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.

If Omerta had a persistent world in single player, rather than neighbourhoods which you played then left never to have an impact on you again, or more in depth strategy system when it came to earning money and resources, action cut scenes rather than stills, ok, so it still wouldn't be the greatest game ever, but it would have been worth spending time with.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Just Dance 3 is evidence that despite the questionable quality of the franchise that the series is here to stay. While it's not particularly a bad game, it's just more of a case of it not feeling like a game at all but rather an interactive jukebox. This will be a hit with anyone who has Kinect and a group of rather confident or at least willing friends, but the whole experience feels notably half baked.

PowerUp Heroes is a game that I cannot recommend to be purchased at full price, but if you've got children who would really enjoy stepping into the shoes of a super hero this is something I can wholeheartedly recommend. I personally found it to get rather repetitive but I am much older than the target audience, so I can't say for sure how repetitive it may be – but just don't expect something super substantial.

It's hard to recommend this one at full price, but if you're pretty patient I have a good feeling you will enjoy the experience Rise of Nightmares offers. If you're pretty sick of Kinect already, this is not going to be the game to sway you over.

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.

Mortal Kombat: Arcade Kollection is unfortunately a painful reminder of what could've been a full HD remake. That being said, without any major overhauls to the game's mechanics, it still wouldn't have played as well as it did in the past.

Moments where Captain America became a joy to play did exist, but they were few and far between. Any hints of promise this game exhibited during previews earlier in the year were dashed before the end of the first couple of chapters. Super Soldier isn't as dire as earlier Marvel games, there's just not much substance to keep even an avid fan of the character interested.

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 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Dragon Knight Saga may be a little rough around the edges and seem like a poor man's Oblivion, but there's enough here to interest fans of Western RPGs and, although it can be totally frustrating at times, it's the sort of game that draws you back in to see just what that next cave around the corner might have in the form of enemies and loot.

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.

If anything, Crazy Taxi is a nice history lesson in gaming and shows a new generation where a mechanic that has been used in several games the past few years originated from. It's furious fun in small doses, but only leaderboard nuts will still be playing it after a few weeks.

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

Blood Stone is true to the Bond spirit, but it does nothing to innovate or push the 007 game forward. It's polished and worth sinking a couple of hours into, but there's not enough content here to keep even the most avid Bond nut interested for long.

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.

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.

Alpha Protocol does many things right and succeeds where it count for an RPG but falls short elsewhere.

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.

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.

WET is easy to recommend as an overnight rental, but chances are it's something you don't want hanging around the morning after.

In the end, I find it too hard to recommend this game to anybody that isn't either a fan of the Harry Potter franchise, or a parent in search of a simplistic experience to keep the little ankle-biters busy.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

It really is a crying shame that Infinite Undiscovery turned out to be exactly the sum of so many disparate parts that don't even work on an individual level.

Mercenaries 2 feels like a rush-job sequel to a game that came out years ago, and for every step forward it takes at least two or three back.

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

Getting a head start in terms of money and items will appeal to Fable fanatics, but for everyone else, it's not worth the gamble.

Beijing 2008 is not a good game. Despite the extra coat of gloss, an impressive roster of Olympic events, a practice, competition and Olympic modes, and even offline and online multiplayer, the majority of players simply won't derive much enjoyment out of its extremely repetitive and often overly punishing gameplay.

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.

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.

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.

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

It's effectively a dumbed-down version of a fairly engaging PC release, one that removes a lot of the depth, strategy and team-oriented gameplay of the original.

If you can persist though, the frantic arcade pacing and frenetic aerial combat in large open areas is quite enjoyable while it lasts.

Chosen One is a decent enough romp for a couple of nights play, however it's hard imagine you'd invest any more time than that. It fails to exceed the fun factor, and overall quality, of similar games to come before it.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 expected Square Enix has produced something lack of what a standard expansion would expect, in this case Square Enix has produced its own standard of expansions, ones which lack creativity and stream out repeated content.

Monster Jam is a simplistic arcade racing game that is below average in all areas.

If you are a serious fan of the original game, you may wish to purchase and play through this expansion pack, but there's a pretty good chance that, by the end of it, you'll have had more F.E.A.R. than you'd C.A.R.E.D for.

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.

The game combines a tired formula of spawning wave after wave of mindless enemies in the same room with you with the clumsily-executed 'squad-based' combat, which is enough to stave off any fan of the genre aside from stout Barker fans in it for the intriguing but sadly unrealised plot.

It seems the guys over at Neversoft never got the memo. You know, the one that said, "Hey all, there is this other game called Skate coming out around the same time as ours so we better do our best to make this Tony Hawk game as good as we can.”

The jury's verdict is in, and CSI: Hard Evidence has been found guilty of being boring and bland.

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!

Warriors Orochi is nothing more than fan service from Koei and Omega Force.

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.

Fatal Inertia is certainly a respectable racer, for what it brings to the table. Though there are far too many shortcomings for it to really deserve a place in a collection alongside a Project Gotham or Forza Motorsport of current acclaim.

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.

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.

Transformers: The Game is fine for a weekend rent, and with a few beers the easy achievement points may justify the hire fee.

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.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is yet another example of movie tie-ins failing to even come close to their potential.

"Spider-Man 2" was leaps and bounds ahead of the original, but the third outing tinkers with what made the second so great without improving on any of the things that sucked. This wouldn't be so bad if it didn't add a host of new suck in the form of dodgy camera control, frustrating combat and dull missions.

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.

It's repetitive, the controls are simple, the graphics aren't that great, even for an Xbox 1 game but TMNT should be a hit with the under 10's that love a nice simple action game aimed at them.

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.

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

While there's nothing broken about Superman Returns, it just doesn't amount to a particularly fun experience, with boring super-powers and mindless melee combat.

The arcade version of Contra was never as well-loved as its NES counterpart, so the choice to port it to the Xbox Live Arcade seems questionable...but not nearly as much as the dodgy online co-op implementation.

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 the game could've used another couple of months in development, and with a more engaging protagonist, perhaps some branching narratives and a vastly overhauled driving experience, Just Cause could have been a real show-stopper.

There is nothing at all wrong with Ubisoft's Open Season; it's a technically competent, well produced adventure game designed for kids, and is a game they will probably love.

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.

While tactics are required the crux of battle really comes down to brute force, which may diminish the longevity of the game's appeal.

In a climate of next-gen gaming, Rogue Trooper comes across as an anachronistic ode to the Xbox third person shooter. Not exactly rough around the edges but then not entirely polished either, it's a game best suited for either rabid fans of the comic upon which it is based or those who simply must experience every game out there that lets you play with big guns.

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.

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.

A better game than the original and is full of potential for further releases in the franchise.

Despite its hefty premium pricetag, it plays and feels like a second-string budget title, albeit with a coat of shiny graphical gloss.

It just doesn't have that unique style or irreverent humour of GTA. It's a driving game, first and foremost, which has stepped somewhat tentatively into a much larger gaming pool.

There are a lot of great ideas contained in the game, but overall the game falls flat and leaves you feeling greatly unsatisfied.

Perhaps this is part of a sinister marketing ploy by Microsoft to encourage Xbox owners to upgrade to the Xbox 360 by ensuring that Xbox ports suck compared to their hotted up counterparts?

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'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.

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

There is absolutely nothing here that is different to the xbox version apart from minor graphical advancements. So, on the one hand there is still a great game here, but with annoyingly random game crashes (and THAW is the only game I've had crash on my 360) and the fact it's anything but next-gen I really can't recommend it to anyone.