Make no mistake, Papers, Please is a political and sociological statement, and often it's quite a distressing one. But it also stands as proof of the power of games to extend beyond the boundaries of simple entertainment and thrills, and it tells a hell of a story in the process.

Toybox Turbos is a good game for beginners and newcomers to racing games. It presents an easy learning curve, but later levels can be a little more challenging. It's a lot of fun to play and in ways it may remind players of the Micro Machines toys and video games from the past.

It's not accessible, and doesn't try to be. Football Manager 2015 is there to appeal to people who are such big fans of the beautiful game that they actually care about what happens off the field, and you're not going to find a better simulation of that behind doors "action" than this game.

Once you wrap your mind around this added layer of complexity, it makes the Ardennes Assault experience both fun and challenging.

Metrocide is carried by some intelligent game mechanics which really evokes the setting and makes the player feel like they are a professional contract killer.

Technical competence aside, Adventure Time: The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom should not have been a full-retail title. The game is far too short. It's over in around 10 hours, and isn't the most difficult 10 hours you'll ever experience.

If anything, the release of Captain Toad goes to show just how confident Nintendo is, and more so with how much it understands its audience. In a blockbuster season filled with plenty of firearms and fistfights, Captain Toad shows us more creativity and style than many new IPs out there.

This seems like the type of title that would have been a potentially risky endeavour when it was first brought over to North America, but now Phoenix Wright is one of the most recognised DS properties out there. It would be great to see more like it.

Newcomers will like Persona 4 Arena Ultimax for being the most complete edition of the game.

Tales from the Borderlands: Episode One - Zero Sum is ridiculous, but a lot of fun. I have not laughed this much at a video game in a long time, but the over-the-top situations and incredibly likable voice cast help to sell what seemed like an odd couple into what could very well turn out to be the perfect marriage.

That is not to say Fantasy Hero: Unsigned Legacy is a bad game. Far from it, there are moments when it is fun and most of its mechanics come together. The problem is that the overall experience is rather short, and very little about the game is memorable once you put the Vita down.

The first episode, as is typical for Telltale, is nothing more than a foundation for the tale to come. It helps to establish new characters and the overall arc of the story. It's actually a slow start, but ends of such an incredibly cliffhanger that I really can't see anyone playing this and then not immediately investing in the season pass for the rest of the thing.

Unfortunately if you attempt to play The Crew by yourself, are hoping for simulation racing with loads of detailed cars or state-of-the-art visuals, The Crew will likely disappoint on those items. This turns The Crew into an interesting experiment that only makes for a decent game.

Ultimately, it’s fun but probably more of a tablet experience. The issue comes from the fear that there is a lack of imagination in some segments of the developer community.

If you appreciate arcade or racing simulations that aren’t just about speed or horsepower but rather the balance, control, and rhythm it takes to manipulate them, MXGP would make for a most reliable partner at the starting line.

The only thing really lacking here is the personality, which is a shame, because Rock ‘n’ Roll Racing was full of personality, and BlazeRush could have been a new contender if it followed suit.

There's no better time to buy into the console.

It certainly suits the more lighthearted and comedic narrative, and the dungeons themselves are nothing short of breathtaking in design.

Particulars is a game by smart people for smart people. It holds many instances of clever design choices that both entertain and educate, although its complex subject matter might leave some players in the dust.

For such a simple formula, it's a testament to Geometry Wars' ability to do it better than anyone else that it is still the premier dual stick arcade shooter, even after so many releases and clones on the market.

Now, rereleased and unmodified from its original gameplay, it is beyond archaic and outdated.

A charming, entertaining, and effectively endless game offers the same kind of value and quality that has made Puzzle & Dragons such a highlight of the mobile and free-to-play markets. This is certainly my favourite mobile game of the year.

Unfortunately the transition to the current consoles leaves room for improvement. WWE 2K15 is fine for the fans, but hardly in the leagues of the best wrestling games ever made.

It's a niche game for a niche audience. Fighting game fanatics who don't mind a spot of fan service will get right into it. Everyone else is better off sticking to BlazBlue, or Dead or Alive, or Street Fighter, or any of the dozen other more accessible fighters that have been released in the past few years.

Still, the beautifully crafted world teaming with life and and almost never-ending sequence of quests is an alluring hook to keep players coming back, in the same way that it doesn't seem to matter how empty a Hollywood blockbuster is, so long as the explosions get bigger and better every time, the audiences will keep flocking back to them.

If you are a long standing fan of Tetris and would like it on your 3DS then you probably already have one of the other Tetris games. But this one will likely have a more vibrant online community, so it might just be worth the re-purchase, even if the single player game doesn't offer anything new.

