Games of the year

While the rest of the world digs in for a long hard financial crisis, the games industry is having its biggest financial quarter ever. An unprecedented number of triple-A games was released in the space of a few weeks in November, helping make 2008 an extraordinary year for gamers.

Mario Kart (Wii)

Coming with a silly plastic steering wheel that actually works, Mario Kart's reinvention for Wii is perhaps the most complete and rewarding since the classic DS remix. Taking tracks from all previous versions of the game and adding online play modes, this is vintage stuff.

PlayTV (PS3)

Bringing effective TiVo-style personal video recording to your PS3, this also lets you watch recorded programmes on a PSP anywhere in the world. Elegant, inexpensive and easy to set up.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots (PS3)

Featuring a weary, embittered older Snake, its message of the futility of war is only undermined by how much fun war is in this heavily mechanised near-future. With an unusually cogent plot, this is refined, subtle, witty and completely absorbing.

Race Driver: GRID (Nintendo DS, PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

Awesomely, breathlessly exciting racing with the ability to rewind time. It also looks completely staggering, even on a crowded track; easily the driving experience of the year.

Fable 2 (Xbox 360)

Be the pure-hearted hero of your very own fairytale or the sinister villain with eyes like hot coals. With its English accents and bucolic setting, Fable 2 is an easy place to spend time engaging in missions, starting a family or just messing about with the townsfolk.

Far Cry 2 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

Set in a dusty, rundown, unnamed African country, you're a mercenary hired to kill the region's leading arms dealer, which means running missions through stunning scenery using an increasingly formidable arsenal. A superb game, full of interesting ideas.

Gears Of War 2 (Xbox 360)

While simply a gentle evolution from its predecessor, this version's obsessively honed shooting action and overblown set pieces rarely give your adrenal gland any peace. It may be cheesy, but its "to the max" ethos supplies endless excitement.

Little Big Planet (PS3)

Sony's killer application for its very slightly ailing console brings spectacularly charming platforming antics and DIY level design to the masses.

Mirror's Edge (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

A game about a non-violent, free-running heroine who only uses guns as a last resort is a standout rarity in a games market dominated by big franchises and war simulations.

Wii Fit (Wii)

Coming with a miniature white aerobics step that detects your body's position and measures weight and body fat with fear-inducing accuracy, Wii Fit is a game designed to make you thin.

Rez HD (PS3, Xbox 360)

Loved by misty-eyed former Sega Dreamcast owners, Rez is a synaesthetic fusion of pumping techno and Tron-style space invaders, with each shot fired and expoding alien becoming part of the music and visual splendour. Even more stunning in HD.

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