To say that Madden 2004 is challenging would be a massive understatement. It has an uncanny ability to leave you shouting at the screen when your opponents seemingly know what you are going to do even before you do it.

There's no denying that Amped is a far more accurate depiction of snowboarding as a sport, but if it's fun you want you can't go far wrong with this.

The implementation of the Hit Stick (use the right analogue stick for some hard hitting defensive plays) is a nice touch and the rest of the game's mechanics have received a subtle overhaul to ensure it plays better than ever.

Style is nothing without substance.

Through four years of massive commitment and seasonal hell with over 300 vehicles and 600 infantry types, this a game to challenge the serious gamer.

From the stable that gave us "Symphony Of The Night" and "Metal Gear Solid," more is rightfully expected.

Luigi seems even floatier, and embarrassed head-shaking ensues when you see Princess Peach throwing shapes like a bad-ass Crip from the Wes' side. Ooh, where's she hiding the Glock?... NBA Street V3 is superfluous and expensive.

While there's no doubt that it's a solid golf game that’s engrossing and fun to play, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 just doesn't feel like a true sequel.

A slapdash port of a PlayStation 2 game ported across simply to cash in on a total cow of a licence.

Fundamentally it’s the same game as "Tony Hawk’s 2," only it chugs along like a broken steam train! It stutters, splutters and jerks around like a breakdancer with broken legs and it feels like the batteries are running low on your PlayStation.

Although battles and conversations make up a big part of the gameplay, aimless wondering makes up even more.

Other mech shooters like "Steel Battalion," "Phantom Crash," "Gun Metal" and even "Robotech" featured a new approach to the genre. Sadly, this isnít the case here. But if you're after some mindless action then this is the place to come.

The trouble is (and we can’t really expect anything different) that it doesn’t do anything above and beyond the call of duty.

It’s all very “out-there”. It’s all very stylish. And apart from the addition of some new and fairly self-explanatory mode updates and some stylishly presented menus this is really what makes Guilty Gear X2 stand out from the crowd.

Below the surface insanity though, is a much deeper fighter.

Not much fun in single-player. Sure, it might make for good practice before taking your warrior online, but no-one is going to be buying it for Anubis' fight for corporate and religious ownership.

It can't quite match the sheer excitement of NHL and the lack of an online mode is unforgivable, but this is still great fun and is well worth checking out.

The slow, repetitive action is the knockout blow that stops this contender from ever being the greatest. [XBM]

One of the best and most addictive sim-games available at present, and this expansion pack is definitely better value for your simoleans than any of the other add-ons have been.

Our only problem with The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction is that, after a while, the brainless stomping does become a little one dimensional, but then again that is the nature of the comic book licence and this is certainly a step above recent titles such as "The Fantastic Four" and "Batman Begins."

Minutes turn to hours turn to days of play but all of a sudden, a revelation hits you. ‘What am I doing?’, ‘What’s the point in this?’ – you start to question why you’re putting so much time into a practically endless game.

The action itself is fast and fluid.

If though you're after more than eye catching cosmetic gloss and an ear stroking cinematic score, if, in short, you're after a brilliantly playable game based on one of the most celebrated, loved and epic fantasies in living memory, then sadly this isn't what you're looking for.

If you’re after a well–polished and accurate basketball simulator for solo play only, then NBA 2K3 is a good choice, but most people will be better off going for "NBA Street."

Insufferably bi-polar difficulty levels attacks that can't be repelled or escaped from no matter your skill and combat because your stuck on the ground in a death loops is something so lacking in grace that it numbs you.

A tired old game with very little to say for itself. Please Tom Clancy, we know it made for good source material for your books but leave the Cold War behind. It's over already.

A number of excellent set-pieces, good puzzles and some surprise changes in pace do keep the attention until the bitter, dramatic end but generally this is B-list stuff when compared to proper PS2 horror adventures.

Having played Morrowind, however, we did feel rather constricted.

While Phantasy Star Online Episode 1 & 2 is a fantastic game in its own right, the fact that its takes such little advantage of the hardware it’s running on prevents us from being truly ecstatic.

It does improve the longer you play it and there's something enticing about blagging the next new piece of kit to slap on your car. Unfortunately the racing itself simply isn't fun enough.

It's all just a question of whether you like to take corners slowly, having someone talking about the corners and then getting angry at yourself because you messed up. So take you pick of the three: "Burnout 3," Colin, "RalliSport 2" - which is more fun? "Burnout 3"? Yep.

Playing against another person is far more satisfying as the level of error and ingenuity creeps into the game.

It may not be a startlingly original game but Need for Speed: Underground is an enjoyable one, and for racing fans, it's a must.

The actual game isn’t special enough to warrant more than the usual amount of puzzle fan attention.

