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It is a third of the way through 2009, making this a fitting time to look back over the past few months and reflect on the games that have made this year a great one so far.

While it is difficult to get particularly excited at the general release schedule, following the great AAA splurge that was seen in the last few months of 2008, 2009 has had its fair share of awesome games.

Our favourites for the year so far have been Dawn of War II for PC and Flower for the PS3. Killzone 2 also stands out, and playing Braid on PC was as bewildering and cool as it was on the Xbox 360. However, more important than my personal opinion, is the opinion of the broader global reviewer community, and for this we turn to Metacritic.

Metacritic is an aggregator website that takes game scores from a wide variety of respected publications and averages them out, giving a general consensus as to the reception various games have received by reviewers around the world.

Top 10 games of 2009, so far

1. Street Fighter IV (Xbox 360 & PS3) 93%

2. Killzone 2 (PS3) 91%

3. Empire: Total War (PC) 90%

    Plants Vs Zombies (PC) 90%

    MLB: The Show (PS3) 90%

4. Peggle (Xbox 360) 89%

5. Braid (PC) 88%

6. Flower (PS3) 87%

7. Guitar Hero: Metallica (Xbox 360 & PS3) 86%

    Comet Crash (PS3) 86%

8. Resident Evil 5 (Xbox 360 & PS3) 85%

    Dawn of War II (PC) 85%

9. Skate 2 (Xbox 360 & PS3) 84%

    Yakuza 3 (PS3) 84%

10. Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (PC & Xbox & PS3) 82%
      Halo Wars (Xbox 360) 82%

(OK, so it’s technically a top 16.)

Surprisingly, Street Fighter IV has so far been the best reviewed game in 2009. While it is an excellent game, it is slightly unusual for top honors to go to an arcade beat-em-up. Killzone 2 really needs no introduction, and six months ago it was already predicted to take top honors in such a list.

The PC games make a strong showing, tying for third place with Empire: Total War and Plants Vs Zombies. We have our own thoughts on Empire Total War which you can read here. While Plants Vs Zombies’ aggregate is made up of only six reviews, those include a 90 from the hard to please Edge Magazine, as well as IGN and Eurogamer.

Braid and Flower come in at 5 and 6, proving that innovation and creativity are rewarded in this industry, at least in terms of critical reception. Guitar Hero: Metallica takes 7th place, managing to show just the opposite.

Resident Evil 5 ties with Dawn of War II at 8th place, showing what can be done when some ingenuity and a hefty budget are thrown at a franchise.

Platform breakdown

Multi platform - 5

PS3 exclusives -5

PC exclusives – 4

Xbox 360 exclusives – 2

As expected, most of the games on this list are multi-platform releases, with the PC showing its legs amidst talks that PC gaming is dying. The PS3 is making a strong comeback in terms of exclusive content, after being outclassed in the past by the likes of the Halo series, Gears of War series and Fable 2.

All in all, it’s been a good year for gaming.  But it is still early days, and the real “Game of the Year” contenders are probably still to come, with the likes of StarCraft 2, Bioshock 2, Modern Warfare 2 and Uncharted 2 on the way.