An ambitious game, attempting to meld three very different characters together to tell one encompassing story of survival in what amounts to the worst place in America. That story stumbles, but the open-ended gameplay remains a showpiece for the vast amount of content that can be poured into a virtual world.

This is the deepest, lovliest world ever created for a single player to explore, and one that no one should deny themselves. This is a game about following Emerson's advice, leaving the trail and finding that the most powerful force on Earth or Tamriel isn't fire or sword, but the ever-insistent desire to know what lies beyond.

The Last of Us is not a cheerful story, but it's a damned good one.

Between real, actual co-op and Chell's adventure, Portal 2 provides a stupendous package. So stupendous, in fact, that I feel tremendously guilty admitting that somewhere, way deep down in whatever critics have in place of a heart, I kind of wish it didn't exist.

Rocksteady has made the greatest Batman game ever crafted, and they've done that before. But breathing life into a staggeringly beautiful world; one which hums not only with opportunity, but ambition? That's a new trick altogether.

It sets a new standard for modern remakes of past-generation titles, proving that there's absolutely nothing wrong with a publisher capitalizing on gamers' nostalgia, so long as they can find a developer who loves the source material just as much as -- if not more than -- we do.

Undoubtedly the finest game crafted by Irrational Games, BioShock Infinite is one of the best told stories of this generation. It simply cannot be missed.

Put simply, Super Mario 3D World is stunning. Its world is beautiful, its design is impeccable, and its fun is infectious. I'm running out of superlatives here, so let me finish where I started: Go play it.

StarCraft 2 didn't change the formula because it didn't need to. This isn't just a fresh coat of paint on StarCraft, it is StarCraft, right down to its pixelated bones. It's proof that games don't have to be disposable, that some games are so creative and balanced and fun that they don't go out of style or disappear over the years. Some games, it turns out, really are timeless.

It is a game punctuated by near-constant moments of genuine exhiliration, dishing out a stream of physical and mental satisfaction which moves between taxing and rewarding the player with an almost flawless equipoise. It is, however, a stream that's tragically interrupted by the filler which has reared its ugly head in so many of the series' past iterations.

Video games -- not just rhythm games, but all video games -- rarely show this much ambition. Even more rare are occasions where developers manage to fulfill the impossibly lofty goals they set before themselves. Rock Band 3 manages both with ease, backing up brilliant ideas with flawless execution.

Moment to moment, it outshines just about every other game on the market, and while it doesn't exactly break the action-adventure mold, it fills it with such practiced substance that you don't really mind the familiarity of its shape.

Most importantly, though, Fire Emblem: Awakening resembles a soap opera in how thoroughly addictive it can be. Once you get hooked on the combat and these characters and their stories, you'll feel the overpowering need to keep checking in on them. Instead of an hour a day, though, you can visit Fire Emblem at any time, pulling out your 3DS on the bus or on your lunch break or before dozing off at night.

Smash is an intelligent, creative, blissful continuation of the "Who's better?" character debate, and I look forward to changing my answer as I reconfigure Smash's roster and find new favorite ways to send Donkey Kong into the stratosphere.

I don't want to be misconstrued as generic or uninspired when I say that Journey is an awesome game. In the most classical, archaic sense of the word, Journey is a beautiful, evocative and unequivocally transcendental experience.

A charming cast of characters that interact constantly, a uniquely designed and fascinating setting, forward-thinking gameplay systems that combine the best of East and West, and the exhilarating feeling that comes from taking part in an adventure that feels truly epic.

If you've ever gleaned enjoyment from a platformer in your life, there's simply no reason to pass up Rayman Legends. Should you own a Wii U you'll be treated to the original, if occasionally frustrating experience, though the game will make you smile no matter what system you call home.

Yes, it's an incredible platformer, categorically and exponentially improved over its predecessor, but there's a much larger picture that might take you a few evenings of madcap, freeform architecture to discover. LittleBigPlanet 2 isn't just a great platformer, it's a veritable celebration of creativity.

Bayonetta 2 is the perfect action game. It oozes style and boasts gameplay that's both refined and lacking in excess. The combat is so purely entertaining that it's easy to lose yourself in the almost-zen flow of dodging, countering and kicking enemies to death.

Ridiculous Fishing's art, by Greg Wohlwend, is unlike anything I've seen on any platform, an intricate arrangement of creatures, backdrops made entirely of 45-degree angles. Any screenshot you take of this game would make an amazing wallpaper – quite an achievement for a game about a guy sitting alone in a boat.

ODST could have been a clever little shimmy, but it came out a misstep. Reach brings us right back into the dance that hooked us nine years ago, introduces some cool new steps, and leaves us twirling in enchantment as Bungie graciously bows out. Just keep twirling, Spartan.

The level of synergy between Career and multiplayer feels precise and balanced; one constantly bolsters the other, yet neither take priority or feel parasitic. It's an equalized, symbiotic relationship that neither hampers nor enables, and players that prefer one over the other need not worry over missing out.

On one side, it represents a powerful elegy, a close to a series that has done much to define this console generation. It's a melancholy thing, seeing a solid conclusion for characters that a lot of us liked despite ourselves, that make themselves even more understood in the end. But Gears of War 3 does it with respect and grace, and even subtlety, for a fantastic experience from start to finish. And it bestows a postscript of one of the most full featured, fun, and polished multiplayer experiences I've ever played.

A perfect handheld Zelda experience, offering the classic gameplay you cherish at a snappier pace. Link's new 2D ability, combined with the nonlinear progression, provide a flexibility that makes exploring the land – both Hy and Lo – exciting all over again.

It has excellent, explicit design layered on top of system-based chaos – which is a fancy way of saying that just about everything in Far Cry 3 feels like a reward.

Dark Souls 2 may not be what came before, but it is its own game, with its own hilarious deaths, ridiculous traps, haunting melodies, and foreboding bosses, and it still stands out with ease. That punch to the ribs may not wind as hard, but you'll still want to get up and explore this dark, devious world, over and over again.

In short, every addition RedLynx has made to Evolution serves to bolster the offerings of Trials HD, while continuing to highlight the game's base: a fantastic physics engine that drives a flow that is simultaneously simple, addictive and frantic. Now if you'll excuse me, I have another nine years of mastering Trials Evolution ahead of me.

The best additions this year are bits of the unexpected, something almost never achieved in sports video games. FIFA 12 delivers enough of those flashes of brilliance to feel a little less like a game, and more like a true soccer simulator.