A stunning title... Sure, it might be a little complex for the casual gamer, and it might be a little rough in places, but Rome is as deep and as satisfying as they come.

Forza 3 is a brilliantly engineered, if somewhat cold, racing game.

This action-adventure is so smart, so well-written, and delivered with such an obvious love for its source material, I daresay it is both the best licensed game ever made, and arguably the best game of its kind in our current console generation.

A little rushed at the end, with too few worlds to explore. Other than that, SMS is an absolute classic...This is pure, "Video Game Crack."

Possibly the finest snowboarding game ever, SSX 3 offers an insane amount number of challenges, near-limitless replay value, and tight gameplay from start to finish.

It's the best version of an extremely excellent game, on the most powerful system of this generation, and that's something to relish.

A very strong and well-themed real-time strategy title that shouldn't be missed. A fun single-player and multiplayer experience with plenty of fresh gameplay and original ideas, despite its adherence to the original Age of Empires formula.

The graphics are so beautiful that some scenes are sure to make you weep; the gameplay is intricate and well explained; the story is simple, yet powerful; and the characters are memorable and endearing.

A wonderful rebirth of a classic franchise.

The mutators, bots, teams, and sheer number of maps give the game an awesome depth and replayability.

The technology trees alone make it impossible for someone who's sampled Twilight of the Arnor to ever go back to just playing Dark Avatar. Add to that impressive customization tools, new gameplay dynamics, better AI, graphic upgrades, new ship-builder components and completely re-done flavor text and hundreds and hundreds of smaller tweaks, fixes and changes and what you have is an absolute triumph and a new standard for turn-based-strategy games.

It's everything good about videogames in one package, forever encouraging you to play "one more song!" until it's 3AM and the neighbors are yelling for you to turn down that racket.

Factor in reasonably priced downloadable content, and you've got the recipe for one of the year's best games, bar none.

Chrono Trigger is one of the best examples of what the Japanese RPG experience can offer. Its gameplay feels more unique and inviting to those who aren't enamored with selecting boring attack commands for their static sprites to follow.

If you've been playing Rock Band regularly over the last 9 months, then you'll find a lot of welcome features -- and tons of more music -- in Rock Band 2.

It's easily the best title for GameCube this year, and while there's really not all that much new in terms of game mechanics, play style, and presentation, what you're ultimately left with is a rock-solid sequel that offers a bigger, harder, more rewarding challenge than the first game.

Very little felt new; even the final enemy encounter is heavily inspired by the endgame of "Super Metroid."

If video game history were ever to be taught to children, then Final Fantasy VI should be part of the curriculum's required playing. Its characters are among the genre's most unique and memorable, while its villain is quite possibly the most well-crafted embodiment of evil in RPG history.

Arguably the best golf simulation on the market.

The defense upgrades bring a lot of welcome strategy to the game, and the new AI is simply superb. Its amazingly deep, well thought out franchise mode is the best I've ever seen, while the basic gameplay still can't be beat.

Though I still don't know what a perfect game of DX looks like, the fact that I'm still glued to it (despite -- at this point -- finishing what I estimate to be maybe one actual five-minute game in any given hour) should give you a pretty clear idea of how I feel about it.

It is the near-seamless integration of the ESPN look and feel that sets this game apart.

It's hard to remember many games as cinematic and immersive as MoH: Allied Assault. Simply put, it's the best first-person shooter we've played in years.

Drawing its strength from such greats as Thief, BioShock, Batman: Arkham City, and Portal, Arkane Studios' latest manages to deliver that magical formula of intimately familiar and refreshingly new. It doesn't shine as brightly as it should on PC, and it might not offer the challenge stealth-action fans are used to, but it's an impressive accomplishment that immediately stands out as one of the best things we've seen this year.

Now, if the story mode were the only thing available, you'd find a noticeably lower score up at the top there. As it is, though, so much is here for both players and creators, that it's impossible not to praise the whole package.

Wailing on the guitar, I might add, is immensely satisfying.

It's telling of how ravenously the most devoted WoW players inhale content that level 80 Death Knights fishing for instance runs are commonplace at this point, less than two weeks after Wrath's launch.

The Metroid Prime series was pretty fantastic on its own, and now that all three titles have been brought together with some much-appreciated control improvements, it's one of the best titles (and certainly one of the best values) on the Wii. The new controls really do provide a good excuse for fans to double-dip.