LHP seems to indicate that the franchise has got its Mojo back, but whether it keeps it or not is another matter. Still, for the time being, Potter's superiority should ensure that old fans will be cheered up and new devotees welcomed into the fold. There is not much here that can be called fresh and inventive but enough minor adjustments have been made to the formula to revive the waning gameplay and provide a decent story and a welcoming return for the classic Lego game.

Transformers: War for Cybertron doesn't break the mould, but it does offer wonderfully tight gameplay and a respectable online component. Overall, it's an entertaining shooter to play, but for childhood fans of the subject matter, it offers that little bit more.

It's polished, sharp, enjoyable, and there is plenty of fun to be had over months and months. If you enjoy games for games sake – and if you have kids – then this is pretty much a must own.

MGS fans rejoice, the bang-for-buck ratio has never been higher than in Metal Gear: Peace Walker, and those of you who are new to the series, or gave up when it all got too ridiculous, give this one a go, I doubt you'll be disappointed.

The problem people will have with Alpha Protocol is that it takes a lot of effort to get to see any of the good stuff. By halfway through, when you're calling in help mid-mission and can move around the map like a shadow, there really is some fun to be experienced. Clunky implementation aside, Alpha Protocol offers a glimpse of what a game based on the world of espionage could be like, and it could be good, with some hard work.

The arrival of a new Mario title is as unpredictable as the sun rising tomorrow. It's equally probable that the game will be absolutely, unflinchingly perfect, and guess what? It bloody is. Almost.

Alan Wake is a fun jaunt across a variety of stereotypes and offers some new gameplay ideas. Unfortunately it’s just not entirely scary, and I find it hard to see where the five years went in making it. Good, but not stellar.

While other Rockstar games have delivered experiences that have often been frenetic and hectic, Redemption inversely succeeds by replacing a bustling, breathing city with the bleakness and emptiness of the old west. Don't confuse the terms bleakness and emptiness with lacking content, because Redemption has the potential to deliver an almost endless list of things to do and see.

The definite arcade nature of play sets this up to be experienced with friends or online. Everything is so simple – the screen is uncluttered with trivialities like a speedometer or map, and the controls are limited to just a few buttons. It really should do well as a casual title to play with mates. Restarting a level takes only moments, allowing players to retry levels in a snap, and the awesomeness starts right from the minute the level loads. As a single player experience it may not have the longest lifespan, but it could become the most popular arcade racer out there.

If you love your football, and plan on having lots of people over for World Cup parties, then this could be a perfect addition to your library.

We’re not here for the story, we’re here to be wowed, challenged, infuriated, awed, and rewarded for our brute strength and cunning. In spite of the technical limitations of the Wii, Monster Hunter Tri does all this, minus the pretension, and it does it in spades.

Splinter Cell: Conviction is a fun game to play for most of the time, frustratingly disappointing at others. It’s far too easy, has some poor AI, but above all it’s just not expressive enough. Cool as it may be, visually and conceptually, you can only get excited about infiltrating another warehouse or mansion in the dead of night so often.

It’s fair to say I was more than impressed with Just Cause 2. After 26 hours I had completed the core missions, but had only found or completed 25 per cent of things to do on the island. It retains an appeal to jump in and keep searching for those missing crates, completing locations, and causing havoc. One of the best open world games ever made.

So here's the problem, exactly how much do you get out of waving your arms around? For me, especially with the Wii Motion Plus, the answer is: Quite a lot. It's probably the most motion-control fun I've had with the Wii yet.

God of War III is an exhilarating tale, and one which showcases just what a good development team can do with some predictable mechanics. Most of the other games that exist in the genre have been blasted if not into obscurity, then certainly into irrelevance. Although God of War III remains unapologetically a hack 'n' slash title, just about everything has been improved, tweaked, expanded, polished, and refined.

If Dawn of War II was Relic’s attempt to reinvent the genre, Chaos Rising is an evolution of the ideas they previously put forward. It’s fun, atmospheric and over-the-top in all the right ways. Those with reservations about the first title would do well to check this one out – it does everything the previous game did, and does it better.

The unique Battlefield experience returns and is bigger, better and more destructive than anything else in the series, or on the market, and will be a massive success online. Bad Company 2 had a lot to live up to, and despite some small issues, it has. A more stable and genuinely engaging single player campaign is bolstered by the most engaging and complex multiplayer in the genre.

