Off-Road Velociraptor Safari (Web)

Yep, you read that right. This is a free, web-based 3D driving game, in which you drive into raptors. Requires the download of a seemingly harmless and very common plug-in before you can play and the framerate on my iMac is pretty atrocious, but it's good fun.

Worth a look, and not just because it's got a silly name.

Play it here.

Call of Juarez (360)

I'm on the fence with this right now. I'm really not if I like it or not. Shooting people if fun - when you can see the enemies. Sneaking is fun - when you don't get seen seemingly at random. Moving around is acceptable - except when you fall down a tiny gap and die. It looks kind of okay - except that everything's too dark and it's all the same colour. (There's a brightness setting, but that just washes everything out.)

I don't know. When it's good, it's good, but far, far, far too much of my time is spent moving the crosshair around the screen waiting for it to go red, simply so I can find out where the enemies are. They're too small and blend in far too much the surrounding scenery. It's very, very annoying indeed and I think it's going to kill the game for me. It may have already, actually - I'm not at all sure that I'll ever go back to this game.

It's such a shame, as I love the setting and I've been really trying to like it. I guess it's just a half-decent PC game that's been thoughtlessly ported across to 360. (The unreadably small text at the start of levels is more evidence of this.)

Burnout 3 (360)

Compact Grand Prix done, I've worked my way through Muscle class and now I'm in the Coupé class. And then a few Crash events to polish off the session. Dessert, I guess. I've said it before, but it needs saying again - this game is so much better when you know what you're getting beforehand. The racing is tight and exciting, takedowns are always satisfying and Crash mode is compulsive, despite being slightly more science than art.

The Club Demo (360)

Tried the mode I didn't try when I first played the demo. I can't remember what it was called, but you've got to do laps of a course, trying to earn as many points as possible along the way. Interesting idea and well-executed. Certainly raised my interest in the game another notch. I'm definitely interested now, if I ever see it cheap enough.

Turning Point: Fall of Liberty Demo (360)

An FPS based in an alternate 1953, where the Nazis are still around and have just launched an attack on America. Nice chunky graphics, lots of things wooshing by, slightly dodgy controls and, of course, Nazis to shoot in the face. I rather liked it, though I seem to be the only person on the Internet not to hate it.

I'm very tolerant of games where you can actually see what you're doing.

Undertow (360)

I can't imagine why anyone would pay for this; I'm not really satisfied with it and I got it free.

It isn't as bad as I thought it was when I played the demo, I'll give it that, and maybe the fun lies in the multi-player mode, but in single player it's repetitive and seemingly random.

Devil May Cry 4 Demo (PS3)

Downloaded this on the PS3 rather than the 360 due to 360 users complaining about the controls. It's okay to have to use R1 a lot on the PS3 pad, but having RB on the 360 pad as a main button sounds awful. It's not often that the PS3 wins out in terms of controls, but here's a rare case.

Anyway, there are two modes. The first is a big chunk of a level, which gives you ten minutes to run around killing things and solving basic puzzles. Actually, that's a bit too kind. It's less puzzle solving and more just pressing X when you reach a dead end. The combat, however, is great. You've got three different attack buttons and everything you do just looks and feels very cool indeed. (Except when you idiotically try to use melee attacks on enemies several yards away, as I was doing far too often.) Top stuff, even with the millions of tiny cut scenes taking control away from you before and after every encounter.

The second mode gives you a boss fight... apparently. I didn't manage to make it past some underlings before I even got that far. They kept freezing me and doing far more damage than the pathetic enemies in other part of the demo. I'll probably try again. Boss difficulty will make the difference between "budget buy" and "avoid forever" on this one.

PixelJunk Monsters Demo (PS3)

This is a Tower Defense clone, with a difference. The difference being that you control a charater who has to run around avoiding monsters, collecting dropped money and gems and building and upgrading towers. It's all set to a soundtrack that's charming for about five minutes, when it suddenly flicks a switch in the brain and becomes the single most annoying piece of game music I've heard in years. Still, there are options for that sort of thing and the game itself seems great, with a difficulty level set somewhere between moderate and hard.

