You could play straight through this game in a few hours, or dally with it for days. Therein lies its brilliance.

An evocative gem of a game, one all Long John Silver or Johnny Depp wannabes should thoroughly enjoy.

An endlessly inventive and incredibly addictive game.

This episode has more depth than the two previous follow- ups, and its developer, IO Interactive, has introduced many intelligent refinements.

Raising your virtual puppy is so realistic that this game should come with a ringing endorsement from Battersea Dogs Home.

Beautifully crafted, Sid Meier’s Railroads! is a masterful experience — as you would expect from the master himself.

A thoroughly immersive product, thanks to handsome level design, decent sound effects, an unnerving music score and lines delivered by real actors, including Diesel himself.

In PES6 you can make a sliding tackle and come up with the ball, and the AI has been greatly improved. The passing and shooting have been made harder to master and the players’ movement off the ball is better.

An epic, not only because the immaculate world you inhabit is so immense, but also because the gameplay is fantastically intense.

Frighteningly addictive.

The level of detail in the various maps and multiplayer levels will have you reeling, while the integration of voice communication software allows you to chat with friends, in real-time, in mid-battle.

This sim certainly delivers the goods. Keeping an eye on the details involved in running a winning team is so engrossing that, once you accept your first management job, you can bid farewell to months of free time.

This close to Christmas, Special Forces is probably for the game’s most loyal fans only — the folk who have played it so much that they are already desperate for new features to layer upon their already intense online experiences.

In PES6 you can make a sliding tackle and come up with the ball, and the AI has been greatly improved. The passing and shooting have been made harder to master and the players’ movement off the ball is better.

You could play straight through this game in a few hours, or dally with it for days. Therein lies its brilliance.

What singles out this series from the rest is that it homes in on the sheer intensity and ugliness of war.

The courses are stunningly handsome and the golfing action and ball physics are true to life. The game has an almost limitless replay value.

With its bright colours, chirpy soundtrack and tricky but not wall-bashingly frustrating challenges, this is a game you will pick up once and never put down.

The game is at its best when played online or across large networks, since real opponents can be ingenious and make better fidgety targets.

Each activity comes with a tutorial from a virtual instructor, and as you kick out at the falling balloons on the TV screen it’ s impossible not to smile. And how often do you see that down the gym?

In short, AoE III is yet another masterly triumph.

What singles out this series from the rest is that it homes in on the sheer intensity and ugliness of war.

Project Rub makes no use of the DS’s wireless communication feature, so there is no multiplayer event. Still, this off-beat gem is a must-have game for any fledgeling DS collection.

As frantic as it is visually stunning.

The courses are stunningly handsome and the golfing action and ball physics are true to life. The game has an almost limitless replay value.

Raising your virtual puppy is so realistic that this game should come with a ringing endorsement from Battersea Dogs Home.

The game serves up a clutch of sturdy gambling options, from craps to Texas hold ’em poker, and it can feel just as tacky as a trip to Vegas thanks to some gloriously cheesy music.

An instant classic.

Pandora Tomorrow is a miniature masterpiece. This goodlooking, great-sounding and convincingly voiced espionage thriller delivers two satisfying game outings.

The courses are stunningly handsome and the golfing action and ball physics are true to life. The game has an almost limitless replay value.

It’s a gritty Second World War caper that loads the gaming experience to the hilt, leaving players battered, bruised and thoroughly stirred.

Fasten your seatbelt, and prepare for an awesome flight. [Deluxe Edition]

The over-theshoulder style does allow for the seamless integration of glossy scenes to drive on the plot and add a more genuine movie-like feel to the game.

EyeToy: Chat is Sony’s slap in the face for telecommunications companies around the world. Armed with the Chat software and a broadband connection, users can transform their EyeToy camera and PS2 console into a live video phone capable of making free calls to other EyeToy: Chat users anywhere in the world.

It’s a simple idea, but the best ones always are.

This episode has more depth than the two previous follow- ups, and its developer, IO Interactive, has introduced many intelligent refinements.

Here is a game that is both more exciting and more educational than Casualty, ER and Scrubs put together.

The courses are as crisp as ever, while the bone-shattering mayhem on the roads looks and sounds just as convincing.

