You should have mentionned right away it was on the Wii. Because it's not the same experience at all as the one on the PC/360/PS3 version.

In terms of the reviews compared to my experiences, I'd have to say God of War III. It was alright, but hardly my game of the year, which its metacritic kinda suggest it should be contending for. A solid 8/10 game, not a 92%er.

My runners up include:

Heavy Rain - 8/10 (not an 87)

Mass Effect 2 - a 9/10, just (not a 96, or even a 94 as the PC version managed, even though it was better than the 360 version)

As for games I feel are wrongly maligned in this thread (of those I've played thoroughly):

Modnation Racers: Surely it deserves its 82% Metacritic? Sounds spot on to me. A great game, but flawed.

FFXIII: I enjoyed this for all its flaws, and it was absolutely gorgeous, so I find it hard to say its 83% is over-rating the game.

And, lastly, Dragon Age was released in 2009, not 2010. That said, it doesn't deserve the 87 it got on PS3 or the 86 on 360 (it's an 8/10 game at best); however, the PC version fully deserves its 91 as its a far, far better game.

Should have played Mass Effect on PC (if you could). It's really very good there (although a bit old now). Exactly the same game as the 360 version, but without all the problems and enhanced in many ways. Still, it has a few areas that could have been cleaned up further -- such as the clunky inventory system; it's tacked on from the console version, and it shows -- but they are fairly minor niggles in an otherwise smashing game.

Also, how could you not like Demon's Souls? Don't you like dying again and again and again and again and... actually, now I think on this...

Halo: Reach.

It's better than Halo 3 but not so much. I'm more surprise with Blacks Ops over MW2 than Reach over Halo 3.

PS. Make a thread about underrated... GT5 will win easy.

Heavy Rain, it is barely a game. Though I have not played this years big shooters, in fact I have missed out on a lot of this years games.

Overall I was very satisfied with the games I played this year, and felt most of them deserved to recieve higher critical ratings than they got. The one exception for me is Sin and Punishment: Star Successor, which is at 86 on gamerankings, and I think it is maybe worth a 7.5. The basic gameplay mechanics were ok, although it still felt like a basic on-rails shooter to me. But what really drove me crazy was the lack of cohesivness between levels, and the lack of a comprehensible narrative. The story and cut scenes that was there was terrible, the visuals for the game were subpar, and I didn't like that the co-op mode didn't allow full control for the second player.

I dare you to try to get the 20 million credits it takes to get to the top rank in Halo Reach

And play some Arena if you want to play competitive.

OT: I can honestly say every game I have played this year has lived up to my expectations.

The game I would say that I am most disappointed in this year is Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep. It is by no means a bad game but I feel that the need to play 3 stories which are almost essentially the same thing was un-necessary. I know there are slight differences but Aquas story is useless. I will finish it eventually. Again the worst thing about the KH series is the disney. SE does great on the original stuff.

Also Metal Gear Peace Walker isn't bad either but if it was really MGS5 I would have been dead inside.

HALO REACH

hated the single player, multiplayer did nothing for me

runners up would be  fable3, crackdown 2 and certain aspects of GT5(thouh the actual racing is still top notch)

Black Ops, Average single player with a crap story , awful online.