As it's only £3.49 (possibly for a limited time) and Sony already have my money I might actually buy this at some point.

Pocket Physics (DS)

Not a game, just a little homebrew app that lets you draw 2D shapes on the screen, which then obey the laws of physics - or gravity, at least. It's fun to play about with, but slightly hampered by a small drawing area and big crayonish lines. (At least, if you're as hamfisted as me it is. The screnshots and videos online show an accuracy that's beyond me.)

Still, if you can use this sort of thing, I heartily recommend giving it a download.

Burnout 3 (360)

This game really, really is a lot better when it's not played under a crushing weight of disappointment.

I tried to force myself to do some racing today, but caught up in Crash mode again. I'm trying to get Golds on all of them and it's great fun, even with the multipliers. Far more of a puzzle game than Burnout 2's Crash mode. I'd love the best of both worlds, some game with hundreds of Crash junctions, high score tables in the right place and a mix of multiplier and multiplier-free levels.

Singstar (PS3)

Got four new songs today, none of which I can sing. No surprises there. As well as those, my wife and I took it turns to choose songs to duet from our existing library and it was great until my voice cracked and died. Cough cough, like.

Burnout 3 (360)

The worst great game of all time, definitely. It's got the worst interface of all time and I still can't figure out how they got it so wrong. The difficulty curve is strange and burning lap events are much harder than anything else in the game. However, the actual game part of the game is great. The graphics have dated a little, but the fun hasn't. It's also a lot more palatable now than it was on release simply because all the flaws are known and don't keep coming as horrible surprises. Well worth a download.

Doom (360)

Decided to see if I could get the Nightmare achievement, which you get for completing any level on Nightmare difficulty. This Ultimate Doom, which added a shortcut on the very first level, so it wasn't very difficult.

Boogie Bunnies Demo (360)

It's a colour-matching game, but the red and orange bunnies look too similar to each other.

Apart from that, it seems fun enough and a definite 400-point buy and a definite 800-point miss.

Albums That Don't Exist

Here.

It's the new sensation that's sweeping the... Internet.

Turok Demo (360)

Not awful. Well, okay, it starts off utterly awful, when you're in the caves, but once outside it improves significantly, from "destroy with hammers" to "play if it was free" - which means it's about a billion times better than the last Turok game.

Football Manager Handheld 2008 (PSP)

My PSP died at lunchtime. Sony are sending out a replacement for delivery tomorrow, though, so no real harm done.

Anyway, before it died there was some oddness. Seems there's a weird bug that means that when you're over wage budget you can't buy players - which makes sense - but the game lets you make offers, but then you never hear anything more about them, or something. I'm not too sure yet. I've been trying to buy players to fill the gaping hole in the right of defense, but after making bids for players I'm not getting any more news stories or anything.

I'll have to investigate further tomorrow.

Oh, and we played a match against a terrible team and lost horribly. Sigh.

Football Manager Handheld 2008 (PSP)

Played this on the train to London today. (On the way back I read pop -sorry, rock - magazine The Word, which is annoyingly pompous and snobby, but has some good stuff between huge swathes of infuriating tosh.) I can't quite remember what happened, but I know we didn't do very well. Or maybe we did. I've completely forgotten. I could check, but after a day walking round London looking at Terracotta Chinese guys and plastic American/Japanese guys I really can't be bothered to fetch the PSP to check.

So, anyway, I played. Stuff happened. One thing I do remember - one of my most important players has been bought by Crewe. I wouldn't have sold him, but he had some sort of release clause in his contract. Very annoying indeed.

Football Manager Handheld 2008 (PSP)

Ack, this is awful.

