If you really appreciate the art of videogames there’s only one magazine that matters: Edge, the serious gamer’s magazine that takes a genuinely adult and considered look at gaming culture. So when they produce a top 100 you know it’s likely to be an intelligent line-up that doesn’t pander to populism and retro nostalgia.It’s virtually impossible to fault the list here, though games technology moves on so quickly that there are already some important omissions such as Mario Galaxy and The Orange Box. But who could argue with classic titles like God of War, Wipeout, Zelda and Resident Evil?

The well written entries often put the games in their context in gaming history but, more importantly, the book is great fun and compulsive enough to keep you hunched in front of your console until 3am and keeps you hooked with that ‘just one more go’ factor. Add to this reprints of their 2000 and 2003 lists and you have what amounts to a near definitive list of the best in gaming from through the years. (Henry Northmore)