If you’re the sort of gamer who’s obsessed with statistical accuracy in your sports sims and can live with the uncanny feeling of déjà vu, Moto GP 4 proves to be a run of the mill arcade racer that will give you the most up-to-date bike game on the market, however bland it is.

Sure, there are plenty of different touches on the gameplay. But how well-realised are they?

To compare "Earth 2160" directly with past greats like "Command & Conquer" and "Total Annihilation" is to miss the point. No, it’s not as inspired or as absorbing or as fun as those earlier games. But to find a fresh game which dares to take the baton from those titles and carry it forward another hundred yards is a real pleasure.

Fast, fluid and thoroughly absorbing, Virtua Tennis World Tour is not only as essential a purchase as "Lumines," "WipEout," "Ridge Racers" and Co., it’s a reason to buy the PSP itself.

Great for a quick game on the bus, perfect for those extended sessions on the train, Burnout Legends is right up there with Lumines and Virtua Tennis on our PSP must-have list. Truly brilliant.

A game that fails to build on what has gone before, yet is still unashamedly enjoyable at its core. It's hard to be too angry at that.

Offering the proverbial something for everyone, Not only does it give Cube owners (and PS2 owners, if you get the PS2 version) the chance to get to grips with some of the lesser known, but ultimately brilliant Sonic games of yesteryear (which are still great now), but also give the long suffering Sega masses the chance to finally play Sonic the Fighters on a home console.

It’s a wonderful game with a clichéd, though entertaining plot and some hefty system requirements. If you can meet the latter and don’t give a damn about the former then you will find plenty here to enjoy. Especially the tanks.

It's clear that the game is aimed at a younger audience, but this is no excuse for repetitive levels, broken controls, lazy design and releasing a game that's so frustrating, it'll make you turn off the console in disgust.

The fusion of many games into one is uninspired and lazy, which is all the more depressing when you consider the basic frame of the game is a solid one.

The enemy's endless determination to take you out (the A.I's strong point) balanced with the direct and simple nature of play results in a polished and genuinely enthralling experience. Always at the heart of the game is a determination to be fun.

Looks gorgeous and its gameplay is intense and ambitious. There are just enough new features to justify its massive hype, giving fans of the series many reasons to be excited. But it is not yet the finished article.

The sheer carnage you're able to unleash can verge on the glorious, and the copious amounts of vehicles available in some sections certainly boosts variety. But the only thing we can really recommend Conker: Live & Reloaded for is it's single player mode.

Juiced may play well enough compared to SRS or Need for Speed Underground and its sequel, but neither the handling or the circuits can touch Forza, Rallisport 2 or PGR2 for sheer playability.

Online, Sunrise is beyond fault. There are plenty of games to join (albeit most of which requiring a minimum of GCSE French) while if playing on your lonesome happens to be your thing, plenty of tracks are available for download, with your creations - if any good - are guaranteed an eager reception.

We’d love to see a sequel with a beefed up handling engine, some damage models and online play, but as it stands, Enthusia is only recommendable to the more hardcore Japophiles with a penchant for motoring action.

At times, it's almost as if the game outdoes itself. Storm a room with a gaggle of enemy soldiers dug in, awaiting your arrival with full is pretty exhilarating stuff, but this soon gives way to frustration when you find you've had an enemy sneak up behind you and nailed you enough times to kill you before it even registers.

Unfortunately, when the game is outclassed by its rivals, it feels rather bland. The career mode may rival that of Gran Turismo 4 in the anal depths it descends to, but seems to lack the love and attention (for instance, the wrong cars competing in the wrong championships) of the Polyphony Digital classic.

Cossacks II is a very enjoyable game, yet very frustrating and overly reliant on reloads and retries as you try and perfect the exact battle tactics needed for your current mission.

There’s nothing so wrong with Empire Earth II as to show it up for being the rather unexciting and decidedly average game it should be.

Predator: Concrete Jungle deserves to be murdered, flayed and strung up by its heels at your local games emporium as a shining example to all. If not, we’ll do one better: DO NOT BUY THIS GAME.

A frustrating and deeply flawed experience from start to finish.

The melee mechanic works well for its first outing, and with a little tweaking it could really come into its own on the next generation. Bored of Halo? Get Unreal Championship 2.

With a subtle, yet engrossing mix of comedy, intrigue, conspiracy, betrayal, mythology, magic, sadness, rage, joy and excitement wrapped up in a wonderfully charming oriental package, there are considerably worse ways of investing the 20-25 hours it'll take you to play through first time around.

