Years of waiting, and we're presented with a title that still feels unfinished. Gran Turismo 5's main frustrations come from the fact that, at times, the game is entertaining and a joy to play. At other times, it had us questioning if Polyphony understand what the current generation of consoles are capable of.

Boasts enough variety to keep it consistently entertaining, and so that you never know where you will end up.

Whilst the Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom may not be everyone’s cup of tea it is a quirky and whimsical jaunt through the mind of a man addicted to pies and probably well worth a look for anyone wanting a change from the endless FPS cavalcade.

As it is, you've got an above average third person torch-'em-up that's still got issues and will take some getting used to with the old mouse sensitivity issues.

Our conclusive advice is to avoid the single player in anything but very small doses when your chums aren't around and stick to the co-op almost exclusively.

Stray is at its best when it lets you do the things you’d expect from a cat – sleeping on cozy pillows, meowing, or scratching sofas – but fails to build consistently compelling gameplay around these flavorful bits. Although it creates a believable world, I found it hard to connect with the robots you encounter across its forgotten city, making the game’s admittedly grand climax feel hollow…There’s plenty of attention to detail going into certain areas, but once the credits rolled, I was disappointed to see the cat I played as was just a vessel through which I experienced someone else’s story…Stray works and runs smoothly but is ultimately a fairly inoffensive game with a handful of special moments, that also happens to have a cat as its leading character. You can do much worse, but you can also do much better.

A Plague Tale: Requiem's trump card is the variety of gameplay sequences between which it alternates. At its best, it spices up the original's stealth action-adventure formula with new ways of eliminating foes or holding rats at bay. At its worst, it has you slogging through tedious or frustrating stealth sections. This is a sequel that's bigger, longer, and worth playing if you're invested in Amicia and Hugo's story. But while it successfully avoids repetition, a lack of truly interesting gameplay mechanics alongside disappointing optimization that makes controlling Amicia feel unnecessarily clunky at times hamper the overall experience at launch.

If you like the series, or enjoy games like Dead or Alive, then this new addition is something that you may enjoy. On the flip side however, the fact that it's very similar to these games might mean that it's not worth the extra cash.

In the end, Combat Evolved Anniversary is a strange package. Its campaign feels half hearted, neither fully remaking nor preserving the original game.

Four expansions in, it finally feels like World of Warcraft is slowing down. Unless you're currently sitting at 85, even pandas aren't going to bring you back into this one.

If you have a console, get Pro Evo 2015 on that. If you’re a PC-only football fan, this is a functional if lacklustre port of a great match engine with broken online support.

Despite being slightly predictable in places I really enjoyed the story of In Harm's Way and Clementine's key role in it, but it's a bit light on things to actually do.

ilomilo is gorgeous, but flawed. Great ideas are quickly stretched out until they are barely recognisable anymore, and the gameplay moves from being interesting to an almighty slogfest.

Rage is flawed from the get-go, and by the time it finds its legs, its all too little, too late.

It’s perfectly enjoyable, but for every smart innovation it seems to have lost a portion of both complexity and character. There’s potential here, but we’ll have to wait for a couple of meaty expansions to see Beyond Earth’s promise fully realised.

Rage is flawed from the get-go, and by the time it finds its legs, its all too little, too late.

It’s far from an essential purchase, but hardcore Crusader Kings 2 fans will probably want to pick this up for the custom kingdoms alone. For everyone else I’d advise giving it a miss unless you’re very interested in the period setting.

Clever ideas are interspersed with components that fail miserably, making this the definition of 'mixed bag'.

Enjoy it for the looks, the controls and cuteness of it all and enjoy it for the simplicity, most of all.

God of War: Ascension is a decent addition to the franchise. Combat remains sharp and puzzles are more intricate than ever. Unfortunately, a lack of interesting source material never shakes off the feeling that the stakes are lower here. This is easily the weakest God of War title to date, but when you consider the immense quality of the previous five games, it's perhaps to be expected.

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake successfully captures the soul and voice of a classic while improving on the presentation and scope, but shoddy combat often brings those commendable efforts down.

The story tries to be too dramatic in parts, with a few out-of-place dark moments and a slightly unsatisfying ending that seems entirely written to tell me off for saying that Rufus was a selfish unlikeable dick (you’ll see).

