Super Smash Bros Brawl

Wii £34.99

BRAWL has a lot to live up to. Its predecessors, the 6m-selling Super Smash Bros Melee for the GameCube and the Nintendo 64 original, Super Smash Bros, were as popular as Santa at Christmas. Fortunately, Nintendo has come to this particular party with gifts aplenty. From very early on, it's evident that this is a vast game. Quite how it all packed on to that one Wii disc is something of a marvel. (20/07/2008) [Read More]

---

Battlefield Bad Company

Xbox 360/PS3 £49.99, out now

THEY may be bad, but this company can still blow things up. More, in fact, than you might realise. Dice, the Swedish-based developer of this frenetic first-person shooter, has created a sandbox environment where almost everything is destructible. But this works both ways. Forget the traditional use of cover as you come under heavy fire. Walls blow up, buildings explode. You'll get ripped to shreds in more ways that you thought possible thanks to the new Frostbite engine at the heart of this pulsing shooter. (18/07/2008) [Read More]

---

WALL-E

PS3/Xbox 360 £39.99, Wii £34.99, PS2/DS/PSP £29.99, PC £19.99, out now

A CHARMING children's animated character and a damning indictment of consumer culture wrapped up in one little robot, WALL-E is another brilliant creation from Pixar and Disney. Inevitably, where there's a blockbuster film, there's a licensed game. This isn't always a recipe for success, but thankfully this is one movie tie-in not made by wallies. (13/07/2008) [Read More]

---

Overlord: Raising Hell

PS3 £49.99, out now

IT'S not often that I've imagined sending hordes of gurning minions in to slaughter some bounding sheep or play havoc with a pumpkin patch, but I have Overlord: Raising Hell to thank for showing me just how much fun that can be. An RPG laced with humour and countryside accents, you play the mysterious Overlord, who awakens from the dead to reassert his authority over the land by being as evil as possible.
(10/07/2008) [Read More]

---

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

PS3 £49.99, out now

IT'S been five years in production and features a story 20 years in the making, but finally MGS4 is here on the PlayStation 3. Snake's last mission encapsulates everything players have loved about MGS over the years and much more besides. It is, quite simply, a masterpiece - albeit one full of the idiosyncrasies that have made the series unique. (20/07/2008) [Read More]

---

LEGO: Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures

PS3/Xbox 360/Wii/PSP £39.99, PS2/DS £29.99, PC £19.99, out now

FOLLOWING on from the wildly successful LEGO Star Wars games, Indiana Jones is the next movie franchise to get the LEGO treatment, with Batman to follow later this year. Taking a cue from its predecessors, Lego Indiana Jones is made up of the same mix of puzzle-solving and platforming. Key scenes from each film are played out with cut-scenes filling in the gaps where necessary. (06/07/2008) [Read More]

---

Haze

PS3 £49.99, out now

A LITTLE anticipation is a good thing, I've always thought. A lot, however, can be dangerous. Haze, a first-person shooter (FPS) from Ubisoft exclusively for the PlayStation 3, has finally emerged from a cloud of anticipation that has been building for some months, swelled by delays that saw the game's initial November 2007 release date pushed back to summer 2008. (28/06/2008) [Read More]

---

Race Driver: GRID

Xbox 360/PS3 £49.99; PC £34.99; DS £29.99, out now

UNLIKE most racing games, Codemasters' Race Driver series has long made the driver, rather than the cars, the stars of the show. The latest addition to the series gives you a chance to travel the world building your reputation in Europe, Japan and the US. Each will require you to master a different racing style. (06/07/2008) [Read More + GAMEPLAY VIDEO]

---

Monster Jam

Xbox 360 £49.99, PS2/Wii £39.99, DS £29.99

BACK in the distant past, someone thought up the idea of combining a racing game with the deeply satisfying ability to plough through scenery (not to be confused with Burnout 3, which combined racing with the ability to ram your opponents off the road or into other cars -another equally gratifying experience), and for that they should be awarded a gaming excellence medal. (24/06/2008) [Read More]

---