Dragon Age is awesome, and yes, the shattering tactic is certainly one the best, though you might have to rely on strategy less as your experience goes up, there is still a lot more tactical thought relative to most games. The storyline is immersive, but I think it’s up to you whether you want to do every little or big sidequests or random conversations with drunken dwarves.

I had doubts bout Arkham Asylum as pure button mashing, but it had interesting combos relying more on timing, entertaining special attacks, and short enough in gaming to not be too overly repetitive. Storyline could have been a bit better, but Luke Skywalker (that’s right not Mark Hamill) is voicing the joker, what more could you ask? Only criticism is that you end up relying on detective mode throughout the entire game, the fluorescent imaging that can burn the retinas and overlook the darker themes in the batman series.

I don’t know/haven’t played any of the games in your top list, but I think dragon age and batman arkham asylum are certainly one of the top games this year. I also really liked Wolfenstein, which you should try, and I’ve heard good things about the original deadspace.