If ever there were a sequel for a sequel’s sake, this is it, a stable, hectic shooter that has developed through a variety of tweaks, but never scales the heights of our first trip to Rapture.

The two halves– the rewarding combat and the massive role playing element – will provide something for everyone. If you’re a fan of both camps, then you really need to get this. A wonderful, immersive tale that sets things up superbly for the finale, which, based on the evolution Mass Effect 2 has showed, should be magnificent.

This is a game to be played with one eyebrow raised, because that's how the game's looking at you. But for all its snide Gen-X affectations, its often puerile humour, its sarcasm, and insults to gaming and gamers alike, it never insults your intelligence. That's a precious, rare thing in games.

This game is about brutally beating your opponents into unconsciousness with your fists and feet, shooting them, burning them and electrocuting them, over and over and over again. The title music sounds just like my little sister’s 10th birthday party. We’re in for some fun here.

It’s easy to overlook the flaws because there are so many good things to pay attention to, although it’s still not perfect. Having it a little shorter and not repeating the enemies so much would be a start. Still, it’s hard not to recommend because there is just so much here for the player to do and doing it all is awesome.

A rip roaring tale of urban warfare in Paris in the 40s against the Nazi war machine owes as much to cinematic storytelling as it does the variety of gaming styles utilised. Despite the complexities of weaving so many styles into a cohesive whole, this is a game that has surprised greatly, and on that basis, it’s worth investing in.

King Arthur is the kind of title big game companies just don't make anymore. Challenging, ambitious and quirky, this is certainly a game that deserves a look, particularly if Neocore continue the fine job they're doing with addressing a few of the game's issues.

By being better in almost every department than its predecessor, Assassin’s Creed 2 does exactly what a sequel should.

In short, this is a frantic thrill-ride, as fast paced as anything you are likely to endure. Even for those that were not fans of the original, I’d suggest giving this a try. For those that loved the first, this game is a must-have, polished and refined in every way, infinitely re-playable and guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Although it follows exactly the same formula as most other Mario games, that's exactly why we love it. Adding four player co-op is just the icing on an already amazing cake.

This is a leader in the genre and a must own for anyone who enjoys online combat, and although a longer solo campaign would always be welcome, you can’t accuse what does exist of being underwhelming.

Although there may be other games in this genre on the shelf, I don’t think any of them come close to doing what Dragon Age Origins does. There are times when you really wish you had a mouse and keyboard but all in all, this is about as functional as it can get.

By taking the best elements of the previous releases, blending them with borrowed features from the competition, and adding entirely new elements, we are now presented with a whole new experience, and the injection of longevity into a game that has expanded the boundaries of its genre. This is hours upon hours of fun and an absolute must-have for anybody who has ever enjoyed martial arts-based games.

There is wonderful groundwork here, a lot of things are handled well and it will appeal to all ages, but until players can pick the songs they want to mix then it really is nothing more than a glorified prompt-reaction exercise. Should the personalisation be upped – and that’s not going to be an easy thing to do – then the potential for this is pretty high.

The gaming equivalent of watching Saturday morning cartoons, this is an easy-going marriage of puzzle solving and shooting in a game that never tries to box above its weight class, and it never has to.

It’s extremely easy to sit down intending to play for a few minutes, only to look up and see that two hours has gone by. The few balance and graphical issues really don’t detract that much from what is as solid a first release as you could hope for from a new company. Torchlight is ambitious, well-executed and, most of all, some of the best fun PC gamers can get for the price.

Slick visuals and an addictive scavenging approach doesn't save Borderlands from eventually slipping into the realm of almost-great.

The expected trickle of tweaks implemented has turned into a torrent, and all across the board there are improvements. As a football game, this is the best of the bunch, and a great experience.

If you haven't done so already, get stuck into this, because it has depth, fun, excitement, and longevity. If you were to pick between formats, maybe the touch screen would swing you in the DS direction, but the improvements made on the whole for the PSP cannot be ignored, and the PSP version stands out for all the right reasons.

As it stands, Duels of the Planeswalkers is a really enjoyable game. It allows newcomers to learn the ropes while letting experts get straight into dueling. Should it receive extensive support in the future – buying decks online, booster packs, online trading of cards – it could be massive. We sincerely hope it will be expanded down the line, because after a few days straight playing, we’d like to see some variation or the ability to construct dueling decks from scratch. But for your Microsoft Points, it’s something that comes highly recommended.

