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This year I have had the privilege to review two of the best sports games I have ever played.

The first was The Bigs 2, though unlike Naly I play it on the Wii where pitch curve and speed and batting timing and upstroke are controlled by actually pitching and swinging.

The other is FIFA 10. I have never played a football game that looks this good, plays this good and is equally joyous and frustrating to play.

Players who have played previous titles will quickly pick up the controls and the nuanced shooting system (you really just want to tap that shot button). And after watching the vague tutorial videos you’ll be juggling the ball and taunting your opponents in no time.

But the best part of FIFA isn’t the gameplay. The load times are a complete non-issue as the game lets you play a one-on-one with the goalkeeper while the game loads around you. And the soundtrack is fantastic dub/reggae dance hall tracks mixed with nouveau new wave tracks like Peter, Bjorn and John. So good in fact that I went to iTunes and bought some of the songs.

And while we're talking sound, the game comes with sound tracks from a bunch of different languages. So when you're bored with the whinging British commentators you can switch to the much more entertaining Spanish, French, Portuguese or Germans. It's always a barrel of laughs to hear "Goooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllalalalalalalallllaaaaaaa!!"

Like many EA games this season (including the terrible NBA and NHL titles) FIFA has a season mode that is live updated with real stats and like those other games you have to pay for it (though my NBA game came with a free redeem code, so maybe you don’t have to pay for that one).

If you have one of those new fandangled HD TVs you’ll be quite impressed with FIFA, or maybe you won’t because you’re a smarmy git. I don’t know.

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