Dodgy AI, a horrible story, and a frustratingly steep learning curve are all obstacles to enjoyment, and even when you do hit the height points, it's still nothing special.

I definitely enjoyed heading back to the simpler gameplay of Bubble Bobble 4 Friends. But the main game is far too short for any long-term gaming. The lower difficulty setting certainly allows younger gamers to play with a degree of confidence. However, it will leave older gamers wanting something extra. The addition of the original game does increase the nostalgia, but the issues of poor controller responsiveness somewhat limit the enjoyment. If you have a young family and want to show them a comparison between games of yesteryear and today, Bubble Bobble 4 Friends is worth a look, but look elsewhere if you’re looking for a challenging platformer.

The only ray of light was the amazing, and well out of place, graphics which are both visually stunning and seductive. Gameplay is a repetitive mental abuse and the plot would make baby Jesus cry, there I said it.

By paying such homage to the 80s classics which inspired it - even in an age where ‘retro’ interpretations are ala mode - Space Run feels a bit dated.

Sacred Citadel, then, is certainly of interest from a game design standpoint, but more as a warning that sometimes what sounds like a good idea actually isn’t. RPG elements have become more and more common in other genres of video games, but in this example of the side-scrolling brawler, they just don’t work.

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.

Though this title is flawed, shallow, and often bland, it does have fun moments.

What should have been a glorious marriage of Binary Domain and Smash TV in Ares Omega ends up as something far lesser on account of its many flaws. While a serviceable roguelike shooter ticks away at its heart, there simply isn’t enough here to recommend Ares Omega to anybody with a hankering for a well-crafted, progression focused blaster.

Mars is a fairly interesting action RPG with a cheap price on its side, but in all honesty it could do with being even cheaper.

Styx is a likeable protagonist and is quite possibly the best videogame goblin of all time, but his humorous nature and sailor-like vernacular isn't enough to lift his game beyond the abyss of mediocrity it languishes in.

Sacred 2 was the sort of action-RPG you turned to once you’d exhausted better, more focused options in the genre. 17 years later, a decent remaster can’t mask what’s a largely plodding and miserable experience.

Atlas Fallen is perhaps best summed up by one of the later powers you add to the gauntlet. You are given the ability to raise ancient structures, the capacity to uncover a lost world, its towering buildings and long forgotten relics. You spend the next few minutes pulling empty boxes and planks of wood out of the sand. Want to raise all of the history from the mythical siege of the gods that lies beneath your feet? We’re going to go metal detecting for pennies down the local field instead…Such letdowns underpin a game that I initially really liked and quickly grew weary of. There’s fun to be had, and co-op may open up the enjoyment even more. But heed the warning; most of Atlas Fallen’s positives are tapered by the sense it hates its players and isn’t willing to give back on the effort put in.

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.

You’ve got to work for hours upon hours to reach anything approaching competence, and it’s tough to recommend that investment to any but the most hardcore of space strategy tactical RPG simulation enthusiasts.

Hoard is quite an addictive little casual game when it gets going, but ruins it by giving the player no satisfaction from winning or reason to continue after one level.

AlthoughDoorways starts to find its feet in the concluding segments, the closing shots of the chapter feel desperately anticlimactic.

Stalker 2 is unlike anything else in the FPS market right now, but design flaws that only become more baffling the more you play and an embarrassingly long list of minor bugs, performance hiccups, and game-breaking issues undo nearly all the good done in other areas of the game. An engrossing experience lies beneath all the clutter, but it will take time to unearth it.

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.

Clunky, frustrating and a world away from the series best efforts, Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: Russia limps over the finish line, completing a spin-off trilogy and closing the door on a concept that simply deserved better.

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.

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.

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.

The repetitive minigames that occupy a significant portion of the gameplay in Zipp’s Cafe tend to hinder its charm, despite the narrative potential that flickers through its admittedly dry dialogues. While the game succeeds to some extent in immersing players into its expansive setting, the lackluster routine of food and drink preparation, coupled with insufficiently developed characters, makes it challenging to feel drawn into becoming a frequent visitor.

If you're a huge Formula One fan the updated season content might be enough to sway you on F1 2014. For everyone else, there are better and more involving racing games out there, that are far more worthy of your time.

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.

It's just a little bit boring right now. If you want to show Paradox and Kerberos your support, then by all means go buy it, but regardless of whether you pick it up now or not, it'll probably take a couple of months of patches to be the game it was meant to be.

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.

There’s a depth to the lore and world-building that you rarely see at this scale. But the level design is so constrictive and the difficulty so fierce that it’s a constant fight to have fun.