Although the online may not last, the single player campaign is worth the price of entry alone, and if you can ignore the cheap rent-a-Communist voice acting and the blatant similarities to other games, you'll find a solid eight or ten hours of play time here. There are twists and turns, multiple endings, and when the credits roll, the enduring feeling is a positive one.

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.

If this had been a modern take on the Bitmap Brothers' Speedball then it could have had some retro merit, but as a football game it's rarely anything more than stupid.

Despite the irritations, the fighting is still immensely emotive. You get a great feeling when you pull off a complicated move, and your heart rate increases dramatically when trying to get your character out of a clinch or submission attempt. If you love everything UFC, there is a lot to like here, but unless some improvements are made in the next installment, this franchise might not be able to go the distance.

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.

Lost Planet 2’s primitive control system, simplistic combat and numerous design flaws all combine to crush any enjoyment underfoot and rapidly turn it in to a pitiable, depressing title.

It really is just another slice of the Iron Man pie chart, another means for a massive corporation to squeeze more money out of the general public. To Hollywood, ladies and gentlemen, that appears to be all that matters.

Sure, it could have been executed better, and yes there are better shooters/fighting games out there. But for something which came out of left field with little announcement, it’s got a good 10 hours of play in it, and I can think of a worse way to spend that amount of time. Uninspired, but respectable for being what it is, unashamedly.

Ultimately, the game just doesn't want to be liked. Like the emo kid at school, it dares to be different yet ultimately craves acceptance, meaning Nier struggles with everything it does, often showing its less than perfect innards to the player.

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.

In the final analysis, the cons outweigh the pros. For every moment there is a successful piece of atmosphere development, a nice touch to make you feel involved, there are three things which don’t sit right.

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.

While the Supreme Commander universe is interesting enough, this probably isn’t the game that fans of the first installments in the series were expecting. Really, Supreme Commander 2’s cardinal sin is that it offers less than the games it follows on from, and fans of the original titles are probably best served by continuing to play those.

Ultimately, the technical issues tainted the experience beyond what I’m prepared to take, which is a terrible shame considering the level of effort that has been put in to craft an engaging and thrilling storyline. Offering a multitude of endings is redundant if I don’t want to go back and play through the game again, and I had a strong desire to see this work. In a way, I still enjoyed my time with it and can definitely see myself returning to any similar games that come along, and with smoother controls and no technical issues, there is every chance that future titles could become masterpieces.

It looks like Mario Kart (ie: pretty bloody average), it plays (sort of) like Mario Kart, the colours are as bright and the soundtrack just as irritating as Mario Kart. “Well that’s great,” one may well say, “Finally we’ve got a decent kart racer on the Xbox360 and the PS3.” Sadly, no. The one thing Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing failed to rip off from Mario Kart is fun.

I begged /Aliens vs. Predator/ to be better but it wouldn’t happen. It had an opportunity to be an outstanding title but so many flaws with the characters and gameplay are present that even an ardent fan of both species. like I am, can’t ignore. The whole thing felt underpowered and half-hearted. Mediocre graphics, dreadful combat and an insane waste of assets and ideas leads me to believe that Rebellion must have thought that the species-popularity alone would carry the game. Devotees of both Aliens and Predators may want to check out the multiplayer but save yourself the letdown and don’t get too excited about anything else.

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.

From an entirely creative perspective, I’d recommend this just to see the interpretation of Hell, because the locations are often brilliant. Beyond that, there’s not much else here to go on, or to provide any enjoyment after the seven hours of play it takes to get through it.

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.

A solid FPS, with ideas behind it that should have made it epic, but in practice, many of the grand ideas fail to translate into viable experiences. The fact that I didn’t experience any lag in over 50 games, regardless of the number of players on varied connections, is no minor feat. It’s very nearly there, and with some tweaking could be the future franchise to overwhelm them all.

While Army of Two: The 40th Day is presented well, the reasonably impressive imagery is propped up on a bristling pillar of small problems, oversights, and clumsiness. The biggest problem though remains that as a co-op game - in a world which is paying more and more attention to that buddy mechanic - it’s often easier to get enjoyment out of the single player.

As with many games like this, despite all the complaining I seem to have done, I can still see this enjoying plenty of success. This is either from a simplistic approach appealing to a greater audience, or the legions of Madureira fans being able to ignore the tearing and movement issues. If you allow yourself to become immersed in the story then perhaps you will find more here than I did, but I can’t however, and that’s why Darksiders is more Too Human for me than God of War.

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.

When the difficulty settings are covered with references to b..ches and motherf...ers you know something isn’t right. When, in the opening cutscene, Dick tells us that his two colleagues on this trip have saved his life more times than he can count, we should have known things would turn out bad when they both die from a grenade after having a lingering final look into each other’s eyes. But as soon as Dick opened his mouth, we knew.

