Beautiful games, games that just make you feel happy because they look so tranquil, picturesque and relaxing, are somewhat rare, but Flower proved that such relaxing visuals could be combined with great gameplay, and was one of 2009's greatest surprises.

The visual and musical payoff for saving the city is incredible, as the power of nature is unleashed on your screens in a flurry of beautiful colour. Tremendous stuff!

The puzzle elements in A Crack in Time are largely quite noddy, but things start to get interesting with the time pads in the Clank storyline. Ranging from simple puzzles in the main game through to mind benders in virtual sidequests, the use of time pads to create multiple iterations of Clank to perform a variety of simultaneous tasks to solve puzzles is inspired.

The extra sidequest puzzles hinted at the potential the concept has, and it'd be great to see a fully-fleshed set of puzzles in a follow-up Ratchet game, with tougher puzzles and a Portal-style package setup.

Some disliked the supposed invincibility in Prince of Persia, despite is simply being a re-packaged version of the system used in vast numbers of modern games. However, for those that persisted to the end of Prince of Persia, there was an emotional climax to the story.

Steering clear of spoilers, I'll simply point out that the developers made the finish work through a combination of clever music use, the quiet tasks immediately following the big boss and the gradual build-up of the game itself. Superb.

The best shooters on PS3 might have perfected every detail of the AK-47, and accounted for every ripple of feedback in the Dragunov, but none can rival the shear imagination and excitement involved in the varied weaponry of the Ratchet and Clank universe. With guns including the uber-powerful RYNO, the Rift Inducer and the cute but furious Mr Zurkon, nothing compares.

Taking inspiration from gamer feedback, classic games and the Book of Insane Contraptions, there's literally nothing quite like the Ratchet and Clank weaponry. I just hope they can make things even more chaotic and mad for the next Ratchet release. Bring on the bizarre furiousness!

It's not often that a character has to say so little to become such an important element of a story, but Selvaria, saying only a few words during her time in the game, is one of the greatest gaming characters ever. Despite her apparently evil intent, she's instantly likeable for the obvious difficulties of her past and the apparent torture she faces on a daily basis.

Cracking boobs might seem like reason enough to like her, but she's truly an excellent gaming baddie and a great component of Valkyria Chronicles.

Help - I need to blink! It's all going too fast though! Starting at the most basic speeds, Zone mode sees players guide their ship through a level while the speed of the ship is gradually increased, swiftly exceeding Phantom speeds, and shooting off to beyond Zen, Subsonic and even Supersonic. By the time your speed level is over 50, the screen is whipping past so fast you've completed a lap in the time it takes to blink.

There's nothing quite like Wipeout's Zone mode for sheer speed, supported by its rock-solid frame rate. For those that particularly love it, there's always Zone Zeuss (Level 75) to aim for.

There are many that believe games aren't made as well as they used to be, that the stories aren't as good, or that the gameplay just isn't as complete as it once was. Perhaps it's the focus of budgets on consumer choices like modern music, particular licenses or simplistic, manufactured, ready-to-eat rubbish. If there's one game that continues to provide evidence of this, it's Final Fantasy VII.

It'd be great to have a new game to match the brilliance of Final Fantasy VII, but the addition of this incredible classic to the PSN line-up is extremely welcome, and it's recently been joined by Final Fantasy VIII and IX - brilliant choices.

The story in Valkyria Chronicles is one of the most enjoyable on PS3, mostly thanks to the interesting and varied characters, but also due to the playful nature of the cutscenes that allow you to learn a lot more about the cast than you would in a meathead shooter like Killzone.

The cutscenes can be replayed individually to recap the story, or simply to allow players to enjoy the colourful and imaginative scenes over and over.

Games like Resistance were brilliant, and perhaps underestimated in the first year of PS3. That aside, the moment when it was widely recognized that PS3 was firmly in the next-generation fight was with the arrival of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, with beautiful jungles and a new explorer that put Lara Croft in the shade.

In early demos, and then in the final product, it was a joy to see and control Drake bounding through the jungle, leaping from ledge to ledge and simply drinking in the incredible, beautiful atmosphere. There's no jungle quite like it - the Uncharted jungle is superb.

An essential ingredient in every racing game is a selection of enjoyable tracks to race around. In Wipeout, both the visual spectacle and the playability of the track are equally important. In Wipeout HD, no track stands out more than the incredible Sol 2, a psychotic, looping, aggressive beast in the sky, designed purely to impress every racer that visits.

There are no weak tracks in Wipeout HD, with each one having individual charm and character (as well as some highly memorable corners to learn), but Sol 2 stands out for its incredible beauty.