18. FIFA 09, EA - 360 and PS3

What we said: FIFA 09 is the culmination of years of tweaks. It is the coming together of a game engine now supremely confident that it is the most realistic representation of the game of football the industry has to offer. And it is the best FIFA game ever made. We had worried that FIFA 09 was going to end up like EURO 08 with a Premiership skin. Luckily for us, we were wrong.

17. Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise, Microsoft - 360

What we said: Once you've built a garden with a few piñatas living happily you'll be hooked, with short sessions to check out how things are going quickly turning into mammoth all-day affairs where you simply can't stop until you've managed to entice that smug new piñata into your garden after it's spent a whole day wandering around the edge grinning like the village idiot. Buy Trouble in Paradise, name your piñatas after celebrities, friends and family members, dress them up like fashion disasters and realise you're playing one of the best games of the year.