A welcome return to the no nonsense do-or-die school of games. You have to battle for every inch, but around every corner there's something amazing!

This is a craply-plotted sci-fi novel meets a game of chess meets Industrial Light & Magic meets Yu-Gi-Oh!. Fanboys: silence.

From the cheesy plot and dialogue, to the levels that are set out as individual episodes of the show, even the constant snacking - it's all in there.

The kind of game where you'll be on the phone for your mates to come round and see the next amazing scene. It's all very linear, but sometimes you have to realise this is a good thing.

It may be linear and occasionally repetitive, but the spectacular set pieces will surely rock your world as hard as any Hong Kong classic.

Games are something you play, films are something you watch. Unfortunately for EoN there are too many films and not enough game.

If you can put up with acting which is more wooden than Pinocchio with a semi, and want a simple but entertaining strategy game to help pass the long winter nights, then SpellForce may be your vial of poison.

Sounds like a good idea in premise, then, except it's during these combat sections that the game emerges flatter than a blind hedgehog on a motorway. Limited fighting moves, weedy spells, monotonous pace - it could hardly be any less entertaining.

The lack of design nous displayed here makes it feel as though it was knocked out by two guys over a weekend.

Battle side alone is worth the price of admission.

If you haven't bought Gates yet, look into the mirror and ask yourself: "How many times do I want to die today?" Seriously, only the insane need apply.

The brief playtime and lack of innovation might put you off. Still, Metroid rocks so hard, if Samus promised you a night of intergalactic canoodling, you'd be happy if all she put out was a quick grope in the shrubbery.

What we have is an inept third-person hack and slash number, combined totally unsuccessfully with a dull-as-ditchwater RTS. Harsh words, granted, but you'll thank us for them.

Everything from the AI to the interface to the laughably inappropriate resource system is basic. Admittedly, there are thousands of troops to command, but controlling them is a nightmare and the whole experience is best forgotten. [PC Zone]

There's no aspect of the game that isn't abysmally implemented. I would dearly, dearly love to sit here and go on for five or six pages listing the faults, but it really isn't worth the effort. Just avoid UC like you would a diseased badger or rancid tramp. [PC Zone]

The interface is nigh on impenetrable. The system of exploration is ludicrous (the whole map is blacked out at the start, so at first you don't even know where the mountains lie). The scenarios are uninspiring. The combat is pointless and passes practically unnoticed. [PC Zone]

Tweaks to the multiplayer modes are welcome, but are hardly enough to turn it into a world-beater. A bigger cause for celebration is that I didn't come across any of those diabolically awful tunnels that plagued the full game.

The action is reassuringly samey from start to end, and your path is set in stone. Yet, the overall experience is highly polished and big on drama.

Unfortunately, the game is extremely linear. You get a task and go do it, then get another and go do that. Which would be fine if the huge levels weren't so boringly designed.

It's fun then, but next to the visual magnificence of Cube's Rogue Squadron series, this looks like a clumsy kid's drawing. Flat textures, static backdrops and bog standard explosions spoil a lot of the game's atmospheric potential too.

Too basic to appeal to die-hard Madden fans, yet too technical to be of any interest to casual players. What's more, it's filled to bursting with the usual dazzling array of customisable features - those that really do nothing to enhance play at all.

An archaic tri-click method of delivery, a truly awful interface, a bunch of sorry camera angles and some ridiculous environments/opponents for you to play in/against.

With a few more buttons to play with you could have a broader list of moves for the Hedgehog and also a decent amount of control.

You have to have some motivation to get you through the sticky patches (a love of Sonic, or the fact that you're being paid to play it, etc), but the high points are just the platforming tonic you need if your holiday on Isle Delfino is just a fading memory.

The game we were expecting eight months ago, with bots so intelligent they make your average online player look like a baboon who's been dropped at birth. It's like playing CS in the good old days.

Reasonably competent RPG with over-fiddly combat, an awful manual and graphics straight out of "Lure Of The Temptress" on the Atari ST.

Worse still (by about a million times), is the fact that you have to visit the exact same bloody temple at least ten times during the course of the game, solving its baffling 'mysteries' every time. [PC Zone]

The Xbox has clearly the best graphics, the PS2 has an exclusive online option where you can trade items with other players. The GameCube and GBA versions have possibly the most exciting exclusive option.