It's a wasted concept and it's let down by lazy execution.

The cumbersome gameplay and completely unrealistic settings and character movement provide quite the opposite of an immersive experience, and within an hour or two, you'll be exiting to Windows and filling your time with more entertaining games.

Face Noir tries its best to be a compelling Raymond Chandler-esque film noir detective adventure and falls flat on its noirish face. The story is boring, characters are either bland or straight-up racist, acting is mediocre, writing is worse, cutscenes are mostly static photos, and the puzzles are a string of “find the important thing the designers have hidden” moments rather than any genuine brain-teasers.

Unfortunately, Obscure II's solidity of game design tends to fall by the wayside to some glaring technical glitches and generally low production values, making it look like a game from 2005 rather than 2007 at times.

N.E.R.O. has the potential to be very deep if you can connect with it and fully understand it.

Dogfight 1942 is a decent arcade flyer that's ultimately kept grounded by an insubstantial campaign and a lack of anything interesting in the multiplayer department, and while it may pass an afternoon, don't expect much in the way of longevity.

Epic Mickey 2 is like a wonderful celebratory book of Disney lore where 80% of the pages have been torn, ripped, doodled over or spilled coffee on. On a base level there are numerous things to love, but the actual playing of the game turns that joy into hard, bitter anger.

Overall, Murdered: Soul Suspect is an enjoyable but simplistic mystery adventure which, although it features a well-detailed game world and well-written plot, is far too short for its own good. It's a game which I'd recommend to fans of this genre, but only at sale price.

All in all this game is solidly average. It’s a decent if predictable story saddled with a pedestrian game.

There's a lot of content on offer for the reduced price, and Lucius will certainly appeal to puzzle enthusiasts who want a darker edge to their adventuring, or murder enthusiasts who'd like to give their brain a work out rather than their stabbing arm.

While the problematic menus and glaring lack of single-player content invariably creeps in, tarnishing what is otherwise an essential title, Orbital Gear remains a refreshing and deftly executed take on multiplayer gaming that more developers should consider.

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.

There's some really good ideas in Master Reboot, maybe Wales Interactive have been a bit too ambitious with the project versus the size of their team, but it never quite fulfils those ideas.

Time Crisis: Razing Storm is a gaming packaging that brings together both ends of the quality spectrum. Two out of the three games are worth your time and money, and if you can fully ignore the third then you're laughing. If you already own a copy of Time Crisis 4 then don't bother with this - otherwise, this may well be the multiplayer shooter you've been looking for.

To be honest there is very little that Backbreaker does wrong. Its only real drawback is that it is not an official NFL licensed game and misses out on the major draw of taking a team to the Super Bowl.

It gets its hooks into you prompting you to return in drips and drabs. Fans will love it as ever, but if you've never experienced the world of Gundam or Dynasty Warriors, this is the perfect game to bring you into the series.

Just prepare to be very forgiving of the show stopping bugs and flaws that the game contains.

Whilst 1954 Alcatraz does certain things very well, it too often lets itself down.

Propaganda have done a really good job in crafting something that not only achieves its main purpose, but also doesn't completely suck.

Front Mission Evolved can sit well with mech game fans especially with its multiplayer. However as a third-person action shooter not very much stands out unless you quite enjoy boss battles with lots and lots of strafing, reloading, repairing and firing volley after volley of missiles, rockets and bullets.

Did they hope people wouldn't notice its shortcomings? Where they conducting some kind of experiment? Did they always plan to do this overhaul?

Front Mission Evolved can sit well with mech game fans especially with its multiplayer. However as a third-person action shooter not very much stands out unless you quite enjoy boss battles with lots and lots of strafing, reloading, repairing and firing volley after volley of missiles, rockets and bullets.

Propaganda have done a really good job in crafting something that not only achieves its main purpose, but also doesn't completely suck.

Black Legend isn't perfect, but it brings some really solid pieces to the game as a whole. The town is interesting and is designed well, the class system allows for a good amount of freedom of player choice, and the alchemy system is pretty novel. The writing (or lack thereof) is a stumbling block, along with the difficult healing system... but the atmosphere really draws you in and leaves you wanting more of Grant and its mysteries.

John Daly's Prostroke Golf is a great display of how the Move controller can be implemented, and has officially made us excited about what the future of Move holds.

It's just a little too shallow for comfort.

