It's natural. It's eternal. It's unnaturally natural. It's the game that someone, something, will be playing somewhere when the sun explodes. It's Tetris.

It's not quite brilliant, and we particularly mourn the apparently stillborn online racing, but there's more than enough here to justify the asking price, and exploring it all is a consistently pleasurable experience, which should have considerable appeal for GT's ardent supporters and satisfy the curiosity of the rapidly-growing PS3 installed base at the same time.

Come for the virtual tourism and stay for a deliriously satisfying battle system. [Eurogamer Recommended]

Natural Selection 2 is a fresh and wonderfully unique multiplayer game which simultaneously struggles with that very mantle. Because it's unfamiliar, players aren't able to just slip into it, and there is a significant knowledge gap between a new player and an old.

It may be messy and clunky from time to time along the way, but Fable III is only guilty of indulging its designers' whim at the expense of necessary polish, and in the royal scheme of things it's a crime you're happy to pardon. Many more RPGs will follow between now and whatever Lionhead does next with the series, but few if any will possess half as much heart, and most importantly, whatever else they have to offer, none will have Albion.

Riot Games delivers a masterclass in competitive integrity, soulless precision and zealous, life-consuming obsession. [Eurogamer Recommended]

This is still a fantastic idea, realised with charm and passion - and with the reality of the gameplay now much closer to the fantasy being sold, it's an easy recommendation for parents warily eyeing those Christmas lists.

Poorly upscaled visuals and a price wholly out-of-step with what you'd expect.

It's amusingly offbeat in places, but I can't help suspecting that the D&D hardcore will be deeply dissatisfied with Atari's offerings, at least until Dungeons & Dragons Online turns up.

Gravity Rush seemed like an oddity on Vita, but then, the entire Vita was an oddity, wasn't it? On the radio friendly unit shifter that is the PS4, however, Gravity Rush 2 still seems wonderfully unlikely and out of place. What a strange delight. [Recommended]

This is really a release made for, and by, Castlevania fans. If you don't think much of the series, this isn't going to change your mind.

In terms of scale, it barely comes up to Battlefield's ankles, and in terms of tactics and tension it can't beat Counter-Strike, but once you've spent a few hours on a server of 20 or so people, you'd have to want not to enjoy it to fail to - and your own war stories are an inevitable byproduct.

Pokémon Sword and Shield add some brilliant new creatures, but like their gargantuan Dynamax forms, the games feel like a hollow projection.

Battlefield 2142 may be a glimpse of the future of games. I'm just not sure that I like it.

It can't engage and enchant groups in the way Wii Fit does, nor does it attempt to. But as I said the first time around, if you are serious about improving your fitness levels and have neither the inclination nor the funds to join a gym, Active is currently the best of its kind

There's no sense of urgency or pressure to break the mood. It's a game that invites you to wallow in its languid depths, wriggle your toes, stretch your brain a little and take in the view.

It might be a little cruel to pick apart World of Tanks like this while it's still in beta, but Wargaming.net is nevertheless charging people for a boxed copy. Still, the game is progressing well and constantly seeing new maps and new tanks added, with a whole slew of French units soon to be released.

Easy to sum up: Game isn't finished.

The best Star Wars action game we've played since "Rogue Leader," delivering the sort of galactic conflicts we've long marvelled on the big-screen in a balanced and inviting manner that continually satisfies.

What they've conjured up in their debut effort is a remarkable achievement. Before downsizing, Criterion created some of the last generation's very best arcade racers in Hot Pursuit and Burnout Paradise. Ghost Games has carried on that torch and crafted a racer that any of its competitors would do well to match in the new generation.

And there's the trade-off: the tight, narrative flow of Chaos Rising may be gone, but in its place, there's enormous diversity, and more toys than you could possibly hope for in a £20, standalone expansion.

Broken down into its base mechanics, Spirits probably doesn't sound especially exciting, but in practice, its charming hand-drawn aesthetic and calming pace make it a perfect game to unwind to on a lazy Sunday.

Regardless of whether you've played a Virtua Tennis game or not, this is one of those games that no self-respecting gamer should miss out on, because not only is it the best tennis game on the market, it's also one of the best sports games ever made, full stop.

