Since the early days of Sharky Extreme we've been doing our FPS Shootout, an annual look at the top ten first person shooters released that year. Fear not, you'll still be seeing a FPS Shootout this year, but since the launch of the new and improved Sharky Games site, we decided to make our trademark “Shootout” feature bigger and better too by turning it into a short series.

To kick off this new series of articles, here's a look at the top ten games of the year in a genre that has seen a rise to fame almost as impressive as that of the first person shooter genre, the real time strategy (RTS) game genre. Granted, the year isn't quite over yet and it's quite possible that the few remaining strategy games due out this year will garner a place in this top ten. Rest assured, any such titles will get a solid play through when they're released and will no doubt work their way into this year's RTS Shootout in the form of an update in a month or two. Hey, you think I'd pass up an opportunity to knock the abysmal games sitting in the bottom few rungs of the ladder? Speaking of which…