4. Football Manager 2009, SEGA

What we said: Despite some bugs, no problem proved bad enough to significantly tarnish our experience and on the whole Sports Interactive has tweaked an already brilliant game to make something even better. If you want a high stress virtual job on top of your real one, have hours to burn each day looking at an interactive database, and fancy yourself as the next Alex Ferguson, Football Manager 2009 might be the only game you'll need until this time next year.

3. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, Blizzard

What we said: With the release of Wrath of the Lich King, it's difficult to see how anyone will loosen World of Warcraft's stranglehold on the MMO genre. With its spectacular design, dazzling polish and ever-compulsive gameplay, World of Warcraft seems destined to remain the everyman's pick of PvE-focussed MMO for the foreseeable future, and with the implementation of new PvP mechanics, Blizzard is no doubt looking to tempt back players who jumped ship to Warhammer Online and Age of Conan as well. The competition needs to take note, because the bar just got raised that little bit higher...