Rock Band 3 is a knockout in just about every way it can be. If you enjoyed anything from Harmonix in the past, you owe it to yourself to rush out and buy this.

Rock Band 3 is a knockout in just about every way it can be. If you enjoyed anything from Harmonix in the past, you owe it to yourself to rush out and buy this.

Cataclysm is a love letter to fans of World of Warcraft, as it celebrates everything that made the original game so successful while carefully updating the old game to the new standard of play that Blizzard has set.

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is the epitome of what a good spinoff title should be. While fictionally unrelated to the Ace Attorney games, it borrows heavily from the best aspects of that series while adding enough new game mechanics to make for a completely fresh gaming experience.

More than any previous Double Fine title, Stacking, with its flawless art direction, unusual gameplay and affecting soundtrack is a one-of-a-kind adventure that story lovers and creative thinkers won't want to miss.

With this sequel, Valve has ramped up the brain-cramping puzzle elements and expanded the cast with immensely lovable characters, and they did it just enough to make sure the whole thing feels fresh and interesting for the longer campaign.

The Next Big Thing is a prime example of what a graphic adventure should be. It's got it all: an entertaining story, great writing, creative but logical puzzles, good voice acting and music, beautiful artwork and a killer sense of humor.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim may not deliver on every hope, wish or fervent demand you've been formulating ever since you realized how many flaws Oblivion was carefully hiding with its immense charm, but it most certainly lives up to the name Elder Scrolls and will easily qualify for millions of gamers' best-of-the-year lists.

It may not have the sheer landmass of their just-released MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic and it might not stand the test of time quite the way simpler, more focused games like Knights or the original two Baldur's Gate titles did, but it's still a wonderful game with tons of content, great production values, a masterful eye for humor and drama, and a cast of lovable characters that BioWare has been carefully slow-playing for the last four-plus years.

There are still many annoying or silly things we've seen in the last decade-plus worth of MMOs that Guild Wars 2 didn't fix, but ArenaNet's efforts so far have delivered a huge range of disruptive changes that should pique the interest of any dedicated player.

The world's bigger and badder, the visuals are more impressive, the best characters return alongside plenty of great new ones, and the endless search for new loot proves to be even more addictive than before. Borderlands 2 on PC is just plain awesome and will definitely be one of my candidates for Game of the Year.

On PC, BioShock Infinite absolutely shines. The use of the venerable Unreal Engine might surprise you, considering just how stunning this game looks, especially with the high-res textures exclusive to the PC version that balloon the game to about 15GB in size.

If there's only one Wii game that you buy this year, make sure that it is Super Mario Galaxy.

Half-Life 2 will dominate the first person shooter market for years.

While I can't say that GTA: San Andreas is another revolution in gaming like GTA3 was, it is an evolution that goes light years beyond what we saw with the last two titles in the series.

Rockstar has delivered their best PC port of a GTA game yet with San Andreas.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion moves the RPG genre forward with a massive world, a beautiful presentation, deep gameplay and action, and many great plots and quests to finish.

NSMB manages to blend elements from the past seamlessly with gameplay technologies of today. Familiar enemies, powerups and levels all mesh with new elements to form what is the best Mario game to date.

From the thankfully-revamped shooter interface to driving sequences that aren't out to simply punish you, from Hollywood-level cutscenes with great characters to a difficulty level that mostly goes up smoothly rather than in massive jumps, this is simply a better game than before.

Sky-high production values, Rockstar's signature style, and variety-packed gameplay that actually feels natural to the story and setting make this an easy Game of the Year contender.

Regardless, Uncharted 2, despite a few nitpicks, is the best reason to own a PS3. Chasing fortune and glory has never been so much fun.

A thrilling story, inspired new characters and environments, refined gameplay and yes, even the multi-player, make diving back into the Atlantic an easy decision.

Rockstar has really pulled out all the stops here to make Bully an entertaining game that truly showcases the power of the PS2.

Gears of War raises the bar for action games and gives the Xbox 360 its first true killer app.

Kojima claims MGS4 is Snake’s final chapter. And while I'm saddened to see one of gaming's greatest protagonists retire, I'm thrilled he got such an outstanding swan song.

Every aspect of the Smash Bros. series has been expanded. From the many interesting new characters to the tons of new items and stages to master, I don't see how any diehard fan can't be happy.

Buy this game. Now.

BioShock is one of those games that goes down in history as a shining example for other developers to learn from.