Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

From the first time you lay eyes on Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid 4, it's tempting to take him as a metaphor for the game as a whole. Here we have an old warhorse taking one final outing, seemingly out of place in the new world, with a few new technologies at his disposal, but weighed down by aging parts and an awful lot of baggage. And its true that there will be times when MGS4 feels oddly antiquated, and times when you'll wish it could have left a few old, bad habits behind. Yet, all the same, that doesn't stop it being an exceptional game - one of the few must-have titles on PS3, and one of the finest on any platform so far this year.