GamesRadar's potentially annual Platinum Chalice awards 2006

You think you had a good year? Trust us, Tom Clancy had a better one. No less than five games - fifteen if you count all the platforms and limited editions - were released in 2006 with his name plastered all over them.

We couldn't be happier for the guy because his endorsement resulted in a pile of genuine military fun. Both Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas forced shooter fans to exercise their brains in addition to their trigger fingers, while rewarding them with beautifully realistic next-gen graphics. And, in a twist worthy of one of his spy novels, the Xbox version of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent was completely different from - but also totally on par with - the 360 version. The other console versions varied as well.

Obviously, the men and women who work in Tom Clancy's name are very talented game designers. Let's hope that they keep toiling as ol' Tommy keeps rubber-stamping those royalty checks in 2007.

You think you had a good year? Trust us, Tom Clancy had a better one. No less than five games - fifteen if you count all the platforms and limited editions - were released in 2006 with his name plastered all over them.

We couldn't be happier for the guy because his endorsement resulted in a pile of genuine military fun. Both Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas forced shooter fans to exercise their brains in addition to their trigger fingers, while rewarding them with beautifully realistic next-gen graphics. And, in a twist worthy of one of his spy novels, the Xbox version of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent was completely different from - but also totally on par with - the 360 version. The other console versions varied as well.

Obviously, the men and women who work in Tom Clancy's name are very talented game designers. Let's hope that they keep toiling as ol' Tommy keeps rubber-stamping those royalty checks in 2007.