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.