As Gamasutra's resident PC gaming nerd*, I was again tapped to provide our PC-specific Best of 2009 awards. Since I'm not sure if Idle Thumbs is going to bust out another GOTY.cx this year, I figured I'd let you guys know what I thought of this year's offerings by way of my Gamasutra rankings.

The more I reflected on the list, the more I remembered that although this fall has been fairly unremarkable for the PC -- lots of competent but expected multiplatform games, mainly -- the first half of the year was jam-packed with amazingly interesting and unique PC games, many of which were exclusive, with an impressive range of indie to high-budget experiences.

Along with the digital distribution price war really kicking into effect, it's been a fantastic year for the platform. My opinion that the PC is not the place for mainstream triple-A action game experience was solidified; people looking at the platform through that lens (which is understandable, as it's how the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are sold) are likely to come away feeling the PC is comparatively anemic, but those willing to broaden their horizons and examine a more diverse array of genres and scopes will better perceive the true strength of the format.

Here's a quick alphabetical list of all the games I highlighted:
AAaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity (Dejobaan Games)
Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady Studios)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Infinity Ward)
Dawn of Discovery/Anno 1404 (Blue Byte/Related Designs)
Dragon Age: Origins (BioWare)
Empire: Total War (The Creative Assembly) (Confidential to Nick: Ha ha.)
League of Legends (Riot Games)
Left 4 Dead 2 (Valve Software)
Plants vs. Zombies (PopCap Games)
Risen (Piranha Bytes)
The Sims 3 (Maxis)
Tales of Monkey Island (Telltale Games)
Torchlight (Runic Games)
Trine (Frozenbyte)
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II (Relic Entertainment)
Zeno Clash (Ace Team)

The full Gamasutra article has the Top 5 ranking as well as justifications for each choice. As with other blog posts, we still have no comments, so feel free to discuss in the forums.

*My colleague Kris Graft, who joined this year, has fortunately doubled our staff's PC gaming ranks.

At this point, the intense competition in PC digital distribution has led to incredible short-term deals on an ongoing basis -- if you're patient, you build up an excellent game collection for a fraction of what you'd pay if you were buying games off the shelf or digitally upon release.

In a feature that may or may not recur, I'll check out the various sites and services offering these ridiculous deals, and recommend particular games that I've played and can personally vouch for. There are plenty more games on sale, but these are the ones I can speak for.

Direct2Drive

Direct2Drive is this week's volume champion; it almost seems like the other services stepped back a bit in the wake of D2D's ongoing fifth anniversary celebration, which is bringing more and more games into the temporary $5 fold.

BioShock (Irrational Games): $5. Surely you know this one. I played it on PC and can vouch for this version. If you haven't played it, do it. If you have a different version and want to play it again, it's $5.