What has been the biggest videogaming let-down for you last year?

Is this is a generic question, an industry question or a product question? Here are brief comments on each.

Industry-wise I've been very dismayed by the relentless pounding of the entertainment industry for violence. There have been some recent horrific violent tragedies that are very disturbing and I feel deeply for the families of the victims. But the media's attention to the gaming industry as a cause is appalling. 90 per cent of games are bought by adults aged 18 and over and to blame the electronic entertainment industry for these horrific tragedies seems misplaced. I personally don't believe in creating games for violence-sake, but then I don't enjoy horror movies, or slash-and-hack books or sadistic bands. It's a personal choice that individuals (or their parents) can make. Blaming violence on games is not going to solve the problems and will often detract from finding the true root of the problems.

Secondly, I'm disappointed with the rampant piracy and total disrespect of intellectual property in the industry. Our programmers, artists and designers spend their lives building personal creative works that are then copied in minutes with total disregard to ownership and remuneration. Piracy hurts everyone and is clearly on the rise. Piracy is a debilitating disease that must be dealt with through education and technology in the coming year. As for gaming disappointments, I must say that we'll have to go to a pub and have a few before I diss our competitors. There clearly have been some major titles this past year that shouldn't have been released let alone written.

Which ones?
Generally they have been given low scores by the game mags and low sales by the consumers and that says enough for me. A few pints of Guinness at the local will get me to detail my comments though.

Any titles you're really looking forward to in the near future?
I'm really looking forward to Perfect Dark as I totally enjoyed GoldenEye and am in awe of Rare as a development house. From what I've seen of Black and White from Lionhead Studios I think Peter Molyneux has reached the pinnacle of his impressive development career. It has stunning graphics with what appears to be an engrossing story. Crusaders of Might and Magic from 3DO has a character that I can personally identify with as Drake is a tough, cynical, young Clint Eastwood type wearing armour. The medieval fantasy period intrigues me yet I'm more of an action gamer than RPG so Crusaders combines all of my favourite elements into one game.

When all's said and done, what's your favourite game ever?
Tetris. Why? Just the sheer number of hours that I've put into the damn thing must qualify it as my favourite. The simplicity of its rules, the vast complexity of the possibilities and the never-ending pursuit of topping my high score. After several years of going cold turkey, I thought my serious Tetris addiction was finally cured - but then the Game Boy Color version came out and I seem to always manage to find a few hours in an airport waiting room somewhere to take my frustrations out on the d-pad.