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

[Scoring note: "Direct Hit" = 100] A ram-jammed, brain-scrambling eye shag.

A stunning visual banquet, masterfully blending all the necessary ingredients for a cracking fantasy RPG. We're not likely to see many better PS2 titles this year.

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

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

A truly relentless wrestling game that will smack your head into several metal posts before grabbing your feet, twirling you around and launching you several furlongs over empty space.

A phenomenally high standard for survival horror, Resident Evil 4 is an intensely satisfying game of quite astounding quality. [NGC]

An essential, and long-lived, purchase. This is one shooter that you're going to want to savour.

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

Believe the hype. The new Best Game Ever just rode into town, and it's going to be sticking around for a long time.

More action-packed than the original was.

It does Sanrio Kittyness, it does scratched-up art weirdness, it does the Bust-A-Move house style, it does angled cartoon smoothness, it does colour, minimalism, random squiggles and it does it all with an enthusiasm that's so rare in all its rivals.

A great game, but it's never going to replace "Goldeneye" or "Perfect Dark." Both games do things bigger and better and more often.

A blaze of fiendish difficulty and strategic brilliance. You're about to be sorted.

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.

Combine full-on racing with a track design that should have "Wipeout's" makers hurrying back to the drawing board and then chuck in "Tony Hawk's" stupendously addictive tricks and you have PS2's finest moment to date.

With solo modes consisting of time trials, endurance tests or battles against virtual players, and wickedly competitive multiplayer games, Meteos is the most compellingly perfect puzzler we've played in years. [NGC Pocket]

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.

Put simply, this is the best 2D beat-em-up that we've played on any format so if you're a fan of the genre and choose to veer away from stunning 3D fighters like "Soul Calibur," this is the game for you.

Awe-inspiring to behold, deep, absorbing and epic to the nines, Overworks' sky-faring RPG sets a standard that will most others will never attain. You have been told.

This is as unsettling and absorbing an adventure as you could hope for.

This has more invention and genuine touches of class than the majority of PS2 games have in total.

Not the revolutionary title many had hoped, this is nonetheless as complete and professional a racer as you could wish for.

An essential purchase for anyone who's ever enjoyed being on the right end of a shotgun.

Sonic may be in a rush, but Sega clearly wasn't when they crafted this glorious game. [NGC Pocket]

Despite this being the fourth UK instalment and despite the core concept being one of the simplest things since Tetris, Wario Ware Twisted feels utterly unique. [NGC Pocket]

The scope for customisation, combined with the excellent battle system, a beautifully drawn game world, and an engrossing (if somewhat cliche) story means that Grandia 2 easily rivals the likes of "FF."

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