Has neither the dexterity of "Outrun 2," nor the thrill of "Burnout 3." It does little to either further the genre or master a particular element, yet to a degree this is a title that can be enjoyed in short spurts.

The difficulty level is quite harsh at times, and you can become frustrated attempting to defend points whilst searching for reinforcements you left hidden in the trees. But the campaigns on offer are varied, and make for some interesting long range battles using rockets and attack choppers.

With a solid graphics engine and some decent audio effects to boot, there’s no doubting that Archer Maclean’s Mercury offers an engrossing, absorbing PSP gaming experience that offers the sort of longevity most titles can only dream of – even if you do run the risk of losing handfuls of hair each time you play it.

It's more Jerry Bruckheimer than it is Tom Clancy, but in a subgenre that's become notorious for being a tad too clinical, that's probably not a bad thing.

SWAT 4 is no "System Shock 2" – it’s not going to break any boundaries. However, in a world where professional finish and attention to detail is increasingly rare, its focus on filling a job role rather than filling terrorists with holes is refreshing and admirable, and is definitely worthy of investigation from anyone capable of exercising the restraint required to fully appreciate what this game is about.

So on a positive note, if you didn't have a graphics card with enough oomph to play Doom 3 the first time around on PC, this is a suitable and acceptable way to finally scare the bejesus out of yourself.

Had Sega stuck to its rumoured plan of releasing this on the Dreamcast five years ago, we'd probably have given it a more favourable write up.

If you’ve played "Brothers in Arms" you will no doubt find Full Spectrum Warrior a less refined, more plodding title.

Simply astounding. Combining all the best things about Action/Adventure games and mastering everything it attempts, Sony’s Santa Monica studio have crafted a true work of genius.

Offering silky smooth visuals with some of the most frantic gameplay we’ve seen to date on the diminutive, yet highly capable, machine.

Basic yet brilliant, it’s been ages since we were this obsessed with a game.

If you have gleaned even the slightest bit of enjoyment from the series down the years, youâ??ll never look back. Another awesome PSP game.

A vastly entertaining, if flawed, port of a modern day classic.

But this overbearing sense of familiarity is what dogs Cold Fear down into the lower echelons of the genre – it just doesn't do enough to further survival horror in any way at all. In fact most of the time it just feels like a step back.

It's Freedom Force, basically, but with a bit of spit and polish. It wouldn't be unfair to say this could've retailed as an expansion pack, except for the fact virtually no-one bought the first game.

The play is original and refreshing in comparison to other generic sports titles, the controls are well designed and easy to use. The play style works in this RTS format: however, timed moves are provided for those more frantic times of play.

With the changes made to the gameplay, there’s no doubting Namco has turned the series around to deliver one of the strongest beat 'em up performances we’ve seen since "Dead or Alive Ultimate."

It’s certainly good for wiping away memories of the God awful movie, that’s for sure.

The ever-changing gameplay really keeps you riveted.

The best MMORPG on the market, of that there is no argument. By taking the choicest cuts from previous titles in this genre, Blizzard has constructed a fairly unoriginal but nevertheless brilliantly assembled game world.

Continued innovation combined with respect for the series’ heritage means Solid Snake fans have yet more hours to wile away in Kojima’s land of deception and false-truths, but many are likely to be left scratching their heads at an even more frequent rate than at the release of Sons of Liberty four years ago.

Its stylish looks, its innovative control and demented sense of humour make for a game that’s not only a complete joy to play, but also the first title for Nintendo’s newest console to actually use the touch-screen the way it was intended.

If you’re looking for the next big thing that uses Sony’s diminutive webcam as its principle control means, this definitely isn’t it.

Yet again, it is the inability of Tak 2: The Staff of Dreams to deal with 3D and learn from what has gone before that will leave the majority of gamers unenthused. There is nothing new to be learned here and no moments that are particularly original or unique.

Sure, Singles has beautiful visuals and a stunning level of detail, and deals with relationships and sex in a much more effective and realistic way than in "The Sims": it’s just not got enough to keep it going in the long term.

It’s uncomplicated, enjoyable and unashamedly action-packed: this is for gamers who don’t know exactly what they want. If they want meat, they’ll have chicken; if they want a drink, they’ll have lager; if they want a strategy game, they’ll have something good looking, easy to get into and more fun than a drunken weekend with Kiera Knightley.

