This collection shines with the underlying impressive emulation of Mega Drive hardware, the variety of visual options you get to switch between realistic and pixel-heavy versions of each game, and the quality of life stuff like rewinding and picking up where you left off. And thanks to over 50 titles in the collection there are gems to find that you may not have played before - including Phantasy Star and Alien Soldier.

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 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.

For a story that talks of falling into lunacy, it's interesting that the game's quality matches the mind of its antagonist; Alice is a cracked mirror; you can see what it could have been, but you're stuck with what it is.

There’s plenty of good to be found, but Payback doesn’t seem all that interested in rewarding and promoting that side of the game. And in the end, delivers open-world racing that confuses and confounds moments after it surprises and delights.

It’s a shame that the two sides of The Spectrum Retreat don’t really come together, creating a cohesive narrative adventure filled with engaging puzzles to solve. But even though the Penrose Hotel quickly becomes boring to walk through, there’s still a lot to like – from the art direction to the story and the often-wonderful puzzle design.

As a pure action-brawler Redeemer’s appeal is limited. Like the classic arcade game Double Dragon II there’s a sense of fatigue that becomes hard to shake after a few hours, something that very few games in this genre manage to overcome. But, if you’re a fan of punching things and stringing together combos and takedowns in a violent action game, then there’s a lot to like here. Any hey, any game where you can, mid-combo, rip the arm off a mutant and then proceed to beat it to a pulp with both severity and a severed appendage -- is worth checking out.

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.

Guitar Hero Live has just taken itself too seriously, and that concept is at pure odds with what the franchise used to be about. Don’t get me wrong, there is fun here, there’s multiplayer, hero powers and a decent list of songs, but the idea that these might eventually have you forking over more cash should make you trepidatious at least.

What we get when all’s said and performed in step with The Gunk’s level design, is a fleeting experience really only good for the Achievements (your first G is a whopping 50, and this rarely lets up), or for a chilled and relaxed romp through an alien world whose FernGulley storyline is face-slappingly on-the-nose. I mean, it’s actually quite fun, despite Rani’s overly contextual Mepsipax design, which is entirely at odds with everything I’ve gunked at you here, but it did suck me in.

In the end it’s worth noting that when viewing a remake or remaster what needs to be taken into consideration is the source material, how it looks, feels, and plays. That is, in addition to the work carried out to recreate moments, update visuals, and change any of the presentation. To do otherwise would be silly, a terrible game with a wonderful remaster doesn’t warrant a high score. In the case of Warcraft III, the inverse to that is also true. So, what we end up with is something in-between. A classic reborn, in a package that doesn’t warrant all that much in the way of celebration.

There's always an argument to be made for keeping an old game's “quirks” intact to preserve nostalgia, but there's still a line where useless things ought to killed off for good. That said, I have to acknowledge that only the die-hard fans of the hard-dyin' Dan Fortesque will enjoy this. The timeless Tim Burton-esque charm and the fine Lazarus job done on the visuals can only go so far. In the end, these old bones just creak too much.

After each episode, you even get a chart highlighting the path you’ve taken with spoiler-free hints at the breadth of outcomes and scenes available. And even with all of that, each new twist and turn feels unexpected. As a slice of brand-new interactive choice-driven narrative drama, As Dusk Falls impresses. But it’s an experience held back by its photo-filter visuals and interactivity that never quite feels like an extension of its many dramatic moments.

A great game becomes a good game due to its length and lack of innovation.

When set against other titles offering vehicular combat such as Carmageddon, Interstate '76, or even Twisted Metal, Onrush pales in variety, longevity, and simple car crushing fun.

A great foundation that is mechanically sound and will delight in the early hours. Stick around too long, however, and Chaosbane reveals a dearth of classes, enemies and environments. Also a weak endgame.

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.

As a Rainbow Six Siege spin-off it’s fun to see all of the gadgets and mechanics of that game make their way over into the co-op space. The gun-feel is also on point. The ease at which you can throw out a recon drone or line up a head-shot through a wall is endlessly satisfying. And with all of its tactical stealthiness, Extraction plays unlike anything else we’ve seen in the co-op space. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to give the experience a true identity it can call its own.