We've lost our winning streak, but more importantly it's time for contract negotiations. I can't lose anybody, but all my players are demanding huge wage increases which I just can't afford. I don't know what to do. I went through the squad list looking for players to sell and there just isn't anyone I can do without. Plus the current wages are so low selling a player or two wouldn't get me back under the limit.

It's very stressful.

Football Manager Handheld 2008 (PSP)

Well, Mansfield kicked us out of the FA Cup, but we're on a winning streak in the league, our goal difference is now positive and we're up to seventh. Didn't hurt that Weymouth were down to nine men in the last match.

Football Manager Handheld 2008 (PSP)

We lost the game against Cambridge. Score was 4-2 again, but the other way round. In the next game we lost to Northwich.

.Then it was a game against Oxford. I didn't expect to get anything out of it, but we managed a 2-2 draw, which was nice. We're currently in thirteenth place in the league. Not far enough from the relegation zone to be comfortable.

After that, it was on an FA Cup game against non-league Alfreton, which was confident of winning... until Alfreton's Dairus Hall scored twice in the first five minutes. Ouch. I checked his stats and they full of green numbers. In fact, most of Alfreton's squad had lots of green numbers. Why don't my players have green numbers? I mean, there are a few, but several members of my first team don't have a single green number. I'll admit, I was feeling hard done by at this point.

So I gave up, I changed my tactics to Attacking and at half time, when it was still 2-0, made three substitutions so that my best players wouldn't get too tired.

And then we scored a goal. And another. And then there was a penalty and we were somehow 3-2 up. But then Alfreton scored to level it and, just as I was thinking a draw would be okay, we scored a fourth, to put us through to the next round of the cup. Amazing scenes!

Football Manager Handheld 2008 (PSP)

Went to a match.

Played for ten minutes.

Game crashed.

PSP turned itself off.

I said, "Bother!"

Last save was before the Altrincham match. Sigh. This time, though, we got a draw, so that's good. If we fail to win against Cambridge I'll be very, very annoyed.

Not many games would survive in my PSP with these bugs, I'm telling you.

Call of Juarez (360)

There's quite a lot wrong with this game, based on ninety minutes or so. The font's way too small on loading screens. The in-game instructions are pretty useless. The volume balance between gunfire and voices is way off. Far too often you're looking around trying to spot a three-pixel high bad guy the same colour as the building he's standing on.

However, you get to be a preacher in the Old West, gunning people down with revolvers and shotguns and setting fire to saloons. So it's good.

Omega Five (360)

I broke the million barrier today. Excellent.

I'm starting to think about maybe using Continues. It's against my principles, but it would be nice to get through the game to unlock the levels in Challenge Mode.

Football Manager Handheld 2008 (PSP)

So, it looks like the loan thing is a bug. Annoying, but not fatal.

Anyway, as I got this McGarry chap I thought I'd play him. Possibly a mistake, as I lost 2-0 to Altrincham and he got a five out of ten rating, which is very rubbish indeed. And then in the first training session after the match he injured himself and is now going to be out for two months.

So, that loan was worth it...

After the loss against Altrincham I really needed a win in the next match, a home game against Cambridge. We scored early from a penalty, but then Cambridge scored two. Before half time, though, we scored another to level the match. The second half was all ours. We added two goals and didn't let any in. A great 4-2 victory and just what we needed.

Football Manager Handheld 2008 (PSP)

The first thing I had to do today was take Opinel aside for a quiet word, telling him how disappointed I've been with him recently. It seems have had a positive effect, but as he's suspended I can't really tell yet.

After that, it was an away game against Rushden. It was a fine 2-1 win for us, but Gary MacDonald went off injured in the twenty-seventh minute and will be out for about three weeks. That's a big blow as he's one of the few players I've got on the left. Luckily, Hawkins is just back from injury and can play the same positions, but he was pretty terrible against Rushden. Hopefully that's just because he was rusty after being out of action for so long.

