Although it's always competent, Söldner-X rarely revels in its own arsenal, and the result is a game where shooting things never feels like a particularly big deal.

It's worse than ATV console games, thanks to a poor control system that's seemingly been designed with little thought for how the PSP itself is designed.

The evolving nature of the gameplay, and its intriguing story structure keeps you going. Not only that, the actual location design and some individual set-pieces are very atmospheric, and it somehow appeals to the old school adventurer in us that used to routinely find ourselves trapped somewhere with one single, set solution.

Scarygirl is cute, workable, but otherwise routine - its style inching ahead of its substance.

It takes golf seriously, and it makes a nice difference. Just don't expect to be teeing off on the moon or anything.

Contra is a fairly typical example of one of those games from the period that's too unforgiving to be truly enjoyable, and suffers from too many annoying design conventions that were taken for granted back then.

A likeable indie with cracking source material and a special setting, The Flower Collectors is just missing the magic of detail.

The first Lords of Shadow was a sweet surprise. The follow-up is a hostage to a story it tells badly, and a prisoner within a dull urban maze that refuses to become a characterful exploratory playground. To live on but to be diminished - that's the fate of the vampire in Castlevania's lore. Sadly, it's a bit of an epitaph for this well-meaning but bloated game as a whole.

The most heartbreaking thing about all this is that Sonic Team is clearly trying; the developer throws everything it can at the game in the hope that something will stick. Yet the result is a disastrous lack of focus.

Societies doesn't stumble just because "it isn't SimCity". Fresh takes on old concepts should always be welcome. It stumbles because it's a generally unsatisfying patchwork of a game, dragged down by inconsistent gameplay, outdated design and weirdly implemented ideas.

Yes, it's bland, pick up and play fun that's simple to get into, but if you did ever find yourself picking it up for five minutes you'd probably have already seen all there is to it in that time.

Here I sit on a cold December night in 21st century Britain. I am a 31 year-old woman. I have a degree. I am playing virtual Yahtzee with a computer-generated version of Mr Potato Head. I feel sick.

Final Fantasy II was a poor videogame in 1988 and no amount of spit and polish will perform the necessary shifts to its foundations to produce a good one in 2007.

It's a game with style, in the true sense of its word. That is, it has decided what it wants to be and then just does that, without worrying what the world may think of it.

Even at its best, Caesar in Gaul wears thin long before the end of the campaign.

A charmless, shoddy, unfinished, unplayable mess and does nothing that a dozen other games haven't done infinitely better.

You certainly can't fault Firefighter F.D 18 for fiery originality, but its ambitions are cruelly extinguished by overly simplistic game design and a clunky control system makes it the kind of cult curiosity that only the true hardcore would ever dare parting cash for.

Great ideas and a storied history are mired in mediocre combat and a disappointingly unpolished delivery.

There's none of the track furniture that shined "FlatOut" or the general gloss and roundness of "Burnout." This shallowness in gameplay is honestly the only thing that lets the game down.

Fan of the first two games will initially feel at home here but, under prolonged scrutiny it reveals itself to be the weakest of the set.

The motion controls of the Wii original are stripped out for this remaster, leaving an entertaining if not quite excellent outing.

Most of the problems stem from the fact that it remains a muddled, undiscerning diner at the racing game buffet table, trying to cram its plate with sleek supersonic futuristic racing, rough and tumble rally racing and knockabout arcade power-up kart racing all at the same time.

But more importantly, you do get to 'be' the Fantastic 4 and experiment with some really rather excellent superpowers, and the game isn't so bad that a serious fan couldn't overlook its flaws.

As an actual coach it really only works in general terms: there's no way to finely tailor the experience for your own capabilities in ways that an actual person could, and there's not much to commit you if the determination lapses. My Health Coach is a fair package for those who treat this as a first small step in getting off their plump behinds, though it's not essential.

A gentle cadence and quirky characters can't counter Mythwrecked's repetitiveness, making this more Greek tragedy than odyssey.

As an animated movie tie-in, we've come away genuinely impressed at the overall standard on offer.

It's a solid adaptation of a fun card game, and at 400 Microsoft Points it's priced just right.

Borderlands' latest DLC has shown me the combat rhythm I've naturally settled into: the regular back and forth between whittling away at enemies with SMGs before disappearing in a puff of magic, to either slink off and let my shield charge up again, or pop up behind an unfortunate bruiser in order to blast chunks out of their neck with a shotgun.