I can honestly say I had hoped for more from Dragon Age II. Considering Bioware have a history of nailing their sequels, I can't help but feel this was handed off to their reserves developers as the big guns work on Mass Effect 3.

Order of the Phoenix is another inoffensive entry into the Harry Potter videogame archive. It does little to frustrate or impress, but there's plenty here for fans of the series.

It is unfortunate that many of the implemented features aren't as polished as they could have been, and that the enemy AI is so woefully inadequate. Still, its unique blend of stealth action and psychic powers warrants it as at least a rental.

LEGO Batman is new territory for the team at TT Games, with no memorable film scenes to recreate or iconic moments to build out of bricks. The results are surprisingly great, with detailed levels and three fun episodes of vexatious villainy for Batman to foil.

It isn't without its faults, in particular the controls, hokey dialogue and cheap voice acting, but if you can see past these minor imperfections, you'll discover that Scaler is a first-rate platformer that gives the offerings of some big-name characters like Crash Bandicoot a real run for their money.

The presentation is absolutely first rate and even though some of the control options I loved from past games are gone, the controls are finely tuned and it's possible to score some awesome goals.

MotoGP 3 is a technical tour de force - stuffed to the brim with content, boasting tight controls and the definitive online multiplayer experience.

NHL 2K6 seems more like a game made for the original Xbox. While the game play is still fantastic, the new features brought to the table by the Xbox 360 version in my opinion, do not warrant the extra 30 dollars.

Serious Sam 2 may be a pun prickling pap of a sequel, but it delivers exactly what it promises –mindless action and plenty of it. It's got guns, several shiny things to ogle over, and a cavalcade of monster scum to slaughter. But its slapstick humor alone cannot save this game from its incessant repetitiveness and less than innovative gameplay; albeit it is executed rather well.

The game looks brilliant using a revved-up Doom 3 engine, although its coding creates some inconsistent framerate mayhem.

Lips does a good job at being a Karaoke simulator. The problem is it's not very good at being a game, especially compared to the other music games available.

Better looking, better sounding, and better gameplay should be a winner in anyone's book, so if you liked Blazing Angels but hoped for more, then your prayers have been answered. It isn't perfect, but getting to fly futuristic jets and take down giant Nazi zeppelins goes a long way to balancing out the problems!

Quantum of Solace is a solid, above-average game that does the two new films justice without really pushing the envelope.

It's fun to play through though and the Career mode is quite long and challenging but a few more game modes such as a couple of arena style levels and a few extra weapons to mix things up a bit definitely would not have hurt.

Kinectimals is adorable, cute and endearing all in one neat package. Despite a repetitive selection of mini-games, it remains the most efficient use of Kinect technology in crafting a game for children and casual gamers, who are the main demographic for Kinect at this stage.

It doesn't stray much outside the established action/adventure genre, and while not particularly challenging, it is quite fun to play and would be particularly well suited to those who like their games to be quite cruisey.

The "one hit" action of the game is a great take on shooter titles as it makes you more cautious about what you are doing, but it can also cause some frustrating moments.

Even if there are new levels or characters added as DLC down the track, it's difficult to view Raskulls as anything but a short-term injection of fun and nothing more.

For me, there's too much 'on paper' that is wrong with this game – the music, the characters, the clichés, the lack of options and lack of variety. Yet, in practice and in spite of all this, I did enjoy Def Jam Icon.

Outlaw Tennis offers enough variety to keep most players busy for quite some time, but it suffers from cheating AI and annoying humour.

A number a gameplay and game mode enhancements don't advance the series as much as could be expected and in the search for new ideas and directions, EA BIG have largely struggled to come up with anything substantial.

When ODST impresses, such as during moments when massive things go boom in the distance, it certainly gives your heart a bit of a jump, but then it yanks all hope of an epic experience away and quickly returns to the rut of re-used assets and recycled gameplay ideas.

It's too limp to be a real contender in the simulation market. Sure, it's got boobs and sex, but they're too easy to get these in this game.

