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

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.

Men of War: Assault Squad 2 won't be for everyone, but there's something endearing and impressive about its utter lack of concern for your well-being.

It's walking down a treacherous path being online only and offering some quite forgettable maps. The lack of bot play means that the 1200 point asking price could end up being all for nothing in the future, which is quite a hefty risk to take.

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.

Airline Tycoon is like any good simulation – easy to pick up, devilishly difficult to master.

Simple, childish fun that never tries to be more than it can be, and younger kids will have a great time helping their favourite superheroes save the world. Anyone who has hit puberty, on the too light on real gameplay for your tastes.other hand, should steer clear as Super Hero Squad will be far.

Good ideas, but execution leaves something to be desired.

It's almost as if the guys that made this game have been playing classic video games from the time before saves were invented and wanted to give you a taste of those early days of home gaming but with the saves added in.

Simple, childish fun that never tries to be more than it can be, and younger kids will have a great time helping their favourite superheroes save the world. Anyone who has hit puberty, on the too light on real gameplay for your tastes.other hand, should steer clear as Super Hero Squad will be far.

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.

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.

Road Not Taken might not always be successful in making players feel remorseful for paths avoided, but the game itself stands as one journey that at least everyone should attempt; if only to expose themselves to the game's frustrating, yet undeniably fresh idiosyncrasies.

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.

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.

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.

It's bloated, cumbersome and little has changed from last year, and in that way bears many parallels to the game itself. However, it's also earnest, uncompromising and serves its purpose well enough, and in that sense it is equally a fitting title.

Is it as successful or as ambitious as something like the original Fable? No, not quite. It still manages to be like nothing else out there, however. It's a game that, unlike other Kinect titles, can be enjoyed alone, just as much as it can be enjoyed with the family at Christmas time. It's a rough beginning and the horse riding does grate after time, but Fable: The Journey offers just enough variety that in the end, you'll be smiling. And aching.

It's bloated, cumbersome and little has changed from last year, and in that way bears many parallels to the game itself. However, it's also earnest, uncompromising and serves its purpose well enough, and in that sense it is equally a fitting title.

Gods Will Be Watching is not necessarily frustrating in its difficult, it's that it really didn't need to be.

If you're looking for a game to get stuck into that can be played in smaller chunks as a fun little time-sink, this is a really good way to spend that 5 bucks. Go without a coffee today.

If you're looking for a game to get stuck into that can be played in smaller chunks as a fun little time-sink, this is a really good way to spend that 5 bucks. Go without a coffee today.

Simplistic combat and a lack of variety mean that it begins to run out of steam by the end-game, but if you’re looking for a more relaxed approach to world domination, Grand Ages: Medieval is a perfectly solid option.

A unique mix of strategy and RPG mechanics that miraculously loses very few of either.

Overall, Urban Empire is a solid outing for Kalypso and has a nice blend of city building and political management that players of the genre should find interesting. It has flaws but its new perspective on an old formula is something that can be explored further in the future.

Despite the acting, music, and graphics teams doing their bang-up jobs, and the storyline taking some interesting turns toward an epic finale, Episode 4 of The Wolf Among Us was more than a little unsatisfying.

Knights of Pen & Paper +1 has a lot of charm, and a lot of game hours to go with it.

Attack on Titan is a good game, but not a great one. It does a tremendous job of adapting the anime’s excellent action scenes to an exciting set of game mechanics, but struggles to extend that fun core into full-length game. Any given fifteen seconds of Attack on Titan is excellent, but those fifteen seconds are repeated again and again until they’re no longer compelling.

A successful update of a great game’s presentation, but which removes a number of features that may leave old fans hurting.

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.

At the end of the day, Empires mode is arguably where the crux of the experience lies and as such it really does add a lot of crucial depth to a series that is regarded in many circles as a largely one-trick pony. It’s just a shame that similar evolutions aren’t forthcoming in other areas of the game which, some nearly fifteen years on, are now starting to look really quite old in the tooth.

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.

Dead Island 2's visceral combat can effortlessly pull you into the zone as you slash, shoot, and kick zombies while making sure they head into the afterlife with fewer limbs attached. A simple but effective upgrade system gives you the means to counter any foe, while its varied arsenal of melee and ranged weapons keeps things interesting for a good while. Repetition inevitably sets in well before you roll credits, being reflected both in its uninspired mission objectives and how you eliminate opponents. Its disjointed and confused narrative doesn't do it any favors either, but, as long as you focus on slaying zombies, there's certainly fun to be had here.

Ultimately, EoS is not a bad game. But the lack of content within its strategic layer holds it back from living up to its full potential. With that said, I think the tactical combat and RPG elements are pretty solid. If you are drawn to lots of X-Com style tactical combat and some over the top Prohibition themed hijinks, you will find some fun within EoS. However, people looking for a deep strategic or tycoon focused experience, will likely be disappointed.

