Quotes of the Day

It's no secret that video games aren't just for kids anymore. And this month, when Halo 2 sold more than 2 million copies on its very first day—at $45 a pop—any remaining doubters were blown away.

Gamemakers aren't flinching. They already invest, on average, $15 million to develop a game. But which offerings are truly worth your time and money? We dug in—and started playing. Our criteria: Is it fun? How many hours will it keep you entertained? Does it break new ground? Is it mind numbing or mind expanding? We enjoyed many titles.

But only 10 were good enough to make our list. Read on for our best bets of the year.

1.The Sims 2
Endless generations of entertainment in your very own dysfunctional home

Millions of people fell in love with the customizable suburbanites of The Sims, which became the best-selling PC game of all time. How could veteran designer Will Wright top that? Answer: by showing just how adorably complex these creatures can be. In Sims 2 (for PC; $49.99), your characters grow older, pass on their genes to their kids, even die. They have life goals (like raising a family or raking in cash) and short-term aspirations (like making a new friend or buying a new refrigerator). You can make your characters look like just about anyone (one gamer got 15 minutes of Internet fame by creating Sim Bush and Sim Kerry housemates). With the click of a button, you can even record the important moments of their lives as a movie file. Like the original, Sims 2 also features Wright's trademark humor, such as when the Grim Reaper shows up bearing a clipboard and a cell phone. Play this game out over many Sim generations, and you get as sublime a sense of the whole human comedy as any art form can give.

Ideal for: Character-focused gamers who like to laugh

2.Rome
Total War Build the world's greatest empire, and heap glory on your family, battle by epic battle

Do you know what it's like to line up thousands of Roman troops—from the legionnaires to the attack dogs—and bring them thundering down on your enemies? If you've had the chance to play Rome: Total War (for PC; $49.99), the best real-time strategy game yet made, the answer is yes. The level of battlefield detail is amazing, going far beyond previous Total War titles, set in medieval Europe and imperial Japan. You can direct the entire bloody battle from a distance or zoom in and see the reflection in a single soldier's helmet. You will need plenty of political skill too.

Playing as the head of a top Roman household—the Julii, the Bruti or the Scipii—your job is to bring barbarians to heel while solidifying your power in the Senate. Your family tree is vitally important, as all its male members are generals who rally your armies on the battlefield as well as potential Senate officeholders. Manage your provinces well, avoid the assassins, and you're on your way to being the next Caesar.

Ideal for: Battle-loving history buffs

3.Half-Life 2
Grab a gravity gun, and explore the year's most minutely detailed thriller

This game (for PC; $54.99) was five years in the making, and every minute appears to have been well spent. The graphics and physics of how objects move in Half-Life 2's world are by far the most realistic ever to grace a computer screen. As you wander the streets of City 17, the alien-controlled police state your character Gordon Freeman is attempting to subvert, you have to rub your eyes to realize you're not actually visiting an East European capital. And check out the mayhem you can cause with Gordon's gravity gun, which sucks in any metal object, then fires it out at will. The only catch: you will need a pretty powerful PC (one with a 2-GHz processor) to enjoy Half-Life 2's full experience.

Ideal for: Trigger-happy adventure seekers

4.Katamari
Damacy Just roll with it. This quirky Japanese masterpiece is a giant ball of fun

From the moment you see the Monty Pythonesque title sequence—all flying pandas and singing geese set against the annoyingly catchy title music—you know you're dealing with the most unusual and original game to hit the PlayStation2. You play a pint-size cosmic prince frantically rolling his Katamari (a sticky ball) around a landscape filled with household objects. At first, the Katamari can pick up only thumbtacks and other small items. But the larger it gets, the more it can pick up, until eventually you've got a ridiculous giant ball of junk that can successfully spear skyscrapers. This is the game that the phrase "fun for kids of all ages" was made for—and it doesn't hurt that, at $19.88, it's less than half the price of a regular video game.

Ideal for: Young kids, Japanophiles

5.Grand Theft Auto
San Andreas Hang with your homies, or explore an open-ended gangsta's paradise

QPS: invgames.gta Yes, it's violent, amoral and laced with profanity—just like the Boyz N the Hood-era gangsta films to which it pays homage. But what really draws players back to this latest installment (for PlayStation2; $49.99) in the controversial Grand Theft Auto series is just how open-ended it is.

Sure, you can take your homies on that drive-by shooting raid on a rival gang, or you can grab a car at random and simply explore the state of San Andreas. The designers at Rockstar have packed the cities of Los Santos and San Fiero (a.k.a. Los Angeles and San Francisco) with hundreds of Easter egg-like surprises for many happy days of hunting. You can get your head shaved at the barber's, pump up your muscles at a gym, grab a bucket of wings at the Clucking Bell drive-through and go watch the sun set over Verona Beach. How much crime you commit along the way is entirely up to you.

