Frustrating as it can be, every fight is a spectacle of chaotic gameplay that will have you absorbed.

It looks wonderful, plays like a dream and deserves a place in the games collection of any self-respecting strategy fan immediately.

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 a challenging game, but if you like your games to tax that sponge between your ears and have enough dedication to put in the effort required to get the most out of it – this will give you weeks of entertainment.

Think about it: How many other games out there can keep our collective attention for so long without even giving us anything as tangible as the thrill of completing a single level?

Rather than just create a lazy racing game and throwing in a load of huge rigs, Big Mutha Truckers has RPG elements, which mean that every player will have a different trucking experience and you’ll need to be a successful businessman as well as a good driver in order to succeed.

If you're willing to invest the time in it, there's no denying that Nippon Ichi has once again come good with another zillion hours of great RPG gaming for those hungry for numbers.

All at once. Astro boy is challenging, beautiful and in these days, utterly unique in its simplicity. Action fans will want to snap this up at the very first opportunity. [JPN Import]

Graphically, DW4 is a giant leap ahead of the past Dynasty Warriors games. The animation is now smoother and more imaginative, the effects wild and dazzling, and slowdown is thankfully rare.

Deep it isn’t, but there’s no denying that this is one of the most action-packed titles you’ll play on the GBA for some time.

The story is as good as ever and backed by some of the best sound of any PSone game and a smattering of smooth FMV scenes the atmosphere is bang up there with the best.

Madden has always been the king of the hill and this year is no exception.

The PS2 game is gorgeous enough as it, but the extra processing power, graphical trickery and superior control mechanism have done wonders for Criterion's racer.

There are no new developments in the game mechanics to speak of, it’s just the classic turn-based combat gameplay that kept us giggling throughout the last decade.

It’s not perfect, but Harry Potter is a sterling, fun play wrapped up in the magic of Hogwarts and it’s enchantments, making it a must have for muggles and wizarding folk alike!

It's not a must-have classic but it's certainly one of the best fluffy platformers on the Xbox. The sheer polish of the game should also help broaden Blinx's appeal even further.

Overall, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2001 is a great addictive sports title, which is certainly way above par.

The most impressive new additions are in the course design. The developer has really got the hang of how to build holes and the overall presentation is polished to the point where you could mistake it for an EA Big title.

The game is one of the better efforts in the series, with the flaws that put off hardcore gamers reduced, but still present. It’s not really one for strategy nuts, but if you like a less challenging but enjoyable dose of strategy, this will fit the bill nicely.

Flawed, yes, ambitious definitely - Silent Hill is a whole new experience adding to the challenge of "Resident Evil 2," while maintaining what it set out to do... drain you psychologically and scare you shitless!

Every member of the CUBE team was looking forward to this, and they all left the first session grumbling words like 'disaster,' 'bollocks' ad 'don't give up the day job Namco'. It's slow, dull and tedious. Don't get too depressed though, because there is a light at the end of this tunnel.

A no-frills tank sim that has a very solid base but not a great deal in terms of extras or window-dressing. Tank sim fans will find this a pleasing and detailed addition to their collection but anyone who is looking for the latest graphics, frantic shooting or options by the bucketload will not find them here.

A lot of fun, although not particularly advanced from "Delta Force 2" in either scope or quality.

Beautifully conceived and packed chock-full of garish Mario-isms. This is far better than any other golfing effort the N64 has spewed up in the past and we had to wait for the trusty little plumber to prove again just why he's the dog's danglies at almost everything he does.

Bear in mind that these would be ten or eleven of the most stimulating hours you can imagine, filled with drama, action, fear, wonder and really quite the most intense violence any person should witness.

As for the FFX initiates, you're going to like this a lot. Some parts may disappoint, some parts may even annoy you, but the experience as a whole is a good one, and you'll never question your purchase.

Probably the most accurate sport-to-videogame conversion around.

Playing through those 30 or so hours is one of the most enjoyable Xbox experiences around, as the game can be played at the player's own pace. There's no rushing to meet timed events or missing out on special items that only appear for half an hour.

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.

For all the niggles, gripes and irritations, XIII is a class act that has some supremely impressive aspects that you will thoroughly enjoy. This is a game that delights and infuriates in turn and our advice is to ration your XIII sessions so the frustration doesn't ruin what remains a standout title.

An immensely enjoyable shooter with adrenaline-soaked action, a Todd McFarlane attitude and a Marilyn Manson edge. Welcome to the dark side.

While the frame rate occasionally dips and pop-up hasn't been totally eradicated Killzone looks stunning. However, Killzone's total focus on fire fights means that anyone that doesn't relish the thought of scrapping for every inch of territory, yearning for puzzles, switches, vehicles to pilot or woe-betide, aliens, should look elsewhere.

In many areas Ghost Recon has the balance between shooting and thinking just about spot-on.

PC game-heads will be outraged at the dilution of this franchise by its console leanings, but there is still a great adventure and gripping story to be enjoyed.

