As a single player game, Dead Island delivers a meaty experience that lasts absolutely ages, and the first person zombie adventure is an excellent pastime. However, the overall enjoyment is slightly marred by the fact that the online coop is infested with bugs.

Grasshopper Manufacture manages to both astound and repulse in this pseudo sequel to the monumental Killer 7. With a rather strange story written by Suda51, clever and quick combat designed to actually challenge players on the higher difficulties and a distinct visual style - Killer is Dead is a unique, well-crafted game. Unfortunately, much of it falls flat due to a clearly misogynistic worldview. It's a shame, since Killer is Dead is one of the technically finer products from the studio.

The numerous little swarmites are a joy to control as a swarm and manage to entertain even when they die - which they do a lot. Yes, there is more than a hint of Lemmings in this game, but then again there's nothing wrong with that.

New Art Academy is a good tutorial for aspiring artists, or for portable drawing. With well-presented, educational tutorials, it's a good pick up that features a comprehensive journey through multiple disciplines and art styles, although with a very small screen.

Puzzle Dimension is a beautiful puzzle game where you guide a marble around in a three dimensional labyrinth. The gameplay is good but perhaps a bit too repetitive to be truly great. The PSN version surprisingly lacks online leaderboards, an omission that also subtracts from the overall impression.

Mario will always be Mario, but the constant coin-chasing has ironically enough led to some inflation. It's a great game, but we won't remember it as one of those immortal Mario classics.

Starvoid manages to offer that quick and sweet multiplayer-RTS fix for those of us that lack the time or dedication to go for the more hardcore alternatives. What it lacks in game modes and levels, it compensates for with a deep customization system, but what seems to be a very small player base may in the end render the game more void than starlike.

The game bravely follows in the steps of XCOM and quite successfully mixes economic management with tactical turn based combat in a well-made mobster setting. Although without any real problems, Omerta: City of Gangsters still manages to come off a bit bland due to its excess in variation and lack of depth.

Despite being priced as an expansion, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II - Retribution delivers a full experience with a solid campaign. However, at the moment the multiplayer leaves much to be desired, with poor architecture and weak matchmaking.

Last year I raved over Madden NFL 11 and loved most of the features in the game. This year is either a transition year with small adjustments or my great score from 2010 was a product of my absence from the series for over ten years. If you are a hard core NFL fan that craves every small adjustment Madden NFL 12 may be for you but the rest of us can wait for a price drop or just go and play Madden NFL 11.

Blacklist feels like Splinter Cell Conviction 2.0, which is not necessarily a bad remark. A few bugs and a less-than-interesting story chases away the top score. Nice split screen action and a sound that makes for a thick atmosphere keep it above average even though Sam Fisher himself is boring beyond belief for a character with at least six game titles to his name.

Rift is probably the most stable and solid MMO ever to launch, and includes most of the functions you've grown accustomed to during the evolution of World of Warcraft. It's polished, has a lot of content and rich lore, but yet doesn't manage to feel unique or for lack of a better term, good.

As an unusually cute twin-stick shooter, Gatling Gears offers a lot of fun despite a general lack of originality. Co-op adds to the fun as always but there are enough smaller annoyances to make the 1200 point pricetag feel a bit high.

Burning Skies has many flaws, make no mistake about it. But despite all these flaws I've had quite a lot of fun with the game and I'll probably return to it many times, especially for the multiplayer.

Stoked: Big Air Edition may have been deleloped some time ago, but it's still a good game. And even though it took closer to 18 months for it to arrive in Sweden we're still having fun with it, thanks to its size and low price.

Taking inspiration from games such as the Call of Duty-series, this is less of a flight simulator and more of an action game played in the air, and is all the better for it. The somewhat tedious flight missions are mixed up with much more entertaining helicopter-missions and the online modes for both competition and co-op work well.

The single player campaign is not the strongest out there, and lacks intelligent AI and an abundance of tactical options. Coop and multiplayer has a satisfying focus on teamwork, which is refreshing in a genre where most players only aim for a high kill/death ratio. Zipper Interactive haven't forgotten their core fans, and the Pro-mode is a good way to please long time SOCOM players.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem delivers exactly what it should, and is yet another challenging puzzle games for the Nintendo DS. Fun and well made, but without much innovation.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is an ambitious and good looking game, and if you're into more action packed role playing games you'll find a lot to like here. The sense of freedom is a bit of an illusion though, and the linear layout is a bit of a shame. But as long as you're aware of this you'll have a good time in Amalur.

More a missed opportunity than anything else, The Unfinished Swan is a pleasant fairytale story with a some good ideas and one or two magic moments. In the end though it is easy to come away with the feeling that this was a brief and very linear experience that just hinted at something that could have been truly great.

Q-Games latest release, PixelJunk 4am, is a masterfully crafted visual music painting tool. At best, it's an interesting experiment, meant for chilling out on the sofa. At worst, it's just a tech demo. Baiyons music is good and well suited for the activities, but buyer beware – it's nowhere near a game.

The concept in Rock of Ages shows a great potential, but humour and polish only takes you so far. After that the game mechanics really have to shine through, which happens quite frequently. But it could absolutely do more.

The shift mechanic is the real star here, and transforms even the most ordinary sequences into thrilling race experiences. But there are flaws, such as logical mis-steps in the storyline and generic presentation. They don't matter too much though, especially in the multiplayer mode.

Thieves in Time resembles a mini game collection made for PlayStation 2. The rough graphics, ridiculously long loading times and at times tedious platforming moments are justified by a well told story and lovingly created mini games.

Capcom has made a flawless emulator for the 80’s arcade games where you can choose for yourself which games you want to include in the collection. If you have fond memories of any of the games in Capcom Arcade Cabinet I recommend you to buy that title individually though, as some of the games haven’t aged well and are way too hard and monotone to be worth your time. Also the price is a bit steep.

If you're playing alone you probably will be disappointed with Darkspore's storytelling, all grinding and the enormously slow start of the game. With some friends it'll be much better, and with a lot of configuration possibilities, over 100 monsters to collect and entertaining action battles which requires some strategic planning, this is an excellent adventure while you're waiting for Diablo III.

ShootMania is a difficult game to rate. The pre-made game modes that come packed with the game are kind of disappointing and not that fun to play. At the same time, the tools for creating own content such as new game modes, maps and weapons are fantastic in every way, and gives us players everything that is necessary to create splendid game-play in an entertaining way. If you like creating or modifying things, this is the game for you. If you just want a good shooter game on the other hand, you should probably wait and see if the community will create any amazing game modes before you buy ShootMania Storm.

Despite being a fun game, it's obvious that Kinect Sports: Season 2 contains both good and bad sports. Hopefully Rare will actually learn from their mistakes in future and have activities that are optimal for the motion controls, instead of just glancing at their competitors.