This is, without a doubt, one of the all-time greatest games made. 50 years from now people will still be playing and enjoying this game... thoroughly.

If you enjoy this type of genre of games – music rhythm – there’s no doubt you’ll love Elite Beat Agents.

Strong Badia the Free is a great follow-up to Homestar Ruiner. The storyline is easier to follow, the jokes are tighter, and the puzzles are more challenging and intriguing.

Persona 3 is everything you want a PSP port to be: just as good as the original and customized to make PSP owners feel like thy need the new game even if they played the original for weeks on end.

One of the best game collections i've had the pleasure of playing this year. It deserves high marks for offering a wide variety of game titles and some pretty hefty game titles that fans of the 16-bit era will appreciate.

GRAW 2 is stunning to look at, great to listen to and most of all fun to play – especially if you like cooperative multiplayer.

This is a full-featured port on a new platform, and it is without question the best portable fighting game ever released.

The game offers a cool setting, interesting characters, a great combat and skill system, and lots of extracurricular activities, providing countless hours of RPG fun.

A nearly flawless expansion to an already great game.

This is precisely the sort of game I'll bust out every time I find myself on a long flight: it's addictive, challenging without even a whiff of frustration, and packed to the brim with content. I honestly have no complaints about Pushmo, and fully believe that unless you are deeply offended by baby-rescuing sumo wrestlers or block puzzles somehow killed your firstborn, you should download it immediately.

Every DS gamer should give it a whirl, regardless of their design ambition, even if just to get a sense of what wacky creativity lies in the minds of their fellow gamers.

Volition has done an excellent job of giving you a place to play and toys to play with, so grab a partner, an SMG, and start making your own stories.

Uncharted 2 is easily one of the best games released on the PlayStation 3, but also finds itself as one of the best releases across any platform in recent memory.

Disgaea 4 is a noteworthy edition to the popular strategy RPG series because it adds so much new content without destroying the familiar gameplay that fans have grown to love.

For players with the dedication to succeed and the incomprehensible desire for perfection, Droplitz is one of the most refined puzzle games available.

Bayonetta is a stunning orgy of sadistic mayhem that surpassed even my unreasonably high expectations, and proved that violence can be beautiful.

A tremendous product. Wonderfully fun and thrilling, inspiring and energiz[ing], just a great amount of fun.

Not only are the characters well designed, but once you step out into the huge world, you'll be amazed by the wide array of creatures and landscapes the game has. This is a PS2 game, but it's really pushed to the limits.

Ultimately, Dragon Age: Origins is quite possibly the best game ever to come out of Bioware.

This is one of the most amazing worlds in gaming and the fact that it's brimming with so much action and intrigue makes it that much better.

Despite the constant worry of carrying too much loot around, and even with some small interface issues, The Witcher 2 Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition is a marvelous game. It's more focused and has a vastly superior combat model than Skyrim, is more realized and contains better writing than Dragon Age, and treats sex like a mature theme and not a juvenile goal. It's not to be missed.

Strong Badia the Free is a great follow-up to Homestar Ruiner. The storyline is easier to follow, the jokes are tighter, and the puzzles are more challenging and intriguing.

With three massive areas and your hundreds of square miles of your own personal urban jungle, this Liberty City, more than any other version, is yours to do with as you please. The possibility for creative anarchy is limited only by the expanse of your imagination.

This is one of those games that creates gamers and is easily one of the best Wii games to date.

One of the best game collections i've had the pleasure of playing this year. It deserves high marks for offering a wide variety of game titles and some pretty hefty game titles that fans of the 16-bit era will appreciate.

Longtime Mario fans will gobble this up and love every nanosecond, while casual folks may find themselves letting the game play for them more often than not.

The gameplay is multilayered, the storyline is deep and the overall presentation is the most polished we've seen in a long while.

Shatter is a fiendishly well-crafted game available from the Playstation Store for a little under ten bucks where you spend hours smashing blocks and absorbing vast amounts of neurologically-stimulating graphical flair and ambience.