The Marvelous Miss Take is so good because it’s a rare thing in games - it's a unique twist on an established formula. You're forced to think far more cleverly if you want to see success in this game than most stealth games, and it's the better for it.

A game that leaves you basically going through the motions to get through a relatively short tale that has moments of intrigue, but otherwise falls flat.

LittleBigPlanet 3 is not a perfect by any means, and since it is a platformer at heart it may not appeal to those who are not a fan of that particular genre. However, it is a well-designed game that lacks some polish but at the same time presents a world of possibilities.

It might be irritating that there aren't enough licensed teams, but I do think the football purists will prefer the on-the-pitch action of this game.

With plenty of levels, several endless modes and multiple characters, there's a lot of replay value to be had in Rollers of the Realm. The relatively toned back violence makes this a game I'd readily recommend to younger audiences, and the story is very good on the inclusivity front with representation for characters of various races, genders and ages.

While it shares a significant amount of DNA with the first game, the clever maps, huge unit roster, and brilliant skirmish generator make Battle Academy 2 one of the most entertaining tactical-level wargames on the market today. It’s war without the snore. Don’t miss it.

Just enough has been done to preserve the spirit of the original games while making these entries feel like a legitimate part of the current Pokémon ecosystem. Game Freak and Nintendo have taken the main Pokémon franchise about as far is it can go, short of actually evolving it.

Just enough has been done to preserve the spirit of the original games while making these entries feel like a legitimate part of the current Pokémon ecosystem. Game Freak and Nintendo have taken the main Pokémon franchise about as far is it can go, short of actually evolving it.

Beyond Gotham could have stood for some more innovation, but it's impossible to deny that it's a charming game with its tried-and-true.

Grand Theft Auto V really surprised me. For a series I have had very little interest in the past outside an appreciate for technical proficiency, I found myself drawn into a world where lots of bad things happen to a good number of people - and I was often the one perpetrating these crimes. Call it self-aware social criticism or a guilty pleasure, Grand Theft Auto V proves to be a great deal of fun.

At first glance the beat ‘em up turned cooking sim turned rhythm game appears to suffer from an identity crisis, but Senran Kagura Bon Appétit! is a light-hearted comedy above all else. It’s as niche as games come thanks to its flaunting of risqué material subject to all manner of misunderstandings, but Bon Appétit! is effective as a silly pastime.

It's the sequel that does everything just as well as the original, but adds loads to it. And, with the music selection being even better and more varied than in the previous game, this really is the perfect music game. A little strange for the ears of some people, perhaps, but strange in the best possible sense of the word.

BioWare achieved everything that it needed to with Dragon Age: Inquisition. It revitalised a series that had suffered real brand damage in Dragon Age II, and easily stands as the best RPG we've seen in years. There is absolutely no reason to miss out on this one.

It makes me truly happy to see game developers creating high quality products such as Never Alone that push entertainment boundaries and demonstrate that games can be culturally important. We need to see more of this game, and I hope this is a roaring success so that other native culture organisations look at it and realise the sheer power of games to tell their own stores.

There is a camaraderie for the heroes built around trust and affection for one another that really resonates and gives the narrative a certain warmth that I enjoyed through to the end.

Peggle 2 is an addicting game packed with silly fun that anyone can manage.

Unity plays well, but it's not really good enough for a AAA-game to play well, and this especially applies to Assassin's Creed, which has always been a franchise with stronger narrative and thematic value than its counterparts.

It is something Ubisoft needs to learn about its games on a very fundamental level: when the company isn't sanitising its narratives and characters to target a Call of Duty-sized blockbuster, it makes better games.

Nintendo deserves props for using DLC as an opportunity to add to an existing game package, rather than sell something that should have been in the original release in the first place. It's a fine line to tread, but Nintendo's showing the other publishers how DLC should be done.

Probably the most frustrating omission is the lack of any sort of online mode. It's hard to get this kind of game right in online play - Nintendo itself still hasn't achieved it, but a fighting game that doesn't at least try to go online is a dud from the outset.

It's worth giving Rock Zombie the benefit of the doubt that it wanted to be a trash Z-grade grindhouse game. And if so, mission accomplished. It's just so bad it's worth throwing on in a drunken haze for a laugh or two...But it's not a good game at all. Oh no, no, no, no and no.

Even with all of its Halloween charm, Costume Quest 2’s greatest strength is that it knows its limits. It's a short experience, and it's to it benefit as it never feels bloated. It’s the quintessential bite-sized RPG, wrapped in all the Halloween charm you could ever hope for.

It's the kind of experience that, like Gone Home, people will dismiss for lacking action or having a narrative that doesn't treat its players like idiots, but it's also the kind of game that shows that the games industry is growing up and pushing the limits of what can be achieved given the freedom and resources to be properly creative.

