All in all, Hellgate is a success in the more revolutionary areas of its gameplay, though more attention could have been paid to the typical action RPG elements that seem to have been taken for granted.

If you can put up with the stuttering performance and some comically ridiculous bugs (my favourite was an assassination target moon-walking backwards into my confused assassin’s cavalry sabre) then there’s a decent Assassin’s Creed experience to be found in Unity.

While there are moments where the spookiness clicks, like its hectic climax, the rest is forgettable. It will give a fright once in a while, but that shock quickly disappears. It’s the fluffy type of horror, something with the trappings but not the depth. It’s not an amateur production, but it is less eerie than it should be. Horror is subjective, but I cannot suggest DARQ for its scares. Playing it made me crave the more refined games in this genre. If you’re a streamer who needs a game to scream at, this will do fine. Just don’t be surprised if you forget about it the moment you turn it off.

The ground combat is the most enjoyable I've encountered since Relic's Company of Heroes, and playing tactically genuinely pays off. Yet these bouts of entertainment are marred by long periods of trundling tedium, and novices are likely to be baffled by the complex interface and the lack of direction in how the game is supposed to be played.

You can tell a lot of effort has been put into the GeoMod technology, and making sure everything is as polished as it can be. This has to be one of the most technically sound releases we've played in a long while, and it's draw backs mainly come from the content itself, and not the design.

Dead State is a very fun zombie apocalypse RPG but it’s not quite the hoped-for second coming of Troika.

If you're willing to put in a good 5-6 hours learning the foibles of the interface, and then spend the rest of your time with the game wishing it was better, there is something to be said for the setting and the heart of the action that lies beneath. It's just not enough to overwhelm the tide of poor UI decisions that unfortunately sit dominant on top.

Aside from balancing the random elements of the game to make them less unfair, Crowntakers is a superbly focused effort that can be enjoyed in short bursts or gorged on for multiple hour sessions.

It's gets a tad dull by the end of the game, and as your character levels up, it becomes less of a challenge as well (unless you're on harder difficulties, naturally).

This is a bold step for an RTS into the ripe and unconquered pastures of the Internet, and while it isn't completely surefooted, its spears are certainly sharp.

Not a bad game then by any stretch, but hopefully the last small iteration before Sega's inaugural next-next-gen outing.

I don’t think Starship Troopers: Terran Command does much new in the real-time strategy genre, but the use of the license gives real flavour to the solid meal that the gameplay provides. Plus, a good bug hunt never goes out of style.

Setsuna is a good game and that’s really the problem, it’s just good. The games intention of being a love letter the to JRPG’s of yesteryear have kept the game void of any originality and spark. The game is stuck in the shadow of those games, playing it far too safe to rear a head of its own.

Dead Rising 3 is a step forward for the series as it finally finds the confidence to expand its setting, which is mostly down to better hardware being available.

For 800 points on XBLA and whatever it ends up as on freshly un-borked PSN though, Sega Rally Online Arcade still represents somewhat of a bargain.

If you’re looking for a fun, clever little strategy game, you could do a lot worse than pick this up.

Developer Tripwire Interactive deserves props for simply running with an unusual premise as this and trying its best to make it work. Sadly, the execution is lacking and no matter how fun devouring hunting parties and unlocking new evolutions is in the beginning, its core gameplay loop becomes dull way before its relatively short campaign comes to a close. There’s some fun to be had in short bursts, but they’re spread out too far to leave a lasting impression. Maneater’s premise remains the only thing that stands out, painting it as a largely forgettable experience.

Given the pedigree of Ron Gilbert and Double Fine Productions' past works, a lot of people will be understandably excited by the prospect of The Cave. On paper, it sounds appealing, with its variety of characters and plethora of reasons to replay. It looks charming and, at first, the humour hits the spot. Problems lie with its inability to give you any great reason to replay it. It's just all too disappointingly shallow.

It doesn't achieve the rollarcoaster pace of the main series, or feel as polished, but Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One is a worthwhile excuse to get together with a group of mates and cause havoc as some of your favourite characters.

