Ratchet and Clank Q-Force proves that after ten years, there is still life in the old Lombax yet that is worthy of consideration – if only there were more mission objectives and levels to enjoy.

Pikmin 3 is quintessential, classic Nintendo, the Nintendo we know and love, the one that makes us buy every console regardless of our doubts and hang-ups. It’s not the killer app the system is begging for, but if you have shelled out for Nintendo’s new console it’s the best exclusive currently available.

Probably the best place for anyone to jump into Magic for the first time and is great value for money for its breadth of gameplay and content.

It's an amazing game - technically outstanding, showing all of Valve's usual polish and attention to detail, especially in the all-important multiplayer aspects. The continual balance tweaks and new heroes combined with the vast amount of content in the game offer countless hours of enjoyment. It's hard to master but good wins with your teammates are incredibly satisfying. It took me a long time to warm up to, but I'm helplessly addicted and every day look forward to getting home to fire this up with my friends. If you can spare the time - play it.

When you realise there are dozens of addictive hours to enjoy, State of Decay proves itself a tempting purchase for zombie lovers and fans of survival-horror alike.

It remains to be seen how well 400 Days ties into Season 2, although it’s certainly implied at the end that your actions here will have some impact. As the epilogue messily ties everything off, it’s hard to say for sure whether 400 Days is an absolutely essential part of the Walking Dead experience, or whether it’s mostly a fantastic reminder that Telltale knows exactly what they’re doing.

Comic book characters, just as any work of literature, can be timeless. What Deadpool fails to acknowledge is that he does not fall in this category. While the likes of X-Men and Hulk have served, at times, as allegories, there is just too much toilet-driven humour in Deadpool to come off as anything more than droll shtick.

These gripes really do pale in comparison to the overall achievement of a sequel that is absolutely well worth the wait. Even now, I can’t wait to finish this review and sink some more hours into the multiplayer which, coming from an avid admirer of the original games, is testament to how well Relic Entertainment has made a game for the fans, but also presented a whole lot more.

As the credits rolled, I found myself missing my time with Joel and Ellie, yet completely comfortable with the thought that Naughty Dog has forged a new IP where there doesn’t need to be The Last of Us 2.

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.

One of the best shooters to come out in recent years.

Metro: Last Light is a fine shooter, an exciting, fun ride, but it’s not necessarily the Metro game we wanted. We miss 2033’s punishing difficulty and its willingness to experiment, to make you suffer, to pull you down into the mud its characters spent every day in. But for many, Last Light’s changes will simply make the experience less intimidating and more enjoyable, and it’s hard to begrudge the game too hard when it’s still delivering such a fine experience.

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

While we bitched and moaned about the angles attempted (and often failed) in Far Cry 3, Blood Dragon very skillfully promises very little and delivers quite a lot. It’s more than Far Cry 3 reskinned, and the effort gone into the soundtrack, voice-acting, scripting and all that unfortunate research the team probably had to do to get their references just right, is top-notch.

Handheld gaming doesn’t get much better than this.

These missions don’t quite reach the same heights as the main campaign’s best moments, and we miss Corvo’s abilities more than we appreciate Daud’s (the constant companionship of that creepy heart Corvo carried around meant more to us than we realised), but there’s more effort, imagination and fun across these levels than plenty of big releases manage across their entire lengths.

Despite the fact we’re finally getting Mortal Kombat here in Australia next month, you couldn’t go much better than Injustice: Gods Among Us for your fighting game fix. It feels like a classic NetherRealm game with all the mechanics and balance they’re known for when they bring their A-Game, and it has Batman duking it out with Superman. Honestly, what’s not to love here?

Aside from these niggling flaws, the game is bloody amazing, and easily the best instalment in the Monster Hunter series to date. I've got over 80 hours on my save file already, but I feel like I'm still scratching the surface.

Its humour may be slightly weak and unlocks spread far and wide, but LEGO City Undercover is a thoroughly enjoyable and refreshingly innocent open-world game.

