Issues of graphics aside, Wild Earth: Africa’s strengths lie in the way it manages to convey information in a friendly and intelligent manner, while still holding onto a solid (if very unremarkable) gameplay system.

Of course if you’ve gotten all the bonuses, all the skills for all six character classes and a fancy looking set of fissure armour, then Factions is the stand-alone expansion for you! You get a whole new campaign to play, a lot of new skills to find and a cracking good story to play through, not to mention a case that retains its newness for months. Marvellous.

The gameplay is built on a system that will initially frustrate those used to more immediate rewards, but players willing to stick it out can easily become engrossed in the mechanics at work. It’s a lumbering, slow beast of a title that won’t ever invite you in and if you’re up for a real challenge, it will give you one. It is also, as said above, the finest title based on the American Civil War yet seen.

It's nice to see a revamp of a true classic that's been handled so well though.

You need this game. Trust me on this; it'll be one of the best adventure games you can get.

You need this game. Trust me on this; it’ll be one of the best adventure games you can get.

Short, cute, enjoyable games created with simplicity in mind and offset by a few bugs and an ultimately empty feeling. As it is you will find much to like here, just don’t expect it to last.

Arguably the finest HOI game to date, as an expansion pack it’s probably best left to the hardcore fans and genre fanatics.

Kids thrive on new ideas, excitement and imagi-nation, and can easily handle complex situations and scenarios - none of which are on show here. Just because they’re young doesn’t mean they should make do with a bland, unimaginative, unchal-lenging and in parts quite shoddily finished effort.

A bit of a mixed bag. A half-decent tennis sim crocked by middle of the road graphics and an infuriatingly stupid and poorly implemented career mode.

I think the real problem here is not that anything is bad per se, but that it really has all been seen before.

Overall, it offers absolutely nothing new compared to the console version (save for a few extra issues making it slightly inferior), and it is highly unlikely it could serve as means to garner any new fans.

Everything on offer here – from picking locks to becoming a vampire via setting off Indiana Jones-style traps in a dungeon whilst nicking treasure – is an absolute joy brilliantly realised.

This is an awesome game, with a huge, huge scope; to its credit, it pulls everything off without a hitch.

Trimming the unnecessary features and focusing on a very specific style of gameplay, it appears to be aimed at a slightly more sophisticated audience than GTA - the oft mentioned "we know what we want" crowd.

Overall this game can’t really decide whether it’s strategy or arcade and consequently doesn’t really work as either, being too generic and limited as a fighting game and with not enough depth to be a really good turn-based strategy game.

Though it's not that hard to get entangled in an addiction to experience gain (and, at the level 10 "endgame", start participating in endless strings of loot runs), the quest supply is embarrassingly finite, the world is far from immersive, and as soon as the addiction is broken, Stormreach becomes instantly forgettable.

A very pretty title, one of style over substance. It doesn’t even try particularly hard to have substance; the objectives are there to provide some vague structure.

Others, and I include myself in this group, will love it for being new, unique, different, and just a wholly enjoyable experience that offers something original every time you come back to it.

My thumbs haven’t gotten this good a workout in a long time and I haven’t even mentioned the cutscenes because they’re just too creamily good to describe.

Cyanide (the developer) has won an environmental award for recycling but I’m not sure if this is a good thing. Given time, Sudden Death is a game you’ll grow to like but the initial learning curve and interface issues might throw a lot of people off before the game can demonstrate its unique charms.

This is one of those great but flawed games; if you’re up for the challenge then tackle it head on, you will be rewarded.

Couple the ropey gameplay to the lousy load times, endless splash screens, mediocre graphics, repetitive nature of the sometimes awful levels (parts of the Vegas-esque one look like you’re driving through a giant lower intestine) and game mechanics straight out of 1996, and I’m afraid we have a real turkey here.

Earth 2160 uses every trick in the strategy book to great effect. If you can think of a feature, it’s probably there. We can expect a sequel because of the way the last campaign ends, but I won’t spoil it for you.

But sadly, with the advent with more realism comes the responsibility of not indulging in the arcade-style fantasy that made games like this so memorable in the past.

You get the feeling that the programmers enjoyed making it, enjoy gaming themselves, and just “get” what makes a game good.

In an age of increasing style over substance and companies trying to extract cash from gamers left, right and centre for new "services", it’s truly heartening to see a game done absolutely right, and the setup around it also done absolutely right. Great stuff, Nintendo.

It isn’t 2001 anymore and what once seemed fresh is now starting to whiff a bit; the play mechanics are beginning to creak with age and consequently you may ultimately find yourself more irritated than terrified.