Variety's top 10 games of 2008 coming over the next two weeks

With the end of the year upon us, I thought it would be fun for Variety to round up the best games of the year, as well as the most disappointing and the most overrated. But rather than just drop the list all at once, we'll be counting down day-by-day (taking breaks on the holidays and some weekends), leading up to the #1 game on or around January 5th. And I'll interrupt the countdown twice along the way, once to list the most overrated games, and again the most disappointing.

But really, how interesting is my opinion on its own? So I've invited Variety's trio of insightful, talented and attractive freelance reviewers -- Leigh Alexander, Tom Chick and Chris Dahlen -- to join me in the summary (actually only two of them are attractive, but I'm not naming names). With each post, you'll get four opinions, usually contrasting, but hopefully always interesting.

Of course, anyone's definition of a "top ten" is debatable. The best games of the year? The most personally impactful? The ones that stay with us? The ones we can't stop talking about? For each of us it's a little different, but in general, all four of us have discussed our choices as personal ones that stuck with us or stayed with us or excited us. Not necessarily the best executed games, or the biggest, or the most impressive.

I'm also going to be soliciting your votes for a Cut Scene readership favorite games of the year. Look for that post momentarily.