Best of 2009

While reviewing games certainly has its challenges, comparing two games that have next to nothing in common is actually much harder. These apples-to-oranges moments forced me to really consider things like "is a weird portable rhythm game better or worse than a simulation-styled driving game." Normally, the answer I give people is that the games are too different to compare. I still feel like that's totally correct, but it also sort of feels like the easy way out. That's part of why I really liked having everyone come up with their own ranked list. It forced me to think about games in a different way and throw out the way we normally analyze games in favor of how I actually feel. 
 
At one point, this list had over 20 games on it. I think the last three to get cut were Dragon Age: Origins, Shatter, and Killzone 2. Obviously, all three are great games. But none of them absolutely demanded to be on this list the way that the ten games below did. Have a good rest of 2009, unless you live somewhere where it's already 2010, in which case I hope living in space and fighting off the endless alien horde is treating you well.