It´s a nice little time sink for a single player and a real blast in a group of friends or family. All of these games cater far more to the needs of the classic gamer than Wii Sports ever did and at the same time they manage to show of the capabilities of the new gamepad pretty well. It's not the revelation the Wii once was, on those first evenings after you brought it home. But its an endearingly crafted piece of quality software.

You'd have to have some pretty unhealthy attachment to these loony hares to get enjoyment out of this one. Because everyone else sees this as what it is: A collection of minigames which are average at best, hamstrung and held together by an overly dry board game concept - alone a torture, with friends just boring. If over the years the Rabbids were one big party for you, this is their get-out dance.

Nintendo crafts levels like no one else. They take their well-known motifs and themes and don't necessarily surprise you every time, but they always excel at reshaping them in a highly lovable and entertaining fashion. If that´s what you want out of New Super Mario Bros U, this is the best humanly possible result. That this might not be enough for some fans of the franchise speaks volumes about the three decades that princess spent in "another castle".

ZombiU is hardly everything it could have been. But it has to be commended for not reducing its gameplay to a handful of technical gimmicks. Its ideas are brave and while they tend to alternately make you love and hate the game, in the end they still make ZombiU a tense and worthwhile affair.

Who cares that some of the secondary activities are a terribly run-of-the-mill kind of affair? Between the skill tree, the unpredictably busy AI and the chaos nature tends to bring to the encounters you'll live through some of the most dynamic firefights in recent memory. It marries an immaculate stealth model, which couldn't work better if this was a third-person game, to a satisfying gunplay. A combination that will please more player types than Dishonored on the one hand and something like F.E.A.R. on the other ever could.

This won't have it all that easy to shine, being up against the likes of Sonic and Sackboy. Whose idea was it anyway, to release all these fun-racers so close to one another? Still, it is perfectly solid fun to zip around these nice tracks in little, stylized F1 Karts, even if it could have used more tracks and a few good ideas of its own.

The campaign has some weaknesses pertaining to the story and the maps, which are a bit too small for their own good. Also, I would have liked a few more clever kills and more options to follow through on my insidious plans. All in all, though, this is a typical Hitman game with quite some technical chops and solid gameplay.

Even with these upgrades, in 2012 the series' looks are not as cutting edge anymore as they were four or five years ago. Apart from the jump in resolution and performance you'd expect from a title geared towards gaming PCs, there's not much eye candy that would elevate this experience on the same level as other current PC titles. It still does look good, though, especially if the clouds open up and the sun bathes the detailed landscapes in warm light and stark shadows. And you should never underestimate how a game like this profits from the boost in pixel density and temporal resolution. It's still, in short, the best version of this game – if you're willing to hook up a gamepad to your machine.

This series has accompanied us through the better part of this past year, made us afraid, brought us close to tears and made us question why the hell we were even playing something this depressing. The Walking Dead's answer was one of the most striking ones of this generation of games: Clementine! She's that glowing light that pulls you through the harshest of tortures. She's the heart and soul of this remarkable little game. And when the lights go down on episode five, Lee finds the most sincere of words for her – speaking not his, but the players mind. That is, if you can bring yourself to utter them. What is it that he says? You should really find out for yourself.

In the end, for all its faults, this is still an easy to recommend package. 30 Euros for two very competent games that have aged well and without losing anything of their dashing, boosting and metal-disintegrating fascination.

LittleBigPlanet Karting is Sony's equivalent to Mario Kart's Wii-Version. Not bad by any means, but hamstrung by unbalanced extras and an all to conservative driving-model. With some friends, this is still a lot of fun, but special this one ain't.

No matter if you're six, 26 or 66 years old: Nobody likes a solo mode that's being sabotaged by the co-op game, and everyone can appreciate tight controls and a competent camera. It's basic things that this game just doesn't seem to be able to succeed at. Which is a shame, because creatively Epic Mickey 2 is a small wonder, be it in its imaginatively designed characters, its songs or its world designs.

I can look at it from any angle I want. I can detract that SEGA fan bonus, I can play this with people who have no idea what a Dreamcast is and this still is the pinnacle of what this sub-genre has to offer. Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed reaches new heights, challengingly smiling down on Mario Kart.

