Time Magazine recently posted its 50 Top 10 Lists of 2007 including a Top 10 Video Games by Lev Grossman (an American writer, contributor to Time and video game reviewer as well as interviewee of Tom Clancy).

Here is a list of the Top 10 Video Games of 2007 according to Time:

1. Halo 3 – Microsoft (Xbox 360)

2. The Orange Box - EA (Xbox 360, PC, PS3)

3. Rock Band - MTV Games (Xbox 360, PS2, PS3)

4. Super Mario Galaxy – Nintendo (Nintendo Wii)

5. BioShock - 2K Games (Xbox 360, PC)

6. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – Activision (Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Nintendo DS)

7. Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass – Nintendo (Nintendo DS)

8. Mass Effect – Microsoft (Xbox 360)

9. Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation - Namco Bandai (Xbox 360)

10. God of War 2 – Sony (PS2)

The usual suspects

As you can see the usual suspects dominate the top ten. However, what is interesting to note is that nine of the top ten games of 2007 have been released in the last half of the year, more specifically in the past four months. Bioshock hit North American shelves in August with Halo 3 being released in September while The Orange Box, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation were released in October with Rock Band, Mass Effect and Super Mario Galaxy following in November. God of War II is the only game to make it into the top ten that was released during the first half of the year (March).

Another interesting fact is that three of the top ten titles were Xbox 360 exclusive, with the number increasing to four if you include the title that was released only on one console, the Xbox 360, and the PC. There was one Wii exclusive, one Nintendo DS exclusive, one PS2 exclusive with the remainder of the titles being multi platform releases (mainly PS3 and Xbox 360).

2007 - a great video gaming year

Grossman describes 2007 as “one of the greatest years video gaming has ever seen” and picks Halo 3 as the “very best of the bunch.” He describes Halo 3 as a “perfect hardcore first-person combat simulator” that delivers “only pure, unadulterated gaming bliss.” He singles out the “even-sided and complex” combat, “perfectly paced and balanced” levels as well as “epic storyline,” “stirring score” and gorgeous graphics.

The Orange Box is an “astounding achievement,” lauded for having a “beautiful physics engine and astonishingly evocative audio effects.” Chief among the praise is that Portal provides a “satanically innovative puzzle game” and Team Fortress 2 a “multiplayer shoot-‘em-up.”

Rock Band, “simple” yet “awesome,” features originals, not covers and is described as “an experience unlike anything else in gaming.” I was somewhat surprised at how little praise was included for the superb Super Mario Galaxy. Apparently the “story is hoary” and the only praise is that everything else is “absolutely new.”

Bioshock is described as “absolutely the best action-role playing game set in a ruined art-deco underwater city that you’ll play this year” (but I must pose the question, how many other action RPG’s set in a ruined art-deco underwater city are there?) and is “beautifully written and acted.” Next up is Call of Duty 4, or COD4 as it has affectionately become known, which is described as “render[ing] battlefield experience with a dramatic power and immediacy and realism never seen before in any video game ever.”

Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is a “perfect fit” between the Nintendo DS and the epic Nintendo franchise, featuring “multitudes of worlds.” Mass Effect “brings back some of that old-school, story-driven, single-player magic” by “approach[ing] the long-sought-after ideal of game-as-interactive novel.” Apparently this game has “all that good stuff that games used to be about before the Internet came along.” Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation incorporates “blisteringly fast-paced” action with “astonishingly vivid” landscapes and atmospheric effects. God of War II is described as “sublime,” a “beautiful titan-clasher” featuring “a bloody, astonishingly cruel arsenal of moves and weapons.”

So I bet your Christmas letter to Santa has just got a little longer and with any luck my New Years wish of more video games of the caliber of 2007 for next year will come true too.