Huge call, but by volume of quality titles, I was underwhelmed with 2005 to say the least.
My Standout PC Titles of 2005:
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – my Game Of The Year
Freedom Force vs The Third Reich
Battlefield 2 Demo (the full game wasn’t as good, and I don’t play it any more)
World of Warcraft (ditto… the crack effect wore off)
Best Xbox Titles of 2005:
Operation Flashpoint – not just a port, the definitive version of the game. Hot damn, I can’t wait for Armed Assault on PC.
Forza Motorsport (dunno if this was actually released in 2005, but that’s when I first really played it)
Halo 2 (ditto)
And that’s it. A multiplatform port topped the list, but my god it was good. A public mission editor & SDK is all it needs to transcend mere game-dom.
My 2006 Cross-Platform Hot List looks like this at the moment:
Prey – wow! The trailer looked like a cross between Descent and Doom 3, but with weird crap too. And You Know I Love The Weird Crap.
Project Gotham Racing 3 – PGR2 was close to racing perfection online. PGR3 shouldn’t disappoint.
Splinter Cell 4: Double Agent – I’m a late convert to Splinter Cells, and I love 1 and 2. Haven’t yet picked up Chaos Theory (Starforce vs X64), I’m waiting for the price drop on the Xbox version when Double Agent comes out…
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – Morrowind sucked many hours away and I didn’t get halfway through, but I’m hoping this one might be finishable.
Armed Assault – military-grade military simulation, only for armchair military types.
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars – Wolfenstein ET was amazing. ETQW had better be good!
Supreme Commander – the spiritual sequel to Total Annihilation (update: might now be a 2007 title…)
?Halo 3?
?Duke Nukem Forever? (stop laughing, it could happen – hell, Prey came back from the more-than-a-little Dead Zone of 3D Realms)
What have I missed that you’re looking forward to? I reckon all of the above have the potential to be classics.