Ideal for: 18-and-over hip-hop fans

6.Battlefield: Vietnam
Revisit the past century's most controversial war with friends online

Multiplayer games—in which participants compete via the Internet—continue to grow in popularity. The most dramatic entrant this year was Battlefield: Vietnam (for PC; $39.99), a surprisingly likable simulation of America's least-liked conflict. Choose one of a dozen maps (from the Mekong Delta to the fall of Saigon) and log on to a server with 30 or so like-minded players. The server automatically divides you into Americans and Viet Cong. Then all you have to do is capture as many enemy flags as you can and try to get killed as few times as possible (death merely means a 10-sec. time out). U.S. troops start with helicopters (which play Ride of the Valkyries when you lift off), F-4 jets and the powerful M60 machine gun at their disposal. But V.C. players can dig tunnels all over the place and have plenty of dense jungle for defensive cover. Throw in the mini-essays on the Vietnam era displayed while each map loads, and you might even consider this game—whisper it low—educational.

Ideal for: Military enthusiasts, online gamers

7.Halo 2
The new and improved version of an alien-killing classic rocks harder than its predecessor

Halo: Combat Evolved was the best reason to own an Xbox. It was a fast-paced, seamless sci-fi action adventure set in awe-inspiring alien landscapes. Its sequel (also for Xbox; $44.99) is—wait for it—a fast-paced, seamless sci-fi action adventure set in awe-inspiring alien landscapes. The new plot is relatively thin and ends with a cliff hanger you will either love or hate (and may have to wait another three years for Halo 3 to resolve). So why buy it?

There are several serious upgrades, as legions of Halo junkies will attest: the ability to wield two weapons instead of one, for instance, or to perform spectacular hijacks of alien vehicles the moment they zoom past you. The big picture, though: designers at Bungie deserve credit for not fixing what wasn't broke. Combat evolves incrementally, and Halo 2 just became the best reason to own an Xbox.

Ideal for: Sci-fi aficionados, Xbox Live subscribers

8.Burnout 3: Takedown
It's not about the racing. It's about causing enough drive-time carnage to make the evening news

Most driving games tend to reward you for steering clear of other drivers. Not the Burnout franchise. You can still race around a track if you want, but where Burnout 3 (for PlayStation2 and Xbox; $49.88) really excels is in Crash Mode. Your task here is to speed kamikaze-like into a series of major intersections and create enough dollars' worth of auto carnage to merit a bronze, silver or gold medal. Time slows down at the moment of impact, and you can keep steering your careering car for maximum pileup potential. Sounds simple, but you will be surprised how often you get to the other side having caused little more than dented fenders. Never knew crashing your car could be fun? One test drive, and you will be a believer.

Ideal for: Anyone with a need for speed

9.Fable
Hero or villain? Your moral judgment drives the action in this luscious-looking fantasy world

What if there were a game in which every choice you made—even the seemingly insignificant ones—nudged you slightly toward good or evil? That's the moral question that has haunted legendary designer Peter Molyneux for many years, and Fable (for Xbox; $44.95) is his latest attempt to grapple with it. Early on, the scene is set in the village of your character's childhood, where you have the freedom to choose whether or not to take the side of a bully, rat out a cheating husband or dutifully watch a valuable set of crates. The consequences stretch into your adulthood, by which time you will be either a noble hero for hire or a terrifying rogue. The game is far from perfect—there aren't nearly enough diversions from the main story line, for one thing—but in the absence of another Legend of Zelda game, Fable is the best-looking, most addictive fantasy role-playing epic of the year.

Ideal for: Players eager to lose themselves in an alternate reality

10.Pirates!
Caribbean treasure is waiting. Set sail for a 21st century retelling of one of the best-loved games of the 1980s

Back in 1987, the best way to waste time on a Commodore 64 computer was to play the part of a grog-swilling buccaneer in the 17th century Caribbean: getting rich on plunder or trading among British, Spanish and French ports and trying to marry one of the governors' daughters before you retired. Now Sid Meier's classic has been given a 21st century makeover. Meier has added lush new 3-D graphics and a host of minigames within the game. You can try your hand at sword fighting or sneaking into a hostile town at night. Wooing the governor's daughter now involves dancing the right steps at a society ball. Best of all, Pirates! (for PC; $49.99) still lets you play exactly the way you want to, turning the entire Caribbean into your own giant sandbox.

It's the closest thing to a gamer's island paradise.

Ideal for: Scurvy sea dogs and swashbucklers

• CHRIS TAYLOR