10. The Darkness (Xbox 360, PS3)
Perhaps releasing a dark, gritty FPS in the middle of the summer wasn’t such a good idea in retrospect. After all, who wants to battle demons, eat hearts, and hide in the shadows when they can go outside, eat hot dogs, and soak in the sun?

Well now that the weather can turned cold and wintry you owe it to yourself to check out this fantastic title from Starbreeze Studios, the makers of the 2004 “way better than the move” Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. Based upon the Top Cow comic book, The Darkness successfully mixes horror, action, and adventure into a unique First-Person Shooter. Without giving too much away you become possessed by a demonic force and you’ll need to combine FPS gunplay with your unique demonic powers. It’s a cool combination that never gets old and allows you to play the game in a variety of ways. Do you use demonic stealth power and kill your enemies at a distance, or will you just run and gun down your foes? Oh yeah, and don’t forget to eat your enemies hearts to boost your power! That never gets old.

One of the more interesting aspects of this game which was included for no other reason other than to add to the game’s atmosphere you can literally sit and watch entire movies, television shows, cartoons, and music videos inside the game itself. I actually watched To Kill a Mockingbird on a TV within the game, which is either really sad or cool (I still haven’t decided which). It’s little touches like this which make this game stand out from your standard FPS fare.

Plus it doesn’t hurt that this game looks fantastic, especially on the PS3. Now that you’ve finished Halo 3 and Crysis look toward The Darkness to fill your FPS fix.

9. Orcs & Elves (DS)
Developed by John Carmack and id, Orcs & Elves was originally released as a cell phone games last year … wait! Come back! Don’t let its history scare you away! This is unlike any cell phone game you might have played in the past. This game is actually … good!

Orcs & Elves does its best to recreate the feeling of those old school fantasy RPGs released in the 80s/90s but combined with modern FPS gameplay aspects. Think Quake but with magic and goblins and with a dash of RPG thrown in for good measure, and after years of starvation from the old-school dungeon-crawling genre, Orcs & Elves is like a five-course feast that will stuff you with RPG goodness.

The game starts out as your standard FPS fare – walk through corridors, kill monsters, collect loot, improve your weapons – but as you play you’ll start to see why this game received such acclaim when first released last year. The combat is addictive, quests are fun, your selection of weapons is extensive, characters are silly, the plot is always changing, and the game is expertly paced. Cut from the “just one more turn” school of gaming, this game will continuously keep you engaged and challenged.

Filled with fun quests (including bartering with dragons and drinking with ghost dwarfs), monsters which actually require tactics to defeat, and a plethora of weapons and magic this is a game which will keep you engaged from beginning to end. For $20 you won’t do much better when it comes to old-school monster-killing.

8. Odin Sphere (PS2)
So why is this game on the list? Didn’t Odin Sphere get a freaking ton of press these last few months? And wasn’t everyone saying that this was the “last great game for the PS2”? Yes and yes, but all of this press and goodwill has not translated into sales. It’s a real shame as this game lives up to the hype and shouldn’t be missed.

The graphics are insanely gorgeous, the action fast and furious, and the gameplay innovative. Sort of the “Pulp Fiction” of video games, Odin Sphere tells its story through five protagonists, each of which you’ll get a chance to play. Each character has its own unique fighting style and controls, which always keeps the game fresh and new. Plus as you explore their history you’ll reveal a larger, overarching story as each character intersects with the others. The final result is an epic story that continuously keeps you interested throughout.

Gameplay is your “standard” 2D-fantasy-action-epic-RPG (heh, when was the last time you played one of those?), only on this world all of the levels are designed like spheres (get the title now?). Like the classic game Defender, the levels continuously loop and will only allow you to escape once you defeated the appropriate number of foes. Oh yeah, and you need to kill monsters in order to grow your power-ups from plant seed. You know … like sheep.

Come on people! Isn’t the PS2 like the best-selling game console in the world? Don’t you have like four or five PS2 in your house collecting dust? Why aren’t you playing this crazy beautiful game?! Send your PS2 off in style with this fantastic game.

7. Etrian Odyssey (DS)
This unique 3D dungeon crawler RPG was released in May 2007, but good luck finding it in the stores. No, this was not a runaway best-seller (have you even heard of it?). Rather the publisher, Atlus, seemed to release just enough to supply to meet the limited demand for this game. That’s a real shame as this is an excellent and challenging RPG which is perfectly suited to the DS.

The top screen is used to display the dungeon using relatively simple 3D graphics from a first-person point of view. While the bottom screen is used to map your progress through the dungeon, just like the classic days when having a pad of graph paper next to your computer was mandatory. And this simple act of mapping your progress really connects you to the adventure and makes you want to explore the 25-level dungeon.

Extremely challenging and well-designed, Etrain Odyssey is a refreshing blast-from-the-past. The gameplay is relatively simple – build party, kill monsters, gain levels, explore the dungeon – but with a wealth of character customization you’ll actually enjoy the occasional grind just to level-up your characters and try out their new abilities. Oh yes, and the music is easily the best ever to appear in a DS game to date.

If you cut your teeth on rigorous dungeon crawls from the Apple II+ days this game will be right up your alley. And when you complete this long, brutal game, you will have (in your best John Houseman voice now) “Earned It!” Bonus: The sequel is being released in Japan next year.

6. Jeanne D’Arc (PSP)
If you are a fan of strategy role-playing games then this was the year to own a PSP. Over the past few months we saw the release of three great SRPGs for the PSP – Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness, Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, and Jeanne D’Arc. All three are excellent games but Jeanne D’Arc stands above the rest … and is probably the one you ignored.

With a strange name and an even stranger storyline – the retelling of the story of Joan of Arc within a fantasy world with talking animals, demons, and magic powers -- Jeanne D’Arc is an attractive and vibrant game that is accessible to newcomers and SRPG veterans alike. Unlike other SRPGs which require a PhD to completely understand Jeanne D’Arc takes the time to explain to you how the elaborate combat system works. And between the intense battles and the intense story you’ll never be bored by this 30-hour game.

If you’re looking for a solid strategy game and aren