Video game review by ERIK LEIJON

At first glance, 2005 may not have been the most stellar year for video games. There was a lot of talk about a lack of good ideas, games becoming too expensive, studios getting too bloated, games being too violent, Nintendo losing their minds, etc. But 2005 proved that even a down year can still provide a lot of excitement. Here are my top moments of the year.

Portables. Make no mistake—consoles blew this year. Likely because we’re all waiting for next-gen, but the consoles felt old. The Nintendo DS and Sony PSP, on the other hand, were like a breath of fresh air. Most of the games that made my jaw drop this year, or at least piqued my interest, came from the two portables. Where else could you play as a surgeon (Trauma Center: Under the Knife [Atlus]) or a lawyer (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney [Capcom])? The Nintendo DS had a decrepit launch in 2004, but has redeemed itself with some mind-bogglingly original titles. As for the PSP, have you seen the damn screen yet? The games are also starting to live up to the lofty expectations of Sony’s first portable.

XBox 360 launch. Ok, so Microsoft wasn’t the first gaming company to not meet their demand at launch, but the horrific plane crash that was the 360 launch was probably not what they had in mind. In terms of games, we won’t be able to see what the 360 can really do until next year, but we should not put down the launch titles, since some of them do look quite impressive. Honestly, though, at this point I would advise you to get a DS and PSP and wait for the killer apps next year for the 360. If the NPD numbers are true, though, and MS only moved 326,000 systems south of border, it would be hard for Bill Gates to justify launching it so early.

First-person shooters. I’ll admit that sometimes I myself probably gave too much press to this over-saturated genre, but I can only work with what they give me. It’s not that Quake 4, Doom 3 and UC2005 are bad games; in fact, some of the most fun I’ve had this year has been playing these games. But isn’t there some way developers could create FPSs and not restrict them to space, or World War II? I’ll leave it up to them, but just because you’re playing through the eyes of somebody, it shouldn’t mean that you automatically must shoot aliens.

Money. Video games are definitely a major industry, to the point where both father and son are reading about the XBox 360 launch in the Wall Street Journal. Usually when money is mentioned the name Electronic Arts comes up. They bought their way into their main competition Ubisoft earlier this year, and they’re trying to buy mobile upstarts Jamdat as we speak. Bandai and Namco merged to form the largest distributor of big-eyed Japanese anime characters in the world. Longtime publisher Acclaim bit the dust, and Ubisoft is going to invest some major money into Montreal and Quebec City in the next decade.

Next-gen. Usually Christmas-time is when we get the best each company has to offer. Each console has at least two to three must-have games. Unfortunately everyone is currently working on the 360, the PS3 and the Nintendo Revolution, so we’ll have to settle for a few surprise hits. I’m currently playing The Warriors on the Xbox, and for those who remember the old movie of the same name (I sure don’t), then you may find the random carnage of the game fun.

See ya next year, Link.