is simple: Give a Mario-style game a hand-sewn makeover and allow up to four people to play at once. Each player can customize a Sackboy or Sackgirl with thousands of clothing options from capes to cardboard boxes. As players complete levels and collect the “Fluff” spread throughout the environment, they unlock new objects and items that can be used to design their own levels. While the game includes more than 50 levels, LittleBig- Planet's real draw is the endless pool of user-made levels that will be available for download. As players create new levels, they can upload and share with other gamers. Screw it. With this many free levels, who needs sequels?

The first Gears of War laid down a volatile mix of shotguns and chain saws strong enough to put hair on Clay Aiken's chest. This time, 'roid-raging soldier Marcus Fenix is on the offensive. Sick of fending off attacks from the Locust armies, Fenix and his crew leave their crumbling cities and drill underground to face the invaders head-on with upgraded weapons and moves. (Try using a dead Locust as a shield!) Gears is really about multiplayer action, and this sequel includes three new multiplayer modes and a five-player co-op standoff where you and your comrades must fend off waves of Locust soldiers. Don't be the sucker who strays from the pack. It won't end well.

Video game legend Will Wright, the mad genius behind SimCity and The Sims, has concocted his most ambitious project yet. In Spore, you create a new species in the creature creator (the early favorite: penis hands) and guide it through life. Your creature starts as a cellular organism then experiences the phases of evolution, including the formation of tribes, the birth of a civilization, and space travel. Make the wrong decisions, and your race of penis-handed creatures will face extinction. It sounds like science class, but Spore plays like gaming's greatest hits, including the Pac-Man vibe of the cellular stage and the Diablo feel of the creature phase. It doesn't take a genius to understand this is amazing.