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.