This has been a spectacular year for gamers. Sure, there has been no shortage of shovelware and crap games, but the dreck has been more than counterbalanced by some amazing, creative, and–most important–compelling and fun titles. So, here are my personal faves from the last 12 months (in descending order and the platforms on which I played them).

1. TIE: Bioshock and Call of Duty 4 (xbox 360)
Bioshock is not a perfect game, but its attention to detail, awesome art direction, great music and voice acting, and well-paced storytelling were top-shelf. Infinity Ward brough their CoD series into the 21st century and crafted the most intense and thrilling shooter of the year, with the richest multiplayer suite around.
3. The Orange Box (PC and xbox 360)
4. Mass Effect (xbox 360)
5. Command and Conquer 3 (PC)
6. Lord of the Rings online (PC)
7. Assassin’s Creed (xbox 360)
8. TIE: Overlord (xbox 360) and Crackdown (xbox 360)
9. The Darkness (xbox 360)
10. Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts (PC)

This has been the year when my gaming has shifted significantly from PC towards console, partly because of specific titles and partly because of high system requirements for recent PC games. I know I’m not alone–sales for both Crysis and UT3 have been very poor. Speaking of poor, here are my top disappointments of the year.

Halo 3 (xbox 360)
Supreme Commander (PC)
Unreal Tournament 3 (PC)
Hellgate: London (PC)
Tabula Rasa (PC)
Neverwinter Nghts 2

Finally, here are some fun, but maybe not Game-of-the-Year candidates:

Universe at War: Earth Assault (PC)
Skate (xbox 360)
DiRT (xbox 360)
Medal of Honor: Airborne (xbox 360)
Sim City Societies (PC)