One of the most technically accomplished games around, Just Cause 2 succeeds in delivering both the best-looking and most pleasant open world to explore and some of the most thrilling and diverse ways of moving through it. Its thrills are intense and, for the first few hours, come fast and dizzying, dulling only when you start to see the dry order that lies behind the chaos.

It is, simply, just about the best version of just about the best logic puzzle out there. [JPN Import]

The structure itself is brilliant, but within it is nothing more than the padding of a relentless succession of ultimately quite simple challenges that you soon tire of.

One of the game's greatest strengths though is quite simply the Pacific Theatre setting - there is next to no competition here, and the game does a lot to teach you how it feels to turn in for that critical run at the enemy carrier.

Much-improved this time around, the only things I can hold against it are the car's questionable propensity to stick to the track even when you steer it markedly off-course, and the rather sizeable learning curve for newcomers.

We haven't played a more atmospheric single or multiplayer tactical action game since "SWAT3," and despite its shortcomings there is still nothing that comes close to rivalling it for sheer breathe-down-your neck tension.

Like the Opera browser, 42 All-Time Classics is a software package, and a brilliant one, the perfect match for its format and the perfect Christmas present for a Mum who's finally bored of Brain Training. More than that, it's so adaptable, so sociable, so easy to enjoy in any situation (over lunch, between train stops, with your least favourite uncle) that it's nothing less than an essential component of any DS library.

The audio doesn’t live up to the visuals. Digitised audio has been a standard fixture of SF titles for years, but the infamous “Hadoken!” and “Shoryuken!” are both scratchily rendered for SFA3, and the music isn’t much better.

Like most puzzle games, it's all in the gameplay, and Puzzle Fighter's model is more imaginative and works a lot better than most of the others we've seen lately.

It all adds up to the strongest expansion in the relaunched series, across both Fallout 3 and New Vegas.

First-person shooter design has reached an evolutionary ceiling and desperately needs some mutant DNA to push it onwards and upwards. Resistance 3 could have provided that genetic jolt; but Insomniac has chosen to look back to how we used to play rather than grapple with how we could play in the future. As understandable as it is, that cautious approach results in a game that is extremely enjoyable, but never as imaginative as you want it to be.

It's in the myriad ways you can decimate your attackers that the game's appeal lies, and the improvements made here have only made that pleasure more intense. While Orcs Must Die 2 still has balancing issues, they're more than outweighed by the sheer pleasure of the minute-by-minute gameplay, where calculated carnage is its own reward.

Octopath Traveler is the kind of game that gets hand-waved aside as being for "the old school", but that's to overlook its charismatic innovations in battle and the curious, detached, even austere construction of its narrative. [Recommended]

As a result of all this, despite its often glacial pace, Triangle Strategy is a dramatic, often engrossing tale of medieval conflict - and one that can sit proudly next to the games that inspired it. [Eurogamer Recommended]

This compilation captures Ratchet & Clank at their innovative, genre-bending best. Great games at a great price make for a compelling if disappointingly businesslike package. If you have any fondness for the platforming genre, you owe it to yourself to sample this greatest hits compilation from arguably the last worthy faces to grace the genre.

If anything, Land-A Panda could have probably benefitted from cranking up the evil earlier on. For the first 20-odd levels, it's all a bit of a foregone conclusion.

The iOS is hardly short of inventive platformers, but this one certainly ranks as one of the freshest and most engaging to emerge for some time.

IT'S LESS THAN AN HOUR LONG.

This is, above all else, a supremely confident game: confident in its charm, in its challenges, and in its unique identity. If you thought Braid gave puzzle-platformers a soul, this one is all about personality.

This narrative-driven dice game from Cosmo D is packed full of his signature visual and musical motifs, and loosely picks up your pizzaiolo/secret agent journey from 2020's Tales From Off-Peak City Vol. 1. [Eurogamer Recommended]

It has the de rigueur iOS mission structure - complete x number of objectives to increase your crab rank - and power-ups to spend your in-game coins on, but the joy of Crabitron is in just grabbing a claw or two and making a big old mess.

Instantly captivating and perpetually playful, this whimsical romp across a world of paper lanterns is utterly enchanting.

The impenetrable story makes it a no-go for younger gamers who might be more willing to forgive its adolescent excesses. But for the twenty-six, twenty-eight, thirty-year-olds who it's aimed at, the game has little to offer beyond polished sentimentality.

With well-considered new features, glorious artwork and fantastic music, it demonstrates Funcom's design and art teams firing on all cylinders, building on the work done by the technical team in bringing the game up to scratch over the past two years.

