1. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (Wii)

My favorite Silent Hill of the series, Shattered Memories consistently surprised me with its atmosphere and narrative quality, its smart use of motion controls, and in how itmade me feel. It’s also the first time I’ve seen my girlfriend not only grasp but fully master a third person control scheme within moments of picking up the controls. We had an amazing night playing the hell out of this game, and while its psycho-analyzing replayability is apparently amazing, I feel content leaving my experience on the high note where it ended. It really, really sucks that there won’t be another one like it.

2. Limbo (Xbox Live Arcade)

Limbo is an ambient video game. It’s not particularly hard, not particularly long, and certainly not complicated. But every moment of its design exists to put you in a very specific space. From its vignetted silhouette imagery and its understated, gorgeous soundtrack, to the soft rumble when your character jumps and the way his legs kick when he’s climbing a vine, there is a quiet hostility and fragility to the game world that I can’t remember seeing elsewhere. It doesn’t hurt that the game has one of the most subtle, beautiful endings of any video game I can remember. It’s just a sweet, terrifying joy to play.

3. Vanquish (PS3/360)

I’ve already written at length about Vanquish. Suffice to say I still stand by my words. It’s an absolutely mindblowing third person shooter that asks players to do things they have always done in new and exhilarating ways. It’s a stunning technical achievement, stylish as hell, fun to play and – like Batman: Arkham Asylum – simply rock solid. I cannot recommend it enough.

4. Bayonetta (360)

Another Platinum game! The best character action game since Ninja Gaiden Black, it blew my expectations away with its generosity, ridiculous sense of humor, willingness to bewrong, and with a score-attack system that still keeps me coming back to levels again and again and again. It’s gorgeous, fast paced, tight and funny as all hell. Alongside Vanquish, Bayonetta stands as an epic middle finger to anyone riding the Japan’s Game Industry Is Dead band wagon. Show me a western game that can do these things, then we can have a conversation.

5. Starcraft II (PC)

You can strip away the multiplayer, and Starcraft II would still be one of the absolute best single player games on the PC this year. It has some of the worst characters and writing I can think of, yet the sheer joy of simply playing its missions and fuddling about with the bounty of new toys it throws your way makes for an astonishing real time strategy title. What puts it on top compared to other excellent genre entries like Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising is its unflinching dedication to delivering one of the hardest core multiplayer experiences on the market. I heard Starcraft II described as “Football II”, and this is absolutely true. FPS tourneys are moot; This is the first de-facto PC gaming sport.

I was not only surprised to really enjoy watching games being played, but Starcraft II awakened a competitive instinct in me I wasn’t ware that i had. It’s as much a cultural phenomenon as it is a game, and for that it’s one of the biggest gaming events of 2010.

6. Amnesia: The Dark Descent (PC)

As a Lovecraft fan with a big spot in his heart for 2005′s Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, Amnesia was like receiving a love letter. With its excellent Lovecraftian story, tactile physics, fun insanity mechanics, terrifying monster encounters and pervasive sense of dread, Amnesia is one of the best first person horror games since System Shock 2.

7. Red Dead Redemption (PS3/360)

I have a confession to make. Prior to Red Dead Redemption, I have never completed a Rockstar game. Even the ones I really enjoyed, such as Bully. There’s just always a moment where the games have fizzled out for me. I stopped caring about the characters, the story just drags on and on, and the mechanics become a set of errands to run. It boils down to a sandbox, and after a while that sandbox becomes boring too. Red Dead Redemption somehow avoided all those pitfalls. It offers characters I genuinely cared about, and a world I wanted to explore. Red Dead Redemption also gets this year’s Game That Almost Made Me Cry award for its amazing ending and choice of soundtrack.

It’s the best game Rockstar have made. That’s a pretty serious accolade.

8. Minecraft (PC)

I knew Minecraft was amazing the moment I realized I could plant a tree on a tree. I spent forever building the biggest tree imaginable, way above the clouds, and tunneled an epic tree house through its leafy walls. Then I dug out the ground beneath it, making it a free standing world-tree in the middle of the ocean. It was beautiful! Then, later, a friend of mine built an even taller burning swastika on the horizon, just to spite me.

Minecraft is the most delightful game I have played in years. It’s a roguelike made out of Legos, a playground that inspires creative rivalry. Its non-physics allow for amazing constructions. An undersea glass house filled with trees and flowers, leading to an underground mining and construction complex. I can only hope Mincraft grows laterally. It doesn’t need to be deeper. It just has to offer more variety.

9. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (PS3/360)

I don’t know how Criterion do it, but they are the best guys on the planet for making arcade driving games that still feel grounded in reality. Hot Pursuit is a game about angry cars smashing angrily into each other while sounding angry. It’s addictive, gorgeous, competitive and, I’d say, the best Burnout game since Burnout Revenge. The Autolog feature is a great piece of design that facilitates constant score-attack rivalry, a form of multiplayer I’m absolutely stoked is returning to form.

10. Darksiders (PS3/360)

I’d written off Darksiders as a heavy metal Zelda clone. It turns out it IS a heavy metal Zelda clone. But it’s so good. Nintendo has dibs on the Zelda formula to the point where nobody else seems to regard it as a feasible genre. It reminded me of when Volition cloned GTA with Saints’ Row, and responded to criticism with “GTA is a genre”. Zelda is also a genre, and right now there’s only Zelda and Darksiders in it. And they’re both absolutely stellar. If you enjoyed the Zelda games at all, I can not recommend Darksiders enough. It’s a stunning game.