Sure, you can dress your fighter in all sorts of swish gear and blinging jewellery and Henry Rollins is on hand to teach you new 'Blazin' moves and generally improve your tactics, but once you've taken away all the gimmicks, you're left with what is still a very niche title.

Having old enemies join forces against Apocalypse is a decent idea for an X-Men story, it's a shame that it has been rendered into a series of dull maps and substandard action. One for collectors.

The in-game graphics are as primitive as ever – simply doing their job of representing the positions of your various units around the map – and the basic turn-based concept won’t be every gamer’s cup of tea, but there’s surely enough depth and engrossing potential here to bring hardcore adventurers back for more while enticing a good number of newbies.

Gladiator has a well-planned multiplayer mode that works on and offline so we're left with a fairly empty, meaningless experience of stupid weapons, coin collection and weapon upgrading that makes you wonder why you're playing. The answer: Multiplayer or you're recovering from a coma.

Looking visually identical to the PS2 version is forgivable (just about), but loading in-between the level sections isn’t – especially when you continue from exactly the same point as you stop... [yet it's still] an exceptionally good game.

It’ll certainly keep you busy, until the next FIFA game comes out (in a few months), just don’t expect to be too excited by it.

Little more than your average shooter - collect the weapons, shoot the bad guys, hit a few switches and, well, that's about it. We wouldn't object to this if it was done well, but it's not.

Grumbling aside, Hit & Run is a decent stab at doing something different with a The Simpsons game, but it still can't help being very, very unoriginal and dragging everything down to the lowest common denominator - collect stuff!

Batting on the other hand, is about as much fun as chewing glass. You’d basically need the reactions of a Jedi Knight to be able to rack up a decent hit ratio.

Freekstyle is a solid and often fun game that is sadly plagued by some niggling faults and the knowledge that both in terms of the genre and game style, this has been done better before.

EA has decided to make the graphics grainier and more gritty but all this has done is make the game the worst-looking PSone FIFA game so far.

Overall, this is a decent, efficient addition to the genre, with a few good additions here and there for hardcore fans while the game's accessibility makes it a fine starting point for newcomers.

Throughout the controls are frustratingly unresponsive and the difference between a turn and a slide is too often dependant on chance rather than skill.

The extra games are all very nice and shiny but some more work should have gone into creating a level field of play, wherein each character can compete fairly and we aren't left damning Kobra's utter rubbishness as Noob-Smoke kicks seven varying shades of faeces out of him yet again.

You know if you like it already, and you probably know if you're going to buy it already. As for us, we like it, just don't expect us to know where to find it in two weeks' time. [Play UK]

Eight missions, plenty of multiplayer maps (including the most popular four from Ghost Recon) and the promise of at five downloadable desert missions means this is worth your cash.

Sadly, NFL Street feels exactly like a sub-game, and an extremely common one at that.

The real weakness of NFL Street, however, is the same criticism levelled at Madden just a few months ago - that completing a pass or finding a run through the defence is too arbitrary to judge.

For starters, anyone familiar with the Dreamcast version will stare in disbelief at the ropy visuals that this version has been saddled with. Everything from the characters to the levels look strangely rough-hewn and the textures look somewhat muted and lack definition and sharpness of colour.

One of the major restrictions in Asheron's Call has always been the relatively limited skill system, and sadly the Dark Majesty expansion does nothing to improve on this.

So this is a classic 6/10 - by that we mean that it's good fun and you'll enjoy playing it, yet you'll also be wondering what else you could be doing with your time.

The inoffensive, safe, non-threatening nature of the title just doesn't ever inspire fun or even frustration, merely, and perhaps most disconcertingly, ambivalence.

The mini documentaries on each beach at the start of every run and the cool jazzy music suit perfectly. This would seem to make Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer the perfect game for hard-core surfing fans.

The only problem is, just as the visual style has been ramped up and reduced to looking like an episode of an anodyne Saturday morning cartoon, the gameplay has been reduced to fit.

Any country that regularly throws machine-recovered meat down their throats while sucking on a drink that tastes like it should be pumped down the gullets of burns victims can’t have their tastes taken too seriously.

Sadly, your competitors behave like drones, slaves to the racing line. When a rider glances over at you, your presence has not really been registered.

Whilst the game might handle like a superlative arcade racer from each dynamic moment to the next, it neither looks nor behaves like one in any real, wider sense...it's far too concerned with vainly struggling to be a simulation.

Call us old fashioned, but shouldn't a game be tougher at the end than the start? Amped 2 does start to pick up after several stages, and once the methods have been mastered there is some serious enjoyment to be had.

The gameplay just isn’t up to scratch. Hack, slash and float is the basic premise, and that is about the extent of it. All the shopping for new weapons and random character level-ups don’t appear to have any effect on the meat and bones of the gameplay, and the repetition soon leads to boredom.

But chopping realistic arms off of realistic zombies soon loses its appeal, and it’s not long before Hunter becomes a bore to play.

