Magical Melody is a decent game and if you have the time to invest in it your affections toward it will grow.

If you desperately want to know what being an unstoppable kick arse fighting machine is like then X-Men Origins: Wolverine is the Big Mac for which you have hungered. Sure it may not have the class and flavour of a $50 steak, but it tastes f..king awesome when you’re drunk.

Repetition is the biggest flaw in the game, but it doesn’t ruin the experience, by any means. As mentioned earlier the graphics are a lot crisper, the gunplay is a lot tighter, and the managerial side of the game isn’t without the odd moment of satisfaction. The Godfather ii is a decent enough sequel of a decent enough game, diehard fans of the movie should hit it up, to everyone else: this is an offer you can refuse, if you’d like to.

We couldn’t really recommend purchasing Wheelman – not at full price anyway. For the sheer fact that it isn’t necessarily painful to play, you might want to chuck some cash in Wheelman’s general direction when it inevitably hits the bargain bins, but that, as they say, is your whack.

Innovation and frustration tango before your eyes.

The real surprise was the final level against Underboss, where you chase him up an under construction building with crews of underlings coming out the woodwork, packing some nasty hand to hand weaponry, like wrenches, pipes, crowbars and baseball bats.

Indeed, Eat Lead is like Domino’s Pizza…satisfying in its initial moments, but after a while it sits in the pit of your stomach leaving you wondering what the hell ever possessed you to indulge in the first place.

RACE Pro may not have the content to hit the market like a wrecking ball but it has focused its resources on excelling on the road and adding variety.

We have no doubt this went gangbusters in Japan, but for those with slightly more discerning tastes, blood and bikinis are simply not enough, regardless of how impressive the jiggle physics are.

There are a lot of creative ideas, and the look, as a whole, is dead sexy, but a bit more spit and polish and a tad more life in the non-combat areas could have really helped put this on the map.

You get a lot of maths for your money in Maths Training. The randomised content across the dozens of different puzzle types should be enough to keep one busy (if not amused) for some time.

While die-hard Tolkienophiles will doubtless find something to go rabid over with Conquest, the average gamer may find themself slightly disappointed with this offering. It just feels too much like "Battlefront" with a new lick of paint, rather than a groundbreaking improvement of an aging formula. If you plan on going into Conquest with single player action on your mind, you may find the plot to be an afterthought, and the gameplay overly repetitive.

While it may not have the staying power of a New Super Mario Bros or creative juices flowing out of every orifice, it’s enough to put a big smile on most gamers’ faces.

NFS of old was about hot cars, hot pursuits and miles and miles of open road, and Undercover make a semi-successful fist of recapturing some of this magic. Looks great, plays fine. There’s no getting around the fact, however, that Undercover is basically Most Wanted with a new lick of paint. Can somebody please green-light Hot Pursuit 3? Surely the open-world horse has been well-and-truly flogged?

A surprisingly charming game – more charming than initially expected. It features a reasonable cast of characters that represent both franchises and is choc-a-block with impressive moves and exhausting combos. It might not have the depth and content to win the respect of fans of other franchises, but unfussy brawlers will get a kick out of taking it for a rumble.

The more time you’ll spend with Shaun White, the more the lack of polish makes itself apparent.

It breaks our Rare-loving hearts to type it, but Banjo Kazooie is a game that is best rented and demoed extensively first, rather than bought on an impulse.

While acceptable as a guilty pleasure or five-minute filler with a friend, we’re not quite sure what sector of the Star Wars fanbase Lightsaber Duels will appeal to. With none of the original characters or locations to help older fans overlook the game’s foibles, and a control system that might not suit Star Wars-loving younglings, it could end up missing the mark completely, which is a shame as with a little more attention this could have been a fan favourite.

The tracklist is epic. It’d want to be, because it’s really the only thing the game has going for it.

Another year, another fair-to-average open-world Spider-Man action game.

Another year, another fair-to-average open-world Spider-Man action game.

Above all, there's the sense that every aspect of the game has been designed not to challenge, but to frustrate. Like the witch doctors who can summon rocks to fall from the sky and crush you, or the just-barely-visible bear traps scattered about.

Generic space marines fighting upon a generic future landscape will be tough to sell, terrain deformation or otherwise. The proof will be in the pudding, we guess – but we’ll be surprised if this moves the Earth.

Generic space marines fighting upon a generic future landscape will be tough to sell, terrain deformation or otherwise. The proof will be in the pudding, we guess – but we’ll be surprised if this moves the Earth.

So while it’s a nice nostalgia trip and makes for an interesting twist on the Meier formula, it’s people who have either never played Civlization IV before (we’ve been told they do exist) or those who have played it to death and want a bit of a change who will get the most out of this title.

Exudes a certain endearing charm that makes it quite a playable game.

It’s not about mastering strings worth of combinations or sussing out whether your right hook does more damage than your left, it’s about goofy fun – plain and simple.

It’s not for everyone, and it’s certainly not Game of the Year material, but if you do pick it up and manage to overlook its flaws, you may find yourself pleasantly surprised.