Dante's Inferno could have offered more. It's heavily influenced by God Of War, but never seeks to do anything to differentiate itself from its influence beyond a superficial weapon development tree that has ultimately no impact on the game or the story.

Suffers from a real distinctive lack of style. Nothing about it stands out, even the fancy hard disk recording Time Control mechanism.

It is a solid and streamlined sortie through the RTS battlefield, if a little flawed in parts. I have to mention again how impressed I was with how easy it was to pick up and play.

The fairly repetitive and shallow missions, the dreary presentation of the film plot, and the uneven sights and sounds are normally sufficient to warrant a 'fans need only apply' status.

Powerdrome doesn't improve on the genre as much as I was hoping.

Admittedly the name gives you fair warning, but the heavy reliance on the stunt events detracts from the rock-solid arcade racing experience at the heart of the game, and may turn off a lot of players.

The addition of multiplayer gives it some lasting appeal, but the Force just isn't strong enough in this one to make it a must-have.

Yes you do kill innocent villagers, yes you do get funky with Vietnamese hookers, and yes you do get to experience the horrors of the Vietnam War, but while Shellshock Nam '67 isn't quite a masterpiece, it is still an enjoyable game if you're starved for a solid shooter.

Its last-generational visuals aside, the game offers intense shoot-outs, horseback chases and loads of explosions all packaged in a succinct, and rather violent, story.

A surprisingly solid movie-to-game effort, one that is quite refreshing given the usual level of substandard trash that usually gets trotted out to cash in on a popular film.

Even with new levels, added extras and a new multiplayer mode with Xbox Live support, it really doesn’t scrub up and match the polish of some other recent titles.

After the plot falls over dead, the wonderful action stands up and carries it home, bearing the weight of the game's many failures on its back.

You shouldn’t need double-jointed thumbs nor the kind of patience required to endure its faults. As it is, I can only recommend Mafia to those that for one reason or another cannot play the game on the PC. It isn’t a bad game, it’s just not all that it could be.

Put all the flaws aside though, and you've got a very competent dungeon crawler that has been almost perfectly optimised for a console – and that's something I have to admire the developers for. Just don't expect to be playing this one with your friends.

At the end of the day, Airborne is a competent addition to the series. If you're a fan of these games then most of our complaints will be nothing new to you, and you'll probably approach the new jump mechanic and ostensibly open levels with gusto.

It doesn't really bring a lot of new ideas to the third-person action game genre but the period of history it depicts is interesting and the decision to incorporate mythological elements was a good one.

Singleplayer is pretty weak yet enjoyable, but the real fun to be had here is with the insane multiplayer action.

Silent Scope Complete would have been a wonderful package for fans of light gun games, only it’s let down by an intrinsically flawed calibration system.

Sega Rally Online Arcade is a very arcade-like racer that is bound to impress those who loved to get their race on in arcades whenever they could, but be warned that the formula has not been shaken up too much since the original game hit, which is a bit unfortunate.

Well, to be truthful, you'll probably tire of The Club long before you'd get sick of some new cool restaurant as the variety on offer here in this game is even more limiting, but we hope you see the point we're trying to awkwardly make.

As long as you're prepared for that you'll enjoy a great Star Wars story with incredible graphics and a bunch of ultra powerful Force Powers at your disposal.

The Campaign mode offers solid gameplay, and the open-ended nature of the main and side missions does allow for a little more replay ability than one would first think from looking at the box.

Although I did know what kind of game Dragon's Dogma was when I picked it up, I was hoping that it would be different, have something I found compelling, something I could get addicted to and want to spend my time with. But for me, this kind of 'old school' gaming found in Dragon's Dogma is simply tedious and rarely enjoyable.

F.E.A.R. 2 turned out to be a game that both succeeds and fails with equal amounts of spectacle.

Although quite a fun game, LEGO Indy shrinks in stature when compared the previous LSW games.

It's button-mashing at its best: not too simplistic, but not too complicated either. The RPG and adventure elements add a nice twist to things, though it isn't really enough to warrant returning for a second swing.

