Video Games Year in Review: 2006

Q3: Dead Rising, Wii rumors, share options

Be honest. If we'd told you this time last year that a real-time strategy game could work just as well on a console as on a PC, you'd have laughed, right? It was EA that was laughing in July, as it released the 360 version of Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II and proved us all wrong. BFME's innovative controls worked just dandy on the 360's pad, and the game opened the door for future EA RTS games (, anyone?) to be released on the platform as well. Good times.

It wasn't such good times for major publishers Activision, Take Two and THQ, all of which found themselves under investigation by the Securities and Exchanges Commission over issues surrounding employee stock options. All three companies finished the year with strong share price improvements, however -- maybe SEC investigations are good for business. Who'd a thunk?

As speculation continued over the Wii's exact capabilities and price point, August gave rise to some great stores. Although Nintendo had already stated the Wii's price wouldn't exceed $250 (it didn't, by a mere penny), some outlets were still predicting asking prices well below $200. Confusion reigned over the function of the microphone in the controller (could it be used for text-to-speech chat in multiplayer games?). Will we be able to play Zelda with a GameCube controller (and why would we want to)? Will Nintendo be teaming up with Apple?

Although video games have been blamed for many of society's ills, August marked the first time they were blamed for delaying the release of a novel. Acclaimed sci-fi writer Iain M. Banks was forced to postpone the release of his next book into next year thanks to his Civilization IV addiction. Hey, if you're going to quit working and play your life away, Civ's about the best choice you could make. We must admit to some sympathy for Mr. Banks, having blown off our share of deadlines thanks to being hooked on one game or another.

Although it was relatively quiet on the news front, this quarter produced some of the year's best games. Nothing -- OK, except Wii Sports -- matched Lego Star Wars II for family-friendly multiplayer gaming. Prey gave us all motion sickness, but we loved it anyway. Company of Heroes proved one of the best strategy games of all time on the PC, and Okami showed the PS2 was still the place to find real creativity. Meanwhile, over on the 360, Dead Rising's Romeroesque zombie combat still stands out as one of the platform's stars.