What's important, though, is to not get bogged down in the detail too much. It's a game that, when played under pressure, can be a real pain, but taken at your leisure is one to savour.

From its fast-paced, exciting battles to the beautiful, haunting environments, it's an MMORPG like no other we've played - and what it lacks in expensive polish, it makes up for in enthusiasm, ambition and creativity.

Whether you're a Warhammer 40K aficionado or not, this is just the right kind of uncomplicated stress relief to distract you from the BBC News 24 ticker.

With 60 levels offering hours of patient probing, it's another impossibly good-value offering.

The story is pure pulp and the big picture is not that exciting, but as usual, the charm of Wasteland is in the stops along the way: location after location full of crazy characters and moral choices, and a writing team gleefully embracing the ability to do pretty much whatever they want.

Borderlands is unusual, playable, and an artfully violent step in an interesting direction for Gearbox. The story aspect of the game could have been better - I'd love to have seen the role-playing influence extend beyond stats, levels and loot - and the ending is a disappointment. Even so, this should be a favourite game of the year for a huge number of people, since it plugs into gamer impulses at such a fundamental level.

Despite the criticisms, Team 17 has still managed to pull off an impressive evolution of a much-loved series. The core game has remained barely unchanged, but the 3D engine introduces a lot of unexpected elements to get used to, both good and bad.

SoulCalibur has always excelled at offering an accessible style of combat with a level of single-player content that other fighting games have only recently begun to match. These qualities haven't changed - and now, after what seemed like an uncertain return, the historical fighter is staging its best performance since that fateful Christmas of 1999. High five!

While the story and characters are unfortunately very weak, Baten Kaitos is easy to recommend to anyone looking for an RPG that focuses strongly on gameplay rather than storytelling.

David's control scheme has clearly been built around the touchscreen, but while the game's a delight on iOS (on iPhone, at least - the buggy iPad version is awaiting a fix at the time of writing), it works surprisingly well on PC and Mac, too.

When Chaotic Box produces a unified binary for iPad users, this will be an essential app, but right now it feels like an excellent game held back by some minor design quirks.

With its twisted humour and mutated style lending a pleasantly Oddworld vibe to proceedings, this is a crafted effort for those of us with a tendency to mutter that they don't make 'em like they used to. Apparently they do.

Combat and RPG progression get an ingenious social twist in this disarming slice of fantasy.

Whether you're a Warhammer 40K aficionado or not, this is just the right kind of uncomplicated stress relief to distract you from the BBC News 24 ticker.

A bloody good game... If you like first person shooters and have a sense of humour, the only other thing to stop you playing this game is the central role of a pink-suited woman. Are you man enough?

Starship Patrol presents a package of rare calibre on DSiWare, a game that, through its tight breadth and expansive depths, would make for a worthy defining title on a service still trying to find its identity.

Being able to move more quickly when you're not firing is a smart twist with intuitive strategic consequences, but there are much smarter decisions at the heart of Everyday Shooter's logic.

The game that kept coming to mind as I played through Kirby's Epic Yarn was not any of the past Kirby entries, but rather Little Nemo The Dream Master, an NES game from 1990.

At its best this colourful racer has the power to improve your day.

In the end it only seems fair to rate it the same as the Virtual Console version - as a solid fighting game in its own right - and leave it up to you, dear reader, to decide if the online play and minor technical compromises improve or tarnish an enjoyable core experience.

A shorter, sharper campaign would condense the high points more potently, and some better characterisation would make the plot twists hit harder. But if you're looking for a game that really sinks its teeth into what makes this iconic movie monster endure, look no further.

In terms of creating a stable online environment where you can adjust the GGPO delay and see your opponent's ping rating before a match begins, Resurrection is hard to fault.

The iOS is hardly short of inventive platformers, but this one certainly ranks as one of the freshest and most engaging to emerge for some time.

Technically it's better than either of the previous two, which means it's better than any other golf game we've played...For those of us with Tiger pedigree though, the lack of online play and niggling flaws overshadow an otherwise generous update.

If Revolutionary Concepts came to charm us senseless, it worked. There are so many reasons to enjoy Gesundheit; its 40 levels of puzzle nonsense are only a small part of why you should dutifully surrender your loose change.

It's filled to the brim with brilliant ideas, and then barely uses them.

