A year on. Your standout moments from the next-gen.

[ezee ryder]

Two words :
Viva
Pinata

agree totally, it is a game that is simple but yet surprisingly deep and will be one of the 360's unearthed gems due it looking "kiddy".

[Commander Marklar]

Not joined the next-gen party yet, am going to get my 360 next summertime but for me on the outside looking in the big buzz has been Gears and I've read with relish people's salivations on it and other good games.

Having said that I've also noticed the amount of bugs and therefore patches, updates etc required for many games which is a bit concerning.

Even Gears has had it's problems I beleive which prompts me to ask myself, are these games not tested properly.

Still, hasn't put me off buying one.

ALL games have bugs, it's an irrelevant topic for discussion

[MACO]

Two standouts :
Multiplayer Gears, sublime gameplay, both tactical and visceral. Best MP experience I've had. The maps never get old, and it's truly a team geam. Has pushed Rainbow on Xbox off my 'my loved perch'.

Viva Pinata
Singleplayer: Once you get through the sugary goo of the first few minutes this game really opens up into a fantastically deep virtual world of balancing choices, tough love on your virtual creatures and one well executed game. The graphics are beautiful both in the garden and the surroundings. You just wish you could wander off more and explore. Minutes turn to hours with this. It's a shame that a lot of people will be put of by the first impressions of this and fail to see what a well crafted game this is.

[Myth]

Graphically the first thing that really made me go wow was loading up the Fight Night demo, my jaw hit the flaw.

The main thing which has really got me this gen is the development upon Live on the original XBox. It's like when I used to have my mates over every day to play games but now we can do it in the comfort of our own homes against dozens of other people.

[Daragon]

Fitting a VGA cable to my PC monitor and 360 and loading up my Kameo save in the water temple had to be the moment that made it for me from a technical point of view - Comparing that to how I'd last seen it on my CRT was like looking at a completely different product the improvement was that staggering.

Prior to that however and while not a technical related achievement, I would still claim my standout moment was the buzz I got on launch day, setting up the console and shoving in PDZ - despite running it only on a CRT set at the time, I have to say it almost brought a tear to my eye. I considered myself the luckiest guy in the country that day and with very good reason (A pricing error meant I got a package deal at an absolute steal)

Have yet to experience true next gen in the form of High Defintion however, although with a little luck that will all chance in about 18 days....