Order of War does little to justify a purchase above the likes of CoH or Dawn of War II. The campaign modes are light on depth, and most seasoned players will breeze through before heading back to the heavy-hitters.

A mixture of classic and new levels is a perfect introduction for newcomers, but perhaps only the ardent roll ‘em up fan will truly love this Katamari.

We like Halo 3: ODST and welcome the injection of personality brought to the narrative by your lost crew - especially Firefly actor Nathan Fillion as Buck - but it doesn’t quite manage to live up to our lofty expectations of what a Halo title should offer.

For those of you looking for something different, Majesty 2 is definitely one to try out. The humour is light, if sometimes cheesy, and the gameplay is certainly intriguing. Whilst it’s not without its flaws (but then what game isn’t?), this is still a highly accessible title. If Majesty 2 was an 80's TV show, I’d certainly watch it.

The only issue that stuck out like a sore thumb was that the magnetism of the cursor was poor and three options to change it didn’t help either. For only 800 Microsoft Points, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3: Commander’s Challenge has plenty of replay value for offline players.

Fighting through crowds of enemies is only appealing for so long until a sense of confusion sets; a confusion that asks, “What else does WET offer besides the same fights over and over again?” The answer to that rhetorical question is not much.

Fighting through crowds of enemies is only appealing for so long until a sense of confusion sets; a confusion that asks, “What else does WET offer besides the same fights over and over again?” The answer to that rhetorical question is not much.

While it’s true some of the tasks open to you in Red Faction: Guerrilla can feel a little repetitious, even laborious, they’re vastly outweighed by the sheer fun you can have taking the land and EDF apart.

It's unreservedly brilliant.

Need For Speed Shift does exactly what it is made for: giving any driver the experience they want in a racing game.

Need For Speed Shift does exactly what it is made for: giving any driver the experience they want in a racing game.

As the name suggest, expect more enemies, and a harder fight for survival.

More time was spent fiddling in the control settings menu than actually getting on with the on-ice action, which speaks volumes of a title that prides itself on such an innovative system.

More time was spent fiddling in the control settings menu than actually getting on with the on-ice action, which speaks volumes of a title that prides itself on such an innovative system.

As uninspiring as it is, Heroes Over Europe does deliver adequate multiplayer features that are found in a majority of other similar titles.

NHL 2K10 talks a good game with it’s brilliant TV-style presentation and is almost every bit as comprehensive as its competitor, but when it comes down to the clutch, 2K can’t quite seem to ‘squeeze it’ where it really counts.

NHL 2K10 talks a good game with it’s brilliant TV-style presentation and is almost every bit as comprehensive as its competitor, but when it comes down to the clutch, 2K can’t quite seem to ‘squeeze it’ where it really counts.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 is a fun game that doesn’t push the boundaries, but does what it’s supposed to just fine.

Additional gameplay material, such as playing through training simulations, harder difficulties and the ton of unlockables promise lots of replay time for the Marvel fan.

If there’s one music-oriented video game to buy this holiday season, it has to be The Beatles: Rock Band. Harmonix and MTV Games have created an exceptional representation of The Fab Four that needs to be lived by all music aficionados.

If there’s one music-oriented video game to buy this holiday season, it has to be The Beatles: Rock Band. Harmonix and MTV Games have created an exceptional representation of The Fab Four that needs to be lived by all music aficionados.

It is best not to come into Sonic & Knuckles looking for redrawn sprites or HD graphics – this is a faithful port that doesn’t try to crush anyone’s memories of how the game performed in the ‘90’s.

It’s perfectly pleasant and enjoyable brand of cartoon violence will probably see a good few hours of your time fly by as you swipe your way through adorable, glowing-eyed samurai enemies.

It’s perfectly pleasant and enjoyable brand of cartoon violence will probably see a good few hours of your time fly by as you swipe your way through adorable, glowing-eyed samurai enemies

DiRT 2 is without doubt the most comprehensive and utterly playable off-road racing game we’ve ever played. The overall racing experience is never anything but pleasurable, the depth and range of challenges on offer lending massive longevity and the presentation is also nothing short of exceptional.

