Sampling

This month I have both Christmas (of course) and my son's birthday.  I hooked him up early on the b-day last month with Gears 2 so that was the main part of his gift.  I'll probably pick up some MS points for him as well to buy whatever with.  Now I have to decide what to get him for Christmas.  He already told me for sure he wants a videogame, and I can't really say I'm surprised since there's been some great releases in the last month or so.  I beefed up my Blockbuster game pass so I can get 2 out at a time and I've been renting out the big name releases as they've become available.  My opinions so far on these games:

Left 4 Dead:  Great game.  I actually had it rented last time he was up and he got some quality time in with it.  Its definitely at the top of his list, and its probably at the top of mine as well.

CoD: World at War:  Meh.  Treyarch needs to go away.  The game is beautiful with some superb presentation and lighting, but to me the gameplay is lacking.  Its plagued by the biggest snafu I found in CoD3, and thats stupid squad AI.  I've gotten killed far too many times because my dumbass squadmates wouldn't move and left me pinned in a spot where I was easy pickings.  Not only that, but at one point I was taking damage from behind (insert drunken Mike James joke here) and thought it was the Japs.  Nope, turns out it was the retard sniper in my squad shooting me in the back of the head. 

Guitar Hero: World Tour:  More meh.  I'm already well established on record for hating Neversoft's charting, and this game isn't changing my mind.  After playing RB2's career mode I find GHWT's mode to be stifling and restrictive.  Plus I really hate their cutscenes.  Looks like only 1 music game in our household, and its Rock Band 2.  That kind of sucks because I was watching the video for GH: Metallica and I was getting excited for it.  I mean, how do you not get stoked when you hear Master of Puppets?  But playing this game brought me back down to earth in a hurry, sadly.

Prince of Persia:  Really great looking game, decent controls, not so fond of the camera.  Plus I found the game to be too easy to get through the corrupted lands, and by the time I healed the first land I was bored and had no interest in continuing.  I guess platformers aren't for me anymore.

Destroy All Humans:  Ok, so this one isn't one of the "big" releases, but aside from L4D I have easily had the best time with this one.  There are technical issues abound, sometimes the game will even freeze up.  But if you can get past that, you will find a pretty cool sandbox game here with some wild toys to play with.  Its not at a Saints Row 2 level (the king of sandbox games in my world), but its got some good times in it.  Plus for you older folks, the 70s references are pretty funny.  I'm pretty sure this one will start popping up used eventually, and since its going for only $40 brand new I think this is a purchase down the line.

So thats all fine and good that I gave my opinions, but the question is what will my kid like.  I think L4D for sure, and I've advised him to rent some of the others he was asking for before committing to them.  I mean if he winds up liking WaW for the online or whatever, then cool...its for him afterall.

Are there any other newer titles I might want to check out?