This is officially a must-have product.

We’d usually advise waiting a month or two with MMO titles, for major patches to fix any foibles, but WAR actually feels very stable and polished at launch.

Intelligent Systems put an awful lot of thought and effort into Dark Conflict. The result is that the series has been rebooted and revitalised. If you’ve had Advance Wars fever in the past, prepare for a relapse.

By incorporating gameplay mechanics not because they’re new, but because they work, they have created a game that is different enough to warrant taking notice, and familiar enough that anyone who’s played an RTS in the past 5 years can jump in and play without worrying about the learning curve.

It’s outrageously awesome entertainment that forgoes taking itself too seriously to ensure you’re grinning ear-to-ear throughout, smiles gleefully lit up by the biggest explosion-fest in gaming history. And we have no problem with that, whatsoever.

It looks gorgeous, it has an addictive ‘one more turn’ feel to it, and it has a truly awesome soundtrack packed full of some seriously phat beats. At the end of the day, Pure is a shinning example of an arcade experience done right and it delivers on this with big air, big thrills, and a whole lotta dirt.

SC: IV has seen some much needed tweaks to the fighting mechanics, the game looks as beautiful as ever, and the customization options available for of your characters opens up a lot of avenues strategy-wise.

Guitar Hero 5 focus more on gameplay rather than new plastic features and that´s the right way to go. The career mode has never been better, the versus mode is great and the design is fantastic. Now what we lack is just a good setlist with more hits.

Perhaps the best puzzle game for the DS to date.

Tries to cram WAY too many styles in, but multiplayer is tops.

It’s outrageously awesome entertainment that forgoes taking itself too seriously to ensure you’re grinning ear-to-ear throughout, smiles gleefully lit up by the biggest explosion-fest in gaming history. And we have no problem with that, whatsoever.

Rest assured, Prince of Persia is every bit the game you wanted – it is the game you were promised and a whole lot more.

A fantastic, frantic combination of pretty much all the highlights of previous Civilization titles rolled into one single package. Finally, a worthy way to experience Sid Meier's legendary franchise on your console!

While it certainly isn’t the graphical revelation it has been hyped to be, this is a game that is very much deserving of any PS3 owner’s hard earned cash. Or, to put it another way, Infamous can successfully generate 1.21 Gigawatts of fun, without the danger of setting anybody’s eyeballs on fire.

As it stands, Space Invaders Extreme is a well priced, solid game that is a shining example of how the classics should be remade.

The combat feels haphazard, reckless. The voice acting is flat and emotionless. There is a shallower sense of progression, and far fewer opportunities to make meaningful choices. Granted, it is unfair to compare an action game and an RPG too closely. Yet with "Fallout 3" still fresh in our minds, so many of the design decisions in Far Cry 2 seemed off-balance.

Certainly the ability to punch a hole through the wall of a building to get access to the Ruski vermin camping inside is a great step forward for the acclaimed series as it looks to motor its dominance from PCs onto consoles. The world destruction on show is suitably ‘next-geny’ and thoroughly enjoyable, there’s no doubt. But despite developer Digital Illusions spirited attempts, Bad Company doesn’t quite reach the rarely tapped heights of dual-radness, and is just a really good game.

Call of Duty: World at War has had a lot of time spent on it, it takes full advantage of (and in some places improves upon) one of the best FPS engines there is, and its unflinching approach to the mature subject matter gives the immersion-factor a kick up the guts. Does all of this make Codwaw worthy of a purchase? Hell yes.

It may be a different beast, but it’s still a whole lot of fun. Resident Evil still has the chops to rock our world. However, if Capom do decide to continue down this action-packed path they’ve begun, they’d better get their sh.t together when it comes to “run ‘n gun” gameplay mechanics.

The camera, a hybrid of both fixed perspectives and occasional manual control, frequently fails to focus on an enemy when you’re locked-on and attempting to attack, leaving you vulnerable to unseen counter moves.

It’s an almost perfect example that any other similar projects in the future should follow ­ a game that creates a gaming experience that Metallica fans will cherish.

Old diehard fanatics will no doubt shake their fists at the slight console-friendly tweaks of the original formula and the light-hearted nature of the graphics – but hey, it’s successfully infecting a whole new generation of gamers with Civ love, so get over it.

Yes, several radically different gameplay styles are presented in Spore, but it would be unfair to call the game a Jack of All Trades — it's closer to a Queen or a King of All Trades.

A solid title that manages to be a helluva lot of fun, despite the lack of an abundance of new stuff.

A brilliant game. For the most part it takes the brilliant template laid down in the original and injects it with a smartly integrated new move-set, an exciting world to rip to shreds, and the same addictive, unquestionably stylish gameplay which saw the Tony Hawk series bolt for the hills.

A brilliant game. For the most part it takes the brilliant template laid down in the original and injects it with a smartly integrated new move-set, an exciting world to rip to shreds, and the same addictive, unquestionably stylish gameplay which saw the Tony Hawk series bolt for the hills.

The best feature of NMH has got to be the visceral combat system.

It’s a simple pick-up-and-play style of game, but there are 20 deceptively involving stages to draw out the experience. The hand-drawn graphics are charming, and the management of your economy and overlapping fields of fire is engrossingly complex. You can lose yourself in this world for hours.