Project Spark could collapse without a more robust curation system to highlight the creations that need playing. [Issue#154, p.118]

A fun puzzle game with shoot 'em up sensibilities. [Issue#154, p.114]

Offline play is especially satisfying. [Issue#154, p.113]

A title solely for those who really want to relive the 2014 F1 season. [Issue#154, p.112]

Difficulty aside, another significant problem is that the game's camera is an inexplicable blockhead. [Issue#154, p.108]

The Evil Within isn’t a return to the genre’s roots or a reinvention, but an exercise in reliving its greatest hits. It’s disappointing that Mikami has lost the wind behind his sails and there seems to be genuine creative apathy here. Nonetheless, The Evil Within is an enjoyable horror romp. It’s a shame it couldn’t be more.

We expect good gunplay and loot from a Borderlands game, and we still got that with The Pre-Sequel. But by expecting a little more, we seem to have set ourselves up for disappointment. Strewth.

PES is stronger than it’s ever been, but it still has a way to go.

The game suffers from a few technical hiccups in frame rates and broken quests, but there’s a wealth of content here waiting to be unleashed by your own imagination.

An enjoyable adventure, but it’s really starting to show signs of fatigue.

A few less serious forms of racing would do a lot to improve to the experience and catapult it into the same realm as the greatest of arcade racers, but what’s on offer represents a commendable attempt at changing the way we think about how competition is served in a racing game.

There’s a depth of content here that matches the game’s undoubted class, and ensures Playground Games is a genuine powerhouse in the world of digital racing. Forza Horizon 2 is a gorgeous, confident and relentlessly gratifying drive, and easily the best first-party exclusive on Xbox One.

Its series of interconnected systems are well balanced and while some of them will feel disappointingly familiar to series veterans, there’s sufficient diversity and flexibility here to feed the series ongoing evolution.

Ultimately, this is a run-of-the-mill dating sim that, while fun, is a hard game to love. [Issue#153, p.125]

This is RPG lite, Animal Crossing plus questing, and for some people that's absolutely fine. [Issue#153, p.124]

It wears its heart on its sleeve and has a decent stab at striking a fine balance between the sublime and the ridiculous. [Issue#153, p.123]

A refined, smarter version. [Issue#153, p.122]

First Light struggles to display any new ideas. [Issue#153, p.120]

A superb update to an already great game. [Issue#153, p.114]

Its best feature is still its protagonist. [Issue#153, p.112]

After so many years of trying, EA has, with the exception of a few little missteps, finally gotten player AI right and created a fast, fluid football experience that looks and feels like the real thing. This will go down as the year that EA finally ticked all the boxes.

Super Smash Bros. for 3DS does an immaculate job of bringing Nintendo’s beloved fighting game to the handheld system and has packs in the best character roster and feature list to date, but the shortfalls of its hardware prevent it from reaching greater heights. It’s the perfect Smash Bros. game on an imperfect console.

A near-perfect action game, then, and a irrefutable reason to own a Wii U.

It’s a fantastic game; an echo of the past that simultaneously feels (in the most part) contemporary, and a game made with such a clear love, passion and vision behind it that you can’t help but feel its 26-year gestation period actually helped.

In many ways The Sims 4 is a beginning, its core foundation of functions playing their parts beautifully. But in others it feels like a step back, like a set of systems designed around future expansion in mind and not providing the necessary wealth of options from the start.

Nothing like it has been done on console before, and we have to respect Bungie – and Activision – for that.

The highest compliment that you can pay Creative Assembly’s uncompromising, nerve-plucking and lengthy entry in the Alien canon is that even without any prior knowledge of its source material, Alien: Isolation is superb.

A hugely entertaining, tongue-in-cheek and fulsome experience, it’s a worthy expedition whether you’re a Rings fan or not.

While it's not likely to satisfy anyone looking for deep fighting action, existing fans will be pleased with what's on offer. [Issue#152, p.123]

The attention to detail in both art direction and audio design is admirable, and it's decent value for money. [Issue#152, p.122]

Ultimately, you can only drive where you're supposed to drive - something we never expected to say about a Crazy Taxi game. [Issue#152, p.120]

A basic campaign may have been a good addition when away from the Wi-Fi. [Issue#152, p.119]

Beige. [Issue#152, p.119]

The game taper[s] off into mediocrity after a few hours. [Issue#152, p.118]

The price is hard to fault, the work put in is outstanding, and the games themselves are damn-near essential. [Issue#152, p.117]

The increased level of challenge will be welcomed by those already "done" with the main game. [Issue#152, p.116]

The poor AI becomes increasingly apparent and even more of a chore upon completing the campaign. [Issue#152, p.114]

While Hyrule Warriors might want for modes and options compared to recent entries, it more than compensates with the variety of its roster, subtle refinements to its systems, and that extra layer of Nintendo polish. Against all odds, it works beautifully. [Issue#152, p.102]

It's a focused, exhilarating, interesting and rewarding shooter.

