What a difference a year makes!

2010 is certainly living up to its billing as a great year for gaming. Just a few months in and I'd argue that we've already seen more quality titles than we did in almost the whole of last year. What, I hear you say? But 2009 was the year of Modern Warfare 2, Left4Dead 2, Infamous and Resident Evil 5. Yeah, but just take a look at some of the games that have filled our screens of late...

It's certainly not been a slow start to the year: Mass Effect 2, Heavy Rain, Bayonetta, Bad company 2, Bioshock 2, Just Cause 2, God of War 3, Alien vs Predator, Army of Two: the 40th day, Splinter Cell: Conviction... All big releases, and all well-received by the gaming public and critics.

There's a huge proportion of sequels but it's not bad going in just a few months... granted, some of these titles were delayed from late 2009 to avoid the usual scrum for the Christmas number one spot and their inevitable trouncing by Modern Warfare 2.

And it doesn't end here; the rest of the year is looking pretty tasty too. In May alone, there's the spiritual successor to Grand Theft Auto, another open world epic with shotguns, this time set in the Wild West -

Red Dead Redemption (tipped for big things by fellow blogger Ibwib)! Gorgeous-looking racers Blur and Split/Second: Velocity are under starter's orders too, and Alan Wake is finally set to emerge from the shadows after years in production.

A little further down the line is Crackdown 2. Fable 3, Halo Reach, Dead Rising 2, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Brink to name but a few...

There's certainly plenty to spend your money on. Shame we're all in the midst of the worst global recession in history and don't have any, eh?