This year, one game transported us to a fantasy realm where beauty blended with fear and dread hung heavily in the air; another re-created the geography, architecture, cars, and fashions of postwar Los Angeles; another still immaculately imitated the presentation of basketball games of the past. As different as these games are, they all rely on a meticulous attention to detail to conjure atmospheres that pull us deeply into the experience. Though there was some talk of The Witcher 2's violent world and of the psychologically haunting landscapes of Alice: Madness Returns, it wasn't tough to settle on a list of the five games in which the atmospheres most completely seduced us. With a list of nominees this excellent, though, deciding on a winner proved challenging. But after much debate, one game's achievement in this area seemed to surpass even those of its outstanding competition.