Helping the little girl through her nightmarish tableaus is engaging if you are able to get invested in the absurdist universe. I was definitely able to do that during Murasaki Baby's couple of hours.

Magicka 2 is very similar to the first Magicka, but the last game worked so well that the lack of innovation isn't all that bothersome. It's still a fun, chaotic experience that can keep you entertained for eight hours. What sours the overall experience is the sometimes awful script and annoying pop cultural references that do more to provoke groans of annoyance rather than laughter.

Isle of Armor is big, colorful and filled with familiar faces and feelings, but there's a real lack of brand new content.

Clunky controls and lack of free locomotion puts a serious dampener on this VR-port. Doom is appealing and entertaining in a new form, but id Software have taken some unfortunate shortcuts.

The Callisto Project is a game with a well thought out and balanced tempo that in many ways reminds us of the best from the Resident Evil series.

Mirror's Edge: Catalyst is a step above its predecessor in almost every way. No, it's not perfect, but when everything seamlessly blends together – the parkour, the speed, the city, the gameplay and the graphics – this is an experience like no other.

The simple, enjoyable rail shooting of Star Fox 64 has in Star Fox Zero been replaced by contrived and obscure hardware gimmicks. A few decent levels salvage the overall experience to a small degree.

Piranha Bytes takes the Risen series into a new direction with the Pirate-themed sequel Dark Waters. The game is more streamlined than its predecessors, but despite some efforts to modernize the combat and the character development system feels hopelessly outdated. In such it fails to fulfil its own potential.

However, once you find your flow – and the right path – it's fun to sweep through the world, whether you're chasing the game's big bad or poking around the many, many secrets that lurk around every corner of the spaceship Atromitos.

Knack 2 is kind of more of the same, but at the same time it's so much more than what the original ever was. The combat is more diverse, the environments are more varied and the co-op is way more fun. There's still some jank here, including the dull story and lack of true freedom in both skill set and movement.

Oninaki has a solid and fun combat system, and an interesting setting, but the story is poorly told and the level design is so dull you'll be looking for something better to do pretty soon.

The new innovative controls using the GamePad's touchscreen are more tortuous than convenient. And behind lies the gameplay and mechanics of FIFA 12. The lack of functions and online modes that has been in the competing consoles' versions for years makes this a no-go.

Swarm's cartoony violence is both charming and fun, but the game ends up being repetitive and mediocre. The game has got a good basic idea that unfortunately never reaches its full potential.

Everything considered, Mad Max is a blast to play, with huge explosions, brutal combat, and a massive open world to explore to your heart's content.

With the introduction of the new and entertaining game mechanic called Mythic Poker, Runespell: Overture becomes quite an interesting little game. You fight your way through medieval England and battle both Vikings and powerful creatures from mythology.

Alice: Madness Returns is interesting, visually stunning and inviting. Some of the gameplay elements excites in its pure form, but combat does seem ridgid and sometimes random. It's close, but not quite the cigar for Mr. McGee.

Quotation forthcoming.

Quotation forthcoming.

Octodad: Dadliest Catch is a charming and incredibly fun adventure, keeping you on your non-existent octopus toes and wanting more. It’s just a shame that there’s only so much to see and do in this colorful universe, with a premature ending that leaves much to be desired.

Even though it's an enjoyable game, it suffers from a weak challenge. It gets much too easy, much too fast. Finding new weapons is always fun, but some of the point disappears when you don't really need them.

Quotation forthcoming.

If you're a fan of Game of Thrones, Telltale's version is a must buy. It fleshes out the universe in a great way, with a really exciting story and a great cast of characters – you know, the way Telltale usually rolls. The game is however not without its flaws, including crammed in book characters, boring storylines and a tempo that sometimes is a drag.

Snake Pass tries something new, and to slither around with Noodle is fun to begin with. Sadly, the steep and weird difficulty and strange mechanics related to the controllers make for an experience that quickly gets bogged down in a sea of annoyance and tediousness.

State of Mind asks important questions and offers a mostly well-written story, but lacks the gameplay mechanics and the engaging puzzles to be a truly great game.

Frustrating, passive and pretty all mixed into one. This should have been so much better.

If you’ve yet to try a game in the Farming Simulator series, this is a good entry point, but it does not offer a lot for veterans.

