What we're left with is a flimsy framework - a sort of clothes horse for content - rather than a truly great racing game.

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

For what is one of the few Xbox-only Japanese titles, you'd expect much more than almost featureless corridors, and only the occasional glimpses of artistic talent from Namco's team.

If "Morrowind," fantasy and claustrophobia are not your favourite things, then there really isn't a point.

Even proper strumming seems to be measured inconsistently, breaking otherwise-perfect sequences and potentially losing you points or even getting you booed off if your performance dips below a certain threshold, forcing you to replay the entire song.

Nemesis too is not without its rough patches, but still represents a return to form of sorts, another solid Sherlock adventure that showcases better understanding of character, narrative, structure and pace than most of its genre peers.

Runes of Magic is by and large a robust, enjoyable game. As a free-to-play title, it's impressive. Although Western gamers will still have their reservations about amorphous RMT versus those nice straightforward subs, Runes of Magic is something of a landmark: it won't dislodge the subscription-based model in the West by any stretch of the imagination, but it does demonstrate that free-to-play doesn't necessarily mean rudimentary, shallow, cheap or totally brutal in the integration of RMT.

Like the hardware it lives on, this is the PlayStation brand getting to grips with the era of iOS and Android - and the results, while rather conflicted in this case, are interesting.

While this is never amazing, it's a competent, enjoyable third-person cover shooter with a sense of humour.

Metal Slug 4 is intense, immediate and fun in all the right ways, but it's disposable entertainment in every sense of the phrase. [Review of Metal Slug 4 only]

It's certainly not about to reach out to anyone who doesn't like wargames, nor appeal to anyone who wants the broader scope of the Civilization series, but it does a perfectly good job as a tombola of fantasy combat nonsense, full of new and wonderful and silly surprises.

For Xbox Live Arcade it's not quite the return to last summer's form, and there are more substantial falling-blocks puzzle games with comparable production values elsewhere on the service (Lumines Live, for instance), but if you can look past its slender framework and online issues then Meteos Wars is a decent death blow to a few otherwise productive evenings, and more proof from Q that there's life in the old blocks yet.

The whole thing just feels a bit half-baked, with moody but unimaginative environments, done-to-death one-dimensional characters, exceptionally tired gameplay mechanics that favours basic A-to-B object collection rather than injecting anything even vaguely resembling a puzzle and a combat system that's at best functional, and at worst unhelpful.

Bolder souls, as interested in commerce as they are in combat, can buy with much greater confidence.

The Medium is the studio's most successful, accessible offering yet, and a sign that Bloober continues to improve, mature, and innovate. I cannot wait for its next terrifying adventure. [Eurogamer Recommended]

Somehow Third Law have managed to take the best elements of old fashioned pure action shooters and build on them to make something that is entertaining and nostalgic for us old fogeys, while still managing to stand up against the rather higher standards of modern games when it comes to plot and gameplay.

Where the game falls down is its length; at around eight hours it's going to take you less than a good weekend session to plough through it, and for £40, frankly that's not good enough. It's "Luigi's Mansion" all over again.

Ultimately as pointless as it is lovable.

Its back-to-basics approach strips away much of the pointless frippery of the modern JRPG without stripping out the satisfaction of playing them. The DS isn't short of absorbing RPGs, but 4 Heroes of Light is a worthwhile addition, particularly for anyone with fond memories of simpler, happier times for Japanese role-playing.

There are still times when you'll enjoy yourself, but they're few and far between, and ultimately prove to be poor compensation for the loss of the intrigue, subtlety and intelligence that characterised the films and books whose bullet-riddled back the game is straddling.

A game that's ingenious but ultimately a little tedious, this puzzle oddity is a brain-teaser that will boggle your mind at least as long as your patience lasts.

I love the concept, and applaud the idea of using the Sims framework to create something more hands-on in nature...But the game is undeniably patchy and full of scrappy design decisions that push the player away rather than drawing them in. It's so rough around the edges that I even ejected the disc to check it said review code.

The combat scenarios escalate nicely as you battle your way out of Hock's fortress home, culminating in a robust boss battle that is predictable yet very satisfying.

As you might expect, continual death loops start to chip away at your initial fondness for Intrinsic's stylish attempt, and once you get snagged on a particular problem, the temptation to part ways grows strong.

Assault Horizon Legacy is mediocre, but what's worse is you feel it never even aimed for the stars in the first place.

A competent and comprehensive simulation of the actual sport, but there is no flair in its gameplay or presentation. It's snooker (and pool, and billiards) by numbers, with none of the realistic-looking players or visual authenticity or visible effort of its golf, table tennis or basketball compatriots on the Xbox 360.

The gameplay, meanwhile, is largely basic and undeniably old-school, but it can be fun, fast, furious and reasonably deep if you find a map and mode you like, and are lucky enough to get a team that works together.

The game lacks the precision of a professional-level shooter to satiate the genre's dedicated players and its whole concept is undeniably more attractive on paper than in polygon.