Taking it as a whole its blatantly not perfect, in fact it's almost shoddy at times, but there's a nugget of gold inside SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Tactical Strike that shines through bright enough to almost make up for the numerous problems.

The only relation to what Championship Manager used to be and what it is now is the name. All the talent left with Sports Interactive.

It all feels a bit like the fun has been sucked out of this, and a paint-by-numbers rendition of a F.E.A.R game has been put in its place.

Overall the game just has a very mediocre feel about it. It seems a bit like someone just got the basic elements of a point and click adventure game from 10 years ago and assumed that this would do fine.

The single-player is a little short, but the action is relentless and polished to the point of reflection, the multiplayer, meanwhile, will keep you coming back time and again. This is the next-generation. A bona fide masterpiece.

One of the most polished FPS titles I've ever played, it does not redefine the genre but simply shows others how it should be done. An immersive storyline captures the imagination but falls down by being too short.

If Hellgate: London had appeared on shelves with no hype and no known links to past gaming glories then we'd probably be sat here at the end of the review chatting about how it was a bit of an undiscovered gem that fused FPS sensibilities with Diablo-esque loot collection and character customisation to provide a thoroughly enjoyable, if slightly unpolished, experience. Unfortunately we don't have that luxury and the game's high profile throws niggles like the repetitive level design, the often dull quests and the stability issues into harsh relief.

Despite the strong competition of World of Warcraft and Everquest 2, Tabula Rasa manages to add some unique and innovative features to the genre such as the cloning system, and hopefully with a few more patches under its belt (adding extra features); it will be guaranteed a strong player base for many years to come.

The Witcher is a bit of an oddball. Genres exist, over many years defined and redefined, but successful games rarely detract so heavily, while still claiming to be a part of one genre. The Witcher is an RPG is spirit rather than in practice. It'll suffer because of this.

A solid shooter in many ways and has the seeds of success sown into it, there are simply too many undercooked elements peppered throughout the experience for it to ably thrust forward from the shadow of much bigger and much better FPS entrants that have graced 2007 with genuine 'Game of the Year' wow factor.

Ultimately, any truly dedicated Ben 10 fan is going to love grappling with Vilgax's evil forces and taking on infamous bosses from the TV show - conveniently ignoring the game's obvious shortcomings in favour of 'becoming' Ben and his portable armoury of alien heroes.

If you like your Japanese RPGs and have a lot of time to spend to get the most from the game, it comes highly recommended.

EA's adventure through Springfield always manages to coax a giggle - in no small part due to the characters all arriving accompanied by their real-world voice actors - and successfully scores full-blown laughter on several occasions.

SBK-07 would seem to have all the necessary ingredients to keep both casual gamers and hardcore Superbike fans happy. With the variable difficulty and realism settings you should be able to find the perfect balance to suit your needs.

Sure there's frustration and flaws to be found if you go looking for them, and they're definitely enough to stop me slapping a huge score at the end and recommending it to everyone, but if you can accept it for what it is and don't look too hard at the ropy bits there's a hell of a lot of fun to be had here if you give it a chance.

Multiplayer modes and online support already take the game to another level, and coupled with a revitalised track-list, lovely visuals, a great new controller and and an attention to detail and polish previously unknown to the genre, what we have here is the return of a true hero.

Ultimately, considering the overwhelming strength of recent FPS arrivals, Clive Barker's Jericho is likely to sink into the gaming Abyss with God's diabolical Firstborn... never to be seen again.

An absolutely storming adventure, and I will definitely recommend it to any fans of the genre; it has been one of the most enjoyable titles of its type that I have played in a long time. There are a few flaws that stop it from being truly great, but it does what it sets out to do - provide a few hours of happy blood-lust, carving a path of destruction through hordes of enemies.

The problem is that while to the existing fan base the retro design and gameplay are all part of the experience newer gamers will probably view those same qualities in a far more negative light.

There's something genuinely thrilling about Ace Combat's high speed dog-fighting that grabs you by your throat and refuses to let go. It's unashamedly arcadey, it doesn't last all that long and the between mission cut scenes are a bit of a pointless distraction, but once you're in the air there's few games that provide as intense a feeling of exhilaration.

It's a genuinely exciting brand new IP, its Wii exclusive, it has a flawless understanding of how best to use the console's motion sensing controls and it proves there's a use for the adventure game genre in this current generation.

If the developers had spent as much time on the rest of the game as they did on the magic system then we may have had a fun game on our hands, as it is we have a game whose single redeeming feature isn't enough to hide the underdeveloped, uninspired and frankly boring nature of the rest. Even playing as the baker's wife can't fix that.

