A decent purchase for the little ones if you’re expecting dross from the adventure mode (which by now you surely are), and you can pick it up at a decent price.

The Last Prophecy? I bloody well hope so.

Halo 3 is a fantastic game: a magnificent example of multiplayer gaming with an enjoyable side order of single-player, but it’s really hard to justify as being a true classic.

This is as close to a proper skateboarding simulation as we’ve seen, and is up there in the fun stakes with the best of the x-sports games, but for added realism we’d like to see fewer loading screens, civilians that behave with a mote of intelligence or self preservation and even the ability to get off and walk once in a while.

With its generous two new campaigns and refined online capabilities, there’ll certainly be no argument from us that it’s nothing less than an essential purchase.

It really (for us, at least) holds very little appeal when by yourself. With a group of friends though, it’s easily the most fun you can have with a PS2.

What this game is about is mayhem, destruction and style, all of which it has in bag loads. It doesn’t have the most original gameplay, nor is it the most sophisticated game of this type, but it is essentially an officially licensed John Woo game, doing what a lot of wannabe John Woo games have been doing for a few years now.

Once you’ve got to grips with your stylus as Sonic manfully sends plumes of salty white foam splashing over the hot pussy pressed against you, you’ll forget the MegaDrive even existed [naughty, naughty – Ed]. For a while, at least.

Whereas CoH can be lacking in immediacy, WiC never lets up on the fast action pacing.

There’s more substance behind Syphon Filter than in most of the style-obsessed trash-talking third-person shooters out there. Dark Mirror is thankfully without agenda, unfortunately without a bit of much-needed fine-tuning, but comes with a whole bag full of good intentions.

Tarr Chronicles just isn’t that good.

The combat has been really well thought out, the exploring is fun thanks to the gorgeous art style and the whole game just comes over as an entertaining way to spend 30-40 hours of your life.

This is as close to a proper skateboarding simulation as we’ve seen, and is up there in the fun stakes with the best of the x-sports games, but for added realism we’d like to see fewer loading screens, civilians that behave with a mote of intelligence or self preservation and even the ability to get off and walk once in a while.

NHL 08 is the kind of makeover that this series has been waiting for for years.

For fans of rallying, who have been spoiled for choice in previous years, this is the first really good rally simulation on a next-gen system and as such is pretty much a must-have.

As for the TBS hardcore, they’ll probably indignantly object to the dumbed-down gameplay mechanics. Galactic Assault isn’t a bad game – we just don’t really know who it’s for.

It shows that there is huge potential for games that let users create more than just a standard character – if only other companies would grow a set and let their developers use their imaginations more.

Once you get around the slightly muddled menu system there is quite a lot of content between the full & mini games within this package to keep you entertained for many an hour, either playing against pretty decent AI controlled teams or over Xbox Live.

If the idea of hacking through lots (and we mean lots) of monsters, collecting truck loads of loot, customising characters, engaging in diplomacy and ultimately dominating over rival factions doing the same, all without getting too bogged down in things like story or adventure, then Depths of Peril may well be a game for you.

What this game is about is mayhem, destruction and style, all of which it has in bag loads. It doesn’t have the most original gameplay, nor is it the most sophisticated game of this type, but it is essentially an officially licensed John Woo game, doing what a lot of wannabe John Woo games have been doing for a few years now.

Medal Of Honour: Airborne may well be as gung-ho as a cigar-chomping drill instructor and as shallow as the pool of blood left by one of your expendable buddies, but it doesn’t profess to be anything more than an exciting and enjoyable week’s worth of FPS action.

Medal Of Honour: Airborne may well be as gung-ho as a cigar-chomping drill instructor and as shallow as the pool of blood left by one of your expendable buddies, but it doesn’t profess to be anything more than an exciting and enjoyable week’s worth of FPS action.

Open Warfare 2 is pretty near perfect in terms of presentation, balance and content. That basically means we don’t need to see another Worms game ever, and if we do, it had better be somehow more original and better than this. So that’s it. We’re happy now, thank you very much Team 17.

The music’s nice though, and at least it looks good.

But if you are happy to play the game online all of the time and don’t mind an initially steep learning curve, Warhawk actually proves to be an enjoyable and engaging game; it’s arcade leanings making up for a slight lack of sophistication, and an impressive sense of scale making up for the lack of visual ‘wow’ factor. Overall, a surprise hit.

As perfectly as it nails the traditional, linear turn-based approach and draws you in before opening up, the only real giant leap it makes for the RPG genre is by being easily the finest Japanese example to so far grace the Xbox 360. Traditionalists, however, will simply love it.

Even with the sheer volume of stuff to do in the game, there have no real improvements over the last game in the series, aside from the inclusion of the ad-hoc multiplay – they’ve even taken a step backwards by forcing players to team up in order to take on half the quests.

What it lacks in overall content it makes up for by having damned enjoyable and addictive gameplay and enough variations on a theme for the game to last much longer than the four or so hours it takes to complete the main mode.