Cooperative play done right!

A much-needed expansion that sures up the shallowness of the empire building and management. Utopia adds great depth and new layers of progression that make building your interstellar empire a much more unique and enjoyable experience.

Cult of the Lamb is memorable for more than just this silliness, though. While the combat falls short after extended play, developers Massive Monster must be commended for a brilliant blend of ludicrous violence and cuteness that stands tall as one of 2022’s best games.

In mechanics though, the game soars, offering awesome new takes on systems that made the original TTT title a must-have PS2 classic whilst also adding a modern flair and polish that makes it a stellar example that fighting games don't have to all be about gaining extended revenue through costume and character DLC - it can be about packing in a great suite of impressive features from the word go.

Space Marine 2 is an old-fashioned triumph that eschews modern trends and vapid bloat in exchange for relentless, gory action and a fully-featured Warhammer 40K package that’s presented in gorgeous fashion.

Despite a bitch-slap of an ending (setting it up for a sequel no doubt), there's some really great moments in this game.

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.

Although notably lacking in enthusiasm for its PC platform, Joe Danger makes an excellent debut on Windows, with enough content to keep you entertained for months.

It takes a while to get going; unlike the very best titles in its genre, it doesn't present complex information to the player in a concise and understandable way, which means it can sometimes be a frustrating experience for new players.

Succeeds and amazes in some areas but almost horridly trips and stumbles along in others. Still I find myself liking the game and am willing to overlook its potholes.

The story falters towards the end, and the fact that the game is so short is the biggest bummer of all. Regardless, it’s a great game that will be remembered for a long time coming.

This could have been a great game, so it's a shame certain things are holding it back - still, it's addictive, interesting, highly enjoyable, and so credit where credit's due.

I didn't bother to mention how amazing the '70s neon cel-shaded graphics are or how spot-on the voice acting is since you should be taking them for granted from Telltale now, but combined with everything else The Wolf Among Us is shaping up to be potentially Telltale's strongest series

Flight Control HD may be a little short on content, but it's still one of the best downloadable Move games available right now.

If you can get over the relative tedium of the dungeons you'll be trawling through, there's a deep indie RPG adventure here. Certainly it's good enough to recommend to old codgers who remember the likes of Eye of the Beholder or Lands of Lore.

A minor gripe would be that the content is a little short, but as this is intended to be another episode for the series, it’s not a serious gripe. A nice taster without being a waste of time, a great introduction to social games without the pressure of eight-player ability fuelled mayhem, and an enjoyable adventure for experienced thinkers and friends alike. Plus, pirates! Try it.

An incredibly welcome breath of fresh air. Never underestimate the simple need to let loose and cause some mayhem, and the skill shot system is exceptionally done.

Battlefield 6 triumphs as an old-fashioned, polished all-you-can-eat of multiplayer chaos, hitting the ground running instead of limping. Its single-player campaign is a waste of many studios’ time and manpower though.

There's no doubt about it, Split/Second is a finely balanced, visually stunning racer that loves the brown stuff hitting the fan.

You will love it though if you chose the Weird Wasteland perk, loved the Vault filled with Garys in 3, or just don't mind playing through an extremely funny and well-written DLC pack that throws interesting surprises at you all the time, rewards exploration greatly, and packs more imagination and play-time in it than nearly every other full-priced game out there.

Whilst the subject matter and the set-up may not be to everyone's liking, Crusader Kings II is definitely the most impressive Paradox game to date. The game mechanics are an interesting twist on a well-known genre, the code itself is highly polished, and it's just a really fun and interesting game to play.

Some flaws still exist including some poor camera control problems reminiscent of the era when this was originally created, but in general this is a really impressive HD remake of an underrated, under played classic that deserves the attention – and something that other HD remakes could definitely stand to learn a thing or two from.

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

Franchise aficionados will know how convoluted Metal Gear plots can be. Revengeance also stumbles into preachy territory and tries to provide comment on America, politics and terrorism. This is expected for the most part and doesn't become too overbearing until the final hour, where cutscenes take an even greater role in proceedings. If the sociocultural commentary becomes too much, Virtual Reality missions offer a direct chance to get down and dirty.

Technobabylon is one of the best adventures WadjetEye have ever published, and that’s saying something.

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.

Ether One provides a platform to explore dementia - a very common incurable mental illness - for anyone who has had direct experience in the past, whilst delivering a subtle rudimentary level of understanding to those who haven’t.

Nevertheless I really enjoyed the 3-4 hours I spent investigating The Vanishing of Ethan Carter and recommend you check it out, although admittedly your own enjoyment will be tied to whether you find and solve all the puzzles first time around.