Bye Sweet Carole is a gorgeous and hand drawn game that feels like an interactive Disney-movie. It tells a dark story spiced with puzzles and dangerous challenges

Conan Exiles is the best online-survival game I've played, despite the many bugs and shortcomings that make the game less polished than it should be. The exploration, crafting and survival mechanics are all great, but the game needs more polish and work before it can become a true gem.

After the wonderful I am Setsuna, Lost Sphear is a huge disappointment. Too many dull conversations, and not nearly enough action.

Downpour doesn't do much to evolve neither it's genre nor the Silent Hill series, but rather sticks to its dim recepie of dead children and blood on the walls to create a game that is just above average, and not much more.

Cloudberry Kingdom's infinite levels frustrate as much as they delight. The game's difficulty often comes off as unforgiving and downright unfair at times, making the experience less enjoyable overall.

Beautiful and streamlined puzzle, but the story drags.

Nier has one of the best casts ever seen. The constant bantering between the main characters is the perfect supplement to the frantic action where basic sword attacks are blended with massive magic attacks. Every so often Cavia turns everything upside down. Suddenly you'll be playing survival horror, a rail shooter, or possibly even a classic text adventure.

Chaotic, frenetic and often clumsy, Battleborn is a game that has a lot of flaws in its core design. Still, we can't quite stop playing, mostly thanks to the great cast of playable characters, as well as the game's addicitve progression system.

If you have a gang of friends to play with regularily, Brink is fantastic. Proper communication makes solving the different tasks a wonder, and at times, this is one of the best games I have played in the genre. However, you never truly know what you get with Brink, due to the rubbish bots and uncertain online team composition. As a game it is simply too unpredictable.

Quotation forthcoming.

Lost Planet 2 is both infuriating and exhilarating in mostly equal measures. It has a long list of annoying issues, but when push comes to shove, playing online with a trio of friends is some of the best fun to be had.

Yooka-Laylee simply doesn't live up to todays standards. Especially when compared to the well designed games we've been served lately.

The Ball delivers an entertaining mix of puzzles and action, with a lot of variation despite the simple core concept. However, it is a bit of a slow starter, and saves the best stuff for last.

HAWX 2 delivers intense aerial combat and some spectacular views, but gets repetitive after a while and can be very frustrating in single-player mode. Make sure you can play coop before you buy.

The user interface could do with an overhaul, but this is a solid enough strategy game with tons of cool units from Warhammer 40,000.

Batman - The Telltale Series is a good game with one of the best Batman stories in a good while. Telltale takes huge risks with the Batman universe, and thus makes the game an engaging and exciting experience.

Test Drive Unlimited 2 is extremely ambitious, but has suffered from an almost continuous flow of multiplayer related problems. While promising if Atari can get their servers working properly, the singleplayer content simply isn't convincing enough to warrant a purchase on its own.

Costume Quest 2 is both fun and charming, with clever puzzles and a cute story. However, its RPG elements are somewhat lacking, and the original game’s magic feel is not entirely here.

Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss is a tense, dark and deliciously atmospheric tale of horror, that is marred with technical issues you'd be best to see fixed before you play.

Despite being quite enjoyable at its best, this maritime strategy game is scuttled by a very slow start and a lack of depth.

Shadow Labyrinth never rises above being an occasionally exciting metroidvania. Between the likes of Hollow Knight, Ori and others, there are just far too many better options available.

Trine 3 is probably one of the most beautiful games you'll ever see. For the first time in the Trine series you can now navigate in three dimensions in this game. Maneuvering in three dimensions never feels forced but stays a gimmick throughout the game. It's a fairly short game, but the content and entertainment you get out of the four or five hour it takes to complete the game gives great value for your money.

Fable is still a charming and extremely engaging adventure. It's fun and entertaining, and the worlds Lionhead create are filled with magic. It is, however, showing it's age. Aside from the stiff animations several gameplay systems are out of date and could have benefited from an overhaul.

At its best it's action filled and grand in every way, but most of the time you'll struggle with game-breaking bugs or even getting into a match without the game crashing. Hopefully DICE will be able to save this beast with time, but it will demand a lot of work, and an expansion of its most exciting mode, Battlefield Portal.

Tesla Effect resurrects our favorite private detective, and lets us explore a new chapter of his spectacular life. All thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign. The game is certainly enjoyable, but it’s not without its problems. We can accept the low production value, but the quality of the story and the challenges are uneven trough the game.

