Ronnie O'Sullivan World Snooker 2010

My snooker skills are, for want of a better word, haphazard. I have been known to pot some of the most ludicrous shots when playing pool, for instance – a talent which is especially amazing considering I can barely hold the cue at the best of times.

As such, it's also not uncommon to see me fluffing the easiest shots on Earth. Finding the balance between brilliance and imbecility is not easy.

It would appear Ronnie O'Sullivan suffers from the same impediment. Not in real life, of course, where he's more likely to foul it up in the press conference than he is on the table.

But Player One's continued run with the franchise is showing signs of being a touch lopsided.

On the one hand, many of the key elements from previous entries in the series remain. The visuals manage to be both progressive and functional, the 2D table essentially slotted into the midst of a 3D environment. It works well, and gives the game something of a simulation style approach.

The controls also retain the standard set-up, the '6' and '8' buttons controlling the direction of your shot, a handy power button controlled by tapping the '5' key. Naturally, you can also put spin on the ball to alter the impact, the resulting paths of the cue ball and the one you're aimed up all handily predicted with apparent accuracy.

Some things have changed, however. Ronnie O'Sullivan World Snooker 2010 brings a fresh approach to the main career mode, where play initially takes the form of a round-robin tournament before moving into knock-out territory.

Here a shot clock comes into play, and the whole pace of the game is pumped up to keep things exciting. Not especially realistic, you might think, but still perfectly suited to snooker on the go.

But there's no escaping the feeling that, despite this twist on the main mode and a solid base otherwise, very little has changed.

Actually aiming is also something of a bother at times, the system seeming quite tense, making picking out an exact angle a process of trial and error. This is something that isn't really possible with the clock ticking down, which highlights the weakness more than in previous versions.

Still, it isn't a game breaker and, on the whole, Ronnie O'Sullivan World Snooker 2010 – with modes aplenty, including turn-based multiplayer and a handy practice set-up – is a solid, if somewhat unprogressive, take on the sport.