2005: the year in gaming
 

When we look back at 2005 and what happened in the world of gaming, some of the high points and low points are glaringly obvious. Others aren't. I'm going to talk about the things that stuck out to me, things I thought were important during the year that just concluded. What you remember might be very different, but hey... I'm the one writing the article.

The one thing I've heard over and over is that this year didn't have a single breakout game, and I think that's kind of an odd thing to complain about. When I look back, I see a ton of huge hits, both in terms of sales and quality. When there's good gaming to be had, who needs a breakout title?

If 2005 showed me anything, it's that gaming is only going to get better, and that the overall even keel of game releases and the sheer amount of quality games across almost every major genre means that we may have moved past many of our growing pains. While it doesn't make for an exciting year, I do think it points to a healthy industry, no matter how much doom and gloom people find in the overall sales numbers.

So what happened in 2005? Let's take a look back

http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/2005-gaming.ars