There are not all that many games around like it. As an overall strategy-come-management-sim, it's fair, but with a few annoying and perhaps unforgivable flaws. As a chance to stomp around in an underground base built into a volcano, shouting at people and firing giant superlasers at Australia just for the sheer fun of it, it's pretty much your best option.

Overall, when the game runs it runs great, but you'll be let down more often than not. And it's a real shame because it is a very enjoyable game to play... again though, when it works. I'm sure the developers will patch it a few times before it gets fixed as the random freezing and crashes is what causes the most problems, especially when playing online. But I will be keeping up to date in the comments if it becomes more playable without a mass of bugs and glitches.

As a standalone, single player adventure, Marvel’s Avengers is a great experience that is well worth it for major fans of the Marvel universe, Movies and all. However, the majority of endgame content suffers from repetitive and uninspired missions, making the progress from vigilante to superhero a boring task. Though the promise of free post-launch content for 2 years is enticing for even the most hardcore and dedicated Marvel fans.

Disintegration shows a lot of promise, but it’s hard to get away from that nagging feeling, one that tells me this just feels like Early Access. The story is okay, and the combat is fine, but the potential here is far greater than what is actually on offer. There are some good moments, and it is enjoyable, but the story and multiplayer lack much to be desired. If you want a simple sci-fi romp then look no further, but if you’re looking for the next big Halo then you’re going to want to look elsewhere.

Now a full on drifting game has promise, drifting is an art and quite difficult for most people. This game really has a great way of showing that. I would absolutely love to see way more cars, more maps, maybe even a multiplayer where people can compete against each other, that would make this way more enjoyable. It has a lot of promise for early access and hopefully the developers keep working on it and don't end support for a game that clearly shows a lot of potential, but at this point in time I just can't recommend it.

When it’s fun it can be really fun, but when it’s bad it can be really frustrating. Luckily all the issues I have with it are easily fixable in later updates, whether they actually do it or not remains to be seen. But for now the overall Overpass experience is generally just okay to me. It’s a great, challenging game that’s bogged down by bugs, a lack of content and questionable game design at times.

Overall, AO Tennis 2 plays and runs really well - this being one of the few tennis games on PC that does - it's just a bit of a shame that it falls flat in a few ways. The missing major players are a downfall: not having Serena Williams or Novak Djokovic is a bit odd in a game that's all about the Australian Open but tennis is probably a licensing nightmare. Play ending with one bounce is also quite a bummer, but I'm sure that's something that will be fixed if people have even noticed that. I also tired to play multiplayer at the time of review and the game would crash and close itself so it still needs to be patched a few times. The single player career experience is where it's at though. AO Tennis 2's solo campaign is a thoroughly enjoyable time and it's here where I would say that is scores an ace.

At a superficial level it looks fantastic, your choices can often feel hefty and impactful, and the overall presentation value is comfortably in the very top tier of adventure games. But it is a game you may have to enjoy through gritted teeth; either raging or outright laughing at the clunky metaphors and hamfisted messages. Enjoy it I did though, honestly, even if it wasn't perhaps for the reasons Cage may have been hoping for.

Despite the markedly average score attached at the end of this review, overall I quite enjoyed my brief time with Bee Simulator and will be going back to find more facts and challenges. This is an incredible teaching tool in my eyes and I hope everyone at least gets a chance to try it, it could change things in the world. As a game though, Bee Simulator needs a little more meat on its bones. It's not a full on simulator like other simulators; it's an open-world arcade-like experience. It would be nice if we could actually land on a flower to collect pollen, for instance, rather than flying through a gamified light ring.

Taken on its own merit, GRID is a fantastic audiovisual experience, a decent racing game, and a barebones package. It’s the epitome of just enough, but enough is the optimal word here. Here’s hoping the next GRID can kick on bigger, better, and more ambitious things.

I know it seems like a paradox to say that on the one hand, it's a well-oiled, impeccably balanced sci-fi empire building game with all the elements that make a great wargame; and on the other hand it feels a smidgen like they phoned it in, but there you are. That's precisely how it feels.

It breaks my heart a little to slap a relatively low score on this. Both The New Order and The New Colossus were fantastic reinventions of a venerated gaming franchise, delivering satisfying gunplay with surprisingly touching narrative hooks. Youngblood still has that great feel, it’s just wrapped up in a co-op focused bubble which detracts from the traditional flow of the game.

The end result is a relaxing, intriguing and sleek murder mystery tale that's certainly worth enjoying once. It's not overly long if you play on normal, nor is it particularly replayable, but finding out who the killer is definitely scratches an investigative itch.

