If you are sceptical of games that feature co-operative multi-character play, you needn't worry too much; it's handled reasonably well.

The story is good, certainly, but if I wanted to watch a sci-fi tale I'd flick on Star Trek. Nexus is purely for the lover of slow paced space adventuring and combat, and those caught up in the Imperium Galactica series.

Child of Light perhaps doesn't shine as bright as it might, but it's nonetheless quite a dazzling sight.

Even though Nightlife fits seamlessly into the Sims universe it just doesn’t seem like sufficient extra content has been included in the expansion. It feels as though Nightlife is more about expanding on what you already have instead of giving you more to work with.

I can’t see any compelling reason to buy this over any competing product. And if you are male and in a stable relationship, just forget it.

While it had the potential to be the best console war FPS game out, it is nothing more than a competent, but mediocre shooter.

Latency and optimisation issues hamper what is otherwise a weighty multiplayer melee title. War of the Vikings could do with more modes of play, but the ones already here reward the skillful combatant.

Syndicate is by no means a bad game, many of its elements work perfectly fine - the problem is that they don't work that well when combined, resulting in a grinding of the individual cogs rather than a smooth clockwork motion.

So, in conclusion, GoldenEye 007: Reloaded packs one of the worst single player modes of any FPS to appear on 360, PS3 or PC in recent years, but it goes some way to making up for it with its split screen multiplayer. Its biggest accomplishment is that it demonstrates there's still a life for such games and that multiplayer in an FPS doesn't have to exist exclusively in the online arena.

A change of focus from civilian to military engagement places a greater emphasis on firearms and offers neat thematic alternatives to scavenging resources. But Lifeline’s familiar urgency is restricted to Danforth’s rather mundane outskirts.

Gods Will Be Watching is an interesting and novel little game, but one that's quite horribly flawed in a number of ways.

If you're after a stop-gap before Gears of War 3 comes out, this might well fit the bill. Take your time, root around for secrets, play sporadically, and chances are good that you'll warm to the game. It's just a shame that the wonderful ideas aren't pushed nearly hard enough and that the game, as a result, feels overwhelmingly generic.

A perfectly capable tactical RPG that's unfortunately light on both the tactics and the RPG. Not really bad in any way, but I suspect this won't really shine until the community get to grips with the editor.

On a conceptual level Hybrid stands out as an above-average shooter in a packed genre, but its reality is dogged by inconsistent matchmaking, server problems and an inessential devotion to some contemporary multiplayer fads. Seeing its true potential one match in every three just adds to the frustration.

And Then There Were None is a pretty solid attempt to revive the long neglected point and click genre with some fiendish puzzles that even hardened wannabe detectives will have a hard time figuring out.

An enjoyable pirate adventure for those who can tolerate its innumerable flaws.

For once, I think the experience can be summed up by the main menu. It's very pretty. It also has a transitional animation, in between sub-menus, that lasts four seconds. Want to change your graphical settings, then load an old game? You're going to spend about thirty seconds just watching a transitional animation repeat. Pretty, functional, and then hopelessly irritating for no good reason: that's Hard Reset.

Driver: San Francisco would be an easy game to recommend if the mission design of the single player campaign were on a par with the quality of its technical elements. As things stands though, it seems that some good gameplay ideas have been wasted on level designers that simply didn't know how to make best use of them.

Perhaps more than any other long-running series that has featured on the current generation of hardware, Madden NFL 12 has that classic end-of-console-era feel to it. The team have seemingly stopped trying to improve the game in any major way and are waiting for the next generation to take things to the next level.

Driver: San Francisco would be an easy game to recommend if the mission design of the single player campaign were on a par with the quality of its technical elements. As things stands though, it seems that some good gameplay ideas have been wasted on level designers that simply didn't know how to make best use of them.

Perhaps more than any other long-running series that has featured on the current generation of hardware, Madden NFL 12 has that classic end-of-console-era feel to it. The team have seemingly stopped trying to improve the game in any major way and are waiting for the next generation to take things to the next level.

To be blunt, TS2012 is a hard game to score. It's a fearsomely niche title (and I play Paradox strategy games for heaven's sake) with a fanbase who'll be judging it by a completely different set of criteria. To them, the interest may be in how accurately the Horseshoe Curve is represented or the potential for inclusion of their favourite engine. My job is to critique it as a game.

Caught between game styles, it'll only make the podium for a very specific audience.

Simply a solid, family game that brings yet another TV show to the shiny black box. If you’re a fan then this game is definitely worth adding to your video collection.

Tex Murphy is back, and that's exactly as good – and as bad – as it sounds.

Season Two's early promise has consolidated into sporadic flashes of greatness, but the consistent excellence of Clementine's character alone isn't enough to carry the series. It needs the lift of an outstanding final episode.

Starts out fun but soon becomes a tedious exercise as one 'extreme' jump, boost or corner leads blandly into the next; the lack of variety quickly muting the initial pleasure.

StarDrive is a collection of solid ideas and features waiting to be unified by the necessary finishing touches.