Here's one for the books. Planescape: Torment is an RPG that, ye Gods, is remarkably devoid of Elves, Trolls, Giant Hairy Spider infested forests and the like. That alone makes it deserving of some sort of praise, but there's more. There's a great story behind it all (as you'd expect from developers Black Isle) along with some great characters such as a floating skull name Morte and even a strange, floating, eternally burning man. Not your average adventuring companion, but then this isn't your average RPG either.

Thief 2 was great for so many reasons. Unlike the first title you could complete the entire game purely by sneaking. The designers created some great locations with the hardly cutting edge engine and the sound, needless to say, was once again one of the strongest parts of an all round excellent game that simply had that certain special something that I still just can't put my finger on. There's little question that not giving this title an Extreme Game award at the time was an oversight of mine at the time, so now, belatedly, it has one.

Good conversions of great console games are sadly particularly uncommon, but Tony Hawk 2 happens to be one such rare beast. It's challenging yet also rewarding - It'll take some practice before you're pulling of the kind of stunts that'd make your jaw drop if you saw them on TV, but it feels damn cool when you do.

Pete Closs
Games Editor