Its purity of concept could be taken as wilful obscurity, original to a fault, but Starseed Pilgrim also has a system worth mastering, and a mystery worth pursuing.

While on the surface of it Darksiders feels like a game with a lot of good ideas but only a few of its own, where even a brief flying section on an angelic mount owes rather a lot to Panzer Dragoon, overall the silly old story and wonderful art style give terrific heft to the universe, and the clockwork of the puzzles and game systems are precision-engineered in a manner that you come to trust implicitly.

Starfield pairs near-impossible breadth with a classic Bethesda aptitude for systemic physics, magnetic sidequests, and weird vignettes. But in sacrificing direct exploration for the sake of sheer scale, there's nothing to bind it together.

iOS has got the version of Clash of Heroes that it deserves, rather than the one that it's capable of.

It feels great, but it also looks amazing - it drives home the fantasy of being a quick-witted thief in a way that no Hollywood cut-scene ever could.

Enjoy the artful approach to science-fiction, enjoy the hoops Supergiant's jumped through to position you in the right place to engage with its combat, and you can even enjoy the very fact that the game often struggles to get its deeper messages across. After all, if the developer had something straightforward to say, it might not have had to make a game in the first place.

What you're buying into is a fantastic celebration of a timeless classic, and one that does something genuinely interesting with the gameplay to make it relevant now. The problem is, basically, is that it's been put in totally the wrong price bracket for what is an impulse buy. A curiosity.

Moss: Book 2 is without a doubt a game that deserves to be played, especially if you fell in love with the original. Its staggering beauty is reason enough to dust off your PSVR for one last adventure before the PSVR 2 comes out, even if I wouldn’t blame you for holding out in the hope of a PC VR or Quest release - or some kind of bundle for the launch PSVR 2. Both Moss games are as short and sweet as their mousey protagonist, but I feel like Quill is worthy and capable of going on an even more epic adventure. [Eurogamer Recommended]

This is undeniably still a good, enjoyable and very pretty game. Nevertheless, at this time, from this developer, Eurogamer won't be alone in mourning the fact it's not nearer a perfect, staggering and beautiful one instead.

During its best moments, it feels like something we might have been given by the Assassin's Creed team if they'd grown up immersed in the works of Steve Ditko rather than Umberto Eco: a hard-edged pulp adventure where your tools are perfectly matched to your missions. If the original game gave Cole a purpose, this one provides a little personality to go with it.

The puppies are astonishingly realistic, and very easy to become attached to. This in itself makes for an incentive to keep on playing the game day after day, but there's also the fact that there are so many funky items (oh, how we long for the pirate hat) and different breeds (oh, how we long for the Shetland sheepdog) to collect.

It plays it a little safe in places and lacks a truly killer single-player mode, but by broadening the versatility of the tag system while dramatically improving the online functionality, Namco has crafted a new teamwork seminar that builds upon the original in almost all the areas that matter.

Sure, some of Codies tactics in 'going mainstream' are a tad irksome, but in the main the game succeeds by not only being exceptionally good fun to play, but being unquestionably one of the finest looking racing games on the market too.

The game's watered-down nature is likely to appeal to those of a casual gaming disposition looking for a quick game on the commute to work - but if you're hoping to carry around the FM experience you know and love in your pocket, be prepared to be left feeling slightly underwhelmed.

The single player portion, while never less than hugely entertaining, stops short of true greatness thanks to a few fundamental design shortcuts which offer easy health restoring concepts seemingly at the expense of balanced AI. Some of this is irrelevant in the online mode, and the profound implications of a massively destructible environment make it a unique proposition in online gaming right now - albeit a riotous chaotic one.

Broken Mirror certainly addresses all the major complaints directed towards Omega Dawn, although by giving the APC so many tactical advantages Incog may have created a monster.

If you're an RPG fan of any kind, you'll love Knights of Pen & Paper. It's one of those rare cases where an offbeat premise is executed with such winning aplomb you can't help but get sucked in.

An artful puzzle platformer that'll stay with you long after its short running time. [Eurogamer Recommended]

The fact that games hell-bent on breaking all the rules appear to be showing up on an increasingly regular basis across multiple download channels is genuinely heart-warming.

The way the game utilises the controller is beautiful and - as ever - the humour superb, yet it's a game short on long-term appeal because it never really dares to test players.

