A great game that you’ll find yourself unable to step away from because you have to research one thing more, or expand to one more territory.

The game time is shorter and the goals are more defined, leading to a more immediate need for diplomacy and warfare, and the stripped down nature of the game actually does it credit when playing with others.

Finally significant progress has been put into place, as the game's backbone is starting to feel sturdy enough to carry the weight of expectation.

Bionic Due is not only a necessary purchase for all true rogue-clone fans, but it’d easily be a pride-worthy addition to the game collection of anyone with even a remote interest in this sort of thing. This game is a great laugh and a good challenge; Arcen Games, hat’s off to you chaps.

While a bit too rigid and buggy at times, Commandos: Origins is a worthy enough return to nerve-wracking tactical WWII scenarios that are a blast to figure out.

While the original model, texture and animation work of these three Hitman titles hasn’t held up all that well, the actual technical work done on this HD collection is solid. There’s widescreen, a higher resolution and undoubtedly a better frame rate than the original titles - and that’s the best you can expect without stretching to be more of a remake than a straight port. Three games in one place for a budget price is pretty good, too.

An injection of human drama could have brought the game's reality into line with our expectations, which were so cruelly raised by that teaser trailer mere months ago.

It just lacks that bit of variety and any sort of multiplayer that would push it right into recommended territory.

I’m pretty sure this won’t appeal to a lot of people. It can be bone-crushingly hard at times and difficult to get into. But by giving you the tools to craft your own escape and leaving you alone to sort it out, The Escapists is one of those classic hands-off games that encourages you to create your own story and incredible moments.

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.

But a jam-packed experience underpinned by flawed game play is still a flawed package.

These caveats are not minor ones, and it's important that people don't rush into buying the game from blind nostalgia without some idea of its not inconsiderable technical deficiencies.

Nevertheless the quests are fun, the world still good to explore, the combat great, the community wonderful (apart from those damn spambots) and the Alliance War a wildly ambitious and impressive experiment. Elder Scrolls Online is, by the skin of its teeth and a lot of hard work from Zenimax, a success.

A pretty and novel use of the 40K license, brought down by uninspired design and plain bad game balance.

It may be shorter, but The Pact is an exciting session almost entirely devoted to Bruce Wayne chatting with some of the best Batman villains around and trying to get on their good side. If this were a TV show I’d be in rapt attention.

The Calm Before The Storm is probably a better title. The third episode of Telltale’s second season of Batman isn’t big on action, massive shocks, or set-pieces, but it is big on character development, interaction, making choices, and probably making the wrong ones. Fractured Mask isn’t the most eventful episode, but it’s still fun, all the characters are clashing wonderfully, and it’s fun waiting for the hammer to fall and your choices to bite you hard. Which will probably happen in Episode 4. We can’t wait.

While it won't be able to compete with its big budget peers in pretty much any aspect, at least it's a fraction of the price of the likes of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

Some of its more unique spin on things do shine through, such as City management, but others like the added adventure/discovery element just get lost amongst the need to survive.

But what could easily become an overburdening mess of a structure is cleverly handled by the developer, and Lionheart is engaging as a result.

As awesome as it is, the arcade action in Destroy All Humans! is only a part of the experience, struggling to carry its rudimentary stealth missions and hit-or-miss writing. It’s definitely a blast to level entire neighborhoods and disintegrate humans; we just wish we had to spend less time impersonating them.

Dungeon Siege III falls victim to its lack of ambition.

One for hardcore military history fans only.

Overall, Battle Worlds: Kronos is a really robust strategy game.

An interesting game that scratches the detective itch, without ever reaching great heights.

It’s nothing particularly new, as Telltale games go, but I think that playing with a more family-friendly property has been good for the studio. Those trademark life or death choices were getting a little contrived, so it’s nice to just hang around with a likeable group of characters and go off on a fun, mostly light-hearted adventure. With the occasional eldritch abomination thrown in.

Anyone who enjoys a good tactical shooter, especially those with an affinity for the long-range kill, would do well to check it out.

While the idea of a Telltale miniseries is a welcome and novel one The Walking Dead: Michonne suffers because there’s already too much Walking Dead in the world, and also the invulnerability of Michonne means you never worry about her the same way you did Lee or Clementine.

Upgrading to the next tier of combat space ships was an easy highlight. It’s where you cross the boundary from struggling and nervous to overpowered and feeling like you can bring the entire galaxy down in blazing glory if you wanted to for a little while.