That sense of creating security from the environment, of making home, of surviving, is enticing and exciting. But if only it would just give you the time to play it.

There are much better retro compilations available - not least the first two incarnations of Midway Arcade Treasures, which both feature some all-time classics.

If you need you thirst for adventuring quenched, Another Code is an essential purchase, but novices need to bear in mind that this style of game is very much an acquired taste, and experts should be mindful that compared to the adventuring greats it's not exactly in the same league.

If you happened to be sitting at home one evening, bored off your tits, and feel like lying on your tummy with a stupid grin splattered across your face, you could probably do worse than to rent it out - even if it is basically that "Kill all the Haitians" line from Vice City done up as an entire game. Totally.

A wasted opportunity; one that turns your anger to frustration then to plain, empty sadness.

As magnificent an example of the add-on pack as Rome is, it doesn't redefine the game completely in order to make it an absolute essential buy for anyone who was interested in the mother-game. It's an imaginative more-of-the-same, but still – at its core – a more of the same.

With some retailers pricing this at around the £14.99 mark, it's hard to resist such a great value compilation, even if there are only about a handful of real nailed-on classics in the 22-game set.

Cars, boats, guns, stealth, traps, super-strength, scent-vision - it's crowded, but its density is actually our delight, because while it may not play as strategically or controllably as something like "Halo," or as evocatively and inventively as something like "Half-Life 2," it's still atmospheric, involving, and empowering.

The mere running around, pointing the crosshair, shooting... it's all just drained of life. Not even the option of mercenary sidekicks makes much difference, they just happen to be the chaps you can't shoot. And they die without consequence. Poor fellas.

They've managed not to mess up any of the things which made the original so enjoyable. The control system is still intuitive, the camera does what it's supposed too, there's a good amount of gory moments and genuine scares and the whole thing has bags of atmosphere.

It's up there with the best platformers ever made.

For b-ball heads, it's one of the deepest, most well-rounded and entertaining simulations of the sport on the shelves. You can lose months of your life to it.

In terms of scale, it barely comes up to Battlefield's ankles, and in terms of tactics and tension it can't beat Counter-Strike, but once you've spent a few hours on a server of 20 or so people, you'd have to want not to enjoy it to fail to - and your own war stories are an inevitable byproduct.

By limiting it to repetitive and limiting challenges, the game is condemned to that of pretty distraction.

Looking firmly along the line of simple-as-possible, it's clear that the developers, in focusing so much on the presentation of the HAVEN, rather than gameplay faults, have allowed it to stray too far into the bad half.

As RTS games go Winter Assault and its parent game are more concerned with being spectacular than they are about being sophisticated, but we appreciate how that works.

For all its beauty, the areas you explore do seem rather small and hemmed in - especially when we're so used to expansive, open-ended RPG worlds.

This is a superhero game that actually makes you hate the superhero you're playing as for their rubbish attacking skills, poor movement and general refusal to do what they're told.

Consistently surprising and full of unexpected delights even for players who squeezed the last drops out of the first game; it takes the concept that we loved so much and asks "I wonder what else we can do with this" with a huge cheeky grin on its face and a pocket full of Class-A drugs, Party Rings and bathroom cleaning products. [JPN Import]

A terminally average hackandslasher.

The dreaded bottom line is that we've seen it all before, and much, much better.

Heroes could be a whole lot prettier. There's a hell of a lot of washed-out colour and bad camera wobbles in there.

Probably the most enjoyable, forward-looking and thoughtful piece of videogaming we've played in this or in any year. We never thought we'd say this, but it's a real step forward for the adventure game genre.

It's a gaping chasm of Comic Book joy, filled to brimming with great characters, unlockables, collectibles and some top-notch mutant-oriented RPG action. It is, in short, one of the best comic book adaptations in quite some while.

If EA wants people to buy these games year in, year out, then it has to fight for those high marks, and Tiger Woods doesn't know how to do that any more.

With this episode the Myst series goes out in respectable fashion. There's still nothing on offer for anyone that craves action, exhilaration or an easy ride but frankly that's no great surprise.

It involves a bit more lateral thinking than the average puzzle game, and it doesn't outstay its welcome or exceed its mandate more than is forgivable. But puzzle games can be and often are a lot better than this.

Still, for all the brilliantly original ideas on show here, there comes a point when you feel like developer Paon just decided to throw up certain levels simply as a bar to your progress. You can almost hear their cackling over your shoulder.