The most consistently hilarious scripting in any game or series to date, which we’re sure is becoming increasingly and splendidly darker in tone as the season progresses.

But perhaps the biggest conundrum of all is how to put the game down completely and do something else.

This could, and indeed should, have been a market leading game, blowing people away with clever tactical shooting action. Instead, it’s flawed and with the exception of the co-op mode, has nothing to make it shine.

Devil May Cry 4 is not the revolution that Capcom might have wanted from the series, but it’s their fault for lumbering Dante with lazy, repeated level design, and making Nero a far more interesting character to play as than to watch in cut-scenes.

Devil May Cry 4 is not the revolution that Capcom might have wanted from the series, but it’s their fault for lumbering Dante with lazy, repeated level design, and making Nero a far more interesting character to play as than to watch in cut-scenes.

The bulk of Spiderwick is fuelled by what might be called the game’s ‘action’ sections, where players take on goblins and ogres by mashing just one attack button. These levels are the least inspired and try any motivation the gamer might have, which is unlikely to be great if they haven’t already seen the movie.

The epic feel, ease of control and attention to detail all round makes this a joy to play. You really won’t feel that you are playing a strategy game, but you’ll get the kind of rewards from it that only hours spent on a game like this can bestow on you.

Its music and visuals might not be to everybody’s taste, but it’s hypnotic, synaesthethic and addictive – even more essential today than ever. Melting your eyes, ears, hands and friends has never been so beautiful, or cheap.

Overall, this whole package seems held together with a cheap sticky-tack feeling that just leaves us wanting to cry.

Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice still feels like a bit of a shallow showcase title, albeit a less impressive now that over two years have passed.

Bomberman Land Touch! 2 is something of a glorified update, albeit to an admittedly still enjoyable game that benefits greatly from competitive online play.

There’s certainly enough depth here to entertain most combat veterans and with a little more in the way of new content it would no doubt have done better following on the success of Battlestations: Midway. Overall an entertaining history lesson that doesn’t let a few minor flaws spoil the fun.

Burnout Paradise is pretty huge, and hugely pretty. It doesn’t have the diversity in appearance of some open-ended games, but the previously mindless racing of past Burnout games has been brought into sharp and very satisfying focus.

No More Heroes is a punk video game: it’s loud, violent and actively rebellious, and it’s so goddamned fresh and fun it shames every other Wii game aimed at mature gamers – and even more that aren’t.

If you ever played Ecco The Dolphin on the Mega Drive, or its conversion on the DreamCast, and you spent some time just happily swimming around on that first level doing flips and jumps while enjoying the simple delights of the whole virtual-swimming experience, there’s a good chance that Endless Ocean is going to be right up your watery boulevard.

It’s not trying to be particularly clever, but what it does it does very well and when the political and economic side of things starts to affect how you play you will find yourself in a very immersive world that will surprise you and keep on doing so.

More of a step forward than a revolution, Rail Simulator is still undoubtedly improvement over the previous generation of train simulation.

Predictably Savage 2 has its detractors as well as its supporters, but there’s no denying that there’s absolutely no other game series out there that does what it does.

Considering the combat by itself is so inelegant, propping it up with a cardboard narrative and banal set-pieces inflicts upon Samurai Warriors: Katana a far more serious wound than any of the in-game arsenal could manage.

Well made and fun for kids newcomers, Boogie Bunnies still sadly amounts to little more than a handy Puzzle Bobble clone for Live Arcade – one that will ultimately be superseded when Taito decides to make the most of its own franchise.

In terms of overall quality though, which is the aspect which really counts, Moai Better Blues is easily in the same league as Ice Station Santa.

Were it not for the online issues – and we pray Codemasters fix these sharpish – SWOS would be getting a 9/10 if not more. As it stands, we’re going to cop out and give it that annoying almost-amazing score.

Magnificent, beautiful, well designed, yet cruelly flawed in its structure, Nights: Journey of Dreams is absolutely worth playing. Whether you’d want to pay full price for it or wait a little longer, though, is less of a certainty.

As a combat swansong for the PS2 it holds no merit whatsoever and shows how bad games can get when a company just doesn’t seem to care any more. It’s not the worst fighting game ever, but it’s certainly close.

