Sacred 2 is a hack-and-slash Diablo clone in the vein of Titan Quest, the late and much-lamented Mythos, and, of course, 2004’s Sacred. And thanks to the original game’s popularity, Sacred 2 is also the most-anticipated Diablo clone—other than Diablo 3, of course.

But dedicated hack-and-slashers will find plenty to love in Sacred 2. The game world is huge and nonlinear—there are more than 22 square miles to explore. It’s bigger than Oblivion, bigger than Fallout 3. Unfortunately, most quests take place within a few hundred yards of the roads, and most of the stuff in the middle, though occasionally interesting or whimsical, can be skipped. The graphics are pretty, but not revolutionary, even at the highest settings.

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No one makes a big open-world role-playing game like Bethesda. That’s what the Elder Scrolls games are famous for, and that’s what the company has brought to the post-nuclear-holocaust milieu of Fallout 3. The game takes you to the world outside Vault 101, the charred remains of the Washington D.C. metro area 200 years after the nukes flew. Truly, Bethesda has built an amazing world.

And this world is the star of the game. Fallout 3 is massive—closer to a single-player MMO than a traditional, linear single-player RPG. As you explore the Wasteland, which surrounds D.C., you’ll meet hundreds of people, many of whom have their own stories to tell, and find hundreds of locations to explore. These range from fully fledged towns to survivalist outposts to ammo caches to camps for the various factions that populate the land. As in Oblivion, you control your progress through the game. Should you choose to skip the main quest, you can explore the world and look for adventure, completing quests and reaping the rewards along the way.

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Spore lets you take an extremely high-concept journey from a single-cell life form swimming through the seas to a continent-spanning superpower to the overlord of a galactic empire. Over the course of about five hours, you shepherd your critter through four introductory stages; then you leave for space.

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We liked Crysis. Despite its less-than-stellar AI, annoying alien baddies, and flawed final mission, we liked it. We liked the game for its wide-open jungle combat and the power and flexibility the nano-suit gave us to approach combat any way we wanted. Whether we wanted to skulk through the jungle, shooting enemies half a klick away with a silenced rifle, or get up close and personal by throwing our enemies through the nearest wall, the game accommodated pretty much any play style.