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.

Age of Wonders 4: Dragon Dawn offers a satisfactory amount of content at its price point, focusing on a beloved element of the fantasy genre. The inclusion of mixed affinity tomes adds intriguing twists to gameplay, although witnessing the evolution of new units can prove challenging due to their inherent fragility. The larger dragon units and Dragon Lords themselves appropriately embody a sense of awe and power on the battlefield. However, while these additions be an asset in any playthrough, Dragon Dawn does not fundamentally alter the overall feel of the game, serving primarily as a flavorful addition. As a result, the DLC may not be considered a crucial purchase.

There is fun to be had on the streets of San Paro though, and as the price of entry is precisely zero, there's absolutely no reason not to give it a try.

In all honesty, forgoing the campaign mode and jumping straight in a skirmish might be a better proposition.

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.

Tormentum is a surprisingly addictive adventure game, despite being seemingly so basic.

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.

Most will come for the original game, which offers a decent amount of challenge and length and a great deal of variety in its levels. Just go into it knowing that the original game was released back in 2003 – and in spite of the HD upgrade, it feels like it.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

At the end of the day, Aliens: Fireteam Elite doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it’s a game that clearly knows what it wants to be. It’s not the most sophisticated co-op shooter out there and won’t exactly blow your mind with its uniqueness, but if you want to spend an evening shooting up Xenomorphs alongside friends, it has you covered.

Railway Empire is a satisfying enough experience for any strategy fan with even the remotest interest in trains -- or train fans with a passing interest in strategy. It offers campaign and scenarios with tasks and objectives alongside a sandbox mode that allows one to build the network of their dreams, catering to most players. While the lack of a single level going from 1830 to 1930 might displease some, the end product is a capable and accessible title in a very scant genre, and Railway Empire comes off as a passionate -- if not exactly flawless -- title.

Lost Sphear takes a little too long to really get going. Dungeons are tiny, its characters paper-thin, and the story far too predictable in its overuse of already overused plot elements. It’s a JRPG that struggles to add anything of value, perhaps to the point of reminding us why the natural evolution of the genre happened in the first place. Despite this, it’s rapid pacing is perhaps its biggest achievement. Even the smallest session can lead to a feeling of progress. Things start to feel a bit too repetitive in longer sessions, but playing in smaller bursts helps stop its generic tropes from grinding you down. At $50, though, it’s far too much to ask for something that purposefully refuses to reinvent the wheel. Even if it promises 40 hours over the last game’s 20.

NHL 2K10 talks a good game with it’s brilliant TV-style presentation and is almost every bit as comprehensive as its competitor, but when it comes down to the clutch, 2K can’t quite seem to ‘squeeze it’ where it really counts.

For a first faction pack, Tyranids is a very interesting addition to anyone interested in the interstellar creatures. It displays the same overall missed opportunities and underdeveloped aspects as the base game – and it is still is somewhat of a boring long-term experience compared to the likes of Civilization – but for fans of Gladius and Tyranids, it should definitely warrant a shot.

A game with a tight focus and some good ideas, Storm: Frontline Nation sadly falls slightly short of victory. The elements that make it unique don't go far enough, and the lack of decent management and diplomatic areas means it lacks some critical depth.

A top-down, turn-based tactical battler with a solid core and not much content to go around it, Special Tactics has the beginnings of something great that it can’t quite parlay into excellence.

All the same, there’s enough here to bring you back to Galactic Civilizations III and give you enough to enjoy a good few more hours with space battles and planet cultivation, and if that sounds like it’s worthwhile then the price might not put you off. Everyone else may want to wait for a sale.

The focus on unique weaponry and customization at the moment provides Loadout with a degree of compulsive appeal. But without Annihilation mode, it's debatable whether there is any long-term depth on offer here.

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.

Yet the novelty of airships and battles with giant sky-whales are simply not enough to save it from its flaws, painful as they are. Perhaps post-release support will allow Windforge to transform into the game I hoped it would be, but for now it sits as a flawed gem.

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

Overall, WTF is a capable fast-paced game clearly aimed at fans of East/Gundam-style robot fights than more Western/weighty robot realistic representations. The game has a serious problem with feedback that never really goes away, but it should provide enough meaningless fun for anyone who’s really interested in the subject matter.

When you finally begin to put the aerial maneuvers together and to great effect, as you’re dodging incoming falcons, stopping in mid-air to shake that tailing dragon, or barrel-rolling to produce near-miss fire.

If you're looking for a fun arcade-style racer that you don't have to plop a disc into your machine to play, Hydro Thunder Hurricane is definitely a more than worthy candidate.

