If you've never owned a Simbin game and you own a decent driving wheel, then Race Injection could do the job, but rest assured that you're buying an old simulation both for graphics and gameplay.

You'll laugh, you'll die, you'll blow the teeth out of a wandering Borok the size of a small camper van. Compared to the heights of Mr Torgue's Campaign of Carnage, with its masterful blend of Kayfabe jokes and sustained bar-fight intensity, Hammerlock can't quite match up. But it provides several great new reasons to return to Pandora, and that's enough to seal the deal.

The main problem is that the online modes take the one element that everyone will want to muck about with - the glaive - then all but remove it from the equation.

Fans of Pangya on the PC will find it over-familiar and somewhat hollow without the online community aspects, and for anyone else the random and entirely unexplained Korean fantasy setting might be a distinct turn-off.

Game Republic's effort lacks polish and elegance, but, thanks to charm and the in-built strength of its setup, it is an experience worth partnering with.

You're probably looking at a good thirty to forty hours of gameplay before you start to touch on the high-level possibilities of X2.

But if you're the kind of hardy soul who positively revels in merciless treatment, then a couple of quid is a small price to pay for such joyful puzzle punishment.

Assassin's Creed Rogue may well have begun life as a hedged bet - a PS3 and Xbox 360 game knocked together in case the next-gen consoles hadn't taken off by now - but despite its slightly awkward role as b-side to Assassin's Creed Unity, the result is a welcome follow-up to Black Flag.

Persevere with Nintendo's prodigious little joy-stick, and you'll be richly rewarded, because there's a good game in here.

Gentle, sweet, calming and very, very slight. It does what it sets out to do with perfect efficiency, targeting the brain's fragile cuteness receptors with merciless precision. It is a game constructed of gentle routine punctuated by organic, unexpected moments, never demanding much from you in return for its simple, innocent pleasures. It's exactly what you expect, then – but that's certainly no bad thing.

Right now Splitgate's in beta, and it's completely free-to-play on PC, PS4/5, and Xbox One/Series X. It boasts 20 maps, 15 modes, full cross-play, and a ranked mode to boot. And look, I know a game's price tag has zip to do with its intrinsic value, but if you've ever had fun with an old-school Halo game, you owe it to yourself to give this a go. I came into this thinking - admittedly a touch cynically - that if Splitgate was okay, it would at least tide me over until Halo Infinite arrives. Now I'm wondering if I'll have time to fit Halo Infinite in around my Splitgate sessions. [Eurogamer Recommended]

If you can handle the deep sense of self-loathing that comes from protracted Bop It sessions, then go right ahead. Just don't say I didn't warn you.

With only genre basics in its bag of tricks, and hobbled at every turn by clumsy implementation, in a gaming landscape that already offers Battlefield 1943 and Call of Duty: World at War's Nazi Zombies mode, Wolfenstein's bargain basement charms are of limited appeal.

There are undoubtedly high points, such as the (mostly) excellent soundtrack, the fantastic controls and the truly impressive engine, but Moon is really just a supermodel in the Emperor's clothes, intriguing at first - but leaving very little to the imagination.

Jak & Daxter: The Lost Frontier is one of the best platformers available for PSP (the other ones being LittleBigPlanet and the three-year-old Daxter). It also stands as evidence that there's life in the old Naughty Dog series yet. Any chance of a Jak game for PS3 then?

A nice blend of arcade and sim, which in my mind would be perfect for the uninitiated amongst you and die-hards alike. The split screen two-player option is also a bonus, and works extremely well.

It seems churlish to completely dismiss Scarface's many amusements just because of control issues, especially as they can be accommodated with patience and practice. For the bulk of its playing time Scarface remains an indecently entertaining bad taste romp and, for those who don't have access to a PS2 or Xbox, it's still worth having.

It simply can't compete with the genius of its many competitors, particularly the Sony first party efforts of late.

A brisk free-roaming action game with a clicker-ish heart.

Gentle, sweet, calming and very, very slight. It does what it sets out to do with perfect efficiency, targeting the brain's fragile cuteness receptors with merciless precision. It is a game constructed of gentle routine punctuated by organic, unexpected moments, never demanding much from you in return for its simple, innocent pleasures. It's exactly what you expect, then – but that's certainly no bad thing.

