It's Nick Gillett versus dragons, robots and evil clouds in his Best Of 2011
Though release schedules were as skewed as ever towards Christmas, enough games arrived in the early part of 2011 to ensure that there are already some gems in the bargain bins. Whether you like to play on your phone, computer or massive TV, it's been a very good year.
Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Wii
Nintendo has made what may be the world's most perfect adventure game, with a plethora of new ideas and motion control that feels as though you're actually using a sword without compromising playability.
Nintendo, £32.99-£34.90
Portal 2, Mac, PC, PS3 & Xbox
Plunging you back into the world of comedy human experiments administered by robot ring-mistress, GLaDOS, Portal 2's puzzles are as magically inventive as ever while its surrounding drollery has been refined to an art.
Valve, £12.99-£20
Deus Ex: Human Revolution, PC, PS3 & Xbox
Exploring the dark side of human augmentation in a near future in which we can upgrade ourselves, Human Revolution rewards you for more than just butchery, weaving a Byzantine plot where good and evil can be tricky to differentiate.
Square Enix, £19-£34.99
DiRT 3, PC, PS3, Xbox
The allure of rallying is obvious, with its absurdly powerful cars spraying fountains of gravel as they tear around the track, and the sport has never looked as gorgeous or felt as visceral as it does in DiRT 3, the current benchmark for off-road chaos.
Codemasters, £22.85-£29.99
Frozen Synapse, Mac & PC
Use tactics and guesswork about what your opponent might be scheming to plan their units' downfall in fanatical detail, before watching it all go unpredictably awry in practice. Demanding total concentration, it's what unhealthy obsessions are made of.
Mode 7, £9.49
LA Noire, PC, PS3 & Xbox
The first title to boast "digital actors", meaning its onscreen characters look like expressive humans rather than the usual collection of wall-eyed mannequins, this is a game of thought and intuition rather than dexterity.
Rockstar, £16.91-£29.99
Cover Orange, iOS
With its weird artwork and no less peculiar concept – protect an orange (or oranges) from destruction at the hands of an evil rain cloud by dropping a series of objects into its levels – Cover Orange is actually huge and wonderfully addictive.
FDG Entertainment, 69p
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, PS3
Francis Drake's scion returns for more charmingly engaging global adventuring, taking in grand puzzles, gunfights and good old-fashioned punch-ups set against truly spectacular scenery. Holding a joypad has rarely felt so swashbuckling.
Sony Computer Entertainment, £24-£38.98
Driver: San Francisco, PC, PS3, Wii & Xbox
The Driver series returns from years in the wilderness with this crazy tale of a comatose hero who can beam at will into any car in the city at any time. It's a mechanic that supplies near-endless driving fun and much comic silliness.
Ubisoft, £17.99-£31.99
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, PC, PS3 & Xbox
Skyrim is the closest you can get to exploring a mythic, dragon-infested land. Indescribably vast and beautiful, you can play for hundreds of hours and still make fresh discoveries. It's less a game, more a temporary way of life.
Bethesda, £24.95-£39.95