Activision has copied the gameplay of Civilisation, but the designers just aren't good enough to infuse it with the magic. Even if they had done, enough already! Do something new!

A multiplayer game that required the turtles to co-ordinate their efforts and powers could have rocked so much harder. For that matter, so could a camera that chose better angles and thus caused to fewer missed jumps due to misjudged distances.

An unpolished sequel that hardly improves on an already-average original. Fine in the short term, but ultimately tiresome.

Another potentially great game crashes and burns due to sloppy programming and a premature release. Pity.

This is a franchise for those who like games entirely cerebral, with no need for reflexes or marksmanship.

A "Sims"-Lite with a 12-year-old's vision of life painted glossily (and thinly) on top. You'll either love it or hate it depending on your view of games and the world. [PSM2]

The game's just chunky and sloppy all around, a real waste of a perfectly capable system. If you can buy any version, don't make it this one. Then just go check out the movie instead.

The end result is a ramshackle affair that will please neither hardcore Spy Hunters nor Joe "GTA."

It handles something like a granny on roller skates and its graphics are distinctly vague and blocky: surely disappointing for a latter day PlayStation game.

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.

Put simply, it's not half as exciting as you'd expect.

The action pauses so frequently to remind you how to excute your task that the entire game ends up feeling like one giant training tutorial. It's impossible to get stuck at any point because all of the answers are pretty much handed right to you.

Thanks god Vicarious Visions delivered the delectable Spider-Man 2 on PS2 before this soulless dross. Treat this like an eight-legged creature on your wall and squash it flat. [PSM2]

Surprisingly though, this isn't that bad. Well, it's not terrible, anyway. Which is, in itself, a surprise.

As we all know, it's how you use it that counts, and like most things that come from America, this is all mouth and very little trouser.

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

A perfectly competent but utterly uninspired kart racer that pales in comparison with Mario Kart.

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.

A dull, linear first-person shooter with international conflict as its backdrop, that tries to put players into the boots of a WW2 soldier embroiled in the thick of the things, but fails miserably. [XGamer]

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

Painkiller: Hell Wars is the very definition of a mindless kill-crazy rampage, and while simple experiences certainly have their place, the time this game spent in development purgatory seems to have made even the high points feel limp.

[Miss = 50 on Radar scale] Unfortunately, the fidgety camera is so poor and makes searching such a bleeding chore that being Spider-Man seems a dull job.

The handling seems ludicrously over-sensitive -- and you'll soon find yourself slamming into the sides, misjudging corners and generally feeling like a fool.

Lucky for Disney that dull console games don't seem to affect the performance of big movies at the box office. [NGC]

[Games Radar Rating = Miss] fans of the series deserve more than a shiny retread. Although the legend remains intact for now, it'd be a crime if Crash was still spinning along the same narrow path next year.

Sonic fans may fill their need for speed here, but everyone else, please walk on.