Some scenes in this game genuinely moved me.

ModNation might not be the greatest kart racer that you'll ever play, but the endless invention of the userbase will keep it fresh long past others that are put out to pasture. Highly recommended.

The narrative acts as a small, mostly harmless, reward in between lengthy bouts of grinding, largely pushing you from area to area. Barren locations and unappealing textures do kick things down a notch when exploring its world, but you’ll forget about them as soon as you enter combat and bask upon the detailed, epic monster models and their special attack animations. It’s not perfect, but underestimating Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin would be a disservice to fans and newbies alike, as it’s a fully-fledged turn-based RPG that also has a lot of the mainline entries’ DNA baked into it.

Just wait until you get to the end. It's a curious ending but well worth the Odyssey.

An extremely satisfying coop combat game with a very frustrating balance and loot system.

Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin is definitely an interesting title, mixing the mundanities of rice planting with 2D hacking and slashing. While an acquired taste, those who like their games unique should have a fun time with Sakuna. If you can forgive an unlikeable protagonist and some repetitive gameplay at times, Sakuna is a solid title that shines even with its flaws.

While the fixed camera angles and the adventure-game like puzzles will shock more recent series fans it’s all still enjoyable, and the Crimson Head zombies, the great and ever-surprising design and the atmosphere ensures the remake feels like a unique entry in the series.

Metro: Last Light is a hugely atmospheric FPS that has corrected all the real flaws of its predecessor and improved on them to such a degree that they’re actually superb – stealth and shooting are now things to enjoy rather than avoid, and can compete with the best in the genre.

While there is a bit of a learning curve – you're likely to spend your first few games getting instantly killed by cunning unseen enemies – it's worth persevering with. The realistic aspects to the game like bleeding, and quick death by bullet, give it a unique feel among the majority of today's shooters.

If you can pull yourself away from killing things for a few hours to play a sweet, adorable, bizarre, funny, joyful game, you owe it to yourself to buy Botanicula. It's not massively challenging and it only really lasts four hours, but you'll have a smile on your face for the entire time – and often a good laugh too.

There's the disappointment of no online multiplayer again, yes, but even amongst the occasional frustration and swear words as you try for yet another attempt at completing a level, you'll be keen to see what else is on offer here.

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.

If breathing through the rifle’s scope, watching your subject walk unaware of his soon-to-be demise is not enough to make you feel like an assassin, then this may be the wrong game for you.

Still, this is definitely an improved version over the original, so kudos to Larian for the extra work they've put in.

Apart from the ending of course, which I’m thinking about a lot. Broken Age: Act 1 is a wonderful piece of work, well worth the time and money put into it, an excellent piece of videogame fiction, but it just needs some work being an actual videogame.

It's not a progressive MMO that moves the genre forward. Instead it's well-balanced, polished, highly entertaining and brimming with variety.

Aptly named, Blur tries to unclear the line between kart and sim, but in the process may leave many racing enthusiasts of both sorts uncomfortable.

Victoria 3 is a political and economic simulation of unparalleled depth, complexity and indifference to you. Stumble upon a narrative hook and it can reel you in, even if it struggles to maintain a human connection.

There are quibbles along the way but Injustice: Gods Among Us is exactly as much fun as it needed to be and I can happily recommend it. And as a final point for fans who don’t know already, the tie-in comic is (whisper it) pretty darn fantastic

30 hours of RPG gaming later and I don’t regret a moment of it, and I’m sure when I play it again I’ll create a totally different experience for myself. Torment has flaws but none that will stop me from considering it a great RPG.

While Torchlight's original faults still stand, the game lends itself wonderfully to the Xbox 360 controller, and we found ourselves preferring the console edition. If you're looking for a hack 'n' slasher to lose a week's worth of nights to, then sit down - you've found it.

Free from last gen’s technical limitations and focused on creative control, Jurassic World Evolution 3 is the ultimate Jurassic Park video game and a culmination of Frontier’s entire body of work.

It may be a simple old-school arcade twin-stick shooter but the huge maps, secondary objectives, and fun things to discover like being able to collapse buildings by driving through them elevate Renegade Ops to must-play territory.

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.

You will love it though if you chose the Weird Wasteland perk, loved the Vault filled with Garys in 3, or just don't mind playing through an extremely funny and well-written DLC pack that throws interesting surprises at you all the time, rewards exploration greatly, and packs more imagination and play-time in it than nearly every other full-priced game out there.

Small nitpicks aside, Wolfenstein: The New Order is a fantastic game.

Alien Isolation is a nerve-wrecking, stomach-twisting, bowel-moving, edge-of-your-seat experience and is unlike every other game out there.

