Yes, it's a button-masher, but nobody does button-mashing quite as well as KOEI with Dynasty Warriors, and Strikeforce gets more important things right (great animation, fluid controls, good weapon variety, PSP-sized missions) than it gets wrong.

What it is is a well written, enjoyable adventure that nevertheless feels slightly underwhelming once the credits roll.

Given the option of a good bike simulation and a great arcade bike game, I'd actually prefer to see SBK head further down the latter path for future instalments. Heresy, perhaps, but on the evidence here I'd even be open to the idea of Black Bean being tasked with reviving Road Rash for the HD generation.

Despite some familiar trappings and a shortage of genuine wonders, Age of Wonders 3 delivers a more tightly focused experience than Firaxis' behemoth Civilization series, to which it initially appears to owe so much. In doing so, it proves that even after a decade away the Age of Wonders series can still stand proud beside its modern-day contemporaries.

A solid little action game that works beautifully with the 400-Point price-tag.

None of these criticisms will detract from your enjoyment, provided all you want from a game is the opportunity to repeatedly turn evil monsters into red mush in gorgeous HD detail. Dead Space easily delivers on that promise, but fails to turn its polished production values into something truly memorable over the long haul.

Doubly annoying is the fact that you actually have to play through the entire Instincts campaign before you can even unlock the Evolution levels, so any existing fans might be better off buying the standalone Far Cry Instincts Evolution on Xbox and swallow the minor technical step down.

It's an effortlessly light and addictive indulgence - just don't expect it to nourish you.

The control system is a bitch, partly because the storyline is fairly boring and partly because there isn't much innovation.

For a story about breaking the chains of your fellow men, this add-on's gameplay mechanics remain resolutely locked up to the Assassin's Creed framework. Its strong, self-contained narrative is Freedom Cry's greatest asset, but the tale struggles under the weight of its over-familiar gameplay.

Mutant Mudds doesn't quite have the brash, devil-may-care attitude of Super Meat Boy or the charming personality of VVVVVV, but its refined obstacle courses are a distillation of what made us fall in love with 2D platformers in the first place.

Above all, it's a proper western, set in a tangibly real Wild West, with proper, honest-to-goodness cowboys, Indians and bandits in it. Experience tells us that's harder to pull off in videogames than you might think, and it counts for a lot, no matter where it comes from.

It's totally no fun. It's interesting, but there isn't a fun bone in its mopey body. But I've paid to go into modern art galleries. I've paid for really oddball, minimalist art films. I've gone to gigs where music is divorced from any physical reaction and raised to some cerebral, abstract place - and plenty of gigs where most sane human beings would consider there was nothing actually musical going on. I haven't, but could pay for experimental theatre tickets. Lots of poetry. Whatever.

The package as a whole is still very much a rough diamond, but it's a definite improvement over its predecessor.

The absence of any truly teeth-gnashing puzzles means that experienced players will rattle through this tropical romp in short order, but the experience will at least be an overwhelmingly enjoyable one.

I do like Gratuitous Space Battles. I think it's a great concept, beautifully presented. I just wish it would let me like it more.

As it is though, it's a good, solid, disquieting action game that ought to serve fans of the macabre and whodunnit-with-demons perfectly adequately, but stands little chance of threatening the crowns of the Silent Hills, Resident Evils and Project Zeros of this and other worlds.

It may not last long, but it's entertaining while it does.

A classy package with plenty going for it to satisfy those with kleptomaniac/sado-masochistic leanings.

If you're looking for the ultimate simulation experience then hold out to see whether Milestone does any better with SBK X. But if accurate racing physics isn't your thing - and you want an accessible racer that isn't one hundred per cent arcade - then 09/10 offers a solid and compelling MotoGP experience. Just be sure to turn the commentary off.

Serving up a reheated portion of old school retro gaming might satisfy a few hardy souls, but it's hard to see its appeal extending much beyond that. If stupendously hardcore shooters that require the skills of other worldly beings are your thing, then the chances are you'll be in some sort of perverted masochistic heaven. [JPN Import]

With Commando 3, Capcom manages to both wash away the bad taste of Rocketmen and prove that old-fashioned blasters can be made to work today without losing the naïve verve of the 1980s.

Bohemia, just for a change, how about giving us a character with a little flesh on his bones.

There's no doubt hardcore fans will warm to Lara's Shadow in a way that they probably didn't with the rather disappointing Beneath the Ashes. With zero replay value, this latest DLC feels a little overpriced on the whole, but as a proof of concept, it offers some interesting possibilities for the future direction of the Lara Croft series, and satisfies far more often than it frustrates.

The biggest problem with The King of Fighters XII is that it feels unfinished. The combat is fun and robust but not particularly innovative.

Thoughtful, mysterious and haunting, Trauma is best approached as a curio. Its execution is arguably stronger than its ideas, and the narrative trajectory of the game has no surprises in it, outside of the surreal tone. But as an artwork exploring the mind of a trauma victim, its singular voice and approach stick in the mind.

As a smarter-than-it-looks nostalgia trip, then, Shadow Warrior delivers, and as long as you keep that in mind - and consume it in moderation - it's an easy recommendation.

It is impossible to shy away from the realisation that H&D as a franchise needs a bit of a pep up in several areas and is gradually being left behind in a genre it once dominated.