Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts screenshot

Tom Orry, Editor - Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Xbox 360
To me it seems like Rare gets a hard time from a large group of gamers for one reason: it's no longer part of Nintendo. On the Xbox 360 they've produced nothing but hits, with only launch title Perfect Dark Zero being of questionable quality, so I always had Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts high on my wanted list. Having sunk an awful lot of time into it over the past week or so, it's proven to be one of the most unique games on the current generation of consoles, building user created content into the gameplay in a way I've never experienced before. A big surprise was the multiplayer, which I'd more or less written off as being a token gesture. Playing against friends in your created vehicles feels incredibly like Robot Wars, and the online implementation is top notch. Funniest moment came rather early on when I'd built my first from scratch vehicle. I headed to the test track only to find that my car was rooted to the spot because the engine sat lower than my wheels. Oops.

Wesley Yin-Poole, Deputy Editor - Street Fighter 4, Arcade
That's right, it says arcade, and that's because I've been living it large this week doing Tokyo right in the face, as one of my fellow video game journalists called it during the press trip. You can expect some super exclusive RPG goodness next week as a result of my tiring travelling, but for now know that not much during the junket proved more bewilderingly brilliant than my time spent sinking 100 Yen coins into Street Fighter 4 cabinets in the dingy, smoke-filled Battle Arena in the neon-light Shinjuku district. The etiquette in the arcades, almost always packed, is astonishing. People wait, patiently, for their turn. If you lose, you stand up and rejoin the queue. Not a word is spoken, no emotion is shown, no buttons are bashed in anger. No, I didn't win a single match, but that's OK, because with each punishing defeat I learned more than a 1000 wins on Xbox LIVE.

Neon Kelly, Previews Editor - Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, PS3 and Xbox 360
To be frank, I really wasn't too sure about the idea of a Mortal Kombat / DC Comics match-up; I'm sure a lot of you felt the same way. However, after getting to grips with the game for the first time this week, my opinion has turned around completely. MK has always been larger-than-life, so it turns out that Sub Zero and chums look quite natural when fighting the likes of Superman and The Flash. More importantly, the combat itself is really quite brutal. There's certainly less in the way of beheadings and general dismemberment, but the character models feel heavy and solid - when you smack someone in the face, it looks and feels really painful. There's a real sense of epic-ness to the battles too - this is probably the first game I've ever played where it genuinely looks like two superheroes are having a Barney. Batman is hard as nails, just as he should be - and here in Europe we'll be getting the full uncut version of the Joker's fake-gun fatality. Colour me pleased!

James Orry, News Editor - Football Manager 2009, PC
So only a few weeks after 'Arry took charge at the Lane I kicked him out and took hold of the reigns at Spurs. Sure he's had a great start, but in all honesty we should have lost to both Arsenal and Liverpool. I've been given £27 million to spend on bringing in new players and the board is targeting a top half finish - that shouldn't prove too difficult. So far my attempts to strengthen the team with some tried and tested pros has proven unsuccessful, with the respective clubs of Del Piero, Luca Toni and Gabrielle Heinze not biting for my obviously poor tasting bate. My first signing ended up being 20 year-old Serbian, Kuzmanovic. He cost the club £9 million and secured himself a £52,000 a week five-year deal. My only other pre-season signing proved to be a new fitness coach from Dinamo Kiev. I've not even played a game yet, but feel confident my virtual Spurs will make a better start than the real life team - curse you Berbatov and Keane.

Sebastian Ford, Video Producer - Fallout 3, Xbox 360, PS3 and PC
I am a massive fan of open world RPGs, I remember getting Final Fantasy 7 bundled in with my PlayStation many years ago and being blown away by just how engrossing and compelling the story was on top of the open world platform. Years later I picked up a second hand copy of Oblivion to play through a particularly bad hangover. I was, therefore, both relieved and pleased to find six hours vanish from my life the first time I put Fallout 3 into the disc tray and began my righteous campaign through the barren, desolate wasteland that once was Washington. I felt that same feeling of not even knowing where to begin with this game - so many opportunities are thrown at your feet to allow you to take the game in any direction you like. Before long I found I had been sidetracked with missions to see what happens when I get massive radiation poisoning, or destroy a colony of giant, fire-breathing ants over the main plot of hunting down my father. Many more hours in, I still feel like I am just scratching the surface, and feel more compelled to see this game through over the many fantastic titles we have seen released this past month.