- Over at Michael 'Zonk' Zenke's MMOG Nation blog, he's been talking about his picks for the most innovative video games released in the last 2 years, in response to a question asked by Brian 'Psychochild' Green, and it's an interesting, thoughtful list.

According to Zonk, Half-Life 2: Episode 1 "...gets my nod for best game of the year, most innovative … everything you can throw at it, this three or four hour beauty deserves it. The reason? Two words: Alyx Vance. I have never cared about an NPC the way I did during Episode One."

There is also some Resident Evil 4 love, as all logical humans must give from time to time: "This game was one of the best titles ever released on the GameCube, a complete reinvigoration of the Resident Evil franchise, and has entirely set the tone for modern shooters. A lot of the goodness from Gears of War came from filing the serial numbers off of RE4."

How about you guys - what are your picks for the most innovative, and why? (My pick is odd, because the game still isn't out yet, but Jon Blow's Braid, which actually has some screenshots posted on the official site now, and was Innovation In Game Design winner at the IGF earlier in 2006, is the only game that reliably blows my mind every time, thanks to its mix of time manipulation and cunning game mechanics.)