If you haven’t seen Discovery Channel’s “Rise of the Video Game” series, you’ll want to catch part 5 of 5 on tonight (Wednesday) at 8pm CST. I’ve seen parts 1-3, and have part 4 waiting for me on the DVR. So far it’s covered the beginning of electronic gaming (part 1 was a treat) and the harsh gaming business. It’s also talked about the cultural significance of the games, including how some major events in history (such as the Cold War) factored into game creation–and how games can also change war itself.

If you’ve missed parts 1-4, don’t fret. I’m sure Discovery will re-run the series. Or you could fire up bittorrent, but you didn’t hear that from me.

Edit: Oops, I meant 7pm CST. Bah. If you missed it, it’ll be on again later tonight and later in the week.

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.