Who'd have thought it. After the rather average Shogo and the horribly flawed and frustrating Blood 2, Monolith surprised us all with what is undeniably the best first person shooter of 2000, No One Lives Forever. It has humour by the bucket load, style by the truck load and a sexy female lead (none other than Cate Archer of course) with more guns to choose from than your average rebel militia and funky gadgets that'd make Bond green with envy. It's also a decent length (something that's becoming shamefully rare in first person shooters these days) and so wonderfully varied both in the gameplay and visuals department that you'll never get bored. Kudos to Monolith for taking the time and effort to make this one great, I haven't enjoyed a game so much in a long while.

• Cate Archer! Yeah baby!
• Incredibly varied
• Frequently funny

• Multiplayer can be a bit laggy by modem, but on a LAN it's damn good fun

For two years running now we've given our Game Of The Year Award to the game that came first in the first person shootout. However, this year things may well be a little bit different, and with so many quality titles in other genres it's not dead certain that No One Lives Forever will pick up this coveted Sharky Award. So when will you know what clinched it? When we pop up our Sharky Games Awards 2000 of course! Stay tuned...

Pete Closs
Games Editor