This slick new Civilization may be more reduction than Revolution, but it's easily one of the most distinctive games on 360 and PS3. I can't see myself playing much more of the single-player, but I genuinely cannot wait to war over landmass with a few like-minded chums.

The interface is instantly intuitive, while menu choices are always clear and easy to find.

Chocobo's Dungeon succeeds where the recent Pokémon Mystery Dungeon fails, by delivering a licensed dungeon crawler that is a credit to its franchise as well as its tradition.

As much as I feel like setting fire to Beijing 2008 with its own Olympic torch, it's not an unmitigated disaster. At least a quarter of the 38 events available are mildly enjoyable, especially if you're a retro-head who actually gets excited at the prospect of going online and taking on like-minded buffoons in their 40s.

As good as "Enemy Territory: Quake Wars," "Frontlines: Fuel of War" and "Team Fortress 2" are, Unreal Tournament III is the most intense and ridiculous of the bunch. What it lacks in terms of bold innovation, it more than makes up for in terms of raw playability and refined execution, and Epic has come up trumps with a fine conversion.

SPOGS Racing at least gets the honour of being the worst game on WiiWare. It looks awful and it plays even worse. It's the most inept game I've played on any format, in any genre, in recent memory.

Chronically poor AI and a lack of challenge aren't the only problems Code of Honor suffers from. The levels are highly linear and feel artificial, with areas boxed in by fences, barbed wire and impenetrable bushes.

It's one of the richest, most cohesive entries in the point-and-click genre I've seen for a long time, and I'm a little sad that it didn't come out fifteen years ago. Just think of all the sequels we could've had by now.

Despite the problems, it's such a huge amount of fun. However, at free, and near-as-dammit for the membership, we throw caution to the wind. It pokes excellent fun at a pompous genre (although WoW does an occasionally decent job of this too), and remains very playable.

Could it have been even better, had they waited and used more space to include absolutely everything? Undoubtedly, but a big chunk of Soulcalibur for 800 Microsoft Points is still one hell of a treat.

But while Actionloop Twist has strong presentation and depth of content, it's the controls and Quest mode design that elevate it to essential status.

Our feeling is that in this era of downloadable Rock Band albums for 13 quid - a price that's often criticised anyway - single-band games will have to offer gameplay innovations, spectacular fan service, or a lot more material than this to justify their existence and, more pertinently, an asking price of 40 quid without the guitar peripheral.

If you're so deep into professional cycling that you'd want to play a game where you navigate sterile menus and tell other people how to ride bikes, then there may be some small morsels of enjoyment to be found here, provided you accept that your own enthusiasm will be picking up the slack for a drab and technically sloppy game.

The basic Lemmings meets Itchy & Scratchy idea is sound, but the final product feels half-baked.

It's not a perfect adaptation of the German game it's based on, since the map can sometimes get cluttered while the nuances of the game aren't always terribly well explained, but compared to the rather flaccid likes of Lost Cities this is one of those games that hides a devilishly addictive experience under a rather bland exterior.

I realise that it's financially unrealistic to expect a property as offbeat and niche as Hellboy to really benefit from ambitious game design, but that doesn't stop me from wishing that someone would let Blizzard loose on the character, for instance.

Half-arsed dross.

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.

With a convincing story and some innovation in the fight system FFTA2 could have been so much more, but it still stands as the best example of the genre currently available for the handheld.

Probably one of the best games currently available on PS3, blessed with clever design, engaging characters, sharp dialogue and a moreish appeal that drags you through even when the going gets tough. The skillful melding of action-adventure with strategic puzzle elements marks it out as something distinct, and it's got cult hit written all over it.

You want to love it, but it just keeps letting you down, and in the end that's the impression that sticks to the wall and stays there.

The single player portion, while never less than hugely entertaining, stops short of true greatness thanks to a few fundamental design shortcuts which offer easy health restoring concepts seemingly at the expense of balanced AI. Some of this is irrelevant in the online mode, and the profound implications of a massively destructible environment make it a unique proposition in online gaming right now - albeit a riotous chaotic one.

Yes, the often exhausting depth might prove to be off-putting for those who prefer the more intuitive Virtua Tennis, but that's precisely part of Top Spin 3's more simulation-minded appeal. With fantastic online play and an obsessive career mode to dive into, it's the thinking man's tennis title.

A relatively solid but entirely uninspired expansion - one for the dedicated fans only, albeit one with a very clever new control system. It's by comparison with the PC expansion that this game starts to look seriously bad.

This unforgiving approach may well please dedicated tennis enthusiasts but it will only frustrate those just looking for a fun experience.

It was always clear that Supreme Commander would be divisive on the 360 - and if you're expecting it to be hard, complex, and unforgiving, then you won't be surprised. But sadly, you're likely to find it ugly and a little unreliable too: you can fight your way through it if you want, but you may not enjoy it as much as you should.

For everything else in its amazing catalogue of flaws, errors and catastrophes, though, the biggest problem is that the game just stops whenever you can't work out what to do.

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.