You might think that decent licensed platform games died out with the dinosaurs. But Activision has experienced reasonable success recently with the likes of Kung Fu Panda, and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs follows in the same vein by delivering another competent slice of platforming action. In fact, it might have been a bit of a mini-classic if only the difficulty level had been ramped up a bit. ...

Your typical baseball came doesn’t come packed with fireballs, explosions, powerups, and character-building, but chances are you already knew The BIGS 2 isn’t your average hardballer. In fact, it celebrates not being a staid old sim; yes, it sports MLB licensed-players, stadiums, and teams, but in reality it’s got more in common with a good ol’ action RPG than anything else. ...

Spare a thought for the poor old chaps at Japan’s ARC System Works, who were merrily working to perfect the only thing for which they’d ever achieved any kind of fame – the Guilty Gear series – when, above their heads, some legal wrangling meant their child was taken away from them and custody awarded to SEGA Sammy. What to do? Make a new baby! ...

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. ...

When you review a new Worms, you review a feature set. Just how much have Team 17 managed to ruin it this time? A Concrete Donkey which doesn’t require aiming or effort? An atomic bomb which wipes out the entire map? A weapon which kills flawlessly in a single, badly-aimed hit? All of the above, all at once? ...

Seven months. That’s how much extra time EA Bright Light has had to tweak and polish Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince after its release date was pushed back thanks to the movie’s theatrical slippage. The time could have been spent perfecting one of the most valuable game licenses. ...

The current reinvention of Transformers is one of those things that make it hard to be a geek some days. The previous Transformers film took everything we loved about the original cartoon and toys and rendered it stupid – yet made something like 700 million dollars – and the game was just shy of an abomination. This time around, the movie is arguably even worse. Seriously, gold-toothed, urban transformers who can’t read? ...

Forget the wafer thin plot about chasing after some nefarious Mr. Potato Head-looking pirate guy with rocket boosters instead of legs. The real reason you’ll get a major kick out of Rocket Riot is that it saddles you with a hefty bazooka and drops you in a series of large, colorful arenas full of enemies just waiting for you to lob missiles at them. ...

After apocalyptic future worlds, there can be few settings less original than the Old West. Chuck in a desert, some dueling and a few authentic guns and you have yourselves a game, right? Well Techland don’t subscribe to that – Bound in Blood, like its predecessor, has ideas coming out the wazoo. ...

The Guitar Hero series has usually had a stellar track list – seriously, how many people would be willing to shred out to a ridiculous looking plastic guitar if the tunes were lame? So on one hand, it makes sense for publisher Activision to release this compilation, which collects 48 songs from five previous Guitar Hero titles (Guitar Heroes 1 through 3 as well as Rocks the ‘80s and Aerosmith). ...