This has been a pretty awesome year, hasn't it? So many great games and so little time to play them all. Highlights for me have been...

Guitar Hero II with its excellent soundtrack and endless hours of fun

BioShock with its breathtaking story and memorable characters

Halo 3 with its timeless multiplayer and fitting end to the trilogy

The Orange Box with its great value for money and the genius that is Portal

Mass Effect with its 'massive' replay value and beautiful design

Super Mario Galaxy with its groundbreaking level design and gameplay

"We've heard an unsettling rumor today from an anonymous tipster that longtime game reviewer Jeff Gerstmann from Gamespot has been let go. That wouldn't necessarily be newsworthy, but the conditions under which he was allegedly dismissed were. According to the source, Gerstmann was fired "on the spot" due to advertiser pressure for his review of Eidos' Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. A visit to Gamespot shows that the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game has taken over the site very prominently, with backgrounds and multiple banner ads all pitching Kane & Lynch. Allegedly, publisher Eidos "took issue with the review and threatened to pull its ad campaign"

So...yeah...erm...WHAT?!!!!

I think I spent almost an hour creating my character in Mass Effect before I actually started playing the game. Crazy, huh?

This game is (excuse the pun) MASSIVE. Once I zoomed out of the Galaxy Map for the first time I realised just how big this game is. There's a wealth of information about the species, planets, and history in this game, its just incredible. You really get the feeling that you're part of a living, breathing world and you want to find out what's really going on. However there are some problems in Mass Effect:

*The tutorial in this game is practically non-existant. It didn't disrupt my experience of the game but it might annoy people who are new to RPGs.

* The menus feel a bit clunky and take some time getting used to

* Vehicle combat is quite poor, especially battles with the Thresher Maw

* Framerate can get pretty choppy sometimes

Mass Effect is still an amazing game despite all these issues and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys RPGs or a good story.