DiRT 2 is without doubt the most comprehensive and utterly playable off-road racing game we’ve ever played. The overall racing experience is never anything but pleasurable, the depth and range of challenges on offer lending massive longevity and the presentation is also nothing short of exceptional.

What is Guitar Hero trying to do? It's not pushing in any straight direction, but in every which way, making owners everywhere enjoy the lowest common denominator. As a rhythm game, there's no comparison, but as a music game, one in which players can enjoy the songs they are playing...that's something that needs to be seriously addressed.

Guitar Hero 5 is definitely the highest point of the series, since it passed into the hands of Neversoft. Activision's game has some very interesting ideas like Play Party, Avatars in game and a lot of game modes to have fun with your friends. Some imperfections in the packaging still restrict the final judging, but all those who loved World Tour can buy this chapter without remorse.

With the customary spit and polish the engine will receive over the next year, Champions Online certainly has the potential to turn into the best superhero MMO out there. For now, that mantle still belongs to City of Heroes, but having played both games throughout beta and release, this is certainly a more daring title in the initial stages.

It’s not a game that you should spend your money on quite yet. Maybe, after the passage of time, when you can find it cheap or even for free, it will be worth a cursory glance. For the moment however, it’s best to skip this one out.

Rewarding and engrossing in equal measure, the entire production reeks of quality from the stellar voice work to the jaw-dropping visuals and intuitive control system. Truly this is the Batman game that everybody’s been waiting for.

Rewarding and engrossing in equal measure, the entire production reeks of quality from the stellar voice work to the jaw-dropping visuals and intuitive control system. Truly this is the Batman game that everybody’s been waiting for.

Whilst Section 8 may not be revolutionary, it’s a refreshing take on the genre.

A fun, yet involving game. The action is well paced, there’s plenty of differing challenges, and the story will keep you hooked whether you’re a card fan or not.

One thing’s for certain though, this game is huge.

Once again though, the graphics shouldn’t hold back hardcore fans of the turtles from purchasing Turtles in Time Re-Shelled.

If gamers are worried about Fat Princess not giving them an amusing time, then they should worry no longer – Fat Princess has more highs than lows to justify a digital download for any PlayStation 3 owner.

A good blend of economics and warfare, Paradox fans and newcomers alike should like it. Those who liked the new trade system in Empire will love this game, as whilst not being perfect, it sure as hell is addictive.

If you've forgotten just how much fun Gears' 2 multiplayer can be, whether co-op campaign, Horde mode or straight-up ranked play takes your fancy, now would be the time to step back into the fray.

So when it’s all said and done, The King of Fighters XII isn’t going to be placed on a mantle above all other fighting games. It lacks proper net code and not everyone is going to enjoy the pixilated graphics.

So when it’s all said and done, The King of Fighters XII isn’t going to be placed on a mantle above all other fighting games. It lacks proper net code and not everyone is going to enjoy the pixilated graphics.

When a licenced game fails to excite fans of the franchise on which its content is based, it had better have something in reserve for the swathes of other consumers to latch onto. Unfortunately for The Punisher, it ends up unrecommended in both regards.

If you haven't played Worms before, pick this up. Otherwise, you're probably best to stick with what you've got. Worms 2: Armageddon is great fun, just as it was ten years ago.

We could go on and on listing the problems with Infernal: Hell’s Vengeance, but like the game, we were bored from the very beginning of having to write this.

The harsh void of an instructive and friendly tutorial is enough to send away newcomers within the first minutes of firing up the game.

Ultimately, it’s Heavy Weapons quick decision to leave all casual players in the lurch that leaves it scoring lower than it should.

A decent little title, and a testament to just how far you can take your hobby if you but try.

