There were other issues as well: with all the red rings of death occurring, gamers found it to be difficult to transfer their arcade games over to their new console unless it was replaced by Microsoft or the gamer was actually signed into Live. If you were without internet access, or Xbox Live wasn’t working, you lost access to your Live arcade library.

Those issues aside, Microsoft has set a gold standard for online content and I have the credit card bills to prove it. This was the area I spent the most money over the past year, and I don’t regret most of the purchases. Yes Word Puzzle, I’m talking to you.

Best Use of MS Points: Carcassonne, Pac-Man Championship Edition, Sensible World of Soccer

Worst Use of MS Points: Word Puzzle, Xevious, Centipede/Millipede, Missile Command, etc.

Wish for 2008: More online cooperative games.

If you’re a loyal reader of this column, you’ll know that I’m a big proponent of GameTap. For either a monthly or annual fee, you’ll get access to an incredible game library of over 900 games spanning videogame history! Leaderboards and ‘challenge’ games add to the fun!

GameTap inked deals with many major publishers, including Eidos and Codemasters, which allowed them to have recently released games like Jericho and Overlord on the service on release day or shortly thereafter. In addition to the recent games, they continue to mine the older catalog such as Sega Saturn games. The service, like Sony’s PSN, usually releases games on Thursday and they try to have two or three new games on the service each week.

There was a disappointing issue with the service, however at the end of the year. Apparently GameTap’s contracts with other publishers came due and subscribers received a rather large lump of coal in December – over eighty games dropped off the system, including Wing Commander. There was very little advance notice and it was a pretty big disappointment for me.

On the bright side there are still over 900 games to choose from, but because I’m greedy, I’d prefer the 1,000 games that were available in November. Hopefully those games will come back soon. Keep in mind that with GameTap, you’re renting, not buying, so you won’t necessarily even have the game forever even if you maintain your subscription.

GameTap did release a new version of the software which also was able to be run on Macs. In addition, they now have a free section where you can play a limited selection of games without even giving a credit card!

Personally for me, the highlight of the year for GameTap was the release of the Saturn games such as Panzer Dragoon, the PC games such as Interstate ’76 and the modern games like Overlord. If the excitement of the Virtual Console and Xbox 360 arcade re-releases get you excited, GameTap is worth your while because most of the games are available on the service which could save you quite a bit of cash.