Game: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (PS3)

Uncharted is pretty much how all games should be made.

Although it's obvious why while playing, I find it difficult to describe it here. I guess for me it's all about its simplicity - the linear approach, the simple controls, the lack of a score or "percentage completed" and how you can pick up and play for just fifteen minutes and still feel that you've made great progress - all these things combine to form an experience that's hard to fault.

It's also a very slick game; from the marvellous script to the cinematographic transitions to the wonderful score, Uncharted is what would happen if Spielberg made a game. At eight hours for the first playthrough it's short but in a world where gameplay is extended by backtracking, grinding and having to collect arbitrary puzzle pieces the brevity is appreciated more than detested, and when you have this many set pieces in a game the variety far outweighs the lack of length. The fact that I still wasn't bored of the game by the end says a lot.

For me Uncharted finds itself amongst a small collection of games including Beyond Good & Evil and Eternal Darkness which seem to be made for the discerning non-casual gamer who is interested more in gameplay and story than headshots and Gamerscores; I'm just glad there's more to come.