While you’d need to think long and hard about whether you need THUG2R if you already own THUG2, fans of the series or newcomers who enjoy arcade sports games should be arranging an importation post haste. In fact, we’d even go so far as to say that this is probably the best way to play THUG2.

Not only does God of War have great gameplay, but the developers have done an awesome job with the graphics and flourishes of detail, and the sound, speech and music are all of the highest quality too.

The Matrix Online feels like it might have been released a little prematurely. There are countless bugs cropping up here, there and everywhere, and lag is definitely an issue on occasions.

Overall Ridge Racer has proven to be a decent, though not essential purchase for the system, and one that you at least probably won’t go wrong with.

As a handheld game, Lumines excels in almost every conceivable way.

Even with the adapted controls, Ape Escape: On The Loose is a splendid version of the enjoyable original.

TimeSplitters: Future Perfect is far from a revolution. It's a step-up from TimeSplitters 2, but nowhere near as big a one as we'd hoped for.

So is Wipeout Pure a must-have PSP title? Weâ??d have to say yes â?? for now.

You might be more interested to know what Driv3r isn’t though – a good game.

Worms Forts has some of the best features straight from the old games, but you can’t help but notice that a few good things are still missing from the transition to 3D.

It looks stunning, isn’t shy with its explosions and pyrotechnics, and keeps things moving at a cracking pace.

Invest some time in Silent Hunter III, learn how to play it properly, find out what all of the dials do and memorise all of the keyboard shortcuts and it will pay you back with countless hours of cinematic, realistic, and brilliant gameplay. But remember, this ain’t for the casual gamer.

With the exception of the first hour or so, in which you are constantly scavenging for ammo, the gameplay is pretty solid throughout, but never highly engaging, having neither interesting puzzles nor a large variety of enemies.

What it is though is a linear (and we don’t mean that negatively) RPG with an emphasis on tactical combat, more than a nod to the classic comic books, and a sizeable helping of fun.

The effect that all this adds to the game is more a sense of realism than a sense of camaraderie. The harrowing, dangerous nature of war is shown here in its truest form in a video game.

The package is, as a whole, rather rough around the edges. You know you’re in for trouble when even the publisher admits that the tutorial is “a pain and a little time consuming”.

We can see what the developers have tried to do with Domination, which is basically make the game more accessible. Unfortunately it’s a move that has completely backfired, with the result being an excellent game buried under a lot of unnecessary and distracting fluff.

Republic Commando does so much right – the squad-based elements do enough to add another dimension to the game without bogging down the action; the Star Wars presentation is executed brilliantly; the action and set-pieces have been designed and paced superbly.

From the brilliant intro, it draws you straight into its world of intrigue and conspiracy, and will keep you there until you make it through to one of the multiple endings.

A lot of the good intentions in Psychotoxic are just lost in the mess of it all. We might have recommended the story to fans of sci-fi B-movies, but frankly after a few interesting cut-scenes the story goes absolutely nowhere for hours before wrapping-up in a not-entirely-satisfying manner.

The graphics are good, but every other feature is just scooped up from a number of other strategy games, and spread thinly.

Great Tekken gameplay, nice new graphics, but certainly nothing we haven’t seen before.

It may be slow, but its atmosphere is convincing enough to immerse you fully into its world.

Yet again the series fails to become a proper racing game, with its rigid car physics and lack of decent opponents to face off against, but it’s still a fantastic and lengthy game in its own right.

Project: Snowblind is pretty straightforward stuff and consists mainly of linear, corridor based action, but it does its job as well as any other shooter available on the PS2.

If you know sod-all about sea-faring, and don’t have the desire to spend several hours learning about it before getting to blow stuff up, then watch The Hunt for Red October and get Silent Hunter III.

Those are the game’s main transgressions, but you do get used to them and learn how to avoid most of the major problems. You’ll want to take the effort too, because at its heart Second Sight is a good game whose rewards outweigh its frustrations.

Whether you’ve played the first or not, KotOR 2 offers a complete RPG experience – with a full bodied story, a good experience points system and combat that’s fairly satisfying.