A PlayStation2 game that seems to have taken the whole Pixar production ethic to one side and then beaten it to a pulp, gagged it with electrical tape and left it crying in a corner with a sign hanging round its neck that says 'Spit on me.'

Enemy AI is minimal, weapon effects lack impact and, best of all, once you're in a fire fight all the beauty of the slickness drops to just enough to make aiming more annoying than fun and that can't be good.

The camera is fine, the control system good and (like the film it follows) at no point does it patronise the audience. In other words there are no coins to collect here.

The jerky framerate in particular is unforgivable and not tweaking the game engine to account for the extra grunt behind the GameCube is something that Midway should acknowledge as a huge mistake.

Simply put, if you own "EO" there is no reason to get this. With "EO" you get a smoother game, the awesome Groove selection, Ratio matches and a larger selection of characters. If we were to use one word to describe Capcom Vs SNK: SVC Chaos it would be 'disappointment'.

It’s overly confusing without even rewarding the diligent player with a satisfying payoff. There is no, and we mean NO, sense of satisfaction in victory.

What we're left with is a game with a cool concept and a real sense of atmosphere that is drowned out by disappointment and frustration. Cold Fear could have been so much better had it built on the positives with a safe, more accessible control system and a few more hours on the design table.

This is the very definition of a linear game. Ok, we can accept that. But if the game is going to be so particular, it would be helpful if it wasn't so restrictive and occasionally clumsy.

To play Operation Surma is to walk a tightrope between excited gaming tension and an overwhelming urge for self-mutilation.

It looks the part and it has al the right elements. It's just cumbersome and rarely rewarding to play. So close to being amazing, yet so obviously not. Shame.

At a tenner this would have been okay, but for a penny under £20 this just can’t be recommended.

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.

”Ooh, are we having fun yet?” When Blade mutters these words as you run though the thousandth dim-witted vampire it can be hard not to see the irony – even the game is getting tired.

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.

Despite the lack of smashes, it’s sill a fun game to play thanks to the undemanding and bouncy handling of the R/C cars.

It just feels like no effort has been made to make this a killer game – this is the type of game that might do well in the arcades but not at home. There isn’t even a two-player mode in the game to add any form of variety – a criminal act for scrolling shooters.

The fact that there is nothing to separate this from earlier versions doesn’t help its cause either and, as such, it will keep you entertained for only a little while before boredom sets in.

It's all a bit like typing while wearing oven mitts.

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?).

Unfortunately Rogue Agent has turned out a bit flat. All of the ingredients should have delivered a novel twist on the Bond universe, but rather than being a villainous spectacle, it's merely a competent shooter that lacks any genuine thrills.

It's rare for a game of this type to actually be more than a mad single-button-mashing romp that creates more blisters than excitement; it's just unfortunate that the whole game wasn't as polished.

This could have been Activision's finest hour, but it looks likely to be nothing more than an agonising five minutes of fame.

Given the subject matter we can’t knock the developer for this but the relative limitations set by the cast of characters makes this the perfect microcosm for The Hulk: bludgeoning, loud, unthinking and very occasionally, as soft as muck.

Combat Elite makes an ideal rental title, three days being a good length of time to gauge whether you can tolerate quite so many invisible walls and German soldiers shooting you from nowhere.

So, it’s a mixed bag then – some great shooting and driving levels marred by the lacklustre fps sections.

The sea battles are great, but they do take quite a bit of time, and it is a shame that the rest of the game does not live up to the high standards they set.

Using Vattic's psychic abilities can be immensely enjoyable, especially when he learns to pick up people and smash them through windows. However, when the novelty of the psychic powers wears off, the game seems like an average third-person adventure with drab environments and awkward controls.

It's a weighty quest alright, but much of its size is artificial, being time spent wondering (a) where you’re supposed to go next and (b) how to get there.