Treasure hasn't tampered with the overall mechanics of Radiant Silvergun, and doing so would have been a mistake.

As a showcase for the power of CryENGINE 3, Crysis 2 is a gorgeous showstopper. But as a game, it's an average, action-packed shooter that will thrill you with amazing set-pieces, frustrate you with shoddy AI, and confuse you with a fractured story. If there is one reason you have to play Crysis 2, it is for the fantastic multiplayer.

It also ends up being around twenty hours, so there is plenty of fun to be had in it.

Fighting fit and ready to rip off your head, it's definitely the best Mortal Kombat game released to date.

So while Soulcalibur III is a fighting game that measures up in every way to its predecessors, its failure to truly evolve in gameplay or online support – coupled with its under-developed single-player modes – makes it a lesser game than its elder outings.

There are so many things to love about this game. The unpredictable yet vastly improved gameplay, the slider adjustments that actually work (set the quarterback accuracy to zero in practice mode to see what I mean), the AI playcalling, the new recruiting model, the online dynasty tools, and so on; if all you want to do is play the occasional game with a buddy or play one season with your favorite team, or just relax against the AI and play exhibition games after work then NCAA 11 is an absolute must buy. However, if Dynasty Mode is your thing you are better off either waiting and hoping EA Sports patches the game or simply saving your money for next year.

A competent, if not particularly impressive, sequel. It makes some minor technological improvements, but packages them with major new flaws in the storytelling and gameplay.

Pretty much everything you could ask for in a turn based space strategy game: great AI, great diplomacy model, a ship designer, easy to understand techs, multiple races, multiple custom options, good graphics, solid interface, and a replay value that is through the roof.

Animal Crossing tends to take over your imagination and you start wondering what is happening in your town at all hours of the day and night, because life never stops in Animal Crossing. Be warned, it can become an obsession.

As a puzzle game, Professor Layton and the Unwound Future is an excellent offering, however, as a Professor Layton game it is simply extraordinary.

Like all the classic games that are a moment to learn and long in the mastering, We Love Katamari will find itself spinning in many gamers’ PS2s and will be the center of attention at your parties long after other games are on the shelf collecting dust.

It’s a shame there couldn’t be a multiplayer for this game as it might have been fun, but for 400 Microsoft points, what do you expect. It’s a great little pick up and play game that you can play with a little time to kill.

If EA Sports wants Fight Night to capture the attention of boxing fans, it needs to dramatically improve the single player game. Online play only goes so far.

It says a lot for a "little" XBLA RPG to be able to hold its own sitting next to Batman: Arkham City, as it did in the Warner Bros. Booth at E3 in June. Now we know why: Bastion is something special, clearly made with love and oodles of talent. Here's to one of the very best games of the summer – downloadable or otherwise.

The real genius in Four Swords Adventure is that it creates the perfect blend of teamwork, competition, and sadism.

Some people won't enjoy the combat system where the greatest strategy is just to keep on grinding your level up. However, if you look past the flaws, there's really an amusing experience laying in wait.

Like the visuals, the sounds rock the house. Besides the incredibly great soundtrack, the sound effects are some of the best around.

Manages to be that most rare thing; a PC-to-Console port that not only retains the quality of the original, but also tailors its gameplay perfectly to the console. This game is a hell of a lot of fun.

What small scratches dot the surface are allowable, because as an overall package this becomes one of the most worthy and required purchases you could ever make. Whatever you do, don't pass it up.

While the story may be from a fever dream, the graphics are straight out of a ’60s acid trip. The colors are bright and vivid. The art style is something between a Monty Python short and The Beetles’ "Yellow Submarine."

The character models themselves are largely devoid of character. There’s not a ton of detail to faces and the models themselves often come off rigid and too similar to each other.

GRAW 2 is stunning to look at, great to listen to and most of all fun to play – especially if you like cooperative multiplayer.

Despite some minor issues (and a couple that aren't so minor), Max Payne 3 still manages to be a first-class third-person shooter and is thus one of the better games of the year. More importantly, it's a welcome return for one of the shooter genre's better series. The years may not have been kind of Max, but it seems he hasn't missed a beat.

The controls are the big draw here, but they are also the biggest hindrance. Given a good amount of time with the game you will get the controls down, but it is hard to guess how long it will take to master. This is not a casual gamer’s game.

After looking back at all these factors, it’s obvious to me that even when it faltered, Mythic poured every ounce of its soul into WAR.

To be fair there are a lot of changes and tweaks made to the NHL 11 design, but many of them are so small to be nearly unnoticeable. As great as NHL 12 is, and it is a great game, it's not a giant leap from NHL 11. Is that enough to warrant another $60? Only you can answer that one.

The game isn’t completely mind blowing, but it does very few things wrong and is easily the best release of the series on the DS platform to date.

DJ Hero will only give you a glimpse into the realities of mixing and scratching, with some of the coolest mash-ups I’ve ever heard to entertain along the way.