Best Games of the Half-Year

Tom Chick, Contributor

One RTS to Rule Them All

It's been a great year so far, across many genres and platforms. Oblivion, Titan Quest, Rise of Legends, Chibi-Robo, Syphon Filter, Monster Hunter: Freedom, and even Drill Dozer and the latest Yu-Gi-Oh card game on the GBA are all top-notch titles that would normally make the choice of the half-year difficult.

But for me, there's been one game this year to marry almost perfectly technology, gameplay, innovation, pacing, and sheer knock-you-back-in-your-seat awesomeness: Electronic Arts' real time strategy masterpiece, Battle for Middle Earth II. It's one of the most beautiful games I've ever played, of any genre. It makes incredible use of sound, from the rumble of Rohirrim, to the skitter of spiders, to Aragorn's stirring call of 'Elendil!'.

Battle for Middle Earth II plays out with slickly integrated economics, with spectacular reversals, and with a shrewd balance between heroes and hordes, special powers and brute force, strategy and tactics, hardcore tactical micromanagement and casual 'drag-select-and-attack' simplicity. It's perfect for new players as well as seasoned veterans. This is -- for now at least -- the mother of all RTSs.

And here's the clincher: I wasn't a big fan of the movies until the game made me curious to watch the Extended Editions. Whoa! So that's what I was missing? I may end up actually reading those books one day. Oh, look, Battle for Middle Earth II just arrived for the Xbox 360. So much for a slow July. -TC

Read the Battle for Middle Earth II review Watch videos from Burnout: Revenge

Russ Fischer, Contributing Editor

Can't Put Down the Elder Scrolls

It's been a pretty weak year for games so far, but in a way that's good, because it's left me more time to play one of the standouts: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Other people have loved Ghost Recon (and it's a great game) but for me this is the only game other than Live Arcade releases that's kept my 360 running. (Going against the grain, my arcade loves are Zuma and Mutant Storm, though Geometry Wars is undeniably beautiful.) While Oblivion arguably has many weaknesses that pervade the RPG landscape, it's also got so much detail and more surprises that I'd ever expected. All of the major guild quests are supremely entertaining, and touches like the possibility of becoming a vampire are wonderful. All this time, and I still have barely touched the "real" storyline.

Does it live up to the early hype? Almost, which is good enough, considering how intense that hype was. It's also the first game in a very long time where the console release has made me want to double-dip and get the PC version, because as good as the 360 version might be, I want all those user-created mods.

My honorable mentions would be New Super Mario Brothers, which speaks for itself, and Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror, which totally came out of left field to instantly become my favorite PSP game. I can't wait to see what they do with this series next, and I hope it's on the PSP, rather than the absurdly expensive PS3. -RS

Adam Pavlacka, Contributor

Still not Burnt Out

As the first of three next gen systems out of the gate, the Xbox 360 has had an impressive start this year, though the two games that have kept me the most occupied are, oddly enough, multi-platform releases. Io Interactive's Hitman: Blood Money requires a bit of patience to appreciate, but if you have the nerves, it's a decidedly cunning game that really does force you to think like its namesake. When I'm not busy killing the unworthy, my time is often spent breaking a few road rules behind the wheel in Criterion's Burnout Revenge. To be fair, it is mostly just a prettified version of the Xbox game, but if you have an HDTV, the visual upgrades are a treat and the new Live modes are a great way to hone your skills.

When I'm on the road, my DS always finds a place in the bag and the past few months have seen Tetris DS living and breathing inside the cart slot. Nintendo did a fine job of retooling the gameplay and creating new modes, while still maintaining the purely addictive force of the original game. And for those moments when I'm without a system? I don't often admit it, but the N-Gage version of Civilization has gotten more than its fair share of play. -AP

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