Although it doesn't push any boundaries, Just Dance 3 is a decent addition to the much-loved series.

Let’s cut to the chase: Batman: Arkham Knight is a great game, but it’s not as good as Rocksteady’s previous two titles.

One of 2011's best surprises.

With 100 buildings, twelve scenarios and thirty vehicle types, we're hoping that the game will be well supported by an active modding community as well as post-release DLC. At the moment actual content is a tad sparse, but at a knockdown price of £14.99, you're getting a lot for your money.

Leviathan’s simplicity is its strength – the games not that hard to make, it’s not that hard to learn, it doesn’t cost that much to acquire, yet it takes hours to master, hours to fiddle and tweak your ship and fleet loadouts.

The diplomacy is well done, but without a robust battle system and satisfying nation-building to back it up, the game feels like its missing something – it’s all build-up with no pay-off. It’s a shame, because Sphere of Influence does some interesting things with the standard grand strategy formula.

Human: Fall Flat might concern the adventures of a floppy limbed chap who ambles about the place, solving puzzles and whatnot but the game itself does anything but, instead raising the bar for a genre that so desperately needed a game to champion its cause and not another half-baked experiment to invite further derision. How nice it is then, to have one of the former and not one more of the latter.

A lovely experiment in its own right, Tech Support: Error Unknown is not for the faint of heart. Even at the lowest difficulty, it only comes into its own with an attentive player capable of reading between the lines. Though technical problems exist, they don’t get in the way too much. Recommended for those who’d like to try out something new and different, and don’t have a problem with sticking with the game until it really clicks.

A capable coop shooter with a lot of potential and amazing swarm mechanics.

On its own Generations isn't going to do much for your experience, but in conjunction with everything else it just makes for a more interesting experience.

Beyond a Steel Sky reminds me a lot of the Telltale games, but better -- it has the writing, the plot drama, and the voice actor quality that made the older adventure games such a success, but with a modern engine, present-day graphics, and a full 3D camera that beats all Telltale offerings into a pulp. I was actually a bit surprised by how less serious BASS2 starts compared to the previous game, but it eventually evolves into a more significant tale as things are not what they seem and start to unravel, revealing their dark side. In the end, Beyond a Steel Sky is a surprisingly good adventure game -- which is no small feat in today’s industry -- and while different from BASS, it matches the original’s quality. If you’re a fan of old LucasArts titles, Telltale games, or one of the many people that waited 20 years for BASS2, this is definitely an adventure game you should get your hands on.

Nonetheless Poltergeist is a very fun puzzle game, that really taxes the brain muscles occasionally but it’s all done in such a lovely way that you never want to give in.

Maybe Dungeons 2 plays a little safe by ditching some of the more intriguing aspects of the previous game (I still think the idea of using overconfident adventurers as a form of drainable resource is a fantastically twisted conceit that could have been fleshed out further) in favour of going back to the roots of the dungeon management genre, but it’s hard to criticise Realmforge too much for that when the game is this enjoyable.

Much like the conflict that the game shares its namesake with, Verdun is a ferocious and tense multiplayer shooter the likes of which we haven’t seen in a long time.

The only real disappointment in the new package is Retro Revenge for being a boring endless runner rather than the arcade beat-em-up the advertising suggested. It may be a pretty mindless package overall, but it’s not completely without brains.

Rezrog is a give and take of fairly enjoyable character building and somewhat tedious and repetitive dungeon crawling.

Halo Wars 2 is a competent RTS game. It has its fair share of issues, and in some minds might be deemed simple. However, if you’re willing to look past the convoluted and frustrating UI, or maybe you want an RTS to get into, but are intimidated by the offerings on the market, Halo Wars 2 is a great place to start. Its story is good, delivering a true Halo narrative on the platform for the first time since Halo 2, and while the issues with the RTS elements might annoy some, it doesn’t meant the game isn’t fun to play. Additionally, the replay value is there thanks to the myriad of matches, the unlockable skills the game has for you, as well as multiplayer modes to take advantage of. And while Blitz mode does post a pay to win threat to the game itself, the mode on its own, taken at face value, is a frenetic blast to play.