Good ideas, but execution leaves something to be desired.

Full Control have done a very faithful recreation of the board game, and with a few tweaks it could have been fairly decent.

While we wait for the hopeful announcement of a new Splinter Cell game in the future, Tom Clancy’s fans will be happy to know that Breakpoint is actually fun, now. The new Ghost Mode solved many of the issues that plagued the original version, and while it isn’t fully healed from its painful stint as a non-Ghost Recon game, the latest entry in the franchise is trying its best to course-correct. If you are one of the many people who were put off by it at launch, I would recommend you try and give it a try now – just like the eponymous Group for Specialised Tactics, Ubisoft might yet turn this near-miss of the series’ breakpoint into a franchise victory.

That it's a slight improvement over the last is not a surprise though, and for those of us not in love with the series it's just another disappointingly average action game.

If you are unfazed by the inevitable, constant death, the steep learning curve, the idiot AI, the poorly-designed (but neat looking) maps, the certain index finger cramps, or the underdeveloped character creation system, you will find Dawnspire to be a unique (and economic) gaming experience.

The problem is that as much as it wasn’t a bad game it wasn’t a great game either, falling somewhere in the realm of mediocre. Then again...so is most reality TV.

While it still could be saved the technical state of the game is so bad that it cannot be seen for what it does right. Even the good parts of the game are plagued by the negatives and the frequent FPS drops make gameplay vomit inducing.

For third person action veterans it probably won’t quite cut the mustard, but for Castlevania fans who are still digging the reboot this will be another good title in the reimagining of a classic series.

For a game so concerned with balance, its annoyances are in danger of outweighing its virtues.

KDV and Codemasters has a lot to be proud of in their latest creation, Maelstrom is a beautiful game filled with a lot of strategic talent and plenty of room for big pretty explosions, and squirtings of blood. If you love a royal RTS experience then grab Maelstrom and plunge in.

The combat is dull, the graphics are boring, even the heroes – the games' big selling point – are totally underwhelming. Not to mention ridiculously expensive for any extras. It's free to try, but it's not really worth the bandwidth either.

With a long campaign, randomly generated side missions and many cards to collect, Prime World Defenders offers fans of the Tower Defence genre a lasting and varied challenge, with new elements being added throughout.

If you've played through The Witcher 2 and are hankering for another similar experience, and don't mind a budget-feeling title, then Game of Thrones is well worth considering.

Mechanically, The Inquisitor borrows from several genres but rudimentary implementation fails to make a case for engaging in clue collecting or swordfighting. Worse yet, some of its mechanics are only there waste your time. On paper, and with more work put into it, The Inquisitor could have been a decent low-budget romp through an interesting setting. Sadly, in its current form, it only succeeds as a contender for the title of worst game of the year.

Those who've played the first game will either not want to touch another AZMD or be supremely disappointed at the sheer amount of regurgitated content here. Newcomers will likely get frustrated with the emphasis on grinding and repetitive game play.

While Peaky Blinders: Mastermind has some style and a novel approach to puzzling, it's not enough to properly engage. It definitely clicks at times, and there are moments where solving a problem makes you feel like a meticulous planner. However, there aren’t the eureka moments you’d expect from better puzzles nor mechanics worth mastering in replays. It’s hard to recommend and it’s only for a niche of Peaky Blinders fans who want an average puzzler with a lot of dull micromanaging (if they even exist).

Scaling itself back for a more "pure" co-op experience just doesn't work for this franchise that benefited so greatly from borderline parody. For that reason alone, The Devil's Cartel is an awkward one to recommend.

The Girl and the Robot’s interesting take on conveying a fairy-tale narrative is unique and it sits neatly alongside the platform and puzzle-based conundrums that make up the game’s duration. That said, the poorly implemented combat system and a distinct lack of polish both drag The Girl and the Robot far beneath the lofty standard for which it aims.

So when it’s all said and done, The King of Fighters XII isn’t going to be placed on a mantle above all other fighting games. It lacks proper net code and not everyone is going to enjoy the pixilated graphics.

Reasonably solid Move implementation will appeal to those desperate to try to justify a purchase of the hardware, but nobody else should bother with 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.

It's certainly a question of quantity over quality.