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.

Lego Indiana Jones 2 is probably the weakest of the series. It’s not a bad game, but more that the formula is getting a little old and if another title is due then some evolution is required.

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.

To consider buying ODST, particularly for full RRP, will feel more or less like value for money depending on whether you already own the multiplayer from Halo 3 and the various expansion packs. If you don’t then the 24 maps, including three new ones and plenty of game modes offers potentially months of gameplay, and value. If it’s just the campaign mode and Firefight multiplayer you’ll be buying for the cash, which I suspect will be a lot of people, then maybe not so much.

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.

This game has its good points, and while enjoyable in places, unfortunately lacks the appeal and polish to make it a long-term favourite.

Lifting an inspiring plot from one of the most popular Marvel graphic novels, Ultimate Alliance 2 just about avoids the pitfall of droll, worn gameplay that can plague most super hero games.

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.

The source material is wasted, with the end result being nothing more than a shoddy runabout broken up by, for the most part, mundane mini-games.

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.

A lack of polish and some awkward gameplay means that while many of the issues its predecessor suffered from have been removed, there's still just too much wrong with the game to make it stand out as being anything more than mediocre.

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.

A solid cast added to a recognizable storyline in familiar surroundings will let you almost share and feel the ghost busting experience. Wonderfully created cut scenes and down time in the HQ adds intensity and authenticity to that experience. One for fans and newcomers alike, Ghostbusters is a game that won’t take an age to play, but never takes itself too seriously and as a result was a pleasurable experience. Different from the rest of the herd, it begs to be played and deserves to be enjoyed.

Prototype could have been amazing, and in some ways it is, but it just doesn’t come together in the way we’d hoped. It’s scattered, confusing, and finicky, and lacks a depth of detail to go with its ambitious reach. Yes it is fun for a while, but lacks the sort of replay value we’d hoped for, and that’s a shame.

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.

If the massive game world and plethora of races and things to do were housed in something with proper physics and some reference to the real world, we would have loved it. Unfortunately, Codemasters have published a shambles of a game, so we’ll spend our time playing GRiD and waiting for Dirt 2.

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.

To say I was disappointed is an understatement. It’s an insult to anyone who plays games for more than an hour or two a year. Grin should be tarred and feathered in public for this, for failing in so many basic areas, and making some of the most feared machines in the world as impotent as cross-eyed rabbits. Avoid at all costs, and because it lacks any form of incentive to replay, I will, most definitely not, be back.

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.

Sacred 2 may do a lot, but it does it poorly.

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.

To break up the monotony of smashing hundreds and thousands of the same enemies to bits, interrupted only by the chance to restart levels because of something out of your control, you get to fight some mega mechs. These don’t necessarily require any skill, only speed, because if he latches onto one of your team you have to finish him quick as no doubt it’ll be game over shortly, and your fingers really can’t take 15 minutes of X bashing to get back here to fight him again.

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.

In the end, it appears that The Godfather II was rushed out the door and as a result it fails in many areas. The actual framework here could have made for a great title – it has all the key ideas – but by making it so easy to bypass elements of the game, and having it so criminally easy, then there’s little to encourage you to play through again, if you bother completing it the first time.

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.

For someone who has nothing planned for a weekend, this is a fun thrill-ride with cinematic action that delivers on many levels.

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.

You know, it’s not the end of the world, but it seems aimed squarely at people who have either never driven a car or like the cut of Vin’s jib. I’m neither, so I found it a difficult thing to appreciate in any way, shape or form. It’s too easy, too simple, too contrived. People who demand very little from their time on a game might disagree.

It looks good – the game world and the models fighting in it, despite some lacklustre opening cutscenes – but the means to get anything done is too painful to recommend. This has been, without a doubt, one of the times I found it hard to face going back again for another go. Which is a shame, because how this game design went through Creative Assembly’s processes and came out the other end mystifies me, and on that basis, this is almost impossible to recommend.

If you were a fan, even if you haven’t been in a decade, this should provide enough smiling moments to make it worth a look and then a trade in. It’s worth the investment is you know the origins of the WWE franchise. On the other hand, if you’re a stalwart of the wrestling genre on consoles then there are other, more rewarding, games to invest your time and piledrivers on.

A half decent storyline and inspired source material do little to conceal the miserable effort Weapons of Fate turns out to be. This is not primetime playing or even pastime stuff, its B-side gaming best left on its own to die an unimportant death. Fans of the movie or the cult comic series by Mark Millar may want to try it, but approach with caution.

PES fans may get a lot from this as they’ll selectively ignore some of the glaring issues, but if you’re only going to buy one football game this year, make sure it’s FIFA.

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.