I've made a few loan offers to clubs, but they've mostly been rejected. I have just managed to get Kevin McGarry from Preston, though. No idea if he's any good - he's only sixteen so I doubt he's great - but he can fill in some gaps if we get any more injuries.

Hey, I've just checked something. This is odd. Before asking to loan players I checked my wage bill. I was at the maximum, so when asking to loan players I didn't offer to pay any of their wages, but now McGarry has joined I'm over the wage budget. I guess maybe you always have to pay their wages and the amount you offer to pay is an extra fee to the club you're loaning from? I need to check that. (I can't believe this has never come up before in all the time I've been playing Football Manager.)

Anyway, I just released a player I wasn't using from his contract, so now our wage bill is okay again. (I didn't actually mean to, I was just investigating my options, but I pressed the wrong button. Oops. I hope the board don't get too annoyed by the £19,000 that's going to cost us.)

Unsurprisingly, I wasn't in the running for Manager of the Month this month. Maybe next month, eh?

Tron Demo (360)

This week's other Xbox Live Arcade game.

After a minute or so of trying to play it I switched off the 360, turned to my wife and said, "Let us never talk of this again."

Omega Five (360)

This is great. Had a few goes before unlocking it, because I wasn't sure about it, but I finally took the plunge and I'm glad I did. It's fantastic stuff, now I understand exactly whaut the buttons and attacks actually do. (At least for the first character, Ruby. Couldn't work out how the other guy worked in the brief go I had with him.)

I was worried from screenshots that your character would just be too large and make the game impossible to play, but that's not the case.

My one complaint is that you can't turn off the continues. I never use them and I'd like to get rid of the ten seconds of waiting at the end of a game.

Oh, and I don't really like the way that there are attacks that are only avoidable by luck or fore-knowledge. Every now and again a huge enemy appears on the screen and if you happen to be in the wrong place you lose health with no chance to get out of the way. It's not a major problems, given that shooters like this are very much about learning the levels, but it seems slightly unfair the first time you get somewhere and get hit without a chance to react.

Football Manager Handheld 2008 (PSP)

And so to a home match against Grays, one place below us in the league table. I was hopeful of a good result and things seemed to be going well until the 27th minute, when Opinel, in his first match back after suspension for his red card, decided to slide in with a terrible two-footed tackle, getting himself sent off and leading to us conceding a goal from the resulting penalty. I rejigged the formation and moved people around to try stop us from conceding any more, but five minutes later Grays scored again.

That was my cue to tell the team to attack more. That may seem like the height of idiocy, being down to ten men and with only a lone striker upfront, but I really wanted to try and narrow the gap. It didn't work. We didn't have a single shot on goal (and only one off target) and near the end of the game Oli scored again, completing his hat trick and leading to us losing by three goals.

I'm really going to have to have words with Opinel. He's been a cornerstone of the team, but if he's going to get himself sent off all the time then he's simply a liability. I'm going to give one more chance. After that, the reserves beckon.

To add to my woes, Waterhouse, who did so much in the first twenty minutes of his first game with us, was completely anonymous today.

Metal Slug 3 Demo (360)

Metal Slug 3, only with a horrible filter effect and annoying controls that are far too twitchy. I wasn't going to buy it, having a perfectly good version on the PSP, but I was surprised by the 360 version.

I didn't think the filter would bother me at all and was sitting around thinking "Tch! Those Internet nerds are way too fussy!", but changed my mind when playing the game. It does look really quite awful.

The analogue stick seemed pretty awful for the game, too, constantly sending me stepping in directions I didn't want to go - and there was no way I was going to try using the d-pad.

Overall: fail.

The Club Demo (360)

I like the idea of this a lot. Shooter as racing game, where levels are "tracks" that you play over and over again to perfect.

However, the execution seems to be lacking something. To start with, it's a third-person shooter, where first-person would seem to be a better fit. It seems so obvious that there must be a very good reason for it being in third-person, but I can't see it for the life of me. I also think the controls are lacking something. The game feels like it should feel Doom-like, but the controls are off to one side of that, more in the standard military third-person shooter camp. Consequently, what should feel fluid just ends up feeling a little cumbersome. That, though, could change with practice, I guess.

