There's a lot of fisticuffs packed in, with a massive 114 fighters from the world of UFC to choose from, as well as the ability to create your own brawler (though the customisation options are more serious than THQ's WWE games - you won't be fighting in a zombie mask).

Gotham City Imposters adds daft gadgets and a massive dose of style and humour to an old template, and it's a hugely entertaining way to pass any number of evenings, once you get through the matchmaking. But its biggest problem is that the unlocking system and stingy coins system constitutes its own form of psychological warfare with the player. And there, it misfires.

Playing alone feels slow and soulless, but the great controls and multiplayer features still make Grand Slam Tennis 2 well worth a bosh.

Even on Normal mode, you'll find yourself overwhelmed until the combination of dodge rolls, grabs, pounces, and combos becomes second nature. It's a testament to Shank's new-found competence that this does, eventually happen. Shank 2 has that satisfying feeling of re-mastering a forgotten motor function.

Iron Brigade is great on its own - not a perfectly balanced strategy game, but it's great fun finding out what works. With the flesh-filling and reasonably-priced downloadable content, it's an easy recommend.

It's one of the best shooter-stories we've seen in years - justifying its own ludicrous nature in interesting and unexpected ways. If the ending didn't feel like such a cop-out, The Darkness II could have been on par with BioShock. As it is, the gripping narrative and wonderfully empowering combat mean you'll be talking about it for months after completing it.

It rivals Skyrim's scope, but as a genre piece (albeit a smart one), it lacks the other game's mystery - there's no craggy elusiveness, no glacial hinting at secrets beyond comprehension, to help you overlook the more familiar elements. It's less a world you discover, ultimately, as one you revisit, and that's a failing no amount of fancy footwork can disguise.

Menus are slick, and everything works well. If the thought of a game dedicated to The Black Eyed Peas doesn't make you want to rearrange the contents of your skull with a screwdriver, this is worth a punt. Otherwise check out the far more palatable Dance Central 2, which features more songs and venues, and tunes that aren't catastrophically tasteless.

Trine 2 is a vivid and stunning game that spins the colour wheel on nature. It's completely absorbing as a single-player experience and bawdy puzzle fun with company. Just remember to turn on the unlimited mode and get stuck in.

This should have been better. Rebellion has done likeable banter in Rogue Trooper, Shinta Nojiri has made better stories, and they've all cracked jokes that don't fall this flat. But NeverDead honestly feels like a game whose creators gave up on it half-way through. It's a tragedy that it fails on so many levels.

Where the second through fourth games were exceedingly well-padded, the fifth is SoulCalibur hacked to a sliver, with very little between you and that fiery core. Admirable as that may sound, the result is a dangerously light single player game that's hard to recommend to anybody save SoulCalibur obsessives - or newcomers in search of a populous (because it's recent) online fighter. Notoriously fleet of foot, the series needs to put a bit of weight back on.

The true paradox of Final Fantasy isn't a temporal one. It's how it can conjure a feeling that's a combination of love, hate, derision and awe. XIII-2 gets less love than XIII. And the simplification dampens the open awe of previous games. But it's still the dominant feeling. And the fact I finished the game with only a quarter of the collectible fragments and very little idea of where to find them? Well, I just can't wait for the FAQs to start coming out.

While the years haven't been too kind to their spruced-up SD assets, the chance to fully experience the MGS saga is one Xbox 360 owners definitely shouldn't pass up.

It's cute, and you can use the character creator to build some ruddy adorable puppies and kittens. But if you've got The Sims 3, this might feel like little more than a loveable but only semi-substantial expansion pack. On it's own, it's yet another decent slice of wholemeal life-sim.

Amy is a travesty from start to finish, a game that plainly admires but fatally misunderstands its peers. Save yourself an infinity of soul-crushing distress, and forget you ever heard about it.

We're all for dolled up remakes of arcade classics, and those are some lovely backgrounds, but this one needs to be rescued from the limitations of its own design.

Only falls short of its own grand ambitions. [Jan 2012, p.103]

Not perfect, but decent gun-run fun. [Jan 2012, p.103]

The magic hasn't worn off yet. [Jan 2012, p.102]

On-rails action for the morally oblivious. [Jan 2012, p.100]

A sweet idea, hobbled by the hardware. [Jan 2012, p.99]

Decent game hindered by hidden costs. [Jan 2012, p.98]

More than being a sub-Flash compilation of insulting video games, this casts doubt on whether Hasbro understand what makes its non-digital games good. Or perhaps it just thinks people who play video games are so stupid they'll gladly lap up any old crap. Whatever the reasons behind FGN4 - this is reprehensible.

Your Shape provides decent replacements for both of these things, with all the arbitrary but absorbing nonsense of levelling up, medals and badges. This might be the first fitness game we'll use after reviewing it.

Brilliantly charming and consistently entertaining, it's a true XBLA classic.

We can generally overlook a bit of going-through-the-motions in campaign add-ons, but not when the add-on in question mishandles the backstory of a trilogy that defined a genre. Though serviceable, RAAM's Shadow never does its own premise justice.

A laugh-free and miserable undead slog. [Christmas 2011, p.111]

Teeth-grindingly frustrating platforming. [Christmas 2011, p.111]