Recently by Steve Wollaston

This is a cracking little game to welcome in the New Year and one that was quite obviously dreamt up by somebody with a great imagination.

Ghost Trick is a highly stylized puzzle game with an excellent storyline which has you playing as the ghost of a murdered protagonist who must try and discover who killed him.

To do this you can investigate, solve puzzles and clues and posessing inanimate objects to aid you.

You can also interact with the recently deceased and aid them in the minutes leading up to their death and try and change their fates.

The main emphasis of the game though is the problem solving with each different scenario giving you a problem to overcome.

As you progress through the puzzles you get to learn more information and listen to conversations in the quest to find the truth.

It is a brilliantly quirky visual style and a charming one at that and there is a real uniqueness to the game and a feel all of it's own.

I have really enjoyed playing the game so far - it is totaly different and very fresh feeling.

Well worth a look!

Up until last year mobile football management games had been for want of a better word - pants.

Poor attempts at giving you an in-depth or even playable experience with any degree of realism or enjoyment.

It makes sense that SEGA and the Football Manager team decided to do something about it - and do something about it they did.

They produced a watered down yet very in-depth database for the iPhone that combined the addictive nature of the franchise with a very similar interface that gamers can recognize instantly.

Of course there is nowhere near as much here as with the PC version but I challenge anyone to not be surprised by how much is packed into this game.

The transfer market for example never gets repetitive or dull, new players are generated consistently over the seasons and wheeling and dealing is as much fun here as it should be.

Tactics and training are also in-depth and with a snazzy match engine and drag and drop manager controls it quickly becomes clear that this is a hell of a sophisticated game for footie fans.

I love this game - take it everywhere, on the bus, in waiting rooms and just when lounging around. It's a great time passer and allows you to whizz through the seasons at your leisure.

I have played the life out of this and it hasn't got boring yet. I have done about ten seasons. I started with Man United - won everything for 4 seasons and then when Fergie's favourites starting retiring I got unceremoniously sacked.

I found myself in Cardiff, that was my punishment.

I clawed my way back and after a brief spell at Everton I took on the job of boss of my boys Wolves.

It's a bit of a grueller but I love it.

You can of course manage abroad if you wish and run a number of leagues in tandem allowing you to switch around the continents as you wish.

If you have an iPhone/iPad and you love footie and management games then don't worry about the £6.99 price - it is well worth it.

Available from iTunes - go and purchase!

Another low key Christmas offering that is now rattling around the bargain shelves and is well worth a look.

There aren't really a glut of racing games on the DS and I would have to say that this isn't a bad little game to pick up and play.

This is all about high-octane stunt racing where you can construct your own track and then put it to the test.

Race in the fastest and funkiest cars and basically tear around the most insane courses you can imagine.

It's great fun to play and worthy of a play. It may not be the most in-depth or sophisticated of games but it is a lot of fun.

To be honest you quite easily just review this game by saying it's the Marvel version of the popular Lego games.

Only it's not, it's by totally different people for starters - but all the principles are the same.

This is a cute and cheerful version of a popular franchise with a clear attempt to appeal to a wider audience and indeed a younger audience.

It's based on the hit animated TV series as shown on Cartoon Network and is the sequel to the 'Marvel Super Hero Squad' which was rightly a big hit with gamers.

The emphasis in terms of gameplay is on buttom mashing and puzzle solving - each of the characters has certain abilities that can be called on for different scenarios.

Playing co-op is great fun and was a big hit in our house, the graphics and humour in the game are excellent.

If you are a fan of the Lego games then this will be a good choice for you.

A great little good vs evil romp and you will find it on the shelves at a great price.

Microsoft are full of surprises still...

You would have to have been living under a behemoth sized rock not to have noticed the Glee-mania that took place last year.

SOUTH CAROLINA, USA: A man was hit by a car and injured while trying to play a real-life version of the 1980s video game "Frogger" on a busy road.

