Well, we'd still rather link gems in Puzzle Fighter than link blobs here and the mental gymnastics required to be good at this will deter the casual Tetris player. But still, it's enjoyable stuff.

More niggly than the GC version and less accessible. If you're prepared to give it some attention you'll be rewarded with a deep and challenging experience. If you want an easier Tony Hawk game try the GameCube ones.

Oh, and if you thought Geometry Wars was pretty tough on the eyes, think again... Heavy Weapon is the most tear-inducing Xbox Live title we've yet beheld.

Still, if you're a hardcore fan, you'll want it just for the neat interface tweaks, the one new race per realm and the slick look - provided you have a current-generation graphics card and the Shrouded Isles expansion pack.

So, a passable RPG/RTS that wants to be a Star Trek chess set in the D&D universe, but not as beardies know and love it. [PC Zone]

If you're a quality-deprived adventure game fan or simply looking for a refreshing, unique alternative to the current crop of me-too titles on other systems then you absolutely owe it to yourself to give Another Code a whirl. Just be aware that the game's brief playtime and innate genre flaws mean that you probably won't be playing for all that long.

When you get a whole group of you as Dark Troopers jetting all over the levels, blowing each other up and causing ridiculous mayhem, Battlefront is laugh-out-loud hilarious.

An inviting but subtly deep singing game - but it needs to grow its song library to take on SingStar.

A game where you have to kill a seriously stupid amount of vicious creatures, who lack the brains to do much other than charge straight at you. It's an absolute apocalypse and in terms of body count makes "TimeSplitters 2" look like Songs of Praise.

A hugely enjoyable, polished action-adventure with buckets and buckets of OTT gore. If you thought "Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines" too cerebral, its slasher B-movie blood relative could HAVE MORE BITE.

If you're in the mood for some easy-to-learn but hard-to-master city-building gameplay, Children Of The Nile is as good a game as you're likely to find. Hardly as unique as is claimed, but good all the same.

We couldn't help being drawn in by the plot, and enjoyed finding enemy weak-spots and shouting them out for Rio to shoot. And while you feel like a dork shouting stuff at the TV, the action is so engrossing that you stop caring.

The gameplay is gripping in spite of its flaws, the cut-scenes are fantastic and the story is dramatic and pretty weird in places. It's almost worth playing through to witness the mid-game fight with the Tyrant alone - a battle so frickin' tough it has become the stuff of gaming legend.

But when the fun cruelly comes to an end after a little over five or six hours, what are you left with? The humour. And since the gags wear thin quicker than the knees on Dennis the Menace's jeans, for laughs, give us "Phoenix Nights" or "The Office" any day. [PC Zone]

Sabre Squadron's main claim to fame is its new multiplayer options, which allow you and some friends to play any of the nine new levels co-operatively. With the team AI problems eradicated, these levels become far more calculated and precise affairs (so long as your team-mates work together of course).

Brothers In Arms DS is a good little action-shooter that makes great use of the DS's unique interface. With the tactical aspect of its gameplay removed in favour of a linear action approach, it loses some of its style and identity, but it's nevertheless the first war shooter for DS, and sets a high standard to beat.

To sum up, Heroes Of The Pacific is big, it's not really clever, but you'll have a blast playing it all the same. [PC Zone]

FIFA 06 may not be perfect, but it is perfectly playable, and is probably the best we could have hoped for. Apart from EA buying Konami. [PC Zone]

Sure, the action could be seen as mindlessly repetitive, but then to an extent you're only limited by your own creativity. Just kick back and lap up the theatrical gunplay in this sizzling shooter, and you won't get burned. [Official UK XBox Magazine]

The multiplayer mode adds some long-term appeal, but while it lasts Rag Doll Kung Fu is an enjoyable and unbelievably funny game, featuring hilarious low-budget FMV starring developer Mark Healey. [PC Zone]

There's not much new in terms of gameplay, but the 3D accelerated views, rapid scrolling and distinct lack of lag make it spectacular to look at and wonderfully smooth to play. [PC Zone]

If only there was more to do, more variety and more choice, we may well have had a bona fide classic on our hands. As it stands, Scrapland is like a supermodel with a venereal disease - drop-dead gorgeous, and you can still have some fun with it, but you'll ultimately be deprived of the money shot. [PC Zone]

As solid as Port Royale 2 is, few people can afford to have more than one seafaring adventure in their collection. With "Sid Meier's Pirates!" due in port very soon, we reckon you should hold fire on this one.

Excellently scripted set-pieces and dialogue perforate a seemingly endless store of enemies, the surroundings soon become all too familiar and the console-restricted engine disappoints graphically.

Sonic Generations hits its target well - with the genuinely bruising qualification that it can frequently be difficult to look at.

It's damn fast, damn detailed, and with the added newbiefriendly Extreme Mode, it should ensure the bike game market is cornered for another year. It's doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it is does make it go round very, very fast. [PC Zone]

But on its own merits, TO is brash, energetic, none too taxing and more than capable of providing some solid midtable entertainment, while GTA and the like get on with battling it out at the top of the tree. [PC Zone]

Desert Of Flames is a solid expansion pack, with enough novelty to appeal should you be tough enough. And don't mind getting sand in your shoes. [PC Zone]