Gamehead

Video game technology has gotten advanced enough in the past few years that just about any scenario can be simulated on current-generation platforms. Unfortunately, as games have become more impressive and immersive the business surrounding them has become more restricted. Development budgets for top-tier games are bigger than most feature films and publishers are less willing to pursue innovative concepts for fear that they won't deliver on the market. This doesn't mean there aren't genuinely fun, inventive games out there today, just that it's harder for a game to go from the drawing board to the console. Here are a few games I'd like to see amid the many sure thing titles currently on the shelves.

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There was once a time when video games were synonymous with shrill, simple, hopelessly computerized music that was almost impossible to take seriously. As hardware improved and development budgets ballooned, music became an essential part of the gameplay experience. No longer are games plagued with irritating MIDI sounds (unless it's an ironic throwback) and now the songs accompanying us on our electronic adventures are worth listening to on their own.

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Video games are designed to entertain, but what does that exactly mean? What makes the little interactive stories and puzzles of games fun? Well, in most cases it's all about simulating an experience, especially one that the player will never actually have in real life. Some games manage to create a truly immersive simulation while others seem to miss the point entirely. The most important thing a game designer has to remember is that a game is best when it is designed around the thing being simulated rather than plopping that thing into a series of designs and mechanics that don't have anything to do with the fantasy the game is supposed to be playing out. This is the major distinction between, say, two of the most memorable super hero games in history, Superman 64 and last year's Batman: Arkham Asylum. The latter represents the best case scenario for a video game about an iconic comic book hero while the former has long been Exhibit A in the ongoing case for how not to design a game.

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All in all, May 2010 was a great month for browser games. In fact, there were so many great selections that I'm dividing this article into two parts. Today we'll look at the creme de la creme of the month and later this week we'll take some time out for the honorable mentions that didn't quite make it into the top 3. So, as for those top 3, the name of the game this time around is genre done right. All three of the best browser games from May didn't do anything particularly new, they just happened to take the best of their genres and leave behind the usual snags.

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