If you’re happy with more of the same, don’t mind the repetitive encounters with Hartman, and are prepared to face a wildly fluctuating difficulty level, then you’ll possibly enjoy AWE. It’s not all bad – it just pales in comparison to the standard set by the main campaign. If you’re a fan of Alan Wake, the few glimpses of him that are included and the overall story will prove to be the main draw, but that’s not quite good enough. Gameplay-wise, AWE is simply inferior to The Foundation, and is perhaps the low point of the Control experience.

Necromunda: Underhive Wars is actually a pretty decent strategy RPG once you dig into it. It does itself a great disservice by simply being obscure and steering you towards its boring story mode from the outset, but go against it and create your own gang and you’ll find an experience that is hugely rewarding. There is still the issue of its turtle’s pace to overcome though – hopefully developer Rogue Factor can patch in an option to speed up the gameplay when you’re watching the CPU.

It’s my least favourite of the Shovel Knight entries, but with the bar raised so high, that doesn’t mean that King of Cards isn’t worth your time. Plus, if you already own Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove you get it included in that for free anyway, so you may as well give it a go. I feel like Shovel Knight: King of Cards is going to be like Marmite: some will love it and others will hate it. Though “hate” might be too strong a word. Rather they just won’t be as enamoured with it as other Shovel Knight releases.

Most players will probably blast through Redout: Space Assault in just a few hours. It’s a game that doesn’t try to do anything special, but it provides enough entertainment, particularly if you enjoy some arcade-style space-shooting action. And for less than a tenner, that’s fair enough.

Surgeon Simulator 2 has merit as a multiplayer experience, more so if you can get a gin-sodden group of friends involved. But as a single-player game, you’ll find it’s a repetitive step backwards from Surgeon Simulator’s manic shenanigans.

If you’re already previously invested in Operation Babel: New Tokyo Legacy‘s universe, characters and gameplay, then I’m sure there’s a lot to like here. However, for a newcomer to the series, the lack of tutorials is frustrating, the environments and world are visually bland, and the gameplay loop not engaging enough to make me want to come back for more.

Is Taxi Chaos going to blow you away? Of course not, but it is pretty decent. You won’t care for its soundtrack, its visuals won’t wow you, and its handling is as simple as can be. Blasting around New Yellow City while picking up passengers and dropping them off at their desired locations is fun though, while pro mode is highly rewarding for those who learn the ins and outs of the game’s map. So, if you’re after something to scratch that Crazy Taxi itch, Taxi Chaos may well be of interest to you.

Beyond a Steel Sky still comes off as rushed and sometimes disjointed, with more than a few rough edges. Right up until the final ten minutes I could swear I was only halfway through the game. It’s still worth the trip if you’re a fan of the original, but Beyond a Steel Sky’s flawed journey doesn’t go far enough to truly recommend.

As long as you go into Tandem: A Tale of Shadows not expecting a riveting tale or a high level of polish, chances are you’ll have an enjoyable time with it. As puzzles games go, it doesn’t feel entirely original – Shady Part of Me offered a somewhat similar experience earlier in the year – but there’s enough here to keep those who like to put their thinking caps on entertained for a fair while.

Jydge has been found guilty of conspicuous padding and needless repetition, and my sentence will see it placed in a comfy resort prison with all the other decent games when it could have walked free this very day as one of the good ones. Let this serve as a warning to all other perpetrators who would seek to increase value through nothing more than a shallow investment of time.

Damsel is far from being a bad game. It looks nice, controls well, and has a decent soundtrack. But its moment-to-moment action grows tiresome when played for a considerable length of time.

Henry Halfhead is a novel idea, putting you in control of a half-headed man who can possess the items around him. It's both a sandbox and a narrative experience, although some sections can be as dull as the parts of our life they're supposed to represent.

While it pales in comparison to classics of the genre, if you’re after a new and very colourful 2D platforming shooter to sink some time into, you can do a lot worse than OmegaBot. It has some frustrations and sometimes feels a little repetitive or drawn out, but at its core lies entertaining gameplay that’s easy to pick up.

Green Game: TimeSwapper fails to introduce anything new, in terms of gameplay, to help differentiate itself from being just another generic puzzle game.

