Everything there was minus the bugs. That has to be enough for one step up the score-ladder. Yes, but only because New Vegas doesn´t reduce itself to just more stuff, but also offers a high level of storytelling that even in RPGs can´t be found that often.

'Just one more dungeon!' – this is the sort of addictive game that gets a reviewer in trouble for not getting the article done in time.

It's a brilliant add-on, going in with a master surgeon's precision to subtly tweak and change the mechanics for maximum impact. More than ever, this is a Civ, where you want to preserve peace, all the while showing the rest of the world that your way of life is the best one.

It's the small insanities that elevate D4 to something truly special.

Wasteland 2 doesn't tell its grander story as thrillingly as its smaller ones, but Fargo's team hasn't forgotten a thing about designing RPGs. inXile delivers an utterly expansive, cozy and wonderfully deep apocalyptic adventure you kind of want to thank them for.

Doom remained young at heart. (...) Doom´s speed, the simple but highly energetic movement, its wicked and labyrinthine levels are something that no Call of Duty, no Halo, no Killzone, not even a RAGE can offer.

Telltale's nuanced characters are the reason that, as the Forresters mourn their lost lords, you feel right there, standing alongside them. I almost don't want to return to a TV Westeros, where these stalwart Stark bannermen don't exist.

At its price Mighty Switch Force is a real bargain and a must-have for every 3DS owner. Great visuals, flawless design and exiting stages.

This is the rare case of an archetypical PC game that hasn't lost any appeal in it's translation to console. Colour me impressed.

In the end, it's almost more down to the things 4A did to improve the gameplay that make this pleasantly different pair of shooters stand out in their Redux iteration.

Blizzard's team has done about everything right with Hearthstone. They took tried and tested pieces from other card games, found clever mechanisms to take away their weak spots and other frustrations and offer a strong and addictive free-to-play experience.

Torchlight 2 is the distillate of everything I have always liked about Diablo as a series. People who came to love Blizzard's hack and slash with its second iteration, Torchlight 2 might well be a better choice than Blizzard's own sequel.

Eight separate Storylines would be extraordinary for every singleplayer-game. Add to that the excellent dialogue and you have some real competition for World of Warcraft. Not bad for an MMO that young.

Even in writing this review I had to pause numerous times to play OlliOlli for just one more go.

It's the only RPG you'll need this winter and finally a worthy heir to Origins, last generation's best role-playing game.

Quarrel! is one of those games that comes from out of nowhere but instantly will keep you playing through a whole day without warning. It doesn´t matter if you compete against the AI or other players, Quarrel! turns out to be an intelligent and highly motivating challenge.

Undeniable technical difficulties aside, with a price tag of only 20 bucks nobody should miss out on State of Decay. It's easily one of the most complex and elaborately designed XBLA title to ever grace that service, so clever and mature I'm struggling to name another open world game that has felt this fresh in the last three years since Red Dead Redemption rode along.

Once again, it's quite beautiful how all the mechanics just snap into place like in a well-oiled machine. The new features integrate so seamlessly into the campaign that you'd be forgiven for thinking they had always be there. Most impressively, through this, XCOM gains breadth and depth without losing any of that infectious accessibility that made the main game such a hit.

You will turn and shift every new room like a child handling a new toy that still has that special fragrance of fresh plastic – the smell of birthdays and Christmases. One can easily forget what kind of arduous design-process must have been necessary to create this almost hypnotic and wondrous effect.

Prototype 2 is an extraordinary, mature action game. And bloody as hell to boot.

It relieves its predecessor from the position of being the best skill-based game on this platform with honors. And that is a remarkable trick in and of itself.

In this new iteration, Animal Crossing: New Leaf still may not be the most complex sim there is. But it has a special brand of charm that transforms even the most basic of activities, like sitting on a virtual bench, into a wonderfully soothing experience. This is why I love it.

Legend of Grimrock deserves candlelight and graph paper. Who knows how long it will take until someone will bridge the gap between an idealized past and the reality of now in such a wonderful way again; and if it will be in such an uncompromising and yet perfectly working way, as it was accomplished with Legend of Grimrock.

This double feature is one of the best games of this type and era...It's a revelation for everybody who was there when it first came out in the arcades and for those who just dream of simpler times. Better yet, Capcom didn't content themselves with forking it out for the sake of quickly getting another product on the market. They spent ideas, love and not least considerable resources to get this version right. You know what you're getting yourself into with a brawler like this. If that's what you're looking for, you can hardly do any better than with Chronicles of Mystara.

It took Ubisoft some time and Assassin's Creed 4 hasn't totally freed itself from all its past sins, but the fourth numbered entry in the series managed to capture me from start to finish, thoroughly entertaining me, wrapping me up in the engaging, often truly joyful proceedings.

It might be more of an ugly duckling than the console versions were, but this is still the zombie-survival game we've been waiting for all these years. It's not perfect, and sure as hell not an ageless beauty, but in breadth and depth utterly fresh and fully engaging. One of the most pleasant surprises of the year.

Dressed up for the present, old strengths preserved, a perfectly executed balance of trash and elegant horror shooter. Resident Evil 4 is still the most straight-up fun outing in the series.

It's the best form a Gran Turismo can take and could be a fitting conclusion to 15 years of Real Driving Simulation. Now, the only thing that has to happen is for the "Driving" part of this equation to evolve into "Racing".