x-ice2 is supposed to be improved. blizzaks are good but if you dont want those you can get great tires for cheaper. gislaved are worth looking into since hakka's are money. if not, just get hankook's (ipike or ws300 i think they're called), nice winters for the money. general altimax arctic aren't bad for the money either i've heard.
Arctic General user here. They are ok. Nokians are better but for the price, I Arctic Generals are pretty good value.