When they announced a Call of Duty for Vita, people probably hoped for some kind of system seller. What they got instead is a catastrophic failure of a game that might well prompt people to stay away from Sony´s portable altogether.

Puzzlingly, it seems there are more than enough people whose standards for entertainment are low enough that companies can make a lot of money with products like The Simpsons: Tapped Out. The problem is, that this takes away resources for the development of 'real games'. Economically, it might be a sound strategy, but it's also one that could conceivably prompt me to quit this job some day.

Even though its graphics engine won't win awards anymore, especially on PC, the game succeeds in finding its place in the upper echelons of multiplayer-shooting. If you're looking for a great offline experience, though, you might want to look somewhere else.

Halo 4 is something really special. Not only is it a first-rate exclusive for the good old 360, it's also a shining example of the kind of technical excellence that's still possible on the elderly hardware. It's one of these games that justify the decision to buy this console. 343 Industries has gone ahead and obliterated my qualms about the brand's change to another developer than Bungie. Now there's only one thing I want: More.

It gives me no pleasure to dismantle a game that many people fondly grew up on. But in case of the ToeJam & Earl collection none of the two titles has aged particularly well.

Karateka shouldn't cost 10 Euros, at least not in its current form, without any sort of challenge beyond the one it offers if you want to finish it with only one life. And even that isn't as challenging as it should be in such a short and completely linear experience devoid of any extras. Karateka is a game completely oblivious of its time and environment. Beautiful, fun even, for those few times you play it, but Karateka ultimately overstays its welcome all too quickly.

In keeping with its title, the steep learning curve is a form of natural selection of its own. If you're not willing or able to drop the badass space-marine demeanor you have been conditioned to adopt by other titles, you'll regularly play a huge part in the downfall of your team. At the same, it's a hugely satisfying experience to act as a well functioning military unit or monstrous collective. I'm sure this form of intergalactic Darwinism will continue to thrive in its own little biotope.

In essence, it's got quite a lot of things going for it as interesting spin-offs go. The hunt for experience points and the leveling up of your character can motivate for a while you if that sort of thing floats your boat. In that light, it really is a bit of a shame that WayForward didn't dare to go even deeper into the role playing aspects. It's a game trapped somewhere between looting and survival, the series' past and its own future.

In any case, the simple concept can be quite a bit of fun, which is in no small part thanks to the well-tempered difficulty curve. Still, it could be a lot better in many regards, which keeps this entry in the long running series from reaching the must-have status SEGA's monkeys once had among sociable Gamecube fans.

Even though it doesn't reach the class of Forza Horizon, Most Wanted is an open-world game in the truest of senses. You have to look for the fun to find it. But since there is so much entertainment scattered about Fairhaven, this should be no problem. Those wild and nerve-wrecking police pursuits alone, which regularly develop their own zany dynamics, would be a decent raison d'être for any racing game.

Let us hope that the next generation of consoles will bring back games enchanting and inventive like this one, marrying the joy of being different to the tradition of good, sturdy game design. Until that day, buy this one!

Delivering familiar goods is one thing, doing so with a constantly high quality another – but making basically the same game three times in a row is a whole different issue entirely. I won't complain too much, though, I greatly enjoyed the long hours leveling and exploring this revisited universe.

Chivalry: Medieval Warfare is up to a better start than War of the Roses. Torn Banner Studios have shunned any historical accuracy or character editing options, but their fighting system is easier to learn, while at the same time offering a surprising amount of depth. Dynamic rather than authentic, these skirmishes are much easier to enjoy.

Assassin's Creed 3 is a fitting end for the series and - to an extent - this generation of consoles as a whole. The characters and story are the strongest yet, but at the same time the game comes with all of the franchise's well-known strengths and weaknesses. So, even though this might just be the perfect finale, the next generation of assassins definitely will have to be more willing to refine the series' systems from the ground up. Then we'll happily listen to their brilliant stories some more.

Sometimes, videogames are thought of as a means of escapism into worlds and universes you always wanted to immerse yourself and spend your time in, but in reality never could. I truly hope I never encounter someone who thinks this way about Hotline Miami.