Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is a clear example of a game as an art form with a strong message and a complex, layered narrative. It’s true that you’re sort of along for the ride and most of your interactions are through your emotional response to what is depicted rather than through the mechanics of the game, but is that such a bad thing?

Batman: The Enemy Within - Episode 1 is brimming with action and it shouldn't be a surprise considering the Caped Crusader has to resort to his knuckles most of the time to teach the Gotham underbelly a lesson. The combat sequences are rather easy to get through, although it may just be me getting a hang of Telltale's games for once. I've played far too many of late. To pull off moves you just need to hit different combinations of keys on the keyboard, but the timings are perhaps just a little too lenient.

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.

Though it seems that the actual purpose of the Guardians is to take down Thanos, the story is actually linked with the Eternity Forge and so on. This episode serves the usual Telltale trick of getting the ball rolling, but it's not exciting enough on its own merit, rather a promise of things to come.

All in all, Dirt 4 is an undeniably fantastic racing experience wrapped up in a dull procession of events known as a career mode. At its absolute best it can be a white-knuckle thrill ride that hardcore racing fans would do well to give a try, but those after a more consistently adrenaline-filled arcade experience may want to look elsewhere.

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.

In the end, Regalia is a massive game and even those who think that it isn't would agree that it can be expanded to a bigger premise. There is a lot to do and so many possibilities. It has a great narrative and its own way of telling a story of a hero who is unwillingly dragged into the mess his ancestors created.

A New Frontier tells two tales, one of a battle-hardened teenager and the other of a brother who is trying to keep his family together while struggling with his emotions. It's powerful and steps away from the aesthetics of a melodrama but my dear reader, A New Frontier sets the bar high for its excellent narrative, storytelling and politics of society. You will drown in the world of New Richmond only to be awakened by a Walker nearby.

Combat can often devolve into a straight-line slugfest at times, and at other times terrain can make avenues of approach somewhat unclear and adjacencies a little hard to pinpoint. But for the vast majority of the time, the feeling of leading a desperate crew of die-hard sellswords is captured better in Battle Brothers than in pretty much any other game I've played. A surprise hit.

Radium is a fairly good physics game which has all the qualities to keep the player occupied for hours on end, striving desperately to clinch the top awards. There's nothing really wrong with it, this neat little game doing exactly what it set out to do. It speaks well of the efforts of an indie developer who has turned out a gem in a minimalist fashion.

If you're looking for a replayable sci-fi strategy game to grab a hold of your man hours, then Endless Space 2 will provide you with all you desire. Endless Space 2 sets a new and beautiful benchmark for the 4X genre, masterfully laid out and something future 4x developers will enjoy learning from.

There are precious few games right now which do what Prey is trying to do, preserving the core single-player FPS experience for those who don't want to just blast everything in sight. I wouldn't say Prey is the thinking man's FPS, but it's certainly got plenty of substance. In the absence of BioShock 3, this is going to be as good as it gets.

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 you’ve got the DOOM reboot then I heartily recommend you just go and play its Arcade Mode instead. This was added as a free update back in October last year, and it’s everything you want from a score-attack shooter and then some. Failing that, and if you’ve never played Bulletstorm before, then it’s worth a play-through should you spot it at a deep discount further down the line. $5-$10 should do the trick in the current market.

As a kind of Star Trek-esque adventure, Andromeda is fine. Combat feels better than it has in previous games in the series, with the transition between exploration and fighting being seamless and tight. There is a rudimentary stealth mechanic (isn't there always?) which once again resembles KOTOR as much as it does anything else, and bouncing around with the jump pack blasting aliens is a pretty good laugh. Levels are quite pretty, and somehow manage to be imaginative without being desperately original.

Snake Pass is a difficult game to wholeheartedly recommend. It’s simply going to be too frustrating for some, all boiling down to a finger knotting control scheme. Forge ahead with it and you will be rewarded however. Snake Pass is an unashamed blast from the past that also strives to innovate on tried and trusted concepts. Its core concept is fundamentally flawed, stripping the player of control rather than empowering, but Sumo has found a way to use this to its strength.

Monks and Mystics serves the 'average' Crusader Kings player well, intersecting with all styles of play and interests in a way more similar to Way of Life than, say, Rajas of India. Adding depth to characters throughout the world is always welcome, and while the concrete plotlines themselves might be a little thin, the new dimensions and allegiances that can affect the unscripted procedural stories are always welcome. Great job as usual, Paradox.

For fans of real-time tactics and stealth games, Shadow Tactics is very nearly without compare. It’s that same classic Commandos gameplay wrapped up in an exquisite new shell; still punishing yet not cruel.

Time will tell if it hits the market with the impact that Planescape: Torment had. I would guess not, just due to the games industry being a different beast these days. But in quality of writing, and in its ability to make you care about characters and force you kicking and screaming to actually think about things like good and evil, and the value of life, Tides of Numenera is every bit on a par with its illustrious ancestor.

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.

A nostalgic blast from the past, anyone who ever used to love Where’s Wally and any books of that type will be thrilled by giving Hidden Folks a go. There are no pressures and no limit to speak of, so it really is one of the more relaxing titles around. The sort of game you just want to sit down and play for a couple of chin stroking hours with a piping hot cup of tea.

A new climate and a lick of paint have made another game in practically the precise mould of the brilliant Sniper Elite III, so I can't really complain. It's like going back to your favourite restaurant and ordering what you always order. Sure, it's a bloody delight, and there's not much bad to say about it, but perhaps something slightly different (aware as I am that this is vague and ill-defined) might have been nice?

Quern is a must-have game for puzzle enthusiasts. At 25$ this is one game that has a very good dollar per hour of game play ratio. It could also be a great gift for non-gamers who have an interest in puzzles as it's simple to understand the play mechanics and it should run fine on any system.

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.