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.