The Golden Horde is a pleasant shake up to the usual tried and true method of a RTS game, mixing light RPG to give the player the chance to better customise and tune their own war machine is an engaging feature. Unfortunately this also plays against as some won’t find it to their tastes.

All in all Supreme Ruler is a solid game.

If you liked Samurai Warriors, then you'll like number 2.

Buy it on a console if you must play it, but don't expect things to be much of an improvement.

Perhaps this is due to the game being rushed out to coincide with the film's release, but whatever the reasoning behind it, The Incredible Hulk just doesn't quite seem finished.

This game earns the name extreme, from the maps to the enemies to the combat.

Mass Effect is a superb game for its story, its breadth of characters and setting a new bar of standard for cinematic videogaming.

It's well presented, incorporates some intriguing puzzles and actually involves a good deal of thinking. It's also repetitive, obtuse, and frustrating with game mechanics that seem a little dated.

For all its comical charm, Jack Keane does not quite reach the heights of the games that inspired it.

From strategic trading, the recruiting of legions, where to garrison them, who’s right for the job from governor to general – Rome is possibly one of the only games out there that can really give gamers a glimpse into just how pressured emerging super powers were. After all Rome wasn’t built in a day, let Paradox show you why.

The price tag for these games feels about right for the number of hours that come out of them, and I find myself going back and replaying earlier episodes, which helps me to feel that I got the bang I want for my buck.

As cheap as it is, the game is just too unstable to recommend. There are some colossal load times (even with 2GB of RAM), persistent crash-to-desktop issues, and many, many occasions when you'll need to reload your last save game due to bugs.

Unfortunately, Obscure II's solidity of game design tends to fall by the wayside to some glaring technical glitches and generally low production values, making it look like a game from 2005 rather than 2007 at times.

If NOMBZ had gameplay to match the artistic style it would be an above average third-person shooter, but it doesn’t.

Kane's Wrath is a commendable expansion to an already impressive game.

Even before the credits roll Sam and Max shoot their way into the shop, defeat a laser grid, complete every child’s favorite science project and get abducted by aliens in the process. Just another day for the dog and hyper kinetic rabbity thing!

For a game so concerned with balance, its annoyances are in danger of outweighing its virtues.

The level of historical detail on offer will be enviable to even the more established franchises, and whilst Imperium doesn't do anything to reinvent the genre as a whole, it's certainly a well-refined product that's worth a look to veteran players; or particularly those of you jumping in for the first time. Solid, if unspectacular then.

After my first pass at Saga I’m still excited about the game and enjoying it and forsee many hours ahead of me in the Saga universe.

Whilst the integration of the physics system within the environment in Penumbra is certainly more deeply-ingrained, the puzzles themselves never quite reach the same level of ingenuity as the classic Valve title.

If you’re just getting into Sam and Max, Night of the Raving Dead isn’t a bad place to start and definitely worth the cost, though you’ll miss out on some of the in jokes.

If you're a casual gamer then steer clear, but If you have both the time and the inclination to devote a lot of time to learning the sometimes over complicated set up then you'll have more fun than some kind of space pun I can't think of at the moment.

Overall there is probably not enough in here to make it worth upgrading if you already own the previous version. The new additions and tweaks are all very welcome and should encourage more people to enjoy what is a solid and fascinating game. That said, if you are a war fanatic, as some of us war gamers tend to be, then you will obviously lap up the new features and get a lot more value out of the game.

Despite a great deal of attention obviously being poured into the environments (both sea and land), there’s a distinct lack of various aquatic hazards that would make Ship Sim far more immersive; namely tides and currents.

There's no doubt that Flying Lab have created the best online sea-faring adventure there is for players to get their fix of the Caribbean with such a large, intricate and growing community.

The writing is getting tighter with each pass and the folks at TellTale really seem to know what they want from the series and where they’re going with it, and I’m happy to be along for the ride!

