20 Reasons I've Loved PC Gaming in 2009

Not, I must clarify, the only or even best 20 reasons, but simply 20 of all the many, many reasons. There's been some talk by both friends and strangers that 2009 hasn't been a year to shout YES! GAMES! in quite the way the last couple have been. I beg to differ. It's been an extraordinary year, though granted it's often been necessary to look further than the best-sellers chart. We're only just entering blockbuster silly season, and already we've seen and done countless amazing things in 2009. By which I don't mean simply "amazing games", but instead "amazing moments in games." Here are just a few of them...

1. Running away from an invincible Astrotrain in AI War.

2. Hearing my past self panic in Time Fcuk.

3. Punching alarming bird-men in the face in Zeno Clash.

4. A Stephen Fry impersonator wibbling on about raspberries during robo-genocide in Defense Grid: The Awakening.

5. WHOOSH-BAM! High-speed head-stomping with the Assault Space Marines in Dawn of War 2.

6. Stealing hats whilst under fire in Men Of War.

7. Doom + Diablo = double-plus super-compulsive fun.

8. Getting to play the stranger, harsher, bigger STALKER that almost was.

9. Lovingly recreating my old City of Heroes character in Champions Online.

10. Blurst's paradoxical donkey-cloning and taco-eating.

11. A hundred Leisure Suit Larries speaking in tongues.

12. Repeatedly having urine thrown on me in Team Fortress 2's Sniper update

13. Making the best/worst/silliest of the end of the world, Wario Ware style.

14. The very definition of a house of horror in The Sims 3.

15. Necrophiliac, transvestite mouse sex in Time Gentlemen, Please.

16. Don't call it a comeback: Lucasarts gets its (international house of) mojo back with Steam re-releases of its classic (and not-so-classic) fare.

17. A hungry bear driving a car.

18. Being rendered weak-kneed by the sheer masculinity of Plants vs Zombies' Tall-Nut.

19. Being repeatedly surprised and delighted by the same thing in This Is The Only Level.

20. An eyeball with a gun in Mad Balls.

Come on, then - let's hear yours, Happy Chappies.