Perhaps not one for the hardcore role player, but an FPS gamer or MMO addict might well find The Witcher to be a great alternative to watching a DVD during the evening.

Just don't expect many things you haven't seen before.

An excellently crafted game that goes above and beyond all expectations for an indie downloadable title. The action feels tight, it's bursting with content, the graphics and sound are impressive.

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.

It's a challenging and complex game packed with features that allows you to choose just how you want to play it, while accommodating a wide variety of play-styles and strategies.

Between the new aircraft, cool new orbitals, and fantastic design of the Strategic Zoom function, there’s a lot here to love for any fan of the mass real-time strategy. It’s a shame that the story still can’t always keep up with the stellar additions to the gameplay and that some of the new ground units get swept up in the sheer way that the game is built, but Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation is still one of the coolest, most smooth, and vast real-time strategies out there.

Aptly named, Blur tries to unclear the line between kart and sim, but in the process may leave many racing enthusiasts of both sorts uncomfortable.

Now for the age-old question: is war worth it? At £30, Ardennes Assault might be slightly overpriced, yet within lies a brilliant war sim RTS. Only the best need apply.

The story kicks into high gear with some tense and amazing scenes, the choices become tougher and more oblique and the consequences hit hard.

There's a lot to said for visuals these days though, and having played the PC version extensively we're not sure we could then go to the console with a neutral mind-set. Swings and Roundabouts, as they say, but Reckoning is a good game all round and well worth getting – no matter the platform.

The best episodes in the series to date. Telltale have successfully created an intense atmosphere with a heavy sense of urgency that will keep players on edge throughout.

It could have accomplished so much more, but it's hard to complain when SSX is still such a brilliant game.

For all its slight foibles, Just Cause 2 is hugely entertaining, and despite the creeping feeling of repetition beginning to set in as you destroy your 500th fuel tank or collect your 1000th item, there's more than enough freedom to pull off ludicrous stunts and experiment with your weapons, vehicles, parachute and grappling hook to make you want to extend your stay in Panau's sandbox paradise indefinitely.

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

Whether or not you can forgive CA for 'pulling a Valve' is up to you, but please don't blame the game itself - this is a worthwhile experience and well worth the money in reality, if not in principle.

Overall, it's obvious to see why Jak and Daxter makes the perfect choice for a HD collection, and I knew that I would enjoy returning to all 3 of these games. What I didn't expect was to feel that the most relevant release in the package is the original, a type of game that simply doesn't get made any more.

The ending will be a point of contention for some, but it all comes down to a perspective and regardless of that, you should play this game.

A rollickingly gory ride, packing with blood, style and content. If only it built on its foundations, rather than pounding us with the same repetitive gameplay throughout, this would be a must-have.

Though it’s impossible not to question Marathon’s long-term appeal, it’s one of the most confident big-budget FPS in years and a fantastic reminder that Bungie devs can shake things up when given the space and freedom to cook.

Dragon’s Dogma is a great game that feels unique among fantasy RPGs thanks to its blend of mechanics and influences. Its flaws - repetitive quests and a somewhat aimless structure - don’t block out its enormous strengths. Its core combat is great, and fighting the game’s array of giant beasts is some of the most fun I’ve ever had in an RPG. And this PC version is absolutely the best way to play it.

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.

A fantastic game of exploration and survival. You can occasionally feel lost in its open-world that lacks any real signposting, but the simple joy of digging and crafting means you’ll keep playing to discover the naturally-occurring progress.

Even when you do get a sense of the rhythm of its battles, there's always something to keep you on your toes, making Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters well worth giving a shot if you're a turn-based tactics fan.

I like Wasteland 2, I really do, but I can't help but think it's not quite the masterpiece we were promised.

Increasingly complex yet approachable, Anno 1800 is an excellent entry in the long-running city building series that both challenges but also leaves space to admire one’s handiwork.

What we have here is a refined and extremely confident product from a studio that has found its feet in the FPS world.

Galactic Civilizations 3 is a constantly rewarding experience, a colossal box of toys with which you can create some truly memorable stories.

In a month full of high-quality adventure games from some of the most respected names in the genre, relatively unknown newcomer Nelly Cootalot: The Fowl Fleet could be my favourite of the lot. It’s incredibly funny and charming, with a lovely kid’s cartoon feel to it.

While there is a limit to how much replayability Culture Shock offers, with a nine buck price tag it's several hours of bang for your buck. I figure a movie costs more than that, particularly with popcorn, and no one keeps me from bringing my own candy to the computer.