The game's brevity is a positive, ensuring Bit Trip Beat burns brightly without having to grind on after it's extinguished its best ideas. The result is a brisk, radiant creation, presenting a nostalgic celebration of the medium's beginnings as well as a bold testament to how those narrow compulsions that inspired people to play videogames thirty years ago are, in fact, timeless.

Not a bad package, really, just not a great one. It's never going to trouble the likes of "Super Mario World" or "Yoshi's Island" in the sheer artistry and quality of gameplay stakes, at least not in this reviewer's book.

Even at 800 Microsoft points (so, six-quid-eighty), it offers a lot of value compared to some of its fellow test-subjects, and while it does occasionally frustrate or bore, the urge to keep going remains.

A masterful sequel to one of the genre's most beloved games, but it carries an ink stain that's hard to ignore.

Conquest isn't just that rare Pokémon off-shoot that isn't a limping abomination - it's a reminder that the best consoles don't slip into the night very quietly. They stick around, defiantly showing up the machines that have replaced them.

A true step forward for open-world gacha games, Infinity Nikki finally brings some much needed competition to the miHoYo monopoly.

Arcade elegance meshes perfectly with a glorious wilderness. [Eurogamer Recommended]

I'm completely in love with Trauma Centre: Second Opinion. It's urgent, tense, dramatic, unique, extremely difficult and surprisingly varied, an excellent Wii game and an excellent puzzle game. For anyone suffering from scepticism and uncertainty about the validity of the Wii's control system and doubting developers' abilities to create games to live up to its potential, Trauma Centre: Second Opinion is the perfect remedy.

My daughter played Happy Action Theater for about three hours when we first downloaded it. We had to drag her away. She shows it off to her friends, who are equally enchanted by it. She now asks to play it after school rather than watch TV.

Tooth and Tail is a deft and minimalist RTS that's slick as a knife through the ribs. [Recommended]

This might be the most gripping tactics title I've played in getting on for a decade.

It's a different game without being a different game. Enjoyable without being extraordinary.

Embark Studios' multiplayer shooter dazzles in the moment, but its AI voices are symptomatic of a broader issue with artistic vision.

The multiplayer is worryingly addictive too. Rounds last anything from minutes to hours depending on the quality of the players involved, and things can get very strategic.

With the gameplay mechanics reduced to a largely predictable run of conversations and (in)appropriate use of objects, The City That Dare Not Sleep feels stuck in a rut much of the time.

If Revengeance didn't have camera issues this would be the easiest 10 I've ever given. As things stand it's still brilliant, staking out new territory in the genre and adapting certain Metal Gear characteristics so well that it makes the competition look outrageously bad. This is simply the ultimate one-man show, worth its ticket price many times over, an experience that improves exponentially as it gets faster and as you get better.

Almost every area of the game can be customised in line with your tastes to the extent that, if you ask nicely, Tiger will probably even dress up as Sailor Moon and call you Susan.

A beautifully crafted side-scroller with a restless puzzle imagination.

If you already own SoulCalibur IV and aren't interested in a portable version then Broken Destiny is hard to recommend, because you're essentially buying the same game. But much like Link in the Gamecube version of SoulCalibur II, the inclusion of Kratos will be hard for fighter fans to pass up.

But however good a game this may be, it's still left falling off the shoulders of a true giant, and even without online play and custom soundtrack options "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004" still hits the clubhouse well ahead of its rival.

Pokémon's Switch debut deftly toes the line between returning fans and all-new ones, with a few small wobbles along the way. [Eurogamer Recommended]

It probably won't finish on many best-of-the-year lists, but if our experience is anything to go by then Lock's Quest will live long in any DS cartridge slot.

Combat and RPG progression get an ingenious social twist in this disarming slice of fantasy.

It's a familiar mix of wonder and frustration, and it's eclipsed by Monolith's more intoxicating vision of the JRPG's future. The end result is a tale that's worth hearing out, but hard to hold dear.

You can't fault the craft of this painstaking remaster, and the game itself still has an ornery magnetism - but Diablo 2 is showing its age.

