It may not shock you, but it can at least build a thick, oppressive atmosphere as the relatively clever plot keeps twisting and the grot and grime pile up and threaten to choke you. It can't handle fear - but it does a neat line in mild intrigue. Silent Hill: Downpour won't freeze you to your seat, but it will probably keep you playing to the end.

It's still the hardcore spectacle we know and love, with its Moonlight laser blades and hidden AC parts, but by bringing mecha enthusiasts together in a team-based environment that isn't restricted to one-on-one arena battles, we finally have a game on which an online community can be built.

At 1200 Microsoft Points, this isn't a particularly cheap experience, but for those devotees who will spend months, even years, forcing every last twitch and dodge into their muscle memory, it's money well spent. Clearly not one for casual players, this is a heartfelt love letter to one of gaming's thoroughbred genres and one that fans of the right temperament should experience without delay.

Operation Raccoon City is an under-designed and under-produced nightmare, a game that delivers the bare minimum in every category and stops right there.

Its weave of systems hauls you back in to replay stages time after time; the sense of progress and acquisition is a powerful, irresistible loop. Most significantly, it reveals a Nintendo we haven't seen for some time, eager to innovate in ways that will excite its hardcore fans, focusing on competition, struggle and mastery. Reaching for the sky.

There's something endearing about invulnerable enemies dropped into the action to create tense stealth bottlenecks, but whose AI is so bad they frequently end up falling off cliffs and killing themselves before they've laid a claw on you.

This is still unpretentious fun, but now it's also a surprisingly deep and characterful little sports game, and a welcome stopgap between FIFA 12 and 13.

It's unlikely that fans will be left with anything other than positive memories of a franchise that never quite got the praise it deserved.

Next comes across as a game that's embracing the Vita wholeheartedly on a surface level while being much more reserved in terms of Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity.

These issues with pacing and balancing are compensated by the manic euphoria of the action, so if you have three reliable friends with a penchant for manic gunplay and surreal RPGs then Shoot Many Robots can be an enjoyably unpretentious distraction. Those who prefer to play solo should steer well clear, however.

It's only shortcomings are its dated design, repetitive nature and visuals that could pass for a re-mastered PS2 game, but if you're looking for a hardcore experience with solid shinobi substance, this ranks as a viable christening for your shiny new Vita.

Microsoft is attempting to do pretty much everything the purists will hate with Flight, but everything that is necessary to save the IP. How well it's doing it is open to debate, and much will reside on what steps it takes next with the DLC. At present, it's not really a simulation, and nor is it fully convincing as a game experience. But it's definitely no longer scary and that, at least, is a step in the right direction.

This game would clearly benefit from a more rigid and thought-out structure for a start: focus for some of the better ideas found within.

A lacklustre port of a fantastic game. The sad thing is that the improvements to manoeuvrability and updated visuals show us what the ultimate Metal Gear Solid 3 would look like - but then Snake Eater 3D fails to deliver that due to stodgy aiming, low resolutions and a choppy frame-rate.

What I Am Alive lacks in originality, though, it makes up for in execution, because it really nails the tone.

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.

Between the single-player being an obvious afterthought, limited multiplayer modes, shoddy graphics and some online kinks to work out, Twisted Metal can't hide its roots as the multiplayer-only PlayStation Store title it was originally developed to be. With all its flaws, it would be easy to write off this full-priced retail release as a polished turd - but that's not fair...It's more of a diamond in the rough. Take the time to get to grips with its minutiae and the combat is extraordinarily complex and balanced.

As with any game that dares to be ambitious, deconstruct Mass Effect 3 into its constituent parts and of course there are flaws, but taken as a whole this is arguably the first truly modern blockbuster, a game that transcends the genre boundaries of old and takes what it needs from across the gaming spectrum in order to finish its story in the most compelling, thrilling, heartbreaking way possible. Few gaming sagas come to a definitive close, but this one signs off in breathtaking style.

This ripped, boisterous crossover game arrives in a blaze of creativity, one of an intensity rarely seen in Japanese game output of late. A fierce, passionate marriage then - but one that just might last.

A pleasantly weird update, then. It offers warm familiarity, with a safe selection of modes and a reassuringly lovely pile of new skins, alongside tiny, precision bursts of innovation like the shuffle block. It's another incremental improvement - but, if you ask me, this has always been a game that Sony's handheld needs if it's to feel complete. Lumines will be wedged in the Vita's card slot for months to come.

It all adds up to shallow pleasure that quickly gives way to a litany of niggling frustrations. Nexuiz is fine with the broad strokes, thanks largely to a tried-and-trusted style of gameplay that is inherently appealing, but it's in the nuance and details that it really comes unstuck.

If Journey is about God, then God has played an awful lot of video games. One of the most fascinating things about thatgamecompany's sand-blown chunk of spiritual eye candy isn't that it reinvents gaming, or extends the medium's reach: it's that it takes old ideas - sometimes very old ideas - and repackages them in clever, stylish, and unexpected ways.

Super Stardust Delta doesn't deliver anything entirely new, but it's a refined variant of one of the best twin-stick shooters around that can now be played on the go.

Few series have enjoyed such an assured and enjoyable update in the current generation of consoles. Far from being a weary evolution, SSX is a vibrant, eager advance for the Cool Boarder/Tony Hawk's lineage of extreme sports video games. EA Canada has effortlessly married the score-attack DNA of arcade gaming's earliest days with some of the most interesting and exciting multiplayer design seen in the past few years. A towering achievement then, as tall as the mountains it so diligently reconstructs.

It's an absurd bargain. With online multiplayer, it would be a miniature classic. As it is, it's recommended for PS3 owners, all but essential if you have a Vita - and for lovers of RC cars or top-down racing, it's a rare treat.

The old-style defending, rushing players by holding X and square, now feels rather simplistic, and close control is a bit unresponsive next to what we're now used to.

A game a few degrees short of greatness, an intense and hectic romp that needs that final level of polish to compete with the very best.

One of the most compelling purchases on the fledgling system - IF you haven't had to contend with the wandering hands of Spectral Doku before. But even if you have gone the full distance with Ryu Hayabusa, this is one shinobi saga that's worth reliving.