Writer Alan Wake searches for his missing wife while tackling a malevolent force disguised as darkness in this clunky but atmospheric reboot.

The completist will have to spend hundreds of pounds to experience Dimensions in its entirety.

Whatever legacy players leave on the world of Terratus, Tyranny will leave a lasting legacy on RPGs. This is a game that truly takes on the whole concept of evil and does it justice.

For those who love the series and have dedicated hundreds of hours to it, purchasing the game is an unavoidable ritual. It’s more of what you want, with a lick of paint and up-to-date player stats...But for everyone else, it may be better to sit this one out, or wait for some sort of mid-season overhaul.

The Artful Escape is, Galvatron has said, a 17-year-old’s conception of what it is to play in a rock band: musical transcendence meets universal adoration beneath the hot lights. But behind the shimmer, this is a touching tale of how to break free of the creative expectations of others. There is little traditional challenge here, but as a left-field power fantasy, few video games are so immediately stylish or so gratifying.

Ezio Auditore is, simply put, the only reason one needs to pick up a copy of Assassin's Creed: Revelations. While it doesn't feel like the step forward for the franchise that its two predecessors did in their day, Revelations can confidently stand shoulder to shoulder with the better titles of 2011.

With a real-life rule-change next year due to change the cars radically, Formula One currently feels like it’s at a generational peak, and F1 25 is so brilliantly crafted and full of elements that generate an irresistible mix of nailed-on realism and fantasy that it, too, feels like the culmination of a generation of officially licensed Formula One games. F1 25? Peak F1.

This is a gorgeous, exciting game.

It’s creepy, but never explicitly grotesque – and it can be beautiful and calming, too. It’s mostly up to you whether you tempt fate out in the dark or stick to the daytimes and keep to the shores. The way that its mood can turn so quickly and the intrigue of its sparingly told story kept me hooked.

The real fun of Snipperclips is in those first 45 puzzles, played with a friend over many short sessions or – as we did – in one afternoon. Once you’ve solved them, of course, there’s little reason to go back and play them again, but at £18 on a console with a currently limited catalogue, for anyone who owns a Switch this highly sociable game is a must-buy.

The designer Sid Meier famously said that a game is a series of interesting choices. It's a maxim fully embraced by The Banner Saga, which stitches those choices into its very fabric to form a tapestry that is wholly your own.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla takes a while to get going, but don’t be disheartened by its mirthless opening, because the smart, inventive and witty open-world game you’re hoping for is lurking somewhere over those gloomy hills and dales.

All this is beautifully brought to life with scribbly, expressive character portraits, wine-coloured backdrops and a cosy, mock-serious score that suggests a chamber-music troupe lurking just across the salon. Card Shark isn’t always this charming, however. Building the story around perfecting tricks makes for plenty of repetition, whether practising in the coach or restarting a scenario with little more than the shirt on your back. Nerial does its best to avoid a traditional game-over – you can actually cheat death – but it’s easy to imagine a better-resourced version of the game in which every loss sends you along a wholly different story branch. Still, mastering a new con is always worth the trial and error – as is the thrill of taking a duke to the cleaners.

The really unfortunate thing with this Premium nonsense is that the greater body of players are made to feel like they're travelling in economy class, so that the core fans can be milked. I'm not anti-DLC, but the way Battlefield Premium constantly thrusts at you just feels grubby. It's not a nice way to treat paying customers, and it's a pity to see it besmirch such a great game.

It’s not cheap, and will undoubtedly result in ongoing spending as more content is released, but there is a lot of play value here for fans of the films as well as the younger audience.

It's a solidly entertaining romp.

In Blood Dragon the risk-taking, while welcome, is arguably in the wrong place. After 60 minutes' play, the joke wears away to near invisibility, and all that's left are the familiar systems that underpin the game. These remain enjoyable and, after the slow start, most players will be compelled to push through to the end. But there's an undeniable thinness here, the sense of a mild joke that's been eked out for too long, that can't fully wrap around the heft of the underlying game onto which it's been grafted.

The more ambitious surrounding artifice may alienate much younger players, while the lack of quest lists with which to track your progress will frustrate older, more seasoned virtual adventurers. This is a less focused game than the most recent Lego Harry Potter game, then, thoughtfully assembled but ultimately failing to rule them all.

From Dust is sublime – it's arguably close to being a piece of art. But prospective players should be warned you will only succeed here if you are a calm, benevolent and (above all else) patient god. Wrathful Old Testament types needn't bother; you'll only end up staring at the Game Over screen.

Simplistic, repetitive interactions drag on an otherwise engaging story based on the Marvel franchise.

It's not an easy or forgiving game. Disappearing platforms require excellent timing, and not thinking ahead can often mean leaping on to a platform already occupied by one of the many alien invaders, sapping one heart from your meter.

Wanderstop’s cosy and cute exterior belies something much richer and much cleverer than I have seen in quite some time. It is a masterpiece in a cute disguise – offering the player a place worth visiting, staying and paying attention to.

There are a lot of players who'll miss the structure, the atmosphere and unique quirks of the original. But Digital Extremes deserves credit for delivering an action-packed shooter that balances its mixture of gunplay and superpowers far better than its predecessor ever did – even if those powers will inevitably conspire to turn the game's protagonist into a monster and wreck his entire life.

The further you delve into New Super Mario Bros U, the more rewarding it becomes. Its final worlds hold some of its best levels, and there are plenty of fun secrets to enliven the second or third attempt at a level. But it’s hard to summon the motivation to devote that much time to it. It’s typically well-made and enjoyable, but next to the best of the Mario series, it’s unmemorable.

A slickly produced, well constructed military shooter filled with thrilling set-pieces and moments of fraught tension. It’s also a good run-and-gun online shooter, which wants to bring something fresh to the way online team-based competition works in this genre but isn’t quite there yet – new maps will inevitably follow.

It seems likely that the depth and scale of the experience is only going in one direction: to the stars.

The diversity and creative ingenuity of these little four-dimensional riddles is truly impressive. I was sad to finish the game after four or so hours, but enriched by the journey.

Stylish and minimalistic, this gentle, quietly demanding game offering escape and satisfaction will entertain for hours.