An already sterling fighter gets a new coat of paint and a few new tricks. It's not revolutionary, but it's the best Nidhogg has ever been. [Recommended]

Lego City Undercover isn't ceaselessly brilliant - open-world games seldom are - but it's a fantastic example of what makes Traveller's Tales and TT Fusion such special developers, and the worst I can say is that it's occasionally only fun. And you know what? I'll take that wherever I can find it.

Daredevilry is exactly what this astonishing shooter delivers.

Does all the boring, difficult parts of RPG game design very well, and marries them to exceptionally slick combat and a towering stack of stuff to do. This well-oiled machine keeps you motoring through all the sludgy fantasy cliché and through a sluggish first act. Then - just as the world opens out and the story picks up traction - that motor really starts to sing. That's when a solid, workmanlike game becomes one that's virtually impossible to put down.

At its best SBD's blend of twitch-platforming and stealth puzzles produces little rat-runs with a nigh-on perfect balance of action and tension. Such quality isn't quite sustained across the whole, but this is still within touching distance of greatness, and certainly much classier than Tactical Espionage Arsehole suggests.

Unless you're in a hurry or you plan to buy both games eventually anyway, you're better off waiting for Rock Band 2.

Bleak realism meets absurdist fairytale in a stylish, surreal, and astonishingly surefooted - if mechanically unadventurous - exploration of faith, free will, and demonic temptation.

Valkyrie Profile Lenneth is exactly that - wholly distinct from the rest of the crowd, a niche within a niche, marvellously thought out and mostly brilliantly executed. If there were other comparably innovative and inventive Japanese RPGs to set this against, then its flaws might cause it to be judged more severely. But it stands alone, a rare original expression of Japanese role-playing individuality.

For a while, Papa Sangre is a wonderful novelty. Unfortunately, the further you get, the more trial-and-error annoyance starts to put a crimp on your enjoyment.

Where Arzest failed, HAL has triumphed: Kirby might be a little late to the party, but he's arrived laden with treats.

With a comprehensive array of multiplayer modes adding plenty of dogfighting action to the fray, this is well worth checking out, if inessential for the committed veterans.

Despite some familiar trappings and a shortage of genuine wonders, Age of Wonders 3 delivers a more tightly focused experience than Firaxis' behemoth Civilization series, to which it initially appears to owe so much. In doing so, it proves that even after a decade away the Age of Wonders series can still stand proud beside its modern-day contemporaries.

An amazing game, easily one of the best I've played in any medium. Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 is its best video game translation yet, a perfectly pitched blend of hard strategy and endless tinkering with unlocks that just keep on coming.

As pretty and playable as it is, in no sense is inFamous: Second Son a post-Grand Theft Auto 5 open-world game. It's just a tidier, shorter and shinier one. It's easy to enjoy and has a winning personality, but it's reluctant to deviate from a stale streetmap of game city. It's no rebel, then. In fact, it's a conformist.

Everybody's Tennis is aptly named, appealing the everyman despite speaking in the vernacular of the RPG nerd.

How substantial it will be to you depends on how susceptible you are to its picturesque, vaguely pagan charm.

Jenny Jiao Hsia's dazzling, semi-autobiographical tale of teenage life finds wit and warmth in its WarioWare weirdness, even as it deals with difficult themes.

If you're a gamer that embraces the open-ended trial-and-error gameplay, and don't mind that it's neither the best example of stealth nor action gameplay, then this will serve you well.

With a few more levels, more varied objectives and less psychic guards it would be indispensable.

Madden 15 a step forward, then, yet still a year behind schedule. There's a good game here, but there's still work to do to bring it up to the level of many of its sports game peers.

Dicey Dungeons constantly reinvents a simple idea to delightful puzzling effect. [Eurogamer Recommended]

A truly excellent combat system and neat character-centric episodes complement a compelling tale, but weak side activities and some turgid grinding hold it back.

With the added bonus of Captain Your Country, and a host of welcome tweaks and additions, it's a Russian linesman away from being given 9/10, and only the inevitable absence of club teams and other FIFA-level content get in the way.

The opportunity to record your own live music over the top of your sequenced compositions, to export Midi files with your loops and to save out songs as .wavs are features that go beyond where console-based music packages have ventured before.

