Brandon Cackowski-Schnell, Staff Writer

1. Puzzle Quest: Galactrix (DS) - You kids with your crazy, new fangled PC's and next generation consoles. If you want to find the best game of 2009, you don't have to look any further than Puzzle Quest: Galactrix. Yeah, I said Puzzle Quest. I played the demo for the original every single day until the DS version came out. Then, when I got the DS version, I played it every single day until my thumbs fell off. Hell, I took the game to bed with me. More than once. Moving on, Galactrix has the same addicting mash-up of puzzle brilliance and RPG style leveling up, only this time with spaceships and space pirates instead of undead warriors and orcs. I can't wait to play it even if it means I spend nights sleeping on the couch because of it.

2. Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (360) - If this was just a remake of the excellent Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, then I'd be in with both feet, but this is a whole new game and the remake and Vin Diesel comes to your house and makes you cookies. I'm in with as many feet as I can graft to myself between now and when the game releases. Starbreeze makes excellent games and Riddick is as badass a character as you can ever hope to play so consider me excited. Finally, creeping around in the dark with knives is acceptable again!

3. The Conduit (Wii) - I don't know how many jillion Wii's Nintendo needs to sell before development studios start putting their AAA teams on making games for the console, but hopefully The Conduit will show studios that good looking games can be developed for the Wii and they'll sell. It's probably asking too much to place so much faith on the shoulders of one game, but The Conduit looks so dang good, I can't help it.

4. The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf (360) - Man, if I had to hear one more smug PC gaming bastard go on and on about how good The Witcher was in 2008, I was going to punch someone in the BIOS. Well, guess what PC crowd, those of us "lesser" console gamers are getting it too, and it'll be patched ten ways until Sunday, so it'll be even better. Nyah, nyah, nyah. Seriously though, a dark, mature RPG that casts me as a monster hunter? Where do I sign up?

5. Prototype (360) - When I see trailers for this game, all I can think of is Crackdown and Crackdown was friggin' awesome. I want to jump from a rooftop to a helicoptor, eviscerate the pilot and take control of the chopper to lay waste to blocks and blocks of Manhattan. I don't think that's asking for too much despite what my therapist says.

Puzzle Quest: Galactrix

Troy Goodfellow, Staff Writer

1. Sims 3 -- I'm a sucker for the Sims. I always make a single guy, with the same name, and let him live the bachelor life of toys and easy seduction that I skipped. The new one will do a lot differently, though, so I'm as interested in Sims 3 as a system and design as I am because it's a game and series I love. Seamless neighborhoods? A world that changes and ages around you? It all sounds so great and real and I have real concern that the system requirements will chase off the millions of Simmers out there. As easy as it is to mock The Sims for being a cash cow, at least it makes money because its captivating. And, every now and then, it can still be revolutionary.

2. Empire: Total War -- It's a close second. The Total War games always eat up months of play time, and I'm sure this one will be no different. The color of 18th century combat and the new size and engine will make Empire unmissable. I didn't think that I would care about naval combat, but it turns out I was wrong.

3. Dragon Age: Origins -- I live in a Bioware house. We have every Bioware game (except the MDKs) and, though the E3 presentation didn't impress me as much as it did Bill, everything I've read and seen has only increased my curiosity. The world does seem a little derivative - what fantasy world doesn't? - but we need a good party based RPG with ogres and trolls and dragons. This could be it.

4. Hearts of Iron 3 -- Yeah, this is me being a Paradox fanboy. But I've never been a huge fan of their WW2 series, Hearts of Iron. This time, they seem to be taking out a lot of the economic micromanagement and adding pressures on the player to actually use his/her strengths or lose them. It will be the biggest map ever seen in a strategy game, which will allow for more finely tuned movements. Even with the disappointment of EU: Rome, I'm excited about where Hearts of Iron 3 is going.

5. Solium Infernum -- Vic Davis's Paradise Lost inspired strategy game is probably the most anticipated independent game in my circles. Imagine a Hell with no king, and a war to assume his place. And now think of a diplomacy where bad is good, where there are elaborate rules of what is suitable and respected in a Prince of Darkness. As in his hit Armageddon Empires, Davis will use a unique art style to capture his world. I hope lightning can strike twice for him.

William: I would like to take this time to say that I thought I knew the man they call Troy S. Goodfellow. I was apparently foolish to assume such a thing. The Sims 3? You are honestly looking forward to Sims 3 over invading Russia in the winter? I'm speechless -- and honestly somewhat disappointed. GameShark is hiring -- needs a new wargame writer...

Brandon: Maybe Troy is going to use his Sim-folk to invade SimRussia in the SimWinter. What does Simlish sound like with a Russian accent any way?

The Sims 3