Portal is an experience in and of itself, and it is hard to classify it as a game. One classification it could be given is "first-person shooter." This is disingenuous, however, as the player is also expected to use her wits to solve complex physics puzzles, navigate dangerous passageways, and stay sane even in the face of a morbidly obsessed artificial intelligence. In the end, it is all parts shooter, puzzle, adventure, and platformer - and these elements are so expertly melded together as to make a game that is, as Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw said, "sublime from start to finish." The only downside is that it's short - about five hours - but hey: all good things in moderation, right?

It's hard to describe Half-Life 2 without using the term "greatest First-Person Shooter ever." To wit: it's the greatest First-Person Shooter ever made. An incredibly engaging storyline, masterfully realized atmosphere, and a variety of clever gameplay innovations come together made the game truly visionary for its time, and even to this day the sheen stands out among lesser shooters. Half-Life 2 is an example of gaming at its best: when it uses its brain.

This fresh and ambitious reboot of the popular Civilization series does not disappoint, offering a highly tactical combat system, an easy-to-learn difficult-to-master economic model, and more creative departures from Civilization tradition. It is to Civilization IV what Civilization IV was to III - a bold new take on a tried-and-true classic that offers hundreds of hours of addictive strategy gaming.