SouthFlorida.com | City Link Magazine

This has been a great year for gaming, particularly this fall, when some of the best video games ever made hit the shelves. Clearly game designers have finally discovered how to push the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and GameCube to their limits. Following are our picks for the hottest titles of 2004.

Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden (Xbox; www.ninjagaidengame.com) is the game of the year, hands down. The long-standing series was already a classic in the arcades and on the original Nintendo system, and Tecmo's Xbox update is more than worthy of that prestige. Incredible action, smart puzzles and a challenging adventure that must be beaten several times make it the game to get.

A close second is Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PlayStation 2; www.rockstargames.com/sanandreas), which managed to surpass the prerelease hype and deliver the best game of the series. It takes 150 hours of gameplay to finish the story, but many more to see all the complex California settings. Even gamers burnt out on GTA 3 and Vice City will be amazed at how deep this game is.

The only title more engrossing than San Andreas is Lionhead Studios' Fable (Xbox; www.fablegame.com), a role-playing game in which literally every decision you make brings you closer to the good guys or the dark side. Whether you slash villagers, save children or rob and steal for a living, anything's possible in Fable, and the story line twists and turns like a charmed snake. It's excellent entertainment.

Ubisoft's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (all systems; www.splintercell.com) takes stealth combat to a whole new level, bringing fast action, close calls and slick weaponry together in a truly beautiful-looking package. The online combat on the Xbox and PlayStation 2 is icing on the cake, the equivalent of having a multiplayer version of Metal Gear Solid.

Finally, Midway Games' NBA Ballers (PlayStation 2 and Xbox, www.midwaygames.com) is a great homage to old-school sports games such as Tecmo Bowl or, more notably, NBA Jam. The graphics are incredible, with Shaq and other players looking realistic as hell, and the gameplay is crack-level addictive from the jump. The ability to earn mansions, cars and ice adds to the fun and humor.