Age of Empires II recaptures its status as a classic with an HD remake filled to the brim with content. With eight campaigns, a robust multiplayer, Steam Workshop integration for modders and a map editor, strategy fans will find that Age of Empires II HD is definitely worth the price of admission.

Deadlight is an amazingly beautiful game. The combination of a simplistic foreground and incredibly detailed backgrounds is breathtaking. However, the gameplay isn't as elaborate. It relies heavily on trial and error, especially in the second half of the game. This made the game both frustrating and boring.

The Bureau is a smart action game that combines the tactical aspect of Mass Effect with the simplicity of Bioshock. A surprisingly solid story makes this a great individual game, even if it struggles to find it's place in the XCOM-series.

Pro Cycling Manager is the best cycling game on the market, not for being a great game, but because of the lack of competition. The 2012 edition makes a lot of small changes that actually makes the game worse. Even if the new multiplayer is innovative, I would rather stick with last year's version.

With Fire and Sword is an expansion that adds very little to the Mount&Blade experience. It's still a solid game, but one would expect more innovation. Still, the hectic battles on horseback leave the player with a brutal appreciation for medieval combat.

Mafia 3 starts off with a bang, but does not manage to maintain its momentum. Despite great gameplay, a fantastic cast and a riveting story, the lack of depth and varied mechanics and opportunities halt an otherwise great game in its tracks.

The third expansion to the Men of War universe suffers by being one of the most difficult realtime strategy games out there. Combine this with a rather high amount of bugs, and you got the recipe for the least entertaining and most frustrating game of the series.

Despite the poor presentation, WRC manages to be a pretty entertaining rally game, refreshingly free from offroad segments and extreme sports nonsense. In the long run, however, it suffers from repetitive tracks and an unexiting campaign.

While not as unforgiving as its big brother Dark Souls II, Lords of the Fallen still provides a tough challenge for even the most experienced hack 'n' slash adventurer.

Digimon World: Next Order is dated, empty and lacking, but with its addictive training mechanics and large variety of nostalgia-indusing digimon manages to - in some ways at least - charm old time fans of the universe.

A solid, fresh and addictive empire builder that is well worth playing for fans of the genre. But it needs more life and dynamic events, especially towards the end.

Little Orpheus delivers a charming, colorful and varied adventure, but is both too slow and too repetitive for the fun to last.

Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap is a mixed bag with a high emphasis on third person multiplayer action that never quite reaches the heights of previous entries.

With some tweaks and fixes to the old game, MediEvil could have been a wonderful reunion with an old friend. Instead we get a lesson in why the good old days might not have been so good after all.

The premise of the Project Zero series, quite literally having to face up to your fears to catch them on camera, is ingenious. Furthermore, at its high points, Maiden of Black Water showcases a generous amount of the very peculiar and likeable Japanese horror atmosphere. However, the experience suffers from imprecise and slow controls, making for frustrating maneuvering through the rather samey surroundings of the haunted Mount Hikami. Add to that the large amount of terribly dull and boringly angst-ridden notes that most of the narrative is related through, and you have a game that, unfortunately, doesn't quite live up to its potential.

The foundation for a good game is there, but too much of the responsibility for the fun is pushed over to the player.

While it may be summarized as merely being style over substance, Lollipop Chainsaw is fun and engaging enough to keep you entertained all throughout its eight hour playtime. Unlockable costumes, music and concept art and more collectables will also have you coming back for more.

A solid and addictive foundation, but for now the game feels a bit too unfinished – a bit like a promising "early access" title.

Echoes of the End is at times great fun, but it is sadly brought down by wonky controls, dull combat, and an endgame that drones on too long.

Gotham Knights ends up being a pretty mediocre experience. The combat is decent, but not varied or tight enough. The story has its ups and downs, with a couple of very strange choices. The visuals are good, but the performance is not up to par, with severe frame drops happening too often.

Did I just spend 25 hours transporting lumber and getting stuck in the mud? I certainly did, and I don't regret any of it.

Marvel's Avengers tells a surprisingly gripping tale and has gameplay that packs enough of a punch to (almost) make you forget about the messy loot system and less than stellar performance.

Operation Flashpoint: Red River manages to establish the franchise between the traditional adrenaline-based Call of Duties and the simulation-based gameplay from the Armed Assault series. It´s at its best as a co-op tactical shooter, and could have gained even more ground on its rivals with better visuals, a slightly improved AI and more variation in the level design.

