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.

For all its faults, Arkham Origins lives up to the prestige associated with its name. It’s easy to be negative about it, simply because everything it does well the previous games also pulled off splendidly, but the fact is that if the other Arkham games didn’t exist this would be the best Batman game ever by a mile.

The swift and graphically violent gameplay makes you feel incredibly powerful, but maintains a consistent challenge. Despite taking itself a little too seriously than it needs to, this is a fun adventure worth experiencing. For the Emperor!

It’s a terrific little package brimming with options to replay, but it’s not a large play-space by any measure, and there’s not a huge amount of variation on scenery or tone. This one boils down to preference...Just hurry up with The Phantom Pain already, Hideo.

To put it in Jurassic Park terms, although you start off as excited as Grant, Ellie, Tim, and Lex as you experience a world of true wonder – where dinosaurs roam – you soon become Arnold (Samuel L. Jackson’s character) dealing with yet another one of Nedry’s problems.

Dawn of Ragnarök could have given us new items in shops, different resources to gather and craft with (though you can upgrade gear to a new tier, which is a nice addition) and more fun with its economy. And while there are differences to what we’ve already played through in the base game and its other two expansions, they don’t make the experience different enough. That said, however, the story here can’t be faulted, nor the treatment of the sagas and history of the Vikings and Norse myth, which is Dawn of Ragnarök’s best element.

The truth is Unravel didn’t need a reason for you to play it, because the basic mechanics handled that for you, and so it didn’t need a story, no less one built around rebuilding foreign and alien memories from someone you don’t have a connection to, nor care about.

This is one of the best detective titles you’ll play and its story and voice-acting is a pure joy. Just don’t go in expecting any high level of visual sheen, or system fluidity.

Although not the biggest or most expansive release in the franchise Thrones of Britannia surprises in its depth and commitment to building an experience specific to an era and place. From the warring houses and backstabbing and ever-changing map, to the war-hungry Vikings looking to cause one last moment of chaos. If medieval history is your thing, then this is the Total War for you.

It would be remiss not to mention The Streak mode, where players attempt to thwart the longest running undefeated series in the history of professional wrestling. Much like the rest of WWE 2K14, the fanfare is better than the actual gameplay.

Strange Brigade from developer Rebellion, the studio behind the Sniper Elite series, presents a bright, camp, and vivid swashbuckling Indiana Jones-inspired world come to life. In a third-person shooter where teaming up with friends to take on hordes of supernatural creatures encourages experimentation. Oh, and it’s a lot of fun too.

With a solid roster of characters (and more yet to come), a robust online Tournament mode alongside Swing mode, the game is already pretty fun. The addition of a silly Adventure mode and extra trimmings and unlockables makes this a standout in the series and another great addition to the Switch’s growing library of Nintendo exclusives.

Massive, meandering and full of menace, Dragon's Dogma ambushes you from the darkness and attempts to remove your still-beating heart. Are you going to let it?

Whether you’re being stealthy or outright flamboyant in your pursuits of slag and biomass and plaz, Void Bastards offers up a fresh and engaging take on the first-person rogue light sub-genre in a package that is has the gameplay to match its vibrant art style.

Outside of the campaign, playing the sandbox mode, which also provides players with periodic goals ranging from export targets to constructing certain types of buildings, proves to be a more well-rounded experience - even if it lacks the amusing overarching story elements of the campaign.

The online career and Sport mode may signify a new direction for the series, but shows promise. With time, no doubt GT Sport will evolve with new modes, vehicles, tracks, and even additional weather effects. And when the day comes that we can witness all the wonderful detail and beauty of Polyphony Digital’s creation, via watching a replay of a crash-free online race set at night along the rain-soaked roads of Tokyo, this could become something truly special.

This blueprint is still fun, don’t get me wrong, but if anything New Dawn represents more of a sunset on an old design sheet. Might be time to drop a figurative nuclear bomb on Far Cry as we know it right now, in an effort to rebuild, from the ground up; something new and contemporary for the brave new world ahead of us. Fuel, after all, will be a thing of the past soon enough.

Despite some welcome attention to detail in this port, it's still not enough to raise it to the heights of 'must play' for an action RPG whose charm, humour and some genuinely interesting ideas aren't strong enough to battle against how unchallenging it is and how repetitive a lot of tasks can become.

By far the best wrestling game I've played in the past few years. The lack of depth in match types and singleplayer mode is unfortunate, but the game is seriously fun and a joy to play. Add in the nostalgia factor with the old school wrestlers, and this game is a must for all WWE fans.

In the end it’s interesting because even though there’s thematic weight and meaning behind all of the open-world elements, they never really come together in a way that feels in-line with the smooth hand movements of Akito and KK performing a charged up elemental attack. Disappointing combat, lacklustre progression, and way too many collectibles-to-find aside, the Tokyo you get to explore serves as an impressive and memorable backdrop for a supernatural tale. With some great cinematic storytelling across the main narrative and the many side-missions you discover, Ghostwire: Tokyo becomes more than the sum of its parts.

Personally I’ve found the experience to be a visceral and engaging one. I’m a huge fan of the mythical sci-fi fusion and have eaten up the planetary environments -- on a visual level -- like they’re going out of fashion (though I can’t really buy cars being on Venus, Bungie).

Ruiner is momentum. The art drives the story, the story drives the setting, the setting drives the music, and the music drives the combat. Which in and of itself, needs none of the above. There are other very cool elements to be found from the versatile progression system to the way in which the boss battles evolve and really put your skills to the sent. And there are stretches where the momentum lags and cues are repeated. But with the sound turned up, the lights drawn, and your eyes firmly watching each enemy movement and background detail come to life there’s nothing better. Ruiner gets it. And I love it.

What you should be preparing yourself for is a game with massive dialogue and very little in the way of ‘gaming’. It’s not a detriment, as it helps the experience standout, and I couldn’t stop once I was fully invested in all the characters. Plus, it’s a quirky Indie and fringe developers need all the help we can give them. So pull up a stool and order something warm, this might just become your new favourite cafe.

In terms of value, DiRT Showdown offers more than enough hours of entertainment for its asking price (one that is quite cheap on PC if you shop around) and serves as a perfect entrée during the wait for DiRT 4.

The combat too is a little easy on the normal setting, where the danger seems to lessen the more you play. The small-ish levels also become repetitive after a while, and need a bit more variety. Even as the world around you becomes more unstable, Chernobylite’s awe does wane a little. But setting aside all of that, Chernobylite presents a memorable story set in an endlessly fascinating locale. One that is as ambitious as it is immersive. The choices you get to make and unmake stick with you and, well, it all makes for an unforgettable journey into the Exclusion Zone.

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.

It was easy to be drawn into A Total War Saga: TROY. Through its blend of myth, legend, and history. And in striking that balance between the Warhammer entries and Three Kingdoms, Creative Assembly has presented its own Trojan Horse -- another visually impressive addition filled with Total War goodness.

A great concept with the right amount of heart, that simply loses its way too often in so much broken form.