The biggest problem for me, though - and it's a problem nobody else online has mentioned as far as I can tell - is that I found it very hard to pick the brown/grey enemies out from the brown/grey levels. Several times I was looking round to see where I was being shot from, only to realise that someone was standing right next to me and I just hadn't seen them.

Overall, it's interesting enough to keep an eye on, but as a full-price release I'll be skipping it. If I can ever get it for less than a tenner, I might be tempted.

Football Manager Handheld 2008 (PSP)

We lost the game against Torquay, as expected. It wasn't a total disaster, though. We only lost 2-0 and it gave some other members of my squad a chance to show me what they've got. No individuals messed up horribly, so I don't think I'll be dropping any into the reserves quite yet. I'll keep an eye on that, though, because players are probably better off getting some games there rather than rotting away in the first team but never playing a match.

(Incidentally, playing against Torquay was an odd experience because they're the team I managed in the original Football Manager Handheld and some of the players were ones I was using back then. I had a great "yeeessssss!" surge when Bedeau scored, only to realise that he wasn't actually one of my players in this game and I'd just conceded, not scored, a goal. Oops.)

The next match, against Droylsden, was incredibly frustrating. In the first minute, Opinel decided in his infinite wisdom to kick the ball away after he'd been given a yellow card and was sent off. We duly conceded a goal from the free kick. Opinel had been very tired and I'd been working him way too hard, so I'm not going to hold it against him. I had to pull Nadé back to play in midfield with a single striker upfront and play Stacy Long out of position on the left, where he actually acquitted himself very well. (Opinel was my only - only! - uninjured left midfielder in the squad for this game.) The rest of the game saw me raining shots down on the Droylsden goal, only to see them all saved. (I need to work on my corners. Of my twelve corners, I don't think a single one reached one of my own players.) And, then, completely against the run of play, they scored another. So that was a loss.

Before the next game I managed to loan a left midfielder named Joey Waterhouse. His stats didn't look too great, but he was at Wigan, so I thought there must be something to him. Indeed, in the next game he was instrumental in getting us three early goals, before his lack of fitness showed and he hardly had a touch for the next hour. Indeed, the tiredness of the squad as a whole really showed, with us conceding two goals in the second half. We did, however, managed to hang on for a win. It should probably have been more convincing, but my strikers had a terrible time of it. Even the usually reliable Ebrienne ended the match with a 5 out of 10 rating after coming on as a sub early in the second half.

We're currently in tenth place in the table. I'm going to have to see if I can get any more loan players in to cover the weak spots and I might have a look at training, see if I can improve my squad's fitness levels. If we start matches in good condition I think we might be able to make the playoffs this season.

Football Manager Handheld 2008 (PSP)

Two games this lunchtime. Luxury!

We won one and drew one, which isn't bad. We were losing the second until the 87th minute, so that was a very welcome draw.

Also, I was runner-up for the Blue Square Premier Manager of the Month award. I felt very proud.

The biggest news, though, is that Purcell has broken his toe and will be out for at least three weeks. That's quite a major problem, as he's one of my top players. Still, could be worse. Three weeks isn't so bad in the long run.

I hope we get a long break between matches soon. My players are absolutely knackered and many are starting games with condition percentages in the low nineties. McPhee finished the last game with his condition down in the sixties, which is dangerously low.

Right, I've checked, and the next match is only a few days later. No break. It's against Torquay, who I'd probably not be able to beat with my best team, so I've decided that I'm going to rest every player I can who's tired and field what's not far off being a b-team for the next match. (I actually have a reserve team and I'd dearly love to promote someone from that team into the main squad, but they're all greyed out, so I can't.) I'm still stuck with knackered players on the left in both midfield and defence, though, as that's where my injuries are right now. It's a hard life.