This is just about the racing cream of the GBA crop. Fast, flowing and more absorbing than industrial sponges, owning a GBA and not having this in your collection should bring with it a custodial sentence.

Arena Wars is multiplayer RTS streamlined and polished to perfection. It looks good, it plays great and it has the potential to be a lot more than just a cult classic.

Sadly, this by-product of the world’s current obsession with illegal racing, ugly street cars being given garish makeovers by plebeians and all things neon or blacked out can do little to impact upon the success of other racers.

This is the ultimate in claustrophobic corridor blasters, and no matter what cynical hacks might say about the flashlight system, take no notice because it’s one of the most unique and cunning ideas we’ve seen in years – plus, it bloody well works!

Yet another crap Army Men game, only about as good as all of its many predecessors put together. It's quite ugly, hard to control and really easy: it's like your first girlfriend. You'll have fun with it for a couple of hours but after a day or so you'll change your phone number and hope it doesn't go psycho.

It looks poor, it feels unfinished and there’s almost a sarcastic attitude towards its ridiculous limitations.

You learn more moves, you collect different swords of various qualities and you can get into a scrap at anytime, anywhere. It's all very much in keeping with the loose cannon samurai lifestyle, that's just a bit too loose for it's own good.

Tough, punishing and as unreliable as the timer on a second hand VCR, there’s an experience hidden beneath the lush foliage and 100 different types of weapons that’s hopefully the first of many to revolutionise the RTS.

It offers a challenge to the experienced gamer that is second to none, and a level of innovation that, while undeserving of its boastful slogan "Real Time Strategy Reborn", could certainly reinvigorate a genre where something truly new and unique is so very hard to come by.

The lack of real longevity as a result of this and the chronically unvarying things to do, combine with a curious mixture of shoddy and great graphics to create an odd concoction. It's so much fun swinging around and beating up baddies, but so painful to see the same situations again and again.

A brilliant game. Even though at no point is the Terran Empire playable, the Virons and their unique melding technology (two units can be ‘melded’ together to create a different unit) makes up for this loss by adding a new level to the strategy.

Certainly, the only other drawback is the lack of a hard drive for the PS2 version, which would have been ideal for storing copious amounts of tunes, but we can’t hold Codies responsible for that one.

The faultless execution of the courses is also of note. Even though they’re all ovals, each one brings its own challenge - be it smoothness of the surface, the camber of the surface, the length of the course or the diameter of the track, all the courses have in common is the fact they’re ovals and that the racing is so close around them.

Ultimately, despite being the solid and enjoyable game that Driv3r once promised to be, it’s buried far too deep under all the shite to rescue the game from being anything more than just a gaming folly.

In terms of being a conversion, Pandora Tomorrow on PS2 suffers from the technological drop quite badly, but it’s not like we weren’t expecting it. After all, the PS2 will be four later this year, so a few things going awry here and there doesn’t exactly leave us weeping tears of pain.

All these features help build a very competent and well structured strategy title, which is a must for strategy purists. However it’s quite a heavy game to get into, and those Command and Conquer lovers will find the extra features, and lack of base building, works against them.

If you want a great looking tennis game that offers more than just quick and simple play, Pro Tournament 2 offers almost enough to keep you going until next summer, when doubtless we’ll all go tennis mad again. Now leave us alone: Wimbledon’s on.

It's fun to play, with just-cute-enough graphics and sound, it manages to be full of platforming charm and humour without ever overdoing it the way so many western platformers do, and some of the mini-games could sell by themselves.

Let down by a slightly unsatisfactory platform element that doesn't make the most of the lead character's abilities, and is outshone by it's counterpart game.

Malice’s shunning of virtually anything complicated leaves a game that will allow easy access for non-gamers looking for something that’s easy going, artistically charming and amusing in a smutty, simplistic way – and at half the price of a regular release, is probably as low risk as it gets.

A competent example of a seriously tiring game structure, which leaps from mediocrity with a reasonable twist to the mechanics. It doesn’t feel bad, and you’ll never hate it for being what it is, it’s just that WarCraft is so much better, and a decent story line or an iota of imagination on the behalf of the developer could have raised the bar that important fraction higher.

There are downsides to the game, though, the biggest of which being the absence of any form of multiplayer.

Not as good as either of the first two games...What it is, is a rather decent homage to the greatest stealth game ever made, which does a reasonable job of recapturing the ethos and style, and a great job of recapturing the gameplay of the game we all fell in love with.

