Take full control of your home theater with the latest in interactive entertainment

We can stop pretending video games are kids’ stuff, right? I mean, there’s no reason to maintain that silly pretense. More than ever, video games are the domain of grown ups—those able to afford the system able to show off the full a/v potential of these so-called toys.

Crank these spectacular Show-Offs and even the oldest fogies in your circle will start spelling “you” with one letter or stick X’s on the end of their names at a whim.

Or maybe they won’t. But I guarantee they won’t give you a hard time for playing games in your home theater.

The Beatles: Rock Band (PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360)

If, for whatever reason, you’ve avoided the whole video game thing to this point, or if the last video game you laid eyes on involved toadstools, princesses and head trauma on the underside of bricks, it’s time to drag yourself kicking and screaming into the present. Via the past. Or something.

Seriously, if you don’t already own one, put down the magazine, go buy an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, snag a copy of The Beatles: Rock Band while you’re there (don’t worry—that interestingly groomed gentleman behind the counter will gladly help you) and get ready to rock out to one of the coolest A/V experiences you’re going to have for quite some time. If you’ve ever wanted to pretend you were a Beatle, this is your chance.

The introductory video alone is nearly worth the price of admission. It’s a brilliantly animated Magical Mystery Tour through the Fab Four’s career, from the Cavern Club and streets of Liverpool to the famous crosswalk on Abbey Road, by way of a Crayolaflavored LSD trip packed with puffy little puffins, fish-headed dancers and a giant horn-playing elephant god, all rendered in a mind-blowing mix of traditional 2D animation and eye-popping 3Dⁱ imagery.

All of that before you ever lay hands on a controller. Once the game starts, you and your guests will be blown barefoot by the trippy visuals bursting off the screen as you dig through 45* of the Beatles’ best tracks, resplendently ripped apart and remixed to suit the interactive surround sound experience. Whether you’re rocking along with George on lead guitar, bopping to Ringo’s beats or laying down some three-part vocal harmonies of your own, you only have yourself to blame if  The Beatles: Rock Band doesn’t sound spectacular pouring out of your speakers.

(*45 when I wrote this for our December issue. Now you can also get Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Rubber Soul.)

Batman: Arkham Asylum (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)

From the Technicolor dreamscape of Beatlemania, we turn our attention to the dark and daunting world of Batmania. With the exception of the fact that it’s downright awesome in its own right, Batman: Arkham Asylum is the polar opposite of The Beatles: Rock Band in every way. Shiny, happy animation gives way to shadows so stygian they threaten to suck the light right out of the room. Bright, brilliant pop tunes surrender to a dense, claustrophobic surround mix that thickens the air and pushes your pulse way past the point of pulmonary repose.  

Even if you’re unimpressed by the fact that this is the first truly great superhero videogame of this generation (not to mention the best Batman game since the days of the Nintendo Entertainment System 20 years ago), you’ll go absolutely gaga over the downright disturbing level of character detail, from the shadow of stubble poking through a shiny film of sweat on the chiseled chin of the titular character to the texture of the Joker’s suit, so sumptuously rendered you’d swear you could touch the screen and guess the thread count of his tailored top.

It’s the high-definition environments that leave me looking like a slack-jawed mouth-breather, though. Every brick in every wall looks handcrafted, not copied and pasted. The puddles on the dank floors shimmer and shine with a sheen that makes real water look dry by comparison.

Even with your eyes closed, the hard-hitting, uncompressed 7.1-channel surround sound track captures the action and environments so well you’ll swear you have bat-hearing yourself. Every punch and kick hits with the force of a two-ton bomb, and every environmental nuance, from the haunting hum of electrical lines to the flittering and screeching of The Dark Knight’s mammalian namesakes slicing through the air, paints a sonic picture that’ll plague your dreams for weeks to come. Don’t try to blame any guano you find in the room on the bats, though—the game is just that intense at times.

WipEout HD Fury (PlayStation Store for PlayStation 3)

If Gotham City’s insane criminal underworld is a little too dark for you, perhaps this ultra-slick downloadable racer for PlayStation 3—a sort of TRON by way of Lady Gaga—is more your speed. Seriously, if you’re not feeding your system with these razor-sharp 1080p graphics and throbbing techno beats, you’re guilty of malnourishment. The game is an absolute blur of neon and transparencies, towering cityscapes that seem to stretch to infinity and a gorgeous sky so lifelike you could get lost watching it for hours—assuming, that is, that taking your eyes off the track for a second didn’t guarantee you last place.

And if the twisting, turning, loop-de-looping tracks and background scenery don’t leave you downright hypnotized, the roaring engines, screaming weapons, thumping soundtrack music and scorched wind tearing through the air in your room certainly will. I’m not sure if the soundtrack ought to be considered an assault on your subwoofers or if the combined forces of the music and subs technically count as a conspiratorial attack on your backside, but either way, somebody needs to press charges.

Best of all, this mind-bending, breakneck kaleidoscope of speed and sound, plus the booster pack that adds even more tracks, more ships and more rafter-rattling tunes, will only set you back a grand total of $30 on the PlayStation Store.

Need for Speed: Shift (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)

If you like your racing a little closer to the ground and a lot more realistic, give this latest entry in the Need for Speed series a spin. Honestly, if it gets much more realistic than this, you’re going to be wiping bug guts and dust off the back of your screen. Until Gran Turismo 5 comes along next year (or whenever), NfS: Shift is, without a doubt, the best any motorsports simulation is going to look—and sound—on your system.

Whether you’re ripping through tight, twisting city tracks or burning rubber on professional circuits, the game captures the look and feel of slinging a few thousand pounds of metal around at ridiculous speeds like no game before it.

You owe it to yourself to see this game the way it’s meant to be played, though—with the cockpit camera engaged. I don’t care if you’ve played every racing game in the history of racing games from outside the car, you need to see the view from behind the dash in this one, with the sun gleaming off the polished metal of your hood and the fingers of your avatar’s hands wrapped white-knuckled around the wheel. You need to put yourself virtually in your car and hear the sound of the roaring drive train rumbling beneath you, the thump and growl from your sub picking up every irregularity in the asphalt and delivering them straight to the seat of your britches and the whiz and whine of your ever increasing opponents pouring out of (hopefully!) the surround channels.