It’s about as relaxing as skateboarding games get, so if you just feel like losing yourself and forgetting your worries in a sun-bleached world, this is the place to do it.

If you haven’t picked up Madden in a few years, there’s nothing glaringly wrong with this year’s release and I would recommend it. On the other side of the coin, if you’re a diehard and you play every year and might even have the free next gen release from last season, I’d say this year is a safe skip and just download this season’s roster.

It definitely shows promise, and if it were to add in more objectives for solo players or game modes for multiplayer I could see it achieving that promise. At the moment, it’s definitely not there, but it may be worth keeping an eye on the game to watch how it evolves.

So basically, Lollipop Chainsaw is a game that's certainly worth your time and money. The overall game, on Normal, is pretty short, but there's a whole lot replay value packed into the experience that actually makes that short game time a lot more feasible than you might expect.

It was one of my favourite games of the generation back when it first came out on PS3, and after sinking many, many hours into this version, I suspect it’ll wind up being one of my favourite games of whatever generation the Switch falls into, too.

With a plethora of routines and motions to do, music to keep you engaged, and an easy and simple way to track your progress, I genuinely think that Fitness Boxing 3 is a great way to work on yourself and have a bunch of fun doing so. Game-ifying workouts is a surprisingly unique concept, and it’s good to see it’s done as well as it is here. If you’re seeking an entry into working out and improving your body, especially with a fun methodology, I don’t think there’s a better option.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands proves that Ubisoft has taken what they have learned from all of their previous titles and used it to work for the future. There are noticeable aspects from Rainbow Six, The Division, Assassin's Creed and Far Cry all at work here without ever making Ghost Recon feel like a copy. What may be lacking in the single player elements of the game are made up for over and over again when playing with friends. If you are on the fence about getting this to join with your buddies, bite that bullet and grab this game up. If you don’t have an online connection or anybody to play with, maybe hold off and catch it when it goes on sale.

Overall Thief is an enjoyable experience that deserves to be played and explored if you are a fan of stealth games. Trying to figure out a creative way past the guards can be very fun and satisfying, and replaying missions to find all of the collectibles can be quite challenging and rewarding.

But at no point does it feel like anything but an old fashioned arcade shooter with a few more controls. When there are so many first person shooters available that offer opportunity for strategy ' with wide open levels and options for how to approach an objective ' it's disappointing that Killzone is so thin in that dimension.

It's hard to be definitive with SEV2 because it does fall victim to its own unique premise and gameplay speciality. It's somewhat limited, but adding more whiz-bang and flashiness would only dilute its core sniping gameplay, which is exactly what makes it stand out from the crowd.

Here's how much I love Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires: my only complaint is that there's no autosaving, which meant I once lost about half a continent. I figure that any time my complaints can be totally chalked up to user error, that speaks volumes about how good everything else is — and it explains why I think that if you're looking for one Warriors game that shows everything the franchise does well without getting bogged down by any of its weaknesses, Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires is the one to get.

A fantastic console experience and it comes highly recommended. It does have flaws, and some strange graphical bugs that pop up from time to time, but despite all that I look forward to playing the game for months to come, and I think 360 and PS3 owners should absolutely plan on either playing, or picking up, this action RPG.

The addictive qualities of "Z" are still there, but the passing years have made the underlying gameplay of Steel Soldiers boring, old and passé.

Gamers who have been versed in the worlds of Sly Cooper, Jak and Daxter, etc. will find the new Pitfall entry with little to offer. It sports solid, loosely Pitfall-inspired gameplay, there is just nothing new about it.

Don’t get me wrong, the game tells an interesting and emotional story, and the acting is top notch, but it does aimlessly plod along here and there. Thankfully, Quantic Dream ensured that Beyond: Two Souls would wrap up in an amazing, thought-provoking way which does make the ride very much worth taking.

Still, I'm not really in love with the actual game, and after finishing everything (the achievements/trophies are really easy to get by the way), I find myself more interested in the concept than the actual execution.

Add those drawn-out, repetitive encounters to a world that’s kind of empty, and you can see why Strayed Lights is a difficult game to love. It looks and sounds nice, and if you’re really into dodging weaving rather than charging into battle I could see how it might be interesting in small doses, but as it stands, it doesn’t feel like there’s enough here to really make for a satisfying game.

To me the stale dated visuals, boring audio, and updated game play features didn’t win me over this year, and if more gamers are like myself, this game may fade faster that the Detroit Lion’s franchise.

Technical issues may mean that doesn’t like up to the standards of the games it’s trying to emulate, but even so, there’s a lot of good stuff going on here, and if you can look past those issues (or even wait for some patches), there’s definitely something here worth playing.

I would recommend that you buy Highwater for the soundtrack alone if anything else. The moments I got to sail around and just listen and take in what was happening around me were fabulous. If you can get past the very sobering fact that we are currently dealing with a climate crisis in real-time, I would give this one a try.

The Gex Trilogy is a faithful adaptation of three fun games from a company with a storied history as Crystal Dynamics was involved in games like Legacy of Kain and Tomb Raider. It can take some getting used to, but Limited Run Games are dedicated to keeping the original experience as close as possible to the original. And although we did get a nice improvement with the ability to reverse time, there are still some improvements I would like to have seen in these games such as that full free roaming camera, but I do understand them wanting to keep to the original experience as much as possible.

Despite some of these issues, I still found Citizens of Earth to be largely enjoyable, and it does a solid job of capturing that 16-bit RPG feel the developers were clearly going for.

It's far from perfect, but even further from broken. Alice looks good, plays good, and has a very decent length that should appease any diehard fan.

Batman has had many games over the years, mostly trash and a few quite memorable. Telltale Games has knocked it out of the park, and if episode one is any indication, I see a solid contender for Game of the Year right here.

Because there’s such a disconnect between what it wants to be and what it actually is, it’s hard to know whether to recommend Glyph. It doesn’t come anywhere close to achieving what it sets out to do, but it still offers enough that if you can overlook its failures, there’s a decent enough game hiding underneath.

The Final Station doesn’t break any molds, nor is it revolutionary in its gameplay or ideas, but it is fun. It is good old fashioned, quality fun.

I think that Rocket Knight is a great attempt at revitalizing the character, and while I know there are people put off by the new design and the use of "2.5D" instead of traditional pixel work, I think the game looks great in action.

The soundtrack for Metal Slug 7 is definitely a winner.