For the price, and for the quality of offer, Tomb Raider: Anniversary is easily one the best games released all year. Blessed with an excellent control system and chock full of masterfully designed levels, as far as puzzle-based action adventures go, there have been none finer for years.

Definitely an improvement on THUG 2 in getting away from the outrageous slapstick and prank ideas and back to skating as it should be.

Enjoyable, but perhaps another instance of the 'reviewer's trance'. That's the mildly hypnotic effect that seems to take over when games aren't dull enough to be boring but aren't exciting enough to cause any kind of, erm, arousal.

Genesis may look like a departure, and it is in some ways. But at its core, it's the same old pleasures for this entirely pleasurable series, albeit with the odd new trick and delivered from a new perspective. [Eurogamer Recommended]

While it's a bit on the short side and a tad easy, this is a hugely promising start for Launching Pad Games. More, please.

It is a pity, for it is a would-be 'great' game, and on the Xbox would be reasonably scored as such. But, on a PC, the complexity of the default controls and the horrors of the PC keyboard for this kind of thing force the mark down to a mere 'very good'.

Probably the only thing to say to people who feel cheated or ripped off by this tiered content set-up is that they simply shouldn't buy into Lumines Live until the range of downloadable content is broad enough to justify the cumulative cost - if indeed that happens - unless they have a powerful urge right now to play Lumines again on a big screen.

Regardless, that Cave continues to flourish in a shifting industry and to evolve a sub-genre they helped define, is testament to the studio's strategic nous - in-game and out. DoDonPachi Resurrection shows just how much poorer we would be without them.

It offers more of the great hack and slash gameplay that - for some strange reason - no one has emulated properly since the first Dark Alliance. On the other hand, the magic of the original has definitely been diluted, where it really should have been enhanced.

As a retro revival, Chronicles of Mystara does a commendable job of raising a fondly remembered arcade game from its grave.

This cosmic point-and-click looks and feels like no other game out there. [Eurogamer Recommended]

For all its borrowings and influences, all its sleights and feints, Eldritch's dark alchemy ultimately lies with the way it uses a blocky, cheerily primitive art style, silly sound effects and a surprisingly forgiving level of challenge to summon the kind of creeping dread that H.P. himself would be delighted with.

It isn't bad, but set next to last year's Donkey Kong Country Returns, or even Ubisoft's zesty Rayman Origins, this winter's other other platformer feels very vanilla by comparison.

Generally a decent, well-thought out and enjoyable conversion.

This is a game for the RPG fan willing to overlook intolerable weaknesses of character just to have a desirable looking girl on their arm.

It's not a great leap forward for gaming; but in terms of reassurance and welcome traditionalism, it's a small step for cosiness.

In gameplay terms it represents a commendable improvement on an already solid framework and seems to captivate its young players with the same gently challenging grip o' fun as LEGO Star Wars did. It's just a shame that this evolution seems to have come at the expense of many of the peripheral activities that made the previous LEGO games a more robust and varied experience in the long term.

I did not get nearly as far into this game as I would want to for a review. I simply couldn't. I tried for long enough. Yet I am completely unwilling to say this a bad thing - I'm certain this is a brilliant thing for the right person. Which is why I hope I've brought you to a place where you can make that decision for yourself.

Brisk, stylish and compulsive, this is everything an arcade game should be. [Eurogamer Essential]

Rogue Trader nails the 40k setting and provides an appropriately massive narrative filled with meaty tactical combat, though some bugs and poor performance hold it back.

A powerful, memorable story told not with dialogue but with interaction, movement, and art.

For many of us trying to recapture those childhood feelings of awe and wonder, Retro Game Challenge gets to the very heart of why we still play videogames and for that is to be applauded.

As it is, it's a game that veers between excellence and anguish a little bit too often.

One of the best fighting games of all-time gets a welcome new run out, even if it's not quite as complete as it could have been. [Eurogamer Recommended]

Like Craig David covering Marvin Gaye, Söldner X-2 makes you pine for the real deal.

There is, however, just enough range between its difficulties to appease both ends of the spectrum: those who want an unflinching recreation of island-based warfare, and those who want a manageable, mostly enjoyable military videogame. But its mild shortcomings ensure that, until Codemasters can fill its framework with a little more imagination and purpose, neither group will come away fanatical about the effort.

A serviceable restoration of one of the best and strangest games in Squaresoft's back catalogue. [Eurogamer Recommended]

It's just a pity that a developer with the unmistakable talent of Housemarque hasn't seized the opportunity to tweak, twist or otherwise refresh an overused formula.