Age of Empires 4 does a lot well, building from the roots of the AoE franchise. Fans of the original games will find the improved graphics to be welcome and the gameplay to maintain the same fast-paced feel. History buffs will also find themselves delighted by the historical campaigns and the changing art style of the buildings as they progress through the ages. The only real downsides are the ease with which you can lose your rhythm, and the almost mandatory use of hotkeys in multiplayer due to bad pathfinding and unit AI.

Great fun, if not exactly the step forward we were hoping for. New players will have a fantastic time gunning for best times and whizzing through the air, while old Trackmania legends will either take to the new challenge, or wonder why it's just the very same experience all over again.

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

South Park: The Fractured But Whole is an excellent sequel and the funniest game this year, but it’s simply not as good as The Stick Of Truth. Even ignoring how unique the first game was at the time, the storyline was more epic, the locations more varied, the jokes jaw-dislocatingly good in that game. This one is great, always funny and usually pretty disturbing in that South Park way, but the superhero storyline kind of peaks with Professor Chaos and that’s not even halfway through the game. Fortunately at least the combat is far better and never less than entertaining, and fights can get really inventive and very tactical. If The Stick Of Truth was an all-time classic episode of South Park, The Fractured But Whole is merely a very good one. Still, this is the one with Tweek x Craig, which is always excellent news. Hopefully Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Ubisoft will get it right again in 2020 with South Park: This Time They’re Playing Star Wars.

If you liked Shadowrun Returns but felt the main storyline was missing something, you'll find that Dragonfall improves on the original in almost every way.

Aware of its past yet looking towards the future, Company of Heroes 3 offers something for everyone. The dynamic map of Italy is a great experience, although it's slightly marred by passive AI, abilities that don't always work, small UI issues, and a gameplay loop that doesn't encourage the use of all available tools...Apart from the two campaigns, Company of Heroes 3 presents more options than ever before with its four factions, including the Deutsches Afrikakorps, which is an outstanding addition to the roster. Although it still relies on past strategies, the modifications to tactical battles and the addition of new units demonstrate that almost two decades after its inception, the formula that helped Relic Entertainment become a household name in the strategy genre still holds up.

Thanks to its tough-but-fair challenge, Playtonic has made a very rewarding game. There are moments where I had the realization I was having full-on fun, smiling all the way, and that never happens. Its writing might be obnoxious at times and the overworld can be superfluous, but its foundation is so well constructed that it doesn’t distract from the game proper. It might take awhile for it to click. But when it does, you’re gonna have an enthralling time. Hell, I’m going to go play more of it now that I finished this review.

The scene of crossing a battlefield, with hundreds of lifeless bodies piled over each other, only to see a swarm of rats bursting out of a horse’s bloated corpse is just one of multiple sights that A Plague Tale: Innocence inevitably etches into your mind. Although its stealth and puzzle mechanics aren’t exactly fresh, having what’s, quite possibly, the most powerful representation of the Black Death in the medium, even if stylized, is reason enough to see Amicia and Hugo’s journey to its end.

Looking forward we wouldn't mind seeing some kind of abilities worked back into the game, whether off-map or unit based (Engineers, for example, don't really do anything engineering). Regardless of the future though, this game is worth getting now, pure and simple.

I was surprised by Planetfall, lest of all because I was never a big fan of Age of Wonders – not because it was bad, but because it never grabbed me. This entry was different, however, with the focus on 4X expansion and the draw of close-range squad engagements with ranged weapons, bombardments, and customisable heroes was enough to get me invested, and was put together well enough to ignore most of the flaws in the squad combat system. They are still noticeable and frustrating enough to force me to take a break every once in a while (even when constantly winning battles), but if you are looking for an engaging, sci-fi 4X with more character and presence than the abstract grand-strategy Stellaris, Age of Wonders: Planetfall is the game for you.

With so many studios trying to hit the coveted MMO market, one thing is clear if you want to succeed - your game has to be unique. You can make up for tonnes of mistakes if you can just carve out a market for it. Although it has its own issues of identity - with a Diablo-like fighting system and enough extra activities to feel full - Lost Ark is a game that I'm looking forward to seeing grow.

It’s a decent expansion, but the weak colonial nation AI brings it down – they are supposed to be able to start wars and stuff on their own, but I haven’t witnessed that much autonomy so far.

It’s a comforting reminder that video games can still hark back to their traditional roots and produce an enjoyable experience without any overblown live-action trailer or day one DLC. This is a delight to play.

That's the story of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3: This is actually the game that the original should've been. If you've not played MVC3 or traded it in and want another fix, this is absolutely the best route to go. If you bought the original, how much do you love MVC? If you want more, go get it – the newcomers are great fun.