To summarise it in a way that should make sense, The Ascent features a mix of systems and mechanics that don’t play all that well with each other. Exploration suffers too, with certain Side Missions being locked to the main story without any word as to why.

The simplicity of 198X is endearing, and how it presents a compilation of sorts of an era is something that leaves a positive if not lasting impression. The story, although simple in its presentation does leave room for growth. We’re keen to check out the second part of the tale, and if the team Hi-Bit Studios can connect both the narrative and the individual games in a more meaningful way - then it has every chance to live up to its premise.

Fun though it is, NeverDead is several good ideas short of fulfilling its conceptual promise.

NeverDead is the kind of game you want to like more than you actually do. The gimmick is a smart one, it's quite funny when it wants to be, it's peppered with cool moments, and it's a big improvement from the developer's other recent efforts (Rogue Warrior, anyone?). Alas, fun though it is, NeverDead is several good ideas short of fulfilling its conceptual promise.

There's a plot in here, but it's all a bit rubbishy, full of stock-standard fantasy tropes and dialog that reads like it was written by an intelligent but under-read tenth grader. All told, the game has a very amateur feel to it.

It's great that MotoGP 10/11 adopts a more realistic simulation approach to the game, but I found the handling of the bike frustrating in certain situations.

For a title devoid of action, outside of a couple of stealth sequences and a ‘run towards the screen from the giant monster bit’, The Medium might commune with the spirit world... but it fails to communicate all that well with the player.

Sniper Elite 3 is an idiot savant of a game, excelling in one specific area while being almost obtuse in many others.

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.

With City of Brass there’s a feeling you’re playing a home port of an arcade game, where short spurts of action, strategy, and fun doesn’t translate to a sit-down to play for an extended length of time videogame. It looks fantastic but there’s not a lot below the surface. But by keeping all power-ups and progression tied to procedural generation, there’s just not enough to keep you coming back time and again.

As much as one might bemoan Resident Evil 4’s use of quick-time events, the fact that playing Resident Evil 3 can make you pine for their return when all you’re doing is watching - is probably all you need to know. As a remake Resident Evil 3 is an impressive visual feat and another RE Engine showcase. It’s a shame then that the actual game portion wasn’t given the same overhaul.

A solitary experience, directionless and without contextual form. Gorgeous, yes, and presented as an ambitious and familiar package with an equally resonant soundtrack, but oddly empty.

For all its wonder and remarkable variety, where even after a dozen attempts at adventuring through the world of Ditto no two versions ever look the same, it’s overly punishing when it doesn’t need to be. Especially when exploration is concerned. And keeping you several steps behind the threat, never powerful enough to feel like a true hero, feels slightly off. Fun, charming, but ultimately frustrating.

For all intents and purposes, Call of Cthulhu should have been amazing. Every element is there and it’s clear the studio had lofty ambitions, in as much as it’s clear they were working to an incredibly tight budget. Give this studio a bigger budget and a project they believe in, and I’m confident they’ll break myriad ceilings but Call of Cthulhu isn’t the breakthrough I thought it should have been. And it’s not helped that it has emerged in the year of polish by way of a number of other Triple-As, lead ceremoniously by Red Dead Redemption 2.

As much fun as it is to see Nintendo Switch Sports bring back some of that Wii magic, that party room vibe, it’s hard not to look at this as anything but a missed opportunity. Having all progression and customisation locked to online play feels like a missed opportunity, and although we couldn’t test the online stuff during the review period it’s hard to see how the Wii Sports formula would substantially improve on the same-room formula.

Shenmue III is still surprisingly charming, and an earnestly emotional journey for fans of the series. Ryo’s lack of interest in the opposite sex and his unwavering need to go to bed early and practise his martial arts training diligently each day, make him pure in a way we rarely see. It doesn’t leave much room for excitement, but it ensures that Shenmue III is every bit the sequel it set out to be.

