Ashen contributes more hits than misses to the Souls formula, though the overall experience may feel too familiar to fans of FromSoftware's trendsetting series.

Shift 2 has finally created a racing sim that gives car geeks like myself numbers to tweak, but puts the real focus where it belongs, on the visceral joy of actually racing the car.

Borderlands 4 extracts the essence of a finale shootout and spins it across an entire game, with a staggering amount of guns allowing for pure carnage. While the game's story and tone fall far from those heights, at times it simply doesn't matter as much as shooting six robots out of the sky with an electrified explosive gun.

It's not that the story is bad; it's just that the surgeries are so addictive that you’ll be anxious to scrub back in to the O.R. and pick up your scalpel/stylus.

There's no question that Age of Empires III is enjoyable, and the strong multiplayer modes make it worth owning. It's just that it doesn’t strive hard enough to truly usher in a new age of the genre.

The battery packs offer a nice sense of urgency to controlling the vehicles in every stage, because as powerful as the fighter jet or the tank might be, there's a built-in shelf life they have now - you can either return them to the charger in time or risk them self-destructing and therefore waiting a few minutes before you can use them again.

With its riveting story, beautiful visuals and surprisingly lifelike world, Assassin's Creed is an incredibly deep, enjoyable game that kept us addicted from beginning to bizarre end.

Skylanders Superchargers is a competent sequel, but it lacks some of the charm of its predecessors by focusing too much on its collection of vehicles.

It may be over before you want it, but we'd much rather be left wanting more than feeling the game has worn out its welcome. If that's even possible with ilomilo, it sure wasn't obvious to us.

Some players may be put off by the patience Vessel can require, but it offers massive rewards for your time. Solving its puzzles feels like a 1,000 watt light bulb flicking on in your brain.

While it's good to see Nintendo stepping out of its Mario comfort zone, Captain Toad just isn't versatile enough to compete in the big leagues. What would be a budget eShop no-brainer is a little too slight at a higher price.

It’s a winner. So go ahead - grab your books and head back to campus.

Far from the quick-and-dirty update it might have been, Shadows of Valentia is no Awakening, but an enlightening and worthwhile history lesson.

It certainly isn't the first case of a game holding its player's hand too tightly, but thankfully it's a difficult one to dismiss or, indeed, to adjourn.

Building on the excellent cyberpunk parkour of its predecessor, Ghostrunner 2 is the best freerunning game available, despite some ill-advised attempts to push the boundaries of its world

A classy, clean implementation of an old favorite that feels instantly comfortable - and, amazingly enough, at 400 points ($5), it costs about three clams less than a real deck of Unocards.

Despite occasionally falling victim to its own scale, this is a highly polished product that is charming and entertaining in equal measures. The dream-based plot gives Nintendo license to be as creative and insane as they like, which adds up to one of the most inviting game worlds on 3DS so far.

Coast 2 Coast is amazing fun, and for ten bucks, you can’t go wrong.

Azran Legacy doesn’t change much about the Layton formula, but the series stays true to its strengths to the very end.

You've never explored an open world quite like this. Sunset Overdrive's iffy gunplay and inconsistent missions are redeemed by absolutely amazing mobility and an infectious enthusiasm for mayhem.

Marvel Cosmic Invasion finally gives the comic icons the beat 'em up they've so-long deserved. The Marvel Vs Capcom-inspired tag-team combat makes comboing hordes of villains ultra satisfying, but a lack of meaningful character progression and an abundance of MCU-style quipping hold it back from being a true brawler legend.

If not for the ability to man the gas guns or anti-air cannons yourself, Toy Soldiers would merely be another enjoyable, but just satisfactory, addition to a stagnating genre we admittedly can’t get enough of. Because of its innovation, however, and because it works as well as most shooters with similar ideas, Toy Soldiers easily earns its worth.

Life is Strange: Colors effectively leads you through an emotionally impactful story with strong character development through the power of empathy

Crysis was, and still is, a brilliantly designed shooter that anyone who enjoys FPSes should play.

Rage is many things: open-world driving and racing game, meticulously designed first-person shooter, stunning realization of a living post-apocalyptic wasteland, and it does all of these things well. It ends just as the party is really getting going, but even the pre-party is fantastic.

Executing killer spins, tricky drop shots and monster rallies makes Table Tennis a cult-worthy game that breeds unhealthy competition.

As usual, the online-only nature makes for a steep learning curve, but the excellent community that surrounds this game makes RO an even stronger value. For players that are sick of Normandy, put in for a transfer to the Eastern Front - you'll love every minute.

