IMO, The best year of the generation with three games in my top 10, including my #1 (which this article gave an honorable mention) and #3 (which didn't even make the article).
Dark Souls- For me, this is the undisputed game of this generation. Nothing else even comes close. Dark Souls appealed to me with its combinaiton of rewarding, engaging combat, interesting and dangerous enemies, a complete lack of hand holding and direction (explore and figure out what to do yourself), dozens of individually unique weapons (literally a different experience based on your weapon), and a level of difficulty that was rewarded by careful and intelligent play. And that's just the tip of the iceberg of what made this game so great. Easily in my top five games of ALL TIME.
I know there's a lot of hate for this game and that it isn't for everyone, so don't misunderstand me- This is MY game of the generation, but almost certainly not THE game of the generation. Though I still cannot fathom how someone could love Fallout 3, which I considered an absolute turd, yet dislike Dark Souls. This game simply does everything right and, in direct comparison, makes almost every other game look bad.
Dead Space 2- Has this game been completely forgotten? It picked up right where the original left off and raised the bar even higher. I found it absolutely thrilling from start to finish. A great story, unique weapons, fun enemies, and that unfortgettable sequence
where Isaac blasts back to the sprawl from the solar array. One of the few games that I finished and couldn't wait to immediately start on another playthrough. My #3 game of the generation.
Portal 2- A true masterpiece in gaming. A quirky, engaging story with memorable characters that unfolded through a series of complex, yet reasonable physics puzzles. And awesome co-op, too! An instant classic with a solid place in my top 10 games of the generation.
Batman AC- Picking up rght where the original left off, this game again delivered an interesting story with Batman's characteristic seemless combat in a dark open-ish world environment. This only missed my top 10 because I preferred Arkham Asylum (ever so slightly) and there was too much other goodness to squeeze another Batman game in. It's definitely in my top 20. My only complaint: too many damn challenges- many of which were essentially the same- across the four characters.
Other games I feel are worth mentioning:
Gears 3- As a completionist, my opinion on this game is tainted by the crap I went through to finish Seriously 3.0 (which involved three xboxes and several weeks of nonsense). I played the mutiplayer somewhat casually for a few months following launch, particularly TDM, and had a lot of fun with it. I found the campaign to be "ok" and I thought Horde mode was changed for the worse, having spent hundreds of hours with Horde in Gears 2.
LA Noire- I completed this game and found it to be rather dull. A step down gameplay-wise from Red Dead. Thankfully there was no MP.
Bulletstorm- I found this game to be a moderately fun SP experience with forgettable co-op. The whole "numerous different ways to kill with each weapon" gimmick was mildly interesting. Arguable the worst DLC of all time, though.
Alice: Madness Returns- I'd be surprised to see any mention of this game, but I enjoyed it. I thought the combat was solid (fun weapons) and the game world was beautiful. Not something I'd look to replay but definitely worth the several days I spent with it initially.