This is how you do an action game. This is how you do a sequel. This is how you finish off a franchise.

With the famed versatility of the game engine, the amazing potential for quality third-party content has already begun to manifest itself, making it well worth the purchase and hefty investment in hard drive space.

Treyarch didn't reinvent the wheel with Black Ops. Instead of fixing what wasn't broken, the oft-maligned developer gave it a needed polishing and sent it on its way. With everything that this game has to offer, both on and offline, it will be a resident of console drives for a long time to come.

If the thought of playing Ocarina of Time anywhere and anytime thrills you, or if you haven't experienced it before, this is the title that's worth buying a 3DS for. However, if you've bought it three times before, or you've had your fill of Ocarina, there's not enough new here to warrant a purchase. No matter what camp you fall into, this is the definitive version of a truly classic game, and a blast to play, 13 years on.

Sometimes, the simplest description of something is also the most apt. God of War: Chains of Olympus is God of War on a handheld. Every amazing combo, bloody finishing move, larger than life boss battle and sweeping environment is present here, just smaller but no less impressive.

Treasure hasn't tampered with the overall mechanics of Radiant Silvergun, and doing so would have been a mistake.

The key to enjoying the game really is getting the hang of how the game works and then getting those beefier missions rolling. Bully truly is one of the better games to come out of Rockstar in quite awhile.

The main quest is an enthralling tale that will thrust you into the battlefield of D.C., side-by-side with the Brotherhood of Steel, face to face with the illustrious DJ of Galaxy News Radio (my favorite station of the wastes), and aboard a reclaimed aircraft carrier. It’s an epic journey, but when it’s done, it’s done. The only option after that is to start all over again with a brand new face. No complaints here.

I found few things more immensely satisfying about Front Mission 4 than witnessing a perfectly executed chain of attacks occur all from moving one Wanzer into position and issuing an attack order. Thumbs up for an interesting new way to pump a little fresh spice into the standard turn-based strategy formula.

It's short but sweet, which I personally prefer over games that overstay their welcome. It's also a pleasure to play, with a satisfying mix of action/platformer pizzazz and puzzle elements with a steady, addictive progression from those simple first stages to the devious concoctions of the late game.

I cannot recommend this enough to folks who have some platforming chops. It's hard as hell, but incredibly rewarding and genuinely fun.

With all the extra features including multiplayer, new additions to the camera and the classic MGS games, Metal Gear Solid 3: Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence is a must buy for the MGS series faithful.

Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure is a fantastic game for anyone who loves old school platformers and match 3 puzzle games.

It’s a win-win for gamers with kids and Sega fans alike – finally, a Sonic game that you don’t need to be 10 years old to enjoy.

This is easily the most satisfying and wildly entertaining one-on-one brawler I’ve played on a console.

Rather than aping what's popular, it focuses on good gunplay and unique ways to make it interesting: the slow motion, the co-op, the scoring system, two distinct characters to emphasize replayability, and a story that knows its place and its limitations.

From the gorgeous arenas to the assortment of returning and new characters – even the Star Wars ones – found in the game, Soul Calibur IV is exactly what the series needed to step up and compete in the next generation.

I'm hardly a hardcore strategy nerd, so maybe it's the accessibility and surface-level depth I can get down with. I can't wait to dig deeper to see what else I'll enjoy about this topnotch turn-based masterpiece.

If BioShock 1 is ultimately about what it is to be a slave, the sequel shows – with a sophistication rarely seen in gaming – what it is to be a parent, with the power to love or to harm.

Anyone that played the PC version should be right at home here. In fact, the game is basically the same all around, which, disappointingly, means that the XBLA version of the game also lacks co-op. This is the only real downside to Torchlight.

It's a tale of moral imperative, the nature of man, tragedy, betrayal, right, wrong, and the gray that lives in-between. And if you're not interested in the depth its story line explores, it's also an immaculate action game, with enough ways to bludgeon, maim, and blow stuff up to hold you over until "Halo 3" arrives.

