Well the year has now half passed by (scary) so I thought it'd be a good time to catch up on what everybody's favorite game soundtracks have been from the year thus far.  (the_miker ran similar threads in years past.)

There's no particular limit to the number of soundtracks to list, as long as they were released between January and June of 2010 and you recommend them highly enough to include on a best list.

Feel free to mention any soundtracks that impressed you in-game (or from a game rip) but haven't received an album release yet, though it might be wise to designate them as such.

Sadly I haven't given a good listen to very many soundtracks from this year yet, and among them Dragon Quest IX Symphonic Suite is the only one I'd include on a best list (and that is giving full consideration to that other big RPG soundtrack from this year).

Quite curious to hear everyone's picks so I can know what to catch up on though!

Let's see...

1. Sekaiju no MeiQ 3 (Etrian Odyssey 3)

Yuzo Koshiro is, in my opinion, the master of the retro sound, especially in this day and age. This one is a big departure from his other two Etrian Odyssey games in the fact that the Labyrinth themes, for the most part, are much more menacing and foreboding than the ones in the first two games. The boss battle themes also got a facelift in the fact that they are more rock-based rather than orchestral based. It's a nice fusion of touching, dark, energetic, tropical, and jazzy themes and it easily sits atop as my favorite soundtrack of the year thus far. Check out the entire soundtrack, of course, but Labyrinth III, IV, and VI are easily the best of the dungeon themes!

2. DoDonPachi Dai-Fukkatsu Black Label

While I immensely enjoyed the DoDonPachi Dai-Fukkatsu soundtrack of 2009, the Black Label version blows it out of the water. Rather than just rearranging the old tunes for the Black Label, like what has been done with ESPGaluda II, DoDonPachi Dai-Ou-Jou, and Ketsui, Manabu Namiki, Azusa Chiba, Yoshimi Kudo, and Noriyuki Kamikura composed an entirely new soundtrack that is much darker and powerful than the original, which seemed to be criticized in Japan for "not fitting the DoDonPachi image." Full of powerful beats, various electronic styles, and a fantastic piano arrangement of the main theme from the original Dai-Fukkatsu soundtrack, it really packs a punch. Definitely check out "Vertex" by Manabu Namiki!

3. Deathsmiles IIX

Although I find the sequel to Deathsmiles to be weaker than the original, it still manages to impress. Manabu Namiki brings in Yoshimi Kudo and Noriyuki Kamikura to help him with this soundtrack. Given that the theme revolves around the Christmas holiday, rather than Halloween, like the first game, the overall atmosphere is much different. Manabu Namiki is responsible for the more Christmas-y sounding themes, while Kudo and Kamikura help keep the gothic flavor of the original intact. It's a nice combination that works! Noriyuki Kamikura and his "The Enchanted Palace" is full of win if you like gothic rock VGM.

Other good listens:

-God Eater by Go Shiina
-Final Fantasy XIII by Masashi Hamauzu (not a big fan of him, but I enjoyed this OST)
-NieR Gestalt and Replicant by Monaca Studio
-Ketsui Black Label and DoDonPachi Dai-Ou-Jou Black Label
-ESPGaluda II Black label

1. ESPGALUDA II Black Label Original Soundtrack
2. ESPGALUDA II Black Label Original Soundtrack
3. ESPGALUDA II Black Label Original Soundtrack

It's the definitive soundtrack of the series. I thought the first two soundtracks were more than fine examples of trance music found in VGM, but Ryu Umemoto managed to convey the "superior" sound and the stage themes that weren't my favorites turned into my new favorites. I really liked how Umemoto maintained the particular form of VGM (unlike many other artists involved in Cave ASTs tend to) and at the same time tried to improve. He even sometimes checked the first soundtrack to overhaul Namiki's original compositions.

For comparison; (I'd be more impressed by the second stage theme, but can't find a sample on youtube).
Namiki's original version
Umemoto's much better version

It's still not perfect, but gets a pure 10 out of 10 from me

Nice, totally forgot about those.  Good lookin' out Adam.

Here's my list in no particular order aside from alphabetical.  These are what I consider to be above average so far this year..

Akumajo Dracula Best Music Collections Box
Biohazard The Darkside Chronicles Original Soundtrack
Deadly Premonition
Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack
Flower: Original Soundtrack from the Video Game
Heavy Rain: Original Soundtrack from the Video Game
NieR Gestalt & Replicant Original Soundtrack
Rockman 10 Uchu Kara no Kyoui!! Original Soundtrack
Sekaiju no MeiQ³ seikai no raihousya ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK
Senjou no Valkyria 2 Gallian Royal Military Academy Original Soundtrack
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Xenoblade Original Soundtrack

FFXIII
Nier
Etrian Odyssey 3

2010 has so far been the weakest year as far as new releases go since I started exploring official VGM (in 1996). Not to spit on anyone's holiness here, but so much I've heard this year is just bland and so uninteresting. To be frank, the only two albums that have stuck with me are these two retro-sounding soundtracks:

Dracula Densetsu ReBirth & Contra ReBirth OST
Rockman 10 OST

And even that isn't saying much, as these two would've been completely buried by the competition and quickly forgotten had they turned up any other year. The Dracula & Contra album lives almost entirely on the joy of hearing old favourites re-arranged (so I'm not even sure you could call it "new"), and more than half of the stuff on the Rockman album is the worst Rockman music I've heard using 8-bit synth (the album's saving graces are the awesome Dr. Wily stage themes). In fact, I think I'm completely through with Rockman 10, and I'm not sure if Dracula/Contra ReBirth will last that much longer either.