As a fan of the Muppets, I am disappointed that there wasn't more done with the license in Movie Adventures. It's a perfectly workable game, and does have a sense of humour that anything to do with the Muppets needs, but at the same time, it's nothing more than that and whether you're a child or a nostalgic fan for the Kermet and the gang, you're probably going to left wanting after this.

Infinity 2.0 shows that the franchise is on the right track, and it might just wind up on top.

Disney, as with Activision, is going to face stiff competition from Nintendo with its Amiibo line (which taps into the same sense of nostalgic loyalty as Disney Infinity, in fact, and is a bigger threat to it than Skylanders). But Infinity 2.0 shows that the franchise is on the right track, and it might just wind up on top.

Had the game been a tiny part of a greater whole it would have worked. But as it is, and particularly on the Wii U, Cosmophony ends up playing like a demo, stripped of its powers to sustain by its confused design, lack of content and its impossible level of difficulty.

The game comes so very close to being an amazing experience but the gameplay doesn't quite match with its excellent concept.

Minutes is a simple, minimalist, but high-action arcade game. It's an impressive, creative and enjoyable indie game, though it lacks the brilliant high thinking and narrative that went into like-minded arthouse games like Hohokum and Entwined.

Aside from the cooperative experience and the massive amount of online options for competitive multiplayer (the number of maps is absolutely staggering at over 100 and the mode variety is quite extensive), Halo's single-player also feels compelling.

I loved the first Battle Academy, and while the sequel doesn't do much more than adding new maps and scenarios, that's more than enough. Slitherine already has the premier wargames on the iPad, and now it has one more.

But as someone who deeply cares about narrative in game, it's immensely frustrating to see the money that Activition is clearly throwing at the narrative not bearing fruit.

The underlying cause of the Disney magic is at times hard to pin down, but for my mind it's a combination of great, unique characters, nostalgia and an endless stream of wonderful, quality, animated movies.

Power Rangers Super Megaforce is completely uninspired, but at least knows who it is trying to target and is adequately made. As a bit of fan service, it succeeds in being connected to the show, but as a game it is repetitive, with half-realised ideas that could have made the experience more engaging but never really live up to their potential.

We have a very strong contender for one of the best exclusive games in the Wii U library. It is sadly held back by minor control issues, but those issues are easy to overlook due to the sheer fun that you will get out of the gameplay.

There's no soul to Falling Skies. It's a generic, cheap turn based tactics game. It lacks any identity of its own, fails to represent its license, and fails to understand what made the game it copied its base mechanics from so great. And as such I can't really recommend it to anyone.

It would be nice to see Just Dance further innovate as a series, or it runs the risk of becoming incredibly repetitive going forward. Some new features provide interesting wrinkles in the existing formula, but it feels like the series has plateaued and is in need of a few new moves before the next inevitable release.

Taking a mobile free-to-play game like this and copying it wholesale to the console was a ridiculous error in judgement by the developer. Someone in the team should really have understood better the difference in what works for console compared to mobile, and understood that this kind of game just won't sit well with the kinds of people that like playing console games.

If you enjoyed the original Legend of Grimrock, odds are you will feel right at home here. It is bigger, more polished and provides greater variety than its predecessor.

What it is is a challenging fantasy game with a good sense of progression that is entertaining to play, even if it's got no chance of being remembered as a classic like Demon's Souls and Dark Souls are.

It's a highly focused game designed explicitly to fill up the Christmas list of the child in the household. But it is a well produced game, well above the standards of most children's games, and those miniatures are highly collectible stuff. The kids will love having this under that pine tree.

Jet Car Stunts is the kind of game that appears simple on the outside, but smacks you in the face with its sheer difficulty.

The talent is there, and it's wasted on a game like this which, fun as it is, doesn't live up to the promise of its screenshots.

Bayonetta 2 will challenge some people. It will make the uncomfortable. It's transgressive in numerous ways, and with that comes the potential to offend. But in causing offence, Bayonetta 2 encourages conversation, and that's the very definition of a good work of art.

Sunset Overdrive is just what the Xbox One needed - a distinctive exclusive to set the thing apart from the PlayStation 4. Titanfall was adequate and the Forza games are great for racing fans, but Sunset Overdrive is a glorious breath of fresh air.

With a rocking soundtrack, loads of content, plenty of fan service and some clever gelling of two disparate video game universes, Hyrule Warriors is easily my favourite game of 2014 so far.

It does what it promises in offering a fast runner-style game, and it's nice that the developers went as far as to offer completely new level layouts each day, but ultimately this is as shallow as the likes of Doodle Jump or Temple Run, and costs an order of magnitude more money.

