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Mike Vick’s had a rough game, and it shows. A paint-scarred helmet and a grass-stained uniform bear the scars of an afternoon being abused by the Packers’ defense at Lambeau Field. Between the half-dozen sacks and countless other knockdowns, the Philly QB looks weary as he steps to the line. Despite the beating he and the Eagles have taken, they’ve dished it out pretty well too and trail by four points with a few ticks left on the clock. The call is for a pass out of a shotgun formation, hoping to open up the field for Vick to make one last dash for the goal line...

Madden NFL 13 promises plenty, from an RPG-like experience in Connected Careers mode, to a totally revamped physics engine. Do the sum of its parts add up to a great game?

Instead of doing what everyone wants – blatantly ripping off the beloved NFL Blitz games of yore and serving it to a yearning public - EA Sports has been plugging away at their own version of alternative NFL games for years now. First it was NFL Street, then NFL Tour, and now Madden Arcade.

It’s been a long time coming – almost exactly three years since it was first announced, in fact – but Mafia II is finally here. We’ve seen a lot of the game prior to its release; learned about its characters, its attention to detail and its aim to immerse players in its sharply realized mid-century Mob fiction. So far, it’s seemed like a worthy enough successor to the original Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven, but obviously it’s got a lot to live up to.

So, here’s the first thing you should know about Mafia II: It’s not the revolutionary game that its predecessor was. In some ways, it even feels like a big step back for the car-crime genre, with a structure that’s so linear and narrowly focused that we have to wonder why the developers bothered to set it in an open world at all. Once you come to terms with that, though, you’ll find a charming, brilliantly written mob drama that’s enormously fun to play through...

Get ready for another barrage of spells and creatures as you face off against Magic’s most powerful mages…

Countless hours spent tapping mana, summoning minions, strategically incanting spells, and trading cards with friends during study hall all came flooding back this month. Having once abandoned such pursuits long ago, the release of Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers has once again opened Pandora’s Box. The faithful will be pleased, for the most part.

Playing the role of dueling wizards, Magic: The Gathering

Take an amnesiac hero who discovers his true inner power within the first hour, a sprawling world ripped apart by warring factions, a twee supporting cast with surprisingly clear gender distinctions (in true ‘JRPG’ fashion the girls all have child’s faces surgically implanted onto adult bodies) and a cast of amateur voice actors. Enchanted Arms? Infinite Undiscovery? No, this one’s Magnacarta 2.

Majin and The Forsaken Kingdom is good. You’d never know from looking at the box, watching a trailer, and maybe not even from playing the first hour. To experience Majin, you need to dive in - to have “aha” moments with a dozen or so difficult puzzles, or slay your first gargantuan Zelda-style boss. So when a talking rat introduces you to gameplay elements with a squeakier voice than a prepubescent chew toy, we encourage you to have some patience and rest assured he’ll be gone in a few minutes...

If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with. That’s the scenario facing baseball-loving 360 owners this spring, who (once again) are left with no choices for their major league fix. You either get MLB 2K11, or you get nothing. Considering its overall quality, that’s not necessarily a terrible thing; while there are plenty of things to complain about, 2K11 is built on a foundation that produces plenty of fun. Even so, the franchise appears to be jogging on a treadmill. Lacking any new substantial modes or “wow” factors, it’s not a gotta-have title...