Even if you somehow disagree, you'd be hard pressed to say that general opinion isn't with me on this one. IGN, 1UP, the Spike Video Game Awards, and Game Informer are among those to bestow top honors to the game. You may think that popular opinion isn't everything, but you would be wrong. Democracy always wins. Just ask the English.

Uncharted 2 was in a class by itself this year. Sure, other games had moments of excellence, but Uncharted 2 is excellence. A majority of media outlets can't be wrong. Ever.

Plants vs. Zombies
By Dan 'Shoe' Hsu
Many different groups went to war in 2009: Russians, Americans, Covenant...and lots of zombies. And while people had success putting down the undead with triple-barreled Hydra shotguns (Resident Evil 5) and electrified sniper bullets (Borderlands), no call to arms was more memorable than Plants vs. Zombies'.

Peashooters, winter-melon launchers, and cabbage-pults, along with dozens of other garden-variety weapons and defensive measures, prove that cheesy and creative aren't mutually exclusive. And these veggies aren't vegetables, either: They're adorable, personality-filled plants that dance to the catchy soundtrack, giving them a life you wouldn't expect given the game's title.

Yet all this cuteness is only a charming front for a very deep (but not difficult) strategy game containing a mind-blowing amount of modes, plants, zombies, and unlockables. All that for a low, downloadable price? Game of the Year for me, thank you.

Dragon Age: Origins
By Demian Linn
Wipe away the blood gushing in and around Dragon Age: Origins and you'll find an amazing -- and huge -- game under all that egregious gore.

Multiple origin stories lead up to a sprawling adventure through underground dwarven cities and the rest of war-torn Ferelden, epic battles with, well, dragons among other, less-epic things, and a cast of characters with so much personality that they'll banter with each other while you work on saving the land.

It's an old-time dungeon hack updated for modern sensibilities and tech; the first game in years to pull me away from World of Warcraft (temporarily, I'm sure, although I haven't relapsed yet), and some of the best 80 hours of 2009.

Demon's Souls
By Rob Savillo
Of the many things I've written about Demon's Souls -- from its excellent and tactically interesting combat, innovative multiplayer that's simultaneously comforting and dreary, oppressively ominous environments and atmosphere, to an emphasis on gameplay-directed storytelling -- 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 as much 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.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii
By Brett Bates
Four us of struggled through the final Bowser level nearly 20 times before that one glorious moment when it all clicked: We stomped, bubbled, and leapt blindly as one. It was magical. On more than one occasion the last player alive would appear to fall to a fiery doom, only to pop another player's bubble as they fell. We hit upon the perfect combination of luck, skill, and teamwork, and we were unstoppable. When we finally stomped the switch that sealed Bowser's fate, I literally fell out of my chair in exhilaration.

That's why we play video games -- we want to capture those moments of pure fun. And NSMB had more of those than any other game I played this year.

Borderlands
By Ryan Rubis
Borderlands is the action-packed, post-apocalyptic yin to Fallout 3's deliberately paced yang, and was a great way to close out this otherwise dull (to me, at least) year.

Truth be told, the individual components that constitute Borderlands don't really make for a gripping game. The gunplay -- while competent -- lacks that extra "oomph" of more established FPS entries, and the role-playing game bits are bereft of the item slots, consistent narrative, intuitive interface, and deep character customization of conventional Diablo clones. I've heard people complain that it's nothing more than a tech demo for a bigger and better game, and y'know what...I really can't argue with that.

It's the video game equivalent of a 3 a.m. gas station taco: you know it really isn't that good, but for what it is, it's good enough, and fills a need. I'm not exactly sure what that need is, personally, but I think it has to do with shooting things with your friends and collecting more things that the aforementioned things you shot leave behind. Developer Gearbox deserves major props for successfully melding the two most played-out genres in gaming (click-click-click loot games and shooters).