A quintessentially average 'alright for a one-night stand but don't even think of proposing' game that your Xbox 360 has had the pleasure of experiencing at least a couple of hundred times before.

A huge action RPG that is bursting with love and detail. And a fair few bugs, too.

There's plenty to do, two whole islands to explore and, if you can persuade the game to connect you with a mate or two, hours of pleasingly aimless road tripping to do. But when a game built for release in 2011 on a foundation of socialising has such an obtuse system for connecting with other players it's something a teaspoon of sugar in our petrol tank.

Hardcore fight fans are going to love it, but Arcana Heart 3 makes no real concessions to more casual players.

It's just simply not as good as the large number of awesome driving games that are already on Xbox 360, and, in current form, it's always going to come in behind the pack. [Nov 2007, p.100]

Immediately intense, but no long-term appeal. [May 2011, p.101]

It's pretty ropey, and there's little satisfaction to be had from getting through one door only to find more of the same in the next area. [Apr 2016, p.90]

This GTA-a-like will make you nostalgic, and grateful that AI is a lot better now. [Issue#179, p.86]

Button bashing by the numbers and very repetitive. Only superhero fanboys need apply to this Justice League. [Jan 2007, p.125]

A well-polished movie tie-in that will keep undemanding kids amused for a weekend or two. [April 2006, p.88]

The problem is, we have real friends who'll accompany us to real pubs with real tables on which we can play real pool. So why do we need a slightly sterile virtual version? [Feb 2015, p.83]

But if you want to lose weight, and your mind throws a fog of delusion and twisted justifications in your path, then the numbers and tips of The Biggest Loser might just break that spell.

The best fitness title on the Xbox 360.

Tons of official content make for an authentic racer, but there are visual deficiencies. [Christmas 2016, p.77]

In terms of what you actually do, though, Burial at Sea is fairly tepid stuff - a fetch quest followed by shoot-outs that introduce Infinite's Tears and Skylines to Bioshock 1's Splicers and turrets, a puzzle that involves finding a new Plasmid, a puzzle that involves doing X of Y, and a boss encounter that's all about attrition.

Get past the faintly patronising tutorial, and resist the slightly disappointing final battle, and stay in the brilliant, rich middle. This is an adventure that rewards the curious and the explorers.

Ballsy cartoon guts and supersploding stupidity. [March 2013, p.89]

Rough around the edges but with a very shiny centre, and the toughest race on Xbox. [June 2018, p.88]

Even though it's a bit of a flashy game, Ninja Blade is surprisingly shallow. It's not particularly long either - you can see everything in less than 10 hours, which doesn't help much with replayability. Worst of all, the novelties it wants you to like, it shoves in your face quite rudely many times over - resulting in a hack-and-slash that could have ultimately been a lot, er, sharper.

Brilliant, bite-sized entertainment. [Dec 2011, p.101]

Imperfect but surprisingly pleasant. [May 2011, p.103]

MotoGP 08, like Casey Stoner's Ducati, isn't quite as staggeringly fast as last year's model, but it's still a great bike racer. It also lacks some of the shine and party atmosphere that the fantastic THQ MotoGP series had.

While the game itself is never diffi cult or badly designed, it consistently contrives to point out its restrictions: neither controls nor narrative are ever slick enough that you ever feel immersed.

A smartly turned-out squad-based cover shooter, not to mention an authentic-feeling and authentic-looking period piece, The Bureau might not be as good as Enemy Unknown, but it certainly has a style and a charm of its own. The years of development hell have been worth it.

Tweaks and changes have successfully fixed most of EDF 2017's problems without damaging any of the dodgy aspects that made it so wonderfully wonky. If you're in the market for some mindless co-op nonsense, Insect Armageddon's comes highly recommended.

As it stands, we've rarely been so bored when travelling at 150 miles per hour, less inspired by a police chase or less interested in the plot of a videogame. In the end, the game's only held together by staples of the series, namely a huge complement of cars and no-nonsense grippy physics. That's just enough to elevate it to the status of competent racer, but definitely not enough to earn a recommendation.

Untangling this new world's intrigues, both political and personally for characters, is unreasonably complex. New terminologies and faces are thrown at you at such rapid pace in the first few hours that you find yourself not caring.

They need to start working on their polish and QA. [May 2014, p.91]