F.E.A.R. is the 360's first shooter to score a [90] on Eurogamer for the simple reason that it's such a consistently exciting game that gets the core of the experience so absolutely spot-on that most of the niggles are swiftly swept aside. Slow-mo gunplay and cunning AI don't sound like next generation ideas, but somehow Monolith combines the two so expertly that it feels more alive and more exciting than could ever seem possible.

A backward step from last year's release. The fact that it's less challenging may make a lot more accessible to the mass market audience that it's so desperate to pander to, but the net result is that it's also, on balance, a slightly less exciting and enjoyable game.

While this particular GTA game wouldn't inspire me to sit in my bedroom at night trying to make animated squish graphics to put on the top of my website, it's still happily one of the best games on the PSP, and well worth looking into if you still haven't hit your GTA ceiling.

But as much as we wanted to hail EA's proactive progressive approach to FIFA as the great slayer of Konami's complacency, the fact remains that "PES6" is marginally the better game in ways that matter.

Dungeon Siege starts out exceptionally well but really does fail to build in its promising foundations as the game progresses, and this lack of development means that as you approach the eight hour mark (the whole game works out at somewhere between 12 and 15 hours), you'll really feel like you've seen everything on offer.

It makes some small progress in freeing point-and-click from the needless bonds of tradition but is it really a compelling, imaginative experience that proves mouse-based adventuring isn't dead? Nope. Not even close.

The real disappointment, aside from the painful hand-holding of the main storyline, is the glint of true potential the game's main mechanic shows at times.

A pretty decent but ultimately average racer.

as adventures go Nightfall feels much more open than previous Guild Wars modules. While many of the quests had been tied to tightly linear the maps, the missions of Nightfall are far more open-ended.

While the hacks and cheats may be gone, they have simply been replaced by new chaos and a design disorder that does everything in its power to dissuade anyone but the keenest of sentimental subscribers.

You won't remember Dark Messiah's busty-woman character guide, but you will remember the sheer joy of mutilating the orcish, undead and assorted monstrous hordes in a variety of imaginative ways. When mass slaughter is as imaginative as this, it can't help but be memorable.

Although the overall atmosphere is far removed from the tense, dialogue-heavy trappings of the film, this is a consistently enjoyable action game that will keep you entertained for the few hours it lasts.

With an excellent atmosphere, diverse set of characters, intriguing storyline and endless unlockables it's the sort of game that's essential for comic book obsessives, and great fun for everyone else.

It does lots, and it does things reasonably well. It's just, well, it's doing the wrong things reasonably well.

A bit of a boost for exhausted gameplay, and a stack of new content for those people wanted to send more crawling, floating, bleeping Star Wars things to their death. That's going to be more than enough for the thousands who were thrilled by the original, but for the rest of the world this is simply another commercial footnote.

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.

Basically this is still worth a go if you're obsessed with what happened in F.E.A.R, and must know more, but otherwise you'd be better off buying an FPS you haven't played yet, or renting a few horror films instead.

Flushed Away is absolute toilet. Sorry, again (but not as sorry as anyone involved in making the game should be).

Another solid instalment in a brilliant series of games, and with the single-player campaign's branching structure providing about a million campaigns and battles, there's certainly enough to keep you going till Vol 3.

A cheerful, happy little game - it's got some lovely ideas in places and doesn't take itself too seriously - but it was far more at home on the PSP than it is on a home console, and it has gained pretty much nothing in the transition to the PS2.

A cheap, but rather lovely remake of the simple shooter that kicked off Rare's legacy. It's a wonderfully playable link to UK gaming's past, and well worth the 400 points Microsoft's charging for it, but way too repetitive to keep you amused for long.

The fantasy armies really do provide a fun twist, and the castles that are rapidly erected in Stronghold's clever building system are stunning. Ultimately though I wish this game had been Sandcastle: Legends, but it completely wasn't.

As a game in its own right, and if you compare it to combat flight sims on other platforms, it simply doesn't really ever get off the ground.

It may not have the production values of Final Fantasy III, but Magical Starsign combines a superb and intriguing battle system with a genuinely fresh look at how to control this kind of game on the DS.

A pretty broken game but one that is loaded with entertainment value regardless.

The PSP isn't exactly overwhelmed with decent multiplayer FPSs, and while imperfect, Heroes does offer a much-needed online fragfest.

If you can bear the disappointment, and push on through, you'll realise that, between the whole intertextual thing and the interesting-but-average RPG mechanics, there's still a decent game in here. It's just a shame it's not the amazingly brilliant one it could have been.

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.