Red Faction: Guerrilla

First impressions can be deceptive. Most people know that Braid and Shadow of the Colossus’ stars are secretly batting for team evil. But often average Jack Freedom with his square jaw, haircut you can set your watch by and heroic one liners is also hiding a dark past of indiscretion.

Political sabotage, wanton destruction of property, bowling up cruise liners full of holiday goers; that's what the heroes inside all cast aside as acceptable collateral damage. So the next time you go to tell someone what a stand up bloke Nathan Drake is, stop and spare a thought for his victims.

Right about now the rest of the internet is tripping over itself to crank out the “definitive” end-of-year list. Well, they can stop. We already did it. Over the next few pages our unquestioned expertise will identify the coolest, most important games of 2009 with zero room for error. Yeah, it’s that big of a deal. That’s why they’re basking in the dazzling radiance of a Platinum Chalice.

The main campaign of Red Faction: Guerrilla has received its fair share of accolades, chief among them our suggestion that it's one of 2009's most intense, satisfying experiences. The majority of its appeal comes not from story or character, but from using guns, missiles, trucks, even walking mech-tanks to annihilate buildings in the most destructively gratifying manner we’ve ever played.

Why can’t some people just call a spade a spade? Or, in the case of video games, call a health pack a health pack, instead of a multi-purpose, cosmic healitron 3000. We’re sick of developers trying to give their games extra context or dimension by pasting unnecessary and sometimes baffling terminology onto simple, every day game actions or objects. It’s convoluted, embarrassing and totally comically. Below are some of the

VIDEO: We didn't just wreck things. We wrecked them SPECTACULARLY.