A completely engrossing game, designed for the patience of adult players, that will stand up to an almost infinite number of sessions. It’s a technically marvellous achievement by David Cage.

Even by the high standards already set, Pursuit Force is an astonishing title... The best PSP title yet.

Fans of the Nintendo SNES classic "Pilotwings" will literally jump at the chance to parachute from any of the aircraft for spectacular views of the vast landscape below. There is bound to be a sequel, because this original is so good.

The new features in FM07 enhance its already superior gameplay and maintain its healthy lead over its competitors.

There’s not much left to do in games after this.

About as interactive as you can get. Controlling your shots is just like real life, and because your movements are mirrored exactly on screen, everything, from how you stand to how you swing the included miniature golf club, will affect your gameplay.

This adventure looks great, its landscape dominated by crooked buildings and brooding grey skies; navigating Jack is simple and the characters are all well realised. A perfect children's game.

Pandora Tomorrow is a miniature masterpiece. This goodlooking, great-sounding and convincingly voiced espionage thriller delivers two satisfying game outings.

You could play straight through this game in a few hours, or dally with it for days. Therein lies its brilliance.

A simple but elegant narrative imbues the experience with considerable inertia. Urgent, funny, frightening and bleak, Half-Life 2 tells its tale of rebellion against a grim European dystopia with ease and vigour.

This is one of the best-looking games on the Xbox. That it also boasts fluid, intuitive gameplay, and does not condescend to the audience by making the fighting too simple or automatic, is miraculous.

This all-new version adds minute details to the daily rituals of the little inhabitants — you can almost zoom in to see specific ingredients as meals are prepared, or read book titles on shelves. Watching the Sims dance is a triumph of animation.

An exceptional game that brings history alive with enormous flair and clarity.

Fans of the Nintendo SNES classic "Pilotwings" will literally jump at the chance to parachute from any of the aircraft for spectacular views of the vast landscape below. There is bound to be a sequel, because this original is so good.

This episode has more depth than the two previous follow- ups, and its developer, IO Interactive, has introduced many intelligent refinements.

This is a chess game of healthy pedigree, using the Perfect Chess engine previously seen in Ubisoft’s Chessmaster. Not only that, but the price is right.

This adventure looks great, its landscape dominated by crooked buildings and brooding grey skies; navigating Jack is simple and the characters are all well realised. A perfect children’s game.

One brilliantly thought out package.

Games do not come much larger than SOCOM 3, which has been designed very much with the internet in mind: go online and you can play against up to 31 opponents.

A completely engrossing game, designed for the patience of adult players, that will stand up to an almost infinite number of sessions. It’s a technically marvellous achievement by David Cage.

The graphics are divine, with vast urban locales and spectacular crashes. The cars handle well, and each vehicle has its own characteristics. Yet this is no easy driving game — one of the reasons why, subject matter aside, it carries a 16+ rating.

The graphics are top-notch and the sound helps immerse you in the wonderfully rendered action.

This is a quality sci-fi blockbuster brought alive with sleek visuals, superb voice characterisations, explosive sound effects and a robustly stirring music score.

The result is sweaty-palmed fun, teaming the adult joys of a well-paced thriller with the childish delight of playing hide-and-seek in the dark.

This eighth instalment in the hugely popular skateboarding series, and the first built specially for the Xbox 360, is the best and most realistic by far.

It not only looks fantastic, but uses the graphics ability of the 360 to the full, with super-smooth angles and movement, and the puzzles it presents are every bit as challenging as those in games such as Zelda, with which it shares a medieval theme. Brilliantly designed and executed, and fabulously entertaining.

You could play straight through this game in a few hours, or dally with it for days. Therein lies its brilliance.

The graphics are divine, with vast urban locales and spectacular crashes. The cars handle well, and each vehicle has its own characteristics. Yet this is no easy driving game - one of the reasons why, subject matter aside, it carries a 16+ rating.

Doom 3 has its flaws, but remains a graphical, audio and visual tour de force.

By turning round the normal rules so that the D-pad operates the functions and the right hand buttons deal with the camera, this intuitive system gives the gameplay a huge boost and also reverses the law of diminishing returns for sequels.