The Conjuring House offers up some classic old-school Gothic horror, the kind that relies on the tension it creates along with the atmosphere that builds naturally. Sure, the gameplay itself may be a little dated, but the game does so much work in creating a legitimately unsettling experience that it’s easy to excuse the constant need for finding this or that. If you genuinely enjoy being scared or you want to make someone you care about suffer and not be able to sleep soundly for a few nights, then The Conjuring House ought to do the job pretty well.

While we're certainly not starving for Action RPGs these days Sacred 3 does manage to stand out.

Dynasty Warriors 9 suffers from a lot of issues, most stemming from the terribly implemented open-world. Assets are reused, it’s buggy, repetitive, bloated, empty and bland. These shortcomings are made all the more painful by the obvious potential this game had, and how fun the base combat can be once players waded through all the other nonsense.

This is a game with a great deal of replay value, and one that will keep you immersed for hours. An extra edge of realism has been added in the reinforcement system, which forces you to win objectives before you receive reinforcements.

That it's a slight improvement over the last is not a surprise though, and for those of us not in love with the series it's just another disappointingly average action game.

How utterly average-sounding can you get, huh? With a little sprucing up, perhaps some voice-acting and some real, game-changing decisions to make, Faery: Legends of Avalon could have been a hidden gem. Instead, it's the kind of RPG that developers try their best not to create.

It's easy to see what the aim of Body and Brain was, but on a platform like Kinect it has to offer flawless recognition when you're submitting your answers, otherwise it completely defeats the point.

With its derivative world and characters, it's at best a guilty pleasure but probably isn't worth your time unless you can find it at a bargain bin price.

Still, there’s plenty more to keep them satisfied, and the game’s rough presentation and slightly disappointing campaign are easy to forgive when the basic gameplay is so solid.

Genesis Rising in no way reaches the potential it has bubbling beneath the surface, released all too soon and unnecessarily plastered with imperceptive, charmless patina.

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

There’s no making up for a lackluster story that clearly pads the game length, unimaginative missions, or a weak combo structure, but Arslan: The Warriors of Legend could have been a much better experience had it not been marred with inexcusable framerate problems and sullied with glitches.

Randal’s Monday gets so much right it’s depressing that it gets the crucial gameplay part wrong.

As a lovely and crazy world to explore with a charming art style and catchy music it’s just fine, but as a game Armikrog comes up significantly short.

The true mark of a good game is whether you want to go back the next day and play it again, and I want to play it again so bad I had to stop twice writing this to have just another quick go.

The whole affair just suffers from a lack of polish all round.

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.

An entertaining addition, with a great game engine. Sadly I can’t see it breaking out and drawing a huge following simply because the WWII RTS genre has been done to death.

I feel a little caught in the middle with Back to Bed. It’s a very stylish looking game with a unique surrealist bent but the puzzle mechanics don’t feel developed enough to fully engage me yet.

The gameplay of Paradise is fair, but nothing that will impress. A typical point and click third person style interface, with plenty of pixel hunting and manipulating of levers, dials, switches, etc.

That's not to say Jet Car Stunts is not a fun game to pick up and play and if you're interested in chasing high-scores and persevering through extremely challenging courses there's a bountiful package on offer here for you. Unfortunately the fussy physics, camera problems and controls that are difficult to entirely master will halt the progress of all but a persistent few.

Even without comparing it to previous games, it's still mediocre at best. If I had one word to describe Wrecked, it would be unnecessary. There are enough arcade racers out there, and some of them are actually pretty decent. This one; is not.

I’m not entirely sure who’d enjoy a game like this. It’s possible we’ll see a few desperate YouTubers record their girlfriend getting scared by some of the earlier moments in the game, but aside from that tiny bit of stimulation and the initial hope that the nonsensical plot will have a logical finish, there’s very little here for anyone other than the most desperate of horror fans.

With a concept that’s insensitive at best, Cannibal Cuisine has a rough first impression to overcome. The mechanics that are under it are fine, but the controls can feel too slippery for their own good. Add that with an average combat system and you’ve got a game that never shines beyond its sensationalistic pitch. If your mates crave some co-op chaos, there are far worse games to play. However, there are also far better games out there.

There are no difficulty levels, no online support, no party modes, no DLC, and no reason to switch it back on. To say that I wasn't entertained would be a lie, as there's enough charm in a few of the games to pass a couple of hours on a dreary Sunday afternoon - but that's nowhere near enough to justify a full-price or even a budget purchase.