In the end, Gathering Storm brings a few new toys to the sixth entry of the classical turn-based franchise, but does hedge a few bets on the natural disaster part of the deal. While those are an interesting addition, they are not meaningful enough to spearhead a whole expansion – and certainly not at the full prices charged by 2K.

If this were a TV show, one watch of this and any TV network would commission a full series – much like any adventure game fan who tries this will almost certainly follow this series throughout its run - provided it sticks to a somewhat regular release schedule.

Without the Steam Workshop Natural Disasters is a nice little DLC that adds more depth to an already fun and interesting game. Giving long time players a little more spice. With the Steam Workshop and the scenario creator players will have an almost unlimited number of cities to play and scenarios to beat as players create new and interesting challenges for each other. It brings with it complexity and a difficulty level. The ability to fail at your job and the end of a game that has previously had no end. If at first you find that Natural Disasters isn’t for you, give it some time and try out the player made content. It’s the end of the world as we know it…and I feel fine.

WRC 9 will come with the racing sim action you’ve come to expect from the franchise. This also means that it’s not for everyone and can get bogged down in micromanaging in its career mode. It’s not for everyone, nor does it sell itself for the uninitiated. But if you enjoy the cars, the managing, the challenge, WRC 9 will be your cup of tea. Everyone else should find something enjoyable but nothing that’ll hold your attention for long.

To be honest, Absolution is a bit of a weird game in general – if you take various components individually, there are a lot of fun and unique elements to the game. Start to look at it as a whole product though, and you can't help but feel as emotionally detached as the people you end up killing. It's way more narrative driven than any of the previous games, and that has a natural effect on where you go, and what you do when you get there.

Conscript's more grounded setting had lots of potential to help it carve its place within the confines of the genre even if it sticks quite adamantly to established conventions. It has moments when it successfully paints how grim the life of a World War 1 soldier could have been, but it ultimately fails to strike that fine balance which crucially keeps you on edge and horrified but curious and willing to push on and discover how opening that next door might alter the protagonist's fate.

As a straight-port with added multiplayer, developers Denki have done a decent job with Quarrel. Moving forward, there's plenty to build on in order to establish this as a successful series. When it comes down to business, Quarrel does its best to puff out its chest, but loses breath quicker than expected upon first playing. There's no doubt this is a charismatic, challenging and fun way to spend your time, if you don't mind some irritating tendencies along the way.

Orcs Must Die is fun but in a limited, begrudgingly acknowledged sense. It's lacking a spark: something compelling to make you play beyond the first five minutes, or even through the first five minutes.

Future Soldier suffers from a sense of split-personality. It tries to follow in the footsteps of the popular crowd, employing predictable set-pieces and hopelessly manufactured scenes of controversy that lack any intelligence.

Playing through A Hat in Time was an experience that made me question the idea of a specific term - Inspired. It’s clearly built as a homage to titles like Super Mario and Luigi’s Mansion yet struggles to stand out on its own because of it. It certainly made me smile from time to time, but most of that time was also spent thinking how a finer experience could be achieved by simply playing the games that inspired it. An issue presented by a certain other homage earlier this year.

Clever ideas are interspersed with components that fail miserably, making this the definition of 'mixed bag'.

If you like the idea of cruising around farmlands in a weaponless Half-Life 2-style buggy by all means pick up The Following, but don’t expect a smooth ride.

With The Quarry, Supermassive heads back to the woods with mostly positive results. The story is not much to write home about, and the paring back of physical control of characters' actions leaves some empty spaces. Still, the cast is generally likable, the presentation impressive, and there's plenty of joy to be found in manipulating the lives of these poor young souls. The Quarry has plenty of thrills, chills, and kills, but also an abundance of filler.

There’s not much about Sniper Elite 5 that’s particularly remarkable. That, however, didn’t stop the visceral X-Ray kills and the simple act of mowing down Nazis to see me through to the end of its campaign. There are plenty of other games out there that do stealth, action, or World War II better, yet the series’ formula is very much its own and does manage to carry a game that otherwise struggles to do anything interesting. Its flexible difficulty, the tension of invasions, and gruesome long-range executions keep things fun if the very premise appeals to you. But certain antiquated design choices and guns that don’t feel all that great keep Sniper Elite 5 from being memorable.

Aside from those enjoyable new Dutch republics, however, a lot of the new mechanics in Res Publica feels like content Paradox didn't have time to slot into previous expansion Wealth of Nations, so it's a little disappointing to see it jammed into another content pack rather than simply patched in.