There are some funny elements in Conan Chop Chop, and the gameplay itself is ok, but when the underlying structure is as bad as this, it all collapses.

While the game feels both unbalanced and frustrating at times, the core gameplay experience is chaotic, exhilarating and fun throughout. With more modes and maps, this could end up as a sleeper hit, although having to pay for entry might hurt the game's chances of finding a big enough player base.

This year's edition of Pro Cycling Manager adds some new features, like rider automation, that improves gameplay, and discards some that didn't work properly. It's one of the best releases in the series for a while, and an enjoyable experience.

Most twin stick shooters are good fun for a while, and this is no exception. Cutting down orks with constant streams of bullets is definitely entertaining, especially with a friend. It provides terribly little variation though, and you won't be sad when it's over.

It’s a lot of fun being a thief in the newest Thief. It’s not so much fun avoiding pesky enemies, navigating a claustrophobic city or bearing with the poor plot, but in the end the game manages to pull through nicely.

Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is a stale game that is hard to play through despite its short length.

CounterSpy is stealthy, charming and clever, not only in its graphical style, but also in the way it handles the somewhat clichéd cold war spy drama gig.

A varied and challenging game that continues the series' evolution into action territory. IT can be incredibly frustrating at times, but also very rewarding when you finally overcome the many challenges it puts you through.

XDefiant throws out its own advantages in favor of the shooting mechanisms from Call of Duty and the class system from the same series, which results in an unbalanced mess.

A good foundation doesn't always make a very good game. LEGO Star Wars on the 3DS feels a bit lonely and it gets a bit boring after a while. The 3D effect is purely cosmetic.

Though a little unfocused, The Park manages to deliver a surprisingly personal and powerful story. Scary at times, the real horror comes not from monsters or figments of the imagination, but from that which strikes much closer to home.

A disappointing end to the trilogy. The story is often nonsensical and the puzzles tend to be to easy, while still having the kind of over-complicated solutions that wouldn't work in real life. It's mostly still fun to play, but it doesn't leave a lasting impression.

An insanely absurd, silly, and fascinating game that deserves to be played.

Oddworld: Soulstorm seems dated. With everything from the controls and AI, and lack of variation, this is an uneven experience.

An atmospheric action-adventure set in a post apocalyptic wonderland. Fragile Drams is both sweet and scary, but is unfortunately hampered by a uneven script and some tedious gameplay segments.

Operation Flashpoint: Red River manages to establish the franchise between the traditional adrenaline-based Call of Duties and the simulation-based gameplay from the Armed Assault series. It´s at its best as a co-op tactical shooter, and could have gained even more ground on its rivals with better visuals, a slightly improved AI and more variation in the level design.

Among the Sleep isn't the horror game many are expecting. It's not Amnesia with a toddler. It's a game with a message, and while it's not always successful I think Krillbite can be reasonably proud of what they've achieved here.

LEGO Worlds is actually quite a fun, charming adventure, with creativity out the wazoo. There is however way too much repetition, with a cumbersome building system and a sometimes immediate lack of clear objectives.

Enormous depth with an unpleasant aftertaste. Pokémon Champions is perfect for a very small audience.

The end of the world has been portrayed in many ways, but no one has done in a way so grey and bland as I Am Alive. The concept itself is quite good, and at times it's really enjoyable to traverse the dusty town of Haventon, playing a psychological game with it's pesky inhabitants. Most times though, it simply is a clumsy and mediocre experience.

Biomutant is an ambitious project, but it never excels at anything. There are too many incomprehensible design choices and frustrating moments, which in turn hinders the game from being truly great.

This year's Call of Duty gives you a lot of bang for your buck. Black Ops 7 might not stray very far from the franchise's usual offerings, but makes up for it with clever design choices throughout the campaign, multiplayer and zombies.

A lackluster remake in every way. A lack of new content and poor presentation calls the price tag into question, while the game's one attempt at something new – a hardware gimmick mode – is outright embarrassing. Turbo HD Remix is still the superior remake of Super Street Fighter II.

Nail'd is a rollercoaster from the second you load the game. Absurd track designs, insane jumps, and crazy speed, combined with a great soundtrack, will keep you busy for hours at a time. Nail'd may not be even remotely realistic, but it sure is fun, despite minor flaws.