For sentimental types—or just those needing a break from the corporate treadmill—Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Diwali are reason enough to cheer. But for gamers overwhelmed by the year-end tsunami of new titles, we’re declaring a new national holiday: December. Even 31 days isn’t enough to work your way through all the new releases. So to make the most of your month (or however much time you can get free) we recommend starting with these five games that blend the high tech with high adrenaline.

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Shots ring out. Sirens split the air. Sunlight streaming on the city's rooftops, you race towards freedom, breath exploding in your lungs, footsteps pounding on the concrete. Suddenly, you've nowhere left to run. Without thinking, you leap. And for the first time ever, in 3D adventure Mirror's Edge (PC/PS3/Xbox 360), you'll discover how the gymnastic maneuver pans out directly through its heroine's eyes.

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Like most savvy sci-fi gaming fans, I spent the past weekend channeling my inner Mad Max with a new copy of Fallout, clearing its stunning post-apocalyptic wastelands of ravenous mutant and bloodthirsty raider alike. I’m not talking about the newly released third series installment for computers and next-gen consoles. Rather, thanks to new online distribution service Good Old Games, I’ve been revisiting the original desktop legend instead.

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Talk about moving mountains. Many of today's most sophisticated shooters trumpet destructible environments that let you splinter walls or pulverize pillars into powder with a well-placed salvo. But none offer the freedom or flexibility to reshape the world around you like LucasArts' new futuristic blaster Fracture ($60, PS3/Xbox 360). You must morph terrain in real-time to tunnel a way forward or stop bullets from dinging your bionic rear-end.

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Rrrrriiiiiing! That's the sound of irony calling. Despite ongoing efforts to market the iPhone 3G to business customers, insiders know the handset does its best work moonlighting as an overgrown Nintendo DS.

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I am hunter, warrior, slayer of Jedi. I am Darth Vader’s secret apprentice in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, which hits shelves for the first time today. ($60, PS3/Xbox 360).

Thanks to Euphoria artificial intelligence, which simulates every quaking adversary’s nervous and muscular systems (they convincingly dive and cower when the explosive crates and invisible energy waves start flying), the galaxy trembles before my wrath. Molecular Matter software emulates realistic material breakage, causing metal to warp and wood to splinter along the grain according to the point of impact. Unlike rival games’ predictable battles, each neon-tinted firefight and lightsaber duel promises singular mayhem every time you hoist the controller.

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Certain moments, a man never forgets: graduations, weddings, the birth of his first slavering Scuzzraptor. Electronic Arts' Spore, a 3D Petri dish that allows evolution of custom-made creatures from unicellular microbe to space-faring conqueror, does for Darwinism what Super Mario Bros. did for magic mushrooms. When connected online, the game silently uploads and catalogues personalized beasts, buildings, and vehicles in a central database. It then grants creators virtual immortality by using the creations to populate fellow players' worlds.

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I recently got my first look at two very different games from Capcom that share one interesting trait –your on-screen character will fly through the air with the greatest of ease (although not getting shot and landing without killing yourself prove pretty challenging).

DarkVoid was first to catch my eye.

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The hearts of PlayStation 3 fans are beating a little faster right now, with the release of Konami’s Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots exclusively for Sony’s system. This is more than the final chapter in a fan-favorite series, though; It’s probably the last blockbuster title—other than Sony’s own creations—we’ll see released by a third-party publisher exclusively for PS3.

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Graphically sophisticated action games you play in a Web browser, for free – is anybody not interested so far?

They come from InstantAction, an offshoot of GarageGames, which is a well-known maker of software tools for game developers. Now the company has created a Web browser plugin that lets programmers build full-featured 3-D games to run within the browser, a feat that's never been accomplished before. No store-bought discs. No lengthy software downloads and installation routines. You surf, you click, you play. Instant gratification.

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A console version of Civilization? For many PC gamers, that's as heretical as a Citizen Kane TV series–you just don't mess with the classics of popular culture. In this case, though, the man helming the project is the same guy who started it all, legendary designer Sid Meier. After struggling with the challenge for two years, Sid's found a way to streamline his turn-based strategy game without lobotomizing it.

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If you're a PC game developer, the console market has to look pretty good right about now. In 2007, $910 million was spent on PC games versus $6.6 billion (with a “b”) for console titles. While most genres born on PCs have found success on consoles, strategy games have been left behind. It's not easy taking a gaming style that relies on a full keyboard, pinpoint-accurate mouse clicks and a high-res monitor and making it work with comparatively sloppy thumb-based controls and TV set that may still be standard-res.

Recently, though, I've seen two breakthrough strategy games under development that have conquered the console conundrum. First up is Tom Clancy's EndWar, due before year's end, a real-time strategy game of warfare on a grand scale, with you as fun-loving commander of fearsome forces.

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I arrived yesterday in San Francisco, a city where my evening's entertainment has often taken a turn for the unusual. I certainly wasn't disappointed on this trip, as I joined three friends on a stroll through devastated buildings and wasted streets, blasting hordes of aggressive subhuman attackers into chunks of lifeless meat. Hey, if the local government won't do something about the aggressive panhandler problem in this city….

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You heard the hype, you read the astonishing array of perfect-score online reviews. So you bought a copy of Grand Theft Auto IV, sat down to play and . . . what's going on here? How can a perfect game be ticking you off? I'm not saying that GTA IV is less than amazing, but it most definitely is less than perfect, particularly if you're not one of the professional gamers writing those frothing-at-the-mouth-with-delight reviews. Some of the most basic elements in the game are just plain aggravating.

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Used to be, when I answered my phone at work, I didn't know what to expect. A college frat boy wanting to build the world's largest beer bong. Ashrita Furman, a guy from Brooklyn planning to break the marathon unicycle-riding record for the greater glory of his spiritual leader, Sri Chinmoy. A woman who had toilet-trained her chameleon. I was the associate American editor for the Guinness Book of World Records, and point man in the U.S. for would-be record-breakers.

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