A scientifically fluid refinement of upgraded graphical sheen (PS3 has a slight edge over 360) and unprecedented stylish madness that will harvest some of your most enthusiastic hollers.

Knights of the Nine isn’t in the same league as stellar Morrowind add-ons like "Tribunal" and "Bloodmoon" but any fresh reason to revisit the world of Oblivion once again is all right by us.

Very playable, quite robust, and if you can't find a control scheme you like, you've probably never played a golf game in your life.

Outside of a perfunctory multiplayer mode that's cute so long as you have friends nearby with a 3DS (there's no online play) , Star Fox 64 3D is a fine diversion, but at its full price of $39.99, it isn't a must buy.

In a time when 2D platformers seem to be fading into gaming history, for fans of the SNES it's downright heartwarming to see a sequel that is true to the classic.

Like a real-time strategy on a console or a platformer on the PC, Fireteam Bravo 2 bears the burden of being a great game in the wrong medium. Still, as far as first person shooters go, it’s one of the best we’ve seen on the PSP so far and offers an excellent single player campaign with solid multiplayer action to boot.

A well-written story that doesn’t quite gel together properly and a lack of actual things to do make this a sub-par start to this potentially great sequel.

Spirit of Justice strikes right to the core of what makes Ace Attorney games great: bold, dramatic narrative, a ridiculous sense of humour, and outstanding writing. The first truly superb AA game in years.

Gran Turismo 6 rights almost all of the wrongs of its predecessor to deliver one of the most expansive, beautiful and enjoyable racing simulations ever seen. If only the AI and damage modelling were better, this would be the perfect racing game.

Intentionally prioritising flashy fanservice over competitive play, Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero provides the most complete series toybox yet. But, with simple enemy AI and repetitive fighting mechanics, it lacks the depth of its more serious competition to the point of becoming rote.

Does it live up to the original? Heck no – we said it was impossible, remember? It is a damn fine, "serious" shooter on the Wii, and that's saying something.

One of the finest games available on Xbox Live Arcade, and a fantastic value for 2D slasher fans.

Sifu is a gorgeous, original and intelligent brawler whose self-confidence is leveraged by its masterful ageing mechanic and super tight combat.

Marathon steals the breath from your lungs. An intense shooter that thrives on PvP encounters and a well-realized setting, Bungie's extraction shooter is off to an exceptional start

An intricate, playful Metroidvania set in the worst that League of Legends' universe has to offer, Convergence brings its dystopia to life by knitting weighty platforming together with excellent time-winding combat, and is only held back by its slightly cartoonish take on its source material.

Even when it stumbles, Final Fantasy 15's ambitious open-world, fast-paced combat, and the humanity of its four leads make it a fascinating adventure to behold.

This is easily the best-playing version of Tiger this year. It's just a shame that so much content had to be left out of the bag in order to land this year's shot on the green.

Aaaaa! is a must for any self-respecting armchair thrill-junkie and one of the best indie games of the year.

The stripped down interface makes unit management much more immediate, and the nuanced gameplay, thanks to range of choices at hand, is simple to learn and satisfying to master. The campaign is on the monotonous side, but the engaging multiplayer mode, which lets you compete with players on any other Microsoft device, ensures that you'll always have someone to play against.

With its riveting story, beautiful visuals and surprisingly lifelike world, Assassin's Creed is an incredibly deep, enjoyable game that kept us addicted from beginning to bizarre end.

MLB 14: The Show continues to set the gold standard for console baseball, with an excellent single-player experience. Here's hoping that one day Sony will figure out how to get its online modes working.

Civilization: Beyond Earth may seem a bit too familiar for a game supposedly set on a distant planet, but the roving packs of aliens and the new quest system make it an expedition worth embarking on.

It might not make a great first impression, but it’s going to be awfully hard, even this early in the year, to find a downloadable game that can offer this much content. You’ll always find more and more excuses to just keep digging away.

As beautiful as it is deadly, Origins’ Egyptian playground is finally everything you wanted the Creed to be.

Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred demonstrates that Blizzard Entertainment is following the right path with its ever-evolving action-RPG. The addition of a new region and class breathe new life into Sanctuary, and smart changes to progression and core systems only improve the baseline experience further. The story could have been more impactful, but this expansion still offers a journey worth taking.

And if EA manages to add more defensive options and sturdier motion tracking, Wii could become the best place to play Madden in years.

