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)

Petroglyph’s UNIVERSE AT WAR: EARTH ASSAULT might have one of the most generic, yawn-inspiring, half-assed titles ever, but the game itself is kind of a kick. Unlike some recent RTS games (are you listening, World in Conflict?) this title has three, really unique races with totally different play styles and tech trees, and it never feels like the units are just variations on the same model. It’s loud, and garish, and the lighting effects are crazy. The game has nothing to do with realism. It’s just a bunch of big-ass, spinning, laser light-blasting, colorful, sci-fi weapons, flying saucers, walkers, robots, and mechs blasting the hell out of each other. And that’s just fine by me.

Winter has come early to our little corner of the northwest. (for a sense of scale, see the little butt end of my Civic sticking out from behind the tree). Thank goodness for games. What better way to warm oneself than by throwing a copy of Left Behind:Eternal Forces on the fire?

As I sat down for my Thanksgiving pizza (a quarter century tradition in the Tritone vegetarian household) I couldn’t help but gape in slack-jawed wonder at the metaphorical groaning board of gaming goodness, a bounty of such richness: BIOSHOCK, MASS EFFECT, CALL OF DUTY, THE ORANGE BOX, ASSASSIN’S CREED, HALO 3, SIM CITY SOCIETIES*, QUAKE WARS, TABULA RASA, UT3, CRYSIS–all harvested in the last couple of MONTHS, for cryin’ out loud. Has there ever been a better spread of quality games? And, seriously, let’s give thanks for all the designers, programmers, artists, producers, writers, composers, sound editors**, and QA testers that create all these cool toys for us to play with.

*there you go, Brixtone. $5. ka-ching!
**ditto

The gaming press has been squirting superlatives all over this game, but Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare deserves every kudo it’s gotten and then some. Incredible graphics, a fantastic (if short) single player game, and some real innovations in multiplayer mean that Bioshock is going to have to duke it out for Game of Year. And next week, we get Assassin’s Creed, Crysis, Mass Effect, and Sim City Societies. Holy Crap!

One recent Saturday, I played a lot of games. In those moments when I could tear myself away from Team Fortress 2, I played Portal, Project Gotham Racing 4, Stranglehold, Halo 3, Half Life 2 Episode 2, and a couple rounds of Company of Heroes, Opposing Fronts. Oh, and I dabbled with the demo of UT3.

I decided, after this digital gluttony, to take a day off and play no games at all. And, for some reason, I started thinking of Yom Kippur, that Holy day in the Jewish calendar devoted to fasting, atonement, and forgivness. Now, I don’t mean to trivialize Yom Kippur, nor elevate a hobby to greater significance, but I started thinking of this day as my gaming Yom Kippur. After all, with so many potentially great games just up the road a ways, what better time to undergo a day of purification.

So, I played no games. I purged my various hard drives of old games, demos, and mods that I knew I would never return to. I defragged, I cleaned the registry, I dusted the monitor. And while I suppose the following is really just between myself and the Great Game Maker in the Sky, I offer these sins up for forgiveness:

–Not finishing games. Sorry, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Please forgive me, Medal of Honor: Airborne. Don’t take it personally, Tomb Raider: Anniversary. These are all good games, and I may return to them, but they and a few others remain in various states of incompleteness.

–Not sticking with any one MMORPG. Vanguard, I thought you were the one. LOTRO, what happened? We were so happy. I wonder if the guild I started still even exists. Sword of the New World, you never had a chance, and Tabula Rasa, don’t get your hopes up. I have issues. And WoW, I know you’re waiting patiently like the tired old whore that you are: I’ll be back, and this time I’ll stay. I promise.

There are many more. Too many really, but I just noticed that my neighbor’s goat is wandering free and I think there might just be a quick and easy fix to the guilt and shame.

Shalom.

The Bioshock demo was released Monday for the XBox 360.  If you care anything about what makes a great game–music, sound, design, concept, aesthetics, and above all, story–you gotta download and play this.  If the rest of the game fufills the promise of this demo, it’s going to be a classic.  It’s creepy and it’s beautiful at the same time.  The PC demo releases soon.