A lot of minor improvements and the official UEFA Champions League license make sure that Pro Evolution Soccer can defend the number one spot - but this time it has to share it with FIFA 09. Despite the license, not all teams carry their original name and the Champions League is called European Championship. The online-mode works for the first time, but it's still too complicated and unclear. All in all, Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 is a bit better than last year's version, but only as good as FIFA 09.

Ascaron's second monster-bashing game returns to the huge and beautiful realm of Ancaria. It inherits both the virtues and weaknesses of its predecessor - and bugs, too. Possibly the best action RPG for a long time, Sacred 2 is addictive as long as it's not crashing. Ascaron is already working on new patches, which should be available soon .

Call of Duty: World at War goes back to the battlefields of World War 2. The game delivers well staged nonstop action and looks good, but the missions are barely connected, just like in the first three games of the series. It's still a good, maybe even a very good FPS, but not fit to hold a candle to its predecessor.

The fifth episode of the series is shocking PC gamers - with long distances to cover and stupid riddles to solve. It still has some well done horror moments to offer, but it's not as creepy as the earlier episodes. A lot of effects were just copied over, so instead of being scary they cause the feeling of "been there, done that".

Graphics and sound are good and the weapons are convincing, even KI and controls are good. If the game was longer and would have a convincing story, it could be a well done shooter. But the developers apparently forgot that second part of the recipe for good games and so the game is too short, without soul and too expensive.

The seventh C&C strategy game is a wicked mix of funny ideas, great cut scenes and comical military units. The Soviets have changed the time line again to weaken the USA, but the change also made Japan a super power. The game is great fun, especially the new co-op mode, even though the KI and the graphics engine are not really up to date.

Fallout 3, a successful reanimation of a classic role-playing game, is one of the best modern RPGs and one of the greatest games of 2008. With up to date 3D graphics, good game design and adequate playing time, it's one of those rare pleasant surprises one doesn't dare to hope for anymore. For some it's almost video game art, but it's definitely very good entertainment.

MySims was created for very young gamers, but is more than just "Sims Light" with cute graphics. It's actually quite complex, especially for children. The rewards and challenges are very well done. If you're less than 10 years old, this may be for you.

Far Cry 2 scores right in the core area of first-person-shooters: action. Players who like some logic and a good story even in a first-person-shooter will have their problems with Far Cry 2. Ubisoft's Africa is beautiful, but life in all its glory is missing most of the time. Travelling takes a long time and you are forced to make absurd detours because of mountains and valleys. Far Cry 2 can be reproached with a lot of things, but once the Savannah is burning they are forgotten, at least temporarily, because fighting the APF and UFLL is so much fun.

Welcome to Bullworth Academy, a melting pot of high school stereotypes. Outsiders are making plans to rule the world, teachers terrorize their pupils, sports aces and rock 'n rollers try to impress the girls while the posh students wrinkle their nose. While the GTA-style game itself is well done, the technical conversion to the PC is a bit sloppy. Should you ever be asked why video games are a cultural asset, show them Bully.

It's still a good hockey game, but all in all it's the same game sold four years in a row anyway. While EA Sports polishes the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game, it neglects the PC version, e.g. it's impossible to change the aspect ratio to 16:9 and the maximum resolution is 1280x1024. Time for 2K Sports to step in with it's NHL 2k- series. It worked for NBA 2k9.

Dead Space is great entertainments for adults, not only because of the amount of gore and horror, but also because of the enthralling story with some nice twists. It's impressive how well pictures, dialogues and sound work together to form a cinema-like atmosphere.

The game offers 25 songs from Aerosmith, but hits like „Crazy“, „Cryin‘“ or „I don’t want to miss a thing“ are not included. There are 15 more songs from other artists like Lenny Kravitz, Joan Jett or The Cult. It’s still fun, but if you are an Aerosmith fan, you’d like to play the hits, not second rate songs.

X3: Terran Conflict is the last episode of the space saga from Egosoft. There is a huge war going on, a war against the Xenon and against the game's controls. Terran Conflict looks great, there's more action than before and it's possible to control lots of ships - theoretically. But in reality controlling more than one ship is very complicated, if not impossible. But if you liked the other X-series games, then you might like this one, too.

