It is not quite the revolutionary title people were hoping for, but Watch Dogs is still an excellent game in its own right.

By and large Avernum 2: Crystal Souls is an excellent title that really serves to remind RPG fans what matters most. This is a throwback title with visuals that likely will not appeal to everyone, but if you have never had a chance to journey through Crystal Souls, this is the perfect opportunity to do so.

Of the two, I give the tip to the first Revelations, as that boat setting really is up there with the original Resident Evil’s mansion, and Resident Evil 0’s train as a distinctive and brilliantly designed environment. Otherwise I find these games to be unremarkable. Entertaining, but unremarkable.

Heavy Rain is very much the kind of game I like to play; it’s smart, interesting, different and highly focused. Cage might be a one-of-a-kind game director and thinker, and I do wish more developers paid attention to how he approaches his storytelling.

A wild success, building upon previous generic conventions to craft a highly satisfying experience. The elements of puzzle and platformer mesh so well that I have to wonder why other games aren't this good - X10 manages to make the impeccable mechanic and level design seem effortless.

With Resident Evil 7: Biohazard suggesting that the main entry games are again pivoting in a new direction, Capcom's re-rerelease of Revelations may be its way of showing fans that it's also committed to the "classic" Resident Evil formula with this side series. While the visuals have aged considerably in the short timeframe, the classic Resident Evil gameplay and feel is still there, complete with a bonkers B-grade storyline. I’d dare say that most Resident Evil fans have possibly found a way to have played this already, and there is really no incentive to come back for another round.

If you want an otome game that isn't quite as dense as Otomate's usual fare, you can't go wrong with Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly. Between the mysterious thriller at the game's heart and the romantic side stories, this is a game that kept me turning page after figurative page.

Fantastic. The Vorpal system is a clever twist on the format, adding a neat extra layer of strategy to the game, but it's the cast that really makes Under Night In-Birth stand out. There's so much love and creativity gone into the roster, and that, more than anything else, will make or break a fighting game.

Tropico 6 does provide the much-needed stepping stones to advance the series. For a series which often gets continued updates or DLC, Tropico 6 is also with with a long and exciting future ahead of it. The developer has indeed created what sets out to be the definitive version of Tropico, and while there may not be ground breaking adjustments to the core of the series, at its core the series doesn’t need to be something else. The enhancements to the strategy side of the game are welcome, but really, it's the return of the satire that makes Tropico 6 such a delight.

I can see now why Crisis Core is considered one of the best PSP titles and one of the finest Final Fantasy games ever made. It has been “blown up” and remastered for the PlayStation 5 to the point that it looks and feels like a native title, and has a rich and emotionally impactful narrative that, being entirely honest here, was well beyond what I was expecting. This is another feather in the cap for Square Enix, which has had one of its finest years ever.

John Wick Hex is a fascinating example of a developer making compromises in order to make the game fit with the license. Sometimes those compromises are quite substantial indeed. They also end up being a non-issue, however, because in delivering a true John Wick experience, Mike Bithell and his team have given us something intriguing that adds to the film property. That is a refreshing change when most licensed tie-in games simply look to capitalise on a popular thing to the profit of the developer. For something based on such an unapologetically dumb film property, there is some truly intelligent and thoughtful game design that went into the making of John Wick Hex.

The Vita has, much like the PSP before it, become a great home to offbeat JRPG experiences. Oreshika expertly blends a simulation experience with JRPG elements to create an entertaining experience with a few rough edges around the exploration and storyline. It has a unique flavour worth investing time into.

W.M.D is a fun game, loaded with tons of content that should keep Worm fans and newcomers alike very busy. The series still has that sense of humour that it is so well known, while constantly adding in new features to deepen the gameplay experience. This one, in particular, is a really well formed game, and deserves to be on high multiplayer rotation for a long time to come.

Lost in Random isn't a terribly long game. Even if you do keep the battles long by maintaining normal difficulty you can knock it off in around a dozen hours or so of gameplay time. By that stage, you probably won't find the combat as charming as you did when you first started, but you'll still want to see it to its conclusion, because the narrative and humour are so particularly strong.

I’m not the world’s biggest SHMUP fan, and I’m not great at the genre, so I struggled to get through Kamikaze Lassplanes. However, the entertaining visual novel side, along with some of the finest, most brazen fan service we’ve seen this side of Senran Kagura, kept me invested. This has been an interesting experiment. We probably won’t see another game quite like this for quite some time.

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.

While this game might have the look and feel of a "family friendly" shooter, the reality is that the people playing it are of a standard to make it one for the shooter veterans who want a change of scenery from the brown wasteland battlegrounds.

Frequently surprising, intense, and always sublime.

It’s more a concession to the fans who bought the first two on the Vita than anything else, I suspect, and I’d be surprised if Koei expected this to make any kind of money, but it is a good gesture by the company to allow us to finish our collection for Atelier games on the go.

There’s nothing particularly flashy or exciting about Sympathy Kiss. As a slice-of-life narrative, being mundane is kind of the point. With that said it is incredibly well-written and designed, and while the protagonist may or may not match up with your own vision of how to behave in the workplace, the situations she deals with are often very relatable. Thanks to some exceptionally gorgeous art, solid storytelling, and some fun little systems that remind us that life isn’t meant to be all about work, it also ends up being a game of relevance today, and a reminder that the equilibrium between work and play (let alone romance) has become seriously messed up.

I feel audiences will be alienated by the overwhelming focus on dying and starting over, but take out the death and what remains is a simple, lifeless game about cubes.

Inazuma Eleven is by no means a perfect game; I can't see any reason why it had to be touch screen controlled, nor is there any excuse for why the soccer action itself is so poor. But, as a sport-themed JRPG, it's a niche kind of game, but an entertaining one.

While I do think that Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is the most polarising Digital Eclipse museum experience so far, in terms of the quality of the games that are in it to play, I also think that it’s one of the most compelling experiences from a historical perspective. Who knows if we’ll ever have a series that has thrived this completely on notoriety again, and for that reason, this is a collection of curiosities that can’t be ignored.

The best art tells us something of relevance to the world around us. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is a dark and intense fantasy of ghosts, vengeance, and human resilience through the bleakest of nightmares. It’s unfortunate that it offers such a strong allegory to the real world, yet it does and that makes it all the more thought-provoking, however inadvertent it was for the developers. Thankfully it’s also exceptionally good to play, even as it challenges your intellect and moral core.

I can see myself replaying Crystalis at some point, and working at Athena until I do finally beat it, but for this collection to be really worth the price of admission, SNK needed to dip into its more recent history, and particularly the fighting game genre, where the company has a genuine leadership position. It didn't do that, so it's hard to shake the impression that you'd be better off with a couple of the dozens of Neo Geo Classics that are available as individual purchases on Switch.

The way the video game industry treats World War 2 is terrible. Headquarters: World War 2 is a good, fast-moving and tactically interesting strategy game. But it is yet again treading over the same selective memory of World War 2, and doing so without a critical or contemplative eye. As well-made as it is, it’s not really doing much to help it stand out from the million other WW2-based games where you get to shoot Nazis as American and British soldiers.

For people who didn't play through the DLC on the Wii U version, or want a portable version of Hyrule Warriors that doesn't feel like a one massive compromise after another, Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition is essential.

While the Nintendo Switch version of the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy may not look quite as dazzling as its counterparts, there’s no denying that it’s bolstered by being available on a portable system.