Last year was witness to many great games, memorable experiences, and important events. Between flying my son around the house as if he were an airplane and my growing backlog of games that I've neglected as of late, I've had little time to write about everything I'd like to include. Below are just a few of the most interesting, and not surprisingly, my list is Demon's Souls heavy.

Best Thrilling Experience of 2009: Black Phantom Invasion

You might think Uncharted 2: Among Thieves or Modern Warfare 2 provided the most thrilling adventure of last year, but those titles don't even come close to the hair-raising fear induced by a simple onscreen message warning of a black phantom invasion.

My pulse raced and beads of sweat permeated my forehead. Every second this phantom stalked my character immersed me further into the game.

I can remember few other game experiences as thrilling -- precisely because so much is at stake. The sneaky AI of X-Com: UFO Defense comes to mind, where death meant the permanent loss of a competent soldier. Similarly, Demon's Souls provides that rare adrenaline high.

Best Boss Fight of 2009: Flamelurker

Demon's Souls' boss fights were epic, but none compared to the relentless onslaught of Flamelurker, the second Major Demon of Stonefang Tunnel. I was genuinely afraid to fight this boss and intentionally avoided the level for half the game.

I was white-knuckled the entire battle. I could afford no room for error. My first victory against the beast came after more than twenty minutes of intense fighting, all of which required my full attention, quick reflexes, and smart tactical decisions.

I was so exhilarated from the conquest (especially because of my numerous previous defeats) that I immediate ran to face the Dragon God and brought him down in one fell swoop. The entire experience was immensely satisfying.

Best Game that Fought a Trademark Jerk of 2009: Edge

Mobigame's iPhone title, Edge, garnered a lot of press when Tim Langdell, CEO of the suspiciously inactive Edge Games, filed a trademark grievance with Apple over the game's sale.

Once the gaming press caught onto Langdell's seemingly shady trademark claim against the indie developer, the story blew wide open and became a major scandal. Langdell eventually resigned from the International Game Developer Association's board of directors, and Electronic Arts petitioned the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office to revoke a number of Edge Games' registrations.

If Mobigame hadn't stood up to Langdell, his shenanigans might never have surfaced. Although Edge is still unavailable in the U.S. and U.K. territories, the game is currently on sale in other regions.

Best Worst PC port of 2009: Borderlands

Not only was Borderlands delayed a week for its PC release, but the extra time spent appeared to have little impact on optimization for the platform. Standard options were completely missing from the settings screen -- basics like mouse smoothing and VSync. Their absence forced players to dig into .ini files to tweak the game to their liking.

Additionally, Borderlands wasn't optimized for video cards in Scalable Link Interface (SLI). This caused the game to overwork my cards to reach ridiculous internal temperatures of more than 100°C and freeze my system. My experience was also plagued with frequent general protection fault errors.

Best PC Game to Play on the Train: Gratuitous Space Battles

Trains aren't smooth rides -- they sway, shake, rumble, and hit the occasional bystander. (Seriously, my commuter train hits at least one person a year.) Most PC games require split-second reflexes and pin-point mouse accuracy, and thus, aren't best suited for play on a speeding hunk of steel.

But Gratuitous Space Battles doesn't fall into this trap by making the game primarily about the set up. You build your fleet -- one ship at a time -- and place cruisers, frigates, and fighters in deep space at your own pace. Then just sit back and watch the fireworks ensue as your fleet engages the enemy!

Best Game of 2009: Demon's Souls

Of the many things I've written about Demon's Souls -- from excellent and tactically interesting combat, innovative multiplayer that is simultaneously comforting and dreary, oppressively ominous environments and atmosphere, to an emphasis on gameplay-directed story-telling -- one thing stands out.

Demon's Souls is a game above all else. The dark fantasy, action-role-playing game isn't a mechanism to shuffle me through a paper-thin narrative. Rather, Demon's Souls continually offered a series of interesting choices to ponder.

No other game provided engaging challenge as Demon's Souls. Everything I earned I worked to achieve, and I'm that much more satisfied as a result.

Demon's Souls has set a high bar for quality in game design, and I find myself measuring other title to this brilliant work of art.