We'd like to see the player rewarded for his skills more, that the game was fairer. There remain plenty of moments in Winning Eleven 9 where you'll scream with frustration not because 'that's football' but because the game does something that's completely out of your control, and for that reason we have to mark it down.

Playing as Kong is a joy, (see boxout for details) but it's all too brief a flirtation with primal rage - scooping Ann up in his oversized hand and fending-off a Jurassic Park of tyrannosaurs with wrestling inspired moves, after swinging through a jungle canopy with all the grace of Ico is inspiring, but it feels like little more than a cameo.

For such a promising, daring game ultimately to play no differently at the end than it did at the beginning only underscores what a tremendous disappointment it is. As a pure cinematic experience it's absolutely unrivalled; as a videogame, it falls tragically short of the mark.

The definitive, most universally appealing WWII title ever made. It's not that the game does anything more or less than its digital brothers in arms, far from it, but instead it strips the genre down to the bare essentials and this turns it into one of the most pure shooters we've seen for some time.

The trouble is, with the likes of "Project Gotham Racing 3" and "Test Drive Unlimited" looking pretty awesome - that level of expectation is very high - and this latest Need For Speed adventure doesn't quite have the weight to match it.

Dragon Quest VIII's world flows. It moves. It's utterly huge. It reminds one of "Zelda: Ocarina of Time" on a "Grand Theft Auto" scale. It is an adventure. It's possible to get hopelessly lost in mountain paths, or on tributaries in rivers that dissect giant continents with no place to land a boat outside of a shady hidden casino in the rocks. [JPN Import]

The painfully overused 'gangsta-speak', the cop with a grudge against you and Josie Maran trying to pop your hood the whole time are all completely unnecessary, although not particularly obstructive, adornments. Otherwise though, this is everything you already love about Need For Speed plus the pigs.

There's plenty of puzzling-out what to do next but it's never too basic or too complex. You get a good sense of achievement out of completing chapters and get to regularly unlock new moves for your efforts.

The only problem now is where THQ takes things from here; if it doesn't want to fall into the FIFA-trap, it'll have to come up with something pretty special next time.

There's little cohesion between one level and another, which makes the whole experience like fast-forwarding between fight scenes while trying to understand the story.

The series may seem a little aged after just 12 months - something underlined by the superior alternative of Battlefield 2: Modern Combat which is already available - but there's a lot here to get to grips with, especially given that multiplayer effectively triples the potential, with offline and online modes fleshing out the action.

Every moment spent in the game world, from the ramshackle village to the far-from-abandoned military installation, is pure, adrenaline-fuelled fun. The game doesn't want to be big or clever - it wants to take you on a roller-coaster ride that leaves you breathless. And it does.

A high watermark for where epic hack'n'slash games should be at this stage of the Xbox's lifecycle.

The Sims 2 might not be an incredible game, technically, but it's the stories that are written in your head and the situations that are thrown up as you play that make it a unique experience.

It's the sort of title we'd recommend to anyone who fancies something a little different and is prepared to put in several hours hard graft - but it's just too slow and doesn't twist itself far enough into the spooky or surreal.

The visuals are sharp, the audio is awesome (whack up the 5.1) and the action comes thick and fast in what is one of the most frenetic and exciting shooters we've seen for a while.

It's SOCOM meets Hitman and it makes lying in the rubble of a blown-out rathaus a tense, exciting and deeply satisfying pastime.

With so many World War II games on the market, Earned In Blood's dedication to creating an understanding of what the war meant to those who fought it, as much as providing the player with a recognisable game, should be lauded.

We love this one too, though it's more out of loyalty than out and out lust.

Not as great as real poker, but certainly the next best thing. Now take those socks off, we got three kings.

The difficulty level is very high, even on baby-mode and the AI is no slouch on mixing up the special attacks. Fans will love the new additions and enormity of the game, although some might be put off by the pared down attacks but those new to the series may be put off by the rock hard difficulty level.

The Warriors doesn't do anything particularly wrong - it's a perfectly acceptable game - but at the same time it doesn't do anything spectacular.

Fans of S-RPGs will adore this game. When you play a game as in-depth as this you aren't paying too much attention to how pretty the graphics are. That said, Intelligent Systems has had experience with the GameCube previously and there's no excuse for the game looking as bland it does. [JPN Import]

As addictive as its predecessor thanks to its hypnotic racing, perfect feel and disregard for videogame rules.

It may be far from perfect, but there are fleeting moments of exhilaration where FIFA 06 resembles a game of football like no other, and when this is coupled with a 15 year Career mode that now even enables you to choose your team's sponsor, even the most stubborn EA-hater will have to concede that this, for the most part, is a success.

Easily the best game in the series to date. We can, at last, put the mess that was "Conflict: Vietnam" behind us and continue down this far brighter path.

Most annoying of all is the painfully slow response of the players, as they stumble through their pre-set animations, never sparing a thought that the button you pressed two-seconds earlier might be a little inappropriate now.

As with most aerial-based antics most of the games' objectives are straight forward and involve little more than clearing the screen of enemies but the blend of black and white wartime footage, airborne action and wonderfully recreated propaganda posters immersed us so much.