1. Dead Space - This game didn't get it's due. Excellent production and easily the scariest game I've ever played. This is a game to be played at night with the lights off.

2. Fallout 3 - See my screenname. Beautiful environments, plenty to explore and Bethesda actually figured out how to make combat fun.

3. GTA4 - All around great game. Not sure why so many bashed it. Sure, your cousin calls too much, but the game only requires you to take a couple of the man-date missions.

4. Braid - A mini masterpiece with a bunch of fresh and sophisticated ideas. We need more games like this.

5. Little Big Planet - The game that keeps on giving. The level editor is massive, powerfull and intimidating. If I ever finish a level, I'll post the details here.

Honorable Mention:
No More Heroes - Avant garde games are rare. This is a good one.
Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village - Cool story/animation and fun logic puzzles.
Gears of War 2 - Great game with much variety. They pulled out all the stops.
Left 4 Dead - Great multiplayer fun, but a bit skimpy on levels.

Not to mention the high profile games that I haven't played yet (Mirror's Edge, World of Goo, Far Cry 2, BanjoKazooee, Prince of Persia, MGS4, Spore).

Best games of '08:

1. The World Ends With You (NDS)
2. Valkyria Chronicles (PS3)
3. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)
4. Little Big Planet (PS3)
5. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3)

Honorable Mentions:

- Etrian Odyssey II (NDS)
- Bioshock (PC)
- Touhou Project 11: Subterranean Animism (PC)
- Echochrome (PSN)

Dishonorable mention:

- Star Wars: Force Unleashed (PS3)

Looking forward to in '09:

- Final Fantasy XIII (PS3)
- White Knight Chronicles (PS3)
- Dragon Quest IX (NDS)
- Getting around to playing Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 (PS2)

2008 games I enjoyed immensely, consider unique, polished pieces of work and I'd recommend to everyone:
Dead Space
Witcher: Enhanced Edition

Honorable mentions:
Audiosurf
Mass Effect for PC (technically a 2007 game)

I can't for the love of me call any more 2008 games 'excellent' though.
For me, all other "AAA" titles were sub par (at times extremely so) in terms of quality that was advertised or I'd expected. Prominent examples include:

GTA4 (a letdown on pretty much all fronts except mini-games or mini-distractions),
Fallout 3 (lame story, complete lack of identification with the protagonist and shitty narrative & voice acting by decent actors bugged me the fock out),
Prince of Persia (cakewalk platforming, random-button-blocking-combat and those FUCKING QTE POWERPLATE SEQUENCES),
Crysis: Warhead & Far Cry 2 & Cod5-World at War all had god-awful storylines, terribly idiotic AIs, and conveyed the feeling that Crytek, Ubi and Treyarch had a competition scoreboard trying to see how many cliches they could squeeze into their games.

I guess I'm hard to please. I keep hoping it'll apply to me in bed some day

*dupeof=http://www.videosift.com/video/Worst-firefighter-EVER-Darwin-award-honorable-mention

This video has been declared a duplicate; transferring votes to the original video and killing this dupe - dupeof declared by kulpims.

dupeof=http://www.videosift.com/video/Worst-firefighter-EVER-Darwin-award-honorable-mention

*discard

I'd like to "honorable mention" two of my favorite Shatner sifts that may fit in this catagory. Please enjoy.. I'll shop for a contestant later

http://www.videosift.com/video/The-Glorious-William-Shatner-in-The-Devils-Rain
http://www.videosift.com/video/William-Shatner-Will-Fck-You-Up

My favorite genre are probably murder simulators I mean FPSs. Nothing beats good ole multiplayer mayhem, be it team play or death match. My current favorite is TF2, not only is it great fun, but it doesn't bring my computer to its knees and make it beg for mercy. Q3 gets an honorable mention for all the countless hours of LAN games I played on it.

Other Games I've enjoyed greatly:
Final Fantasy 3 (US)
Secret of Mana
Chrono Trigger
Grim Fandango
Star Craft
Galactic Civilizations II (Known to cause highly localized time warps)
Half Life series

I've recently managed to kick a WoW addiction, I'm treating it with a plethora of other games to manage the cravings.

Also
>> ^blankfist:
E.T. for the Atari 2600

^Masochist

1. Aliens/Alien (slight preference to the sequel)
2. The Thing
3. Dawn of the Dead (original)
4. The Shining
5. Jaws
6. Day of the Dead
7. 28 Days Later
8. Night Watch
9. Evil Dead II
10. The Birds

Bottom 3:

3. Saw
2. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003 remake)
1. The Grudge

Honorable Mention:

1. Jacob's Ladder
2. Army of Darkness (which I consider more comedy than horror, thus not being top 10)
3. Return of the Living Dead

1. Welles
2. Coppola
3. Spielberg
4. Scorsese
5. Kubrick

Honorable Mention:

David Fincher
Brad Bird / Pixar team
Clint Eastwood
Quentin Tarantino

1. Kurosawa
2. Scorsese
3. Alexander Payne
4. Welles
5. Coen Brothers

Honorable Mention:

6. Francis Ford Coppola - Sure, his later work sucked, but anyone who made The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, AND Apocalypse Now deserves at least some sort of recognition, for crying out loud.

7. Sergio Leone - How could no one mention him? He did The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, Once Upon a Time in The West, and Once Upon a Time in America. Show a little respect, capisce?

8. Steven Spielberg - Some people hate him, but he's given us a lot of good films.

9. John Waters - Hello? Why am I the only one to mention this genius?

10. Hitchcock - No explanation necessary.

They are, however, eligible for honorable mention:

http://darwinawards.com/stupid/

01. The Exorcist
02. Invasion of the body snatchers
03. Friday the 13th (original)
04. The Shining
05. Halloween
06. Aliens
07. Amityville horror
08. The Ring
09. When a stranger calls (opening sequence)
10. Dawn of the Dead (2004) - the opening & end sequence

Honorable Mention
Scream
mothman prophecies
seven
war of the worlds

STINKERS
Cursed
Song Of The Dead
Last Breath

Good list, DFT. My top 10 would probably be similar to yours. Let me try.

1 - The Shining
2- The Ring
3 - Misery
4- Alien
5 - The Thing
6 - Poltergeist
7 - Dawn of the Dead (2004 version - Sorry hardcore Romero fans)
8 - Cujo
9 - Friday the 13th
10 - Children of the Corn

Honorable Mention: The Others, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street

I love Jacob's Ladder and Shaun of the Dead, but I just think of them in a different genre than horror. Because creating a list of worst horror films would be too painful, here are a few horrorish guilty pleasures instead:

1 - Killer Klowns from Outter Space
2 - The Lost Boys
3 - Army of Darkness

Oh god help this poor deluded fool. Anything above Godzilla is bullshit. King Kong? please. (admittedly, my introduction was the Jessica Lange travesty, but still.)

Godzilla is the ultimate giant monster. Atomic, reptilian, fire breathing, bus throwing, skyscraper stomping, badass extraordinaire.

And not even an honorable mention for the Rancor?? wtf?