One of the most rewarding and downright fun games on the PC. It's gripping, addictive and quick. What more could you ask?

Without wishing to come across as overly pedantic, there's little in Wild Wild Racing that could be genuinely be termed wild.

Looks stunning. The polygon count has been upped from the coin-op version, and the characters are as lifelike as you could want.

For fast, mental-as-anything racing goes, you're better off with a copy of "SSX" and a few mates. Roll on Ridge VI...

And it has marvellously crap fighting, which should please you louts out there. Punch him! Hit him in the face! We demand blood!

It is just a pity that, ultimately, the missions become all too similar.

A poor plot, which never makes you feel that you're doing anything other than playing an average videogame.

Being part of a battle on such massive scale has never been as convincingly portrayed before.

Constantly surprising, always delightful, never less than utterly stunning, this journey through the looking glass into a new and perfectly formed world is escapism of the very highest order.

Simply the best golfing simulation available right now.

The action never lets up and while there's no real depth or strategy, it's a damn good blast that really gets the adrenaline pumping.

Armored Core 2 may not be to everyone's tastes, but if you can get your head round it, the seamless integration of strategy and action provides a deep and enthralling experience.

Niggly graphical flaws and suspect longevity drop the final score but it's rip-roaring fun while it lasts with well-balanced game play. Do try this at home.

A brief affair, a perfectly formed kinetic buzz. And, a long time after you've finished with it, you'll still hear the sounds. Repeat after us: Click. Thud. Buchhhhaaaaa.

An unconventional - hence invigorating - impetuous, inciting, and utterly, utterly playable first-person multiplaying affair.

Madden NFL 2001 pushes the mighty "ISS Evolution" into a two-way fight to be the greatest sports game on any system. Ever.

Progression through the levels is expectedly linear but it also tends to be the same open-door-with-switch-call-lift-fight-end-of-level-boss structure. The formula never alters - no puzzles, no significant alternate routes, no variety.

There's just not that much to it. Even the career mode suffers from a distinct lack of depth.

Only tediousness and (lack of) longevity lower the standard of what would otherwise be something of a classic shooter.

A sequel that delivers more, but not quite enough.

If you're new to the series or a Greek aficionado then this is an excellent place to start, but if you stopped playing one of the earlier games after a few levels there's nothing that'll inspire you to play any more of this one.

Don't expect depth, merely an ongoing rush of a pure gaming high. Bliss!

The game play is absolutely superb, with well-balanced armies and some simply brilliant new units including a new building system more akin to the WarCraft series that allows for a more efficient unit production system.

The PS2 version doesn't have any extra features that might make up for the lack of certain technically impossible bits and pieces.

Dull, unenjoyable and incredibly shoddy, failing to deliver even the most basic of racing thrills.

Quite simply fantastic. The most universally appealing Dreamcast title yet.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the game, though, is the way in which it gives a real sense of what war was really like for pilots in the Pacific.

The true magic of Alien Resurrection is that you almost always feel insecure, no matter the quantity or quality of munitions at your disposal.

Amanda De Cadenet -- remember her? -- once said in an interview that she'd rather have five minutes of filth than half an hour of arduous bump 'n' grind and, at last, we understand what she meant.

Once you've got used to the way things work, thanks to the comprehensive training mode, you'll find the combat is far more satisfying than anything other more commercial RPGs have to offer.

Call us big girls' blouses if you wish, but this one's scary. Alas, it's also flawed to buggery.

Play it loud, on a big-assed TV, until you've mastered every character, your girlfriend's left you and the bank has repossessed the goldfish.

Something we were actually outraged by was the fact that that in two-player mode there are no AI cars at all.

A good one-player game but as necessary as a bacon sarnie on a cold morning in multiplayer. If you liked "Worms," you'll love this.

With any high-speed sports game, the real bonus is in the game play and NHL 2001 oozes it.

Please would Red Storm kindly take their hands off this poor knackered cash-cow's red-raw udders and do something new? Tango down.

The novice faces a hefty learning curve, even with the well-written tutorial in the manual, and many will give up within the first few hours.

Atrociously inept, this is the perfect example to illustrate just how bad games can get. Utterly without merit.

The lack of ambition to break new ground will prove unpalatable to most gamers; most RPG fans, even.

The story - good enough but you'll never find yourself discussing it down the pub.

While Buzz is okay for the kids, for the rest of us it ends up feeling like a pretty hollow experience. The gameplay is just too limited and uninspired.

In the six hours that it takes to finish Metal Gear Solid, there is little more than an hour's interaction.

The best conventional RPG -- carefully side-stepping "Deus Ex's" entirely different brilliance -- in recent years.

An immensely satisfying racing sim designed for hardcore racing fans.

Yes, it doesn't add much that's new but -- oh, let progress be damned.... Love this game. It. Is. Fun.

A romp to remember and a multiplayer taste to acquire and savour.

If you're likely to be amused by the puerile humour, you'll find this mildly diverting and entertaining, otherwise avoid - this is a genre that's overpopulated and there are far better examples than this.

For a Microsoft-published game Crimson Skies is refreshingly politically incorrect, with blatantly sexist mid-battle quips from the dashing protagonist.

A distillation and purification of an already dangerously potent liquor. Only its closeness to its parent prevents greater recommendation.

A fun, if not exactly classic, future-racer, riddled with shortcuts and offering plenty to do. Pales in comparison to "F-Zero X," though.

You could do a lot worse than re-visiting the first two Turoks and forgetting all about this half-hearted and dispiriting finale to what has been one of the best-loved franchises on the N64. A shame.

