For every moment I spent screaming at my TV and throwing my controller I had four moments of awe. [JPN Import; May 2009, p.86]

Fight Night Round 4 is not only the most realistic simulation of the sport of boxing that's ever been produced, it also translates into a hugely satisfying game. Polished and accomplished, Fight Night truly is king of the ring.

Undeniably great fun and funny, but still a bit on the vapid side.

Still, you won't ever have played a sandbox game that creates so much carnage and offers so many ways to play.

It's achingly non-stop martial-art four-player silliness. Sweet! [May 2009, p.85]

Its enormous charm, simplicity and puzzles will win you over. [May 2009, p.92]

The chassis of Dark Athena is five years old and it makes for a safe and at times a predictable experience. Still, this is a Credit Crunch-busting package, and it's highly recommended...Reminds me why I love the original. The best thing Vin's done. [Apr 2009, p.91]

A solid sequel, but it doesn't add a lot that's substantially new.

Metal noise pollution of the highest order - a perfect package. [May 2009, p.80]

If you like "Buffy," retro shooters "Smash TV" and "Robotron" and have a soft spot for "Monster Madness" you'll love this...Chuck in offline co-op, fun bonus challenges, and neat rewards that change the look of the game to comic-strip, sketchbook and so on, and Burn Zombie Burn is great value. [Jan 2009, p.95]

Tirelessly one dimensional. [May 2009, p.88]

It's limited, but what's here is well-executed and very playable, even on PSP. [May 2009, p.84]

More fun, humour and kitsch value than ever. Welcome back.

A decent attempt at an update, but it can't compete with Buzz TV. [May 2009, p.93]

This is its own worse joke. Matt Hazard should have stayed retired. [May 2009, p.93]

A solid update of the classic MK series, made relevant by the introduction of a DC roster, spot-on fighters and accessible gameplay. Not original, but tremendous fun.

Packed with extras, World At War is a fast, frantic, exciting and emotionally draining shooter. This is how a war game should be. [Dec 2008, p.66]

This is SingStar Dad Rock with a few newer songs thrown in for when the kids want a go. It's SingStar for men - men who like This Charming Man by The Smiths and aren't ashamed about admitting to really liking the Pet Shop Boys back catalogue - especially the 1988 Christmas number one Always on my Mind.

Polished and innovative and extremely challenging, Far Cry 2 tests the boundaries of the FPS genre. Gamers used to exciting setpieces may find it a bit dry.

Fun to play, but it's too punishing and packs a hefty learning curve.

This is bold, bleak gaming from the haunting opening credits to the pulse pounding finish...Stunningly detailed, expertly paced and lavishly slaved over by Glen Schofield and his crew at EA Redwood, Dead Space should be classed as one of the finest looking and intelligently crafted games in many a moon...The new benchmark to beat in survival horror that pushes the genre to twisted new heights and into the outer limits of space itself. [Issue # 113]

Not the greatest shooter with some annoying puzzles, but Fracture serves as a hugely entertaining game for those looking for something a little bit different.

Though it's not a new WipEout, this retread in new clothes is one of the best PS3 downloads. These classic circuits will remind you how great the series was and still is.

Mercs 2 is disappointing because its execution doesn't live up to its ambition. Though big and bold, There's a feeling that you've played it all before. And you have.

You've got to be slavish in your love for Ferraris to really enjoy this. I was dying to climb behind the wheel of something else after a couple of hours. It's an accomplished racer, but I was expecting the prancing horse to give me more of a kick.

It's fun while it lasts, but the novelty soon wears off. It's authentic, and paints the culture of B-Boying in a great light, but it becomes just a little too b-boring, too quickly.

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is a sound of a series cautiously dipping its toe in the water, slightly afraid of how the big bad Rock Band shark will react to its presence.

A solid singleplayer campaign souped up by a cracking multi-player experience. From a technical standpoint, Bad Company sets a new benchmark in the FPS genre.

Top Spin 3 really won't be to everyone's tastes, and Virtua Tennis fans needn't bother.

This is FIFA 08 with the Euro 2008 license slapped on. Don't expect anything different and you'll be treated to the beautiful game. FIFA fans will enjoy, PES 08 fans may well not.

A masterpiece from both a technical and storyline standpoint. You have not and probably never will play another game quite like it again.

FlatOut finds its natural home on PSP where the speedy events and abusing your driver gag don't outstay their welcome as much as on PlayStation 2. An instant pick-up-and-play winner.

Viking is sadly, a massively missed opportunity that's dragged into the depths of mediocrity by a boring story, an uninteresting hero, repetitive missions, endless wandering around, hit-and-miss sound, disappointing battles and lots of slowdown.

Crisis Core is more than a nostalgia trip for FFVII fans - it's a fresh and exciting game in its own right, and arguably the single most impressive application of the PSP's power.