Timeshift is a simplistic and vaguely enjoyable shooter with an unfortunately scheduled release. It's a shame about the other shortcomings Timeshift brings to the table, otherwise it could have been a sleeper classic.

There's some solid innovations here as well as a good looking game, and if it wasn't for the stifling lack of variety, almost silent musical score and patchy framerate, it could have triumphed over being "decent” and transcended into the hallowed halls of greatness.

Much like a fireworks display: it shines very brightly and provides a big hit of enjoyment, only to fizzle out all-too-quickly and leave you with little besides fond memories and a hole in your pocket.

If you're a diehard Guitar Hero, then you're probably going to buy this regardless (much like I did), but I fear you'll be disappointed with the easy, watered-down experience Greatest Hits is.

The end result feels like two separate games crudely soldered together, there's a connection there, but it lacks cohesion and a real weld between worlds.

In the end with Juiced 2 we have a game that is much more enjoyable than Juiced was as it controls better (but still needs some work in that area) and is a fairly solid arcade street racing game.

It delivers a well-paced and intense experience that is ultimately very satisfying and surprisingly faithful to its film counterpart, provided that you accept that it doesn't set out to reinvent, or even excel in any one area of gameplay.

The game's saving grace is the awesome graphics and sound, solid multiplayer and the times in a race when everything just comes together. All flaws aside, there is a decent off-road racer at the heart of Dirt 3. You may just get a little frustrated finding it.

If you're just curious, then renting might suffice, but given how niche a title Aces is, finding it for rent may be extremely difficult.

The story, while involving, mainly because of the excellent character development, plays out quite linearly and this makes it feel as you’re playing an interactive movie.

Gears of War: Judgment isn't actually a bad game by any means - it performs admirably and takes a few risks with the series' conventions to provide a unique (Gears) experience for players. The problem here is that the experience just isn't memorable enough - this is essentially a Gears of War game done by the numbers with all tactical involvement completely removed or made superfluous.

The story is told badly and some of the additions and changes are almost criminal. The graphics generally look awful with splashes of beauty, like the sight of a supermodel purging.

If it weren't for issues with pacing and repetitive environments during the first half of the campaign, Armageddon could really have become something memorable. Instead it's hard to think of it as anything but a forgettable third-person shooter where it's fun to explode everything to smithereens.

The game is a little on the easy side. Ok, a lot on the easy side if you’re good with puzzles but not too hard for kids and of course it suffers the fate of all puzzle games; When you’ve solved them once, there is no challenge in solving them again.

With so many great games on XBLA let alone on disc, it's hard to recommend I Am Alive. It feels like it never reached its full potential. Maybe with more time or a bigger team Ubisoft would have a classic like Assassin's Creed on their hands, but unfortunately it falls flat on too many levels.

If you’re a fan of the film then you may get a kick out of The Thing and it is fun to play after watching the movie again. Just don’t expect the games biggest selling point to be anything more than a worthless gimmick.

I appreciate the effort that has gone into re-making the game engine from the ground up for the new generation of consoles, and giving the ball independent physics is a step forward, but apart from the presentation everything else is a step back.

It's obvious that Dynasty Warriors 6 is a game made for its long-term fans, and there is little doubt that they will lap it up even while they complain about it being simplified. For everyone else, there probably hasn't been a better time to try out the series, but if you've played in the past and it wasn't to your liking, version #6 won't change your mind.

As aforementioned, Army of Two does have its issues. It's got a flawed partner intelligence system, some horrid hovercraft piloting sequences, and not to mention the game is region-locked for online play.

As possibly the only tennis game to be released in 2012 (no others are announced yet), and the only tennis game released in almost a year, Grand Slam Tennis 2 will definitely suffice, just don't expect a game-changer. There's a bit of work to be done before EA climbs to the position of number one seed.

Crackdown 2 still feels rough and unfinished. In fact, it feels even more so than the first, especially when viewed as a single player experience.

But at the end of the day, there's nothing on offer that actually changes the core Hexic experience, and as such it's difficult for us to recommend a purchase at its current price.