Groove Coaster still lacks enough of a challenge to be interesting, and it's only when you play each song on hard that the game's potential reveals itself. Even then, it's unlikely that hardcore rhythm action fiends will care much for its casual approach.

Naiad offers real pleasures and real frustrations - but always with a purpose in mind.

An action RPG with magical powers that feel genuinely dangerous, married to level design that offers scale and prettiness.

Part management sim, part open-world adventure, this is both weird and familiar, and deeply comforting stuff.

Though a few tweaks short of masterful, it's a pleasure to find Ys in such good standing - proof of Falcom's ability to transpose 25 years of blueprint into an up-to-date, three-dimensional trapping.

Mario Kart World offers neat twists on the classic Mario Kart formula, but its open-world ambitions are somewhat let down by some classic Nintendo quirkiness.

At its best, Men Of War: Assault Squad provides hours of tactical chin-stroking, some stonkingly memorable engagements, and a whole kit-bag of replayability, especially in co-op.

Coupled with more exciting levels in the latter stages of the main mode, and the thrill of hitting triple-digit scores in Loopnastics, Wik is like a web-game that grew up.

There is a magnificent amount of stuff to do.

This is, above all else, a supremely confident game: confident in its charm, in its challenges, and in its unique identity. If you thought Braid gave puzzle-platformers a soul, this one is all about personality.

There's undeniable satisfaction in combining to undo a tough defence and seeing those points totals totting up, and in some respects this is the best mode in the game, because playing together towards a long-term goal heightens the fun and drama.

Ultimately, ambition is the word that best describes Black Ops 2 - and that's remarkable enough in itself. This is still Call of Duty, with all that entails, and anyone who has resisted the series so far likely won't be won over this time either. For the fans, though, Black Ops 2 offers the rare sight of a series at its height choosing to experiment and change rather than stay loyal to a proven, but tired, formula.

If you haven't already given yourself carpal tunnel syndrome playing these games, then Flick Soccer is a great place to start. It's hardly a masterclass in reinvention, but just like Flick Golf, the tough part is finding the time to stop playing.

Ultimate is a finely tuned evolution that should be held in a similar regard to Super Street Fighter IV. It takes the flexible combat system from the previous game, irons out many of the niggling issues and expands the possibilities even further, because no matter how you look at it, that's the type of fighting game Marvel is.

Of course the idea with Deluxe is that even if that's beyond you so much has been brought together that there's enough to entertain regardless.

A brilliant core mechanic and clever design twists make Bananza a delightfully sticky 3D platform adventure topped off with a sweet central character relationship.

Where Arzest failed, HAL has triumphed: Kirby might be a little late to the party, but he's arrived laden with treats.

Street Fighter 6 rights the wrongs of its predecessor while dragging the famous fighting game franchise kicking and screaming into the modern era.

A hugely interesting game, as fascinating as it is frequently frustrating, as engaging as it is eccentric and, for those who are hooked by its quirky charms, it will provide one of the most inspired approaches to the JRPG seen in a decade.

Despite improvements in areas like rain effects and bystander depiction, the Gmotor engine is beginning to look rather tired. Crude shadowing and reflections, primitive vegetation modelling, deserted pit lanes... none of this stuff matters that much when weighed against the superlative handling models, strong audio, decent AI, and robust MP, but it does mean I can't bring myself to award this very fine racing game more than a Nascar-mocking 8.

It's a simple game, then, but an extremely polished and engaging one.

You just need to invest yourself. If you do, you'll discover Viva Piñata to be a subtle blend of resource management and Origin of Species (albeit mad, wackily named species with cute sound effects).

It feels especially meaningful that I write this review during the process of travelling – an act of moving, reorienting, learning, and witnessing. It is meaningful to witness this game and its message – to resist, always, I mean, it's right there in the name – during a time of unprecedented student uprisings against Palestinian genocide. When I finally begin to write, I glance at my notes, which consist of a single sentence: What if the centre of the world, whatever that thing might be that we orbit and orient ourselves around, was a huge c**t? I relay this question to my friend, who takes less than a second to respond. "Isn't it already?"

It might not be quite the game its predecessor was, but you can't help but hope that this charming follow-up sells well enough for its publisher to keep the wolf from the lore.

In the first flushes of infatuation it's an easy game to love, and one that will easily provide hours of ferocious enjoyment. In a few months' time the spell may well have worn off, but for this price that's really not something to worry about right now.