It is with a sense of dismay then that I say that this: all things considered, it’s hard to call this a brilliant title. It has one of the most enjoyable 10 hour campaigns I’ve played, and if it were to be scored on that alone, it would have done a fair bit better. If you’re a fan of the genre of music, like I am, then the single player would be somewhere in the low –to mid-90s. The fact remains though that bolted onto this wonderful experience are sub par multiplayer and some terrible navigation issues.

The PS3 equivalent of a summer blockbuster, scripted and directed by a silver screen Goliath, makes Naughty Dog's anticipated sequel a landmark in gaming.

The campaign may suit co-op a hell of a lot better than on your own, and will certainly provide plenty of game time for those who prefer their realistic combat simulators with the realism right up there. There’s not a lot to it, it’s bent and warped with problems, but at its heart lies something that those committed to the game will love.

Much as it may well be technically possible to perform a heart-lung transplant with your DVD remote, or teach your dog to fill out your tax return, one can’t help but realise that there’s a much easier way to go about these things. By cramming this massive suite of fully-featured audio tools into the PSP, Rockstar have unfortunately led us ultimately into an endless web of frustration, with context-sensitive assignable sub-menus within sub-menus within sub-menus; with painful load and seek-times; with scrolling around the bloody screen again and again for the bloody knob-or-button that’s right bloody there.

This isn’t a bad strategy game by any measure – it delivers some solid missions, along with cinematic action and decent graphical performance. But after so many games using World War II as a setting, more of a personal connection to the narrative of the time would have been nice.

Majesty 2 is a fun and addictive fantasy title, combining a familiar setting with some different and innovative game mechanics, but is unfortunately burdened by poor AI and design choices.

Combining superb atmosphere, setting, and visuals with a learning curve that will appeal to casual gamers and experience simulation pilots means that this is the best all round console flight combat game, bar none.

With plenty of other driving games either fresh on the market or soon to drop, it would appear that Colin McRae DiRT 2 has the off-road side of the fence stitched up. If you’re a fan of racing through mud and dust, you’re not going to find a title out there that’s better than this.

A diverse tracklist means there really is something for everyone, and sticking it on Party Mode to play random songs is great with friends. New competitive modes are also well executed, meaning there’s enjoyment to be dragged from it everywhere.

Favouring the animation series over the movie for setting was an inspired choice, and the depth of detail and maximum use of the source material make this a game that will remembered for a long time.

An engaging single player experience that offers plenty of replay value, and a multiplayer component that has tonnes of upgrades, ranks and the rest, meld together into a AAA title.

For an online multiplayer experience, 1943 is up there with the best of them. With some more add-ons and expansions, which we’d gladly pay for, it can become amazing. But even as it stands, it’s pretty much an essential purchase if you’re a fan of multiplayer combat.

If you’re a fan of the western genre and era but are unsure about investing in Bound in Blood, worry no more. Without a doubt the best game in its genre for now, it’s a worthy investment. Rich single player, functional and enjoyable multiplayer which will be supported with downloadable maps, it ticks all the boxes.

By now, countless games have been made of various Games Workshop franchises, with wildly varying levels of success. As a full-priced game, Blood Bowl might not be for casual gamers, but the devotees are going to have a spike-studded ball. Where another developer might have taken the franchise and turned it another action-packed button-masher, Blood Bowl is the most faithful translation of the board game that you’re ever likely to get.

EA's Fight Night 4 is the best looking boxing game ever made, and it also handles brilliantly. Unfortunately, we couldn't load it up without pulling out our network adapter, and found some inherent flaws in the career mode. But for boxing action online or with friends, this is an essential purchase.

Requisite whining about copy protection aside, this is a solid title that offers some fun and addictive game play, with lots to discover and plenty to do. It’s ridiculously easy to sit down with the intention of playing for a few minutes, only to look up and see that two or three hours have gone past. There’s a lot of character in the animations, the voice-acting is superb and the setting is fantastic. Dawn of Discovery deserves to be checked out by anybody who has an interest in exploration and the classic city-building titles of old.