Ultimately it’s shiny, it’s new and it’s a majorly streamlined edition of a much-played online game. The esoteric game modes are gone and there are considerably less maps, but those that there are are generally of the highest standard. If you meet the system requirements then it could be worth a look – even if you’ve moved on to other series – if only for the sensory aspect of it.

It’s such a shame though to see what could have been a splendid old-school RTS with mostly decent presentation (aside from the fact that the camera doesn’t zoom out enough) and three imaginative and well-balanced factions being wasted on a single player campaign that’s broken, and a multiplayer mode that nobody’s yet playing.

Considering the game isn’t just dated but contains more bugs than MI5 (and we had the latest 1.05 version to review, so Christ knows what the unpatched code is like), not to mention the fact that this is the time of year when games aren’t going to sell because they’re merely very good instead of excellent, SunAge never stood a chance.

Of course, we wouldn’t change the core gameplay for the world, and we’re glad it hasn’t been messed with here, but more options for tweaking and a few more game-modes wouldn’t have gone amiss.

This is a huge, beautiful game that will draw you in, immerse you in another world have you talking about it with friends. It can be a beast at times, but once tamed, will serve you well. Even now we’re thinking of new ways to play and new things to try and desperately looking forward to BioWare throwing us an add-on shaped bone.

Kane & Lynch is very much a case of what could have been. With a little more time for polish and tweaking Eidos could have had a game worthy of the hype and its British Academy Video Games Award nomination (which was somehow secured before the game’s release).

Rock Band is so close to being a must-have game for any self respecting, music-loving gamer, but unless you’ve got money to burn and friends on tap, Rock Band isn’t half the game it could have been for half the cost [Say again, Bilbo - Ed].

So while Ghost Squad is a perfectly reasonable lightgun shooter which only significantly falls short in terms of its length, what really sticks in our collective craw is the price. Asking thirty quid for it would be a piss take at the best of times, but considering the US version is being sold for the same figure in dollars, making it around £15 in real money, that’s quite frankly unacceptable.

While the RTS battles are nicely contained within a chirpy story dripping with quality presentation, this never fully compensates for the limitations of its combat engine.

Galaxies is certainly a perfectly enjoyable and natural evolution for the Geometry Wars series that’ll provide hundreds of hours of fun to gamers with lightning-fast reactions, but it’s perhaps not enough to make it really worth it.

We can only really recommend this to long-term fans who will be contented solely with the Arcade mode.

If you’re absolutely desperate to play something like this on your 360, there’s very little else out there.

Ultimately it’s shiny, it’s new and it’s a majorly streamlined edition of a much-played online game. The esoteric game modes are gone and there are considerably less maps, but those that there are are generally of the highest standard.

What we don’t understand is why someone allowed this to soil the reputation of one of the best FPS series of the last generation.

Link’s Crossbow Training does an excellent job of throwing in an entertaining couple of hours to start you off with your brand new peripheral.

It’s an ambitious game, but, importantly, not an overly ambitious one. All the important elements – gameplay, graphics, story, audio – have come together really, really well, making it well worth at least one play through if you can get your hands on a PlayStation 3.

Not only does Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 cure insomnia, but it improves your social skills as you will need to go out and find friends to replace the ones that don’t want to speak to you again after you force this one them.

With the amount of in game advertising that is all over the place, EA probably don’t need to sell many copies to make enough money to guarantee the next instalment in the franchise. We just hope they make more of that opportunity to evolve the series than they did with this somewhat lacklustre effort.

What we don’t understand is why someone allowed this to soil the reputation of one of the best FPS series of the last generation.

Despite its problems, Runaway: The Dream of the Turtle is still playable on the DS, and fans of the genre looking for some portable point-and-clicking will find themselves with a game to really get stuck into. You’re going to have to forgive a lot of minor annoyances, though.

The most important point, though, is that that unique blend of playground-style level design and narrative-driven play that was so very nearly exemplary the first time round has been greatly refined, and no longer suffers any flaws quite as game-spoiling as before.

It’s visually wonderful, technologically marvellous and honestly a great deal of fun to play, but as with many other people, we have to seriously question its staying power.

