For the thick-skinned (preferably male) gamer looking for some fairly harmless stupidity to amuse themselves with, this resurrection of Leisure Suit Larry is surprisingly good fun, and a welcome change from the constant array of samey me-too sludge that's peppering the landscape this Christmas.

You can't do much better for challenging air-combat shooters on the Xbox, just as long as you bear in mind how teeth-grindingly steep that challenge is.

There's probably enough here to satisfy fans whatever their inclination, but nobody should expect a quantum leap. Once again it's refinement over revolution.

In the end it's far more frustrating than it should be, particularly given that it's an idea with so much potential - and Fuse Games clearly has come up with a lot of good ideas in making this.

Deception throws in an extremely polished Konquest mode, the fun Chess and Tetris modes, plus online play.

Evil Genius overcomes its flaws and ultimately satisfies. Building an evil empire is a good idea, and the way Elixir's constructed the game is thoughtful, enterprising and occasionally inspired.

The gameplay variation is there for all to see, and when it hits the mark it - believe it or not - is every bit as enjoyable as the very best the genre has to offer, with some true high points to look back on.

If you're just looking to punch someone in the face, Rocky Legends might just be the therapy you need.

A final point to raise is why Taito felt the need to demand that multi-player link mode would only work with 12 levels of the old version? It's hard enough to justify buying this ancient classic as it is, without removing the last temptation from the already hard pressed gamer.

The online play is a very welcome addition (although not really the full monty), the campaign is enormous and there's no doubt at all that in isolation the game is a solid, enjoyable experience with immense longevity, but some may correctly observe that this is the game "CMR3" should have been in the first place.

The voice acting in the game is downright awful - especially painful after hearing the excellent voice acting in "Tales of Symphonia."

There's nothing to dislike about it. It's well-rounded and harmless in every respect, but there's no real challenge to anyone remotely used to playing games or over the age of 10.

We appreciate the simplicity of the idea, but in the absence of the hidden depths we normally expect from this sort of game - or the ritual humiliation we now demand - it ultimately wears thin far too quickly.

In any real-time strategy game you'll fight desperate battles against hopeless odds, but here, thanks to the strategy side, you know the precise cost of loss will be. It's a magical, beautiful synergy and there's nothing quite like it in the entire gaming lexicon.

"Solid" is one of those terrible damning-with-faint-praise words which will have anyone cringing but it's the one that applies. It's a well-built, well-made, well-designed well-solid RTS, and of its type, one of the finest of the year.

What sums Katamari Damacy's appeal up for me is the sense of unbridled joy bursting from every pore. It's the happiest game I've ever played, and the happiness is infectious. [JPN Import]

Still, nitpicky design and technical limitations aside, the 12 hours or so that you'll be playing the single-player game are almost always enjoyable, challenging, and entertaining.

If you like slashing and hording within intelligently structured worlds and have no problem sinking into the non-conformity of Japanese manga, then Blood Will Tell may well surprise you.

Legends has features coming out of its ears - in keeping with the general mutant theme - but you'll need to be a RPG/mutant/comic fan to truly care. That's no bad thing, but this is pretty niche, if sometimes highly enjoyable and surprisingly complex stuff, with some niggling glitches.

Painfully average.

Although in pure in gameplay terms it doesn't reach match Psi-Ops' thrilling ambition, favouring old school stealth principles over riotous action, it almost makes up for it by being a far more stylish affair - although the occasional lack of signposting can be irritating on one or two notable occasions.

It's charm which cements Dawn of War in the affections. In fact, it charms so casually that the contrary parts of the gaming world will just lazily dismiss it as a bimbo. It really isn't. Charm lures us in, but there's enough happening upstairs to keep it firmly in our affections.

There's more to do here than any other sports game we can think of, it's one of the few multiplayer sports games that just about anybody will play whether they care about golf or not, and it's well executed and designed in a great number of ways. What's disappointing is the sense that the game's unsure of where to go next, and anybody who played the previous versions will probably feel a bit let down by EA's lack of ambition.

The mixture of task and race-based challenges, refined controls and delicately poised difficulty level are adequate compensation.

The best Star Wars action game we've played since "Rogue Leader," delivering the sort of galactic conflicts we've long marvelled on the big-screen in a balanced and inviting manner that continually satisfies.

Even though this is undeniably a good representation, the feel of it is really not all that different from the SNES and Mega Drive titles of yesteryear.

It's not all that good, and it's got some horrible flaws, but at the same time, at least for a while, it's a laugh.

Despite all these valid complaints, we still have a lot of affection for what Vietcong's trying to achieve, but the sorry truth is the console version just doesn't deliver on the promise of the PC original.