While Patapon has got the same quirky sense of style and visual charm as its predecessor ("LocoRoco"), it doesn't offer the same easy breezy gameplay. Instead, it offers an imposing amount of depth and a considerable amount of micromanagement. Which isn't necessarily a criticism - it's just that forewarned is forearmed.

The best Civ expansion ever? Yeah, why not?

The Minecraft and Dragon Quest mash-up gets refined for the sequel, with a few other outside influences helping make it a laid-back joy. [Eurogamer Recommended]

RPG fanatics without a PC will probably want to fight their way through these flaws to get to the meat of Dragon Age: Origins - which is all still hanging off the bone, and which still makes for a filling, if slightly flavourless, meal. But they won't be able to escape the knowledge that they're playing an inferior version, a game that's been squeezed into a suit that doesn't fit. PC gamers can - with a flick of the mouse-wheel - look down on them.

It's both more of a role-playing game than it's ever been before, and more of a design game than it's ever been before. It may suffer a few glaring compromises, but it's an essential play for anyone with an interest in what videogames can achieve outside of a targeting reticule.

A beautifully original game that in another era would have been much-admired at triple the price.

In its current form, then, Titanfall is perhaps more of a step forward for shooters than a giant leap. But that still represents the most positive momentum seen in the genre for at least five years. Quite simply, if you feel like you're in danger of falling out of love with multiplayer shooters, Titanfall is the game to win you back.

Beneath the noise there is an engaging story clamouring to be heard, and there are moments of true beauty, serenity and pathos fighting for attention. The game does get better as it goes on, and despite the distractions the last few hours are a pleasure to play. At the centre of it all is a brilliant character, still iconic but more human and believable than she's ever been before.

Tribes Ascend is, by more than 300kmhh, the most exciting first-person shooter I've played in years.

Does it work? Not entirely. But it is, unsurprisingly, just the kind of trick one of those special long-running TV shows might try to pull now and then - a bit of heavy-handed schmaltz to break up the glib anarchy, a lunge at tonal variation to bring depth to some increasingly harshly delineated cast members.

Against the odds, Bloober Team has delivered a remake that both expands Silent Hill 2 in just the right places, and gives careful attention to what it preserves.

It feels especially meaningful that I write this review during the process of travelling – an act of moving, reorienting, learning, and witnessing. It is meaningful to witness this game and its message – to resist, always, I mean, it's right there in the name – during a time of unprecedented student uprisings against Palestinian genocide. When I finally begin to write, I glance at my notes, which consist of a single sentence: What if the centre of the world, whatever that thing might be that we orbit and orient ourselves around, was a huge c**t? I relay this question to my friend, who takes less than a second to respond. "Isn't it already?"

An elegant mystery with curiosity at its heart. [Eurogamer Recommended]

It's a staggering achievement that makes it difficult to imagine a better handheld God of War today. And yet, as with the stories upon which it's based, this is a game with nothing new to say, a myth told many times before and, in some cases, told better.

It's wonderfully designed, justifies the price, and may end up being the best thing on Xbox Live Arcade all year. If you're in any doubt, there's even a trial version. Thud.

Retro Studios displays mastery of the 2D platformer in this exquisite sequel. [Recommended]

Mario Kart World offers neat twists on the classic Mario Kart formula, but its open-world ambitions are somewhat let down by some classic Nintendo quirkiness.

Innovation is the ki to success for Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo, as Nioh 3 iterates on the formula once more to take an already great 'masocore' series to new heights.

If you're not a fan Punch-Out!! is still worth trying, but with caution. It's approachable at first but a hard taskmaster later on, an endurance test for your nerves and temper. You know, like videogames used to be. Well, you asked for it. And Nintendo is only too happy to plant it right between your eyes.

The question is whether you can take the pain. The further you get, the more the game tightens the thumbscrews and does its upmost to drive you to the nearest loony bin. This game is not called League Of Evil for nothing.

Reload adds welcome modernisations to the wonderfully deadly coming-of-age story that captured hearts in 2006, though visual tweaks undermine the thematic coherence.

It may not have the visual class of its younger cousin Ikaruga, but there is no other 32-bit era game that shines like this today; a true classic that is available to the world at last. And the scoffers? Well, the joke is finally on them.

If there's a single competitive bone in your body, you really need to play Heart of the Swarm. If you're only interested in the tactical tasting menu of the campaign - you still need to play it.

A brilliant narrative adventure that is filled with intelligence and heart. [Eurogamer Recommended]

Bayonetta 3 might not be as consistently brilliant as its predecessors, but when it's good it's next to godly; playing as Bayonetta with her entire suite of toys unlocked is as electrifying as it's ever been, a spectacle of sinewy combat and S&M excess that's uniquely, defiantly video games. It's so over-the-top that trying to make sense of it would be a mistake, and while the rough edges are a disappointment if you embrace the chaos there's a lot to love here. Bayonetta 3 is overstated, in parts underbaked - but it's rarely less than a thrill. [Eurogamer Recommended]

As a pair, they offer far more pleasure than you could expect for the money, and are the perfect kind of games to while away an evening with, time you'd only spend watching 'Changing Rooms' or something.

A decent port and has enough going for it in its own right to be considered a worthy purchase, just maybe not an essential one.

While there's a thrill in returning to locations you're familiar with ten years on in game terms, it can't overwhelm the realisation that these are just the original levels stripped bare and re-fabricated according to Obsidians whims.