An unpretentious, sharp-edged thrill of a skill-based shooter. And we haven't said that in quite some time. [Issue#135, p.123]

It's a slow starter, then, but you'll struggle to find a game this year that offers quite so much as Terraria. [Issue#135, p.122]

It's the epitome of an average game and one of the most disappointing 3DS releases of recent times. [Issue#135, p.121]

It’s easy enough to ignore the terrible story and get on with what Defiance does best: letting you bask in the glory of marauding through a vast open world with an army of players sitting (silently) by your side.

Online play, pleasingly, holds up its end of the bargain. [Issue#135, p.118]

The surprisingly lengthy co-op mode does not experience this fatigue, and coupled with the replayability of the other multiplayer options means there's a lot of fun to be had. [Issue#135, p.117]

At once unforgivably terrible and accidentally brilliant, Deadly Premonition remains a gaming anomaly. And no amount of directorial cutting is going to change that. [Issue#135, p.115]

While an enjoyable story awaits the dedicated, many will struggle to move past the uninspired design, repetitive puzzles and simplified combat that makes up the bulk of the game's content. [Issue#135, p.113]

At its core, this is the same game we've played before. [Issue#135, p.112]

Riptide is full of the juddering frame-rate, buggy environments and unwieldy frame-rate, buggy environments and unwieldy collision detection that plagued its predecessor; it makes it feel and handle like a very long piece of DLC. [Issue#135, p.110]

It's as if the developer simply ceased to care, or ran out of time, or both. Who knows? What we do know is that Terminal Velocity has crafted something truly loathsome and undeserving of its heritage. [Issue#135, p.108]

As an entry into a series that has failed to realise its potential, this is safe and dare we say it, also a bit boring. [Issue#135, p.106]

There's a good fighting game here, one that'll support drunken post-pub scraps as well as tournament play, but Injustice: Gods Among Us doesn't quite match up to its stellar NetherRealm predecessor. [Issue#135, p.104]

4A Games wear its influences on its sleeve, creating a first-person shooter of robust standard. Yet it gives little consideration to progression – in both terms of furthering either the genre or its own formula. Many of the mechanics that have survived the original game return stripped back in a misguided attempt to placate complexity criticisms, rather than exploring methods that retain strategy and heighten the overall immersion.

It’s not the best 2D adventure to be found on PlayStation systems, but it’s a wonderful example of Sony’s dedication to bringing new and independent experiences to the hands of its gamers.

It is a game that has been crafted with care, love and attention and is the perfect antidote to the usual mainstream fare of guns, graphics and gore.

Persevere beyond the obfuscation and awkwardness of the opening act and everything begins to click into place: your finely-tuned vessel becomes a labour of pride, and deliberating how best to distribute tokens rewarded post-conflicts – the in-game currency used to build, staff and upgrade facilities – becomes genuinely involving.

While a few technical hiccups do occasionally spoil the party – there’s a touch of latency in the jumping controls and the odd little bug that makes matters a touch confusing – there’s so little to fault in Bithell’s striking debut. This is a game to admire, to enjoy and evangelise; a thoroughly English slice of indie magic that is every bit as accomplished as anything with a budget and a team. If this truly is the year of the indie, then long may it continue.

As the game shifts from its early crew introductions, it’s obvious that the layers of game mechanics underlying the experience are either incompetent or awkwardly implemented. For instance, stealth is required in a handful of missions, but the act of navigating between cover is frustratingly cumbersome, occasionally exacerbated by your partner claiming the next vital protection point.

Fire Emblem: Awakening is as good as anything Nintendo has produced in the last five years, and as such is very, very special indeed.

Year Walk is also presented in a linear visual fashion that, though it is used effectively, creates a repetitive and – if you’re able to rush past its puzzles – rather short experience. But none of this should take away from what is a monumental and truly frightening game that packs more innovation and ideas into the horror genre than we’ve seen from ‘traditional’ games for some time.

Gears Of War: Judgment comes across as an enjoyable stopgap in a series that seems unsure where it’s supposed to go next. This is more of the same with a few new features thrown in for good measure. But when the same equates to arguably the best cover-based shooter on the market, it’s hard to be too judgemental.

Next Level has found a way to return gamers to the world of Luigi’s Mansion in a way that manages to retain its predecessor’s charm, one that doesn’t take the technical and mechanical aspects for granted. More perfectly than they could have hoped, Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon fully executes Nintendo’s original vision.

Infinite is as lavish as it is cerebral, as difficult as it is accessible. It’ll be many different things to many different people, and it will be discussed, dissected and deified for many years to come...So, when will gaming have its Citizen Kane moment? Forget that. When will anything else have its BioShock Infinite moment?

Psycho aside, it’s hard to be engaged by the narrative, and not only because it’s standard sci-fi fodder. Blatant clues as to the story’s direction mean most players will have pieced together the plot’s deeper mysteries long before they are formerly unveiled. Meanwhile, optional audio logs that dig deeper into the lore can only be played via a static menu screen, necessitating a break from the action to listen to a minute or two of laboured exposition.

With Sony so laser-focused on the multiplayer component since Ascension was announced, we were understandably worried that the single-player side of things may end up a rote retread of old ground. But we’ve never been so happy to be proven wrong, and from its gorgeous visual and evolved combat to its lavish presentation and tight pacing, this is arguably the best God Of War yet.

Initially some of the decisions surrounding SimCity’s mechanics may seem frustrating, especially for diehard fans of the series, but give it time and you’ll realise – in spite of all of this – this is actually the best SimCity game yet.

There’s an awful lot to like about Tomb Raider. It takes the gameplay Uncharted has used to such great effect (which was, of course, nicked from Tomb Raider in the first place), and replaces wise-cracking gentleman-thief Nathan Drake with this new damaged Lara Croft, one of the most involving characters seen in a computer game to date.