For something so apocalyptic, it feels like it's got a bright future ahead of it.

Those in desperate search of a new platform game after completing New Super Mario Bros. upside down and backwards might get a few hours' respite from this, but otherwise wait until it costs nothing and then buy it for the nephew you gave your old chunky DS when you decide you had to have a Lite, and maybe invest your money in some of the Virtual Console's retro treats instead.

Anarchy Reigns is exactly the kind of game that 'gamers' say they want: original, high-octane action with bags of depth, plenty of modes and multiplayer. It's all game, all of the time.

Again and again, it's quietly thrilling to leap from the mountainside and the board beneath my feet, up to the overhead view of the entire mountain range, in which my rider is suddenly a dot, lost amongst the rumpled whiteness, and then instantly warp to a distant drop zone. As an extreme sports game, Steep is fine. As a place, it's frequently amazing. [Recommended]

But like a train journey with a friend, a few hours can be lots of fun, but then you've arrived at your destination, the conversations are put back in your bag, and the rest of your life is ready for the living.

The key element of the game, of course, is combat and here it excels...Compared to many of its peers, Darkstar One may seem slight - but what it does, it does expertly.

Supermassive still knows how to plunge you into paranoia, but the second Dark Pictures entry feels a little lost in the woods.

These classic games remain as ingenious, memorable and frustrating as ever.

Milestone delivers its most comprehensive, accessible and enjoyable racer yet - though it still suffers from some of the same old problems.

As with many reconstituted products, NES Remix is immediately delicious, but inspires an obsession that it can't sustain for long.

The PSP isn't exactly overwhelmed with decent multiplayer FPSs, and while imperfect, Heroes does offer a much-needed online fragfest.

Had Ascaron reigned in the content a little, and polished a smaller game to a higher standard, the score below would have been at least a couple of marks higher.

SEGA fans, run don't walk to the shops, but be prepared to give Superstars a few hours before the gameplay starts hugging you as hard as the graphics and sound. Everyone else, dust off Virtua Tennis 3 for a more complete alternative.

If Shank was an animated short, I'd happily roll a fat one and sit hurgh-hurghing on the sofa at the dumb grisliness of it all. But as a game, it just feels pointless and irritating, and about as engaging as repeatedly attacking the sofa with your own face.

It's a good laugh for the player - although there's always that weird You've Been Framed dampening effect which comes from something that's been set up to be amusing rather than something that's just naturally, accidentally, organically hilarious - but the real fun is being had by the people ogling over your shoulder.

The novelty of typing the phrases 'male crime sim' and 'flowers to womans', although hilarious in the first few stages, starts to fade a little without that ancient Sega charm. You realise that you're just retreading the slightly toothless plot of a game that you didn't ever feel nostalgic about. The bromancing leads start to get tiresome. And then you need a gin and tonic.

There's some room for improvement of course, and no doubt the customisation options will expand over time and the engine will get tweaked along the way, but as a signpost for the future of how sports games can fit into the new gaming landscape, Tiger's online debut is extremely promising.

Offers too much tedium and not nearly enough fun, mic or no mic.

This platformer is perfectly perfunctory in every way.

If you can adapt to the control eccentricities, there's plenty to recommend, but you might find it too much like hard work at times.

If you played through Tales of Xillia, this is an interesting but rather lumpy postscript to that adventure. If you've never played a Tales game, this isn't the one to start with.

Yes, you'll find sleeker interfaces and more engaging gunfights in titles such as "Silent Storm," "Faces of War," and "Jagged Alliance 2," but none of those games come with anything half as involved or absorbing as Afterlight's amazing strategic layer.

True, it all feels more like doing homework than playing a game. But the incentive to keep going is you do find yourself learning new words. If that appeals, My Word Coach offers a stylishly presented, relatively entertaining way of doing it.

An eccentric and charismatic B-movie of a game. The Bard's Tale 4 is an ideal place to puzzle in. [Eurogamer Recommended]

There's simply too much that is vaguely explained, and too much aimless wandering looking for the next vital objective, and that can't help but drag down the score for a game that, as last time, comes close to being something genuinely special.