It's a shame that the rag-doll physics are the worst we've come across since, ooh, Rainbow Six: Raven Shield, because you'll often find that lifeless and unconscious bodies fall in the most ridiculous and impossible positions.

A special mention must also go to the Minicons, which provide for a lot more variation than expected, offering all manner of power ups and, when you’ve amassed a few to select from, allow you to gear yourself up more for a specific mission with the resultant tactical depth a welcome bonus to what is essentially another third person shoot ‘em up.

Van Helsing may be a simple, all-out action game, but then the film was a simple action flick. Van Helsing looks good, sounds good, and plays well. It just needs that extra bit of depth to push the score that little bit higher.

Those who struggled to get to grips with the original game will be delighted to know the handling has been rebalanced to allow for greater accessability.

An incredibly generic RPG. Often playable, but sometimes frustrating and never original through its 100 hours plus playing time. In a PC market that thrives on innovation, Larian Games seem to have missed something fundamental.

City of Heroes sporadically delights and contains many great ideas that require more diverse in-game options before ascending from its current level of interesting diversion to essential purchase.

Definitely the best Onimusha title so far, based on a purely aesthetic level.

Essentially a filler game with a few new weapons and tools of murder, and, of course, its new and improved game engine. The problem is, while it’s nowhere near the leap from Hitman: Codename 47 to Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Hitman: Contracts is still a highly enjoyable game, and one that gives us hope that the next title in the series will have much more effort poured into it.

Its simplistic arcade gameplay simply doesn’t cut the mustard on the birthplace of stealth gaming, and its only lasting effect will be a strange desire for the involving, story-driven gameplay of the king: "Thief."

Breathtaking attention to detail served with great graphics that'll run on anyone's system all make it highly commendable. The game provides a lot of intensely focused carnage, but absolutely nothing else, and that wasn't quite enough to keep us entertained for it's whole duration.

The frame-rate problems, aiming issues and short lifespan of the game, all conspire to ruin what could have been a reasonably fun blaster. Serious Sam Advance is yet another argument that modern first-person shooters have no place on the Game Boy Advance.

What it lacks in finesse and refinement it makes up for in its relentless pace and continuous blasting lunacy. It won’t be the sort of game you’ll be telling your grandkids about in years to come, but it does the job and for its bargain price.

Not once did we raise a smile during the experience: it just isn’t funny. In the slightest. The puzzles within the game are also unlikely to raise a smile, due to the irrational way they are designed.

Rest assured that this is no "March! Off-World Recon," but it’s not quite as good as the pathetic "Medal of Honor: Rising Sun." In a year that has seen the release of the wonderful and technologically gifted "Far Cry," it’s inexcusable of CDV for even contemplating letting Breed out of development hell.

A first rate, old-school RTS which, while distinctive, any "Command & Conquer" fan will instantly be familiar with, and which has only enough strategy to fill a small egg cup.

A gripping storyline and entertaining puzzles that do not frustrate combine to help create a compelling adventure game.

Sure, it’s cheap and cheerful, but considering the talent behind the port we can’t help but feel let down.

Midnight Nowhere is offensive, crude, disgusting, sick, foul, and stock full of jokes about necrophilia.

It’s a massive, massive game that never gets boring and one that’s so easy to get into and so good-looking that anyone wanting good old fashioned RPG action would be stupid to even consider purchasing anything else.

So while Ubisoft's dedication to bring its best-loved franchises to the PS2 should be good news, this time the developer hasn't got it quite right, and if you want some rooting-tooting tactical shooting on your PlayStation 2, we recommend you go for the latest iteration of Ubi's other uber-brand, "Ghost Recon," instead of this.

We’re now thoroughly claustrophobic, agoraphobic and generally panophobic (afraid of everything). Far Cry has left us well and truly scarred, but after the experience it’s given us, we’re not ones to complain.

The main drawback with Crime Scene Investigation: Dark Motives is the impossibility to make mistakes. Try to obtain a mould of a footprint by using the wrong substance gains you a curt, “No, use something else”, or words to that manner.

The multiplayer is well designed, but contains flaws that will cause a lot of gamers to turn away in disgust.

A good, solid buy for new strategists but veteran generals will struggle to find long-term entertainment.

It seems Black-Ops has been primarily concerned with making a playable game that isn't too tough to put off the X-Files fan-base that it's clearly designed for, and in the end seasoned players won't find too much here that's new or challenging.