Indeed putting you in control of a gun-toting rodent, Squirrel with a Gun lets you lose in a suburban sandbox. There's plenty of platforming, shooting and puzzle solving to be done as you explore and collect the acorns required to make progress, and you can take things at your own pace. It's just a shame that it doesn't fulfill its potential due to a number of issues.

If you’re in the market for a good old-fashioned stealth adventure, El Hijo – A Wild West Tale is certainly worth a look – just don’t expect it to wow you in any way. Its charm, while initially strong, soon starts to wear thin, while its repetitive gameplay may eventually struggle to hold your attention. Throw in some unnecessary frustrations, and you have a game that will occasionally delight, but rarely truly impress.

If you love 2D action RPGs such as the aforementioned Odin Sphere or Salt and Sanctuary, Lost Epic may be worth taking a punt on, especially considering its modest price. It has its issues but some players will find them easier to look past than others, and there’s one thing for sure: it looks beautiful. Just don’t expect it to blow you away, and Lost Epic will eat up hours of your time. But chances are you won’t remember it when you’re done.

Don’t go into it with lofty expectations, and Konami Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection will serve you just fine.

As it stands, Stories of Bethem: Full Moon is a rather average adventure game that plays it a little too safe.

As remasters go, Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered does the bare minimum to keep a cult classic relevant while simultaneously presenting it to a new audience.

If you like stealth, definitely give Intruders a shot, but there are certainly better horror games out there.

If you’re up for a challenge, then Double Pug Switch certainly does offer that. It’s nicely presented, too; the short animated story scenes telling the tale of Otis, Whiskers and the scientist, are a welcome touch. As are the purely cosmetic hats you can place on Otis’ little puggy head. It’s short and utterly brutish in its difficulty, but if you like equal amounts of cuteness and cruelty in your games, then look no further. Especially considering its pocket-money price.

Despite my issues with the game though, my time with Elex isn’t over just yet. I do enjoy the world and the concept, so I am willing to see what else the game has to offer in this respect. It’s just unfortunate that the game’s combat and presentation haven’t received as much attention. Elex needed much more time in the oven to be the game its promising previews made it seem to be, and with the dearth of games available this winter, I can’t recommend it to anyone but the most hardcore fans of the genre.

While this review may sound very negative, you can have some fun with The Dark Pictures Anthology: Switchback VR. The problem is, we just expected it to be better. While we didn’t find it scary at all, some might. We at least appreciated that a number of its scenarios put us under pressure. It’s perhaps apt that it puts you on a rollercoaster, as like a real rollercoaster ride it’s full of highs and lows, both technically and mechanically. At the end of the day, there are better on-rails shooters available on PSVR 2 already. And the unique elements on offer here just aren’t accomplished enough to draw us away from them.

If I had to suggest just a few things to improve this game, they would be to shrink everything down so the fun bits are packed together more tightly, let us use the warp crystals from the start and make standard enemies die in three hits. There’s a great game hidden somewhere here, but it’s stretched so thin I have to squint hard to see it.

Like the real thing, Way of the Hunter is a game that rewards patience and persistence. Yet since it doesn’t bog itself down with trying to provide the most realistic experience that’s possible, it’s quite possibly the most accessible hunting game on the market. It’s enjoyable, too, if you’re into this sort of thing, but a lack of polish will pull you out of it from time to time and possibly frustrate. Still, if you’re after a game that lets you wander through the outdoors and occasionally test your shooting skills, this is worth considering.

An unfortunately lengthy adventure with some fantastic characters, an intriguing narrative, and a simple but enjoyable strategic battle system. However, some abysmal design choices – namely, a lack of balance between visual novel and battle sections and a horrendous amount of bland filler content – severely tarnish the overall experience.

Samurai Shodown is a good fighting game. It really is. But the Switch version’s framerate issues, long loading times, and blurry visuals stacking on top of the existing lack of content and modes, however, its cost is a large pill to swallow. If you’ve got money to burn you’ll certainly get some joy out of it, but with fighters like Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late[cl-r] now available on Switch, it could be better spent elsewhere.