An interesting reworking of the traditional Pokémon gameplay for an open-world setting brought low by its lifeless environments and graphics

Gentle, sweet, calming and very, very slight. It does what it sets out to do with perfect efficiency, targeting the brain's fragile cuteness receptors with merciless precision. It is a game constructed of gentle routine punctuated by organic, unexpected moments, never demanding much from you in return for its simple, innocent pleasures. It's exactly what you expect, then – but that's certainly no bad thing.

If you happened to be sitting at home one evening, bored off your tits, and feel like lying on your tummy with a stupid grin splattered across your face, you could probably do worse than to rent it out - even if it is basically that "Kill all the Haitians" line from Vice City done up as an entire game. Totally.

The abundance of surreal moments make for game that's fun to tell others about, but dull to play.

A fairly meaningless but devilishly addictive platform game that isn't afraid of, ulp, hatching a few new ideas amongst the rank and file and giving you options.

This may not be the most exciting celebration of 47's career that Square Enix could have mustered, but it is one last chance to experience the single best real-world assassin game around - and a chance well worth taking advantage of, if its dark magic has somehow managed to elude you until now.

It's simply a joy to play.

Sprightly platforming action marks a change of pace for The Chinese Room in this bold if brief adventure. [Eurogamer Recommended]

Much like gnawing on human flesh, Dead Island's clumsy horror-action role-player is the definition of an acquired taste.

Despite the initial audio-visual horror, Boulder Dash XL ends up being far greater than the sum of its parts. This is one ugly ducking you won't be ashamed to spend time with.

An over-familiar follow-up, perhaps, but New Dawn whittles away the rough edges of Far Cry 5 for something extremely enjoyable. [Eurogamer Recommended]

A frequently gorgeous, sadly generic open-world game that runs out of steam well before its extended play-time is over.

Sony has done a great job of holding new players by the hand and introducing Star Wars Galaxies in a way that makes you feel part of the action - much more so than before.

While the single stage may at first make PAIN seem very limited, the fact that you'll never end up with the exact same results more than once should be enticing. Even when you think you know every nook and cranny of the city stage, there are still a lot of things to try, trophies to earn, and pins to be bowled over.

There are moments where the noise and fury onscreen coheres into an honest and intuitive arcade rush, but there are also too many where you get the impression that it simply isn't playing fair. Whether or not this is actually the case, such suspicions crank up the frustration and make the full 800-Point purchase less desirable.

Unlike its glistening, preening stars, Legends of WrestleMania is weak and insubstantial.

You can just about forgive a game you enjoy for being short. When it's a game you just endure... well, the urge to staple it to the back of a group of hobbits heading southeastward is increasingly attractive.

Mixing Into the Breach with Frozen Synapse makes for an inevitably strong core of mech combat, but the rest of Phantom Brigade is underwhelming.

If you can persuade your friends list to join in the time-shifting fun, Zeit² threatens to become another score-chasing obsession.

A gentle adventure, imbued with a sense of place and purpose. [Eurogamer Recommended]

I'm no fan of the gross sense of entitlement displayed by some gamers, but when the core game is still blighted by outrageous glitches and glaring bugs it's hard to see how State of Decay justifies charging almost 50% of its original asking price over again for a game mode that arguably should have been implemented at launch.

For those expecting massive advancements or a radical departure from the original, this will come as a disappointment. A more honest, realistic assessment would be to treat this as a mission pack, and for those who do just want more of the same, you'll come away a satisfied customer.

We're hugely disappointed in this utterly botched effort by Sega. What should have been the revival of a classic franchise has been turned into a poor rip-off of a Capcom title that wasn't even the dog's bollocks in the first place.

Might & Magic 10: Legacy feels like a pleasant throwback to dungeon crawls of decades past, but its limited scope and combat-heavy focus might put off those pining for the freedom afforded by the more recent Elder Scrolls games, or the wordy character interaction of a Dragon Age.

Don't Nod's latest adds a near-revolutionary twist to choice-based narrative games.

Elder Scrolls fans will be put off by its rigid structure and weak storytelling, while your average MMO player will tire of wading through the wan questing to get to the good stuff. Even the good stuff isn't outstanding, and the game doesn't represent good value compared to its competition.

An excellent package. Honestly, Flatout is a hairbreadth away from a 9, and legendary status.