Football Manager Handheld 2008 (PSP)

You know you've had a good match when you win 2-0 and the opposition keeper is Man of the Match.

A good away win at Kidderminister, then, which takes up to fourth in the table.

I'd like to play more, but each match lasts about twenty minutes and now lunchtime is over.

It's amazing how exciting the game is, given that you're just reading text and looking at numbers for twenty minutes, with a bare minimum of interactivity. I'm still not quite sure how they do it.

Football Manager Handheld 2008 (PSP)

Hmm, not so bad then.

Three games, a win, a draw and a loss.

Injuries are already becoming a problem, though. In some areas I'm very thinly spread. I haven't been able to buy a single player, so I'm having to go the loan route.

Football Manager Handheld 2008 (PSP)

Two more friendlies down, a win and a loss. This does not bode well. Every time I've played a Football Manager game before I've struggled badly if I've not won all the pre-season friendlies.

Still, I'll give it a go and see what happens.

Cursor*10 (Web)

Suppose I'll use "Web" to indicate games played in a browser from now on. Seems a bit daft to label them "Mac" or "PC" depending on what computer I happened to be using.

Anyway, this is a lovely little way to spend ten minutes. Got stuck on the last floor for a while, but that was because I wasn't paying attention on the way up the tower.

Click To Play

And that's my first completed game of 2008. Bit of a cheap one, I know.

Best Games Ever - Previous Lists

For reference, previous top tens of mine -

2007

10. (NE) Dragon Quest VIII (PS2)
9. (NE) OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast (XBOX/PSP)
8. (7) World of Warcraft (PC)
7. (9) Mr Driller: Drill Spirits (DS)
6. (10) Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)
5. (6) ICO (PS2)
4. (3) GTA: San Andreas (PS2)
3. (4) Mario 64 (N64)
2. (NE) Elder Scrolls: Oblivion (360/PC)
1. (1) Doom (PC/360)

2006

10. (NE) Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)
9. (6) Mr Driller: Drill Spirits (DS)
8. (10) Resident Evil 4 (GC)
7. (NE) World of Warcraft (PC)
6. (5) ICO (PS2)
5. (7) OutRun 2 (XBOX)
4. (2) Mario 64 (N64)
3. (8) GTA: San Andreas (PS2)
2. (3) Elder Scrolls: Morrowind GOTY (PC)
1. (1) Doom (PC)

2005

10. (NE) Resident Evil 4 (GC)
9. (5) Giga Wing (DC/PC/MAC)
8. (NE) GTA: San Andreas (PS2)
7. (NE) OutRun 2 (Xbox)
6. (NE) Mr Driller Drill Spirits (DS)
5. (4) ICO (PS2)
4. (NE) Disgaea (PS2)
3. (NE) Morrowind: GOTY (PC/Xbox)
2. (3) Mario 64 (N64/DS)
1. (1) Doom (PC)

2004

10. Advance Wars 2 (GBA)
9. Rez (Playstation 2)
8. Halo (Xbox)
7. Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night (Playstation)
6. Super Monkey Ball (Gamecube)
5. Giga Wing (Dreamcast)
4. ICO (Playstation 2)
3. Mario 64 (Nintendo 64)
2. Grand Theft Auto 3 (Playstation 2)
1. Doom (PC)

Seems I didn't do one in 2003, but in 2002 I did. Only two of those are in the top ten now.

2002

10. Sam & Max
9. Lode Runner
8. Suikoden 2
7. Rollercoaster Tycoon
6. Giga Wing
5. Rez
4. ICO
3. Mario 64
2. GTA3
1. Doom

Best Games Ever

It's January, so it's time to update my Best Games Ever Top Ten list. It's been very tough this year, with five (!) new entries meaning that some old favourites have had to be dropped. Dragon Quest VIII was quite an easy one to lose, Super Mario 64 was easily replaced by Super Mario Galaxy, but I was loathe to cut GTA: San Andreas, World of Warcraft and OutRun 2006. And I'd have liked to add Rush'n Attack, Bioshock, Resistance: Fall of Man, Peggle Deluxe and many others as new entries if I had the space. Unfortunately, though, this has been an exceptional year for gaming and after much hair-pulling and hand-wringing I've settled on the top ten below.

