So I'd rather play an erratic instalment of Alan Wake than a highly polished cover-shooter clone, because even when it fails, the former gives me something to think about in the ensuing days. Put another way, The Signal gets better the more I don't play it.

It's a real shame that the MMO aspect of World is effectively a needlessly elaborate lobby.

And, more to the point, because millions will thoroughly enjoy StarCraft II regardless, thanks to a dense, thrilling, relentlessly clever and class-leading campaign adventure that takes this RTS to the masses in spite of itself. It might be less than half this sumptuous package, but it's a lot more game than almost anything else.

As a follow-up to one of the most innovative and accomplished 2D fighters in recent years, Continuum Shift is a worthy successor which refines the BlazBlue formula.

Despite its initially playful and "relaxing" charm, where you mainly focus on conserving your air, about four levels in Dive decides that the gloves are off and proceeds to slap you around like a cat toying with a barely-alive mouse.

A game that has very few humans, but a surplus of humanity.

With ever-present control frustration taking the shine off an otherwise commendable effort, you'll be hard-pressed to see the game through all five levels, never mind slog through the upcoming chapters. Unless they fix the controls, that is...

Once you wade into it, Tidalis is a charmingly lo-fi package that positively drowns you in content.

Thanks to a quite absurd damage system, you can find yourself downed in three or four hits, usually meted out with all the precision of a Friday night drunk in Basildon.

When the curtain falls DeathSpank feels like something of a disappointment, but there's undoubtedly a market for the end product. If you like your loot-'em-ups, and you're looking for something humorous and a bit different, this is clearly the game for you. Just don't expect it to sparkle in the way which many, myself included, hoped that it would.

DarkStar One is undoubtedly a bit of a throwback. It's not the all-singing, all-dancing AAA space combat title which could still make a lot of console owners' days, but it does go an awfully long way to proving that a game of that calibre is eminently possible on consoles, as well as providing an entertaining diversion.

Recommending a game as satisfying and substantial as Disciples III is easy. Recommending it over other satisfying and substantial titles encamped in the same neck-of-the-genre-woods is a little trickier, especially when those titles are now as cheap as, say, Heroes of Might and Magic V.

Although there's a certain chaotic charm about it (especially the frenzied split-screen duels), the inherent repetition quickly has you raising an eyebrow at its rather off-putting price tag. For a tenner, you'd expect a lot more.

Once successful, surrounded tiles flip to the colour they're surrounded by, while any surrounding tiles disappear entirely. Got it? Good. That's the entire game.

There's a childlike simplicity in its approach to story and systems that may put off older players who prefer complication and convolution. But Dragon Quest IX cleanses the palate with its straightforwardness, allowing the workmanship to shine, and its clutch of nested fairytales to inspire.

The cliché regarding this sort of game is that it changes the way you view your own world: I know for sure that I'll be seeing those last few Orbs in my dreams for months to come. If you need any indication of Crackdown's brilliance, that's surely it, right? If you seek its monument, look around you.

The only redeeming quality is the echo of ambition that can be faintly heard in the ruins of execution.

With a bit more substance to the missions and a few control refinements it would have been a must-buy. Let's hope Legendo gets it right in time for the next two parts.

It all adds up to what's just about the definitive version of one of the finest role-players of the last five years.

With its pleasantly non-fascist checkpointing, sensibly compact level design and satisfying combat system, you'll appreciate Soul Of Darkness all the more. It's short, sweet and entirely unoriginal, but for all the right reasons.

As with the first Puzzle Quest, then, the concept is what's truly brilliant - the one-more-go aspect of spatial challenges threaded into the reward schedule of an RPG. While the middling implementation's been somewhat improved this time around, the result is still a game that's supremely effective rather than genuinely brilliant.

With its twisted humour and mutated style lending a pleasantly Oddworld vibe to proceedings, this is a crafted effort for those of us with a tendency to mutter that they don't make 'em like they used to. Apparently they do.

With sharp writing paired with a charming if amateurish cast, Puzzle Agent's appeal is rough-hewn, but improbably cohesive. Were it not so instantly likeable, you might not care so much about the fairly standard logic puzzles.

It's the first game I've played in ages that realises first-person shooters can bundle in as much philosophy and as many moral dilemmas as they like, but fundamentally they're still about shooting monsters in the face, and so what it lacks in originality it makes up for in variety, pacing and exuberance.

If there's a better kids' game this year, I'll eat my Sorting Hat.

It's polished and accomplished, and certain aspects of it, such as the meta-game structure and the player customisation, are fantastic. Even so, there's no escaping the fact that the game is hugely disappointing. The flashes of brilliance only serve to throw the mediocrity of the game into even sharper relief.

Bohemia, just for a change, how about giving us a character with a little flesh on his bones.

By favouring tired run-and-gun scenarios over actual sniping gameplay, you're left with a technically inept entry in the most over-populated gaming genre around. Show some mercy, put one in the back of its head, and leave it for the vultures.