One look at Close to the Sun and you’ll have a fairly clear picture of whether it’s for you or not. Despite its lofty ideas and immersive environments, Close to the Sun is a fairly lightweight adventure that trades on creeping scores and an intoxicating aura of mystery. There’s nothing to grapple onto that really elevates it above this. That's not to say this is an average game, it's a stronger experience than that, it just struggles to pull itself into the echelons of must-play territory. For horror fans, that could well be enough though, and it’s an engaging enough time but not one that necessarily sticks after the credits roll.

There’s precious little to elevate Darksiders 3 to the level of the previous two games, let alone its peers in 2018. It’s a game that offers few surprises, few challenges, and few moments of greatness. What it does, it does to a satisfactory level and never kicks on from there. But there’s something about Darksiders 3 that still sort of works though. It’s a B-tier production, without a shadow of a doubt, but it’s the sort of thing that doesn’t actually come along all that often these days. Fans of the series will no doubt get a kick out of the continuing story and there’s just enough here to help Darksiders 3 stand out and make for an entertaining playthrough.

Your mileage, as always, may vary. But if you're looking for a rock-solid, incredibly challenging nuts-and-bolts RPG with all of the quirky flair of the original trilogy, this isn't quite it.

When all's said and done, there's a clunkiness to the pacing, plot and gameplay that relegates Call of Cthulhu to the second division.

Ultimately, V-Rally 4 is a solid if comprehensively unremarkable rally racing game. It offers neither the simulation depth of Dirt Rally nor the arcade racing hijinks of Dirt, straddling the line somewhere between the two. It can be moderately entertaining despite its dry personality, but up against stiff competition, it’s an all too forgettable entry. Perhaps V-Rally was best left in its nostalgia-fuelled haze.

Ultimately, State of Decay 2 has proven a disappointment. Undead Labs laid the groundwork with the original, but it’s failed to build upon this to any noticeable degree. It’s a much prettier, just as buggy, State of Decay 1.5. To some, just having more may be enough, but it would’ve been nice to see them push the boat out just a little bit more. Perhaps they should’ve done that MMO zombie survival game after all...

Honestly, I feel like maybe we've seen all of the colours of Total War that we're really going to. It's time to switch up the tried-and-true formula for something else. It has been a lot of fun, and in its day Total War really set the bar. But now it's yesterday's news.

Overall, TT Isle of Man is merely good, rather than great; the complexity of the handling and the accuracy of the track are very well realised. The hope is that it can scoop up a cult following and we can have some multiplayer fun, otherwise, the replayability just isn't there.

Time will tell how this game develops but I truly hope that they continue the support and add more content and features to Pure Farming 2018, hopefully, to make it the fantastic game it so nearly is. It's already got much more crop diversity then Farming Sim 17, and the potential to better it is there for all to see.

For all the fervent hatred of Konami that forms the current gaming-hate-bandwagon of choice, based on its own merits, Metal Gear Survive isn’t a terrible game. It’s not a great one for sure, and certainly not near the pedigree we expect from a Metal Gear product, but it’s a serviceable enough survival game that benefits greatly from layering in a few of The Phantom Pain’s systems. It won’t scratch that same itch of sneaky badassery that has made Snake a household name, and it’s almost certainly not worth the full $40 / £35 asking price, but there’s definitely fun to be had here even if it doesn’t come close to troubling the series’ heights.

The core of the game is sound, it just needs to be more upfront with the player about what it’s doing. It’s really frustrating for me because I keep booting it up and I keep playing it, but eventually tangled web of systems gets the better of me and I’ve got to close it in a rage. It pains me because with the easily identified issues to the interface this is a game which would comfortably clamber up to 8.5, perhaps even 9 out of 10. Who knows, a few patches down the line, maybe Railway Empire will get there. After all, no train arrives quite on time.

I found Nantucket to be high on style but thin on substance, but its modest price point saves it from my more barbed harpoons. It has some pleasantly nostalgic reminiscences of Sid Meier's Pirates and a management system that borrows some of the more surface-level mechanics of Paradox games - both of which are good things. Plus, it really is the only thing that does exactly what it does. The originality of the concept is worth something even when it's not necessarily backed up with mechanical innovation.

If you're willing to think of the prefab fantasy setting as comfortingly familiar, Spellforce 3 is a pretty fun. The voice acting is terrific, and the plot easy to understand without requiring weeks of learning why THESE giant wolves are different to other games' giant wolves. Whether this familiarity is a brave counterpoint to the endless setting creep of gaming is really a matter of personal taste. And if you're looking for a fantasy RPG/RTS hybrid, this is a promising contender. However, by trying to do two things at once, it fails to be really remarkable at either.

