The follow up to Rise of Nations packs strategic punch.

For a company whose only other major release was the original Half Life, Valve has pushed the boundaries with fresh, bold gameplay that stays true to the legendary legacy.

Wonderful multiplayer racing, but woeful for single-player.

If you only play one game in 2006, make it Oblivion.

It's to the video game arm of the Star Wars franchise what "The Phantom Menace" was to the films.

Another epic installment of the GTA series, tragically hampered by a poor PC port

Here's what you're doing for your Christmas holidays.

The game affectionately known as "EverCrack" is back. Now it's deeper and even more addictive.

Epic plot and an intruiging mix of RPG and FPS make Mass Effect worth a look, though we can't help but see some similarity with Knights of the Old Republic.

The cream of the turn based strategy genre just got deeper.

Dare we say the near-perfect strategy game? A royal treat for history addicts.

Online multiplayer combat from the big guns at EA.

Fantastically fun and balanced play, especially if you don't Rambo your way through the game

One of the slickest looking racers available on PC, but abandon all hope ye without a wheel.

More GTA sandbox action, set down south of the border. That means Cuba, not Victoria.

The latest in the Total War series promises to deliver a strategy gaming experience drenched in detail.

Gone are the innovations introduced in the first game – allowing the player to upgrade specific unit traits via the unit itself; the exciting feel of progressing from one epoch to another and general playability.

It isn't an add-on, a mod or a new way of playing the world's most popular online shooter. Counter-Strike: Source is the same game that's known, loved and often responsible for gamers sitting motionless for days on end. But it's now been ported to Valve's new 3D engine, the Source engine, giving us our first glimpse of the technology that will be powering Half-Life 2.

The Tribes series has always attracted a core of loyal gamers, but it has never been the runaway success it deserved. The original game was ahead of its time, delivering an innovative multiplayer game which relied heavily on team coordination and strategy.

We're big fans of Creative Assembly's Total War series. Like the original games, you have the option of playing through various campaigns, or jumping straight into the tactical game with historical scenarios or custom battles.