Best Games of 2009
Ranked by our critic's grades, best first.
Uncharted 2: Among ThievesThe best directed action game of its generation, with the seams hidden so well you stop looking for them.Read the review
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2The multiplayer peak the series has chased ever since, attached to a campaign running on pure adrenaline.
Batman: Arkham AsylumThe licensed game that stopped being a punchline, built on a combat system everyone has borrowed since.
Assassin's Creed IIThe template sequel: fix everything, add a great protagonist, set it in Renaissance Italy.
Demon's SoulsHostile by design, and every corridor you learn turns that hostility into meaning.
Dragon Age: OriginsSix different openings, one darkspawn invasion, and a party that tells you exactly what it thinks of your ruling.
Left 4 Dead 2Valve hands four strangers a shotgun and lets an unseen director decide how badly the next ten minutes go.
League of LegendsThe mod that became a career path, and it still wants a hundred hours from you before it starts making sense.
Resident Evil 5A terrific co-op action game and a bad horror game, sold as the sequel to the best one.
PrototypeTraversal this good deserved a better city to cross and a protagonist worth crossing it for.