The world and characters are forgettable and uninspired without any of that deeper lore and storytelling Dark Souls is known and loved for. But despite those criticisms Lords of the Fallen is still worth a look if you’re after challenging combat and a grisly dark medieval world to explore.

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.

A fairly run of the mill expansion pack that offers few new incentives in terms of missions or units, and it’s not something for every WWII RTS gamer to snatch up.

All in all this is a good set of games for burning away spare hours with high seas hijinks. Now if only it came with a Captain Jack action figure!

Destination: Treasure Island a good game. In fact if you like Adventures, I’d say that given the slating they have been given over the years, it is very good.

The Golden Horde is a pleasant shake up to the usual tried and true method of a RTS game, mixing light RPG to give the player the chance to better customise and tune their own war machine is an engaging feature. Unfortunately this also plays against as some won’t find it to their tastes.

Sadly the AI almost cripples the game and leaves questionable balances between class professions.

Despite my lacking interest for the Cossacks game titles, I was surprisingly impressed by the game play (not that I can remain patient for long with turn-based games), though slightly disappointed at the immense strain the game causes to lower end systems.

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.

While it’s no mega contender, it does have its charm and could easily be one of those games you find yourself visiting time and time again.

Unique and fresh strategic approach, but it lacks a compelling creamy plot centre that would make Perimeter an instant classic.

Games like this are notorious for having very little replay value, but Professor Fizzwizzle saves the day and the game from being uninstalled once all the levels have been played by including a level creation feature which enables you to make your own levels to play.

For all its comical charm, Jack Keane does not quite reach the heights of the games that inspired it.

The sum of an adventure game’s parts however is equal to that of the quality of the puzzles. Operation Wintersun gives us a mixed bag indeed.

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.

The tragedy of Alpha Protocol is that, hidden behind the mass of technical failings is a superb action RPG bristling with choice and driven by some inspired storytelling.

An amazing looking game with an interesting premise, let down by shallow gameplay and stuttered flow of story and dialogue.

At the moment though: the missions are severely lacking, the weapons are too basic, there’s a big disconnect between story and game, and having so many loading screens (especially with the Forge) is annoying. In general there’s just a severe lack of content, and forcing players to grind what should be optional achievements instead was a terrible stopgap solution. If you get Anthem now, you’ll have fun for a little while… but then you’ll be waiting for the real game to start.

And the good bits, for all their worth, are just that; good, but not classic.

Darktide’s incomplete crafting system doesn’t allow you to efficiently refine gear. Its rewards are scarce and unsatisfying, especially going into the endgame. Optimization is not great, while its cash shop holds hostage any remotely worthwhile cosmetic upgrades so far. It’s a real shame, because all of these missteps cast a dark shadow on its excellent, visceral combat – that evolves Fatshark’s addictive co-op action formula – alongside what’s quite possibly the best depiction of the grimdark universe to grace video games to date.

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

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

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

The majority of those tracks, of which I've kept a list somewhere in this mess of a music hall (thanks to the hordes of music-specific game controllers), still remains undigitised.

The majority of those tracks, of which I've kept a list somewhere in this mess of a music hall (thanks to the hordes of music-specific game controllers), still remains undigitised.

As engaging, addictive and fun as the previous games. Unless you really don't like firearms, it will appeal to fans of the series, and even newcomers might appreciate the improved degree of direction you're given at the beginning.

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.

A good game. The question is; do you have the patience to play it? Newcomers to the genre probably won't, and even veterans might get easily annoyed at the feeling of helplessness the game can give you when there are so many units but such little control.

Your level of enjoyment will be almost directly mapped to how entertaining you find the visual spectacle to be, and - for me at least - it was perfectly good fun in short bursts.

Since this isn’t aimed toward the flight sim brigade, the control system is a critical make-or-break aspect of Attack on Pearl Harbor.

It's a shame because the technology underpinning both Spore titles is undoubtedly a fantastic achievement, but it looks like we'll be waiting a while longer before Maxis manages to find the right outlet for its creative tools.

Despite the shoddy graphics and performance, and a story that could use polish in its execution, Homefront: The Revolution has a solid foundation. It’s challenging and the mission variety in a pseudo open-world game is the best I’ve played in a while. It kept me engaged for its 22 hours. At the end, I felt satisfied. I hope to see another one with a bigger budget behind it.

Those who enjoyed the previous games should give Razor's Edge a chance, the improvements allowing the finer aspects of the series to shine through much clearer, but if it's a Premier Ninja experience you are looking for you might have to look elsewhere.

The tragedy of Alpha Protocol is that, hidden behind the mass of technical failings is a superb action RPG bristling with choice and driven by some inspired storytelling.

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.

Idun’s gameplay loop, progression systems, and moment-to-moment thrills mostly compensate for its padded main quest, rough edges, and disappointing AI-generated voice acting.