The interface as well as several features have been lifted from ["Championship Manager"], and as such it's a slick affair. And perhaps it's the familiar feel or the hypnotic flashing text, but it somehow drags you in, whatever your knowledge of the sport. That said, the bulk of the tactical stuff can be delegated to a head coach, although that kind of defeats the object of the game.

It's a shame that the bosses require little more thought than simply chucking back what they throw at you, and it hardly qualifies as a platformer at times when you can just fly everywhere.

Tribes: Vengeance just feels right. Its fun lies in simple movement - something overlooked in all other high-octane blasters, and it gives you such a feeling of fluidity, control and desire for self-improvement, that on a basic level it's extremely hard to dislike.

This is a lazy, by-the-numbers sequel to a game that didn't exactly grab us by the throat first time around. Ladling on the gore and heaping on the sex can't disguise how average BloodRayne 2 really is.

It's still boring though. [PSW]

The camera has a tendency to misbehave, leaving your troops obscured by mountains during battles and your workers hidden behind city walls. What's more, the linearity of the missions negates much of the game's strategic subtlety, while selecting troops is clumsy.

So with the main new feature [First Touch] largely redundant, you're simply left with yet another sluggish, indistinguishable FIFA game. It's also tactically perverse, with defenders lurking on the edge of the box, and forwards showing little inclination to push up.

If you want to look at pert bottoms and women sucking each others' necks while wearing stockings, you'd be better off doing it on the internet for free. [Official UK Xbox Magazine]

Ty 2, for all the effort (and don't get us wrong, a lot of effort has been applied), retreads such a familiar path, and feels so utterly vacuous, you might just as well look at the box and consider the game completed. [Official UK Xbox Magazine]

In real life, Tasmanian tigers have been hunted to extinction, so we're getting our NOM shotgun ready to finish the job and kill Ty off.

We applaud EA's efforts to make the game as authentic as possible, but the kits don't look great close up. The Man U one is last season's. There's no Nike sign on it. How do the likenesses fare down the league? Badly.

It's a cute platformer that fills the gap between the overly-kiddified TY the Tasmanian Tiger 2 and Sony's more challenging Jak and Ratchet games. [PSW]

Has its fair share of crusty titles you won't play, but the good ones are absolute gems. 15 is a bargain price to relive your misspent youth, if only for a few precious hours. [Off Xbox UK Magazine]

Essentially a pornographic playground, it's proof that games don't necessarily have to be about sport, war or goblins.

It's the sort of game you'll stick with to the end in spite of yourself, and you may even find yourself chuckling once or twice along the way too. [PSW]

There's just something missing from the end result, and though the pleasingly simple gameplay is great fun in short spurts, LSL hasn't quite got the stamina for any schlong-lasting appeal.

It's not an exciting, adrenaline-pumping game and it does border on the easy side, but with multiplayer options (online and offline) for up to eight players, we could soon see the birth of tomorrow's generation of FPS warriors.

At their best, the Pro Skater games were a sport in themselves, requiring lots of skill. While the thrill of the trick is still here, it's deluged in a misfired attempt at frat-boy cool.

In short, it's probably the best extreme sports game ever made, the only real caveat being that it's rubbish without a decent gamepad. [PC Zone]

Overall this isn't bad, it just takes a lot of getting used to, particularly the isometric view. It's worth persevering, because, apart from actual skating, this is the most board-based fun you'll have on the move.

It may be more cartoon-like than its predecessors, but provided you haven't grown tired of all those boomerangs, kick-flips and boardslides, it is certainly the one to get. [Official UK Xbox Magazine]

If Shade was scrapped and given yet another redesign, the to-do list would be endless - wishy-washy combat, braindead AI, insipid level design, soul-crushing puzzles, a towering stack of bugs.

It is a resource hog, let's make no bones about it. Any game that comes on two DVDs and requires 6GB of disk space isn't exactly appealing to everyone. But if you can find a way to accommodate the game, not just on your HD but in your hardened gaming soul, you'll find plenty to reward you.

Yes, that's what it is: it's Second World Warcraft.

Like Austin Powers it adopts the faux-Bond villain theme very well, without becoming too camp or dampening the challenges. Above all, it's hugely entertaining and manages to keep dishing out the surprises all the way through.

It's not in the same league as the infamous plumber, and the partner/weapon gimmick isn't new (Whiplash - Issue 27, 8.1 - did it before), but it's a sturdy exercise in comic gaming. We'll even forgive the fact it's ginger. [Official UK Xbox Magazine]

The presentation, as mentioned, is superb - just check out the way if you pause the game, the screen will flick to a newspaper article detailing your current level and predicament. [Official UK Xbox Magazine]

You might be bored in a week, but it's perfect for bringing your family around when they complain that games are turning you into a violent social outcast.