If you're looking for a simulation, this ain't it. But then, that's hardly the point.

Far from being the cash-in we'd all expected, this is one of the best puzzlers money can buy. Excellent stuff indeed.

They've created the first game featuring a comic book hero that doesn't disappoint.

Brilliant. You'll certainly be having a bit of a laugh, as well as being scared out of your pants.

It's safe to say that UFC is bloody hard, in all senses of the word.

Sega GT seems to frustrate more than entertain after some time, like GT2 did before it for gamers that played the original.

But don't take it that lightly: it's cute good- looks and sense of humour don't detract at all from what is an exquisitely crafted game of tennis.

A proper combat flight simulator that's also fun to play. This game is what we've all been waiting for -- let's fly!

If you intend to play it properly, you'll discover that it's enormously complicated. Frighteningly so. And that's what makes it so good.

It's in full-on four-player mode that Power Stone 2 attains genius status. As long as you've got three mates up to speed on the game, you literally won't be able to put your joypads down.

Cut away all the unnecessary flab and there's a decent game in here somewhere, but in terms of gameplay, Deep Fighter is more than 20,000 leagues below par than 20,000 Leagues Below the Sea.

It looks absolutely stunning, but for all but a minority, the game play doesn't match up to expectations.

Sexy, frantic, bloody and beautiful, but it falls a short of brilliance. Beats Lara hands down, though.

Stupid stupid stupid stupid.

Based on the tried and tested "Doom" formula, "The Nightmare Child" is hardly innovative, but is incredibly satisfying in its blood and guts simplicity.

The only downsides are that there are no female players (come on Sega!) and in Exhibition mode you can only set up one set matches - there are no full-on grand slams.

The grand-duke of the soldier sims. If you have even the slightest interest in the subject matter, it's a must.

Despite the unwieldy user interface, this will have Dreamcast strategy fans drooling. Definitely not just for trainspotters.

Entertaining and largely compelling fantasy adventuring of Tolkienesque proportions.

With over 40 characters taken from the Marvel comics and Capcom's past games, there's no shortage of variation either.

If it wasn't a Blizzard title, Diablo II would be dismissed as the bimboesque bit of frippery it actually is, and gain no more than a passing interest from most folk. Be warned.

It's about as difficult as fighting your way out of a ripped paper bag.

Near-perfect in every conceivable way, "Deus Ex" is pure gaming ambrosia. As in food of the gods, not tinned rice pudding.

The characters actually have... well... character. We know their history, their allegiances, their grudges, and even the colour of their panties in certain circumstances.

As a multi-player game, though, it has the potential to be unique; a user-definable game more like traditional role-playing than anything any platform has ever seen.

For all its undoubted good looks, proper names and neat tricks, the best footy game on PS2 is actually the humble PSone's ISS Pro Evolution.

It's one of those games that's simple to grasp, but bastard hard to explain.

It's still by far the finest crafted game of its ilk on the N64 and it positively oozes class from every pore.

It's tricky. Plunge in with the right attitude though and this will keep you happy for months.

The missions themselves are typical space sim affairs that never quite innovate, but always manage to entertain nonetheless. [PC Gamer UK]

Put simply in automotive terms, this latest NFS is (naturally) a Porsche where "GT2" is a McLaren F1 - more fun, better looking and ultimately every driver's fantasy.

What saves "The Sims" from becoming an unmanageable and nightmarish mess is the incredibly intuitive and easy to use interface.

If the "Streets of Rage" / "Dynamite Cop" genre of game is your thing, you'll love it, but if not, it'll simply leave you cold.

Inevitably, you have to compare this to "Final Fantasy VIII." While Septerra Core has a reasonable story behind it, it just doesn't match up in any other way. So, if you only want to buy one RPG then "FFVIII" has to be the number one choice. Sadly, Septerra Core is rather disappointing.

Carefully crafted, big and sprawling and, more to the point, fun and exciting, GTA2 retains the best qualities of its predecessors, and its new gang warfare element improves upon and expands upon the original idea, giving the gameplay a little more depth.

Despite the split-screen, there's little discernible slowdown and the visual detail remains spot-on. Psygnosis used Sony's Performance Analyzer, which enabled them to squeeze every last drop out of the PlayStation, and the result is virtually no pop-up and the crispest visuals imaginable.

Polished to a piercing gleam, considered beyond mortally tangible thought, it's the best beat 'em up we've played in years.

This is, in all possibility, the most stunningly attractive game the PlayStation has ever known.

Eat your hearts out David Soul, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood.

It's derivative, yet brilliant; intrinsically flawed, but fantastically playable.

The AI of Lara's assailants is markedly improved, the level design is ambitious (sometimes overly so) and there are a number of small, yet notable additions to the TR repertoire.

Call in sick at work, unplug the phone, cancel all your plans, and prepare yourself for one of the most intense, exciting, and downright brilliant gaming experiences of your life.

Empathy is the game's strongest suit, with tension coming a close second... As a whole the game's a classy, polished package.

The 42 campaign missions themselves use events like Pizarro's destruction of the Incas and the War of Independence as context, and are generally enjoyable, but they lack the attention to detail and narrative energy of the genre giants. [PC Gamer UK]

It can run a little slow and it's not without its niggles, but Football Manager 2006 is still the best for football and definitely this season's best footie sim. [PC Gamer UK]

Playable without being enjoyable, go and dig out one of the better FIFAs or unearth any ISS, because David Beckham Soccer doesn't live up to its namesake.