Grand Theft Auto IV is not a perfect game, but it is fantastic through and through, from start to finish and beyond. It is so massive, vast and impressive that it is almost mind-boggling to imagine how much work must have gone into the game to come up with so much detail.

It’s the game that shows just how powerful and capable the machine is of producing incredible games. It’s the game that at long last tops "Super Mario 64" as the finest platformer of them all. But, most importantly, it’s the game in which we can finally make Mario look like a bee.

On the whole, Half-Life 2 manages to be an incredible new game while still retaining that unique Half-Life magic.

It’s neither perfect nor as revolutionary as some might make out, but it is one of the most progressive, gripping and downright fun games to hit the market in the last decade.

With something like 30 hours of outstanding single-player gameplay, plus a solid multiplayer mode and even a whole new audience being introduced to one of the greatest game series to have been produced, make no mistake, the release of The Orange Box is An Event.

And most uniquely of all, the single-player-only game easily packs in around 30 hours of gameplay, making it extremely good value for money.

It’s neither perfect nor as revolutionary as some might make out, but it is one of the most progressive, gripping and downright fun games to hit the market in the last decade.

But don’t forget we’re gamers, and you can be sure that if we get on two knees and kiss some ass, it’s not because we’re paid to, it’s because we’ve just played the kind of game that reminds us why we’re doing this in the first place.

If you’re after a fairly intuitive 2D level editor with a vaguely disappointing platform game attached and it absolutely has to be on the PS3, we guess LittleBigPlanet will do. Just don’t believe all the hype.

It's certainly not the game to convert anyone from one camp to the other. It delivers a new story, new features and kick-ass multiplayer functionality, but still has exactly the same gameplay as we've all seen before.

It’s not perfect and there’s no real reason to prefer the Wii version over the Gamecube’s, but The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is every bit the masterpiece gamers have been craving for, and proves there’s life in the old wolf yet.

One of the many factors that elevate WoG beyond mere construction puzzles is the excellent physics engine.

To experience it is to experience a conflicting mixture of belief and disbelief: belief at the immersive scenarios, rich detail and convincing acting, and disbelief at the jaw-dropping set pieces and hammer-to-the-head storytelling.

Gears of War isn’t a masterpiece of innovation: it’s a masterpiece of fun.

A refreshing, immersive, massive, satisfying and hugely impressive game.

To experience it is to experience a conflicting mixture of belief and disbelief: belief at the immersive scenarios, rich detail and convincing acting, and disbelief at the jaw-dropping set pieces and hammer-to-the-head storytelling.

Halo 3 is a fantastic game: a magnificent example of multiplayer gaming with an enjoyable side order of single-player, but it’s really hard to justify as being a true classic.

A refreshing, immersive, massive, satisfying and hugely impressive game.

Subjectivity aside, on a pure bang to buck ratio Chaos Theory comes out tops, but as we're all too aware, there's no accounting for taste (or skill, you light-loving frag-fanatics).

At the end of the day, Burnout 3 is a little too simplified for our tastes.

Let’s not lose sight of the fact that, as nice as all the extras are, it’s still essentially a two-year-old game with a new camera.

When placed in the context of the Metal Gears before it, Snake’s latest and last adventure feels a touch diminutive and hollow.

Not only does God of War have great gameplay, but the developers have done an awesome job with the graphics and flourishes of detail, and the sound, speech and music are all of the highest quality too.

It’s hard to describe every facet of Civ IV’s gameplay without writing an epic, but suffice it to say, this is everything Civilization fans could hope for.

At the end of the day, Burnout 3 is a little too simplified for our tastes.

The astonishing array of imaginative and well implemented characters, along with the hundreds of unlockable items to discover, ensure that SSB Brawl is easily the most definitive Smash Bros yet, and the best game you can buy for the Wii. But forcing you to unlock half of the characters and stages, not to mention the unbelievably botched online options, only serves to frustrate everyone who foresaw the greatness that could have been.

The new flag-bearer of a genre. Superbly paced with a supreme balance of thoughtful strategy and frantic firefights, the game stands up to repeated play even if you never touch the multiplayer or skirmish modes.

A true original, and one we’d be surprised to see surpassed in terms of quality on Xbox Live this year.