This week’s Power Rankings is a little mix of everything. This week we actually had two stories that could have taken the top spot, but I had to go with my orb-loving heart this week.

1. (-) Crackdown 2 – Crackdown was one of the most anticipated games of 2010 and had a lot to live up to. So after playing the demo and being underwhelmed, I wondered how it would be received by the gaming populous. With all the expectations, it was a bit disappointing to see reviews all over the place in terms of scores. Worthplaying said “A newly designed city and seamless co-op aren’t enough to overcome the game’s ho-hum missions or general lack of content.” But Co-optimus says “But it truly is everything you loved about the original game with plenty of more things to do and minor improvements all around,” giving it a higher score for it’s Co-Op action. I’m still looking forward to playing and collecting orbs no matter the score. We’ll see how long that lasts.

2. (-) Blizzard Forums – So Blizzard decided that maybe it would be a good idea to display players’ real names on their forums. You know, to put an end to forum trolls forever. At first blush, I thought it sounded like a pretty good idea. But it’s probably a pipe dream to think Blizzard can fix the troll problem with one silver bullet. And now Blizzard has called it off. That’s probably for the best. For now.

3. (-) Xbox Live – Speaking of hives of scum and villainy, it was reported last week that Xbox Live sales (a little of everything, I’m sure) surpassed $1B. That’s one billion dollars. That’s a lot of Avatar gear.

4. (-) Halo: Reach – Bungie celebrated Bungie day by releasing a teaser video with Red vs. blue announcing the return of the Blood Gulch map in the form of Big Blood Gulch for Halo: Reach. Feels just like home! Now just bring back Hang ‘Em High!

5. (-) Dragon Age 2 – In a surprise to pretty much no one, Bioware announced their upcoming sequel to Dragon Age (cleverly named Dragon Age 2). There was much rejoicing.

6. (-) Dragon Quest IX – Speaking of dragons (man I am the king of segues today!), the long awaited DQIX was released to the public. And it was good.

7. (9) NCAA 11 After watching this video review of NCAA 11, I was sold. All the new online dynasty goodies their releasing has me dreaming of doing my recruiting when I should be working. This game is going to be fun.

8. (1) OnLive – OnLive is going to live and die by how responsive the game capture and streaming community is becoming. A post at Eurogamer claims that OnLive’s performance is, “similar to playing Killzone 2 locally, and in line with Rare’s claims for lag when using the new Kinect camera controller.”

And that’s all I have to say about that.