The Wiimote is designed to let you feel like you’re playing the game, so you need to let it. You also need to spend a lot of time learning the ropes, because you didn’t buy Grand Slam Tennis for it to play like Wii Sports. It may be tough to master it but master it you can, and to be fair the Motion Plus does a remarkably good job of recreating what you want when you know how to use it.

A sandbox game that turns you into a superhero, maybe, is a surprisingly entertaining jaunt despite it not immediately capturing our imagination. inFamous does a lot of things right.

The presentation, combat mechanics, visuals, physics, roster, character creation and development, and having a proper matchmaking function are all gold stars. The online lag and saving messages are the only real distractions. It may not have the speed and sense of urgency that the real sport has, but it comes close.

As a World War II strategy simulation, there really isn’t anything else on the market which compares to the sort of game the Battlestations series puts out. And although as a reviewer it pains me to make it this simple, if you liked the first then you’ll love the second. Everything has been given a coat of paint and has been given a lot more depth.

It’s no must buy, but in the grand scheme of things, this isn’t a half bad slash ‘em up. People uninterested in the story should enjoy the maniacal combat, fans of Wolverine may find that they really enjoy it.

Zeno Clash is what a future cult favourite looks like. With a wickedly brutal melee engine, and some jaw-dropping visual design, this gorgeously demented indie brawler is short but sweet.

Ultimately, Tales of Valor is worth buying only as long as you’re going to make use of the multiplayer component. A few of the new units need some exploit fixes, and the direct fire system feels more like a gimmick than anything that is really going to add a lot to the game. Let’s hope that Tales of Valor is a stop-gap release to tide the fans over, before Relic announces that Eastern Front expansion we’ve all been waiting for.

As something built for the fans, you can’t really fault it. It’s the best guitar game out there at the moment, and anything coming after this in terms of band specific titles has a high benchmark to be measured against.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is a monster, multi faceted game on a mini-system. It is as well designed as a game could be, makes wonderful use of the system it is for and is by far and away (and I mean very far away) the best game I have played on the DS.

Just remember: when possible, aim for the head (if it has one); don’t be afraid to run like a little girl; and this being a Resident Evil game, expect everything living to mutate horribly with the expressed purpose of using your internal organs as a hat. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Provided you have some patience, and a computer with enough horsepower to run it, the game is addictive, rewarding and a lot of fun. It would be nice to see Creative Assembly support this title following release, particularly given how much “character” Empire has. A few bug fixes and overhauls could turn this into one for the ages.

Drop dead gorgeous visuals and Guerrilla getting adventurous with the multiplayer makes this one of the must-play games on the PS3.

Goddamn if I don’t look back at the time I spent on it and grin. It’s significantly longer than you’d imagine too, with perhaps 15 hours game time if you try and challenge yourself a little bit and put it on Hard. So really, what more can you ask for – reasonable physics, good soundtrack, loads of gaming, multiplayer, replayability? Believe me, nobody is as surprised as I am by that sentence. But I tell you, this is worth a go.

While it’s a little buggy in places, and even though Capcom have not acknowledged the existence of a third dimension, there’s nothing wrong with SF4 that cannot be quickly patched out, and even the most distractible of gamers will find it hard to put the controller down for long.

It might weigh in at a massive 1.78Gb of a download, but the sheer volume of new content is the reason why. The Lost and Damned has set a new benchmark for the quality of downloadable content and other developers take note. Two or three hours game time in an unrelated zone hardly comes close to matching this. Quite simply, anyone who enjoyed GTA IV should make downloading this their highest priority.

It may be out of the question if you’ve got a PC and have MAME, where I’m sure all these games are available for free, but if you’ve got the cash and the memories, then this can provide a lot of what games used to be all about – fun.

House of the Dead: Overkill may be a bit short on content but it more than makes up for it by achieving exactly what it set out to do, supplying a gruesome blood splattered shoot’em up, with its tongue firmly in its rotted cheek. Now if only I could import some of the other Wii characters in to replace the mutants.

While it may only be a hack and slash, button mashing experience at its core, the art work, gore factor and voice acting means that for those who allow themselves to ignore the simplicity of its combat, and the usual problems like camera angles that games like this are burdened with, it's a refreshing and entertaining experience.

Grinding and flips have never been so much like the real thing, and despite being rather complex in the controls department, most of the time, it always comes off.

The Prince’s debut on the PS3 and 360 may be impressive, but changes in the formula mean that it’s not going to appeal to everyone.

