In addition to playing on boring, traditional courses like Pebble Beach with the good ol’ boys, you can take on a quartet of kilt-wearing Scotsmen in the middle of the Amazon.

The Force is strong with this polished first-person shooter.

Tons of tracks, events, and online races give Revenge plenty of variety, but it's the blinding speed and the velvety smooth controls that make this the best racing game of the year.

For immersing entertainment, this game is totally up our halfpipe.

Teams of up to four can then venture to visually stunning alien worlds, solving puzzles and wasting anything that moves.

Hot Pursuit not only gives you the keys to more than 20 exotic cars, it also gives you the unsurpassed joy of leaving traffic cops in the dust.

In addition to wedging the usual hundreds of teams, stadiums, and plays into the game, NCAA Football 2005 focuses on what makes college football special: the psychotic fans.

Konami's annual soccer franchise, which has scored in the past for its slick controls, wads of teams, and shin-splintin' graphics, returns to the field to affirm its ball-kicking dominance.

Heck, even if you aren’t a hoops fan, there’s plenty of unintentional humor to appreciate: Seeing Yao Ming dunk on Bill Walton alone is worth the price of admission.

What truly sticks out about this real-time strategy game is that it never lets its engrossing depth create a dull moment.

The grimy and amazing graphics, plus gory, well-paced game play, wrapped in a worthwhile story add up to a surprise hit. If only Diesel's movies could be this good.

Improves upon already stunning graphics and amps game play with faster speed and such fresh gridiron moves as sidearm passing and—wahoo!—gang tackling.

You’re not going to get a more realistic driving experience without nicking the keys to dad’s Delorean. Is GT4 more fetish than game? Probably. But if this is a fetish, then put a leather hood on us and whip us till we bleed!

If the grainy, David Lynch ambiance doesn’t make your nads retract in terror, the four-legged headless guys in combat boots and leather thongs certainly will.

If the game were any more detailed, they would have to include a “Record Shitty Rap Album” mode.

But don’t take our word for it, because Prince won Best Action-Adventure Game at this year’s E3 expo. So it’s got that going for it…which is nice.

We suggest using the seven foot Wolfman, he’s great at blocking shots.

Heck, even if you aren’t a hoops fan, there’s plenty of unintentional humor to appreciate: Seeing Yao Ming dunk on Bill Walton alone is worth the price of admission.

Gamers with short attention spans will likely find all the squad management tedious, but we think it adds a much-needed dimension to a very stale genre. Plus it includes the best video game quote so far this year: "If you see something, shoot it; if it screams in German, shoot it again."

Kiss the rest of your summer (and your loved ones) goodbye and get ready to spend all your waking hours indoors, sitting next to a giant bag of Fritos, agonizing over 4–3 blitz packages.

Thankfully, you can slow time, Matrix-style, to get out of the more harrowing battles, while the game's controls are smoother than Moby's head.

In addition to playing on boring, traditional courses like Pebble Beach with the good ol’ boys, you can take on a quartet of kilt-wearing Scotsmen in the middle of the Amazon.

In addition to playing on boring, traditional courses like Pebble Beach with the good ol’ boys, you can take on a quartet of kilt-wearing Scotsmen in the middle of the Amazon.

We have to admit that most first-person games nauseate us, but Faction’s smooth graphics and easy gameplay make it hard to put down.

In addition to wedging the usual hundreds of teams, stadiums, and plays into the game, NCAA Football 2005 focuses on what makes college football special: the psychotic fans.

In the end, you'll be reminded why Hell is such a bad place to spend eternity-but such a good place for four friends to join in multiplayer bullet-tossing.

In addition to wedging the usual hundreds of teams, stadiums, and plays into the game, NCAA Football 2005 focuses on what makes college football special: the psychotic fans.

This intentionally kooky bounty hunter simulator-playing it is like watching an episode of Cops while huffing bleach fumes-is easily the most original game we've played this year.