In the end, Warlords of New York is a fantastic setting beautifully rendered, but is ruined by bad gameplay decisions, and an interesting expansion that could have lasted days is artificially rushed by forcing you to complete it in one go. If you love The Division 1 and want to see more of it, you’re in luck - but be aware that every single good side is going to have a massively disappointing bad side.

Unless Blizzard has some real story shake-ups and a phenomenally tuned raid on the horizon, I’m honestly expecting the sharpest player decrease to set in within the next few months. The expansion itself has some interesting ideas, but sticking to a World Quest grindfest is quickly becoming the norm, and the Island Expeditions aren’t exactly exciting.

It says a lot when Shadow Warrior 2 is only the second best 3D Realms game out this week, and the other is yet another remaster of Duke Nukem 3D. Despite loving the first game I could not get along with this sequel, with both single-player and co-op feeling lacking in different ways.

It was perhaps too much to ask of Telltale that they blow our minds in the very first episode, but I still feel a little let-down with how “setty-uppy” All That Remains felt, with a mostly predictable storyline and few really significant or interesting choices to make.

Nevertheless despite these issues I still found myself enjoying The Journey Down: Chapter Two a lot as it is just a fun, charming adventure that gets the LucasArts spirit pretty darn right.

A combat system that’s deeper than it first appears is the real star here, but you’ll likely also stick around for the perverse and disturbing universe and the story that plays out within it. The voiceover work will quickly annoy you and the difficulty is unfair, but there is still a bit to enjoy here, assuming you can ignore some of Othercide’s shortcomings. I wanted to like Othercide much more than I did.

Try it, you may very well like or even love it, but don't come crying to me if you don't. I told you so.

The improved road and transport infrastructure the content allows for is pretty great but like the other DLC’s, the content seems lacking in quantity.

The more focused second half saves Eriksholm from oblivion. For a game clocking around 10 hours, it takes too long to get going and put all its cards on the table.

What this game does really well is appeal to those nostalgic fans of old-school fighters, whilst providing a new, refreshing aesthetic.

It certainly feels like the best Tropico game - but anyone who’s played a previous Tropico game might get bored at doing it all again (although the excellent missions help) and anyone who hasn’t might struggle to progress. In the end though, it’s still a worthy follow-up.

Medal of Honor: Airborne is a game that needs time ploughed into it to reap the fill awards. If you’re looking for something that will reinvigorate your experience of WWII FPS’ then look elsewhere. But if you are looking for an excuse to take the same old fight back to the Nazis’ then here is your answer.

Call of the Sea feels like a mix between a puzzle game and a 1930s pulp novel. It blends these varied genres to mixed success; the puzzles are largely solid but you can find yourself banging your head against the wall in frustration for some, and the writing can be a bit campy but is carried by brilliant voice acting. While the game is decent, the visuals, the acting, and the setting are top notch. If entered with the right mindset, The Call of the Sea can be a good companion for an evening in.

Dead Space 3 is a game that looks sleek, is polished to the last minute detail, and is full of some stunning set-pieces. But beneath those shiny distractions, it lacks any real sense of soul, slotting in among a raft of other third-person shooters, never causing you to feel anything other than short bursts of panic and relief.

If you can stand the time period, then this serves as a perfectly adequate medium between Hearts of Iron's grand strategy, and Men of War's more tactical focus.

Europa Universalis IV has been out for going on seven years, and with that comes the seven-year itch. I’ve been a long time fan of the game since its release and it’s my most played game on Steam by quite some ways. Emperor sees a lot of changes, both in the DLC and the free patch that accompanies it, but despite all this, many of my underlying complaints with the game persist seven years on. If you’re a fan of the franchise, this patch is one of the best, but it’s probably only worth buying if you’re a central European player.

It's a lot of fun, visually pleasing and nods towards players who've been with SEGA since the dreaded Dreamcast days.

If you're after an old-school brawler it's definitely still worth your consideration – but absolutely keep in mind that this offers frustration as well as fun.

I can't help but feel underwhelmed.

As with the first game, the real charm of this title will be found in the multiplayer, which is as hectic and rush-fuelled as ever - and now fully integrated into Steam to boot.

It’s good, but it could, and probably should, have been great. The underlying irony of Watch Dogs is the fact that the game itself suffers a bit too much from an identity crisis.