Just plain average. It’s not a terrible game; just that this has been done so much better in many other games.

Sadly, a missed opportunity from EA. Someone has come up with a great concept, brought on board some incredible comic talent to help bring it all together but it's let down by a poorly designed fighting engine and badly balanced characters.

In the end, the game really is just too human: flawed, ageing but with the potential to do great things.

The issue with SVC Chaos is that while it has a great deal of pick-up-and-play it severely suffers from an absence of any longevity outside of its online component. SVC Chaos feels more like the beginning of something really exciting, but falls far from containing anything of real substance.

Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires has been around the block a couple of million times by now, and its safe to say that the tricks being turned here are unlikely to surprise or please anyone besides the most hardcore fans.

The thing to remember though, is that Epic Mickey 2: Power of Two doesn't quite innovate as much as you would expect a sequel to but it's still built on an incredibly stable base of the original game. For this much, anyone into an old school platformer that you would only experience last generation should definitely give this a shot, or any Disney aficionado who wants to be reminded why they love the production company so much.

Hydrophobia Pure is a decent enough game for a downloadable title, but as mentioned feels more like a tech demo for water physics than a fully thought out game. You can see what the developers were aiming for, but it misses the mark in many places.

As such it really boils down to that third group, the Guitar Hero fan who doesn't care about Aerosmith one way or another, and sadly this game won't do anything much to win them over either.

The modes on offer are skeletal and offer little that can't be found in exhibition. It looks great and plays smoothly, but there isn't enough lasting appeal to recommend the purchase.

At the end R:Racing is not a terrible game, but nor is it even a good game, it should probably come with a sticker on the front saying Rental only, and then only if you’re desperate for a new racing game.

It’s fun to play, but the dull missions and average graphics make it the kind of game you’ll probably enjoy for a week and then let gather dust on your shelf.

A daring departure from the cartoon-roots of the series, but it's as though the developers used up all their creativity on this. The levels are repetitive in design and layout, and the enemies are generic hordes of identical clones.

It's true that the game is extremely frustrating and is in fact so full of bugs that a call to the exterminators may be required – and it's for that reason that it has received such a low score.

The use of a fantastic ball physics system and a wide variety of game types should keep players happy and interested for a long time to come. Unfortunately, the enthusiasm witnessed in the technical attributes of this game was not translated to its overall presentation.

The greatest challenge in the game is really overcoming the controls and camera though, so if you are the kind of person who is easily put off by unconventional control schemes, perhaps you should look elsewhere for buried treasures.

For the fourth game in the series some of the main problems like team and enemy AI and dodgy controls should have been fixed long ago.

Alone in the Dark has enough innovations to warrant being experienced by most gamers, but is crippled by poor design at the most basic levels.

Soccer is a game about tactics, skill and precision, and this game shirks all of that for a quick bang, and it doesn't really work.

It really should have come as an add-on for the original game, and not as a full priced, stand alone product.

Disappointing.

The game is not without its many shortcomings, however, and those easily frustrated by lousy checkpointing or undercooked and simplistic gameplay elements should steer clear.

Whilst it's not a terrible game, and there is some fun to be found here, it gets repetitive fairly quickly.

It really is one of the easiest games I’ve played. The problem is there is nothing in the game that’s quite spectacular enough to make up for it either.

I cannot recommend more than renting Mafia II unless you have a particularly strong affection for the subject material. Mafia II is not broken nor does do any one thing particularly badly; the overall experience is just a real disappointment and I would rather swim with the fishes than play it again.

The bizarre weapons are a lot of fun, but with the woeful A.I. and lack of Xbox Live support, it's hardly worth it unless you are a serious fan.

Fans of the third person/action genre have seen everything that Alias has to offer before in the form of "Buffy" and "Indiana Jones" and except for the CIA/hi-tech storyline the game doesn’t really present gamers with anything new.

There's fun to be had, but there's still quite a long way to go for the Medal of Honor series to bridge that gap between Battlefield and Call of Duty, and hit the high notes it once did.