Those of you willing to concede a degree of control, and embrace the game world, its characters, its ambience, will find that Heavy Rain is a slice of entertainment that stays with you between plays and compels you forward. It isn't perfect, but there's no questioning the gripping endeavour here. Meanwhile outside, in the night, the rain keeps falling, and time is of the essence get to it.

Secret Files: Tunguska signifies a new era for point and click adventures, both in terms of playability and stylistically - don't miss it!

The cop response isn't quite as overwhelming as in the console GTA's, but overall GTA Liberty City Stories is not only an amazing technical achievement but an awesome portable game worth any PSP owner's £35.

Its core concept of an ever expanding universe filled with bite-sized platforming chunks dovetails perfectly with the pick-up-and-play nature of handheld gaming to the extent you start to wonder if it was actually always meant to be played this way. Obviously if you loved the original then this fresh slice of near identical pie should delight you once again, if however, you loved the ingredients but were left a little nonplussed by the whole thing last time then this second helping could convert you.

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.

Machinarium wants to tell you a story, it needs you to eek your way through it, and the artists have clearly sweated buckets of WD40 in creating a world originally brilliant for you to absorb, but it isn't 'free'. Your payment (besides the 11 GBP it costs) is the dying brain cells and droplets of blood forming on your forehead as you ponder another conundrum. But pay gladly my friends, because this is a kind of value you'll rarely see in any world, mechanical or otherwise. Savour it too, because Machinarium will pay you back tenfold.

In a gaming world populated by companies able to throw millions of pounds at tired franchises that sell on their name alone and where genuine innovation and fresh ideas should be welcomed with open arms, there's no better game to throw your weight behind than World of Goo. If more titles were made with this much passion the gaming world would be a much nicer, although possibly gooier, place.

Cataclysm is perhaps not quite as awe inspiring as previous expansion packs considering this is all refinement and a reworking of original content but there's no denying the sense of sheer joy you feel rediscovering old yet familiar areas of Azeroth.

One of the most pleasing things about Killzone Liberation that it seems to have been polished to the point you can almost see your face in it, it's impeccably balanced, looks amazing and is full of little gameplay touches and ideas that only come when a game has been developed by people who truly care about it.

The brilliant title that we've all been waiting for, making the DS that extra mile more appealing and helping seal my growing contempt for the PSP even though I'm not in the least bit a "fanboy".

Soul Bubbles is an original game, beautifully executed, perfectly suited for the DS, using the touch screen to its full potential. I would love to find some fault with it, but I simply can't. Okay, I did get frustrated from time to time, but it was enormously satisfying when I finally got all my little spirits to safety.

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.

Bizarrely Mass Effect 2 on the PS3 seems more unstable than its Xbox counterpart with it actually crashing the normally well-behaved PS3 when the Xbox 360 version would keep on going.

The frenetic immediacy of the uprisings and the power of their resulting fire fights is thoroughly entertaining as well as graphically hard hitting - despite the obvious "Far Cry" similarities. The sense of absolute speed when behind the wheel (or controls) of some of the game’s more ‘beefy’ land and sea vehicles is always thrilling.

With competent combat, thrilling exploration and the inherent joy of becoming a world-conquering super soldier, Shadow Complex is a triumph. The journey might be short, but it's one of the sweetest you'll have all year.

It really is good, old fashioned adventure gaming fun.

This sort of incidental fun has historically been the preserve of childhood matchbox cars and track, and it's therefore great to find a videogame that encourages such imaginative play. For me this more than compensates for any shortfall in 'directed' experience, and I'd suggest is an opportunity for the gamer to play a greater part in creating their own fun.

So if you are under the impression that The Sims 2 is for girls and housewives and that you wouldn't touch it with my rocket launcher you could be doing the gaming node in your brain a great disservice to pass over this title with such wilful abandon.

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.

The downside to all these positives is that the mini-games, so enjoyable on the DS touch screen, become little more than button tapping affairs here losing most of their charm in the process.

The visuals may not delight to quite to the same degree as the 360 version, and the view can be a little close-up at times, but new features like wi-fi animal trading, the interface, and of course the icon-based menus that are much more intuitive, make for an experience that can hold its own against the original title and will hopefully attract a few new players to the series too.

All you can ask from an expansion pack, does it improve the original game, does it offer more content and does it do enough to become essential to the core experience. The Burning Crusade offers an emphatic yes to all these so there really is very little excuse for fans not to buy it.

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

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.

The retro touches like the return of cheesy cut-scenes, the universe itself and the focus on Tiberium in its decidedly science fiction storyline have had just the right amount of effort applied to make this an incredibly refined experience.

Forza 3 is undoubtedly the most comprehensive in the series to date, boasting more cars than you can shake a (gear)stick at and a whole host of fantastic courses to race them on. Slickly presented throughout, Forza 3 has pure quality coursing through its high-performance engine. Make no mistake, this is currently the finest racing sim money can buy.

This is easily more than a technology demo - as some accused Flow of being. As with any game like this, it is much easier to understand in the flesh than to explain. And I suggest you do just that. For a minimal investment you will find a gaming experience as elegant and subtle as any novel. And like a good novel, it is one you will want to pass on to all your friends.

DiRT 2 is a hugely enjoyable and well rounded game. It might not be as sim-like in nature as some hardcore rally fans may have wanted, but what it does offer is thrilling and enjoyable racing.