What a comeback! Finally the FIFA series has overcome its form crisis and is celebrating modern football (soccer) again, both graphically and gameplay wise. Not everything is new, but most things look better. Pro Evolution Soccer may be the better simulation, but the fast action of FIFA 09 is just as much fun. EA Sports is back in the top league.

Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway offers the best gameplay and narrative of all three parts of the series. It's a thrilling shooter, tells a haunting story that shouldn't leave anyone untouched and the cut scenes are fantastic. The AI has a few bugs, but most of the time the other soldiers act convincingly intelligent. The best "Brothers in Arms" so far.

Just like Lego Indiana Jones this game was inspired by the movies, but concentrates on fighting three supervillains, one in each mission. You can play Batman or Robin, each with his own abilities, while the AI controls the other one. The linear missions are full of weird riddles and machines. The game looks great and offers a lot of variety, even if you don't like the slapstick comedy and the pribble-prabble of the characters.

King's Bounty: The Legend is a mixture between RPG and strategy game. Battles are fought turn-based, but travelling takes place in real time, which enables some interesting tactical moves. The Quest are diverse and well done. The first fantasy-strategy game from Russian developer Katauri is already very close to Heroes of Might & Magic.

If you don't know the original game from 1994, you should play at the easiest level to understand the complex economy. There are three other nations competing with you to colonize the New World, the native Indians and, last but not least, the King of your nation in the Old World. The Independence War is one of the most entertaining ways to end a campaign ever seen in this genre. The game may not be perfect, but it's a motivating and challenging strategy game.

After playing hundreds of hours there is one thing we can say for sure: this is a good MMO, a very good one, maybe even the best. It offers great quests and great PvP and the fact that both help to gain levels is very motivating. Technically, the graphics are not that good, but landscapes and other places are full of details.

Great graphics, breathtaking stunts and fantastic driving feel - Pure is the surprise hit of the year as far as racing games are concerned. It's a perfect blend of fun and action and looks fantastic. It's possible to create more than 60.000 different Quads out of components, so no Quad looks like the other in multiplayer games. There is no story at all, but it's the perfect casual game once you're done with the short career mode.

Telling the story of Psycho, who appeared in Crysis, too, the game feels a bit like playing deleted scenes from the first game. But lots of things are improved, there are more scripts, even better graphics and the cut-scenes are better, too. If you like fast action and couldn't care less about the story then Crysis Warhead is for you. If you haven't played Crysis and don't know what's going on, you may feel a bit lost, though.

Worthwhile improvements and additional content - CD Projekt has put great effort into The Witcher: Enhanced Edition. With new animations, new voices, better combat, better controls and two new side quests the game is finally the great adventure the first version should have been. Buyers of the original game can download the additional content free of charge.

This game tries to tell what happened before Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl, but may require a few more patches to be able to do so. At least version 1.5.03 is full of bugs, crashes, long loading times, broken save games and design errors, which is a shame because that's what stops the game from being great. Theoretically this could all be fixed by patches and just like with Stalker, this may take a while.

Electronic Arts and Will Wright send you on a unique journey through Evolution. But it's less of a game and more of a colourful biological construction kit. Spore is sophisticated and rich in details, but all this is rarely noticeable because of its uninspired game play and lack of a story, which is such a pity. It's a paradise for creative gamers, but an expensive one, too. Electronic Arts asks 10 Euros more than usual - that's a rip off.

If you prefer creating things instead of destroying them, please forgo Mercenaries 2: World in Flames. Playing a mercenary in Venezuela you blow up multi-story buildings, restaurants, hotels, factories, cars and boats in several missions. The controls could have been better, but it's still fun, and instead of complaining about the shortfalls of the game you could always just go and blow up something else.

Battle March adds the Greenskin and the Dark Elves as new playable races for a new campaign and multiplayer matches. The three chapters of the campaign alternate between Greenskin and Dark Elf missions. AI and game balance haven't been improved since Mark of Chaos, but that doesn't affect the big strength of the game: it's dense Warhammer atmosphere. If you liked Mark of Chaos, then Battle March is probably for you. But it could have been more challenging.

Spore is a simple game and the add-on doesn't change that. It can only offer simple adventures and there's not much use for thousands of them if ten are enough already. Instead of improving Spore, Galactic Adventures promotes the weaknesses of the game.