Kane & Lynch is very much a case of what could have been. With a little more time for polish and tweaking Eidos could have had a game worthy of the hype and its British Academy Video Games Award nomination (which was somehow secured before the game’s release).

It’s visually wonderful, technologically marvellous and honestly a great deal of fun to play, but as with many other people, we have to seriously question its staying power.

Please, THQ, we know you can do decent wrestling games, so stop insulting us with these annual updates to a flawed and bug-riddled game engine.

Kane & Lynch is very much a case of what could have been. With a little more time for polish and tweaking Eidos could have had a game worthy of the hype and its British Academy Video Games Award nomination (which was somehow secured before the game’s release).

It’s just too simplistic to hold the attention of any serious management fan.

King of Fighters XI is more of the same, giving fans exactly what they want and completely ignoring the possibility of opening up the series to new players. It’s perfectly balanced and intricately developed, improving upon its predecessors yet still offering nothing so ‘new’ that could improve its score.

You can play through the game in a matter of hours, including the additional skirmishes, and shouldn’t have much difficulty doing so. It’s kind of cool being a predator, hunting down aliens, but AvP: Requiem feels like a budget game using tired clichés and with dull, inoffensive gameplay.

What we don’t understand is why someone allowed this to soil the reputation of one of the best FPS series of the last generation.

Everquest 2: Rise of Kunark has a lot of welcome content for new players and veterans alike, and while the game may not rival WoW in terms of player numbers, what it does do is really bring the new and old worlds of Everquest 2 and Everquest together into a new seamless package that is going to have a lot of appeal to a lot of people.

It’s the game that shows just how powerful and capable the machine is of producing incredible games. It’s the game that at long last tops "Super Mario 64" as the finest platformer of them all. But, most importantly, it’s the game in which we can finally make Mario look like a bee.

The gameplay had the potential to be really quite good, but its limitations – i.e. the interface – seem to be borne of the PSP’s shortcomings, which rather defeats the purpose of this being a handheld game. The best feature of Squad Command we have found is the multiplayer.

The good implementation of the strategy makes up for what would otherwise be a pretty unimaginative and uninspiring game that would at best be described as a homage to a much loved aging genre.

Playing through Ice Station Santa not only reminded us, as most of the Sam & Max instalments tend to, that there really aren’t enough good point and clickers around, but also that there aren’t enough games with a Christmas theme to them.

With so many fast-paced action games clogging up Xbox Live Arcade, a slower-paced puzzler like Switchball really stands out. As to whether or not that’s a good thing, well it’s really up to you.

As something new, Bladestorm: The Hundred Years’ War is familiar but refreshingly new, even if doesn’t exactly work out quite as nicely as Koei probably would have liked.

As something new, Bladestorm: The Hundred Years’ War is familiar but refreshingly new, even if doesn’t exactly work out quite as nicely as Koei probably would have liked.

Removing micromanagement is one thing, but when the gameplay goes out of the door with it, it becomes a serious case of throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Developers Slant Six have done a good job fitting a new genre into both the PSP itself and an existing series: it was about time the third person tactical action sim made its way onto a handheld.

As a game for all the family and friends it works really well.

Despite being a new, full-priced release, F.E.A.R. Files already has a bit of a Bargain Bin feel about it. We’re not saying don’t add it to your wish list, but unless you’re a huge fan of FPS games and Japanese-style horror, we’d suggest it go somewhere close to the bottom.

Even the positive multiplayer aspect can’t be recommended because it is just nothing new. At around six hours to play through, and with only a moderately intriguing storyline to follow, this is about as thin as F.E.A.R.’s welcome will wear without breaking.

Lovecraft’s work intrigues people, it immerses them and, given the right circumstances, can scare the crap out of them as well. Unfortunately most attempts to turn these ideas into gameplay fail miserably and Darkness Within is just another example of how not to do it. The game mechanics fail to create any kind of immersive experience that the graphics could easily have supported.

To experience it is to experience a conflicting mixture of belief and disbelief: belief at the immersive scenarios, rich detail and convincing acting, and disbelief at the jaw-dropping set pieces and hammer-to-the-head storytelling.