You can play a full 18-hole round in about twenty minutes, but if you want to go even deeper and perfect technical shots then there's more than enough in EG's locker to accommodate that too.

Solid proof that the PSP is a hugely formidable force in the world of handheld gaming. Chains of Olympus is, without fail, the best PSP game out there on the market. You must own it!

Aiming is askew; enemies are dumb and the level design is bland.

Same-old, same-old, which means slick, challenging and extra packed online content!

With new additions like the Shop, leaner graphics and a custom difficulty option, ensure this is the best Pursuit Force yet. Twenty-plus hours of macho gaming in your hand.

A superb online FPS shooter that sets the standard for deathmatch on PS3 and showcases just what the Cell processor is capable of. Shame about the single-player mode, though.

So if it isn't the most original premise, at least it's executed beautifully.

Rough edges aside, Kane & Lynch is still a solid squad-based shooter with plenty of action, great characters, tight story and a slew of cinematic influences so brazenly clear you can't help but smirk at them.

A solid racing game with some good ideas, but the package is overshadowed by a dense, inaccessible structure and frankly boring events. Play online and you'll get more from the game.

A shallow and clumsy game that fails to make the most of the PSP and the AVP licence.

Jericho isn't a groundbreaking shooter, but what it does, it does really well. Sadly, there's no online content here, just a slew of production art to unlock by completing skill tests in the game - making for a sound FPS that will have horror geeks gagging for more and shooter fans reaching for the sick bag. [Nov 2007, p.92]

Renegade Squadron looks great and has some fantastic online multiplayer modes, but it unfortunately suffers from a sluggish control system. Still worth a bash if you're a fan though.

Takes everything that was great about Dark Mirror, improves on it and comes up looking like the best PSP game out there right now. If you're a stealth fan take our advice. Buy. This. Now.

Quality over quantity is the vibe here and there's no doubt in our mind that Heavenly Sword is a winner and a work of art (eat that Roger Ebert!) that will help shift tons of PS3s come September. When it's good, it's truly magnificent and some of the final stages will have anyone with a 42-inch high-definition TV foaming at the mouth.

Exploring is the best it’s ever been in the series, thanks to Lara’s slick animation.

An action game like no other. There are similarities with the awesome "God of War II," but if you consider that epic as an arcade experience, then Sigma falls somewhere in-between arcade and sim.

It's a slick combination of strategy, focused aggression and all-out nerves of steel.

What carries the game through some of its weaker moments is its charm and spirited embodiment of the movie.

A bland, ugly and dreary game - which goes against everything you're used to after playing the series on PS2. There's a certain compulsive quality to sniping but after a couple of levels, you'll develop a strange sense of deja vu and wish you were playing a better shooter.

Younger kids will love it and come back for more. A fun concept, well executed.

Made Man is a fine shooter after all, not just another crime sim-bynumbers. It's nothing you've not played before, but you won't have played anything as single-minded for a while. Forgeddabout it at your peril.

VT3 is pure, unadulterated genius. It was everyone's favourite Dreamcast game for a good reason.

The numbers are big so you don't have to squint, and mistakes can be erased with a button press. Simple and addictive.

The courses in MotorStorm are a real strong point. Well designed, they're challenging, but they also let you have fun. There aren't too many on offer - just eight - but every one of them is a sprawling playground for you to muck around in. [JPN Import]

Championship Edition is super-realistic. Perhaps too much for its own good. For F1 buffs that's ideal, but if you want an adrenaline-pumping ride on PS3, there's another game, with a big desert and mad vehicles, which does it far better.

Aside from the teeth-grinding frustration of the races, this is a rewarding and varied pleasure. It's also wondrous to look at with crisp, vivid landscapes and lively enemies bursting with character. The final clincher is the excellent multiplayer options.

Some truly mesmerising play will be had, but more importantly Winning Eleven 10 will see the old grimace of concentration replaced by a big daft grin. Roll on PES6 - it's sure to be even better. [JPN Import]

Providing you can get your head around the overly crammed control system and slightly iffy player intelligence, the addition of Master League mode should provide many a pleasant train journey.

Full Auto 2 is a missed opportunity and comes over even more badly when compared to "MotorStorm." Buy that instead, or wait for "Burnout 5" to spectacularly crash the party.

Fans will love this, but most will be better off with "Star Wars: Battlefront II."

The depth and quality of the core gameplay is sold short by the simplistic Career mode. A contract is signed for each fight, you train, then box, and the process is repeated. There's no tangible sense of edging along a long road to glory. Apart from this slight disappointment, and some overly long loading screens, this is easily the finest sports title yet to hit PS3.

D-Day doesn't change anything or bring anything new to the table sadly, but if you want the same Brothers in Arms experience on a handheld, then this is faultless if a bit unambitious.

It looks and plays like a rubbish PC game from 1992 and no amount of multiplayer modes can change that.

