Call of Duty 2
From: Activision
For: Xbox 360
Price: $70 CDN or $60 USD
ESRB Rating: Teen (13+) (Blood, Mild Language, Violence)

Though there were many warfare shooters on consoles this year, Call of Duty 2 for Xbox 360 was the only one to take it to the "next level" with outstanding graphics, explosive audio and provocative gameplay that actually invoked the fear of death, the adrenaline of assault, the thrill of victory and the agony of respawning at your last save point.

Resident Evil 4
From: Capcom
For: GameCube, PlayStation2
Price: $50 CDN or $40 USD
ESRB Rating: Mature (17+) (Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language)

Proving that an umpteenth sequel need not be the same old with a makeover, Resident Evil 4 reinvented the survival/horror franchise in most every respect. Genuinely bone-chilling gameplay thanks to spectacular visuals, clever, action-packed level design, and the replacement of those trademarked zombie with something far scarier: Europeans.

Lego Star Wars
From: Eidos
For: GameCube, PlayStation2, Xbox
Price: $33 - $40 CDN or $25 - $30 USD
ESRB Rating: Everyone (6+) (Violence)

A tongue-in-cheek take on the Star Wars saga, Lego Star Wars packed in all that is fun and fantastic about videogames while managing to remove most of the violence, certainly the gratuitous stuff, and make a superlative, Force-flavored action game for all ages. Now that's a rarity.

Battlefront II
From: LucasArts
For: PlayStation2, Xbox
Price: $60 CDN or $50 USD
ESRB Rating: Teen (13+) (Mild Language, Violence)

Battlefront II doled out the whole "far, far away" galactic shebang by giving gamers access to nearly every Star Wars character, vehicle and weapon plus select locales from all six films and then letting them have at it in excessively epic star brawls for it all.

God of War
From: Sony
For: PlayStation2
Price: $60 CDN or $50 USD
ESRB Rating: Mature (17+) (Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Themes Strong Language)

A completely original game from Sony (who knew?), God of War is sure to spawn many a sequel but stands today as essentially perfect action/adventuring. Though stuffed with blood and gore, it's all befitting the context of mythological gods and warriors in extremely harrowing, titan-clashing sequences throughout an awesomely Iliad-ish odyssey.

Indigo Prophecy
From: Atari
For: PlayStation2, Xbox
Price: $50 CDN or $40 USD
ESRB Rating: Mature (17+) (Blood, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Use of Drugs and Alcohol, Violence)

Indigo Prophecy proved that less thumb twitching and more interactive story telling of the "point & click" variety can make for a bona fide survival/horror "experience." A dark, brooding, violent, malleable, brain-teasing murder mystery, Indigo sucked you in like a good cops and supernatural psycho movie, except you played all the roles as you saw fit.

Project Gotham Racing 3
From: Microsoft
For: Xbox 360
Price: $55 CDN or $50 USD
ESRB Rating: Everyone (10+) (Mild Lyrics)

There was a glut of great racing games this year, which makes for a mean bell curve and an unmitigated pileup on the far right. As the only new generation game system of 2005, Xbox 360 popped out the winner with Project Gotham Racing 3, a truly gorgeous, extravagantly detailed racer that just might sell a million HDTVs all on its own. Plus, true to the PGR franchise, you're actually rewarded points for pulling off slick maneuvers; the one extra "fun" element that no other racer has.

Shadow of the Colossus
From: Sony
For: PlayStation2
Price: $45 CDN or $40 USD
ESRB Rating: Teen (13+) (Blood, Fantasy Violence)

Where most action/adventure games end with a giant boss battle, Shadow of the Colossus actually started there and then did it again 16 times. And they weren't just giants, they were Collossi, which conveniently describes the really really really big bossiness of them all - as in freakin' huge! - that were each defeated combatively but in unique, puzzle-laden ways, all for the purpose of pilfering their powers and, ultimately, saving the girl.

FarCry Instincts
From: Ubisoft
For: Xbox
Price: $65 CDN or $50 USD
ESRB Rating: Mature (17+) (Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language)

Boldy, Farcry Instincts took the first-person shooter (FPS) to a place few have gone before: the South Pacific. Lavishly lush tropical environments (and some dim dank ones), that could be a huge, sprawling, Caribbean cruise commercial if it weren't for all that skulking around in the foliage as a woefully under-equipped, fervently man-hunted commando that refuses to stay that way.

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
From: Bethesda
For: Xbox
Price: $50 CDN or $40 USD
ESRB Rating: Mature (17+) (Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Use of Drugs and Alcohol)

Call of Cthulhu more than makes up for a few technical failings with an impossibly ambitious and mostly realized interactive envisioning of the demonic tales of categorically twisted cult novelist H.P. Lovecraft. It felt familiar but otherwise snubbed most gameplay conventions, which, in turn, allowed it to deliver, through thumbs, eyes and ears, sickening terror, an unshakable sense of dread and a fairly probable replication of going insane.