This entry, the last from original developer Climax, could have been the one to finally make that breakthrough. A triumphant, genre-defining swansong. Instead it's a safe and solid continuation of what's worked in the past. Existing fans can therefore rejoice, but all those fabled mainstream gamers may still find it a snarling pitbull of a game and back slowly away. Their loss.

It's an absorbing and varied side story that feeds back into the wider Dragon Age universe in subtle ways. What more could you need?

It is, simply, just about the best version of just about the best logic puzzle out there. [JPN Import]

Supporting up to four players at once, the game lends itself brilliantly to playing with your mates (locally or online), but is equally good fun against the computer in the hugely challenging campaign mode.

But the true wonder of the game is in its clockwork structure, the way dynamic story and environments that shift with time thread with the permanence of its collectibles and secrets. There is an intricacy of design here as impressive as any of the miniature towns on view at Legoland.

One of the best of its genre, of that there is no doubt. But is it really acceptable to release a game that's so similar to the previous two that it would take the most devoted fan to spot the difference at first glance?

Silent Hill f's frustrating first-half is outweighed by a brilliant, delirious second that's well worth the initial slog.

Behind its playful charm is a platformer of rare quality. Blobster combines the best of what we love about retro platformers, but with modern refinements, and then has the cheek to charge next to nothing for it.

A very, very good videogame: another brilliant evolution of Koei's unique interpretation of the real-time strategy genre, and every bit as satisfying as previous efforts. What it lacks in terms of the speed and immediacy of, say, Gundam Musou, it makes up for with strategic range, design ingenuity, and conceptual novelty. [JPN Import]

It requires enormous quantities of patience, planning and persistence. If you're up to the challenge, prepare yourself for one of the most rewarding opportunities in gaming.

If you’re open-minded enough to kill low-poly Axis troops and don’t mind being led by the nose, then don’t let a clutch of angry graphics whores dissuade you: this is top fun.

Slitterhead can be a slow-burn to begin with, but once its combat clicks, this is an action horror game like few others.

Although in pure in gameplay terms it doesn't reach match Psi-Ops' thrilling ambition, favouring old school stealth principles over riotous action, it almost makes up for it by being a far more stylish affair - although the occasional lack of signposting can be irritating on one or two notable occasions.

For PS2 owners in particular I can think of no finer FPS on the system at the moment. Given that it's technically pushing the machine further than anything else, features 16-player online multiplayer, an action-packed single-player campaign that's no pushover and provides an interesting and well-conceived twist on the saturated shooter genre I'd happily nail my hearty recommendation to all PS2 owners looking for a shooter to get them through the summer.

Even with the dreary visuals Tiger Woods 09 is certainly the best golf game on the Wii so far.

There's a slickness to the combat, an intelligence to the map design, and a sense of atmosphere worth exploring, all wrapped up in a fast, fun, progressive experience that drip-feeds you goodies as you go.

It's still the hardcore spectacle we know and love, with its Moonlight laser blades and hidden AC parts, but by bringing mecha enthusiasts together in a team-based environment that isn't restricted to one-on-one arena battles, we finally have a game on which an online community can be built.

While Future Soldier risks losing itself in the crowd of similar widescreen War on Terror blockbusters, it at least borrows its elements wisely, serves them up with style and polish, and retains enough of its strategic core to make it an easy recommendation for those hungry for another tour of duty.

It has jaw-dropping graphics, gripping gameplay and if it weren’t for the stodgy AI and lack of damage skins on vehicles, the game would be untouchable.

Where I fell out with CoD was the fact that however many cool things I could think of, it was all too easy to peel away the layers of glitz and gloss and come up with frustratingly long list of inconsistencies, flaws and slightly irksome design decisions that remind you that there's plenty of work to be done before the definitive World War II shooter gets made.

In keeping with its horticultural theme, Plants vs. Zombies 2 has deep roots and many branches, and it bears fruit in a game that feels at once familiar and refreshing.

SingStore and My SingStar are brilliant additions which significantly change the SingStar experience.

Where ilomilo felt like it was created by rosy-cheeked elves beckoning you to snuggle up to it with a warm blanket and hot cup of cocoa, English Country Tune is more akin to Futurama's smarmy Professor Wernstrom. Rather than being off-putting, its priggish demeanor motivates you to rise to the occasion and show it up. As creative as it is maddening, English Country Tune is an acquired taste.

