This return to Alan Wake's horror roots feels a little lacking compared to the main game, but its examination of AI and art's relationship with science arguably hides its most daring meta commentary yet.

Despite some truly awful sections to put up with, enough of the old magic remains to make it worth sticking with if you loved the original. The real puzzle is how Telltale let it out of the door in this state.

A Machine for Pigs performs the not inconsequential achievement of maintaining the soul of Amnesia. This is still a game that understands that real horror comes from disempowerment, and from the unseen, unknown and unexplained.

This puzzle-platformer lives in the shadow of Playdead's Inside, but its rage against Romanian Communism is authentic and raw.

As a small-scale project and a £3 game, Gateways is a tiny, tidy success. But as an experiment in aperture science, it might need a little more time in the test chamber.

You won't remember Dark Messiah's busty-woman character guide, but you will remember the sheer joy of mutilating the orcish, undead and assorted monstrous hordes in a variety of imaginative ways. When mass slaughter is as imaginative as this, it can't help but be memorable.

MotoGP 10/11 marks the series' evolution into a simulation with depth. It's a game with a steep learning curve and there are no shortcuts to mastery – much like motorbikes themselves – but with patience and perseverance the rewards for dedication are great.

With a slightly gentler ascent, Go! Go! Kokopolo could have charmed us into submission. Instead, this chaotic, vibrant and original idea quickly descends into a battle of wills that only the most determined aggrophile will want to see through.

There are some surprising omissions. The main one being the complete lack of any ability to speed up time - especially since that once a park has stabilised there can be a lot of waiting around while you amass enough cash to buy a Gorilla or whatever.

It's hard to know how many people are really going to care about the return of Rocket Knight. Climax has done a decent job of giving it a modern sheen, but while it's mildly entertaining and completely inoffensive, it's also forgettable.

If you really want to get into Dynasty Warriors from scratch, then you might find yourself better off with a second-hand copy of "Dynasty Warriors 3," which you can probably find for 15 quid.

It's a saccharine-sweet little big adventure, which engrossed us right through to the end, and if you're in the market for a spot of light relief in your adventuring, you could do worse than give Ham-Ham Heartbreak a little TLC.

There's precious little depth lurking in Hammerwatch, then, but if you've got a few friends handy or are willing to wait around online for the worryingly small community to make itself known, this is genuine old-fashioned skeleton-bashing with a gloriously tidal approach to chucking in the enemies.

It's true to say that Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games is no Mario Kart. But it's a fun, polished party game with broad appeal, and a marked improvement over the previous one.

Improving old features, alongside introducing new ones, results in a delightful reimagining of a classic farming simulator.

It's revealing that Warriors' most famous track, Bohemian Rhapsody, is the one that most clearly highlights its limitations.

It's too old, and too dull.

Deadly Creatures has an intriguing premise, and makes a strong first impression with its shudder-inducing animation and cute environmental details. That may be enough to curry favour with Wii owners starved of action games, but over the long haul the scariest thing about these critters is how shoddily constructed they are.

Despite its eccentricities, Dofus remains a solid and occasionally brilliant proposition for those looking for something different in an MMO.

What Blood Bowl offers is a way for enthusiasts to enjoy their chosen tabletop sport without much of the hassle, remotely and conveniently - and for those with friends who'll also indulge, it's probably a no-brainer purchase.

Luckily for EA, the crucial single-player element really does have a lot going for it, and for once it's possible to consider World Cup as more than simple by-the-numbers cash-in effort.

And that's the Saints Row 2 PC experience neatly encapsulated: a great - and often underrated - game, but one that is rendered significantly less appealing than in its original console incarnation.

Animal Crossing has previously shined as a portable game, but this stripped-back mobile spin-off provides none of the same charm.

If you're pining for something with charm, accessibility, instant playability, hidden depths, and above all else fun, then for twenty quid you can't go far wrong with Bombastic. Sure, it's the kind of game that could've been made ten years ago, and is as basic as games get these days, but that's exactly what appealed to us.

It's the shortest game ever, and that's not acceptable for a full price release. And no matter how 'pumped' we feel after playing it, it's a minigame. It should be a tenner - not forty quid. [Rating at £10 = 80]

Sega's marriage between its best-selling series and the cult anime ends up sloppy and half-hearted.

A delightfully macabre homage, this asymmetrical horror could finally threaten Dead by Daylight's crown, if you didn't spend more time fighting the servers than Leatherface himself.

But for those willing to sit back and savour the unhurriedness, the experience can be both enlightening and rewarding, revealing as it does truths about this world even as it paints a vivid picture of another. Axel should be proud: that surely is the highest calling of any artist.