The whole experience certainly delivers on expectations from the previous games, although without ever really breaking the mould. This is a new Ratchet and Clank, but it is thoroughly the tried and tested action that we are experiencing, be it dressed in some impressive new garb.

For those with the patience to stick it out and practice, practice, practice, there is a good single player game behind this. Biking fans and purists alike will find plenty to enjoy and keep them busy through the winter months while it's a bit too cold to go out biking for real.

This is a game that certainly joins the dots, but ultimately has the feel of a 'design by committee' delivery. Although it does have its moments, it rarely shines as much as it could. Although this is no doubt the first in a series of releases from EA, it is fair to say they could have made a bigger splash with its first outing on the DS.

This is retro gaming as it should be, other developers please take note!

The visuals, music and effects aren't going to break the bank, but certainly do everything that's asked of them.

This game is quite clearly meant to be a celebration of how "kick-ass" the SWAT teams are, and will probably provide a smattering of enjoyment for the more jingoistic out there. But it really has nothing to offer anyone else - it's just a poor version of Killzone on the PSP. Purchase at your own risk.

And don't forget: The blend of near-faultless quality and originality associated with the amassed content threatening to burst free of Valve's collection can be secured for the price of a single Xbox 360 title, which near demands that The Orange Box finds its way onto your disc tray at the earliest possible opportunity.

I'm constantly reminded that this is effectively five fantastic games for the price of one. If you're even a casual fan of the FPS genre then there is no reason not to add this to your collection. Hell, I'd probably buy it for Portal alone!

Throw in a nice selection of Achievements for you Gamerscore junkies, and you have a nice little package, very attractive for the price.

This version of Sega Rally isn't as good as the game that stole my heart and money all those years ago, however it's more than a worthy homage.

Folklore is a game that has extremely high aspirations both in terms of storytelling and ethical engagement. Although it is certainly a valiant attempt, I felt it never quite hit the nail on the head.

Thanks to genuine challenge, bruising A.I., a significantly improved Manager Mode, and more involving evolutionary player aspects, this year's FIFA emerges as yet another successful edition to EA's once vilified football portfolio.

It again edges closer to Pro Evo, without quite managing to crack that magic formula. Whilst there will be proponents for each game, it still feels like EA is trying to catch up. That said, their decision to make FIFA more of a footballers game than a gamers game is an excellent decision.

A strange double edged sword of a game, as a collection of mini games it's probably the best on the PSP, so good in fact that the theme park management elements you're forced to keep an eye on actually become an irritation after a while.

If you belong to that weird subset of racing game fans who feel their life won't be complete till there's a game that enables you to race around the sky using a control method inspired by a love of percussion instruments then you may possibly eek an evening's worth of entertainment out of this, if you're forgiving. For the rest of us there's nothing to see here, keep on walking, someone will be along soon to sweep up the mess.

Crash Bandicoot is one of the all-time great platforming characters, not a brawler, so let's keep it that way.

It's not perfect, the unbalanced nature of the maps, the spawn camping and a fairly harsh learning curve for newcomers may put off a lot of people, but for those who put the effort in to get past that there's a deeply nuanced shooter to be found.

The developers at zSlide have tried their hardest to make it all seem original and fresh but it doesn't take long to work out they've really not done a whole lot more than attempt to slip an ill-fitting urban skin over gameplay mechanics borrowed wholesale from the Nintendo classic ["WarioWare"].

It's a game with a huge sense of fun, it knows what gamers want and isn't ashamed to deliver it in spades. Its unforgiving elastic band AI and relatively steep learning curve may put some people off but they'll be missing out on one of the most enjoyable racers around and should be taunted accordingly.

To be honest, Dark Mirror was so good that Sony Bend could have got away with slapping a fresh story and some new levels around the same engine and been done with it.

This little arcade shooter is worth a decent amount of cash on its own, so its inclusion in the package only makes PGR4 that much more attractive. Oh. And there are motorbikes in it too. They bump the score up an extra few percentage points.

A surprisingly poor product considering all that the developers needed to do was effortlessly copy someone else's character design onto someone else's game design.

Overall I became quite fond of the violet dude, probably more appealing to the younger audiences but nevertheless fans of the series should not be disappointed.

Not only does it raise the stature of the handheld console in the eyes of many gamers, but it also brings Link and his related protagonists back to a much wider audience. It brings together Nintendo's two great successes of recent decades: compelling hardcore gaming and casual play on the go.

Investment has been made on the aspects that really matter: control and gameplay. The resulting game is one that will stay with you for some time after you have finished playing.

