We're huge fans of the genre, and really buy into the thought of regular episodic content, but we'd demand it at a significantly reduced price and with an approach that actually panders to the long-term fans of this style of game - as opposed to young kids with no patience.

That almost all of these 11 games look like tired also-rans merely compounds the feeling that this is one of the most cynical cash-in releases ever conceived. Avoid.

Removing features from a sequel and replacing them with nothing of note is certainly an flamboyantly avant garde way to approach a franchise soon to enter its tenth year, but it doesn't exactly do wonders for your value for money.

Judged purely on its own merits on this platform it looks like it might be vaguely interesting, but all too soon you're dragged into the real world and forced to acknowledge that despite its warm touches of humour, the hackandslash action is nowhere near the standard we expect from a full-priced game these days.

Problem is, with the lengthy time it takes to move between any location in the Sims 2 - especially if you're only going to be there for the few minutes a date takes up - is particularly taxing.

The inclusion of some unlockable Tekken characters and a slightly more balanced multiplayer mode might be enough to give you a fix if you do absolutely nothing else in life but play beat-'em-ups and you've actually run out, but otherwise there's no reason to take an interest.

Fact is, we like Burnout games because they're big and shiny and fast and loud and fundamentally ridiculous. Burnout Legends is all of these things, in portable form, and so we like it an awful lot.

The real let down is the racing, in that it's simply not as much fun as it used to be, and as such Revenge can no longer be considered the best Burnout game. That's not to say it's "not fun", because we had a blast, but tasked with weighing it up against its predecessors, it's a slight backward step.

Nothing special - you won't find many original ideas or much variation between levels here, and it's all over a bit too quickly. But if you're looking to buy a game that will entertain a Scooby fan who just wants to play the cartoon, or a younger gamer who just wants some simple running, jumping and collecting to get on with, this will do the trick.

It just doesn't seem confident enough to let itself be the thing it is, and this manifests itself in a reward structure that stops short of demanding the most of you, and in lots of tangential fodder that dilutes its purposefulness.

Until the bugs are squashed, Eurogamer cant recommend Wings Of Victory to anyone but wealthy sim completists with a gambling streak.

Falls down slightly not because it's not entertaining, not because it lacks content, not because it doesn't play well, but because its scope is too narrow to include everyone.

When scoring a goal is as satisfying as getting that last-bullet headshot in Resi Evil 4 or nailing a perfect insane stunt in GTA, you know you're playing a great videogame, not just a great sports game.

With a tiny bit more polish Rebelstar Tactical Command could be not only one of the best games on the GBA but one of the best games released this year.

We'd happily slap a glowing score on the online bit, but the single-player offering is burdened by so many problems that you'd be generous to claim it's slightly above average.

Despite its eccentricities, Dofus remains a solid and occasionally brilliant proposition for those looking for something different in an MMO.

It is a pity, for it is a would-be 'great' game, and on the Xbox would be reasonably scored as such. But, on a PC, the complexity of the default controls and the horrors of the PC keyboard for this kind of thing force the mark down to a mere 'very good'.

Have you been-there-and-done-that with the previous Namco collections? Raided the MAME tomb? Been stung by other retro collections? If so, there's no need to bother with this one.

It wasn't appropriate to make a GBA Dynasty Warriors, and the inevitable disappointment of an already extremely tired series has been fully realised.

The squeaky eccentricity of proceedings leaves you charmed, if a little frustrated with the lack of a truly solid baseball game.

A game that could have been much better, had it not focused on trying to cram as much Gangsterite gibberish up its Los Santos as possible, and instead focused on creating a game which was enjoyable, distracting nonsense.

Much like the unsubtleties of its title, Big Mutha Truckers 2 shows far too much too soon, and prematurely shoots its load before reaching the much pursued destination of Real Satisfaction. Sigh. A truckin' shame? Truck yeah.

Perhaps it's because death is only a temporary setback that arbitrary cold-blooded massacres of innocents are met with a gaming blind eye.

If the mechanics were applied to stronger level design, then it would plant its flag firmly in 80 territory. As it is, it remains well worth playing, but not a necessity for any DS shelf.

Relentlessly enjoyable and hugely entertaining from the first minute to the last. You could bracket it firmly within the '30-seconds of fun over and over' school of game design.

The puppies are astonishingly realistic, and very easy to become attached to. This in itself makes for an incentive to keep on playing the game day after day, but there's also the fact that there are so many funky items (oh, how we long for the pirate hat) and different breeds (oh, how we long for the Shetland sheepdog) to collect.

The puppies are astonishingly realistic, and very easy to become attached to. This in itself makes for an incentive to keep on playing the game day after day, but there's also the fact that there are so many funky items (oh, how we long for the pirate hat) and different breeds (oh, how we long for the Shetland sheepdog) to collect.

The puppies are astonishingly realistic, and very easy to become attached to. This in itself makes for an incentive to keep on playing the game day after day, but there's also the fact that there are so many funky items (oh, how we long for the pirate hat) and different breeds (oh, how we long for the Shetland sheepdog) to collect.