I have said that the PC industry is in a bit of a slump for a while now in terms of new games. It's quite interesting to look at the Top 20 PC games of 2008 from the perspective of the hardcore gamer. Here's the Top 20 PC games according to NPD 2008: WOW WOTLK, Spore, WOW BC, Age of Conan Hyborean Adventures, Warhammer Online, COD 4, The Sims 2 Double Deluxe, WOW WOTLK CE, Fallout 3, WOW TBC, COD WAW, The Sims 2 FreeTime, WOW, Sins of a Solar Empire, Warcraft III Battle Chest, The Sims 2 Apartment Life, Crysis, Left 4 Dead, Diablo Battle Chest, and The Orange box.

Late last year I did an article on game performance using new games from the Holiday 2008 season in a video card review. What was interesting was that despite Fallout 3, COD WAW, and Left 4 Dead releasing so late in the year they made the Top 20 list of best selling games of 2008. The top 20 list is dominated by The Sims expansions, WOW, and Spore, but the fact that other games reached the list is amazing. In fact looking closer at the December 2008 sales charts, COD WAW, Fallout 3, and L4D all were in the top 10.

Mirror's Edge is a game that changes the landscape of physics in a game. Other games have used hardware physics like the ragdoll physics of Half Life 2 or the various games based upon the Unreal Engine 3. But most physics is limited due to the intense computing power needed to have a whole game with physics throughout. Mirror's Edge has physics throughout the game including smoke, glass, wind, and many other effects. The game played great on the GeForce GTX260 with frame rates in the high 30s at 1920x1200 32-bit with PhysX turned on.

Call of Duty 5: World at War was released in time for the Holiday 2008 season and even made the Top 20 of 2008. The latest in a long-running series of COD games, WAW uses DirectX 9.0C class graphics to depict the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II squad combat. The GTX260 from ASUS ran this game with frame rates in the high 80s-90s even with 4x AA and 16x AF turned on at 1920x1200 resolution. Obviously, the GTX260 is a powerhouse with games that take advantage of DirectX 9.0 and PhysX, but the next game I tried it on is DirectX 10.0, Far Cry 2.

Far Cry 2 is another Holiday 2008 game that was widely acclaimed but didn't sell as many copies according to NPD as the other games I played on the . The sequel to Far Cry uses a completely different graphics engine than the first game with DirectX 10.0 graphics throughout the game. The game played with decent frame rate even at maximum resolution and settings. Far Cry 2 played at a framerate of around 49 fps throughout at 1920x1200.

Left 4 Dead was an anomaly in the Holiday 2008 season as it was a Top 20 title without the Sims or World Of Warcraft in its title. It is an engrossing DirectX 9.0c game with elements of Resident Evil and other Survival Horror games. The game uses the latest Valve Source game engine to improve physics and animation. The game played wonderfully on the ASUS ENGTX260/HTDP/896M/A, with all settings and resolutions available to the player. This game also works very well with Stereoscopic Vision glasses from NVIDIA with realistic 3D effects when enabled.

Game screenshots