Please note that the list is based on love, rather than technical expertise, importance or any of that other guff. The list below is games that, for whatever reason, I just fell in love with and which I'd love to play today. It's not a list of "desert island" games - if I was going to be trapped for a long time I'd probably take Civilization 4 over Portal, for example, and would probably want World of Warcraft in there - but all these games I genuinely love.

It's my favourite games. It's completely subjective. But that's kind of the point and I think it's the only way you can honestly and realistically talk about the games being the "best".

10. (NE) Portal (360)

Can a game really be one of the ten best games ever when it's only three hours long? When it's as good as Portal, yes. It's got the best script ever - in a moment of madness shortly after completing the game I even toyed with getting "The cake is a lie" tattooed on my person - it's got great puzzles and it's just about the best single evening of gaming I've ever had. Funniest game ever, also. And the it's got the best song in any game, ever, too. Genius.

9. (6) Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

It feels odd putting this in a list of the best games, because it doesn't feel like a game. It feels like a place. I didn't so much play Animal Crossing as live in Venture (my town) and Vatican (my wife's town) for a year or so. It has special significance for me, because before I married my wife we were in a long distance relationship and we used Animal Crossing to reduce that distance. We'd sit on the phone talking, with a DS each, visiting each other, fishing, giving presents, getting to know the animal residents and sometimes just sitting in my kitchen to have some tea together. (And swearing when the connection died and we'd have to restart.) That's why it's in my top ten.

8. (NE) Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness (PSP)

The PS2 version has been hovering near my top ten since it came out. The PSP version has pushed it over the edge. It's the same great game, but there's even more of it and, most importantly, it's portable. When the wife's watching TV, when I've got a spare few moments in the office at lunchtime, when I plain just to want to play it, it's there. (As long as I've remembered to charge the PSP. I've got pretty good at that now, though.) It's sandbox strategy - and I do like my sandboxes. It's not about the story, it's about the team. Creating your own team to your own specifications. There's an attachment to the characters you create that's unmatched in any game - and is slightly ridiculous given the fact that they never speak or do anything but fight. Somehow, though, my Golem Franky has become friends with my Prinnies. There's no in-game dialogue to that effect, no cut scenes showing them together, but I just tend to use them together in attacks and that's been translated in my head into an emotional bond between them. Looking at this list, I think that if I could play any game right now, it would be this one.

7. (NE) Halo 3 (360)

You're probably looking at this and thinking a couple of things. "This must be a vote for the series, not the game." "This is in the top ten for the multiplayer alone." Wrong on both counts. Halo was single-player heaven, but I never got on with the multi-player side of things. Halo 2 twisted the other way. I loved it online, but never finished the single player portion. (I read the plot summary on Wikipedia when Halo 3 came out so I'd know what was going on.) Halo 3 is the best of both worlds. The multiplayer is exceptional. With a good group of friends it's the best shooter I've ever played online. But it's the single player side that really surprised me, in that I can get hopelessly stuck and spend days on a single checkpoint and still love playing it. That's probably the reason it's here, more than the co-op or the Theater or the new Forge-made games.

