Risk in Spaaaaaace: Sins of a Solar Empire

Sure, it’s a 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) space-exploration RTS and plays a lot like a real-time version of the board game Risk, but it’s one of the most fun and engrossing multiplayer RTSes we’ve ever played. The real risk (in space) that developer Stardock Entertainment took was releasing its precious baby with absolutely no DRM. Did it get pirated? Sure. But it also sold more than 500,000 copies. Not shabby for a game with a budget of less than a million bucks.

www.sinsofasolarempire.com, ESRB: T

The MacGyver Award for Excellence in Impromptu Weapon Design: Fallout 3

Although we favor games with a high weapon density, firing the same ARMs, MAC 10s, and combat shotguns we’ve seen in a dozen games before soon grows tiresome. Fallout 3 saves the day by letting you get in touch with your inner weapons designer and create homegrown killing devices. Everyday objects you’d pass up in other games—lunch boxes, soda bottles, crutches—become the components for surprisingly effective homebrew weapons. Once you’ve seen the devastating firepower a bottle-cap mine can dole out, you’ll never want to return to more conventional arms.

fallout.bethsoft.com, ESRB: M

The Thinking Man’s Lemmings: World of Goo

What is it with adorable little simpletons and addictive puzzle games? Is it an appeal to nerds’ latent nurturing instinct or to our desire to play God over a mass of shivering, gooey critters? In either case, World of Goo is a refreshingly original game in another year dominated by sequels and spin-offs. With beautifully bright graphics and an underexplored gameplay mechanism, World of Goo proved that even a tiny team like two-man 2D Boy can create a fantastic game, and that “indie” doesn’t have to mean “unpolished.”

www.2dboy.com/games.php, ESRB: E

Best Use of B-Actors with D-Cups: Red Alert 3

We’re not sure what this bevy of vaguely recognizable, undeniably attractive B-list babes has to do with the latest Red Alert game—part of the Command & Conquer real-time strategy series—but we know we’re fans. We think the Red Alert series can stand on its own without this type of puerile titillation… but we still appreciate the effort. And the eye candy. Even if we only recognize Jenny McCarthy.

www.commandandconquer.com, ESRB: T

Best  Evolution Simulation Game That Actually Promotes Intelligent Design: Spore

For years, we heard about a game that would teach kids about science—things like environmental pressures, survival of the fittest, and evolution. That game was Will Wright’s Spore. Taking your fledgling species from a single-cell critter all the way to a galaxy-spanning empire has an undeniable appeal. However, in no way, shape, or form does this game educate about evolution. In fact, Spore is an intelligent design sim. Neither the environment nor your play sessions shape your creature’s development, no siree. Instead, the loving hand of the player/deity determines the course of each of the millions of creatures that populates the game’s nigh-infinite universe. Oops.

www.spore.com, ESRB: E

There can be only One!: World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

How do you keep 11.5 million players happy with a four-year-old game? Release your second expansion pack! With Lich King, Blizzard bumped the level cap from 70 (where it had remained since the launch of the first expansion, The Burning Crusade) to 80, opened up the frozen continent of Northrend, and introduced a new class, the Death Knight. In other words, it pumped the goose that lays golden eggs full of Lupron and Zoladex.

www.worldofwarcraft.com, ESRB: T 

The True Friendship Test: Left 4 Dead

You and your best friend are almost to the safe room, each with a sliver of health remaining and a raging tank hot on your heels. You’re limping along, trying to protect each other from grasping infected fingers, when you have an epiphany. If you “accidentally” cripple your pal with a “stray bullet,” the tank will have to slow down long enough to finish him off. That should buy you just enough time to make a clean escape. And that, friends, is what Left 4 Dead is really all about.

www.l4d.com, ESRB: M

Best Game Featuring the Character Formerly Known as Prince: Prince of Persia

In this latest reboot (the third, by our count), the Prince of Persia finally strays from the ridiculous plot lines of The Sands of Time trilogy (i.e., The Dark Prince) and begins a new canon—one in which the protagonist isn’t even a true prince! But uncertainties in royal lineage aside, the scrappy hero here is equipped with all the amazing gravity-defying abilities that would be the envy of any parkour enthusiast. The cliff-hanging platforming puzzles and kinetically infused combat are augmented by the inclusion of the Elika NPC character, a welcome
innovation to this third-person action staple.

www.princeofpersiagame.com, ESRB: T

Best Case for WWIII: Call of Duty: World at War

World War II games are so passé that even griping about them is getting old. The Call of Duty franchise rose to new heights with last year’s sensational Modern Warfare, but this year’s return to the familiar tune of Allies vs. Axis was a letdown—liberating virtual Europe has lost much of its luster. And not to be pessimistic doomsayers, but we’re beginning to think that the only way for game developers to stop making World War II shooters is if the world suffers through another global catastrophe. Fallout 3 has the right idea!

www.callofduty.com, ESRB: M 

Nothing to See Here...

World of Warcraft is the ne plus ultra of MMOs, claiming an unprecedented 11.5 million players—more than the rest of the market combined. But every year, big-budget titles from major studios pop up, trying to wrest away its crown. For your edification: 2008’s three biggest WoW-killers that weren’t.

Tabula Rasa

Richard Garriott’s sci-fi adventure was a welcome break from the swords-and-sorcery norm. But shooter-esque combat and an innovative cloning system couldn’t save the game from lower-than-expected subscription numbers—the game will close on February 28, 2009.

www.rgtr.com, ESRB: T

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures

The first 20 levels of the much vaunted, massively budgeted title were magnificent, polished, and immersive. But bugs and sparse content after level 20 sent players fleeing back to WoW. The game has been steadily improving, but can it attract new players?

www.ageofconan.com, ESRB: M

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

The most promising of the WoW-killers lured gamers with its vast lore, realm-vs.-realm combat, public quests, and best-in-class in-game progress and knowledge compendium. It’s more stable than it was at launch, but it’s also much quieter. Warhammer Online seems to be in it for the long haul, though, and continues to add content, but it shows no signs of overtaking WoW.

www.warhammeronline.com, ESRB: T