As a classic RTS experience, there’s a lot to like about Starship Troopers: Terran Command - especially in terms of translating the look and feel of the action scenes found in the iconic movie into little slices of strategy. Outside of a few pathing glitches and a couple of animation bugs, the biggest problem here is that the default difficulty feels a little too easy in addition to there being not much on offer once you complete the campaign. Without a fleshed out skirmish mode or even something like a co-op mode to take on the Arachnid together, it’s something of a one and done experience. Still, it’s good to do your part because... service guarantees citizenship.

Even with all of this new stuff, bug fixes, and improvements, Destiny still suffers from a lack of a real endgame. After completing the campaign, Adventures, and Raids (and acquiring all that juicy loot), once your power level hits the current cap, there's not much else to do. Aside from starting fresh on a new character. Due to Destiny's core system and design this doesn't offer too much in the way of a new experience.

I cannot in good conscience recommend this game to all but the most rabid fans of Hideo Kojima's work. And even then, I feel like this game may cause some of them to balk and question their devotion. It pains me to say it, but Konami may have been a necessary evil for him, a check and balance against his crazier, more self-indulgent impulses.

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.

No matter the many moments of fun to be had with the impressive size and scope of the environments to explore and explode within – there’s a disjointed feel to much of Crackdown 3. A feel that ultimately means it fails to reach the charming heights of the original.

If the developers had stuck to just sailing and ship-combat, Pirates would be a charming game. Unfortunately, it's only half of one.

In the end Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus is enjoyable, but it’s also a bit of a let down when it comes to the actual combat. Truth be told I was expecting more of an XCOM-style experience with unit management and perhaps even some base management. The simplicity of individual encounters means that Mechanicus can be frustrating, where simple mistakes can cost you the entire mission. Again, these painful lessons in failure help you learn what works and doesn't. Like, say, bottlenecking your units when the enemy has a powerful AoE weapon.

Sonic Forces isn’t a bad game, nor the worst Sonic title in years. In fact, it’s quite fun and keeps up the series tradition of bringing a sense of speed to the forefront. But compared to say, Super Mario Odyssey, you get the feeling that it’s just another example of a fun and shallow Sonic game in a long line of fun and shallow Sonic games.

A beautiful and often clever game that doesn’t seem to be aiming as high as it could be. It seems content to simply be pretty and mechanically solid, but it’s not a game one can easily get super invested in. There are the makings of a better game in here, and the combat is reliably entertaining throughout, but Child of Light never quite rises as high as its untethered protagonist.

As fun as it is to venture into a location called ‘Call of Battle’, a bombed out city with retro-FPS vibes, there’s nothing new it brings outside of aesthetics. Without any sort of detailed traversal or environmental interaction it all feels like you’re running around an overworld in an early 3D game from the late '90s. And with that one could argue that No More Heroes has always been about style over substance. The series’ unique blend of action and over-the-top self referential insanity is here, but one can’t help but wonder if that’s enough? Wonder how great a Suda51 joint could be if the mechanics and feel matched the virtuoso style on display.

For the most part, Bungie achieved this lofty balance with its Halo games, but after an impressive first shot at the sci-fi series with Halo 4, 343 Industries has fumbled with one of the most important parts of a Halo experience: the solo campaign.

With its lineup of indistinguishable cars, bland Career mode, and the more enjoyable but limited Quick Game, WRC 7 presents few reasons to justify its price tag. It's fun for a quick bash sure, but for similar expenditure you could be playing Forza 7, Project Cars 2, or the literally billions of other racing games on the market.

With more time in development for avatar physics off the board (specifically in crashes), a new system for basic movement in the game, and some direction in a videogame sense, this would be as revolutionary as Skate was with its Flickit controls, but right now, it’s just not where it *could* be. Hopefully the content the PC community pours in finds its way to console, but as it stands, Skater XL is just too barebones and difficult for the everyday person to likely want to play.

It's a hard game to get really enthusiastic about, and all too easy to walk away from when you hit a frustrating section.

A tennis game that seems unusually keen to hide its potential away behind superfluous control options and silly concessions. It's your best bet if you want a tennis game on the 3DS right now (better than Sports Island anyway), but not a patch on what you can find elsewhere.

