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Top 10 Video Games

	1. Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal This is hands-down the most fun game I've ever played. There's something really joyous about this game - a combination of the spot-on control scheme and the hilarious amount of mayhem caused by the weapons make even the most simplistic arena battles fun to play over and over. Add to that the variety of gameplay, the great art, and the funny and engaging characters and story, and you've got, if not the most ground-breaking or innovative game ever made, surely the best distillation of fun ever created. The upgrade system for weapons (pioneered in Going Commando) is a brilliant way to get players to play around with more than just their favorite weapons. The only disappointment for me was the multiplayer; I understand the technical limitations, but the (relatively) scant choice of weapons was a real bummer, especially all of the "unaimed" weapons like Agents of Doom, the Miniturret Glove, and the Bouncer.
	2. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Sometimes overshadowed by the stunning paradigm shift that GTA has caused in game design is the fact that it's a really great game to play. The choices presented to the player at any given time are truly amazing, as is the number of mini-games that Rockstar was able to create using the same (or at least similar) assets that made up the "main" game. There's no doubt that San Andreas's graphics are drastically improved or that the story in SA is much more dramatic and gritty, but I think SA lost something that made VC so great - the "funny" factor. The violence in GTA is, in reality, completely over-the-top; to me, dressing that violence up in a Miami-Vice-meets-Scarface-with-Flock-of-Seagulls-blasting makes the violence self-conscious, ironic, and, ultimately, kind of goofy in a Don Johnson way. After I played SA, I felt like I needed to take a shower - gritty and real, as intended, but not necessarily how I want to spend 60 hours of my time.
	3. Stronghold / Stronghold Crusader Outdated graphics, some major AI glitches, and my absolute inability to beat one of the unskippable missions in the original Stronghold, and this game is still number 3 on my list. The strong economic/tycoon element in Stronghold, combined with castle-building and sweet siege warfare have made me play this game a ridiculous amount. My favorite part of most RTS games is "getting ready" to fight - I'm a die-hard turtle/boom player - and this game panders to my geekiest management desires. I'm looking forward to seeing what Firefly does with the upcoming Stronghold 2.
	4. God of War What an amazing game. Mind-blowing combat moves, some really clever puzzles, a cool art style, and a pretty darn good story made this game a real pleasure to play through. It starts off with an amazing bang - you're slamming the head of a giant hydra into the sides of a ship within ten minutes of starting the game - and rarely slows down after that. It does a great job of really making the player feel powerful, and the enemies are so diverse that fighting never gets tired. In fact, the most disappointing part of the game was that the designers seemed to make more bad choices in the last hour of the game than they did in the previous ten hours of the game combined - the Hades level had me screaming in frustration (perhaps they were trying to really make the player feel like a condemned soul?), as did placement of save points near the end. That said, the game is a great example of good level and game design - within hours of finishing the game, I had started it over, notebook in lap, to take notes on all of the things God of War did so well.
	5. Rise of Nations and Thrones and Patriots expansion I love RTS games. I love all RTS games. Even crappy little RTS games that aren't much fun. I think it's something about the sky-high three-quarters view that rekindles my childhood fascination with towns and cities for model train sets. Regardless, RoN definitely does not fall into that "crappy little RTS" category. With some great gameplay innovations, such as resources that can be utiltized but not depleted (and therefore don't need to be micromanaged), and the ability to advance your civilization from spear-wielding cavemen to stealth bombers, this is such a great strategy game. I've played this game many dozens of times and I still learn something new each time that I play. The best, though, is watching a friend begin beating his mouse into the table after you've hit him with eight nuclear missiles in rapid succession in multiplayer (hello, Marty).
	6. Age of Mythology and Titans expansion AoM is one of the few games that I've actually played all the way through since I started the Guildhall. A little less depth and strategy than Rise of Nations, but it's got crazy and awesome mythological monsters. There's something that's just more satisfying about having a Cyclops knock three or four enemies across the screen than using tanks or nuclear missiles. And it's gorgeous - the color palette of this game is really impressive, and the amount of color saturation that Ensemble gets away with is amazing.
	7. Tempest The control scheme for Tempest is like sex - it just feels right. Seriously, the gameplay is simple and thrilling, but the controls are absolutely perfect. The spinner was weighted with just enough give that you could spin it hard and fly around the "map," but also had enough resistance that you could move with absolute precision as well. I'm going to have one of these in my house someday.
	8. Animal Crossing The game that I most wish that I could say I designed. I had to write an assignment on AC for school and, after a few hours of play, wrote a horribly scathing report about how bad the game was. After talking to a friend about her experience with it, I decided to give it another try and fell completely in love with it. I spent countless hours in Lemur (my town) running errands, collecting shells and fossils, chopping down trees and replanting fruit trees, pulling weeds, sending clothing and letters to other characters, fishing, collecting insects, and decorating my house. Basically a MMORPG-simulation for kids where the day-night cycles and seasons of the year actually match those in the real world, this is the game that, for me, completely validates the design and creation of the Nintendo-DS. My favorite characters: Cobb (artist pig), Chico (stoner mouse), Puddles (sweetheart frog), and Tybalt (fitness-maniac and all-around-hero tiger).
	9. Call of Duty The only FPS to crack my top 10, the combination of the epic storyline told from the perspective of England, Russia, and the U.S. with some amazing gameplay and levels makes this a great game. "Pavlov's House" is the best FPS level I've ever played. The variety of gameplay that is achieved in such a small space is a real lesson in level design - so much so that I wrote a short description of how the level works, which you can read here.
	10. Sly 2: Band of Thieves I played some of the first Sly Cooper game and thought it was pretty cool, but Sly 2 is a platforming masterpiece. For starters, it's just a great game; the large, GTA-style pervasive environments, the ability to play as the three different main characters, and the awesome control scheme (especially the "hit the button to 'glue' Sly to a piece of interactive environment") make for a great game. Add to that the cel-shaded art style, the funky music, and the nightclub-style to the whole game, and you've got a game with a panache that very few games manage to demonstrate. I can't wait for the next Sly and his appearance on the Sony PSP.

Honorable mentions (ten is so few!): Katamari Damacy, Ico, Mark of Kri, Half Life 2, Pikmin 2, the first three Crash Bandicoots, Puzzle Pirates

Most anticipated games: Age of Empires III, Stronghold 2, Animal Crossing DS, Death Jr. for PSP, Wanda and the Colossus, Ratchet: Deadlocked, Jak X, and Psychonauts