Everything about Seven is just a bit of a shame. Fool’s Theory has come so close, and in doing so proven itself the jack-of-all-trades, master of none. A game of this budget lives and dies on having one or two insanely unique or memorable standout features, and yet Seven lacks in this area. With the thousands upon thousands of games now at our fingertips, it’s never been harder for devs to get noticed. None of Seven’s particularly bad, it’s just not especially memorable.

I think we’re at the stage now where ‘good enough’ just doesn’t cut it with Call of Duty. There are so many alternatives out there that an average COD isn’t just a waste of money, it’s a waste of time. If you want the full experience and continued support from the map packs, you’re looking at a $100 outlay. That’s on top of the insidious loot crate mechanics. While it’s purely cosmetic based, for now, data mining has hinted weapon drops will be coming in loot crates soon. Call of Duty: WWII really isn’t a good enough game to justify those costs. The three game modes mean there’s probably something in here for everyone, but it’s doubtful many will get their money’s worth when you take the short campaign and the obligatory map pack into account.

We've played games like this before, many of them really excellent and with depth and character. Oriental Empires certainly looks nice and has a classical Chinese feel that helps it along its way, but once you're through the surface, it's a lacklustre 4X without a great deal to set it apart from the pack. Much of the time, Oriental Empires feels like playing a game of Total War where you auto-conclude all of the battles, but with a penchant for very slightly unfair and unavoidable disasters.

No tutorial I could find. Graphics reminded me of World of Warcraft, or Far Cry. The first Far Cry. All of the equipment power-ups are just +1 to this, +1 to that. It's like WoW with all the fun taken out. As for the fighting, it seems to be just furiously clicking and a bit of dodging. They've been making great martial arts games for years. Why change the process to something weird and less enjoyable? I did like how you learn new attacks by beating enemies who use them. But that was the only real positive for me.

Overall Observer is good at what it does, but it’s not the sort of place I overly enjoyed being in. Rather than pelting headlong down the horror route, it straddles an awkward thriller line that didn’t overly entice me. At no point was I desperate to boot it up and find out what happened next, no doubt partly due to the busy, often dizzying art style that made me feel like I was sat in the back of a hot car on a long journey. For those after a narrative driven, cyberpunk fix Observer certainly fills a hole though, provided you can deal with yet another take on technologies potential impact on humanity.

Wrapping up, Under Pressure continues the Guardians' adventure quite nicely. It lacks a little of the thrilling action that peppered the first episode but compensates with a tighter storyline and good narrative. In short, this episode fulfils all the check marks of Telltale and is a fairly good time for Marvel fans.

The core of Sundered is fundamentally flawed from the outset, and randomly generated levels are often a bugbear of mine. But layered on top of this is a fantastic, gorgeous action game with heaps to do. All told you’re looking at a good 15-hour run through, and those whose thirst is still not quenched as the credits will no doubt be pleased that each playthrough is different. If the thought of eating a beautiful crunchy red apple appeals to you, and you don’t mind the worms wriggling inside, Sundered might be worth a shot.

So while the research and attention to detail that went into Town of Light is good, and they're addressing a very important issue, the developers have failed to adapt it into a game format. I'd go as far to say you'd be better off watching a documentary or show about it. Actually, the game even makes an attempt at this. When you finish the game, you see this little video play button at the bottom of the title menu. It was actually a live-action video of the institute in its current 2017 state, which makes you understand how they've tried to recreate the exact place in-game, and there are also scenes with an actress playing the role of Renee and recreating events from the game. It actually makes for a better viewing experience than the game itself.

Torchlight is one of the things you've grown used to in DD, but in the Crimson Court, it's more-or-less replaced with a new system that causes stress over time, among other things. Sure, some of these other things can be interesting strategically, particularly when you have a load of vampires in your party, but ultimately, it's just another smack in the face. Once the Crimson Court opens, freaky fly things come out and into Hamlet, reducing the effectiveness of your stress reducing buildings. Another slap. So it's the final feature that I think is the saving grace for Crimson Court - the ability to select which of the features of the game you want to be applied. If all of this added bullying isn't to your taste, you can just get the new districts and the new character, for instance, so it's not an 'all-or-nothing' affair, and it's this level of customisation that I feel saves Crimson Court from being perhaps just one vampiric bite too far.