For a first outing, Counterplay has achieved something that's undeniably striking in the visuals department, though that's marred by sameiness and the odd, isolated framerate hitch. We also have an addictive loot game and a surprisingly deep RPG upgrade system here, though it's hamstrung by fisticuffs that don't nail down those all important fundamentals. I wouldn't label what's here as a complete Godfall, but certainly a sizable Godstumble that'll need a decent patch. Postpone your excited, just-gotta-PS5 leap of faith towards this.

The second season of The Walking Dead has had highpoints, but in the end it can’t match up against the first season.

Outside of a few mostly inconsequential panel-based vignettes scattered around, and levels that take you from a small town through to a backwoods swamp and then through to industrial and supernatural locales, Forgive Me Father’s narrative is mostly a mystery. In the end it’s hard to look at this as anything but a missed opportunity, where the mix of old and new doesn’t quite come together. The horror aspirations amount to little more than set dressing. Fast-paced shooting is where Forgive Me Father settles, a place where enemies move in predefined patterns and strafing is just about all you need to do to survive. As fun as that can be in doses, there’s little incentive to keep going once you realise that’s all there is.

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.

Fallout 76 is fun to play; the simple loop of scavenging and exploration and crafting and progression works well when you’re in a group. Alone, it gets pretty old pretty fast - especially when dealing with bugs and glitches and performance woes. Ultimately it’s disappointing that the size and scope of the multiplayer doesn’t match the impressive West Virginia you get to explore.

The concept and setting here were ripe for out-of-left-field explosiveness, but due to a lack of direction and capitalisation, and likely a small budget, all we’re left with is a lifeless game that fails to live up to its potential.

I wanted to like this marriage of Warhammer and action-RPG. Really like it. And initially I did, but the honeymoon was over pretty damn quickly. The hotel room was nasty and bug infested. The food invaried and bland. And the wife who looked so radiant on the day, lost most of her appeal when her skills and abilities were found to be lacklustre and severely limited.

One look at the score and you might feel that the The Dark Pictures Anthology has a long road ahead to prove itself, but as is the case with the anthology format - it’s one spectacular or memorable story away from becoming a cult or out-right classic. The format, setting, technology, craft, and interactivity on display in Man of Medan bodes well for the future. What we’ve got here, although replayable, doesn’t quite invoke the sense or feeling or general incentive for you to go back to re-watch or re-play. A so-so debut for a promising series.

The hardcore JRPG lovers looking for meaty Switch representation will froth over this, but as a new entry in the field, Bravely Default II only displays acid rain level nostalgia. It’s the dinosaur they just added feathers to, to make it seem like something new, but really, it’s all the same skeletal system we’ve known and studied already for so long.

Daytona USA sits in the unique position where it suffers not from its faults, but from the perfection of its original design. There was nothing better than being enveloped in those speaker laden seats, inches away from a ridiculously bright CRT screen, friends or strangers seated either side of you.

Korra lacks the heart and extravagance of Platinum’s best work, but it is, at the very least, a step above the absolute dross Activision often releases for licensed properties.

Too often Half-Life: Alyx feels like baby's first VR shooter and for many — especially those who purchased VR hardware to play it — this isn't a dealbreaker. But trading off the Half-Life name for an introductory course to VR relegates HL: Alyx to spin-off territory when the characters involved and the story it tells could be so much more. Alyx Vance deserves better, and so too do VR gamers.

An ambitious open-world action-RPG from a new studio that does a lot, but doesn’t do a lot very well. In the end it’s finding new weapons and gear, alongside using new mutations and abilities in combat, that resonates. With less filler and more Kung-Fu killer, this could have been so much more -- with less.

The lack of depth, a good story, and stuff like voice acting makes it all feel a little average. Pulling on your Zelda nostalgia heartstrings to drive motivation, even though the battles are all pretty much the same.

Only worth playing in co-op, where the fluid controls, half decent mechanics, some basic teamwork, and mindless action elevates what is decidedly mediocre into something that although average, can be a lot of fun.