New ‘N’ Tasty is exactly what it claims to be: a new experience still instantly familiar to anyone that played the original, and vital playing for those that didn’t. Oddworld was a defining presence on the Playstation, and New ‘N’ Tasty will remain a defining experience on the new generation of consoles, too. It’s a pleasure to see a remaster done so well.

Don’t venture into Hohokum hoping to understand what it’s all about, just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Levels are exercises in banal repetition. [Sept 2014, p.106]

Firefall quickly wears out its welcome; beaten to the punch by games like Tribes Ascend and the aforementioned Planetside 2. There’s still space for a PvE focused take on open world combat, and in time, this could well fill it. For now though, it’s a few well engineered systems in search of a game that fully deserves them.

Mechanically, this is a game that is worth your time investment. [Sept 2014, p.128]

The goalposts are moved without warning. [Sept 2014, p.127]

Light ends up feeling like a proof of concept, an unfinished prototype with some decent ideas that either lack depth or don't quite hit the mark. Ultimately, strong aesthetics can't compensate for that. [Sept 2014, p.126]

A merely serviceable afterthought. [Sept 2014, p.125]

Konami may have created the most robust digital version of its popular CCG yet, but it has married it to a distinct lack of gameplay modes and player interaction. [Sept 2014, p.123]

The central mechanic barely works. [Sept 2014, p.122]

It's hardly a disgrace to the Tales name, but there are other games within the series we'd far sooner recommend. [Sept 2014, p.120]

If you're in the mood for a soft, sombre trip to another world, consider this for your next. [Sept 2014, p.116]

A rare gem that takes the time to commemorate a tragedy, exploring its human cost in a way that's both meaningful and moving, and relying upon core interactions that are mostly about helping others rather than harming them. [Sept 2014, p.114]

The Swapper manages to be both a perfect example of ‘genre fiction’ (it’s a sci-fi experience up there with Moon, Solaris or Alien), it also manages to make itself an exemplar of a ‘genre game’ – a puzzler so fresh in its ideas, yet so widely familiar, that no matter how you like your brain to get picked at, The Swapper will satisfy you.

We're hard-pressed to see how anything is going to come along and top this in the immediate future. [Sept 2014, p.108]

Like any good arcade game, it's best enjoyed in short bursts. [Sept 2014, p.107]

Shovel Knight is all about learning patterns. [Sept 2014, p.106]

To judge Enemy Front as a sum of its parts reveals it to be an FPS fraud - a pretender. [Sept 2014, p.104]

It may lack an ambitious single-player campaign but this value for money proposition serves to highlight that sometimes less really can be more. [Sept 2014, p.98]

The whole experience isn’t awful, just thoroughly uninspiring; a box of biscuits where some are moldy and all are digestive. It’s fun to be a pirate, but it’s far, far more fun elsewhere, with Risen 3 once again struggling and failing to rise above anything but its own mediocrity.

Randomly generated puzzles results in increased replayability, but it also means a lack of variety – and that forms the ultimate demise of Road Not Taken when it is so clear there is a direction, an end goal, a climax. Original and novel it is, but there just simply isn’t enough reward to keep you going against the odds.

It’s an elegantly detailed and calculated puzzle-adventure that throws players into an office-clerk nightmare of pie charts and statistics with the only means of escape is some good ol’ fashioned thinking. It’s a strong contender for the best puzzle game of the year so far and, if nothing else, will leave you marvelling at the sheer beauty of its unified ambition.

It’s hard to understand why the game exists. Did Gaiman desperately want to attach himself to an ugly, boring puzzle game? Did the Odd Gentleman really think this was the best way to display his work? It’s more of a mystery than the actual story of Wayward Manor itself.

Rise Of The Dark Spark feels rushed: a mess of half-baked ideas and sloppy execution that’s put Transformers on the same track as the Spider-Man games, approaching the point of no return.

