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.

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.

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

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 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

While still pretty and all, Trouble in Paradise doesn't move forward enough to warrant a purchase if you've played the previous ones.

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 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.

That’s not to say it’s a poor game, because if you’re one of the following: a massive Halo fan; someone who needs to learn how to play an RTS; or you’re under 10 years of age, then this would be an awesome game to play, I’m sure. And although it’s a solid release, stick it beside some of the other RTS titles out there, and it just doesn’t have the depth.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Lock’s Quest is a hugely entertaining twist on the traditional tower defence game that will keep you glued to your handheld for hours on end.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.