In the past few years, sound has become an increasingly important element in games. As game sound effects have become more advanced, designers have started using sound as a key element. It's now more important than ever that games feature a wide variety of diverse, realistic sound effects, as well as high-quality, professionally recorded speech and dialogue. The following five nominees offered some of the best audio in computer games this year.

What started as a popular free add-on for Half-Life has become, and continues to be, one of the most popular multiplayer games on the Internet. Counter-Strike has a lot of things going for it, including its realistic, hard-hitting sound effects.

Shiny's innovative action/real-time strategy hybrid doesn't just have colorful and distinctive graphics; it also features good sound effects and outstanding voice acting. The seemingly over-the-top characters of Sacrifice are made much more plausible - and enjoyable - thanks to the game's excellent voice-overs.

Creative Assembly's innovative and impressive real-time strategy game lets you control enormous armies of samurai in a bid for control of feudal Japan. Shogun's excellent sound effects make each of its huge battles truly seem like epic struggles.

Monolith's No One Lives Forever is a shooter that has all the trappings of a 1960's spy thriller. Fortunately, it's not all about paisley miniskirts and beehive hairdos; it also features good sound effects and superb voice acting from a varied cast of characters that are as colorful as the game's setting.

Maxis' The Sims is an innovative and thoroughly distinctive game that lets you create your own virtual family of miniature computer people. And The Sims isn't just fun; it's also funny, especially because of its expressive (though incoherent) gibberish language and its wide array of hilarious sound effects.