Absolutely agree with all that, especially this:

"...I personally don't care for the cult-like worship of progress rampant among most game reviewers that mandate a game to be innovative to earn praise..."

Fantastic. I'd take a very highly-polished but perfectly unoriginal FPS, for instance, over an 'innovative' but bug-ridden and frankly risible attempt to 'advance the genre'. And god knows we've had so many of those lately. Seems to me RE5 has some sky-high production values, albeit minus a radical new direction in gameplay. But that'll do. I don't feel short-changed and I appreciate the level of detail in the game. At least I can see the multimillion budget on the screen every time I play.

Great review, EDGE. I've personally always liked the look of KZ2 (I have the first game on PS2) and I am surprised you seem peeved with the finished game, but you've never been particularly enthusiastic about any of my favourite games (I'll never forgive you for your dismissive posturings regarding Doom3 - although you recently had the good manners to do a thoroughly enjoyable retrospective on it, for which I thank you), so I always look forward to a challenging review from you.

The genius of this KZ2 review that it's not too difficult to see that you guys actually find much to admire (and praise) in the game - but, as usual, you fall over yourselves to whine about 'lack of story' ,etc. I think most KZ2 fans will probably find exactly what they want in the finished game: a polished and thrilling pure-breed FPS shooter made with some of the highest production standards in the industry. For almost everyone, that'll do nicely. I'd never expect that to be enough for EDGE - and quite right, too. That's what you're there for: to worry about the details.

Nice to see Dead Space get a gong, even if just for its masterful audio - I would have had it down as a runner-up for best visuals, too. Can't understand your love-in for LBG planet, though, EDGE...

Whilst I find your top 10 games wearily predictable, I am glad to see the likes of Space Invaders Extreme, Dead Space and TR: Underworld included in your Top 30 pick. All three games were thoroughly enjoyable titles for me this past year, each of them seeming to revel in their exquisite production values and sheer playability.

I cannot agree that either Far Cry 2 or Fallout 3 should enjoy such favour in your list - both titles were huge disappointments for me, neither of which I bothered finishing due to boredom and indifference. Ah well.

I remember listening to a UKGamespot podcast at around the same time Haze was being released. Rob Yescombe was 'guesting' on the show. It really was very embarassing for all concerned (except, perhaps, for Mr Yescombe, who no doubt imagined he'd been extremely witty and highly entertaining to all). Sometimes a very large ego can be a very large problem.

Sad to hear of the other redundancies at FR. It's never a happy thing for anyone who cares about and understands the games industry to see so many talented professionals put out of employment - and at this time of the year it's just abysmal news for all. Hopefully the new year will see many of them finding new positions with other developers.