We can't help feeling that this needed an extra couple of months' work to iron out the rough edges and implement some real strategy to the gameplay.

Whilst Castlevania is by no means a poor game, it's a world away from the franchise it's supposed to be representing and instead will be seen as yet another above average "Devil May Cry" clone. Oh, how the mighty have fallen...

If you love old-skool challenges and want to test your SF skills against the world's best, then this is the perfect collection. If only it came with a stained cigarette holder to clip onto the Xbox the retro feel will be complete.

Now we're finally over our initial shock, it turns out that Gladius is everything we expected, an interesting title that unfortunately misses its target more times than it hits...

The lack of endearing characters dosen't help the cause either – there is no empathy on your part as your character comes across as an extremely nasty person...a large slice of fun, but nothing special.

With controls that make accurate aiming tiresome and visuals that could be forgiven for being quaint, until they move, finding areas where this one should be recommended is akin to picking gnat shit out of pepper.

In many ways OutRun 2 is undone on Xbox Live by the mere fact that the core gameplay wasn't designed for competitive racing.

A dumbed down first-person shooter designed specifically for the PS2, which isn't equipped to run the more exciting elements of the Deus Ex universe. The result is a bland shooting experience that may as well run under the title of 'Generic Game With Fancy Guns' - a real shame when the potential to create something truly different was handed to the developer on a plate by Eidos.

It's certainly slick and professionally done, and those who find platformers to be their favourite genre will find this very enjoyable. However, if you like your gaming to be different then all you'll get from this is a distinct feeling of deja vu.

MTX:Mototrax is everything you have come to expect from a motocross game, but not that much more. Play is fun and fast but does not deserve winning honors.

The problem is that you have no control over where the camera is pointing so 50 percent of the time you'll be aiming at something off the screen.

Surprisingly, it's this split between the game's determination to showcase new elements while reintroducing more traditional gameplay that makes Sonic Advance 3 such a success; there's something here for everyone, no matter which era of Sonic you prefer.

A lazy PS2 port. Make no mistake this is a perfectly decent piece of software, but when you handed over your cash for the Xbox you probably weren’t expecting to be playing hand-me-downs from a machine significantly less powerful.

Although it's wonderful to drive around a fully realised 3D Springfield at breakneck speed in Otto's bus, we can't help but feel that things are a little formulaic.

The greatest shame about Midnight Club: Street Racing however is just how repetitive it can become.

The end result is, like the best blockbuster movies, a flawed but enjoyable waste of time.

The main problem lies in the fact that this is really nothing more than a re-done "SSX Tricky."

In wishing to both typify and exaggerate the visual style of a bygone age, Rez ultimately commits the cardinal sin of placing graphics before gameplay – a facet attributable to SEGA's desire for the title to be seen as art.

It’s fun but, existing in the half-world between dimensions, it fails to satisfy either the lust for old fashioned action or the flexibility of the modern gamer.

MechWarrior afficionados only.

The trouble is that The Thing just doesn’t scare us and that, you’d think, is a vital part of any horror game.

It’s just too short: the game takes around ten hours to complete.

Visually the game is competent, but having seen the PS2 version, we were disappointed to discover that this Xbox port looks nigh on identical.

Cumbersome at the best of times, it takes a lot more effort on the player’s part than it should to control the ball as they would wish. Not good for a fast-paced sports title.

It's definitely more playable than 2004, but you're still better off with "Winning Eleven 6."

This one certainly needs to be sexed up if it wants to be taken off the shelf.

From a pure enjoyment standpoint, Jedi Starfighter is incredibly sterile and lacking any of the feeling and fantasy that the Star Wars series offers – plus it’s virtually a carbon copy of the last one.

So Lunar Silver Star Story may possess all the weakness of most Japanese RPGs - sub-standard graphics, linearity and a sickening level of morality, but the younger generation will love the friendly interface and unfolding story.

If Armored Core 2 had managed to add more of "Blaze's" carnage, we would be taking about a classic.

It still feels clunky compared to the bling slickness of "NBA Street Volume 2" but that owes more to the fact that American football is more about fat men made of burgers barging each other over than it is playing with style and finesse.

If you mature, and don't get Star Wars at all it is possible that you may consider that this is more an quality Lego Star Wars product than it is a gripping Lego Star Wars game. This is one for the younglings. Move along.

We had hoped that Namco was going to take this chance to fix the many obvious problems with the game – sadly no, they’ve just churned out a virtually identically sequel, warts ’n’ all. Avoid!

There is nothing overly wrong with All-Star Baseball 2004, it’s an improvement on last year’s addition; an ‘easy’ batting system means you will soon be smacking balls into the boundaries (do they call them that?).

Some quiet and mildly distracting gaming, but also instils the feeling that you’d rather ditch your ride in favour of something sexier like, dare we say it, a skateboard.