Alan Wake is a superb game that will satisfy anyone looking for a slight twist of horror blended into their third person shooters.

With a name like Turbo Overkill, one is correct to assume that it is full of that cheesy madness, which is exactly what it delivers as it fully embraces the Boomer Shooter subgenre. Turbo Overkill is an encapsulation of absurdity, trying to push itself to the heights of stupendous fun through its creative weapons, augmentations and dumb, wild scenarios while offering plenty of mechanics and rapid gameplay to satisfy those old-school action lovers. With its superb throwback visuals, quality soundtrack, outlandish level design, and hyper-bloody action that never seems to let up, Turbo Overkill is a great recommendation for anyone looking for a quality and thrilling first-person shooter in 2023.

The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile is an improvement over an already very good videogame, and for 800MSP this is an absolute no-brainer for anyone who loves games like Bayonetta, God Hand and Devil May Cry. Instead of re-working tried and tested features for the sake of a follow up, everything about the first game has simply been done better. James Silva and SKA Games are now big players in the indie scene, and it is certainly going to be interesting to see what they have to offer next.

To call Odin Sphere Leifthrasir the definitive version of the original game would be selling it short: the sheer amount of improvements and new content have transformed the game into a whole new experience that both original fans and curious newcomers must not miss.

It's a fresh, unrelenting take on a stale genre that has you grinning from beginning to end. Complaints have been noted about the game's lifespan – you can finish a playthrough in around seven hours – but with an experience as replayable and dense as this, such complaints seem petulant.

Longtime fans have no reason at all to ignore this latest (and possibly greatest) entry in the series, and players itching for a polished platformer with a gorgeous presentation and a whole lot of charm have even less reason to miss out. As long as the community continues to vote with their dollars, Wayforward will continue to grant the wishes of old-school gamers everywhere.

Minor quibbles aside though this is a fantastic game, Retro Studios have once again, like they did with Metroid, revived a long dead franchise successfully.

You have to feel truly sorry for any future artist-specific rhythm games, because it would take an enormous amount of effort to top The Beatles: Rock Band, a game very nearly bigger than Jesus.

It’s not your normal everyday game, so I’m not judging it like one. I’m sure many, if not most, people simply won’t ‘get’ it. But if you’ve already seen images of it and it looks like something you’d enjoy, I have no hesitation recommending it whole-heartedly. Hell, you could even play it with a friend or partner, valentine’s day is coming up! I bet you’d all end up in hysterics. As for me, I’m hoping beyond hope that the subtitle ‘First Date’ indicates there’ll be more to come from this ludicrous entry. Simply put, I’m a sucker for Sucker for Love.

Bayonetta is a completely OTT game with singular vision, containing ideas that make sense only in the mind of Hideki Kamiya – the game’s creator. It’s an insight into what he thinks games should be about, and a love letter to the uniqueness of the medium he works in – with no misgivings to end-users that do not share his mindset.

As the episode came to a close, I felt I had taken part in a more surreal adventure than what came before. Where as others episodes tried to ground characters in a well realised world, Episode Four shifts to deal with issues very much outside everyone’s comfort zone.

No two ways about it, Tetris Effect is a masterpiece, the kind of visually and audibly resplendence that one could immediately point towards the next critic who poses the age-old annoying question of whether videogames are “art”. It also makes for the best VR experience on the PSVR since Resident Evil 7, and is an absolute must-have with or without the extra hardware.

I'll go ahead and say it – this year's Madden is the best football game I've played in a very long time. Is the game perfect? No. But the changes to this year's edition are more than enough for me to recommend it for even the most casual fans of football. The changes aren't merely cosmetic, but intended to make this year's version more like the real game that so many of us love. And you know what? Madden's never been closer.

This is a worthy sequel with a look and feel that are more polished than last year’s effort.

Darksiders II is in no way a groundbreaking game. It's not the kind of game that people see has potential and makes a million shameless copies of. It's a game that's realized an old formula and has recreated it well. By doing so, it has made a game legitimately worth playing.

Maximus is a great game that suits the iPhone beautifully.

If you’re one of those people who is sick of all those party games on Nintendo’s loveable, family-friendly console, and are crying out for a proper, grown up videogame, look no further than this.

For anyone who has never played The Wind Waker, this HD release is one that you must own for your limited (for now) Wii U library. It’s a charming experience that has been improved visually and mechanically to make for a better game.

Fans of Crysis are probably jumping with joy and wetting themselves when I say Crysis Warhead is a better game in every possible way than the original. That’s saying something since Crysis was a great game. It might not be as long, lasting around the five hour mark, but you do get a great multiplayer experience to go back to once you are done with the campaign.

Football Manager 09 is the most complete football experience you’re likely to find for a good while, at least until 2010 comes out.

Just like Stardew Valley filled a void in the hearts of those missing Harvest Moon, Golf Story does what Nintendon’t by delivering a highly competent take on the Mario Golf RPG formula – an offshoot of a franchise that has gone missing for well over a decade. Golf Story likely wouldn’t have existed without looking to gaming’s past for inspiration but that hardly makes it a knockoff. It excels in every way you’d hope a game in this niche but fascinating genre would.

I have nothing but praise for Codemasters’ return to the muddy motorsport of rally.

Though initially it tends to be a bit on the easy side and learning when and where to use which power-plays is a case of trial and error, it's not long before the game escalates into a nail-bitingly intense experience.

An excellent addition to the PSP library and a purchase I recommend you go out and make as soon as possible.

A few ill-judged action sequences, occasional leaps of logic during the interrogations and some gunplay that just about scrapes through on the positive side of functional prevent this from being a stone cold classic in the same way Grand Theft Auto or Red Dead Redemption are. But if they're A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, this is surely Rockstar's Return of the Jedi – not the best of the bunch, but still loads better than most of the other stuff out there. Highly recommended.

Despite these few annoyances, Guitar Hero 5 is still an excellent example of a band-based rhythm action game done right. This is a true evolution of the Guitar Hero phenomenon, simple but devastatingly effective changes that really bring the best out of the genre.

Virtue's Last Reward is a quality game that will surprise you. It will make you want to speak about it to people months after you have finished it. They aren't many game stories that make you do that, but the ones that do are normally exceptionally well-written with stimulating plots and shocking twists.

Yakuza Kiwami 2 might not be the game to start with, but for old fans it’s a lovely trip down memory lane, and for the newcomers who have discovered the series through Yakuza 0, this title will be a true delight for you, as you get to experience how brilliant Yakuza can be when it’s at the top of its game. There have been three Yakuza games released across various platforms this year, but it’s this remake that shines as the best example of the series to date.