what games have impressed you this year? (jan 05 - june 05)

[nashrakh]

I was impressed by Namco X Capcom. Unusual, but stylish and funny game. Yay for Retro-Character Strategy RPGs. The 2D art ist stunning, although I expected some more "Tales of" Characters, oh well

[PeteJ]

Resi4 was certainly the game the best game of the last six months; games of this quality come around very rarely.

The battlefield2 demo has been pretty awesome too. It doesn't do anything new but does everything very well.

World of Warcraft has impressed me with its scope (flying across the land on a griffin is a sight to behold), while Guild Wars with its inventiveness and brilliantly realised fantasy setting.

Killer 7 has, so far, left me cold.

[MikeF]

Resident Evil 4 on GC (looking forard to playing the PS2 version too)
DMC3, God Of War and Killer 7 on he PS2 so far.

Looking forward to sampling psychonauts too

[alisdair]

Catch! Touch! Yoshi! It took a couple of hours, but it let me rediscover the fun of playing to beat your own high score. Zoo Keeper almost put me off high score games (bastarding quest mode), but thankfully there are no such flaws in Yoshi. And the high score table music is fantastic.

[eastyy]

resident evil 4 to be honest i wasent expecting much but now with the much improved controls awesome weapons which can be upgraded great idea of collecting treasure and much more satisfying combat it was a great game

devil may cry 3 the second game was a major dissapointment but this is a great comeback one of the best combat systems ever and also the BEST action cut scenes i have ever seen ever

god of war along with dmc3 has a great combat system one of my fav games ever however it does have certain parts that i dont like

[highlandcattle]

Chaos Field Expanded
Everybody said it was going to be crap and i oved it
Donkey Kong :Jungle Beat most awesome platform game eva!

[iangilroy]

RE4 - 'nuff said

Oddworld: Strangers Wrath - nice graphics, fun all the way through

Mercenaries - I can't believe that this hasn't been mentioned. IMHO better than GTA:SA - a huge solid sandbox full of destruction without the layers of tacked-on stuff. Everything works properly - controls, physics, solve-it-how-you-like missions - and I even think it looks pretty nice.

[Big Seany]

Can't believe nobody has mentioned Trizeal. That impressed me.

Other than that, I haven't actually bought or played anything that came out this year.

[Valken]

So far Lumines for being so simple yet so very very deep. The latest Splinter Cell for fixing almost everything that I hated about the series while keeping what I loved and being an incredibly pretty game to boot and the Battlefield 2 demo for just being omfg cool.

[hankwangford]

Resi 4's the game for me. It's thanks to that that I've not had the interest in finishing off or starting any other games recently - although thankfully San Andreas on the Xbox is proving to be every bit as good.

[gaz@manc]

This year so far has impressed me - personally, I've bought more games in this period than in any other this generation. Admittedly, thats largely due to the PSP.

I love my PSP, but I will admit the current release schedule leaves a lot to be desired. However, Ridge Racers and Wipeout Pure really stand out - two ageing franchises given an immense spit n polish for the new handheld. Lumines and Mina No Golf also impressed, but I was left a little disappointed with Need for Speed Rivals and Ape Escape: On The Loose.

On Xbox, Jade Empire, Forza Motorsport, Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath and the superb (IMO) port of Doom 3 have kept me more than happy. I was suprised at some comments about Jade Empire, largely that it was lacking in many areas and not the game is should have been. Each to their own, but I really enjoyed it, espescially the setting and art direction.

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory has become one of my favourite Xbox games, and TimeSplitters: Future Perfect and Midnight Club 3 have also stolen many hours from my Uni work. Oh and finally - Medal of Honor: European Assault. Yes, I know, not the greatest of games, but after loving the PSone versions I thought this was a return to form for the series.

Admittedly many of these titles may not appeal to some people and be too mainstream/franchise-heavy for some tastes, but its kept me happy. I'm extremely excited about the end of the year - Perfect Dark Zero, Kameo, PGR3, DOA4, Quake 4, Call of Duty 2, Black, Burnout Legends/Revenge, GTA Liberty City Stories, Spartan: Total Warrior, FarCry Instincts....etc...

[giogi]

Like just about everyone else Resi 4 just blew me away... eventually. I had it on my shelf since launch and only got around to playing it last week when I had the flu.

Now it has come and gone and TBH, I can't bring myself to play anuthing else, because it just ain't gonna match it, and I've got GTA:SA sitting in my Xbox drive.

The only thing that is keeping me ticking over is the occassional chill out on Lumines followed by a whiz around the tracks on Wipeout Pure.

Oh, and I also really enjoyed Jade Empire... much, much more so than KOTOR.

[charlesr]

DS: Meteos seems to be stuck in my DS. Still playing it regularly.
GBA: I got the US version of wario Twisted through recently and that's really very good if you like that sort of thing.
Xbox&GC: apart from the aforementioned Resi4, not much stood out for me. I've been mostly grabbing older games on the cheap for these two consoles.
DC: Chaos field and Trizeal were ok, but didn't have the ultimate quality to keep me hooked for more than a week each.

[SUMIRE]

It's hard to impress me ha ha.

I think its got to be Resident Evil 4.