An enjoyable game. But frankly even if it wasn’t for the bugs, the simplicity, the lack of a campaign, and the other minor short-fallings, I’d still be disappointed because when someone like Sid Meier copies a classic genre, I at least expect him to add something new and innovative to the game-play.

SpellForce: Conquest of Eo is a good reason to return to the universe, but it feels far less epic in scale when compared to the previous titles.

Ghostwire: Tokyo isn’t bad or broken. It’s just a game that’s not particularly ambitious and almost feels at odds with itself, leaving it with a lot of wasted potential. It might yield a couple of interesting online searches if you’re uninitiated in Japanese folklore, and you can pet lots of dogs and cats, but there are ways to go about doing those things without sitting through Akito’s snoozefest of a tale.

A lore-breaking spinoff that removes most of what makes the new XCOM special and replaces it with short bouts of repetitive tactical combat and bad writing.

Despite many glaring flaws, this title provides a sense of impending doom that is thoroughly engrossing from start to finish.

Get friends together or good all-round players and Evolve can be a blast, but anything less than that and you’ll be bored in far too short a time. In short: not quite the evolution in multiplayer gaming we hoped for.

Even though there are a lot of improvements shoved into the patch, which is free, if you’re a CK2 fan then this will add subtle new dimensions to your typical game that you’ll appreciate.

Spintires: MudRunner is a well-thought out and obvious improvement over the original in a number of ways. The physics feel tight and loose where they need to be, the new vehicles are genuinely fun to explore and drive, and the overall look of the game gets down and dirty in the best of ways for an off-road delivery simulator. It can get tedious at times and we wish the game took a few more chances, context, and variety in challenging our driving skills, but exploring and making our own battles through the tough journey from place to place is still a highlight, especially with friends along for the ride. A sketchy damage system and a few less than stellar textures make this game feel less polished than it ought to be at times, but with a healthy mod community and a ton of support and depth behind it, Spintires: MudRunner feels like an off-road trek that will keep on giving.

There’s no reason any new player to the Worms franchise wouldn’t get a quick kick out of this one, but it’s difficult to recommend the game to series veterans who can get a cleaner experience from the entries they currently own.

With so many games on the horizon, the series is threatening to mimic sports franchises on an action-adventure level; the addictive same-old repackaged and resold back to you year-on-year. Mirage might promise a fresh oasis from afar, but get closer and it’s the same formula, drier and less quenching than before.

Should you buy Spec Ops: The Line? Well, it's the usual yes and no. Yes if you enjoy the setting and like the idea of a descent into the madness of a buried city, but no if you're fed up of cover-based, Unreal 3 engine-powered shooters. If you get it, you can force your way through the carnage to get to the more interesting nuggets of non-shooting. You won't be disappointed if you do stump up the cash, but neither will you be fisting the air with glee at having made an inspired purchase. It's alright, basically.

Heroes of Newerth is an intriguing mix of frenetic action and tactical gameplay, showcasing some of the very best aspects of it's still-evolving genre.

A tale of two games, Frozen Synapse 2 is best when you’re battling it out like you did in the original. Thankfully, that’s a large portion of what you’re doing in this game. It just feels like the strategic layer could have been so much more.

Resonance is undoubtedly a compelling adventure for the majority of the playtime, but it also feels only half of one, and with the rush to the finale even a sequel couldn't fill in the blanks. Most importantly: what the hell was with the mysterious breast-feeding Japanese lady?

Green Day Rock Band is an enjoyable distraction but wholly unnecessary especially when you look at the features announced for Rock Band 3.

Crytek seem to have this innate ability to forget what made their previous games liked and fail to address any complaints – so with Crysis 3 we once again see poor checkpointing, an abundance of non-human encounters, not so fun shooting, linear enclosed areas, and forgetting about human enemies altogether after the halfway point. Their best looking game yet, but also their weakest.

It's just a little too similar to previous iterations that it's hard to recommend fans rush out to buy it.

Ubisoft have two game series that will always stick out to me for their debut games: Watch Dogs and Assassin’s Creed. The reason for this is simple: both games had interesting concepts but they weren’t fully realised until the sequel. For Honor is similar in this regard as there are clear things that can be improved with a sequel, however I still believe it is well worth playing. The combat in the game is fantastic, and though the learning curve may be steep, once you get the hang of it you’ll be playing for hours. The first entry in the For Honor series has started strong, I hope a sequel can fill in everything the game currently lacks.