For all the interesting lore and intrigue of the world, most of it is hidden behind layers of library entries that players shouldn’t have to read through.

Minecraft Dungeons has a few bright spots, in its release form it’s highly polished with solid visuals and effects. Outside of the static nature of the environments they’re diverse and cover the range of locations you’d expect to find in this style of experience – from snow-capped mountains to volcanic caves and fortress-like structures. Minecraft Dungeons’ fantasy look is on point. And with the game being moderately priced and a part of Xbox Game Pass – this alone lessens the ‘fun for a few hours’ blow that is Mojang’s take on Diablo. An entry level take on a well-worn genre that after a few hours will have you heading for the exit.

As a Star Wars fan, Battlefront II is disappointing. As a Battlefront (2015) apologist, it’s sad to see that familiar sins have popped up again, and questionable design decisions mar the fun parts: the campaign, split-screen versus, Heroes vs Villains, Starfighter Assault, and those rare fair fights on Galactic Assault. There’s a good game buried somewhere beneath too many cons. I just hope that Motive, Criterion, and DICE can right the starship before too many players launch their escape pods.

In the end there’s a great game at the core of Diablo: Immortal, and it’s one that looks, feels and plays, exactly like a Diablo game built for mobile should. In expanding the scope to include a robust system of MMO activities, ways to play, and adding many simple progression systems that all feed into each other, what makes Diablo and other games like it so special was lost along the way. Despite the free-to-play mobile design and stingy end-game rewards, I still wanted to keep playing. The tragedy is, Diablo: Immortal didn’t want me to. It wants nothing more than for me to sign-in, play for a few minutes, log-out, and come back tomorrow.

Perhaps if SEGA chose to remaster and re-release the first two GameCube titles, which defined and perfected the core Super Monkey Ball formula - before it’s slow dive into obscurity thanks to Banana Blitz and other titles - we’d be hailing this as a minor masterpiece. Instead what we’ve got here is a HD misfire of a motion-control misfire from over a decade ago.

It’s a tragedy to see Lords of Shadows 2 arrive in this form. Rather than focus on what made the first game so much fun, the designers seem to have totally misunderstood what gamers wanted from the sequel, and delivered something that was utterly alien to the first game.

The biggest disappointment - outside of the narrative, uneven combat, and characters - comes from the expectation and promise found in the art direction, combat, and Soviet-era Russian sci-fi style. There’s a school of thought that when it comes to a review, you should discuss the content of a game versus what it doesn’t have. The logic is sound, if all criticism comes from a place of unmet expectation, that would be unfair. But when something looks this good, you can’t help but wonder what’s missing. At least in those rare moments when the game shuts up long enough for you to think.

Combat that leans a little too heavily in the direction of counters isn’t the only issue here, but it’s the most prominent and one that bleeds into all the other shortcomings.

Contributing significantly to the disappointment are the sound effects - with the guns and explosives sounding particularly underwhelming.

Gear.Club for Nintendo Switch does offer split-screen racing, but again the core racing isn’t all that fun. The best bits are outside of the racing, collecting and upgrading cars, and remodeling and arranging your garage. Which, in case you were wondering, isn’t a good thing for a, you know, racing game.

Dangerous Driving ends up being a Monotonous Bore. An arcade racer that doesn’t do anything particularly new or different. And really, when the crashes look like simple physics experiments from the late-90s that can trigger from the slightest of scrapes – it was destined to fall short of hitting its lofty Burnout spiritual successor goal.

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.

Peggle 2 is an extremely safe sequel, and consequently a bit dull, most of the time.

Le Tour is the sort of monotony that shouldn't come near a videogame, but the developers have banged together a decent, if not flawed title that I did enjoy.

Almost all of the improvements are simply native benefits of the PC platform and CryEngine 3 -- from the frame rate, to the textures and netcode. With a lack of an open dedicated-server model, community of players, or any tweaks to the pre-existing gameplay conventions, I still can't recommend Nexuiz to anyone but the most dedicated FPS diehard.

