What "Allied Assault" and "Frontline" had that "Spearhead" and "Breakthrough" seem less concerned with is the feeling of a battle raging all around you... Breakthrough's trek to Italy almost feels isolated and distant.

There's much work to be done before LucasArts can boast it has created the ultimate Star Wars FPS. Sure, it's the best one yet, but with some often laughable AI and creaking tech underpinning it, the flaws are there for all to see.

It won't frustrate you too much, but likewise it won't inspire you either. It's a straight up hackandslash that anyone with friends to play it with will probably enjoy, falling somewhere between Gauntlet's button-mashing traditions and Dark Alliance's intelligence and fun.

We've also come to take EA's high presentation values and their sports titles' accessibility for granted, and Rugby 2004 has neither. In essence, it feels like a cynical attempt to steal cash from dazzled armchair Wilkinsons, and we're yanking a point off for that alone.

The key problem is that just about all the good things about it are lifted straight from the original Homeworld, and there's really not a lot in the "enhancements" to this sequel which distinguish themselves above the first game.

Sure, as we've mentioned a few times, the quality of the writing, the voices and the humour are absolutely spot-on, but rather than disguise the mediocre game within, this excellence merely serves to amplify the crushing disappointment of the one dimensional gameplay, and we're left wanting much, much more than this half arsed effort.

Hardcore? Don't be fooled, chaps. Maybe, somewhere, deep within the bowels of the hardcore gamer there's a desire to play endless, sprawling, repetitive games which offer no motivation to continue, but really, if you're looking for a hardcore RPG status symbol, then pick up Breath of Fire II or Golden Sun - or buy Zelda, because that's a real-time RPG done right.

The pointlessly respawning (and stubborn) enemies quickly become a tedious pain in the arse, the combat mechanics feel redundant, limited and stuck in the past, and the whole locked door/find key/backtrack game design feels utterly stale too.

Were it not for the cretinous handling that leaves you bouncing all over the track, and dumb AI that usually lets you off the hook anyway, we might have really liked XGRA. As it stands, though, we blitzed through the game in a few hours, and frankly have no compulsion to go back to it.

For those few short hours the title doesn't really involve much more than collecting, leaping and basic problem solving. The plot doesn't interfere much, and as such the time travel element that could have been used to good effect is cast aside as just another excuse for all Banjo's hard work.

While it's fair to level some criticism at the lack of tutelage, and the combat is a bit divisive and unforgiving to begin with, you can't really blame the developer for Savage's biggest problem - the way it's played online. Given the right people and the right attitude, this is one of the finest multiplayer games of the year so far.

Although persistence is rewarded with a host of unlockable cars, weapons, interviews and the like, it's doubtful whether you'll have the desire to get drawn into the experience as obsessively as the developer requires you to.

Although P.N.03 is plainly flawed, with a little perseverance the gameplay still shines through as something relatively new and engaging.

If a dictionary definition of "just-another-go" gameplay is ever to be written, this game will have to be featured as an example; and if a list of the best handheld games ever made is written, we'd expect to see this very near the top.

The pack does inject some honestly good, fun and creative features into what is still one of our favourite multiplayer games to date. It alters it to the point that it feels like a slightly different game, and it's a commendable effort by DICE to refresh and revive the BF1942 experience.

Although its strength lies in depth, longevity and gameplay rather than in artistry and atmosphere, it still deserves to stand shoulder to shoulder with ICO in the rankings of "the best games you've never played".

Republic would quite probably work excellently as a well-implemented "spreadsheet" style game; the 3D element is worse than pointless, and just gets in the way of the gameplay.

If you're pining for something with charm, accessibility, instant playability, hidden depths, and above all else fun, then for twenty quid you can't go far wrong with Bombastic. Sure, it's the kind of game that could've been made ten years ago, and is as basic as games get these days, but that's exactly what appealed to us.

For the vast majority of the gaming world, this is quite easily the best 3D beat 'em up ever made.

This button mashing hackandslash lark needs an injection of new ideas - RPG pretensions don't hide the core fact that Otogi feels a pretty vacuous beast: gorgeous or not.

For the vast majority of the gaming world, this is quite easily the best 3D beat 'em up ever made.

For the vast majority of the gaming world, this is quite easily the best 3D beat 'em up ever made.

For all its ambition and the obvious effort put into creating a fun and somewhat original title, Ghost Master doesn't have a lot of life in it past the initial novelty of scaring the crap out of people.

The fact that we actually did play it through to completion - despite the sort of flaws that have sent us flying off the handle in countless other reviews - is a testament to its continued accessibility and the continuing attraction of the Buffy franchise.

It's stylish, fun, challenging and you really do feel as if you're playing a part in a sequel to a cult classic. That's all we were after.

The two styles of play - high scoring or Pokemon catching - allow you to explore the tables twice over with different motives, while the immediate accessibility will suit players who are looking for some purely basic pinball fun. Only the most demanding of pinball wizards would be right to turn their nose up at Pokemon Pinball's charming slant on the genre.

No matter how much is going on at any given time, the frame rate is a rock solid 60, and for a game as fast as this that's a godsend.

It lacks the imagination that the design documents must have been crying out for, and ultimately feels too much like psychedelic paintball in a foam-padded adventure playground.