Games of the year 2006

Meanwhile, like a courier with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Nintendo and the innovative DS handheld delivered the goods time and time again. Nintendogs built on its huge canine- loving following of 2005 with expansions such as Labrador Retriever and Dalmatian and Friends. We just never get tired of stroking puppies with a stylus. Then the company known for innovation made the kind of leap that a long jumper couldn't make on the moon: Prof. Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? More of a mental exercise than an actual game it opened up the world of portable entertainment to previously untapped markets. Senior Citizens, keen to keep tabs on mental agility were reported to be buying this product in their droves. For years, games companies had been targeting girl gamers, now there were suddenly grey gamers clogging up the aisles. No wonder the title is well on its way to shifting a million copies - in the UK alone!

The PS2 didn't do much in the way of innovation this year, but nor should it need to after the groundbreaking achievements of its long and illustrious career. But instead of taking a back seat in readiness for the bells and whistles PS3 it stuck to what it does best - creating games that didn't need next-gen graphics to shine through. Most notable was the PS2 exclusive, Bully - a parting shot across the bows from renegade publisher Rockstar, and a highly original and entertaining game at that.

But the game of the year stood head and shoulders above the pack - not for its mainstream appeal but for its sheer quality across the board. With open ended gameplay that actually made you think you were playing an online game when in fact it's a single player offline experience, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion on both the PC and Xbox 360 demonstrated in style that the genre of RPGs was far from stale.

Gorgeous to look at, the sheer experience of feeling that you could literally do anything in the gameworld was a very unique feature. When combined with incredible AI, unlimited potential for character development and the kind of gameplay that continually urged you to explore more, Oblivion delivered on every level and then some - which is why we award it the coveted title of Game of the Year 2006. The bar has been raised and with 2007 representing the first year of the next gen battle between PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii we expect the standards to be even higher. It's a good time to be a gamer.