Video Games Year in Review: 2006

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With two major system launches, the last ever E3, and a rash of great games, there's no question that 2006 was a year worth remembering. Join us for a look back over the events that made video game headlines over the last 12 months.

Q1: Crashed Enzos, Oblivion, and lines

Think back to January 1, 2006. As the New Year kicks off, Liberty City Stories is tearing up the PSP chart, new 360 owners are crazy about Call of Duty 2, and Mario Party 7's avalanche of four units sold rocketed it to the top of the GameCube chart. Ha. The PS3's controller still looks like a plastic banana, and the Wii is still surrounded by mystery. Actually, it's not even the Wii -- it's the Revolution.

Even though you can pick up a 360 virtually anywhere now, its notorious launch shortages continued right through Q1 '06. Worse, the 360 was still beset with , as many livid owners found their machines would overheat and expire prematurely. You'd be mad too, if you'd spent three weeks lining up in the rain for a 360, only to get it home and have it die half an hour into your first game of Project Gotham 3.

Also making headlines for the wrong reasons was World of Warcraft. A player named Sara Andrews caught flak from Blizzard reps by recruiting for a homosexual-friendly guild. Although Bliz originally stuck to its guns, the inevitable and widely predicted backdown didn't take long and Andrews received an apology. Still, the issue raised important issues about how real-life personality aspects relate to the development of virtual worlds, and marked the first of many 2006 news stories connected to massively multiplayer games that made world headlines.

Meanwhile, in Malibu, Los Angeles, a Swedish man called Stefan Eriksson crashed his Ferrari Enzo into a pole at almost 200 mph, putting a period to an almost unbelievable tale of video games intrigue, high society, and total failure. Eriksson, who survived with only slight injuries, was formerly a bigwig at Gizmondo, maker of a spectacularly useless handheld of the same name. His tale - involving the Swedish Mafia, fake Homeland Security officials, and a mysterious individual known only as "Dietrich" -- is far long to tell here, but Wired has a great piece on it.

Right up until mid-March, Sony was sticking with a "spring 2006" release date for the PlayStation 3, despite much skepticism and fun-poking in the media. In the end, it fell to former Sony boss Ken Kutaragi to announce the new date: November. Of course, he still didn't quite get it right, as he said at the time it would be a worldwide release, and as our European readers will testify, they're still waiting. Such is life.

The quarter ended up with big news on the 360 front, as Oblivion hit the streets. Its open-ended gameplay and lifelike world disappointed few, and it's a serious contender for Game of the Year despite its early-entrant handicap. What else made critics happy this quarter? Not a lot. Star Wars: Empire at War did well on the PC, as did Fight Night Round 3 on assorted consoles and Burnout Revenge on the 360.