Well-meaning if not masterful, this is clearly a game for children rather than older players.

Well-meaning if not masterful, this is clearly a game for children rather than older players.

Yes, there are tweaks, better graphics and further development on the cars’ physics, but nothing groundbreaking. For the most part it seems that the past four years have been spent improving the playback of your car whizzing around the track once you’ve finished the race.

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.

While serving up some more cerebral fare with the violent action is laudable, and the graphics are very good, by extending its sights, Shadow of Rome just fails to conquer.

The visuals in this classy RPG are solid, while the level design and locations alternate between the inspired and the merely functional.

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.

Frighteningly addictive.

Violent and unforgiving, this one is not for children, but it’s a compulsive game nonetheless.

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

Experienced gamers will have a blast in cyberspace, battling with other players from around the world, which pretty much justifies the cost of broadband on its own.

Though NFL Street 2 does enough to entertain for an hour or two, fans of proper football, played with feet, are likely to find it quite dull.

Though NFL Street 2 does enough to entertain for an hour or two, fans of proper football, played with feet, are likely to find it quite dull.

Though NFL Street 2 does enough to entertain for an hour or two, fans of proper football, played with feet, are likely to find it quite dull.

The flaws really hit home: the senseless randomness of matching DNA data and the unchallenging routine of tracking down clues.

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.

The interface is largely invisible, having been dramatically streamlined to make this a more intuitive experience for newcomers to the RTS genre.

The visuals in this classy RPG are solid, while the level design and locations alternate between the inspired and the merely functional.

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.

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

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.

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

The graphics are terrible. They tried way too hard to make the people look as they do in the animated series, but the result is that it all looks pretty flat. Even the first Budokai had more depth. People tell me that I judge the game too much by the graphics. I agree; but this isn’t right. Seriously.

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.

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

The courses in this game are just as much the stars as the cars. The dazzling downtown locations are massive, dominated by skyscrapers whose light bathes the streets in a radiant glow.

The courses in this game are just as much the stars as the cars. The dazzling downtown locations are massive, dominated by skyscrapers whose light bathes the streets in a radiant glow.