The broken controls of shooting, fighting and strafing coupled with monotonous "Destroy 'X' amount of enemies" missions and ridiculous enemy respawns makes Transformers: Decepticons nothing more than a chore.

I would love to be sitting here writing about how great this unique game is, but after creating such a cool concept the developers let the rest go and forgot to add the things that truly make a shooter great, like good AI, freedom of approach and a gripping story that progresses in interesting ways.

For the older audience out there, Lilo & Stitch 2 is a pass, even if you love the franchise or platform games... there are simply better ones available. But for the kiddies who adore everything Disney puts out, this is a surprisingly well done and deep title that will keep them coming back, with varied gameplay, and of course all those loveable, quirky characters.

A decent, if not wonderful, city management game - there are some elements that really shine and the most impressive is the management of subcultures within the one city - adding a wonderful real city feel and a welcome innovative twist to the genre. Not as outstanding - but still high quality - are the graphics and level of detail.

Using Sir Dan as a mascot platforming character wasn't the best idea. Jak & Daxter on the other hand, might have been - but we'll just have to wait for that treat later on in the year.

There's no denying that I love Shadowrun to bits - it's almost like World of Warcraft meets Counter-Strike. I love RPGs and I adore FPS games, so Shadowrun seems as if it was made just for me!

But you can't deny that Crash Bandicoot's graphical qualities are one of the best we've seen from a game of this genre.

Variety, accessibility, value, fun and tons of content is what TY the Tasmanian Tiger is all about, and never has Krome done a better job at pulling all of these elements together than they have in TY 3: Night of the Quinkan.

Unfortunately, what has really painted my decision is the lack of 'next-gen' feel on this game, both graphically and in the gameplay.

Unlike Open Season, which kept me thoroughly entertained from start to finish, I found "Ice Age 2" to be something of a repetitive chore at times.

I really wanted to love Secret Files but I walked away feeling disappointed. The moment I finished it, I cleared it off my hard drive, since there's practically no replay value and no part of the game that I enjoyed enough to replay.

A strong sense of black humour is prominent in the gameplay, the excellent story and the in-game banter, which keeps your interest in what would have otherwise been a run-of-the-mill third person adventure.

While exhilarating during combat, you feel led by the hand when traversing levels, with only one or two path choices to make - and in a gaming industry that currently endorses exploration as a key element, this feels a bit limited.

As a rental title, Rumble Roses is a good choice for a drunken night in with the lads but you're never going to have a long term relationship with this one.

Like other game's of its' ilk, Vempire's greatest strengths are the simplicity to its' fast paced, concentration demanding play, which make it ideal for short bursts of action; while the inclusion of the artifacts and minions add the opportunity for some deeper moments of thought.

It's such a shame then that what could have been an excellent game is thwarted by sloppy design, confusing direction and an abysmally implemented graphics engine.

It's too bad Fuu isn't playable, other than a wacky mini-game where she gets to speed-eat, but then again, you'd probably just be doing a different mini-game where she gets kidnapped anyway.

Cold Fear is an unashamedly old school survival horror game, so you should pretty much know whether you're interested in playing it or not.

Those who remember the days of the rollerball and paddle controller and have a deep yearning to return could happily fork out ten to twenty quid for this, but anyone with less than a burning desire to revisit their youth may not feel that their reddies went in the right direction.

I have some difficulty calling it a role-playing game at all; there are no side missions available and there's no real sense of wonder to sweeten the generally bitter experience of playing through it. The story is incoherent, the graphics are outdated and the battle system, the most important feature of the entire game, is also extremely boring.

The Bigs on Wii is the very definition of fun-but-flawed gameplay.

Although not all of the DS's features are utilised (mainly the touch screen), the challenging gameplay and DS download function more than make up for this.

I can't see many people playing this again after the initial play-through either, unless they really enjoy getting every last piece of clothing and food.

House of the Dead 2 is a frustrating game that's best forgotten and whilst House of the Dead 3 is definitely an improvement, it's still nowhere near as good as The Umbrella Chronicles.

If you're a clubber or even have a mild interest in mixing some tunes then this is surely worth a few hours of your time.

Excellent implementation of an intuitive control system, an engaging storyline and the many tactical differences between the three factions on offer all add up to make Universe at War: Earth Assault a fairly good game.

FUEL is a huge game in every sense of the word, but all too often the quality just can't match the quantity.

Whilst The Last Remnant is a fairly capable JRPG and will provide many hours of fun, you are still left feeling as though something is missing.