The gameplay and graphics plus the historical accuracy of the game make this game a good choice for the right kind of gamer.

It's still enjoyable, but it's too wide of the mark. And that's a taffing shame.

The Swindle is a highly addictive and fun randomly-generated steampunk thievery simulator.

So many times during this review I quit the game just because I couldn't be bothered to solve a puzzle, only to realise I had to keep playing to give it a fair shot. My opinion would start to sway a bit more positive, then I quit again for the lack of care. Which says everything about Magrunner: Dark Pulse really.

Kingdoms of Amalur was one of the most underrated games of the previous decade and its return will make that pretty clear to some players. However, the remastering of this borderline classic is hamstrung by a 2012 inventory and menu system, a 2012 user interface, and 2012 icons and health bar. That being said, the updated environments, characters, and other elements do look great and the actual gameplay is superb. However, it feels like a wasted opportunity that THQ Nordic didn’t spend the time to bring those lagging elements into 2020 along with the rest of the facelift.

The game provides enough shots of adrenaline to pump up your heart after those “barely-won-battles” which makes it worthwhile.

This is an excellent combination of concept and design, but needed more, more, more. The core game itself utilises a fine engine with which to play with, but the actual core of the experience feels somewhat lacking in substance. A real shame that detracts from an outstanding piece of game design.

I'm confident that Silent Hill 2 will be held up as one of the greatest games of all time in years to come, and you owe it to yourself to (re)visit those deserted streets.

It successfully combines all the best elements from Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite into a satisfying package, and it should be pointed out that level-wise nothing has been reused from either game (unlike the superb Minerva’s Den, which was great but didn’t have much new).

Sniper Elite: Resistance delivers the expected stealth-action combo the series is known for, wrapping it in a forgettable narrative about stopping the Nazi war machine from totally winning the war yet again. But even as it's a functional title, with levels that offer a decent amount of freedom and X-Ray kills that remain satisfying to watch, this follow-up ends up feeling like a tired, unnecessary rehash of its predecessor…Its forgettable new protagonist and supporting cast don't do much to help things along, while the all-new Propaganda missions feel like a middling distraction at best. If Sniper Elite 5 left you pining for more of the same, you'll likely squeeze 15+ hours of varying degrees of enjoyment out of Resistance's modes. Anyone hoping for any significant sense of evolution should wait until the next one.

Alice: Madness Returns may not win awards for genre innovation, but it's the most darkly fun and gloriously batty game I've played since Psychonauts. I can't think of any higher praise.

The final episode of Telltale’s Game of Thrones story is the strongest since the first, with everything coming to a head, all your terrible choices coming back to haunt you, and a few major excruciating ones left to finish things off. However the lack of any real resolution robs the season of feeling like a complete game.

The campaign isn't up to much, the interactions between various factions are simplistic and missions occasionally feel repetitive, but the game largely nails that feeling of being a grizzled starship captain who doesn't play by the rules, making his living any way he can.

Fans of the first HAWX will no doubt derive a great deal of joy from another hearty dose of solid dogfighting, but then everyone else will feel the same sort of confused indifference towards the story and will quickly grow tired of shooting down wave after wave of jet fighters.

MotoGP 09/10 is a solid, enjoyable racer that manages to capture the feel of charging about a track on a Superbike without being inaccessible to newcomers to the series.

There is more than enough content here to keep avid adventure and puzzle gurus occupied.

Incredibly rough around the edges, wasteful of unique opportunities, and light on content, we quite frankly question the longevity of this title. But you know what? There are worse games you could spend your money on.

It's not perfect, but we highly recommend this title to all FPS fans looking for something fresh to bide the time.

Through a combination of streamlining what is a genuinely complicated game and using a simple but effective presentation, the developers have one of the best downloadable games PS3 has ever seen.

The only issue that stuck out like a sore thumb was that the magnetism of the cursor was poor and three options to change it didn’t help either. For only 800 Microsoft Points, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3: Commander’s Challenge has plenty of replay value for offline players.

Maybe not the best there was or the best there is and certainly not the best there ever will be then, but it’s a good start all the same and after all, legends have been fashioned from less.