It looks relatively nice - some maps have that unmistakable 40K feel, although the limited paths through each level are a little tired in terms of map design. Much of the voice acting is exemplary - the orks and gretchin in particular have plenty of charm and personality although some of the jokes fall a little flat sometimes. Really, though, with the world awash in new Warhammer games, there's nothing about this latest iteration of what was once the Warhammer 40,000 flagship videogame franchise that we will remember next year.

If hunting is your bag then theHunter is a game which could very much tick all the right boxes for you. Compared to the competition I’ve experienced this is right there at the top of the pile, and it’s a game which is only going to grow as Expansive Worlds continues to layer it with more content.

The stronger Scenarios can't rescue Urban Empire from being disappointingly average however. A few quality of life tweaks here and there could have achieved a great deal in making Urban Empire a more engaging experience. With little noticeable cause and effect you're stuck prodding buttons until you hopefully stumble on solution, which sadly flies in the face of strategy as we know it.

Sanctus Reach is a cool and fun turn-based 3D wargame that fans of Warhammer 40K will no doubt lap up. I had a lot of fun with it and I'm certainly going to be stepping back into our dark human future for more.

Space Hulk Deathwing is the empty shell of a great game, desperately looking for some substance. It’s the perfect game to play for an hour but every moment after this it just gets a little bit more tiresome.

The Little Acre has a pretty solid backbone. The setting, storyline and portrayal of events using the hand-drawn graphics and dialogues pretty quickly captures the gamer's attention. However the only thing that keeps this game from stardom is the lack of depth in most aspects.

Mantis Burn Racing isn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination. It’s just that with the dozens of others games vying for my attention, I really never felt like I wanted to boot it up. There isn’t that pull to keep you coming back for more.

Redout is an impressive, gorgeous throwback to futuristic racing games of yesterday that comes so, so close to nailing it. Some bizarre decisions relating to vehicle upgrades and difficulty make you question whether 34BigThings understood what made those classics tick in the first place, but it’s just about salvaged by some great track design and slick performance.

With tougher, longer puzzles and a proper storyline (or no story at all, for that matter), Hue could perhaps have clawed itself a couple more marks. As it is, it’s a passable puzzler that is priced according to its length and may serve as a light snack for puzzle and platform fans, but nothing more.

This Beastmen faction DLC is a top quality product that can revitalise your TW Warhammer game. The question is, does this deep title need revitalising now or does it need it when there is a winter sale on? Completionists and fans of Warhammer will pay top dollar for this DLC, everyone else will shrug and wait until a bunch of Total Warhammer DLC comes together in a cheaper bundle.

I guess the strongest thing I can say is: I’m struggling to want to play No Man’s Sky again, let alone contemplating getting to the centre of its universe.

It’s playing as Bruce where this game really shines.

DICE might have done its best to hide a quality game, but it’s still there beneath the piles of filler.

A fun little adventure which will definitely grow on you.

Ultimately however there’s unfortunately nothing to raise Homefront 2 above outstandingly average. It’s a decent idea in a dull game which feels as if it’s been launched six months too early.

There’s certainly a fair bit here for some to like, particularly for those of you who want a MOBA that’s less of a long-term commitment, and a heck of a lot of content to get your teeth into, but Battleborn’s development-by-focus-group leaves it feeling a little bland, despite its brash stylings and Borderlands-esque attitude.

Special Tactics is unfortunately as middle-of-the-road as is achievable. Not knowing what you can achieve in a single turn really drags it down from being a fun experience, and it’s a little frustrating that one small change could really elevate it.

To that end, from my experiences with VR I can comfortably see a digit or two being tacked on to the score for the sheer immersion present. Without the $600 headset though, this is about as flat an experience as I've had in a long while. [VR Tested]

It's not actually painful to play. It's a little broken here and there, with one of those perma-map-scrolling bugs that seem to plague RTSes, and a couple of other small niggling technical issues. But what really stands out is the lack of anything interesting or novel.

Overall One More Dungeon won't be the game to blow your mind or keep you playing, bleary eyed until the wee hours of a work morning. Despite that, it does a decent job at what it sets out to do and offers quick fun that will have you returning again and again every once in a while. That, and at just £4 it really is quite affordable.

In comparison to XIII it’s certainly a stronger experience, but it’s a case of whether you can stomach yet another adventure in that vein.

Ultimately, Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak is a bit like a trip to the beach. Sure, the sun’s beaming and you’ll have a great day’s fun, but you still can’t escape that feeling you’ve got sand up your Kharak.