This is a glorified DLC pack on a disc, but it didn't need glorification - it needed the simultaneous release of the track-list on the music store, and store compatibility, as a minimum, if it was ever to engender any goodwill.

As pointless distractions go, this is one of the best in a while.

At best, it delivers one of those non-threatening interactive playgrounds that parents can feel safe letting their young 'uns explore, and on that level it's job done. For the rest of us looking/hoping/praying for a decent driving game based on the latest Pixar movie, you're best advised to ignore its No.1 status and steer clear of this road accident.

Anyone over a certain age is likely to be highly embarrassed if they get caught playing it though, and for flip's sake, don't actually buy the thing unless you wipe with ten pound notes.

The sequel to Squanch Games' detestable FPS demonstrates significant improvement, though its biggest features remain its weakest - and technical issues hinder the progress made.

Look once at Unit 13 and you'll probably write it off as a non-entity. Look twice, and you'll see a game where some really smart ideas are lurking just beneath the surface.

It gets seven because it's a great example of technical gameplay and a completive attitude to giving gamers value for money, but if we see the same thing again we won't be able to be so kind.

Nano Assault Neo is my least favourite kind of game; the kind that follows in others' footsteps with little to call its own. It's not a bad game in the conventional sense - it's not tedious or broken - and it's even moderately amusing, but it's not especially refined and I'm not sure why it exists beyond trying to score a quick buck during a deserted launch window.

PlayStation VR gets some much-needed support from Sony, but unfortunately Farpoint is a hollow novelty.

The welcome return of a massively branching campaign structure, along with dozens of battles to fight, units to deploy, and officers to lead them gives an almost unlimited amount of replay value for the lone wargamer.

The main overriding problem (badum) is the same as ever: the sense of excitement, speed, and - above all - fun just isn't as strong as the four-wheeled racers busy hogging the upper echelons of the world's charts.

I lean back in my chair and, in a moment of grim lucidity I realise: all of these games are already in a cardboard box in the shed.

Like a lot of grumpy Eastwoods, Juarez treads the line just West of parody with Ray's juxtaposition of gravely scripture one minute, and then little red circles with lines through them hovering over whiskey bottles the next.

The game is arguably a little too tough, with plenty of ways to lose health but few to top it back up again, and there are a couple of precision do-or-die leaps that act as stark reminders of the game's unforgiving vintage. Those caveats aside, Comix Zone still impresses with its ideas and execution and is a definite highlight of SEGA's retro line-up.

Dedicated followers of the brand will obviously find much to enjoy, as will those who like their racing dry and technical. It's just a shame the game doesn't do more to win over everyone else.

A trashy, overwrought psychodrama with the odd inspired touch that alternates between simple forensic puzzles and gimmicky gunplay.

What we're left with is a flimsy framework - a sort of clothes horse for content - rather than a truly great racing game.

At its best this colourful racer has the power to improve your day.

For what is one of the few Xbox-only Japanese titles, you'd expect much more than almost featureless corridors, and only the occasional glimpses of artistic talent from Namco's team.

If "Morrowind," fantasy and claustrophobia are not your favourite things, then there really isn't a point.

Even proper strumming seems to be measured inconsistently, breaking otherwise-perfect sequences and potentially losing you points or even getting you booed off if your performance dips below a certain threshold, forcing you to replay the entire song.

Nemesis too is not without its rough patches, but still represents a return to form of sorts, another solid Sherlock adventure that showcases better understanding of character, narrative, structure and pace than most of its genre peers.

Runes of Magic is by and large a robust, enjoyable game. As a free-to-play title, it's impressive. Although Western gamers will still have their reservations about amorphous RMT versus those nice straightforward subs, Runes of Magic is something of a landmark: it won't dislodge the subscription-based model in the West by any stretch of the imagination, but it does demonstrate that free-to-play doesn't necessarily mean rudimentary, shallow, cheap or totally brutal in the integration of RMT.

Like the hardware it lives on, this is the PlayStation brand getting to grips with the era of iOS and Android - and the results, while rather conflicted in this case, are interesting.

While this is never amazing, it's a competent, enjoyable third-person cover shooter with a sense of humour.

Metal Slug 4 is intense, immediate and fun in all the right ways, but it's disposable entertainment in every sense of the phrase. [Review of Metal Slug 4 only]