ShootMania loads quickly, alt-tabs like a champ and is a fantastic example of a game that can take five minutes to learn, but countless hours to master in its addictive gameplay formula.

A low point for the franchise. The best way I can put it is that the soul of the series has left the building. It has action aplenty but it feels more like a slog.

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.

Whether playing by yourself or against others, Trials Evolution is an addictive blast that should not be missed.

I don't know how else to tell you that this is the game videogames were made for. It’s the game every other designer wishes they could make. It’s a watershed moment for our industry, and I’d be hard pressed to tell you that anything that came before is better. More so, however, I can’t imagine that anything else, in my lifetime, will top this. All bold statements, I know, but this is it and I’m reviewing it. BioShock Infinite is the sort of game we dream of reviewing. It’s the Ocarina of Time of this generation (only infinitely better), and will be talked about and analysed for years to come.

Its accessibility over previous entries may be its biggest strength as for those who’ve always been curious about StarCraft multiplayer but may have felt too intimidated to give it a try will find that learning has never been easier, and is still a hell of a lot of fun, even if you’re not in it to climb ladders and make a name for yourself.

The first episode touched on it but this one really hammers the idea home and despite the bad taste buying three separate episodes for the same DLC may leave in some people’s mouths, this episode works well.

Gears of War: Judgment is far from perfect and falls disappointingly short on the single-player front. But almost everything else about the game is well worth a look and goes a long way to showing that the Gears of War franchise still has the kind of allure that’s worthy of its reputation.

A mixed bag of mythological tricks. The single-player wasn’t as strong as I’d hoped it would be with an anger neutered Kratos a little bland. It was all just a little bit off. The revamped combat wasn’t anywhere as smooth as I’d have liked and the difficulty spikes felt incredibly cheap, even for a franchise veteran such as myself. On the flipside, graphically it was astounding, the boss battles were epic and the multiplayer is something I’ll definitely go back to for sh.ts and giggles.

What SimCity offers is so much potential for so much expanded and persistent gameplay that its mindboggling. All I can actively offer you is what the game offers you upon firing up, and in that sense it’s a fricking addictive affair.

Crysis 3 comes so close to greatness that it’s a tragedy that it didn’t make it. If the next game focuses a little more on mood-setting moments where the player – gasp – has no way to kill anything at all, then it’ll be the perfect sci-fi shooter.

Tomb Raider reaffirms the importance and value of having strong, realistic female protagonists in games, while also successfully transposing much of what people loved about the original titles into an adventure that feels superbly modern. It’s a better Uncharted game than Uncharted 3 was.

In essence if Colonial Marines were chocolate it would be Cadbury's; it's chocolate, has all the ingredients of chocolate, but the only real attraction is the name, the quality leaving you somewhat hollow and unfulfilled.

This episode is the beginning of this all-fictional spin on the main antagonist’s actions, and if it keeps up the pace is sure to offer a lot of diverse, exciting gameplay never before seen in the series.

The action is tremendously addictive and will keep you coming back for more. The most pleasant surprise was the mature plot and gruesome execution both literally and figuratively. It deals with the nature of war, the heavy toll it inflicts and those callous opportunists who see it as a business and humans as merely a commodity.

An incredibly deep and expanding story and much of the Dead Space feel returning, albeit turned down a little, as well as all the new systems and elements will definitely divide fans, but may be more accessible to newcomers, which is always welcomed with such a rich franchise. Even with the familiarity this delivers a monstrous amount of satisfaction.

If you've grown sick of JRPGs, as many people have, Ni No Kuni isn't going to change your mind. It's traditional, steadfast in its adherence to certain genre rules, and only stays away from a few of the genre's bad habits. But it's also a beautiful game, solidly built and full of whimsy, with some fun features and the sort of breadth you don't often find in game adventures these days.

It screams replayability and I just can't wait to get back to it.