The 23 year-old was heard yelling, "Go!" before sprinting into a four-lane road similar to the one featured in the game.

It was announced today that one of the most influential figures in the UK's videogame industry is to be made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen's 2011 New Year's Honours List.

Miles Jacobson, Studio Director of the award-winning and hugely successful Football Manager franchise, is to be awarded the honour in recognition of services to the videogaming industry.

The latest game in the series, Football Manager 2011, went straight to number one in the all-format charts and has spent five weeks at the top of the PC charts since its November release. Selling in excess of six million copies worldwide, Football Manager has been topping the UK PC charts for the last six years, as well as doing very well on the PSP and on iTunes.

Miles Jacobson, Studio Director at Sports Interactive, said: "It is very humbling to be awarded such a prestigious accolade for doing something I enjoy so much, and one that enables me to indulge in my passion for football and videogames. I hope to be able to continue working in this fantastic creative industry for many more years to come and try to help it reach even more people.

"Whilst honoured to have been recognised in this way, it's really further recognition for the whole team at Sports Interactive around the world especially after Oliver and Paul Collyer, the founders of SI, received honours last year."

Miles has been involved with Sports Interactive for over 15 years having started working with the Old Street based company in 1995 as a games tester and worked his way to the helm as Studio Director.

During Miles' time at the studio, Sports Interactive has gone from strength to strength, with over 15 million games sold, six titles in the top 10 fastest selling PC games of all time list in the UK (including five of the FM series) and over 200 weeks at number one in the PC charts. Sports Interactive also has five games in the top 20 best selling PC games of all time in the UK. Sports Interactive has so far won four BAFTAs, a plethora of Golden Joysticks, awards from Develop, MCV, Indin and Fasttrack as well as various awards from magazines and websites around the world for their work on one of sport's most successful franchises.

Under his stewardship, Sports Interactive has also signed sponsorship deals with AFC Wimbledon (main club sponsor since their inception), Luton Town (youth team) and Watford (official partner of their Harefield Academy work).

In 2009 Miles was involved in a ground-breaking deal which saw the Football Manager database officially 'signed' by Everton Football Club as part of its back-room staff and many people from inside the football world are involved with helping ensure that the simulation is as accurate as possible.

Before working in gaming, Miles had a successful career in the music industry in A & R at Food Records & Universal music, working with bands such as Blur, Fat Boy Slim, Feeder and the Bluetones.

Outside of Sports Interactive, Miles is heavily involved in other areas of the games industry, such as being on the BAFTA games committee, the Develop conference advisory board and as a founding trustee of the GamesAid charity.

Transport yourself into your very own Disneyland with this truly innovative and exciting adventure from starring Mickey Mouse.

First things first - I have seen some awful reviews of this game on the net by the so called experts.

For that reason I was kind of dreading playing it as I actually really love the Harry Potter franchise.

I also have two daughters who love the films and love the lego game too. We have just got Kinect so the idea of a Potter game on the new motion sensor seemed perfect.

I decided that I would let the real experts decide and I bit the bullet and handed them the new Potter game.

Well I kind of did but they ended up playing in between me playing it.

This is the Potter equivalent of a hack and slash really - there is a huge emphasis on battles and repetition can be a problem.

Really though the focus of this game is on the Kinect influenced gameplay.

I wanted to put this game on and be able to wave my arms about casting spells accurately at people and pretending to be a wizard with fire in my fingers.

I was amazed that this is very much the case, throw your arm back and cast spells, put both hands forward to form a protective shield and basicaly just run around bouncing spells off other people.

You can do this in single or co-op mode and you follow the story of the film closely.

The graphics and cut-scenes are very good and quite honestly if people do have a huge proproblem with this game I don't really see their point.

Yes it's repetitive but just the whole concept of a Potter game where you can throw spells using your arm is more than enough for me.

It's packed full of characters, events and quirkiness from the Potter World and has a fair dollop of magic, mischief and enjoyment.

Room for improvement sure but this is a hell of a start....