So Game of Thrones features an engrossing story underneath all its decidedly average layers and it's the mechanics and gameplay that hold back the overall experience from being one worth recommending outside of the series' most stalwart fans.

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.

The fact that there are several difficulty levels and the ability to fine-tune Sonic’s speed, jump height, and even damage recovery as part of the in-game options is not a great sign and is indicative of the mish-mash feel. In the end, the lack of focus and consistency makes Sonic Frontiers feel unfinished - even if playing in the solid 60 frames-per-second performance mode is great for capturing and conveying a sense of speed and scale. But even here there’s so much pop-in that you lose out on a true sense of awe when it comes to the environments and structures born from the mysterious Cyber Space. Another average, but ambitious, outing for the blue hedgehog.

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.

Creativity is all well and good, but it needs a more receptive canvas than what Scribblenauts Unmasked offers.

Whilst its hordes of mindless, generic, evil kamikaze AI make for great target practice, there isn't much else on offer if you're a veteran third-person gamer.

A fun game for cover shooter fans who don't mind linear progression and a decent amount of cut-scenes.

In the end Space Hulk: Tactics also has the appeal of its premise and works better as an experience played with others whilst also designing missions and various layouts. Much like the origins of Space Hulk it feels true to the tabletop roots of the series - but also lacking in its limited scope.

Ultimately the new Saints Row is a disappointment, especially if you’re a fan of the series. The co-op mode, although highly problematic when trying to establish a game, was commendably solid once up and running, and fun for a while. The new location and characters don’t really land and the sloppy nature of just about every aspect gives the impression of yet another game released long before it was finished. And even though this might sound like a random aside, when a Saints Row game with multiple radio stations features only a handful of memorable or recognisable tracks - to the point where you don’t even notice driving around in silence - you know there are issues.

This is not going to set the gaming world on fire by any means but if you're a sucker for movie tie-ins, have reasonable to low FPS expectations and don't mind some light RTS antics, Battleship is a decent enough distraction for a handful of hours or so.

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.

The problem with Thief is that the studio spent so much time trying to make a game for all kinds of people that it forgot to execute any single part of the experience perfectly.

Croteam have delivered the goods when it comes to the Serious Sam series before, and some of that is peppered throughout Serious Sam 4. From hopping into a giant mech that also happens to be a Pope Mobile to a gun that fires giant cannonballs that can mow down anything in its path. Played in co-op with unlimited respawns and you could even go so far as to recommend it to fans looking purely at that side of the game. But then you remember that the cannonball gun doesn’t show-up until several hours into the campaign, right near the end, and that you had to use a piss-weak pistol for a lot of the time. Shooting at the same aliens from Serious Sam’s of old - in environments that are, well, even uglier than a one-eyed reptilian.

What we’re left with is a product that relies more on promises and potential than what is actually playable. The tracks are boring, the tricks not worth bothering with, the attempt at storytelling laughable and far too much expectation rests in the audience to shape Fusion’s potential.

In the end Earthfall is unfortunately the exception to that age-old rule, originally spoken and then sung by Mary Poppins – ‘a spoonful of co-op makes even the most mediocre of shooters go down’.

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.

On the cynical side of things. NBA 2K is a billion dollar enterprise, it doesn't do things by accident. It chose to put MyCareer front and centre, to put MyTeam right below it, to bury the ability to simply play a game of basketball in layers of menus. The shame of it is that I genuinely think it's the best representation of basketball ever. But they make you work so hard to see that, and I just don't know if it's worth the effort.

In the end the impressive, but static, visuals and sound design do a lot to put you into the universe. But, at best Aliens: Fireteam Elite is what you play in the arcade before jumping into the cinema proper.

Unfortunately the gameplay is riddled with weird and detrimental quirks, like your ranged characters standing right next to your melee characters (making them easy fodder for foes) with no way to change their formation, maps that get confusing when you change the rotation of your viewpoint, clicking on obvious targets not registering as you hit the wrong pixel - all wrapped up in a difficulty curve that forces grinding the same boring maps over and over.