This is a game about a partnership between play styles, and one that wouldn’t seem to work on paper, but like all good buddy relationships, like Starsky & Hutch themselves, it comes through in the end.

The physics engine wraps the package up nicely, so much so, that watching five bikes leap like frogs across the countryside becomes very mesmerizing.

The quests quickly repeat themselves and some of the larger creatures are nigh impossible to take down alone. Even so, it's a remarkably unique and thorough title and if you're online with your PS2, there's no reason for you not to get a taste for cold blood and take the hunt online. There really is nothing else quite like it.

Anyone put off by the steep learning curve will be missing out on some exhilarating racing action both on- and offline. The Live modes are impeccable.

It may not be the slickest of games, the visuals are very PS2-ish in their detail and crispness, but the atmosphere created by the character design, animation and effects drenched landscapes is second to none.

Bangin' drum and bass kicks out of the stolen sports cars super woofers as you prowl the streets for criminal action. Climb behind the furry wheel of a pick-up truck and it's good ole' hillbilly rock. This game knows how to use music and it shows it big time.

It’s to the developer’s credit that this does not feel at all like "Pharaoh" with a Greek touch, but has its own feel and style to it.

The healthy collection of missions provides plenty of variety to try out some of your moves, although sometimes the breakdown of these missions into short objectives can spoil your fluency.

The definitive action game for hardcore gun fetishists -- it''s second only to Goldeneye in the first-person adventure stakes, and a close second at that!

Add in the camaraderie and chat, the shouts of alarm and the odd comedy moment to lighten the tension and you have a cracking game that would be perfect if only there were a couple of branches down the very straight and narrow.

While accomplished would be a better adjective than flamboyant when it comes to gameplay, Amuze deserves kudos for the cinematic quality afforded the game's script and musical score.

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

With nerve jangling 5.1 audio that perfectly complements the washed out (purposely of course, in a Ring/The Grudge style) well-detailed visuals; Tecmo has created an atmospheric treat that truly delivers on all counts.

The story mode is too short but the challenges and multiplayer options make up for it. Although it's not a massive improvement over TimeSplitters 2, it is definitely just as good in terms of pure entertainment.

I don't use the word 'glorious' lightly - Myth III's use of 3D is possibly a new benchmark against which subsequent RTS titles will be judged.

You might not find yourself playing Crazy Taxi constantly on the day you buy it, but you'll still be picking it up for a quick blast of arcade action this time next year.

Despite the game's incredibly high difficulty level (that sometimes borders on the frustrating); the intricately designed levels, sumptuous aesthetics and razor sharp gameplay will constantly pull you back, until all you can live for is annihilating your previous high score.

The crux of Hot Potato stays the same throughout – clear a path and increase your score. And this simplicity makes it an incredibly fun game to play.

Unlike the original Kessen, KII is far more accessible and the fantasy element gives the whole show a far more epic feel in the style of TV’s Mahabarat (okay, it’s a Hindu show, but you get the idea).

Gameplay is great, the graphics are fine (without being jaw-droppingly good), the presentation is good and the difficulty level can be tweaked to your exact specifications.

Looks, sounds and plays every bit as good as "Gran Turismo 3" while bringing some great new additions to the genre.

The action just lacks the fluidity and finesse of some of the competition, like "Tekken" and "Virtua Fighter," and that certain sparkle that makes good beat-’em-ups great.

Xenosaga II is a worthy follow up with richly detailed characters and great battling, but it seems a little unfair to expect European gamers to jump onboard so late in the game.

Someone out there obviously thought that creating a simulation of real-life farming was a pretty good idea -- the worrying thing is that they might just be right! It may be all too much like hard work but this game can make growing cabbages seem as addictive as Hagen Das ice-cream!

This is what Doom is, and for those who’ve never played the PC original before, it’s wonderful.

Fans of "Ready 2 Rumble" will find a great deal to enjoy here - even if it doesn''t quite reach the classic heights of the first game there is still plenty of variety here to keep you coming back for more.

The aforementioned RPG mode is where we’ve found most of our time invested in Colosseum vanish. The darker-than-usual portrayal of the Pokémon world is an interesting and commendable change in style and the gameplay itself offers the player a substantially different experience to the handheld games. [JPN Import]

The only downside to the visual experience is the terrible crowd – but the game is so fast your eye is on the puck at all times so you won’t notice it too much unless you’re into watching replays a lot.

The next time a game developer gets a wacky idea, and an original game design, they should concentrate on offering a full adventure, rather than knocking off a few levels and making it depressingly hard to get through.

What really elevates the game, though, is the impressive implementation of the Havoc 2.0 engine. Fling an enemy into a wall, and his broken body will slump lifelessly to the floor, throw him into a barrel and chuckle wickedly as the hapless guard goes sailing through the air like an oversized rag doll.

This isn’t the prettiest adventure to hit the cathode-ray tube, but as an enjoyable and well-woven game it holds together in an enjoyable and consuming manner without resorting to pigeon philosophy and half-hour digital fireworks.

