Decent year from my POV.
Fallout: New Vegas gave me hope that there will still be Fallout games that resemble the originals - though I find it to lack some of what made the FO1/2 great, it was much better Fallout than FO3.
Red Dead Redemption was both a treat and somewhat of a disappointment - as someone who grew up with Spaghetti westerns, I was over the moon with its world. But it retained the same GTA structure, which was already long in the tooth at that point - so I liked it, but not as much as I thought I would.
Fable III was decent, but nothing extraordinary.
Mafia II was good, but for some reason, for me at least, it lacked the atmosphere I loved about the original.
SMG2 was quite good, but I didn't get sucked in as much as with the first one.
Darksiders was surprise for me - a lot of Zelda-alike gameplay, but I didn't care much for its setting (much preferred Darksiders II setting later on).
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West was something that was fun to play - not the best game, but with a lot of charm.
Alpha Protocol was RPG I was looking forward to - it had similarities in gameplay with VtM: Bloodlines, but spy setting is not something I care about at all.
Costume Quest was a fun and cute Western JRPG.
Two Worlds II was a drop of water for the fantasy WRPG thirsty - it was at best a decent game, but it had a very interesting magic system that lets you create your own spells combining different "cards" to achieve a desired effect.
Heavy Rain was a fairly fresh experience that I somewhat enjoyed, but for me, as someone who still prefers their first game (Omikron: Nomad Soul) than anything that they've done after, proof that David Cage is sliding more and more toward "film director" role instead of game designer. Maybe Star Wars Eclipse will be back to roots for them (at least somewhat, from the very slim info there is about the game), which means (semi) open-world action-adventure.
Metro 2033 - I really liked this one. It was a combination of stealth, survival horror and FPS, with really great atmosphere. Good sequels as well, though they lost some (or even most) of that survival horror feel.
Mass Effect 2 was something that I didn't care much about at the time - ME1 was already weaker than KOTOR for me, and ME2 turning into more action than RPG game is not something that I really appreciated. I will have to revisit it at some point to see what I think of it from this perspective.
Xenoblade Chronicles is something I never played, but watched my older son play (he really liked it) - not my cup of tea, both gameplay and stylistic wise, but I can see why people like it.
Kirby Epic Yarn was such a charming and relaxing game, with gorgeous art.
Last, but not least, given it's my favourite game from that year, is LIMBO. Puzzle platformers were something I always liked throughout the decades I've been gaming, so with its great art style and brilliant atmosphere, it immediately got my attention. Quite short, but such a delight.
I'll be abstaining in this poll as well, since I don't really see an obvious winner, nin addition to my time with some of the potential candidates being too limited.
