We love a good list don't we? They seem fundamentally warming to the human soul. So useful for so many things, they serve to help our slightly bewildered minds bring order to the chaos that surrounds us in our daily lives. Especially at this time of year. I have written and read so many lists in the past week or so that I've practically had to start making lists of the lists I need to make. They should call it listmas.

The humble list is also wonderfully useful to those of us that write about the games industry (and pretty much any media), as it allows us to sum up our thoughts on the year, and more importantly, gives us and you something to argue over. Lovely. So here's my list of my favourite gaming experiences of the year, for which I make no apologies in advance!

5. X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Blink and you'd have missed this one, but I think you'll have missed something which came with buckets of fun. Ok, It's winning no prizes at all for originality, you can imagine the commissioning session;

Business guy: 'Well hey, everybody likes that God of War game don't they? Hey developer guy, you reckon you could do that only with wolverine and his knives?'

Developer guy: 'Um, Yeah, probably.'

Business guy: ' Great! ok, tough day, who's for lunch?'

But you know what? It doesn't matter. You get to be wolverine. And not the watered down, sugar-coated guy you see in the movies, the primal lunatic who savages enemies without a thought and shrugs of shotguns rounds to the gut like a mild case stomach acid. It has the button mashing fighting mechanic down perfectly, is absolutely soaked is gore and cool finishing moves, and has a list of achievements that made me want to play it through two more times to try and get them, something I don't really do any more. It's not life changing but it's great fun. If you haven't tried it already, you should give it a go.

4. Shadow Complex

Well who'd have thought it? An x-box arcade game I'm proud of purchasing? Yes thumbstickers, Dan has finally worn me down with the one they got so very right. Chair have done a fantastic job with this game, taking a very simple but compelling idea, and polishing the hell out of it, to the point where it really didn't feel like a cheap downloadable game at all. I imagine it provoked over at Epic that kind of beaming pride primarily reserved for parents the first time their child brings home something they have created that's really good, and not just pasta glued to card and a stickman. Shadow Complex has high production values, solid voice acting from the man of the moment, a story line that is typical game fodder but fits, and just great, fun gameplay. Ok, it's Metroid, but I never played that so I loved this, and the many collectibles and hidden spots really appealed to the completionist in me. X-box live have it on offer at the moment I believe, so if you haven't played it, pick it up for even more of a bargain than it was before, and then spend the next few days grinning from ear to ear while you play. It reminds me of being a kid and yet I can appreciate it as an adult. It's what x-box live arcade games should be.

3. Infamous

Dark or light? Good or evil? Red or blue? For the first time ever when playing a game with the now obligatory moral choice in it, I did something different, I went for evil first. And it's probably the reason this game is in the list at all. Playing as the evil Cole is wonderful fun, zapping innocent people in the street with those lovely red force beams and watching them writhe in the floor in pain. It was fun being a nasty piece of work for a change. The story line worked, people slowly grew to hate my character while he vented his fury on the ruined Empire City, and the results where different enough to make me want to see the good version too, replaying the game almost immediately afterward.

The outright winner in the superhero sandbox fight between it and Prototype then, inFamous had a good solid base story, characters that you could care at least a little about (maybe not Zeke), a nice comic strip mechanic for moving it along and a decent set, if still very black and white, of moral choices to make. Once you gained the ability to ride the power lines and rails the city, while not the prettiest became a joy to explore, and the collectibles with their unique mechanic  of temporarily revealing themselves on the map when you pulsed your radar, where still a challenge to collect without being a chore. An inspired idea. I lost a large number of hours in this game, and enjoyed all of them. It takes a while for your weaponry to become truly exciting and powerful, but it's well worth the climb.

2. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

I loved the first Uncharted game. It affirmed my purchase of the PS3, a fact about which I was worried at the time (oh how Sony have turned it round this year), and took a story type I love (I'm a Tomb Raider fan, remember), and made a great game out of it filled with likeable characters and a workable storyline. It had its flaws, but it was a great game. 

This year saw the return of Nathan Drake alongside some old friends and some new faces. And what a return. After a worrying first level that felt a bit dark and samey, we are catapulted in to a globe trotting story line filled with jaw dropping environments, wise cracking adventurers, a touchingly well observed love triangle, and spectacle after spectacle after spectacle. 

The story is throwaway stuff but the characters are not. Wonderfully realised performance capture shows that interplay between computer generated characters can work, and meaningful emotion can be conveyed. Hats off to Nolan North and the rest of the cast for doing something so many games fail to achieve.

As for the game, Naughty Dog have clearly been watching their Hollywood blockbusters. The only game this year (and for a long time) to make me shout out loud in places, the levels are an endless rollercoaster of scripted fun, from buildings collapsing with you in them, to a train sequence that will leave you aghast. The first time the building fell out from under me left me breathless, confused, and laughing at the fact that I was still alive, just like Drake himself. If that's not immersion I don't know what is.

There aren't many games that I want to play again immediately after finishing them, but this was one of them, and any other year would have been number 1, if it hadn't been for the one none of us saw coming...

1. Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Someone finally made a great batman game. And boy, did they. A strong contender for one of my favourite games of all time, Rocksteady's unexpected triumph of an action adventure is the epitomy of passionate game design. This game makes you feel like Batman. A dark, predatory force lurking in the shadows, casting fear in to the hearts of your foes, then pouncing like some kind of primal force, equally happy taking down the single, weak herd member as you are launching full on in to a fight with the group. 

The stealth mechanic in this game is without doubt the best I have ever played. You don't hide in the shadows, you use them. The predator rooms an all new kind of puzzle then, teaching us to think like the dark knight would, not only how can we take down these henchman without harming ourselves, but also encouraging us to do it with panache, in order to best strike fear in to those that remain. A mechanic so good it has its own bonus mode, the stealth rooms provide a cleverly thought out expansion of the premise, with great challenges to take down enemies in certain ways, adding a new twist to the puzzle.

Been hiding in the shadows long enough? Ok, time for a proper punch up. Now, Rocksteady could have easily dropped in a God of War like mechanic here and I imagine for the most part we would have all have been happy with some fun brawling. But did they? Nope. Not happy with revitalising the stealth genre, they re-invented brawling too, bringing us a kind of rhythm game that let you mash for a while, then showed you with what it could really do once it clicked. Once you got the timing, Batman leaps between large groups of foes with balletic grace. Counter, punch, counter, punch, punch, all with the right gap of time between each, and you become the Dark Knight of the films right before your eyes, wide as they are with glee at the spectacle.

All of this, coupled with a truly inspired and realised environment in Arkham Aslyum, magnificent voice acting from the ensemble cast (Mark Hamill clearly went nuts after that whole kissed his sister thing, but it worked for him, he's terrifying), and graphics to die for and Rocksteady have created something truly new and unique. If you haven't played it, you must. The last couple of years have been very kind to the legacy of the Dark Knight, and this is a worthy entry in that list.

Merry listmas

And so we close the book on another hectic year. Particularly for me as I'm getting ready to close the book on my first year in business for myself. It has been an incredibly busy and very fulfilling time., and often the reason for the haphazard nature of my posts here.  I'll try next harder next decade, promise.  Have a great holiday one and all!