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#3. The Orange Box

It was definitely tempting for us to break down all of the new titles in Valve's game collection and list them as separate games on their own (as other 2007 year end awards have done) but that wouldn't be fair to Valve; most people we suspect bought the entire Orange Box collection. What those gamers got were two older games (Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode 1) and three new titles and all of them are excellent. Half-Life 2: Episode 2 was a worthy continuation to the single player Half-Life saga with more open ended gameplay and a plotline that has us on pins and needles waiting for Episode 3. Team Fortress 2 brought some much needed artistic changes to the typical multiplayer shooter; the cartoony art style extended to the gameplay as well (although we still think the game needed more maps out of the box). Finally there's Portal, the puzzle-shooter title that, while extrememly short, combined gameplay that had not been seen before in a mainstream title with a laugh out loud funny script.

#2. Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare

Developer Infinity Ward and publisher Activision wisely got out of the crowded WWII shooter genre with their latest entry in the series. Putting the franchise in the modern time period was the least of the game's achievements, however. Call of Duty 4's single player gameplay, while still extremely short, was like experiencing a Michael Bay movie on steroids with fast paced gameplay, impressive graphics and a storyline that had a couple of solid twist and turns. However, It's the multiplayer experience where the game really shines with its upgradeable rank system and extra special features (nothing like ordering an air strike) keeping players on their PCs for hours.

#1. BioShock

This was a tough decision all around but at the end of the year one game kept coming back as the most memorable gameplay experience we had had in a long time. Developer 2K Boston/2K Australia (you will always be Irrational Games to us, guys) had created great games before BioShock (System Shock 2, the Freedom Force series) but never really had the mainstream success they deserved. Ironically the team achieved that popular success with perhaps their most personal and original game they have created as we journeyed into the underwater city of Rapture and fought off the many different creatures created by mutating humans with the substance Adam.

Along the way we got into philosophical debates with unseen characters, tried to get a handle of our own moral choices (kill or heal Little Sisters) and overall experienced a single player storyline that, for once, wasn't predicable or expected. Add those elements with some unique visuals (satirical 1940's art-deco signs, the ever present water leaks, the Big Daddy) a great voice cast, cool music, the upgradeable weapons and Plasmid powers...all of these elements and more combined to make BioShock unlike any game we have ever played and that's saying something.

If any game released this year could be called a significant work of art as well as an entertaining first person shooter, BioShock is it.