So I was looking back on our very popular Most Wanted Games of 2009 feature and Blood Bowl, Dawn of War II, and Empire: Total War have been released and one of them met expectation (DoW II), one has warts but I still love it (Blood Bowl), and the other was a mild disappointment. (E:TW). Still waiting on Dragon Age and Diablo III (hahaha...2009...haha-- I slay me). But huge kudos to Brian Rowe -- the only staffer with Red Faction: Guerrilla on his early year list. Nice! Prophetic, that man!

Tony Mitera, Staff Writer: You know what I find funny? Call of Juarez, which arguably best captures that Western feel, is made by a Polish developer. Hats off to Techland for pulling that off. Well, if I wore hats. I’m realizing now that my list has a lot of black sheep, i.e. games that didn’t exactly get high praise and yet I still played through them and loved them.

5. Red Faction Guerrilla -- I liked it for pretty much the same reason everyone else did; the wanton destruction of practically any building you wanted to. I mean seriously, you can literally blow up and entire building with a single thermobaric rocket, including any of the enemies found within. I remember one mission where I had to kill a bunch of people in a skyscraper, I just set off a bunch of charges on the roof and let the jagged chunks of the roof knocked loose turn the whole place into structurally unstable swiss cheese as they fell.

4. Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena -- I don’t think that Dark Athena was as good a campaign as Escape from Butcher Bay, but it still was no slouch. Put them together though with both using the new engine and you have one massive experience of sneaking around, breaking necks, and performing all manners of badassery. The game always did do a good job of making you simultaneously feel like hunted prey and yet still quite powerful, and frankly I’m actually surprised that the original campaign’s gameplay still stacks up after all these years.

3. Blood Bowl -- I didn’t even know this game existed in any form before the PC game was announced, and figured it more as a modern remake of the arcade game Pigskin. This left me unprepared for the surprisingly deep turn-based gameplay that the game has. I can’t vouch for how authentic it is to the tabletop experience for sure, but for me it is definitely the most entertaining game released this year that involves a football.

2. Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood -- I’m not sure what is more admirable, the fact that the game has a great take on a genre usually filled with boring clichés or the fact that you actually play as a *gasp* Confederate soldier in a light that doesn’t demonize them. Even the Native Americans are portrayed incredibly thoughtfully, rather than the usual stereotypes of savages that they get. What I’m getting at is that the narrative is strong, and even though the gameplay is very fun it was more impressive to me as to what base it is set upon.

1. Dawn of War II -- There is no other spot this could be on my list. Counting the time spent previewing it I played through the entire campaign three times with a buddy, and still want to go back to it. The co-operative play is simply amazing, with my friend fielding his scouts and Force Commander while I help our backfield down with the heavy bolter squad and Devastator. It’s a game that just works on all levels; and that’s a pretty rare occurrence.

Dawn of War II

Brian Rowe, Staff Writer:

5. The Dark Spire -- We've let our fingers grow supple with cut-scenes and our resolution fracture with every phoenix down. You probably don't have the mettle for The Dark Spire. That is a caution, not a boast. The Dark Spire is a reminder of our roots that pulls off the facsimile act with a convincing swagger as you crawl through its dank corridors, gasping for one last breath, and futilely hoping that someone will save you from yet another death.

4. Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood -- Here's a little tidbit about this business of a Polish developer creating western games. It was the Italians who created the dual-wielding, stogie-smoking antiheroes of the silver screen that became the genre's lead influence, which Call of Juarez is mired in. Call of Juarez has some of the best shootouts that I've seen all year, with an incredibly fluid cover system, but it was the emotional arc that grabbed me. The story became a little over the top at a few points, but I always cared for the future of the three brothers. When Ray said to Thomas, "I don't ever want to see you again," he damn near broke my heart.

3. MadWorld -- It's funny how a person can go from gushing about the touching, tear- jerking moments of Call of Juarez, to laughing at some poor sucker with two signposts sticking out of his face and a metal spike up his anus. MadWorld is one part dark (morbidly disturbing) comedy and one part brawler with some of the slickest controls and craziest boss fights. Of course, I expected no less from the former folks of Clover Studio. Unfortunately, that lineage is also why MadWorld is almost destined to fail. That, and because you whiny, Wii-waggling chumps wouldn't know a good game if it put a chainsaw through your sternum.

2. Skate 2 -- Female characters, running and jumping, moveable objects, fastplants and finger flips. Skate 2 was everything that the first game should have been. Of course, that makes me feel a little ripped off for buying the game twice, but skateboarding games have never been this good. The movements look so smooth and the tricks are only as complex as you can make them. Unlike Tony Hawk, which has all the authenticity of an American Idol winner, Skate 2 forces you to practice and perfect tricks. This is especially true online, where we can sniff out you button-mashers and bury you under bad reviews.

1. Red Faction: Guerrilla -- I told you so.

Red Faction: Guerrilla