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So you want to keep your control pads intact? How about your telly? Or maybe just your sanity? Here's how kids: give Facebreaker an extremely wide berth.

It's bad enough when you're sat next to a 'friend' who insists on stringing together the same attacks over and over again. Live made this experience worse by pitting you against a faceless adversary; somebody who couldn't just be cuffed around the ear and berated. But Facebreaker takes it one step further by featuring brutal CPU characters who sadistically repeat the same moves until you die.

The age-old excuse, "the computer cheats", has seen us explain away many a loss, but here it's the truth. Facebreaker is the launch title of EA Freestyle, a label devoted to attracting a more casual audience. Why then, despite perfect presentation and an easy-to-understand interface, is the game unbelievably punishing? Even on the easiest difficulty EA Freestyle's target audience will be beaten senseless by the computer, and those who fare better will soon expose the cheap tactics the CPU employs.