It's good that Focus offered a significant discount to anyone who had already bought Cities XL, as otherwise there would be little here to entice old players. New people to the franchise who've longed for a decent city-builder should definitely try this out though.

How does The Sims 4 measure in the grand scheme of things? It’s an excellent stepping stone for what could be moving forward, although this comes at the cost of numerous add-ons and expansions raiding our pockets.

Fighting through crowds of enemies is only appealing for so long until a sense of confusion sets; a confusion that asks, “What else does WET offer besides the same fights over and over again?” The answer to that rhetorical question is not much.

UFC Personal Trainer would make a fine introduction into the world of fitness – it's just a shame that the surrounding shell of the software is so lacklustre.

A lean and mean addition to the Serious Sam family that experiments with a few new toys, and offers more of the same Serious Sam goodness we’ve been accustomed to. It has the odd instance of unnecessary padding via one too many gunfights, but overall keeps a breezy, brutal pace.

It's well presented, incorporates some intriguing puzzles and actually involves a good deal of thinking. It's also repetitive, obtuse, and frustrating with game mechanics that seem a little dated.

Incredibly rough around the edges, wasteful of unique opportunities, and light on content, we quite frankly question the longevity of this title. But you know what? There are worse games you could spend your money on.

If Pride of Nations is guilty of anything, it's simply guilty of being unimaginative. But what it lacks in imagination it makes up in historical fidelity and sheer depth.

Ghost Recon Online has moments of exciting and tense action, but they're fleeting events in an otherwise drab game that's plagued by minor annoyances and a cash shop that adds a pay-to-win element to proceedings.

For all its Bioshock-inspired environments Dead Money falls short delivering on its premise. At 800 points for an eight-hour adventure it's certainly value for money but when the quantity far outweighs the quality then this is one adventure you can miss.

Incredibly rough around the edges, wasteful of unique opportunities, and light on content, we quite frankly question the longevity of this title. But you know what? There are worse games you could spend your money on.

An interesting mix. If it wasn't so daunting, it'd pick up more fans.

Test Drive Unlimited 2 will most likely receive a cult following for its kooky characters and general offbeat atmosphere, and the solid multiplayer options will keep many coming back. A word of warning, however - give this one a rent before you go the whole hog, as the baffling physics and numerous technical oddities are sure to kill this ride for many.

As Far As The Eye is an interesting title, but it feels more artistic than functional. It is a perfectly serviceable game and it has lovely production values, but this is not the kind of title you look to for depth or range. On the other hand, if you want a specific, focused peaceful survival experience about tribes making their way to a safe place and don’t mind this being more of a puzzle than a proper strategy game, definitely give this little indie title a try.

With plenty to see and do, not to mention some great multiplayer offerings, this is a sequel worth checking out.

For better or worse, Project Zero: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse brings an underplayed fifteen-year-old horror game to Western audiences in a well-preserved state. There's a fantastic atmosphere, and the horror is well-framed and executed with impressive restraint, but control issues of the time carry through to this remaster.

It may however be frustrating for some to play the game, which seems to be predictable and far too quick.

Despite being a fan of Bloober Team’s games, Blair Witch just doesn’t really work. There are far too many moments where you’re just wandering around frustrated in a forest trying to find something to do, and very few moments where the game does something unexpected to scare you. Clever gameplay ideas like the time-changing camcorder go pretty much to waste. Most importantly, despite a few good scares, in general Blair Witch isn’t really scary enough. It has really good storytelling moments and buckets of atmosphere, but we were ultimately left disappointed. It’s better than the 2000 Blair Witch games, at least.

A great adventure game and certainly worth the time for fans of the genre with its blend of beautiful environments, sounds and entertaining puzzles.

Deliver Us Mars offers a refreshing sci-fi adventure with an entertaining, emotional story at the forefront. It ups the scale from its predecessor and manages to reach for the stars relatively unscathed.

A run-of-the-mill procedural twin-stick roguelike that has a unique aesthetic and premise, but little else. Without more content, more variety, and more exciting unlockables, West of Dead is dead in the water. Or will remain in gaming purgatory. Either way, I have very little faith in West of Dead’s future.