Anarchy Reigns ultimately feels like a game that probably didn't quite feel right midway through development, which didn't have the same effort and attention lavished upon it as the developer's previous games. Still, when your very worst game ends up being this decent, you're clearly doing something right.

For this fantasy lover, LEGO The Lord of the Rings ticks all the right boxes.

Frozen Hearth is the Dark Souls of the RTS genre: damn challenging, at times infuriating, but rewarding to the persistent multi-tasking player. It's a shame there wasn't a bit more spit and polish before final release, because when Frozen Hearth isn't distracting you with oddities or omissions, it's actually a rewarding experience.

Do yourself a favour this Friday and grab a couple of mates, invest in four controllers, knock back a case of brewskies and work that arse groove on your couch as PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is going to keep your interest for a quite some time.

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.

This is very much a game that Warren Spector wanted to make, not the game his fans wanted him to make; the real fun comes from soaking in the contents of the man's mind, the ideas that govern the world he has created and the ways Disney memorabilia have come together into something grand, rather than from the simple experience of playing through it.

If you've been playing Rift since launch, whether to purchase this expansion or not doesn't even require thought. It's the content/feature pack you were promised and on that note it delivers in spades. New players, however, may find what's on offer to be woefully dated alongside a player population significantly diminished next (and due to) to the more recent competition in the market.

The new Attitude Era Mode is enough of a reason to play WWE '13, especially if you were a fan during that time period.

Be warned though, this is a very addictive game, and it could spoil your previous favourite shooter with its incredible sense of scale. It's astonishing to see a free to play game deliver such a polished package, that also breaks new technological boundaries.

It's love that makes The Walking Dead not only Telltale's best game by a mile, but also one of the best adventure games ever.

A haunting experience, in a very good way. It's a damn shame the main campaign didn't live up to the potential of what was teased and the sporadic appearance of sloppy anti-Far Cry linear levels jarred with what the game achieves when at its emergent best. Faults aside, Far Cry 3 is an open-world shooter that's not to be missed, and a dish that's beautifully served on PC.

This may sound like Absolution is a bad game. It isn't – it's just a bad Hitman game. Features bleed from other games and the bizarre need to position Agent 47 as an action man with feelings and a rough moral code has diluted its identity. That said, there is deep replay value, both in the single-player and Contracts modes.

Whilst not being one of the coveted Ninty iconic characters in a launch title that fanboys are hungry for, it looks like this will satiate the hordes with its gritty realism (as much as it possibly can be in a title about fictional zombies), tense environments and an immersive control set-up thanks to Wii U's GamePad.

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.

As far as value for your money goes, Black Ops II is a veritable waterslide of enjoyment, and for a change, actually does a lot different to what we've come to expect.

It's hard to recommend Most Wanted to those who prefer to race offline, as the sterile event structure isn't enough to keep players driving after the thrill of exploring the city wears off. It's a much more enjoyable game online though, provided you don't mind getting rammed every 30 seconds.

Halo 4 stands as a particularly polished piece of fan fiction that not only deserves to be released, it carves its own way in an established universe, carefully paying homage to the tropes of what has come before, while boldly establishing its own mythology and gameplay lore.

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.

I haven't enjoyed the game this much in years. They have managed to do what 12 months ago I wouldn't have thought was possible, they've put the fun back into World of Warcraft.

I never used to get chills playing a videogame, not the way I would watching some epic movie scenes or reading an incredibly engaging book. That has changed in the last few months and this game has set the benchmark.

We have been spoilt in subsequent years, which isn't Doom 3's fault. The unfortunate truth remains that it is more of a chore to revisit than a joy.

If you're a fan of online shooters on PC, then Natural Selection 2 not only comes highly recommended, but essential, and should sit right alongside other classic entries into the genre.

Combine the linear environments, combat mechanics and cut-scenes and it feels more like watching an animated show or even reading a book about it all. If you can get past all this and even find the right stride with the combat mechanics it does make for an interesting storyline and the game gradually expands slightly.