In short, fix these problems Over The Moon and maybe the second episode of The Fall will be all fun and not just the last hour.

Twisted Metal never escapes the fact that it feels completely old and archaic. The premise is timeless, and there should always be room for a game of mindless destruction, but the execution is poor here.

The Saboteur can be both addictive and engaging, but also rather stale, all at the same time.

If you can stand the time period, then this serves as a perfectly adequate medium between Hearts of Iron's grand strategy, and Men of War's more tactical focus.

Blood Bowl 2 is a faithful recreation of the board game with improved visuals and a cleaner UI than previous installments. The AI is as poor as ever but multiplayer is really where Blood Bowl 2 shines.

Elements of the Wake story from the unresolved ending of the first game are touched on throughout the story. You'll leave this more knowledgeable, but not doubting that there will be more Alan Wake to come.

Essentially, Field of Glory: Empires is a quintessential Slitherine game. Big scope, big idea, but executed in such a way that will not click with anyone, but the nichest of fans. It doesn’t really add anything that was missing from any other grand strategy game, and all of the glory, character, and scope of the Roman Empire is virtually nonexistent here, feeling instead like a virtual version of a very charmless boardgame. However, if you’re a long time fan of Field of Glory (or a hater of Imperator or Rome II), this game might end being right up your alley.

And there isn't even any beach soccer in here, disappointingly.

There will be few fans of Naruto that will find much to gripe about in this game. Its story is huge and detailed, the epic battles with the incredible quick time events will dazzle gamers regardless of their opinion of Naruto and anime in general, and the online fights have hidden depth, but those irritating load screens and the mundane aspects of Story Mode put a large pinch on the glories found within each battle.

As a celebration of all things Jurassic, Jurassic World Evolution 2 serves as a worthy successor to the original. As a park management game, it struggles to find a meaningful focal point. Given Frontier’s expertise in this exact department elsewhere, that’s more than a little disappointing. A light, messy sim that acts as a tribute to the prehistoric pandemonium of the Jurassic Park/World series.

If Shootmania can gather creative types into its playerbase, capable of bringing it new modes, weapons and maps then it could turn out to be a varied and lasting experience. But for now it feels like a shell or wraparound for a game that hinges on players engaging with the myriad tools available.

If you are a hardcore puzzle gamer looking for a new challenge, this game is for you.

A Total War title that removes several tactical and strategic options and steps back most of the innovations made in recent entries.

For us, and for anyone who thinks exploration of these worlds is the main reason to play games like Bioshock and that Prey was at its worst when it forced you to go back through previous locations - Prey: Mooncrash is hugely disappointing.

Much of F.E.A.R 3 is commendable then, but ultimately a lack of polish and genuine investment in the campaign sees it fall a distance short of full potential.

Right now, Mario won't be looking over his shoulder, but if this title (and indeed the franchise) continues to grow, we could see a much needed competitive side to the genre that has been severely lacking for a decade now.

Medal of Honor tries to cram in every trick it can conjure up, but ultimately fails to include the kind of staying power needed to take over from Call of Duty.

It’s a real shame that the campaign plays second fiddle to challenges for drama and certainly entertainment, as Tropico 3 still has a fair way to go before it makes a significant impact outside of the PC world.

Nevertheless, if you like the sound of a strange Naked Gun/Monty Python-inspired robot-filled adventure/exploration game jam-packed with laughs you should get Jazzpunk as soon as possible.

It's far from perfect – held back by how much is missing in far too many places – but WWE All Stars is a very welcome change and if nothing else a very encouraging base for the future, and definitely worth some of your time.

A must-have expansion to those players who dream of creating their own interstellar corporate empire.

The truth is Evil Genius 2 succeeds in expanding on almost every feature of the original, but it somehow manages to not fix a single one of its main problems. The original game also suffered from an intense lack of player control and management tools back in 2004, and Rebellion somehow missed all of that when designing its sequel. As fitting and poetic it is for evil to defeat itself through incompetence, it makes for truly terrible gameplay when a player fails at a game because he is not given the tools to succeed when the game misbehaves. It ruins what is otherwise a great and very well produced title, and the hurdles are too big to ignore -- Rebellion managed to make the concept of launching international schemes to rule the world a boring endeavour.