While Halo 3 doesn't look as good as games like "Gears of War" and "BioShock" it makes up for that with superb lighting effects, an engaging storyline and a multiplayer mode that will be played countless times over.

I can't imagine a better RTS being released in the foreseeable future; certainly one has never bettered it before this. Everyone, regardless of whether you enjoy RTS' or not should own a copy - you're doing yourself a massive injustice if you refrain.

It's not that Dark Mirror is a bad game; it's not. It's just that it's not as good as the PSP version that's been sitting on shelves for over a year now, which begs the question: why bother bringing it to the PS2 at all? The whole thing has a real air of pointlessness about it.

What's more maddening for this particular reviewer is that Japanese gamers seem to think the Western market is saturated with little more than banal first-person shooters, but then they flock in droves to the likes of Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors, lovingly embracing perhaps the most unrewarding and unchallenging gameplay mechanic ever created.

The exciting and varied battle system, the impeccable visuals and the bonkers yet brilliant central story idea make this one of the most charmingly enjoyable games I've played in a while.

On balance, I personally will probably stick with the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series. But there is definitely an audience out there for Skate.

Heavenly Sword is a game that can genuinely claim to be a next-generation experience. Most excitingly for us this is not some clever new combat mechanic or simply more polygons; rather, it is a whole new level of story telling that doesn't simply insert pre-rendered films into the game, but integrates characters into the heart of each play component.

Overall, this title has bucket loads of quality and a game structure that should keep you happily driving for many hours. It is a shame that multiplayer didn't make it in somewhere (even in online, it's all time trials).

Not even the addition of 8-player online and system link multiplayer can help inject the lacklustre race proceedings with any tangible worth in the face of shoddy track design and worryingly slack vehicle controls.

Much like those random late night films you know nothing about before you watch them and end up enjoying, Galactic Assault is more fun that you'd expect although it never really ever comes close to being great.

Most truly awful videogames usually throw up some kind of content-related plus point to touch upon by way of light relief to the flow of dirge, but sadly the only content plus point evident in Crazy Frog Racer 2 is that there isn't much on offer and its all over so blessedly quickly.

Put aside such quibbles however and you're left with a fantastic action game that brings you as close to being the lead in a fully formed John Woo film as you're ever going to get, for his fans that alone will be enough, for the rest of you still left undecided go and watch 'Hard Boiled' with an Xbox controller in your hand and imagine how great it would be if it was interactive.

But why is Medal of Honor: Airborne so difficult and unforgiving? Well, that's a debatable point, but this reviewer would hazard a guess that the distinct lack of single-player mission content likely has some bearing on it.

The most enjoyable FPS narrative based WWII shooter I've played in years, and I loved Call of Duty.

Ultimately, Lair is a game of two halves, one half is highly detailed with an imposing soundtrack that engulfs the player into the story (if you're a fan of mediaeval fantasy). The other half is full of predictable, repetitive missions that suffer from the control mechanism being too tricky to use in tight situations.

There are always a large number of players online whatever the time of day with the dedicated Sony servers usually holding the larger 32 player battles.

While there's no denying it looks great and there's huge fun to be had with it at least to start with, there will be those that fall in love with its ultra repetitive just-one-more-go high score setting nature while others will find the need for such continual repetition too off putting enough on its own.

One feeling I do get from the game is that it is a finished title, and quite a lot of effort has been put into pleasing Gundam fans, the only unfortunate thing is that whilst trying to add in the lore and even upgrades that the player can try to achieve for their mech, the game suffers too much from the over-repetitive.

Plays the best round of golf available at the moment and comes wrapped in an impressive Golf-RPG package that contains more game modes and options than you could shake a 5 iron at. It may not be a hole in one, but it's a bloody impressive birdie.

What you are left with is a mature confident golf game that really does deliver an unrivalled experience in terms of replicating real-world golf.

Recommended for acolytes and lay-persons alike.

Sadly, the ongoing diatribe of criticism cannot be allayed by Two Worlds' character evolution either, and although its undeniably involving weaponry, items, and magical alchemy features do provide moments of considered worth amid the gathering disappointments, they're not able to drag the experience clear of its own destructive inadequacies.

A well-crafted and ultimately huge slice of video gaming.

By far and away the very pinnacle of first-person shooters, with 2K achieving those heady heights by braving to not just push against established genre barriers and expectations but to rip them out and place BioShock atop the pile as a landmark pseudo-RPG first-person shooter that will be a benchmark of quality for many years to come. Staggering.

As it stands it offers pretty good value. But when put alongside other games, it starts to look pretty tired.