The game may not make use of all of the strengths of the Nintendo DS but it makes full use of the ones that really matter, bolstering an already impressive game for a new generation of as well as those who look forward to replaying through a classic staple of the role playing genre.

By far the best action game you'll find on the Xbox this year.

Dungeon Defenders has a vibrant, cartoony look and feel while providing an addictive and solid tower defense gaming experience. Reinventing tower defense is a tough chore but Dungeon Defenders manages to pull it off.

The way a sequel should be: stuffed full of new features, better graphics, improved game play, and be so damn addicting that you can not put it down, even to go to the bathroom.

With the same principles as the previous games in place, not fixing what isn’t broken, Blood Money adds some interesting new features to make the tension even higher and the missions all that much more complicated.

Gameplay is the perfect mix of adventure staples and brain twisting puzzle devilry. Professor Layton's world is one you are happy to spend time in and hesitant to leave.

It amazes me that a game of this caliber – that is to say, a game that is ridiculously good in spite of its missteps – comes just one year after its predecessor. It improves a lot, adds even more, and changes nothing I already adored. It's a shorter game than Assassin's Creed 2, if that matters, but aside from the storyline it's better in almost every way.

P4 is constantly enveloped by an aura of dire urgency.

As one of the cheapest games you can find on Steam right now Plain Sight delivers some powerhouse gameplay in a deceptively small package.

For what could have been just another jump in a sea of platformers, this game stands out because it has personality. Don't miss this one.

A decent and unique gaming experience that takes sand box gaming to new heights. With all the combat, customization and multiple paths you can take Vanilla on, there's really nothing to complain about.

It's fast, it's addicting, and it's got Live support. You simply cannot go wrong with this title, and this one is truly the best version.

As a puzzle game, Professor Layton and the Unwound Future is an excellent offering, however, as a Professor Layton game it is simply extraordinary.

The episode is brimming with pop culture references that range from The Color Purple, Se7en, The Shining, and even Samuel Adams beer.

This is a great, great pinball game and I'm inclined to call it the best of its genre that I've ever played-and I've played a lot of them, going back to ancient historical artifacts such as David's Midnight Magic up through the obscure tables done by Japanese developer Little Wing.

For players with the dedication to succeed and the incomprehensible desire for perfection, Droplitz is one of the most refined puzzle games available.

It amazes me that a game of this caliber – that is to say, a game that is ridiculously good in spite of its missteps – comes just one year after its predecessor. It improves a lot, adds even more, and changes nothing I already adored. It's a shorter game than Assassin's Creed 2, if that matters, but aside from the storyline it's better in almost every way.

The bottom line is that Tidalis is a flexible, smart, refreshingly unique puzzle design, and it's situated neatly into a large generous package. It's far better than any mere puzzle game should be.

Left 4 Dead 2 is the Empire Strikes Back of zombie games. The momentum has clearly swung in favor of the bad guys. But also much like Empire, this is clearly the best of the bunch and is a required purchase for fans of the genre.

Its greatest strength is its ability to rustle up nostalgia and good, old-fashioned Halloween fun.

Fighting fit and ready to rip off your head, it's definitely the best Mortal Kombat game released to date.

Jeanne D'Arc manages to deliver on all fronts, from the presentation to the fast paced and streamlined open-ended battles and skill binding mechanics. Everything in this game is polished, pretty, highly functional and fun. At the end of the day it's hard for me to complain about anything in this game.

The online play and interactive leagues are superb and the thrill of scoring a goal in the 90th minute online was a fist pumping "Heck Yeah!" experience which I haven't felt in a long time playing an online game.

Fighting fit and ready to rip off your head, it's definitely the best Mortal Kombat game released to date.

The improved graphics make all of the environments you visit look lively and beautiful, both in and out of the jungle and in and out of water. Lighting and shadows are done quite well and provide a very noticeable visual improvement over the last few games as is the audio.