A suitably impressive game, if not for its sparkling gameplay, then for its determination to do something different with the whole genre, in which it remains almost unique.

Serious Sims fans might be a little disappointed. It's entertaining but doesn't have the depth of the earlier games in the series.

Ultimately, while Kingdom Under Fire might be considered a Korean homage to Blizzard, there’s plenty here to enjoy in its own right.

Acceptable, occasionally technically impressive but, on the whole, either at or below the par set by other driving games. This one is still recommended, but just veers a few degrees below the target that we like to call essential.

The game’s full of such annoyances, but it manages to (almost) balance up its frustrating nature with the weight of its truly black heart, good looks and the questionable joy of emptying out a Soho ponce bar to the sound of an AK-47.

The best arcade racer we’ve played so far and EA certainly seems to be developing quite a respectable name for its ‘Big’ games.

A touch that I particularly liked was the ability to delegate certain tasks to commanders who join your campaign at various stages. If you don't really want to spend ages establishing a base then it may be to your advantage to delegate this task to someone else, leaving you free to concentrate on attacking the enemy.

This has got to be one of the nippiest first-person shooters we have ever played. It just reacts so well that you can''t fail to feel that you''re performing a useful role in the battle and are not just there to stomp around while looking fierce.

If you persist past the ugly and confusing combat and a Bible worth of speech, there is a harmlessly atmospheric, quirky game underneath.

Graphically the game is excellent and there are lots of quirky touches, such as the darts players in the local inn who throw a dart directly at the camera ''smashing'' the screen.

The pace and AI can, occasionally, feel erratic and it isn't the most original game in the world, but if you can forgive the dubious politics, and simply lose yourself in the action, then Men Of Valor is the Medal Of Honor game many of us have been waiting for.

There is now a level editor named Tiger Proofing where players can customise their own greens and add naff little gimmicks to impress their mates and try to convince themselves that it's not exactly the same game as they all bought last year.

A very accomplished and well presented title, which although not exactly innovative, it does have that little something extra to make it stand out from the pack.

Breaking the mould of film conversion failures, this is a great game and (niggling flaws aside) is fun to play.

It's a blaster dressed in perfect olive greens that makes previous "Medal Of Honor" games seem slightly robotic and soulless in comparison.

For every flaw Drakan delivers an equal and opposite measure of magnificence.

This is still the best choice for gamers wanting to batter a hard white ball around a park but anyone returning to the series will be disappointed with the slender changes.

One thing that seemingly remains the same is the steep learning curve...If you are new to RTS games, you may want to bear in mind that Cossacks is exceptionally unforgiving in a way that say, "Age of Empires II" is not.

When you do finally get through to the end, you’ll be a better gamer because of it… or at least one who’s learnt a whole bunch of new swear words.

Half the fun came from picking out each light in an area before flipping on the night vision and having some fun with any gullible goons.

A surprisingly enjoyable, accomplished and involving game. In fact despite the limits of the boxing genre, playing Rocky is much like watching the films.

It looks like a dog's dinner, so unless you have a forgiving nature and can look past surface effects, this may not be for you. For fans of arcade gun-games though, this is about as good as it gets.

Unfortunately, the game is let down slightly by a rather annoying control problem – by only having one button to lay down arrows, you need to keep pressing it repeatedly to switch direction.

Koei's feudal epic continues to go from strength to strength and while it only offers subtle improvements over Xtreme Legends, it's still a very comprehensive package. Roll on "Dynasty Warriors 5."

Pool Paradise confirms Archer Maclean's reputation as a man with his finger on the pulse of the snooker/pool genre. By combining a highly accurate and satisfying physics engine with the addictive world of gambling and the all-important storyline, his team have created a game that should appeal to a far wider market than your average pool/snooker title and it's only twenty notes. A winner.

While it’s tricky to recommend a game that doesn’t run too well on a piece of hardware with static tech-specs, the fact remains that, gawd bless ’im, old Max had us entirely enthralled until the end of his adventure.

Far from what its name might suggest but as trigger happy fun goes, you won't get much better. Serious Sam? Rubbish name, great game.

Whether it's better than the old 2D games will come more down to personal preference, but it's a welcome twist on the old formula that opens up far more tactical options than ever before.

Although some of the later missions are very hard, it has a well-pitched difficulty curve, where most missions will require a few goes to crack and will require you to learn the road layout, which you’ll quite happily do.

The critics will be keen to slam these scenes as a crucial flaw but while we’d agree that they are possibly the most annoying factor, they do an excellent job of pushing the story forward and after the first few hours, the balance becomes much more acceptable.

All the fun of tagging the enemy is tied together with an admirable level of hyper-reality that manages to convince you that the game is taking a realistic stance, while so obviously being no more genuine an experience than if you had read the story in a comic. Everything is heightened, almost to the point of self-parody.

Amazing.

This is never going to compete with the likes of Pandora in the looks department, this is instead about the gameplay. It's here where Hitman Contracts excels.