6. (2) Elder Scrolls: Oblivion (360/PC)

This has lost quite a few places since last year. Mainly because I feel like I've exhausted it. I nearly even dropped it from the top ten. But then I started thinking harder about it. About the memories. The Dark Brotherhood missions. Finding ruins and sneaking through them to get lovely treasures. The snow at night and bears on the road. Leaping over the rooftops. Stealing from castles. Great moments, all of them. The trouble is that while I've still got lots more to do - I've barely touched The Shivering Isles, I'm half-way through the Mages Guild quests and haven't joined the Fighters Guild - my character has peaked. It's been hours and hours since I found any new kit that improves on what I've got and my most important skills are close to being maxed out, if they're not already there. Oh, and recharging and repairing all my magical items is a very annoying chore. That's why it's not the second best game ever. The couple of hundred hours of glorious gaming fun it gave me before I reached this point is the reason it's still number six on the list. And it's been a long time since I last played, maybe it'll feel fresh again. There's all that Shivering Isles stuff to do. And a ghost on the shore I never did go to see. And maybe I should work out what spells I need to shoot at the pillars in those underground ruins to advance through the Mages Guild. And I'm handy with a sword now, maybe the Fighters Guild could do with my skills...

5. (NE) Crackdown (360)

I wasn't expecting this. Like many others, I bought Crackdown because I hoped it would be good, but also because I wanted to play the Halo 3 beta. I was hoping for a fun game that would be worth the cash. What I got was one of the greatest games of all time. I love my sandboxes, as I think I've mentioned. That's pretty much all Crackdown is. Story is kept to an absolute minimum, freedom reigns. Good, good, good. The main pleasure is the jumping, obviously, but that's not to say there's anything wrong with the rest of it. It's just an absolute joy to play. Jumping, running, driving, shooting, kicking... don't forget the kicking. And don't forget the Agency Tower. Virtual vertigo never felt so real. Oh, and to cap it all, the phrase "Good work agent" has entered the everyday vocabulary of my household. The announcer is wonderful, despite claiming to be able to see his house when I'm in a tunnel somewhere.

4. (7) Mr Driller: Drill Spirits (DS)

The best Mr Driller game there is. If you're an English speaker and you like handheld games. Which I am and I do. I can always go back to this and have fun. Tetris I've tired of, but Mr Driller keeps on giving. Great music and sound effects, but perfectly playable in silence - as all the best handheld games are. Where's the sequel, Mister Namco?

3. (5) Ico (PS2)

I told you this top ten list was all about love. My love for this game keeps growing, even though I've not played it for a long, long time. I probably should. I should check that the puzzles are still head-scratching fun. I should check that the combat isn't as annoying as many people say it is. I should check that it still looks gorgeous. I should check that the relationship between Ico and Yorda still tugs my heartstrings in all the right ways... Or maybe I shouldn't. Maybe it should just be left to memories, like so much of life and love.

2. (NE) Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)

Do I really need to explain why this is here? Surely everybody has played it by now? Surely everybody loves it into tiny little pieces? Well, no and no. There are people without Wiis. There are Internet grumblers. There are people who this just hasn't clicked with, through no fault of their own and no fault of the game. I'll just say that played in co-op with my wife this is gaming perfection. It's just right. It's honed and polished and it's big and bright and colourful and fun and - I'm going to have to use the j-word again, but this time in caps - it's pure JOY. And then, after sixty-odd stars, it starts getting difficult and the JOY fades somewhat, but that gaming determination, that feeling of "I will beat this level if it kills me", grows and grows and the experience is completely different, but still brilliant and Nintendo have finally done it. Mario 64, your time is up. Go home, old man. Get some rest. Super Mario Galaxy is here now. And I don't think it's going anywhere.

1. (1) Doom (PC/360)

I give up. Every year I wait for the Doom-beater. It never comes. This is the best game ever. It has been since it was released and it doesn't look like shifting from the top spot any time soon. No game feels like Doom, you see. The speed is just right and the responsiveness of all the controls are perfect. Much to my own frustration I can't explain what I mean by "feel", but it's just magic. (Resistance: Fall of Man feels very similar, which is why I think I liked it so much.) We've got a special understanding, I think. There's no barrier between us. Sure, I'm still rubbish at it. I die a lot. Over and over again. But so what? It's a tough world out there. And the shotgun still hasn't been bettered. (Though Painkiller's stake gun came close.)