This is a game guaranteed to offend and entertain in equal measure, but it is emphatically not for children.

This is a cracker. A lot of thought has clearly gone into making the most of the DS’s touch-screen capability here, and it works gloriously. Sure, you still walk down dark corridors blasting anything that moves, but here you are in control as never before.

The graphics are solid and sharply focused, while the cities that used to expand all too predictably now take on more organic growth patterns that spread to encompass land between cities more naturally.

But the really ingenious element is the Drivatar AI, in which the computer learns your driving technique.

The game contains scores of puzzles, requiring a mixture of logic, observation and luck. What’s great is that it gives you time to solve them, rather than placing you under constant pressure from grisly baddies. There’s also a plot-twist or two.

Fans of the Nintendo SNES classic "Pilotwings" will literally jump at the chance to parachute from any of the aircraft for spectacular views of the vast landscape below. There is bound to be a sequel, because this original is so good.

A completely engrossing game, designed for the patience of adult players, that will stand up to an almost infinite number of sessions. It's a technically marvellous achievement by David Cage.

The over-theshoulder style does allow for the seamless integration of glossy scenes to drive on the plot and add a more genuine movie-like feel to the game.

Raising your virtual puppy is so realistic that this game should come with a ringing endorsement from Battersea Dogs Home.

An epic, not only because the immaculate world you inhabit is so immense, but also because the gameplay is fantastically intense.

Fans of the Nintendo SNES classic "Pilotwings" will literally jump at the chance to parachute from any of the aircraft for spectacular views of the vast landscape below. There is bound to be a sequel, because this original is so good.

This game will become the benchmark by which all such titles will be measured. The game’s AI is strong enough to present a challenge and the lack of base and harvest management is wonderfully refreshing.

The over-theshoulder style does allow for the seamless integration of glossy scenes to drive on the plot and add a more genuine movie-like feel to the game.

Decent graphics that hold up smoothly in the height of fighting, plus atmospheric cut-scenes, great locations and superb sound effects all measure up to a memorable, if utterly exhausting, experience.

The classic moment section, which features 125 well-known situations, is one of several nice touches in this game.

Once you swap AI team-mates (and enemies) for the real thing, there is no turning back, as you find yourself diligently looking out for your team-mates, with whom you will need to co-operate to sweep scenes clean of troublemakers.

At £19.99, this is a highly impressive add-on, and although it has only 11 new single-player levels, none of them is a walkover.

Most importantly, the puzzles are back on track. Traps, levers, pulleys, chains, chasms, secret passges, underground lakes, rotating knives — there’s a cunning solution to each, designed to keep you puzzling for just long enough to gain satisfaction in the solving, but not long enough to make you want to hurl your own internal organs at the screen.

Fans of the cartoons will be happy to know that the game contains everything from the originals, including voices and bad jokes.

Graphics are fresh, with plenty of animation and the multiplayer mode offers some new alternatives to the "deathmatch" and "capture the hill" scenarios.

The visuals are first rate. News footage sets the scene of the chaos, while short in-game cut-scenes intertwine seamlessly with the action.

The truly suicidal, meanwhile, will be in awe of the driver’s ability to launch himself fatally through the windscreen, screaming, while the rest of us will love the game’s easy and responsive controls, and the authentic feel of the cars.

The number of times I got ripped apart by wild dogs made me regret ever wanting to be a lizard. Didn’t stop me coming back for more, though.

The game’s greatest strength, along with its smoothness and superbly rendered backdrops, is its appeal to both newcomers and hardened hands.

OutRun2 is not a game that you will spend hours playing at one sitting, but you will experience lots of very happy five-minute bursts.

Given the subject matter, the game deserves its 15 rating but not a parliamentary debate.

It’s good, simple and highly addictive, though if you have a pen and a copy of The Times, it may be surplus to requirements.

Forget storylines, or any pretence at one: this game is simply about quick reflexes and lightning-fast button- pounding.

This outing is more rounded than the original and has more choice - such as eight courses to play compared with only three in the original - and at £17.99 it is good value.

Leisurely plucking helicopters out of the sky can be immensely satisfying, as can grabbing a handful of trees to toss around like darts, damning the consequences.