It's an epic quest of rejuvenation, elemental and ornate, in the context of an extended action/RPG/platformer. It’s built from artwork that upstages anything you've seen on a next-gen console. Not since Shadow of the Colossus has a game world been presented so lovingly and evocatively.

One of the best dungeon romps I've played this year. The scale of the adventure may not be epic but the overall package is pure unadulterated addiction. If you like role-playing games then you'll love FATE.

It’s not often that a game comes about to justify the purchase, or even the existence of a particular console, but with The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Nintendo has delivered a game that every DS owner should experience.

Wonderfully animated backdrops, inventive enemies, and difficult boss battles set Viewtiful Joe apart from the pack as a truly incredible game and a must have.

The episode is brimming with pop culture references that range from The Color Purple, Se7en, The Shining, and even Samuel Adams beer.

Rockstar has set the bar for what downloadable content can be and I for one can’t wait to see what the next adventure holds in store.

Easily THE Game of 2002 in my book.

It prides itself on being undyingly faithful to its source material; opting to create the ultimate edition of this must-own title with additions that never distract from the innovations that made the game a classic in the first place.

An inspiring emotional work of art and perhaps the best role-playing game this year. Square Enix continues to prove that you can take even the most played out source material in the world (Disney's various franchises) and make something wonderful.

As a complete package Battlefield 3 absolutely delivers and if you don't have some angry agenda against Origin it's a must-play. The PC version in particular ushers in a new era of graphical magnificence and the disparity between the consoles begs Sony and Microsoft to up the ante. Shooters don't come much better than this and it's a great way to kick off this year's holiday game rush.

Pretty much everything you could ask for in a turn based space strategy game: great AI, great diplomacy model, a ship designer, easy to understand techs, multiple races, multiple custom options, good graphics, solid interface, and a replay value that is through the roof.

Truly creative, polished, and incredibly satisfying, this is a title that every DS owner needs to try – even if it's just to see whether an army of vampires or zombies would win in a fight.

Every aspect of the game is virtually flawless, from its movie inspired soundtrack, to the incredibly life-like FMV, to the detailed battle and Materia systems, to the boatload of simplistic and addictive mini-games. This is what RPG fans have been waiting for.

The combination of a great campaign mode along with a goldmine of multiplayer options makes for an unbeatable gaming experience.

Another lesson in how to take a franchise in different direction entirely - and with great effect in this particular case.

The City is enormous and beautiful, the cars are amazingly detailed, and the control is divine.

The main quest is an enthralling tale that will thrust you into the battlefield of D.C., side-by-side with the Brotherhood of Steel, face to face with the illustrious DJ of Galaxy News Radio (my favorite station of the wastes), and aboard a reclaimed aircraft carrier. It's an epic journey, but when it's done, it's done. The only option after that is to start all over again with a brand new face. No complaints here.

I love the synergy of all these different play mechanics. On their own, these different bits would become stale very quickly, but together each compliments the other to create what I think is a brilliant game.

With three massive areas and your hundreds of square miles of your own personal urban jungle, this Liberty City, more than any other version, is yours to do with as you please. The possibility for creative anarchy is limited only by the expanse of your imagination.

Hector: Badge of Carnage is without question, one of the best new adventures-in fact, one of the best game properties-to come out in recent memory. With its likeably slobbish anti-hero and the possibility for endless story setups, we adventure fans would do well to cross our fingers that the collaboration between Telltale and Straandlooper continues well beyond the current trilogy.

It is both fun and engaging with a magnificent story, great dialog and a score that is not to be missed. It’s an experience that is well worth the money.

In any case, Amnesia: The Dark Descent is an unforgettable survival/horror experience, one that should not be missed.

It is my firm belief that almost every mature gamer out there will find a lot to love in God of War. It never talks down to the player and the presentation is near flawless.

The expansion also enhances your ability to interact with other races – something I’ve given the series criticism for in the past.