For all its faults though, Disciples is certainly something unique, and the quality of the overworld sections and general strategising may well be enough for a crowd that will inevitably seek it out anyway.

The Technomancer is not grossly bad, but it feels cheap and is deeply mediocre. It’s a cheap game, and worse: it’s no longer a cheap price. As I said in the first paragraph, I can’t think of a reason anyone would want to buy it over any other game in existence.

This is a low-budget affair however, make no mistake, but as long as your brain can get over the sound of three British blokes hamming up their lines with conviction, then you'll uncover a decent amount of charm within Da New Guys script.

The LEGO Movie 2 is a great movie! But the Videogame has no dialogue between characters, and very little of the meta zaniness that makes the movie pop. It’s got some shining moments, such as huge boss encounters, but this brave new world of LEGO games needs some more refinement. It’s Telltale’s Jurassic Park rather than Walking Dead, then.

Good voice acting and cool, bloody werewolf fighting sequences could not fully save the rushed story and flat facial animations of this one-dimensional take on the rich World of Darkness universe.

Infinity Runner is a strange beast. If this was a review of an iPad version then I would probably feel more favourable towards it but here, on the PC, a game as casual and potentially frustrating due to the nature of genre, feels out of place.

What kicks this game into the frustration bucket more than anything else is that control system.

The Mean Greens is one of the simplest multiplayer games ever with about quarter the depth of the already puddle-thin Star Wars Battlefront, and yet for a quick blast now and again that type of game is totally fine.

This is one just for the big Star Trek fans. The average gamer is unlikely to maintain interest for too long; especially given the main campaign has a completion time of around 10 hours.

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.

For all its faults though, Pirates of Black Cove is a very endearing game.

We get the impression that Sonic Team wanted Forces to be the Best Sonic Game Ever, with a Greatest Hits package of everything good in the series, but they didn’t have the time, money or talent to accomplish this. The 2D sections control poorly, and the 3D sections sport the same problems that the series has had since Sonic Adventure – such as dying if you don’t play the level exactly as the designer intended. There’s fun to be had, but even then Forces feels so cheap and abrupt that you’ll be finished with it entirely in 4 hours. It’s not the worst 3D Sonic game, but in trying to do everything Sonic Team didn’t really accomplish anything. Next time, stick to just Generations 2 or Colours 2. Or even better – give Sonic entirely to other developers.

For all Croixleur Sigma can be quite challenging - particularly towards its Story Mode’s end or within Challenge Mode - no real skill is needed to succeed, and it’s lack of variety and intrigue make this feel like a wasted journey west.

Spiders wanted Bound By Flame to be their big breakout hit but penny-pinching on theirs or their publisher's side will hold them back.

And that’s the reason the first Leisure Suit Larry is beloved enough to get a crowd-funded remake – it’s still very funny to play. Yes some of the mechanics are painful, irritating, or just obtrusive (even by 1987 standards, yet alone 2013), but lose them and you lose the experience.

The problem with Kinect Star Wars is down to the use of the Kinect Sensor itself – while the package is a well constructed and well thought out one, it's all too often that the sensor misreads something and it becomes frustrating.

As a Playstation Move launch title, it does a great job of showing off what could potentially be done with the hardware in the future, but as an actual game, it stinks.

What little positive elements it has going for it are marred by its problems.

Nowhere Studios have an artistic eye that spoke in a unique and moving way to me at first but the technical problems voided that emotional connection and Monochroma ended up being a slog rather than a joy.

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.

It might not have the longevity of a full action-RPG or the combat depth of the best side-scrolling beat-em-ups, but the balance that Lionhead has struck between accessibility and quick 10-15 minute bursts of fun is hard to resist.

This one's going to be a bit of a slow burner we imagine – needs more content, more tweaking, and obviously the community needs building upon too. But it's got good tech and good support from Bohemia behind it, and we'd be surprised if this didn't do as well as the realities of this niche allow it to do.

What kicks this game into the frustration bucket more than anything else is that control system.

Buy it on a console if you must play it, but don't expect things to be much of an improvement.

I want to recommend War of the Worlds to everyone, I want to slap a high score on it and call it a classic, but I can't because it made me too damn angry. When it works it's a wonderful and challenging experience, hence the still reasonable score, but it too often doesn't.