At its worst, Tomb Raider: Underworld is everything that's wrong with videogames - clichéd, predictable, frustrating, inconsistent, repetitive and derivative. Legend was supposed to be the game that marked the series' return to form, and it achieved that. Underworld is better than Legend; meatier, more challenging, more atmospheric and with less silly nonsense like quick-time events. But Underworld was supposed to be the first real next-gen Tomb Raider game, and it isn't...At its best, however, Tomb Raider: Underworld is everything that's great about videogames. It's beautiful, exciting, challenging, rewarding and absorbing. Many of the locations are stunning, and so's Lara.

Another merely serviceable theme park ride; a brief, unchallenging jaunt through linear corridors decorated with just enough "official merchandise" appeal to mask the threadbare design.

We're even less inclined to accept the messy control system, the often dreadful AI, the questionable animation, the less than stellar visuals, the fact that following the dark side makes no real difference to the game, and the overall feeling that it's just not that exciting.

Sure, it's repetitive; sure it's not doing anything massively new, but what it does provide is an exceptionally polished genre offering that fans of the series and kart games in general can get a lot out of.

Boasting an intense atmosphere, satisfying puzzles and nail-biting combat, it's a game that will linger long in the memory for those who succumb to its dark allure. If you missed out on this the first or even second time around, then now's the time to pick up a true classic - at the right price.

With 15 levels to romp through, gorgeous, irreverent cut-scenes and various challenges, WTF? proves that talented developers haven't completely deserted the Minis scene. Just most of them.

BloodRayne can be forgiven on a lot of levels because it's so silly it's fun, but for everything it does which is endearing, there's something to frustrate, bore or alienate the player.

An easy game to admire, the concept is appealingly daft and the implementation rich in wit and charm. It's just too laidback for its own good; an approach that pays dividends in those first joyful days but proves less successful in the long term as the rising difficulty curve chafes uncomfortably against the whimsical lack of direction.

Is it a game? I can't say I know the answer, but I do know that unless you're an IGF judge or a prissy dogmatist who sets out to pedantically define the boundaries of an extremely fluid medium, then you shouldn't really care. All that matters is that Dear Esther is worth your time - and that its two-hour long chill will remain in your bones for a long while after.

Average execution, terribly repetitive combat, lots of reasonable ideas that don't quite work, a general lack of cohesion: it's not diabolical, but it's far from great.

So I'd rather play an erratic instalment of Alan Wake than a highly polished cover-shooter clone, because even when it fails, the former gives me something to think about in the ensuing days. Put another way, The Signal gets better the more I don't play it.

At first, it's just a mild irritation, but the further you progress into this 60-level affair, the more aggressive the drones become and the more it starts to aggravate you when you can't see what to avoid.

There's certainly plenty of nostalgia to be had here - and for the money you can't really complain about a compilation that been created with a great deal of care - but sadly Capcom Classics Reloaded offers only a snapshot of what retro gaming offers.

You'll probably only want to play it a couple of times yourself, but show it to your ageing mates and you're guaranteed to spark a conversation about Mario's Cement Factory within 14 seconds.

Total War goes back to the past, but this spin-off invites uneasy comparisons to the superior recent Warhammer games.

There are improvements, and there are problems - business as usual. The era of EA Sports' FIFA may be over, but the game goes on.

It's difficult to shake off the suspicion that the game is a bit slight. You can get through the whole thing in little over 20 hours, which seems a bit short for an RPG - especially considering the amount of level-grinding.

It's hard. In fact, it's so hard it makes Rainbow Road look like Mario Circuit. It makes Master Level 3 on Super Monkey Ball look like a walk in the park. Super Hexagon? A pussycat by comparison.

Needless to say, Umbrella Chronicles isn't the most long-lasting affair, and in absolute gameplay terms it's probably one of the most wafer thin offerings you'll have experienced for years. But in a landscape dominated by epic, sprawling complexity, it's refreshing now and then to kick back and blast away in a game that's as knowingly brain-dead as this.

Definitely more than the sum of its parts, and a rare case of a game getting there before Hollywood.

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.

Slick and overly downbeat, Lara's latest sees the reboot trilogy end just as it began.

A wobbly first-person horror whose moments of splendid unease are spoiled by clunky stealth, casual misogyny and warmed-over scares.

Firefly has offered a level editor with the game, allowing players to compile their own campaigns or swap them over the net, but I can't see this breathing much life into a title that exhausts its appeal so quickly. Nevertheless, it's undoubtedly one for the management fetishists.

Graphics whores will inevitably be put off by the old school look and feel of the title, but if you can get past that, this is one of the best god games the PC has seen in quite a while.

Initially haunting and lonely, then blossoming into something joyous, Drawn: Dark Flight is a triumph of creativity and imagination.

Perhaps the best thing about Serious Sam though is just how pristine it is. It’s a very, very polished game.

Top Spin 2 is a fine tennis title and a game you'll have a lot of fun with off or online, but one that does little to justify its price tag, and is little more than a high def update of the original.