Much like its name (it’s pronounced Bah-hah, if you didn’t know), we think Baja: Edge of Control is likely to be misunderstood… Off-road games, with the exception of a few notable rally titles, generally fall into the ‘over-the-top, “whoa dude” extreme sport’ mould, where realism takes a back seat to outlandish arcade racing. ...

Let’s get this out of the way up-front: Band Hero essentially IS Guitar Hero 5, but for tweens. There are really no substantive changes made in terms of the core gameplay, features, and extras found between the two. ...

Nuts & Bolts truly is the return of Rare. Enough with the papery menagerie, let’s get back to N64 basics: the wordplay, the self-deprecating humor (pops are taken at their own distastr-o-game Grabbed by the Ghoulies), the design philosophy that states ‘object + googly eyes = endearing thing’. And in a winter of bleak, dreary games, the lightness of touch is very, very welcome indeed. ...

Pretty, isn’t it? Like the forthcoming Street Fighter IV, Battle Fantasia’s 3D graphics power 2D gameplay, and it looks almost as good as Capcom’s new fighting king. Battle Fantasia is a departure from Arc System Works’ heavy-metal fighter Guilty Gear, and no, before you ask, it’s not nearly as good. ...

Sorry, solo gamers, Battlefield 1943 can only be bought and played online. There’s no single player campaign, no option to fight bots – there isn’t even the option to run around the maps on your own (unless you’re playing the tutorial). It’s all about human vs human FPS combat; a game so perfectly balanced to accommodate and encourage the randomness of online play that it simply wouldn’t work with AI. ...

It’s finally arrived – and while the silly story, drab voice acting, contrived dialogue and limp characterisation made us wince more than once, the world that it takes place in is more than enough to compensate for said errors. For the uninitiated out there, the story of Bad Company is this: you play Preston Marlow, a new recruit in B Company (hence the title) working with a ragtag threesome of war vets in the midst of a ...