Best video games of 2007

KNIFE TO KNOW YOU Kratos goes all David v. Goliath in God of War II.

Tis the season for websites and blogs to bestow honorifics like Best Racing Game or Best Role-Playing Game of the Year on titles that have impressed the ecstatic, thumb-tired masses. We’ve decided to take a more personal approach and commemorate five characters who’ve lingered in our hearts this year.

GLaDOS from Portal
The most enchanting AI of the year sneaked onto monitors via Portal, part of a five-games-for-the-price-of-one compilation called The Orange Box. An inappropriately funny and self-aware supercomputer—called the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System (ah, GLaDOS, of course)—herds players down a series of test chambers, not caring if you live through the process. As you make your way through Portal’s beguiling physics-based puzzles, GLaDOS lies, taunts and tempts you (with cake!). Her rant during the final showdown and its poignant, musical aftermath make Portal’s ending one for the ages. The Orange Box, EA/Valve, Xbox 360, PS3; $59.99; available at gamestop.com.

The Little Sisters from BioShock
In the critically acclaimed first-person shooter, players had to hunt these genetically altered prepubescent DNA harvesters who roamed the underwater city of Rapture. Their fates formed the moral crux of the gameplay in BioShock: You had to decide whether to sacrifice them for valuable upgrades or free them from their servitude for a lesser reward. When you hear their hauntingly loopy dialogue—“Look, Mr. Bubbles! An angel!”—float down the game’s Art Deco hallways, it means that a butt whipping from the girls’ Big Daddy bodyguards is on its way. So cute yet so ominous. BioShock, 2K Games, Xbox 360; $59.99; available at gamestop.com.

Sgt. Paul Jackson/Sgt. John “Soap” MacTavish from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
One character is an American Marine and the other serves with Britain’s elite SAS division, but players inhabit both roles as coalition forces try to foil a nuclear threat engineered by rogue Russian and Middle Eastern terrorists. COD 4’s tense, vulgar battlefield chatter heightens the blockbuster-movie feel created by the game’s retina-sizzling graphics and chaotic action sequences. Despite all the blustery bravado, one of our heroes pays the ultimate price, but you’ll have to answer the Call to find out just who it is. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Activision, Xbox 360, PS3; $59.99; available at gamestop.com.

Your anonymous avatar in Skate
True, the Tony Hawk skateboard games have let you create a stand-in character for years, but the upstart Skate franchise garnered new acclaim for dialing down the crazy on the stunts your hey-it’s-me street athlete has to perform. (No more 900-degree spins after grinding the roof of a beer truck.) The innovative control scheme triggers tricks for your character through movements of the controller’s analog sticks instead of frantic button mashing, so it really feels like you’re the one nailing those heelflips and sick ollie. Woo! Who needs a real-life skateboard? Or real-life emergency-room visits for that matter? Skate, EA, Xbox 360, PS3; $59.99; available at gamestop.com.

Kratos from God of War II
Unhappy with his new status as a deity after the first GOW game, the berserk warrior Kratos challenges the Sisters of Fate and embarks on a quest to rewrite his own destiny. Along the way, he destroys icons of classic mythology like Icarus and Perseus (voiced by, yes, Harry Hamlin) with ferocious brutality. By the time you finish taking Kratos down his path of bloody history revision, it feels like you just had a nonconsensual threesome with Clash of the Titans and Bulfinch’s Mythology…and liked it. God of War II, Sony Computer Entertainment America, PS3; $60; available at gamestop.com.

—Evan Narcisse