2010's been a memorable year. There's been disappointments galore, from Final Fantasy XIII and Gran Turismo 5's collective failures to live up to expectations to the broken promises of Fable III, but they've been counterbalanced by the surprises - unheralded gems such as Game Dev Story or Pac-Man Championship Edition DX and unexpected treats such as Vanquish or Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.

Across the board these games have thrown up a suite of memorable moments, and IGN UK's Matt Wales and Martin Robinson present a handful of their own personal picks.

BE WARNED! SPOILERS BELOW!

Red Dead Redemption: Crossing the Border




Rockstar's games have often been defined by their soundtracks whether that was going on your first glorious killing spree to the strains of Verdi in Grand Theft Auto III or hitting a jump just as the chorus of Dance Hall Days kicks off in Vice City so it was always interesting to see what its approach would be for Red Dead Redemption. After all, horses don't have radios at least they didn't the last time we checked down at the pony club.

Red Dead Redemption's solution was artful. Its soundtrack alone, performed by ex-Friends of Dean Martinez members Bill Elm and Woody Jackson, was the perfect accompaniment to the many lonely hours spent trekking with your horse. It was commendable for not reverting to sub-Leone parody but instead feeding off more contemporary Western fare such as Nick Cave and Warren Ellis's backing for both The Proposition and The Assassination of Jesse James.

The masterstroke, however, came when Jose Gonzales' 'Far Away' gently washed over the soundtrack as John Marston made for Nuevo Paraiso, undercutting a pivotal moment in Red Dead Redemption's epic tale. It was smart, subtle and affecting, showing a team that's at the top of its game.



Deadly Premonition: Fantasy Friends




Beneath Deadly Premonition's much-maligned core mechanics sits an often hilarious, surprisingly affecting emotional core. It might not always be easy to spot as you grapple with the game's low-budget shortcomings but, in amongst the rough, there's real heart to proceedings, thanks largely to a supremely well-realised cast of likeable characters, content to go about their routine lives as you poke and probe around small town Greenvale, USA.

Leading the charge of this lovable rogue's gallery is FBI Agent Francis York Morgan and imaginary buddy Zach. Whether he's yearning for the simple life among Greenvale's snowy-peaks with homely deputy Emily Wyatt or soliloquising about forgotten B-movie classics on the long, lonely drives across town, he's funny, fallible and, ultimately, human. And when Deadly Premonition's denouement unfurls and York's entire world changes, it's made all the more devastating and thoroughly unforgettable.



Halo: Reach: Storming the Beach




Halo, so the myth goes, is a series that's moved along in baby steps, the evolution from 2001's Combat Evolved to this year's Reach so slight as to be insignificant. Storming the beach in Reach's campaign mission The Long Night of Solace would certainly back up that theory, at first glance at least. A retread of the Silent Cartographer arguably Combat Evolved's defining moment it's almost drearily faithful to its inspiration.

Step back a little though, and it was amazing to see how far Halo has moved on. The skybox was more epic, more gloomy and fittingly for Reach's fatalist tale more apocalyptic than what's gone before, the Covenant more cunning as they sought cover from the stone showers thrown up by your grenades and ruthlessly flanked you and your Noble teammates. The core was still the same, but the flourishes were many.

It also was a piece of smart misdirection from Bungie. Following was the Sabre, the vessel in which Noble 6 took Halo to the heavens for the first time. Ultimately the space combat was a small part of a much bigger picture and Reach's innovations and perfections came fast and thick elsewhere. Whether that's in the brilliance of online Invasion, the new custom Firefights or the armour abilities that turned the game on its head, Bungie proved that it hadn't run out of fresh ideas as it perfected some of its older ones.



Heavy Rain: Fun with Fingers




Quantic Dreams' noir thriller might have suffered from game mechanics that bordered on the barely-interactive and a story with plot holes big enough to steer entire continents through, but as an experience it was undoubtedly unique, delivering a level of maturity and sophistication rarely seen in games. Cloyingly atmospheric and relentlessly bleak, Ethan Mars' desperate journey to rescue his son from the Origami Killer was packed with intensely unforgettable, often harrowing, moments.

Sure, the whole thing ultimately boiled down to following a series of on-screen prompts but Heavy Rain excelled in crafting impossible scenarios, where every potential outcome was as emotionally devastating as the next. Honestly, we could do an entire feature on Heavy Rain's best bits alone, but if there's one moment that's lingered longer than most, it's the painful build-up and unflinching brutality of Ethan's horrific do-it-yourself amputation.



Super Mario Galaxy 2: Nostalgia Shower




Of all the videogame icons there's no doubting that Mario's got the richest history, yet Nintendo's always made sure that he's at the forefront of some of its most forward-thinking games. It was this humble plumber who, after all, introduced the masses to 3D gaming, and in Super Mario Galaxy the team spun out an entire game comprised of confounding expectations.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 did it all over again with the same verve and energy that's always kept Mario relevant, but its most powerful moment saw Nintendo caught in a rare moment of nostalgic introspection. Throwback Galaxy, a near-perfect retread of Super Mario 64's Whomp Fortress, was enough to make the Nintendo faithful weak at the knees.

Here was one of Mario's and indeed Nintendo's defining moments with all the rough edges smoothed out, with Koji Kondo's soundtrack revived in cheerful big-band glory. It was more than fan-service it reminded us not only of how far Nintendo has come, but also how far its competition has to go if it ever wants to be on a truly even keel with this greatest of the greats.



Mafia II: Steamy Shower Scene




Mafia II promised to be at the apex of the ongoing tryst between films and games, offering an evocative trip back to a post-war America that's been so well exploited by the cinema. To 2K Czech's credit its rendition of Empire City a thinly veiled riff on New York was thrillingly iconic, and taking a pinstripe-suited gangster through its well realised streets often proved to be as empowering as we'd hoped. Only problem was it all fell apart when anyone opened their mouth, and rather than mimicking the tone of gangster classics such as Goodfellas, The Godfather or Angels with Dirty Faces it went for a playground approximation of the genre, all cuss-words, thick accents and even thicker dialogue.

The real nadir came at its halfway point during a painfully protracted prison scene. A Prophet it most certainly wasn't, and having already witnessed an amazing procession of stereotypes (look, it's a fighty Irish man! Oh and here's a wise old Chinese man to teach us some kung fu as he squeaks through his Fu Manchu moustache!) Mafia II managed to outdo itself, introducing an ill-conceived and quite sickening implied shower rape scene. It was as unsubtle as it was unsettling, and that this juvenile drivel could find its way into a game with triple-A pretentions was a damning indictment on its creators.