The proof is in the songs, better balanced and offering enough range to please everybody. Here's to another six months of hard rock heaven.

Guardian of Light crackles with energy, and Crystal Dynamics has clearly relished adding a different dynamic to the franchise. By marrying top-down shooter mechanics with a tidy co-op mode, it adds something the series was long thought to have lost: a sense of fun.

Rupturing quality and oozing tension, this is stealth gaming of the highest calibre, full of imagination and augmented by an excellent two-way Trust system that leaves you pondering every choice you make and then having to deal with the consequences. [Nov 2006, p.8]

Heaven for the fans, tough love for the rest. [Oct 2009, p.86]

It's not as technically demanding as Street Fighter IV, and feels like a more free-flowing, mobile, nimble fighter in comparison. [Issue#66, p.99]

There's a massive amount to say about GHWT, from the factoid videos teaching you the real guitar, and the vastly improved backdrop for gigs, to the superb way you can play as a band. This is a vastly entertaining package and a must buy for music lovers and GH fans.

Tight, fun and fast-paced racing action that just about anyone can enjoy. [Nov 2008, p.89]

It's fortunate the series can now rest on the safety net of online play and character customization because, without it this would be a slender, anorexic package - a tad ironic, when you consider just how much attention Namco has lavished on its buxom babes.

As a street-legal version of a purebred racer, Horizon is something that anybody with an interest in cars can pick up quickly and play for ages. And if you don't like cars already, well, it might just persuade you.

Simply a must-have puzzle game. [Sept 2010, p.101]

Wildly chaotic but obscenely enjoyable. [Mar 2011, p.91]

The genre's star might be fading ever so slightly, and this game is no revolution, but it does deliver great music and a more refined band experience.

The greatest triumph is that it'll make you laugh and go 'wow' for the entire seven hours and then some. [Oct 2006, p.8]

Its enhanced framerate, more responsive controls and extra gameplay modes mean it's the most complete gridiron experience on the console. It's just...didn't we play this last year? [Oct 2007, p.94]

Generous almost to excess, Battleblock Theater is one of Xbox Live Arcade's masterworks, and a reminder that genuine, bona fide imagination is possible even in the twilight of a console generation.

There's a lot of fisticuffs packed in, with a massive 114 fighters from the world of UFC to choose from, as well as the ability to create your own brawler (though the customisation options are more serious than THQ's WWE games - you won't be fighting in a zombie mask).

Even when we're note marvelling at this marriage of plastic blocks and Death Stars, there's something incredible going on in this game, and it's all in the little details. [Oct 2006, p.68]

At 800 MP, Forces of Nature is hard to resist. Epic's final and most dramatic dose of Season Pass content turns out to be its most conciliatory, a club sandwich of new and warmed-over jollies that belongs on every menu.

F.E.A.R. is a good-looking FPS with great sound and amazing gunfights, but it lacks variety – sharing Condemned’s bent for basements, air vents, abandoned factories, offices and so on, and the identikit enemies don’t help.

Trine 2 is a vivid and stunning game that spins the colour wheel on nature. It's completely absorbing as a single-player experience and bawdy puzzle fun with company. Just remember to turn on the unlimited mode and get stuck in.

It has a solid, unrelenting challenge that will remind veteran gamers of years gone by when games made no apologies for being so stupidly, frustratingly, agonisingly tough.

Far Cry 2 is this year's equivalent of Assassin's Creed... when it comes to enveloping the player in exotic sights and sounds, Ubisoft has absolutely nailed it. [Issue # 40]

FIFA 07 is fantastic. The reworked gameplay feels so right and its Xbox Live support is amazing. [Nov 2006, p.66]

Those worried that World War II has been done to death, fear not. Treyarch's willingness to push the boundaries has uncovered a side to the war few developers even knew existed, and we'll be damned if it doesn't make for one hell of a game to boot.

Exploding with multiplayer fun! [Oct 2007, p.98]

Crysis 2 skates on the thin ice of its own excellence. There are weaknesses, that might - if the mode-swapping suitplay hadn't been so strong - have dragged the game down. But the story and combat [are] strong enough to carry you through, and if you've got the stomach for competitive multiplayer, the Nanosuit will bring a new world of sneaky, high-jumping tactics to your online game. [Apr 2011, p.84 MC]

There’s always something to do on your plot of land, and it’ll be a long time before you encounter every species of Piñata and see everything this bright colourful world has to offer.

The cruelty of the levels can be frustrating, but you'll keep coming back. The infinite lives and near-instant reloading of checkpoints means stress always loses out to the classic "one-more-go" syndrome.