From the outset, they've dulled the bold strokes of the Alan Wake concept in a desperation to ensure that everyone got the complete experience. Well, I got it. And I'm left pining for what could have been.

Set over an impressive 80 levels (including five tutorial run-throughs), Sarbakan's game is an instantly engaging bite-sized affair with plenty of replay value. Screenshots don't really do it justice.

Lies of P has strong enough foundations in its edgy tone and tweaked weapons to provide an enjoyable experience for those in need of a FromSoft fix.

David's control scheme has clearly been built around the touchscreen, but while the game's a delight on iOS (on iPhone, at least - the buggy iPad version is awaiting a fix at the time of writing), it works surprisingly well on PC and Mac, too.

We're left with a game whose main improvements are all disappointments. And yet I'd still I'd put money on me pouring hundreds of hours into it. That's Football Manager. I'm sure that once a few patches have been released and a few things have been tweaked I'll discover that magic again. I just expect it might be a little bit harder to find than last year.

That's Trackmania's secret. It's deeply satisfying, while at the same time being more frustrating than you could possibly imagine. It's a contradiction until you've played it.

A game about card games is also a rigorous primer in the intersection of crime and magic. [Eurogamer Recommended]

In many ways it's the same message as last year, then, despite sea-change in a lot of areas: PES 2014 is a methodical sports game with deep systems that reward practice and experimentation; the sort of game that will appeal to people who read Zonal Marking rather than Sun Sport.

A very impressive recreation of the proper console's Complete Saga.

There are no standout battles - save, perhaps, for the grim final encounter - but the cumulative effect of its fights, puzzles and secrets is memorable.

Fun, yes, but not exhilarating in the way that the best games should be. It also lacks the painterly detail of Battlefield 2's levels, which seem so natural in the density of their trash-strewn details.

Tons to do and a well-designed new control system for people who aren't busy forming high-score cults.

It's produced a superbly made peripheral and a piece of software that offers both entertainment and a sense of achievement. It's all very slick and lifestyle, with plenty of white everywhere, but there are the bold shapes, bright colours and moments of sheer charm you'd expect from Nintendo.

A versatile build system allows for experiments with deep skill trees and unusual crafting mechanics - but after the initial excitement of creating those builds, momentum fades.

Enjoyed in short delicious bursts, My Life as a King is one of the most impressive downloads offered on a current-generation console.

This is the first time EA BIG have gotten the mix between style and substance truly wrong. But that's what you get for listening to the marketing department - and not the gamers.

The only thing that raises CVS2 up and above the likes of "Dead or Alive 3" or even "Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance" is its online element, and I'll only really recommend it until a beat 'em up developed <I>within</I> the last three years makes its mark on Xbox Live.

Microsoft's biggest mistake with Amped 2 was not in shunning its chief competitor's vivacious aerial antics, but in failing to mimic its ease of control and combo structure - areas where the "less is more" idiom could most do with application.

A mournful yet bright and enormously warm-hearted adventure with a novel landship mechanic, sublime backdrops and a brilliant score. [Recommended]

Part-chaotic retro shooter, part-stylish cartoon noir, Mouse P.I. for Hire goes beyond its stellar artistry to land an invigorating, imaginative hard-boiled romp.

Impressively crafted and polished, it's a fitting end to Irrational's body of work. The story of BioShock might belong to Ken Levine and Irrational Games rather than to its players - but it's a story that's been well worth telling.

Only the slight sensation of datedness prevents this from scoring higher, and no doubt once the mods start flowing the value for money will get even better. But there's plenty here to keep the faithful feeling extremely optimistic about the prospect of a proper sequel. And there's still nothing out there quite like STALKER.

Nintendo sketches another warm and colourful Paper Mario adventure, though never traces its full potential.

From the fully-featured multiplayer to a host of carefully crafted single player modes, Worms hasn't been this fresh in years.

It's an original, and when something has personality, the flaws become quirks; even, in a way, essential. Thomas Was Alone, needless to say, has a whole lot of personality.

For now, enjoy what is still one of the best and most undervalued puzzle games around.