I'm rather enamoured by the unique flavour of online combat presented by Chivalry. It's fresh and fun, and like the very best games is easy to get into yet incredibly hard to master. I've honestly not had this much competitive online joy since Battlefield 3, and to think a $25 indie title can provide a level of enjoyment up there with a $100 million game like Battlefield is testimony to the skill of the developer.

The Unfinished Swan is entirely satisfied with being extremely interesting and lovely, rather than being the sort of larger, more crucial experience it occasionally seems like it might turn into. Its greatest ambitions are met with just enough enthusiasm and creativity to assure a fantastic experience, though, one worth pondering on just as much as it's worth playing.

It would be hard to imagine coming into this game uninitiated to hockey and the NHL, which is definitely the game's downfall. I'd much prefer to see such a great game for an incredible sport reach more people with every release.

Thanks to a sloppy handling model, it lacks the precision required of its predecessor, so sim racers will probably struggle with the controls. Meanwhile arcade racers will struggle with more advanced driving techniques such as counter steering and throttle feathering. If you can get your mind into the right headspace for the game, approaching it as an arcade game with complex controls, there's definitely fun to be had here. It's just not up there with the likes of games dedicated to arcade or sim, but not both, such as Hot Pursuit or Forza 4.

Ultimately, it's hard to get into these games the way we did when its predecessors hit a year and a half ago, but that doesn't mean that we're not going to keep going until we've exhausted ourselves again.

As has been the case for a while, the really interesting new stuff doesn't pop up until the endgame, which makes the journey to the credits very enjoyable, but also somewhat perfunctory.

Whether it's letting China succumb to public panic as you divert resources to cover the American continent, or sending in a rookie to soak up damage on a suicide run so that your veterans don't die, XCOM will give you a scary appreciation of the harsh realities of being a leader in a time of crisis.

Around Every Corner isn't simply the best episode of The Walking Dead yet – it's the single most significant game I've played so far this year, and perhaps the most emotionally devastating gameplay experience I've ever had.

The problem with PES is in the movement of the players, as it feels quite stiff and somewhat robotic.

I couldn't get past the lag issues and was also disappointed with the lack of metal included in the setlist. I also question how rewarding, in a game sense, it actually is.

A rare kind of game that waltzes into a field of debonaire company yet wows the room regardless. You may not know much of his past or even what his intentions are, but you'll be damned if you don't let him take you for a spin around the room. And at the end of your dance, he'll leave you dizzy and giddy, wanting only for more...One of this generation's best efforts.

The most fun new feature has to go to the new Skill Games, these fun little games will have you trying to master skills such as free kicks and dribbling via a series of mini games like kicking the ball into a bucket.

The strategy core is different enough and executed well enough to provide quite a few hours of engaging combat and strategy alternating with the slower ponderous movement across a larger world of interconnected islands. It's a shame then that the learning curve, which initially seems quite steep, is extended well beyond the patience of most people across a laboriously slow campaign.

The game looks great and plays extremely intuitively, whether you stay with the buttons or go to the new right stick mechanics.

At the end of the day, Resident Evil 6 is packed to the gills with features and absolutely looks the part, no one can deny that, but its lack of gameplay identity leaves it as empty and vacuous as the higher brain function of any one of its zombie inhabitants.

Torchlight II succeeds in being a truly viable alternative to Diablo III. The action is faster and thicker and rewards are set to a quickened treadmill pace, resulting in an experience that is immediately rewarding and increasingly addictive. Its seamless co-op (which includes player trading) openly gives Blizzard the middle finger as it allows players to decide whether to play a solo game offline or open it up for drop-ins.

All things considered Madden 13 does bring a new level of excitement to gameplay through its much improved animation trees. It still plays very much the same however, with many rough edges around the career modes.

The only problem is that there's really very little reason to upgrade from F1 2011 other than the inclusion of new teams, cars and two new tracks. If Codemasters had resolved the numerous bugs and gameplay issues that have been present since day one of the reboot it'd be a different story, but if they can't do it by now, chances are they never will.