Universe At War: Earth Assault is a finely shaped game with some underlying issues to be sure, mainly UI related, but Petroglyph’s brand of cheesy action humour and the great diversity of strategy, especially when playing against other red blooded players, can make war a guilty pleasure again.

All in all Band of Bugs was a good play, though how much replayability for the price tag it has is yet to be seen.

All in all this is a game that I still feel has potential. All the right aspects are there, but the spit and polish is missing the spit.

All in all, Shadowgrounds: Survivor is a game for fans, casual gamers, and for gamers who miss the old ‘simple’ style of the arcade era. Newcomers may be a little put off with the ‘enter-in-the-middle-of-a-story’ feeling, but if you just ignore the story completely, then what you are left with is a perfectly enjoyable third-person shooter.

Crysis is a truly evolved first person shooter, both in terms of just how photorealistic the whole immersion becomes and the gameplay its highly attuned physics simulation brings to the player.

All in all Fantasy Wars is a solid game. If you are not a turn based strategy fan give it a miss, Fantasy Wars isn’t going to make any converts but it won’t drive away anyone who enjoys the genre either.

I loved Empire Earth and still do to this day, but Empire Earth III is literally in a universe of its own. It barely takes anything of worth from its root and instead we are left with an unremarkable real-time strategy.

Overall Darkness Within wasn’t a bad game…however it wasn’t a great game either. It’s a game with a lot of potential that felt like it just needed someone to tighten everything up across the board.

All in all, Hellgate is a success in the more revolutionary areas of its gameplay, though more attention could have been paid to the typical action RPG elements that seem to have been taken for granted.

This is a game that's worth immersing yourself in. There may be a few bugs now, but they'll inevitably be fixed in a patch soon, and there's more than enough here to keep you coming back for more Thrax-spanking action.

Perhaps not one for the hardcore role player, but an FPS gamer or MMO addict might well find The Witcher to be a great alternative to watching a DVD during the evening.

Escape from Paradise City attempts to combine strategy games and RPGs, but does so in a most unspectacular manner.

Dawn of Magic contains enough deep content and a pleasing enough approach to the genre to recommend a purchase, but only if you know what's in-store and don't mind the incessantly repetitive nature of the combat.

What they get is what they expect; a bright and brash fighting game that keeps to the established expectations, but would have been far better suited to the repetitious, unpretentious and simplistic nature of a home console.

The controls for the PC translate quite well from the console, you can tell from the menu it’s a port and not a natively developed game.

A little more imagination and Galactic Assault could have been a far more valuable addition to the overfull alien battle strategy genre.

Medal of Honor: Airborne is a game that needs time ploughed into it to reap the fill awards. If you’re looking for something that will reinvigorate your experience of WWII FPS’ then look elsewhere. But if you are looking for an excuse to take the same old fight back to the Nazis’ then here is your answer.

The sum of an adventure game’s parts however is equal to that of the quality of the puzzles. Operation Wintersun gives us a mixed bag indeed.

Two Worlds succeeds at what it sets out to provide – a poor man’s Oblivion and a simple, unrestrictive introduction to role playing games.

Destination: Treasure Island a good game. In fact if you like Adventures, I’d say that given the slating they have been given over the years, it is very good.

Since this isn’t aimed toward the flight sim brigade, the control system is a critical make-or-break aspect of Attack on Pearl Harbor.

Just prepare to be very forgiving of the show stopping bugs and flaws that the game contains.

The Guild 2: Pirates of the European Seas does justice to the franchise and certainly shows in the areas it has listened to the community.

In summary, I loved playing Tomb Raider: Anniversary, in fact I enjoyed it to the extent of often staying up way too late just wanting to see what came next or trying to get through a particularly difficult section. I would thoroughly recommend this game, both to fans of the original, and newcomers alike.

Sword of the Stars is unique from other turn-based space empire titles out there, the enormous sizes of the galaxies and their shapes set it apart. Players of the original will already be familiar with this but for those still in the dark, space is all 3D here and not just in terms of pretty graphics.