A perfectly horrid, wonderfully thought-out mixture of Majora's Mask-style time rewinding and Metroidvania exploration. [Recommended]

A mixture of good and bad. On one hand it's the finest, most complete and visually fulfilling game the series has ever enjoyed, but on the other it contains so many niggles you'll feel irritated almost as often as you feel elated. The good news is that a patch has been promised soon after release, but in the meantime we have no choice but to mark it down accordingly.

It starts with a bump, but played the right way, V Rising offers riches few other crafting survival games can match.

Even though there is nothing new or truly unique about Torchlight, nothing at all, that it so confidently and prettily takes the fight to Blizzard is an enormous compliment about how well put-together this is.

Gameplay wise, I think it's a marked improvement over FIFA 18. I love the new modes, the new quality of life touches and even tiny changes such as being able to quickly sort cards you get from packs.

An exceptionally fun game to play - the fight model is spot-on (entertainment wise), and the missions and storyline are both sufficiently interesting to keep the player involved in the action.

It takes a tried, tested, and thoroughly flogged old genre and injects some more speed and ingenuity into it, and there's a heck of lot of replay value here, even if the game's levels can probably be beaten in a few hours.

Rayman 3 neither comes close to toppling the mighty Mario games, nor gives a compelling argument for the merits of cross console link-up gaming, but platform addicts will be well served. The more demanding gamer won’t be.

You can't escape the technical limitations, the little niggles, the frustration of having to start over every time your flick-and-tap skills desert you, and having to perform that boot-up sequence every single time, and the stupidity of Daytona-level pop-up in an Xbox-exclusive game.

If you live in actual London, however, your cartridge doesn't come with London Life. Japan, North America, and Australia get this rather huge bonus; the U.K. and the rest of Europe don't. It's the kind of tedious, infuriating localisation strategy that Nintendo still holds over from the 8-bit era, when it was possible to keep people on distant shores from knowing they were getting the short end of the stick.

The puppies are astonishingly realistic, and very easy to become attached to. This in itself makes for an incentive to keep on playing the game day after day, but there's also the fact that there are so many funky items (oh, how we long for the pirate hat) and different breeds (oh, how we long for the Shetland sheepdog) to collect.

But these are small things to get annoyed about in a game that's filled with so many other small things that have been included just to make you laugh, or to surprise you, or to make you think back to a comic book story you haven't thought about in 30 years.

The true sequel to the best-loved contemporary JRPG is unrestrained in its ambition, and the result is a chaotic kind of brilliance. [Recommended]

But let's not get carried away. Let's remember that one secret to WOW's success has always been its ability to modernise while staying true to itself, and never pretending to be anything other than the consummate old-school MMO. You can't have a dramatic reversal of fortune when you've actually had 16 years of consistent and smooth progress. You can't call it a comeback when you've always been the king. [Eurogamer Recommended]

Despite improvements in areas like rain effects and bystander depiction, the Gmotor engine is beginning to look rather tired. Crude shadowing and reflections, primitive vegetation modelling, deserted pit lanes... none of this stuff matters that much when weighed against the superlative handling models, strong audio, decent AI, and robust MP, but it does mean I can't bring myself to award this very fine racing game more than a Nascar-mocking 8.

Maybe, of course, I'm not giving the game enough credit. Or, to put it another way, am I critiquing the game when I should be critiquing myself? This is a generous, elegant, efficient tactics game that I still take great pleasure from, that I can still lose hours and hours to, and it's also one which, if you step back, absolutely allows you to realise that you're frequently doing ugly things beneath a cheery facade. This might be another layer of its design. When are things ever simple? Maybe, this is a complex game that a person can meet on a number of levels, and the levels change as the person does. [Eurogamer Recommended]

Nit-picking aside, Senseless Acts Of Justice is another harrowingly accurate exploration of the eccentric, perverted, vomiting British psyche. This is less of a game, more of a documentary.

There's undeniable satisfaction in combining to undo a tough defence and seeing those points totals totting up, and in some respects this is the best mode in the game, because playing together towards a long-term goal heightens the fun and drama.

Gravity Rush's mission structure may not be all that special - it's basically follow the waypoint, collect this, fight that - but the place you're exploring definitely is, and the way you get around that place is even better still.

It's the closest many of us will likely get to genuinely exploring unknown territory.

Frozen Wilds' wintry wasteland looks awe-inspiring, but its story breeds the same disappointment as a melted snowman on Christmas morning.

Inevitably, the lack of meat on the bones is Dragon Sword's major failing, coupled with the fact that the combat descends into repetitive scribbling after a short while, lacking the kind of long-term depth that makes the game's parent offerings so revered.

