No matter the task at hand, outside of aiming down sights to take out enemies, the campaign switches gears and tone and perspective and objective so often that you’d be hard-pressed to become bored with what will happen next on account of the where and how. [Campaign Review = 78]

Even if it ran beautifully, Gotham Knights still feels pretty much unsalvageable. There’s a lot of game to be found in Gotham Knights, a lot of by-the-numbers repetition, and many meaningless tasks that make you think the project began as a live service game like Marvel’s Avengers. And simply shifted focus to become a co-op thing sometime during development. But then again, that’s adding justification to mechanics and progression systems in a game that doesn’t care to explain why you need to craft new gear all the time. There’s no “endgame” or persistent world to support the repetition either. The good news is that there’s quite a bit of story to dig into, and you do get to go head-to-head with several notable villains. But you’ll need to overcome a lot more than the death of Batman to see it through.

The real lesson here is to stop releasing unfinished games, whether that’s server woes, optimisation issues, immersion-shattering bugs or, as is additionally the case with Battlefield 2042, an undercooked core gameplay offering that would have benefited from at least another year in the oven.

Dark Alliance’s problems go beyond enemies zipping around arenas and ragdolling randomly at breakneck speed into walls. Though, a lot of that can be quite funny. It fails to do basic things like scale difficulty for solo and group play, or do the normal thing of not giving ranged mage-like enemies drastically higher physical-defence ratings than large hulking brutes. There are so many things half-baked, broken, glitchy, or simply baffling it’s almost commendable.

Indeed, Frozenheim feels like it’s playing things too safe across the board. It’s not simply that it needs more content. It’s more that it needs more surprises. [Early Access Review]

All in all, Outriders falls short of Anthem in the launch-period stability stakes. Having to combat the game to be able to combat enemies and then combat the game to be able to combat enemies and then combat the… well, it’s just not worth it.

Floaty imprecise controls, a lack of depth, random spikes in difficulty due to bad design, random frustration, a mini-game for the sake of a mini-game, and a protagonist with the all the charisma of a shiny blue block.

Construction Simulator 2 is so unrelentingly strict in its stringent adherence to following set tasks, there is absolutely no chance for imagination or creative outlet. Put simply, failure to follow the precise steps laid out for any particular task results in a breakdown that negates the contract or job, resulting in lost time, revenue, and any potential for enjoyment.

It's banal and tedious and if your narrative focused do-nothing game wouldn't work as a halfway interesting short story, then it won't be better just because you force people to walk slowly around a wholly un-interactive game space while you drip-feed them unconnected plot points.

EA Sports UFC is form over function. It's all show, no go, a pretty fighter without the know-how to back it up in the octagon. The Ignite engine successfully delivers a game which makes casual observers double-take as they attempt to work out if they're watching the real thing or not, but anyone with the controller in their hand will know something is wrong.

If you scare easily, the low asking price may entice you into a purchase but, for everyone else, Daylight represents a dull and missed opportunity for effective horror.

The game shows conceptual promise – you unlock some mild security manipulation powers that will hopefully be pushed further in future episodes – but conceptual promise isn’t worth much until it has been delivered upon.

It’s a shame that Explore the Dungeon, despite its adherence to maintaining the characters’ personalities and its clear admiration of the source material, misses the point of what makes Adventure Time work. It’s a lazy piece of design, one that has no business carrying a $60 price tag when it feels like it could have been ripped straight from a browser.

David Cage may have succeeded at making his most cinematic game yet, but if I’d paid $8 to see Beyond on the cinema’s cheap day I would have walked out well before the credits rolled.

Fuse is what happens when someone had a great idea that got greenlighted in a meeting 4 years ago, before executives and VPs stripped it down during development until there was nothing left but a shell. It’s what happens when a developer, full of creativity, showmanship and excitement, feels like they need to play it safe because humour and wit aren’t apparently marketable properties in an industry that no longer feels comfortable taking risks.

Riptide brings absolutely nothing new to the experience of the first game. If anything, it just piles on new frustrations.

It’s simply not worth exploring, even if you own shrink-wrapped copies of every TV season plus a signed, framed first edition of the graphic novel.

RaiderZ feels unpolished and unfinished, plagued with a stagnant, passionless player base and a stack of now obsolete design tropes around questing, story, player progression and crafting.

007 Legends absolutely reeks of a rush job. It may have the look (loosely) but carries with it none of the heart, soul or charm of the world's greatest secret agent.

There are a few extremely brief moments of promise in Warfighter – clearing a village from the side of a little bird with a sniper rifle and a high speed chase through Dubai are two areas that almost managed to be exciting. Unfortunately they're surrounded by too many moments of bog-standard room clearing to matter, and the entire package is let down by one of the clunkiest online modes in recent memory.

Could it be a hilarious addition to a boozy Friday night gaming session with mates? You betcha. Would I want to rip my hair out in frustration more than half the time? Sure would. It is still seriously flawed and bound to infuriate a lot of gamers out there. For those who are more of a glass half full kind of guy (or gal), can let niggling flaws slide, and like minimum exposition, this will be right up your alley. Just know exactly what you're in for.

Sadly the story of Sergeant Powers will be seen as a failure, which it is, but certainly only of execution.

Babel Rising is an unfortunate mix of interesting mechanics and poor design. It's fun in fits and starts, but finishing a level yields a sense of relief rather than achievement. Count us among the non-believers.

If you're absolutely desperate for a Move game you could do worse, but Sorcery is really nothing more than a relatively irritating, disappointing curio.

Datura reeks of under-utilised and squandered potential, making the end result even more disappointing. If you're looking for a moving and immersive title to add to your collection Datura isn't it. Spend your money on Journey instead.

Even die-hard Resi fans (of which I am actually one), ought to steer clear. None of the game's promises are met, and while you might have thought a Resi co-op experience was a dream come true, you're better off waiting until someone internally pitches it at Capcom in Japan and it's handled by the series' parents, and not their snot-nosed, annoying neighbour's kids (sorry Slant Six, but this effort is inexcusable).

It just feels generic. It feels like they took what the original developers made and added a shiny gloss to it, ignoring what made it special to the time period it originally existed in. There's nothing that feels special about Nexiuz, neither changes that make it feel comfortable on its new home, nor any additional features to warrant a special purchase.

AMY is just bad, full stop. At 800 Microsoft points, it may look like a bargain. But all you get for the money is grief.