Whether it's through the broad strokes of the brilliantly judged puzzling and flawless control or via the delicate flecks which make up the finer detail – try playing around with the background scenery to see just how much Enril can mess about with – the sheer joy of playing LostWinds is undeniable.

All of this gameplay does come at a price: There are extremely long loading times to suffer through before each entrance video, before the actual match, and after the match is over.

A fantastic game. It approaches puzzle solving in a very open-ended manner that increases the game's replay value dramatically and the overall novelty from the first title continues to entertain in this sequel with the new adjectives system.

Skyward Sword HD gives one of the most misunderstood Legend of Zelda games a second chance. It's an under-appreciated gem, one that finds the space to really breathe with a more reliable and relaxing method of control embedded within it. Skyward Sword has its fair share of problems, but it makes up for many of them in moments of true brilliance and defiance against established series conventions. Say what you will about Skyward Sword, but it's good to be out on an authored adventure with Link again – saving Hyrule one inventive dungeon and challenging boss battle at a time.

Muramasa will stand out on Wii, shining as one more ray of inspiration to other developers who have passed on Wii for good.

Amalur does a lot of things better than some of the best out there. The combat is stronger than Skyrim's by a long shot, and the world feels more alive than games like Fable. It tells a good story well, and lays the foundation for a series we hope to see more of in the future, fate be damned.

It's not often that a stalwart franchise like this reinvents itself so significantly, but Madden NFL 13 has pulled this off with aplomb. Brimming with innovation on the field and off, it's the best Madden of the generation.

Poker Smash is one of the best puzzle games you’ll find on Live Arcade, and for a mere 800 points, you just can’t go wrong.

With more modes than you can shake a stick at and a rock-solid core basketball engine, it's a superb experience that collegiate hoopsters won't be able to tear themselves away from - even as they shake their fists in rage.

Naturally I couldn't resist the chance to revisit Avowed a year on, with the PS5 launch giving me the perfect excuse. But I don't feel like I'm repeating history by replaying the same game at the exact same time in 2026, because its big anniversary update alongside its release on Sony's console really does change things for the better – and after sinking 20 hours into a fresh playthrough, I've never been more convinced that now's the time to play Obsidian's RPG (no matter what platform you're on).

It’s clear that Monaco is a labor of love, from the meticulously detailed levels to the quirky art style and devilishly complex experience. Clearly, it’s possible to be inspired by many unrelated influences that yield an original, delightful, and frenetic outcome; Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine is living proof.

Ambition may have outstripped ability, but there's no doubt that fans of the series will find much to love about this entry, flawed as any of the rest of them. That's the best we could have hoped for.

By sticking to its roots, Midnight Club Los Angeles may not be a master of innovation, but as one of the most polished, finely honed and adrenaline-filled racing games, you won’t find any that do it better.

All this administrative juggling also takes its toll on a story that's hard enough to follow even when it has your full attention. With a cast of characters that can be difficult to tell apart, crucial details buried in reams of documents, and a penchant for surreal interludes, it takes some work to keep up with the haunting undercurrent of Signalis. At times it does seem worth the effort, because there are intriguing themes burrowing away behind the scenes. But then you find a key that prompts yet another trek across the current area, and perhaps it doesn't after all.

Moonlighter manages to perfectly balance the best bits of Stardew Valley, Dark Souls and Binding of Isaac for a game that just keeps you coming back for more.

Ultimately, Ultros is a deceptively deep and mechanical Metroidvania driven by its eye-watering psychedelic vibes. It's not easy to do something that feels unique and fresh in video games, especially within a genre that's thriving at the moment. With this in mind, I don't think I've ever played a game like Ultros, and for that alone it's worth recommending. I certainly haven't written the words "cosmic uterus-based horticulture" in anything I've published before, and, surely, will never do so again.

If you're willing to put a little effort into learning the rules and nuances of Catan, you'll be rewarded with potentially endless amounts of strategic board game bliss. Although the AI opponents are remarkably interesting to play with, your Catan experience will hinge on getting your real friends to play with you.

Planet Zoo is a complex, deep simulation game with too much to give, if you can get past the minimalist tutorials.

Despite continuing gripes about the not-so-perfect controls, ordinary visuals, and screaming fans that you only hear and never see, Tiger Woods 09 shapes up as the best golf title yet for the Wii. There’s plenty to do and just about anyone can grab a club and jump right in.

Oh how we wish that the PS3 Madden were as smooth as its 360 cousin. It's not all bad, of course, and there's a bevy of stuff to do across scads of modes to take up plenty of time. Unfortunately, the distinctly inferior product for Sony's pricey console will likely serve as yet more fodder for never ending flame wars.