It's playful, subversive, irreverent and, at times, impudent, revealing a darker, more left-field side to Nintendo that increasingly stays hidden. Let it out, we say. Let it out.

If you're not someone who gets too existential about the games they play, then step right up.

As games steadily become more ingratiating, Team Ninja offers you an increasingly rare prospect: the chance to truly master something brutal.

So while it never becomes particularly difficult, it remains constantly interesting, bursting with personality and a desire to be incredibly silly.

While Contra 4 is, at its core, a great 2D shooter that's refreshingly difficult, there are too many places where it stays true to its past in the face of innovations that could only make it a better, more accessible game.

Legends should only grow in their retelling, and with 30th Anniversary Collection and Digital Eclipse's fine work Street Fighter has never stood taller. [Recommended]

The game has an elegant simplicity when set against the intrinsic fussiness of the Guitar Heroes and Rock Bands of the world.

The studio's happy knack for punting out charming little retro platformers continues with this moving tale about a monster and his desire to digest big-headed baby boys.

It's sad to have to say that, since we still think Nintendogs is an amazing achievement and a great game - it's just not a great game for very long. In other words, if you're a grown-up, if there are limits to your patience and your time, and if you want a game that's not just for Christmas, it's probably not a good idea to pick Nintendogs.

A witty and smitten recreation of a time gone by, which you'll forgive tedium if you share in the nostalgia. [Eurogamer Recommended]

This wealth of variety and reward structure is carefully considered, but ultimately it won't help the final outcome - you're either going to love The Sims, or you're going to hate it.

While it acts like a pre-order incentive, in actual fact, playing the Creature Creator, it absolutely justifies itself. Even if you never plan to play Spore, it's absolutely essential you play this.

This is more than just a museum piece for today's JRPG fan. The speed of the gameplay is in stark contrast to today's lumbering epics, something that suits and shines on the GBA.

A fast-paced arcade game with the soul of a puzzler. [Eurogamer Recommended]

On top of all this timeless goodness, the icing on the cake is the remodelled, sharpened-up graphics (with character art from Udon Comics), new special effects, online play in every mode, some evil achievements to go for, and, of course, online leaderboards.

Inspired as much by Pokémon Go as it is Breath of the Wild, Pokémon Legends: Arceus is flimsy and compulsive - and exhilaratingly new. [Eurogamer Recommended]

The selection is definitely more hit than miss, although there are a few stinkers.

Alan Wake is an accessible, undemanding game with a neat combat mechanic and decent visuals. It's just not a very original game, it's certainly not an exceptional one, and it's a shame it wasn't ready a few years ago.

With its high-chaos, high-comedy firefights, Helldivers 2 is a riot to play with friends – although its launch has been hampered by persistent matchmaking and progression problems.

Inkle mixes archive-surfing and audio drama to create a surprisingly powerful story of obsession and a machine.

Switching effortlessly between sadistic punishment and boundless freedom, VVVVVV provides more moment to moment pleasure in its scant two or three hour campaign than most games do at four times the length.

Stylish and punishing, this is a darkly compelling treat. [Eurogamer Recommended]

The reason this game and its predecessors perch atop their genre is they make every sweet passing move, crisply negotiated corner and shaved second feel like a podium finish.

Mortal Kombat 1 envisions an exciting future with fluid combat, a fantastic story mode, and superb visuals - but receding features, underbaked mechanics, and a dated online experience keep it in the past.

It's far removed from everything else on the system, and still just as mischievous and entertaining as it was a year ago. The dialogue is full of life, the missions make you laugh out loud and the whole thing is infused with wayward, playful charm.

An ingenious puzzle-platformer that takes players from a children's book and out into the wider world around it.

Disgaea 2 is a deep and flexible game and should it get its hooks in you will lose your mind to it. That fact alone begs the question: why reinvent?

Dust does many things well, but it doesn't do anything brilliantly. The combat's decent, the structure invites the revisiting of old areas, and the narrative stays interesting. Taken together, these things are enough to keep you plugging away till the end.

While platforming, rhythm, and navigation mechanics might clash at times, turning the map upside down reveals a game that puts all in service of nature and experience.

The acute sense of excitement and precision in combat of the "Halo" games is absent, likewise the intensity of being in a firefight delivered by "Battlefield 2." All the explosions and laser-fire feel a lot like window-dressing, even if the game does have some attractive scenery.

Great tactical fun nestled in a sweet-natured superhero dollhouse.

Grounded's charming, Honey I Shrunk the Kids premise is elevated by its uniquely welcoming approach to wonder. [Eurogamer Recommended]