This isn't even the worst part. The first half of the year is usually weaker than the second half, so I could live with this limp start if I knew that great things lie ahead. This year, though, there's nothing whatsoever on the horizon that interests me in the slightest. Yes, unless there's a sudden barrage of greatness towards the end of the year, I'd have to say that 2010 is shaping up to be the lamest VGM year since... oh, I don't know... 1984, maybe? And I'm not even kidding.

Nota bene: in my opinion.

This lull in the VGM world does however have positive consequences, as it leaves more room open to explore other fields. Lately I've been really getting into classical music, mainly classical piano. The piano works of composers like Beethoven, Scriabin, Debussy, Grieg, Chopin, Ravel, Schumann, Rachmaninov, Satie, and many others just annihilates any and all piano VGM I've heard, I really recommend checking them out for those who love piano-music. I've always been a fan of electronic music and avoided classical music like the plague, but the more I get into it, the more I notice that there's no shortage of awesome stuff there. Its that greatest of joys: finding a new, unexplored field (as opposed to staying with what you know). Kind of like when I first learned that they actually press video game music to CDs and sell them, and started checking that out....

Sorry for the digression.

I've listened a lot to Ravel's piano works lately. My favourite interpretation is by Hewitt, I especially enjoy her elegant Rigaudon.

I have the same impression as you, that classical piano blows VGM piano out of the water, but I haven't listened to much more than Satie, Debussy, Fauré and Ravel. As you can see, they're all french. Had to start somewhere, and they all share the same flavour. If you haven't listened to him yet, I'll recommend Fauré; his Nocturnes are elegant and tranquil. (If you're into chamber music, check his out! ) Also listened to some Schubert piano, but it didn't stick with me. [Sorry for the continuation of the digression.]

As for the topic, I've no idea what albums to place on such a list, as I've only listened to DQIX and FFXIII, and I wouldn't consider DQIX to be worthy a place on the list. I'll most likely check out Xenoblade, Etrian and Nier some time in the future.

Glad to hear it. Yes, I've listened to Fauré and Schubert as well, forgot to mention them, as well as Mendelssohn (both of them). And I agree about Hewitt, she's a real virtuoso: I devour all her albums with interpretations of Bach, they're incredible. Some of the "darker" ones is like hearing Castlevania 4 on piano.

If you like the French composers you mentioned, I recommend checking out Scriabin. He's Russian, but from the same era, and his compositions are very much in the same style as the French impressionists. Also, being Norwegian, haven't you checked out Grieg? His piano music is pretty light-hearted, but I love most of what I've heard from him.

But seriously, if its piano we're talking, no one will ever beat the majesty of Ludwig van. His 32 sonatas are the Mount Olympus of piano masterpieces.

It seems odd that nobody's brought up the R10 Image Soundtrack yet, since in many ways it's a lot stronger than the OST. Against the Pressure is still my Track of the Year, and tracks I was less than enthused about (Absolute Chill, Boss, Polluted Pump, etc) have gotten a nice boost. Plus if you're a MM nerd like me, there's also the very-likely last performance of Wily's Japanese VA for the last 13 years. It's a good deal all around (oh, and best album cover in years, for what that's worth).
Haven't tracked down Mythos yet, so I can't comment on that one.

Outside of my usual MM stumping, I've particularly enjoyed the upbeat music of 3D Dot Game Heroes.

I guess that's partly because some of us didn't realized an arranged album was allowed to mention (it's valid, based on Adam's pick).

I really haven't caught up with this year yet, hell, I still haven't listened to Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack, but so far I'd say it's pretty good. There hasn't been a really "OMFG AWESOME HOLY MOSES" moment for me, but I think Sekaiju no MeiQ III has been the best surprise. I hadn't given much attention to the series in the past, but the third entry, especially because of the fantastic battle themes, ignited my interest to delve into the past of the series. Definitely one of the winners this year, for sure. Valkyria Chronicles 2 is pretty good. Nothing special, but good for a listen. I'm not sure about God Eater, it isn't as fantastic as I had hoped, but it's pretty good. There's just something about the orchestral synth that's a tad off-putting. I haven't listened much Arc Rise Fantasia, but I was seriously impressed with Yuki Harada's contributions. The first time listening I didn't really notice the music very much, as I was doing other things as well, but then came "A Vast Land" and I think I was cleaning my room at the same time, and when the epic part kicked in, I was "wow". "Unexpected Battle" is a really cool track, too. Ryu ga Gotoku 4 is the one I just recently gave a listen to, and what to say, I'm a tad bit disappointed in the album as a whole, as I like the series a lot. But aren't those four Hidenori Shoji epics in the end of the album awesome as always!

I will try to catch up with the new releases in the following months (I hope so.). It's just that I've explored other areas of music recently, mainly Japanese rock and other weird stuff I hadn't given much thought to before, like black metal.

But what I really crave for is dark ambient.

DARK AMBIENT!!!!!!!!!

I haven't really looked into any of this years releases, in fact I've only started looking into those from last year. Speaking of last year, what the hell happened with Star Ocean 4? I liked 3 to a point but this is making it look much better by comparison. Also, if Sakuraba loves his SO3 synths so much why doesn't he marry them?

Oh yeah, I'd almost forgotten about that one!

From what I've heard so far the synth is better than the old Remastered albums, but man, the track selection is so extremely 'meh'...