I don't want to sound too harsh with this game, because it does have that beautiful ability to make the hours fly by. I just can't see this being more than a flash in the pan kind of game that's going to lose its appeal far more quickly than it deserves.

I love that games like Fluster Cluck are leading the charge of local, social, multiplayer, and I hope it continues indefinitely. Being able to experience actual living room mayhem again as you did back in the day when friends would come over for epic SNES and N64 sessions is still a blast 15 years later.

Prophour23 is clearly not a game built for the mass market - it's for the gaming equivalent of mad scientists, treasure seekers and cult-genre lovers.

I just hope that F1 2015 has an engine for the new generation of consoles and puts the series back on track.

For all the games’ narrative themes of consciousness-probing, identity-subsuming science, the reordering of the psychic self for a greater application of the flesh, I needed to look no further than my own pathological gameplay in its honour. The rage quits, the restarts, the late nights, the infinitesimal adjustments to my thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth attempts, all part of my drive to survive to the end, no matter how many hours of hell it took.

Forza's combination of speed, presentation values, excellent handling and flexibility in letting players approach the game in a variety of ways makes it really hard to put the controller down.

Having a complex customisation and battle system, means that whenever a new player comes along the first few rounds are quite dull while they learn the ropes. And by the time they've learned the ropes it's time to move on to the next game.

It simply comes across as decidedly average and without an ideal target audience.

It's silly, but taken in the right sense, it's a satirical adventure that sits on the right side of quality entertainment.

While there is some action to be had here, do not play Lone Survivor: The Director's Cut looking to score perfect headshots or cheap scares. The pace is slower and as a result the sense of horror is more palpable, memorable experience.

I loved the game when I played it as a freebie on PlayStation Plus ages ago. I love it even more on my shiny, powerful, PlayStation 4.

Looking back on this review, I’m actually a bit depressed that the highlight of the game (for me, at least) was simply how good Ryse looked. It’s obvious that Crytek is capable of so much more, but Ryse simply borrows the best that a few franchises has to offer, and instead chooses to cobble them together quite lazily with a few superfluous mechanics thrown in for good measure, rather than refining and building upon the core game.

This is a game for genre fans only (and by that I do mean fans of both visual novels and tactics RPGs). For those people the game will slowly but surely hook its charms in until they come to see it as something quite brilliant for all its flaws.

The reality is that Samurai Warriors 4 is nothing short of brilliant, and a huge leap forward into the new generation of game design by Koei. It's cinematic, its beautiful, it's fast and entertaining, and if you allow it to be, it's even a little educational. And that makes it inspiring.

Tenkai Knights: Brave Battle is not broken. But it lacks even the slightest hint of creativity or effort within it. To say corners were cut to quickly cash in on the license is an understatement, and by extension this is nothing short of sheer exploitation. That's offensive.

For anime fans, it's literally pulling together some of the brightest minds in the industry and allowing them to run free with a very creative format. Short stories are always less inhibited than full-length projects, and if nothing else, everything that we find in the Short Peace package is very creative indeed.

Between a battle system unlike anything I’ve seen before and a story that pushes the boundaries of comedy, Akiba’s Trip has plenty of personality going for it. Expanding on the world of Akihabara itself would have elevated the experience into a truly classic one, but as is, fans of niche experiences still ought to take this trip.

Though TRI lacks the polish and presentation of the more popular Portal titles, its sheer accessibility and serenity mark it out as something genuinely different, and as such deserves to be noticed.

It is a fun, balanced and accessible fighter by a veteran development team that knows how to make an excellent arcade fighting game. However, it still finds a way to be true to the source material, despite the game being of a very different genre.

If being humiliated and demoralised by in-game defeat is synonymous to Mel’s downfall, achieving victory in battle is a feeling equivalent to earning a billion dollars just for punching your life-long nemesis in the face.

Driveclub is a fun racing game that takes a little getting used to but lacks some of the options I would have expected from a modern racing game.

The Banner Saga asks a lot of its players, especially in the early chapters, but those who stay for the long run will enjoy a mature, character focused story which is both challenging and memorable.

There have been a handful of Alien games over the years, but none have delivered an experience so close to the intent of the films as Isolation. With visuals authentic enough to have been ripped right from the movies and a terrifyingly intelligent monster as the primary antagonist, Alien: Isolation makes for a memorable experience, and clear proof that Colonial Marines was the fault of the developer and not the material.

Futuridium is a game for those who can invest in the grind of simply 'getting the job done'. Taken on those terms, Futuridium becomes a challenge to be completed, retro looking enough to be in vogue, yet with mechanics that inhibit a broader mainstream appeal.

Wrack is fairly similar to the games many of us have played at some point or another, albeit with a cel-shaded art style and a tweaked combat system thrown in for good measure.