Considering the scope of its predecessors and how far the genre has come since the series’ inception a decade ago, that’s as unnecessary as it is unwelcome. Still, there’s potential here and approached with the right mindset and a group of friends there’s some fun to be had. Streamline your expectations, in other words, and you’re more likely to view Sacred 3 as slick rather than shallow.

Worth experiencing, but there are better-made horror games around. [Issue#150, p.127]

Upgrades and changes make it a worthy upgrade over last year's, but while it might be an easy race for Milestone to win it still needs to put a little extra work in the garage to turn the series into a must-buy. [Issue#150, p.126]

Newcomers are in for a real treat. [Issue#150, p.124]

The gameplay mechanics are uninspired and borderline on being broken entirely. [Issue#150, p.123]

It feels almost like a full sequel. [Issue#150, p.122]

In truth, it's an average game, with the music and the presentation proposing a more dramatic and meaningful experience than is actually manifested in the gameplay. [Issue#150, p.118]

It's a little dull - particularly without PvP - but shouting "danger zone" at the top of your lungs will no doubt alleviate some of the mundanity. [Issue#150, p.116]

The first great sniper-themed shooter still hasn’t arrived.

Even with some customisation offered in the realms of online, the whole package still feels like a selection of disparate parts with no real core holding it all together.

While WildStar might not be nearly as 'big' or brash as it would like to think it is, the beauty of potential is that one day it may well end up that way. [Issue#150, p.109]

While the Walking Dead demonstrated the potency of interactive fiction, there are times here where Telltale struggles to dispel a disquieting notion: that The Wolf Among Us doesn’t necessarily benefit from the player’s involvement.

Childish, bright and gaudy - but great fun! [Issue#149, p.127]

It has all the scope and style of a triple-A release but combined with the craftsmanship and pride that can only be found in the independent market. [Issue#149, p.126]

Shows some potential, but ultimately uninspiring. [Issue#149, p.122]

An engaging game for kids, but no more than that. [Issue#149, p.121]

If the game left less to chance, perhaps we'd be somewhat more ready to join their ranks. [Issue#149, p.120]

It builds to a highly satisfying and visually stunning conclusion. [Issue#149, p.119]

Certainly different and endearing, but struggles to keep up with the initial momentum. [Issue#149, p.116]

The story, writing and the role-playing part of the game is distinctly previous-gen play, if not older.

For the hardcore audience it’s aimed at, it is a logical end point to an important series and for new recruits, it’s the definitive version of a landmark game.

There’s a good game at EA Sports UFC’s core, it’s just a shame that it’s not as seamless in its delivery as we’d hoped it would be.

Always Sometimes Monsters again shows up that ‘game’ is a word whose time is done. There is nothing playful about this experience – it’s a mixture of repetitive tasks that riddle your fingers with despair and increasingly-depressing plots. This then is a ‘life failure’ simulator, like Cliff Harris’s sandbox Kudos 2. Like that, it’s compelling, enlightening and moving – but hard to call ‘fun’.

It’s a shame that poor execution lets Entwined down so badly. The themes being explored here have the potential to be touching and are, unquestionably, underrepresented in videogames.

There’s a beauty on the game’s surface, but it doesn’t let you get deep enough for its payoff to truly strike home. Transistor is a game conscientious gamers will want to love. It’s clearly a work of true vision and artistic intent, backed up with skilfully constructed systems.

Super Time Force is a quirky mix of good, old-fashioned shooting fun, blended with more than a pinch of thinking power – but it proves to be a perfect combination.

What it is, though, is a supremely well- made open world game with some great new ideas and a really intriguing sense of paranoia and technological fear.

There's a steep learning curve in place after the tutorials. [Issue#148, p.129]

The animation and art direction of the entire Short Peace box is superb. [Issue#148, p.128]

It doesn't justify the time investment. [Issue#148, p.127]

Narrowly surpasses its predecessor. [Issue#148, p.126]

It is strong when it comes to emulating cricket, and gameplay mechanics are better than anything we've seen from cricket games over the last few years. However, the so-called "budget" feel that permeates the title detracts from an otherwise decent effort. [Issue#148, p.125]

Rather than being encouraged to play, it often feels like Bandai Namco is actively discouraging you from Lost Swords. [Issue#148, p.124]

It's a mile-long love letter to the fans. [Issue#148, p.120]

This is a high-quality platformer packed with variety - if you don't mind a pushover, you'll find plenty to like. [Issue#148, p.119]