A bit half-arsed. The game in general is muted by glitches, slowdown and painful loading times, while the best things about it - the online play options - have been removed.

But - and maybe this is just us - singing these serious rock songs just isn't as much fun as belting out tracks by Blondie and Girls Aloud. We felt a bit embarrassed trying to sing serious songs by Snow Patrol and Hard-Fi. You just don't get the same fun party vibe ploughing through serious emotional songs as you do with the fluffy pop nonsense.

A classic Call of Duty game, stubbornly sticking to the well-worn template and format of the previous two titles in the series, but making it all bigger and slicker so you get totally sucked in.

Genji looks great, and bodes well for what PS3 will be able to do, but as a game it feels like a technical demo.

You can't fault the amount of matches and modes either - there's a ton of stuff in here including a sixman Money In The Bank mode, which really shows off just how much stuff can happen on screen at once.

So there it is - another below-par (in the golf-based, positive sense) round for PlayStation's undisputed king of the pin. Next time we expect a little more by way of innovation. Until then, this beautifully executed next-next-gen update will do just fine.

At best, it's a simple hack and slasher with an okay Co-op mode, but 10 minutes of play is all it takes to realise how shoddy the action is.

In the gameplay department, Every Extend Extra is perhaps Q's most unique game yet, and we're delighted to report that it's also as frightfully addictive as its handheld brother, "Lumines."

COD 3 pulls out all the stops to put you as close up to the action as possible, even allowing up to 24 players to experience full-on war in the online mode.

The way PS2 Project 8 uses shabby video versions of the Xbox 360 cutscenes to tell the story shows you this is a bit of a corner-cutting exercise in game-making, as is the lack of characters to choose from when starting a game, and the loss of online play.

With a slew of better mob games out there - "Scarface" for one, "Made Man" and even "The Godfather" - there's no reason for settling on this mess of a game.

Multiplayer is so much fun that it's probably worth buying the Guitar Hero II bundle even if you already own a controller from the original game.

It's an example of master storytellers at the height of their powers, and despite the shadow of its illustrious heritage, Final Fantasy XII is by far and away the best game in the series yet.

It's original, atmospheric and challenging, and sets things up nicely for the stunning PS3 game. Let the hype begin again.

Carbon is huge and involving, full of neat ideas like crew recruitment and custom bodypart sculpting, but that, yeah, it isn't all that great when it comes to getting behind the wheel. We still need speed from the series, and more importantly, thrills.

What does let the whole thing down are the loading times (they're everywhere, even on the inventory screen, which you want to be able to flick through at speed) and the fact the combat does get repetitive.

Leaving aside the rubbish storyline, the dialogue sounds like it was written by a white chav who thinks he's black, and characters are only able to speak if they're waving their arms around at the same time. It makes the Fast and the Furious flicks look like Shakespeare.

A fine addition to the series, and the Trust Meter addition means that, for the first time, this'll be one spy game you'll go back to even after you've finished it. Sam going bad is good news for Splinter Cell fans.

Being locked in a room with Mr Blonde, a razor blade and a can of petrol would be more fun than playing this again.

All in all there are plenty of gems here, if not a lot of variation. But you can't knock a compilation that offers a classic picture perfect conversion of Street Fighter II.

But it's the single-player campaign which really shines, thanks to a branching storyline set over 15 different arenas that alters as you make certain decisions.

Single-player is pitiful and multiplayer is substantial. A cautious thumbs-up then, but in a strange, bi-polar way - and only for keen fans of multiplayer shooters.

What we have here is a variation on Tamagotchi that's been roughly crowbarred into The Sims 2. So it's a good job that the animals themselves are so well animated and likeable.

Very much a case of new year, same Tiger, boasting the least significant set of updates we've seen in the series for some time. That said, it still rightfully deserves to dominate the genre, being immensely satisfying when it goes right, and deeply frustrating when it goes wrong.

If the presentation wasn't so ropey this might have been a contender, but as it is, Eagle Eye Golf is a bit of a cheap knock-off.

Armageddon is fine. Nothing special, but not bad, and its Konquest mode is probably the perfect game for that Saturday afternoon period just before the footy kicks off, when your head still hurts from Friday.

It's a game with real ambition, a title that isn't afraid to overreach itself in the pursuit of perfection. Fittingly, it's game with real balls. Tony Montana would be proud.

The two-player multiplayer modes basically repeat the same flaws and even add some new ones, such as computer-controlled allies rarely pulling their weight. A waste of a licence, and a waste of your time and money.

Although the low price and decent racing make this good value, it's uninspired stuff.

To put it simply, it's gorgeous in every respect, even though it's only in 2D. PS2's last great game? What a way to go.

Online or off, MotoGP is a very slick racing experience, and its deceptively simplistic gameplay hides a very effective control system and devastatingly addictive racing.