A polished and refined instalment that values your time more than the previous games and keeps the focus on entertaining you throughout.

Some of the humor errs on the side of cornball, but the charm, vaguely sleazy trappings and surreal violence of the Sam & Max comics are more intact here than in any other adaptation thus far.

The game is challenging, visually stunning and is truly a unique experience not found anywhere else. Although you can use the controller, playing with the Move and its use of vibration makes the PS3 version of the game truly a unique experience.

A triumphant return for the strategy series, and well worth the wait.

SteamWorld Heist 2 is a great sequel. While retaining the aiming system and side-on perspective that made the original a joy, it features a generously redesigned class system and new overworld to explore. However, old problems with mission repetition and stingy XP rewards deter you from experimenting with classes, pulling the game down from excellence.

It's a well-made game that you can try again and again with numerous heroes and their plethora of powers. If you're a comic-book fan, this is probably the most satisfying videogame ever made for you.

With the long-overdue additions of a story-creation mode and an online community, SvR2010 is a massive step forward for the series’ already-rich feature set, while still continuing the steady improvement of its in-ring fundamentals.

The Pathless switches effortlessly between relaxing exploration and exhilarating story moments, and it's altogether incredible.

Constance is a beautiful and enjoyable Metroidvania that doesn't outstay its welcome. Filler free, the game instead throws plenty of well-designed and enjoyable boss fights at you, interspersed with tight, challenging platforming action. It follows the formula too closely to make it remarkable, but what it does it does with charm and flair. And the ending is a 'chef's kiss' moment.

The progression of nearly every story element is handled with almost mathematical precision. The results are gaming-by-numbers, but the whole is a hell of a lot of fun.

It has flashes of brilliance, but overall presents a shallow experience with gameplay unworthy of the 360's potential.

It's a damned impressive game by PSP standards, and if you're looking for a deep, brutal, high-quality PSP brawler with lots of variety and short load times, then you're not going to find one that's better than this.

Tag matches still feel like handicap matches, mainly owing to the fact that your AI-controlled partner doesn't actually do all that much, even when you call for help.

So those of us who aren't down with the difficulty level are going to want to play a game that utilizes the Xbox 360's potential with a balanced difficulty level that compliments the solid gameplay - and thereby restore self esteem - leaving Itagaki's insatiable bloodlust to the hardcore crowd that loves it so.

Great God Grove's system that has you sucking up speech bubbles remains novel throughout, with plenty of quirky characters and stories to uncover. With some fantastic highpoints, some more straightforward areas will have you yearning for a bit more depth.

The long-awaited remake of Like a Dragon: Ishin delivers an exciting and frequently gorgeous new setting to explore, a more rewarding combat system, and some of the best side quests and minigames in the series to date. Don't let the katanas fool you, this is the Yakuza you know and love at its very best.

Stellar Blade is more ambitious and varied than expected, but also about as clunky as expected, resulting in a stilted action RPG with a level of jank that you just have to accept. Meet it on its terms, and either tune out or embrace the odd sexual veneer, and it's a solid 20 to 30 hours of fun.

This massive, wonderfully diverse Call of Duty theme park is best enjoyed with a friend (or three). Going alone dampens the fun, but either way it's still worth the price of admission.

Nothing else has ever paired high tension with complete silliness like this, and Fall Guys reveals we should've been doing it a long time ago.

Until you've cleared route A in under four minutes you can never truly say that you've lived.

We can whine about how it might not be the best shmup we've ever played, but the best shmup we've ever played probably didn't cost $2, and Commander P. Jefferson's space odyssey is easily worth that to anyone who wants to shoot stuff throughout the universe.

That parade of cathartic moments still makes God of War 3 worth playing, especially given the vividness and eye-popping destruction woven into every major battle. It peaks and drags and peaks and drags, sure, but God of War at its high point was never going to be sustainable.

With strong combat and a fascinating world that mostly rewards exploration, Black Myth: Wukong is a fun action RPG that feels like the modern God of War games viewed through the lens of Chinese mythology.

It's hard to believe that any two-year-old game could be livened up this much with an expansion pack, but Big Huge Games has pulled off this trick just about perfectly with The Asian Dynasties. While the core gameplay is still recognizable, this is a great facelift that makes an old friend look young again.

Beast-hunting will test your reflexes while cooking them up will tease your brain, and Battle Chef Brigade's upbeat attitude and stylish looks will have you smiling the whole way through.