From a gaming era that you would think was long forgotten comes a remake of one of the best RPG games ever to be released, now available on the DS, and a must play.

A fun exercise that needs continual updating to keep making it work.

Where "The Club" and "Shadowrun" were online-only games that faded quickly because they were fun for a few minutes, Left 4 Dead has the potential to become a cult classic, like Counterstrike. It doesn’t matter that the levels are the same every time you play, because when you’ve mastered the various elements of the game, that’s what brings its own rewards.

Moving away from the track and back onto the roads may have returned Need for Speed to where it belongs, but things aren’t perfect yet.

It may not compare to SSX Tricky, Amped 3 or 1080 in terms of sheer arcade enjoyment, but the Wii version is better than the 360 and the balance board is the reason why. It’s fun for a moderate amount of time and looks good. Worth a shot.

The undisputed champion of the MMO world has delivered the ultimate sucker punch to all its competitors; delivering a visually outstanding, totally engaging and massively entertaining new expansion.

It’s hard to emphasize what a refreshing thing it is to play a game that’s so completely ... different.

If you played the first Red Alert and the various add-ons for that, then you have a much better idea of this latest release than you might think you do. If you liked the first one, you’ll love this. Its modernisation hasn’t come at the cost of playability, and while it’s not the best game out this Xmas and it’s not the best RTS on the market, it’s still damn good fun.

However, the new approach to World War II adds a surprise at every turn and World at War delivers a good single-player experience, and even manages to hold its own against some of the toughest multiplayer competition out there.

Action fans everywhere are going to adore it, but I recommend everyone play it. It’s big, brash, loud and full of ball-shrinkingly deadly scenarios and for that, we can forgive the predictability of the rest of it.

The biggest ever multiplayer for a console game, coupled with a simply massive storyline, means that despite its faults, Resistance 2 is worth a look for anyone after a hardcore shooter on the PS3.

But really, those why find the missions a little repetitive are missing the point, because while Fallout 3 is certainly not perfect, the goods outweigh the bad to such a degree that the negatives really can be ignored. Whether you want to trade, rob trade caravans, become a melee combat specialist or perfect killing from 500 yards, the possibilities are endless.

What is a simple fact is that this is a must purchase if you own a PS3. My local retailer has entirely removed its ‘Coming Soon’ section for the PS3 so there’s nothing to wait for. This is, by far, the best game on the system and certainly a serious contender for game of the year.

It really comes down to this: if you are going to buy a band kit, which do you buy, Rock Band or Guitar Hero World Tour? I say the latter. Better drums is the big thing if you’re getting the whole kit, because if you’re not, the Rock Band has more songs to play, if you have the money to download them. But if you are after drums, there’s only one answer: and this game is it.

A brilliantly realised world means Lionhead have come closer to delivering on its lofty promises than ever before, and the players are the ones who reap the reward.

A picturesque, open world environment and some simply brilliant fire physics make up for incompetent AI and a lot of repetitiveness in the missions.

A dominance of circuit based racers means Midnight Club: Los Angeles is quite a breath of fresh air in the run up to the Christmas season.

Returning to Stilwater may not be the prettiest experience in life, but the sheer level of mayhem contained in the game makes it noticeable for different reasons.

It's always uncomfortably close to the real, and in the real world it's so much worse to be this horribly intimate with something so nasty. If I had to complain about something I'd say the game was a little too long for me, but everything has to take 15 bloody hours these days, and bloody hours they are.

The FIFA series has been stuck somewhere around Division Two for the last few years, but the 09 version is the best yet.

A simple premise, brilliantly executed, makes World of Goo one of the year's best puzzle games.

Aside from the terrain-altering powers, nothing about Fracture is new, it’s all been done somewhere else and done better. But does that make Fracture poor? Not really.

But despite all its flaws, Hell’s Highway should be applauded for all the work in the story and characters. It’s brilliantly scripted and even provides elements of survival horror as the terrors close in on Baker’s mind. Worth a look, even though the series appears stuck in neutral.

Pure exploded into the limelight by stealing the Best Driving Game award at E3 this year, and only weeks later it’s on the shelf. And, you know what? It’s an awful lot of fun.

Great gameplay combines with a strong control scheme, superb visuals, and light-hearted music to make de Blob not just a great puzzle-come-platform, but a great game.