Borderlands 2 is a FPS/RPG fusion the rest of the videogame development world should stand up and pay attention to, because Gearbox has backed a real winner in this IP. A must-buy.

For all its rough edges, Tokyo Jungle is one of the year's most exciting games, a work of such originality and clear vision that you end up sort of hoping that a sequel never gets greenlit.

Those who don't like the vehicular action in Battlefield should probably go and play Call of Duty instead of even considering Armored Kill, but for the rest of us this expansion pack is as good as Battlefield 3 gets. But please, if you do end up buying the pack, for the love of all things holy, when you get in a vehicle, wait for your fricking team mates before you put your pedal to the metal...

For a downloadable game this offers amazing depth and replay value – almost as much as a full-priced title. If you love stealth games and have a competitive streak, Mark of the Ninja is a must buy.

I would be reasonably loathe to consider Guild Wars 2 a "revolution" in MMO mechanics, since at its core there is still a theme park here, albeit an extraordinarily well-designed one. But it's obvious that its creators took on and smashed existing tropes with an aim to significantly improve on that experience that many millions of players currently fork out money for every month.

The core gameplay remains solid with flashes of excellence and the game not only creates interest in the whole escape from Cybertron story, but creates excitement and a foundation for the inevitable sequel.

The Walking Dead has experimented on the typical Telltale formula, with a lot of success, over the course of these three episodes, and this is definitely one of the more interesting things it has done.

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.

The first Mario game I've ever played that frequently bored me, and as much as it manages to nail the central mechanics and tick many of the right boxes, it also serves as worrying proof that, in the world of gaming, no series is truly sacred.

It is the perfect open world fix in the lead up to GTA V and full credit to United Front Games and Square Enix London for crafting this entertaining, engrossing and deeply impressive title.

It absolutely trumps the first game, which in itself was a work of masterful art, and leaves me hoping we don't have to wait two years for the inevitable third game. One of the year's best releases by far.

Wreckateer is, surprisingly, the best of the first three 'Winter of Arcade' releases. It's not a particularly ambitious or exciting game, but it meets its own fairly modest goals with only a few hiccups, and shows that full body motion controls can be fun, even when they don't always work the way you'd like them to.

You could finish Deadlight in a single sitting and forget about it completely by the next day. Not because the game is actually bad – it's mostly quite enjoyable – but it's too slight and unimaginative to make a lasting impression. It has some nice ideas and sections, but more than anything else it made us want to go back and finish Shadow Complex for a sixth time.

A great game for Ferrari and racing fans alike, with enough challenge to really test those familiar with the genre, but unfortunately lacking in a more approachable set-up, even for those of us who found the history of Ferrari utterly alluring even after just a few hours of play.

The saving grace then is a big one: the amazing, still fluid, tremendously enjoyable trick system. The conversion might be Dana Scully but the foundation trick system and level design whips out an excellent welcome speech for those that missed THPS 1 and 2 or for those wishing to relive past glories.

The vampiric tone is enough of a departure to reinvigorate interest in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and tempt gamers back for another round but the same frame-rate issues and glitches abound taking a little bit of the shine off it. It's well worth a look, just know what you're in for.

The odds are never in your favour, but that's the whole point. In Spelunky, suffering is addictive.

If you've been waiting for a true challenge, a sense of adventure, genuine progression and a world that is filled with complex actions, real people and real threats, than you could do worse than entering The Secret World.

A classic survival-horror effort. For the last few years fans of the genre have more or less had to take what they can get, and while many seasoned players will have already experienced the game in its earlier form, it's still one of the better straight-up horror efforts available right now.

The London 2012 videogame won't be on your playlist for very long, but if you're a fan of the genre, I'd rate this game as one of the better games of its kind. It'll also help you get swept up in the excitement and euphoria of the 2012 Olympic Games, which is what these types of games are all about.