2008 has proved to be another stellar year for gaming. It's incredible to think that last year's offerings have ostensibly been topped by nearly 12 months of relentless high-scoring game releases. While our final judgment on our own Game of the Year looms in next month's annual mega-blowout feature, we thought it would be interesting to take a look at some of the highest scoring titles released from January through June of 2008. It's going to be interesting to see if any of these titles are still going to vie for the overall Game of the Year awards but stranger things have certainly happened.

Without further ado, here's some of the best games that you may have overlooked or completely forgotten about during this record manic run up to the end of the year.



May 2008

Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor (PC)

Killer Quote: "What you have is an absolute triumph and a new standard for turn-based-strategy games. Bravo, Stardock. This is how expansion packs should be done."

Score: 5 out of 5 stars


Stardock took on the crazy challenge of improving its already-excellent 2007 strategy game Galactic Civilizations II this year with this second expansion pack, Twilight of the Arnor. And it succeeded. Implementing new technology trees and a massive host of tweaks and additions, Twilight of the Arnor is an example of how expansion packs can keep rewarding their players.

Boom Blox (Wii)

Killer Quote: "A perfect game for the entire family, being deep enough for adults to appreciate and visceral enough for kids to get a huge kick out of."

Score: 4.5 out of 5 stars


Unlikely as it might seem, this collaboration between director Steven Spielberg and EA turned heads this year, and it united gamers in a single common goal: Build blocks up and then knock them down. The simplistic premise was turned into a fun-to-play, accessible puzzle game that was perfectly suited to the Wii's unique controller.