The wonderful acting helps to sell the cool writing further, and although the aging engine really needs putting out of its misery it at least supports the game well. Finally on the gameplay side (remember that?) the QTEs have been much improved since Game of Thrones and there were a few good choices along the way. Now roll on Episode 2 to see if they actually matter.

Battleborn ended up stretching itself too thin by trying to include too many modes.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine Master Crafted Edition is an adequate remaster that makes 2011’s third-person action game easier to play on modern machines while improving how it looks and sounds. None of its additions address the original’s fundamental issues, preferring to leave it largely as it was. Its flawed but fun campaign delivers plenty of visceral slaughter while its multiplayer is worth dipping into for a few matches every now and then, provided you don’t run into lag and find enough players to fill a lobby. It’s easy to see why the game became a cult classic, but for what it offers, the remaster’s price tag and the lack of an upgrade option or discount for existing owners are undoubtedly head-scratchers.

Sanctus Reach is a well-executed Warhammer 40,000 game that should easily please turn based strategy fans and provides plenty of content for the price.

These points aside, the first episode of Broken Sword 5 is a lot of fun and a welcome return to form for the series.

Magicka 2 offers a smoother, more comfortable experience than its predecessor, but that doesn’t mean the series has lost its signature charm.

Tomas Sala’s second Falconeer game may come across as nicher at first glance, but it’s far easier to approach and have a great time with despite some baffling inconsistencies.

AER is a pretty and charming game, but doesn’t have enough of its own original ideas to feel fresh, and it is plagued by a few flaws that prevent it from being a true standout in the genre of artsy indie exploration games. That said, the experience itself is fun and pleasant, even if it isn’t particularly memorable. If you already like these kinds of games, you’ll enjoy AER, but if you don’t, this isn’t what will make you fall in love with them.

Fighting through crowds of enemies is only appealing for so long until a sense of confusion sets; a confusion that asks, “What else does WET offer besides the same fights over and over again?” The answer to that rhetorical question is not much.

DOOM VFR is one of the most action-packed games I’ve ever played using the HTC Vive. It’s a shame Bethesda ignored the huge amount of progress that has been made in VR development. DOOM VFR is a good game, but with a number of changes it could easily become a great game. Do not buy this game if you suffer from motion sickness as you simply won’t be able to play it for longer than five minutes at a time. However, if the locomotion issues don’t bother you, DOOM VFR is definitely worth picking up.

A decent choice for any PS3 owners looking to get off the sofa this Christmas.

The trouble is though, the gameplay is not the major part of the game. It’s the story, and the many long non-interactive cutscenes that often feel out-of-place next to the PSP-quality graphics.

So yeah, it's only for people who are really, really (repeat for a while) really into their tough platformers or those who love Rayne's exploits so much, they can't live without experiencing this.

Veterans of the genre will probably find little new here to entice them, although if you really don’t care, then by all means try this out.

Jurassic World Evolution may not be the best theme park management game, but it’s the most exciting dinosaur management game. And that’s enough for us.

A solid puzzler but little else. What it sets out to do, gameplay-wise, it succeeds in, providing admirable and occasionally fiddly conundrums to cudgel your grey matter with. However, outside of that, there's little to charm you, little to make you 'love' the game, rather than just like it.

Unfortunately Nail'd's core gameplay doesn't do quite enough to justify stripping back all of those extraneous details. It's a game that's begging for a little more refinement, visual polish and structural content; and without those in place it struggles to elevate itself above the frustrations inherent in its erratic engine and course design.

There's a great game in here, and people who buy Risen 2 will probably be quite content with their purchase if they can get past the infuriating first few hours (and that sugar quest in the giant termite cave, shudder).

Toybox Turbos might not have the Micro Machines branding then, but when it nails everything else that those licensed games did so well in the first place, it feels churlish not to look past such superfluous things.

Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is the closest we’ve yet come to an authentic Ghostbusters experience. Undoubtedly better with friends, it’s still a genuine thrill to play alone - especially if you’re the ghost.