Soul Calibur IV (PS3/360)The Soul Calibur series has always been the pinnacle of weapon-based fighting games. Although the combat has been slowed down considerably to accommodate the stellar online play, Soul Calibur IV is still an incredibly fun fighting game with loads of depth for you to explore as you fight opponent after opponent, honing your skills. Soul Calibur was damn good, but not quite good enough to make the top 5.
Professor Layton and the Curious Village (DS)Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a very interesting, very well written puzzle game filled with enough puzzles to keep you busy for quite some time. I found though that some of the puzzles were near impossible for one to complete without using your hints, which I saw as a bit of a downside.
Shin Megami Tensei : Persona 4 (PS2)Atlus reminds us once again that the PS2 is still the king of JRPGs with Shin Megami Tensei : Persona 4. In Persona 4 you take the role of an unnamed protagonist in a rural Japanese town. By day you are a normal high school student, going to classes, attending clubs, hanging out with friends, playing sports, shopping and going on dates. By night you and your friends travel through a television screen to an alternate dimension known as the "Midnight Channel" in hopes to find the connection between the Midnight Channel and a string of recent murders.
Persona 4 is totally unique and a breath of fresh air in a season populated mainly by gray shooter after gray shooter, and is immensely fun as you traverse it's many dungeons.
Burnout Paradise (PS3/360/PC)Burnout Paradise really wowed me when it came out in early '08. Never before have I played a game with such seamless drop-in/drop-out online multiplayer that was so much fun to play. Driving through the giant, open-world environment of Paradise City is a thrilling experience that keeps you coming back again and again. The fact that Criterion constantly adds new content to Burnout Paradise (Much of which is FREE!) only adds to the replayability.
Audiosurf (PC)Not quite sure what exactly to classify Audiosurf as, I guess rhythm/racing would be the best way to describe it. In Audiosurf you load up your own audio tracks and the game will dynamically generate the tracks based on the speed and rhythm of the music, ensuring that no two songs will play the same, and thus giving it almost unlimited replayabiltity. Oh, and did I mention it's only 10 bucks?
Dead Space (PS3/360/PC)Expertly designed and immediately atmospheric, Dead Space puts you in the shoes of engineer Isaac Clarke as you venture through a decrepit spacecraft fighting the horrifyingly disfigured Necromorphs. The only reason Dead Space was kept off the list is that I feel that there is a huge over saturation in the third-person shooter genre, and that there are other games that were far fresher and more intuitive.
Prince of Persia (PS3/360/PC)It's easy to point out the positive qualities of Prince of Persia. Stunning visuals, a fantastic sense of speed and momentum while traversing levels, witty writing and fun combat are just a few of them. I think that the frustrating and repetitive task of collecting the light seeds and backtracking through levels are the only downsides to this fantastic action/adventure game.
No More Heroes (Wii)In Suda 51's most recent action game for the Nintendo Wii you take the role as Travis Touchdown as you battle and take down assassin after assassin working towards the ultimate goal of becoming the most badass assassin in the world. No More Heroes is by far this writer's favorite Wii game of the year, well worth your fifty bones.
Mirror's Edge (PS3/360/PC)Mirror's Edge is a very unique first-person-parkour-action game is a damn good first entry in a new EA franchise. Unfortunately, frustrating trial and error gameplay, mandatory combat sections with bad control, and the fact that you can easily blow through the game in 4 hours keep Mirror's Edge from being in the top 5.
Left 4 Dead (360/PC)Left 4 Dead is by far the best multiplayer experience of the year, period. In Left 4 Dead you and up to three others need to work together to make it out alive through four different zombie movies, blowing away the hordes as you make your way to the end. The only negative I can think of is that there were only four maps, which is a pretty big deal. That's the sole reason for Left 4 Dead not making the cut.
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