With Bohemia Interactive departing and taking on an ambition project, very similar to Operation Flashpoint, Codemasters rose to the challenge by delivering a competent installment to this praised franchise. The result is a title that captures the very fragrance that made the original game so popular and a bit more accessible to the general public, without cutting down on the key features that defines it.

Risen is the spiritual successor of Gothic, and is in many ways just like it. It can be extremely rewarding if you develop your character long enough and invest a lot of time in it, but it can also be extremely frustrating if you are just starting and try to find that RPG freedom of exploration, even if you can go everywhere in theory.

It's tough to beat the competition and cruise your way up to the top, but staying there for consecutive years is even harder. 2K Sports did an excellent job by grabbing the first place with its NBA franchise, and as far as I'm concerned NBA 2K10 has all the needed traits to retain the crown as the best basketball simulator of 2009.

A good concept is a major element to be taken into consideration by developers who want to create a new game. But its only existence in the process of creation is not enough to guarantee the success of that game. Darkest of Days is a good example of a failed product which features a good story plot and concept but lacks of any intriguing gameplay premise or smart level design. In order to reach its spark of cleverness, you have to take a ride in one of the most boring and repetitive virtual journeys of this year.

Order of War might not bring a great deal of innovation into the RTS genre, but on the other hand it exceeds pretty much every expectation one would have about these rather familiar concepts. Driven by its competent and addictive gameplay, this title benefits of a gorgeous cinematic mode that further increases the fun factor.

Majesty 2 is not an experiment in the RTS industry, trying to set a new trend by stripping the strategy games of their defining features, such as micromanagement or resource gathering. Its predecessor brilliantly succeeded in presenting the gamer with this different approach on the conventional RTS titles, and 1C's release is just taking the experience to a different level.

While some may look the other way when you try to tell them about a comic book superhero game, I urge you not to. Champions Online is a class game, offering great gameplay and cool character customization. It had some launch issues, some have been resolved, some are still there... but if I had to make a top of MMOs I had most fun with, CO would certainly be a part of it. But before you do a lifetime subscription, try it for a month first...

EA decided to play their last cards upon Need for Speed series, after last year's disaster, releasing a whole new creation focusing more on the simulation aspect of virtual racing, bringing back some old school elements such as the cockpit view (first time since Porsche Unleashed) but still keeping some stylish details from the newer titles such as Need for Speed: Carbon or Need for Speed: Pro Street. While the combination was looking good on the paper, the Need for Speed: SHIFT cannot keep the pace with the best sim-racing games out there and will not become a real contender against the upcoming Forza Motorsport 3 or Grand Turismo 5.

Rubi Malone is an awesomely cool character, and WET can be a great action game experience at times. But there are some things that don't quite add up. There are many many cool moments to be lived in-game, but when combined, or when transitioning from one to another, they feel less than the sum of their parts. You always get that feeling: "man, I did like that last zone, but what the heck am I doing here now?!".

If Dawn of Magic 2 was intended as a tribute to old school RPG games, than I'd be happy to acknowledge Sky Fallen's efforts of coming up with a decent title, despite the low budget. It draws inspiration from a bunch of games, the genre's fans are familiar with, and by saying this I'm simply using an euphemism, instead of naming it a low-priced Diablo clone.