A strange game, its impenetrable combat will put off most D&D novices while the more experienced who are able to forgive (or simply understand) the lack of information will find its horrible interface minimises any enjoyment they may have.

You might well think that Persona 3 is a mishmash of very "Japanese" ideas, and you'd be right. But it's all down to the execution of these ideas and this game has managed to combine some very peculiar elements into a very delicious package.

If you already own previous Maddens then take a moment to think before buying this one, if you haven't dipped your toe into the Madden lagoon for a while then now is as good a time as any to take the plunge.

A great retelling of the classic Tomb Raider game.

The separate elements of the game each work well in their own right, although we were left wondering if they would ever come together to make sense of the game as a whole.

To use a musical analogy, rather than a true third album from a great band Guitar Hero Rocks the 80s feels far more like an unnecessary b-side compilation pushed out to fulfil a record company contract.

While there is no denying NASCAR 2008 does a perfectly competent job at recreating the sport, it's not a good enough racer when compared to the genre as a whole to tempt anyone but the most devoted of NASCAR fans.

Beyond the Sword shows signs of how you can stuff too much into a game not initially designed to hold so much content. I look forward to Civilization V with great anticipation and till that game graces the world I will continue to play the fully expanded version of Civ IV which now graces every computer I regularly use.

If the idea of having complete control of every aspect of your squad and planning the action down to the last detail floats your boat then the PC version is ideal, if you'd rather feel like you're in charge of a team of real people surviving moment to moment on your instincts alone then you'll have more fun with the console version.

If you find it cheap somewhere or fancy renting it then you'll doubtless have some fun with it. But can I hand on heart recommend anyone paying full price for it? Nope, not in the slightest, but I kind of wish I could.

The most accomplished tennis simulation I've ever played, and I really liked VT. That says it all, really.

This is a good game, unquestionably, but I want more and have come to expect more, it is as simple as that.

Vegas is very good, the only drawbacks coming from the slightly too short singleplayer campaign which can be dispatched in about 8-10 hours.

Given another six months development time we may have been talking about a real treat, as it is we're instead talking about a game that fails on every level to do the licence justice.

Ultimately, if it weren't for an oddly skewed sense of gameplay balance that offers two separate genre types (action and puzzle) rather than a comfortable mixture of both, Overlord would be a thoroughly impressive experience that delivers something a little off the beaten track.

If Starship Troopers is your favourite film and you're looking for a new game to play for a couple of days and then use it only to prove to friends that the abilities of your brand new PC are beyond those of their next-gen consoles, then this is a suitable choice. If, however, you are looking for something more, I would look elsewhere.

GrimGrimoire deserves to be noticed and played if for no other reason than it dares to do something different and very nearly carries it off, a quality often in short supply in a world where reliable safe bets, win out over genuine innovation a lot of the time.

Whilst it doesn't have the depth of play of The Godfather, or the violence of Scarface it does a good job of playing to its strengths and delivering a highly enjoyable game.

It pushes the stilted FPS genre in a direction not often associated with mindless run and gun action. The seamless integration of brilliant performances, staggering character animation and near photo-realistic presentation only serve to enhance impressive white-knuckle action gameplay and a truly creepy yet compelling pseudo RPG storyline.

What it does provide is a gaming experience that's the closest you're able to get to truly feeling part of the magical Harry Potter universe. For that harmless escapism alone it deserves praise, especially from anyone who wishes their childhood was just a little bit closer in the rear view mirror.

A confident film-to-game delivery. Although, as we hinted at the start, there is not an awful lot for the more mature gamer, there is a lot of fun to be had if you are willing to dig in and get your hands dirty.

A resoundingly flat adventure that fails to inspire more than fleeting moments of touch-screen enjoyment that are never expanded upon. Running backwards and forwards across Hogwarts may admirably show the level of detail EA has invested in the game's environments, but it also clearly exposes the overall lack of content unfolding within it.

Gearbox Software have managed to squeeze another ounce or two of power out of the DS, and it's all put to very good use. The game ultimately makes a success of itself because the experience is not only believable, but great fun to play.

While DiRT certainly does offer the best traditional rally experience around at the moment, by including the chance to race directly against other vehicles in the CORR events it almost accidentally reminds you that racing that way is actually more fun. If you're a serious rally fan then this is easily the best game of its type, however, anyone just in the market for a decent racing game may want to stop and decide if this is really going to be their cup of tea before they part with their money.

If only it had received the sort of touch generation's look and feel recently applied to titles such as Picross DS or Puzzle League, then this could have eclipsed even the PC title.

An excellent balance of gritty realism and game play. It's been a long time but Outlaws can finally hang up its guns and retire.