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.