To experience it is to experience a conflicting mixture of belief and disbelief: belief at the immersive scenarios, rich detail and convincing acting, and disbelief at the jaw-dropping set pieces and hammer-to-the-head storytelling.

To experience it is to experience a conflicting mixture of belief and disbelief: belief at the immersive scenarios, rich detail and convincing acting, and disbelief at the jaw-dropping set pieces and hammer-to-the-head storytelling.

It’s no "Diablo 2," yet, but give it time and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by just how much is on offer here. And hey, if nothing else you get to pretend that the demons are Christmas shoppers, which makes slaughtering them just that little bit more fun.

Overall, Mutant Storm Empire is a good solid shoot-‘em-up and it is definitely worth the 800 points if you’ve had your fun with Mutant Storm Reloaded and Geometry Wars.

The Witcher is actually one of the best RPGs we've come across in a long time. It may not quite be Oblivion in scope and all-round greatness, but it earns the right to call itself a must try RPG that will immerse you in its dark and mysterious world.

The greatest shame is that developer Saber Interactive wasn’t bold or ambitious enough to really capitalise on the one or two good ideas they actually had, and that’s ultimately the difference between a game that is just good and a game that is great.

The greatest shame is that developer Saber Interactive wasn’t bold or ambitious enough to really capitalise on the one or two good ideas they actually had, and that’s ultimately the difference between a game that is just good and a game that is great.

If anything, this is a great sign of things to come for Naruto games.

Afternoon of Darkness feels at home on the PSP, with its battles short, sweet and addictive in exactly the right way a portable RPG should be. Its innovative nature might no longer be the cutting edge of SRPGs, but it stands alongside Final Fantasy Tactics as one of the best RPGs on the PSP, if not one of the finest titles you can get on a console adrift in cheap PS2 port hell.

For the two or three evenings that this will last you, there’s enough going on to keep you pushing forward to the end.

For the two or three evenings that this will last you, there’s enough going on to keep you pushing forward to the end.

For the two or three evenings that this will last you, there’s enough going on to keep you pushing forward to the end.

It’s a little simpler to play than the 2K series, and more fast paced, but it’s also just not as good.

Highly stylised, dark and immersive, Manhunt 2 is a study in brutality, depravity and the spiralling descent into madness. In terms of content, it’s no worse than the original, but it’s not really any better, either.

Highly stylised, dark and immersive, Manhunt 2 is a study in brutality, depravity and the spiralling descent into madness. In terms of content, it’s no worse than the original, but it’s not really any better, either.

While SBK-07 is a game that will appeal to Superbike geeks, it’s only as geeky as you want it to be.

Guitar Hero may not be a universal pick-up-and-play party game in the way that, say, SingStar is, since there’s an initially steep learning curve, but for the inducted it’s a master in its class and no worse for a change of developer.

The strategy gets more complex and the fights more intense, but the one thing you can’t escape in this game is the sense of sameyness that creeps in soon after you’ve completed the introductory missions, from the gameplay, from the environments and from the NPCs that populate the game.

The terrible music and pointless battle animation do nothing to help out what is already a well balanced card game.

This game is an unchallenging space shooter made a little more difficult with frustrating design and a terrible camera angle. Even if you’re a fan of the TV series, we really cannot recommend a purchase.

Jericho is definitely a case of inventive design married all-too-unhappily to old school thinking, and the result is a game that is almost fatally broken.

Jericho is definitely a case of inventive design married all-too-unhappily to old school thinking, and the result is a game that is almost fatally broken.

Jericho is definitely a case of inventive design married all-too-unhappily to old school thinking, and the result is a game that is almost fatally broken.

It’s playable and for a while it’s even fun, but you’ll be surprised just how quickly mindless violence and bloodshed with semi-naked women can turn into a grind.

The controls are easy to pick up, which makes flying and combat both simple and fun.

Very close to being a near-essential addition to any Wii owner’s collection which we dearly hope will get a sequel.

The story is deep and well thought out, the script at times dark, at times humorous, but always entertaining.

Dawn of Magic does everything in the RPG book by-the-numbers, only it seems to have used all the wrong numbers.

A classic title, but in some respects only just.