2011 off to excellent start for video game fans

The post-Christmas season is typically one of immense boredom for video game fans. Not so 2011, with several excellent titles released in the first month of the year. If you’re looking to burn a gift card, you can’t go wrong with these early 2010 titles.

** Mass Effect 2 (Score: 95/100, PS3) -- One of the best games released in 2010, Bioware's roleplaying space opera finally makes its way to the PlayStation 3.

Few can find fault in the Mass Effect franchise, which once again pits super-soldier John Shepard and whatever recruits he can find against an alien menace threatening to wipe out humanity.

Unlike most shooters, there’s a well-executed plot here with almost-movie quality voice acting. And the variety of telekinetic and technical powers usable by Shepard and his crew mean there’s more to winning a fight than traditional firepower.

** LittleBigPlanet2 (Score: 91/100, PS3) -- It's hard to find a game that children and adults both adore, but this over-the-top cute and customizable platformer pulls it off.

The game revolves around the adventures of Sackboy, who, along with his colorful pals, has been sucked into an evil vacuum cleaner. To escape, Sackboy must leap, swing, climb and otherwise navigate dozens of expertly crafted faux 3D levels.

Best of all, the suite of game creation tools has been expanded: players can link new levels, create a wider variety of enemies, and even try their hand at racing, roleplaying and puzzle genres. And the 3 million or so levels created by players of the original game work in LBP2. There’s a lot here to keep creative kids, and adults, very busy.

** Dead Space 2 (Score: 91/100, Xbox 360, PS3) -- Horror fans can't go wrong with Dead Space 2, which kicks off with perhaps the most shocking and gruesome scenario in gaming history. Those who can control their jitters enough to play through the macabre, intense third-person shooter will battle past the mutated denizens of a psycho ward orbiting Saturn.

DS2 borrows heavily from the award-winning BioShock, but that’s not a bad thing. As in that game, the player is guided by a voice from an intercom as he works his way through a thoroughly messed-up environment. He also learns to use mental powers, switch between a variety of upgradeable weapons, and move through areas without gravity.

Don’t play this one in the dark.

** Plants Vs. Zombies (Score: 90/100, DS) -- PopCap continues its takeover of electronic gaming devices with this port of the 2010 Casual Game of the Year. Almost everything that makes the PC version of the game great is here: adventure mode, survival mode, mini-games galore … even Zen Gardening mode for the virtual herbalists out there. A versus mode allows families with two Nintendos to battle it out with plant and zombie armies.

For those living in a cave, Plants Vs. Zombies pits a green-thumbed homeowner against waves of whimsical undead. Growing sunflowers creates energy which can be used to plant plants with more firepower -- pea shooters and towering Venus flytraps, for example.