Bossfight Game of The Decade : Kickoff

Putting together a '50 best games of the decade' feature isn't easy. Even in the process of drawing up our final lists, we've had to deal with heated arguments, diverse opinions, and suggestions that games such as 'Zeus' and 'Football Manager' should be in the top 10. Like we said, it isn't easy. So, before we begin, a few things to note :

1. This is OUR list of what WE think are the 50 finest games of the last ten years. It's also limited to games WE have played - and obviously we haven't played every single game to have been released in the period.We can't rank games we haven't experienced. Your opinion of what constitutes the best games could of course differ completely. If you think 'Extreme PaintBrawl' is the game of the decade, it's cool. Have a beer. And pay for it yourself.
2. In some cases, such as Halo and Grand Theft Auto, to avoid the futile exercise of repeat entries into the list, we have evaluated their quality as a franchise. In such cases, we've included what we believe is the game that was most crucial in qualification, and grouped the others together into one single entry. However, if the games are competely different games on different platforms, such as Zelda on the Wii and DS, they count as separate entries.
3. There is no 'item 3'.

Oh - and some of this applies to the GoTY as well.

All right. Here we go. The fun begins in a bit.