Incognito has taken the DNA of Battlefield and crafted a sublime online console game - a virtual battlezone that serves up more than its fair share of wonderful audio-visuals, but more than that, plays beautifully, with every game you play supplying a key gameplay moment that only online gaming provides.

Despite the Good Cop trappings, this really is one of the most macho games I've recently played; all guns, tactics and difficulty.

With its familiar interface, simple mechanics and hummable ditty, resistance to its effortless charm is completely futile. At this stage, you might as well buy shares in Kairosoft.

Viewed abstractly, Dual Destinies is a straightforward sequence of locked narrative corridors.

The design team has crafted a playful, ingenious, and admirably economical experience composed of dozens of satisfying moments. It's a game about tidying up, finding order, and making a pocket-sized universe behave the way you want it to.

Where Is My Heart? is a video game about video games - about the possibilities that still lurk within even the busiest of genres, and of great new ideas brought to life by ingenuity, focus, and flair.

For all its beauty, the areas you explore do seem rather small and hemmed in - especially when we're so used to expansive, open-ended RPG worlds.

One criticism is perhaps that some of the Disney icons are difficult to distinguish. Another is that the unlockables aren't marshalled into such a sophisticated structure as in the original. But apart from those minor gripes, Disney Magic is every bit as good as the original.

Bungie sticks the landing as it finally brings together the threads of its epic first saga.

A very, very good videogame: another brilliant evolution of Koei's unique interpretation of the real-time strategy genre, and every bit as satisfying as previous efforts. What it lacks in terms of the speed and immediacy of, say, Gundam Musou, it makes up for with strategic range, design ingenuity, and conceptual novelty. [JPN Import]

If you enjoy impish cartoon worlds that mask their pristine internal consistency under a measured low brow, and you can put up with falling in a pit occasionally and having to go back to a checkpoint, then Hell Yeah: Wrath of the Dead Rabbit is probably exactly the game about Hell that you've always wanted.

Multiplayer mysteries aside, Napoleon represents a healthy step forward for the Total War series.

There's more to do here than any other sports game we can think of, it's one of the few multiplayer sports games that just about anybody will play whether they care about golf or not, and it's well executed and designed in a great number of ways. What's disappointing is the sense that the game's unsure of where to go next, and anybody who played the previous versions will probably feel a bit let down by EA's lack of ambition.

For all its mechanical cleverness and forward-thinking design, Final Fantasy 13-2 is also convoluted, complicated and unfriendly to newcomers. In Square-Enix's desperation to discover what its flagship series looks like in the modern world, what should be an interesting curio has been inflated to blockbuster proportions.

Probably the best and worst thing about de Blob is that it's got 'Destined For Cult Status' written all over it. It's certainly not the first game to mix platform and puzzle elements, but the fact it manages to do so in such a clever, endearing, stylish and instantly playable way makes this a game we'd heartily recommend to anyone who thirsts for a 'proper' Wii game, whatever that is.

If you never caught the original, then this is almost a must-have. It's stuffed with charm and clever ideas like the score-maxing hint sections displayed upon level-completion. In fact, this is classic platforming with the added bonus of individuality and innovation.

In short, then, you should buy this game, and if you play anything online this year, make it Tribes 2.

More than the script (generally witty and sharp, if occasionally undercut by an iffy voice-actor) or the graphic design (a brother to Fable's faux-fantasy charm), the constant capering of your charges is what gives the game its personality. That is, they have a lot of personality and so does the game.

The best Star Wars action game we've played since "Rogue Leader," delivering the sort of galactic conflicts we've long marvelled on the big-screen in a balanced and inviting manner that continually satisfies.

Undoubtedly a highly enjoyable action romp with a clutch of deal clincher ideas that are well-realised and far from being mere gimmicks to brag about on the box.

Olo is small but perfectly-formed, a game of depth with simple rules and the classiest presentation.

There's still a fair bit for Konami to sort out, and if you're still happily enjoying the first PES Wii game you might wonder if you need this one at all, but if you like the sound of the things that have changed then you have your answer.

Despite initial appearances to the contrary, you spend most of your time swiping The Last Rocket through various hazard-strewn rooms, negotiating air currents and conveyor belts and dodging flame jets and inconsiderate spikes.

It's so rich with options that it can seem overwhelming, and although there's clear fodder there's also consistency and thoughtfulness in a lot of areas.