This is a 10-minute laugh, if that – the kind of thing that's here today, gone tomorrow, but for a brief moment in history is the talk of Shoreditch and Twitter. It's the gaming equivalent of a novelty single and even the developers, to give credit where it's due, recommend you don't buy it. Listen to them.

Second Son comes off as gorgeous, carefree fun, but a disappointing next-gen entry. The combat is as fast-paced and open to experimentation as it's ever been, but there is never the same sense of real power that the previous games delivered. Sucker Punch clearly wanted to create a big-hearted hero in Delsin, but there's a surprising lack of soul in everything else.

It is surprising, and not a little depressing, that all people want to talk about with this game is the running time.

Titanfall is a sort of masterpiece, so confident in itself and its identity, yet so reverent in its art direction to the science fiction visions of artists such as Shōji Kawamori, Kunio Okawara, Syd Mead and Chris Foss. You will play for hours, get tired, think you're done, and switch it off, but then it nags at you – you're only a few hundred XP from levelling up – a new weapon awaits, a new type of scope for that assault rifle, a new Burn Card perhaps, and you go back.

Dark Souls II is an extraordinary game. If it stops short of fulfilling something precious within the soul, it certainly has the heart, mind and fingers covered.

If any game ever challenged the old distinction between graphics and gameplay this is it, because simple as its systems are, and even as dull as the fetch-questing can sometimes be, the look and script and voice-acting carry this rocketing over the finish line – as well as through the taste barrier. In some ways this game is to the RPG genre what the animated series is to celebrity voice overs: a comic impersonation.

I wanted more: more depth, more interaction, more complexity; a hero's journey with more at stake than flowers.

Thief feels unwieldy at times, although it's not the travesty some reviewers are making it out to be. It's a beautiful stealth game that's fun to play in bursts, but it's hard to recommend it without reservations.

The gaming experience that Tropical Freeze provides may be rich, enjoyable, challenging and frequently hilarious, but it isn't anything conspicuously new.

Left Behind does nothing new with The Last of Us' tense and exhilarating gameplay rhythm; you're always either in intense danger, or fearfully anticipating the next moment of intense danger. But it tells a different story, one that's more compact and more affecting for it, and it shows that Naughty Dog has serious emotional range. Rarely have I played anything as powerful.

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.

The Room Two is more than just a worthy sequel, expanding the formula and experimenting with some new ideas - it's a fantastic, scrumptiously crunchy experience in its own right.

With the second part added, Broken Sword 5 could certainly reach beyond three stars – but, until then, it's wise to remain agnostic about Charles Cecil's latest offering.

Angry Birds Go! is great fun now, with plenty of potential for evolution in 2014 and beyond. A few tweaks to the in-app purchases aside, it'll be raising eyebrows for positive, not negative reasons.

Accomplished as GT6 is, the team will need to revisit some fundamentals if future iterations are able to stand wheel arch to wheel arch with the Forzas of the world. Indeed, the prospect of how the developer may be willing to evolve the franchise for PS4 is a riveting one. But knowing Polyphony Digital, that's a few years down the road yet.

There's no doubt that [it] is far and away the best PlayStation 4 launch title. It feels fresh and innovative throughout – after playing it, we checked out Call of Duty: Ghosts on the PS4, which felt one-dimensional and strangely old-fashioned – looks stunning and through its beautifully fettled multiplayer side, offers infinite replay value. It towers above previous versions of Killzone in terms of quality and taking a much more interesting approach.

Knack isn't a bad game: there is satisfaction to be derived from it, some of the gameplay is genuinely good fun (at its best moments, it does begin to acquire an air reminiscent of a more ponderous Crash Bandicoot), and it's one of the longer games to emerge in recent years, so will at least keep youngsters occupied for decent periods of time. But neither is it a particularly good game, which is hugely disappointing given that it's supposed to be one of the flagship reasons for buying a PlayStation 4.

A more forgiving proposition than its forebears, this is an enjoyable zombie romp that's lost some of its character in the lurch onto the next generation hardware.

With a couple of hundred cars and just 14 circuits, each with their own variations, Forza 5 is a notable cutback in terms of content. Newcomers such as the legendary Spa Francorchamps and Bathurst, Australia are both thrilling, but the appearance of familiar stalwarts like Sebring, Indianapolis and Laguna Seca means that it won't be long before you've seen all the tracks that Forza 5 has to offer.

The game struggles a little over the mid-to-long term: the difficulty doesn't fluctuate much and, soon enough, you're merely turning the cogs rather than responding to thrilling challenges, but Zoo Tycoon is pleasant and engaging, even in its absence of spectacle.

Its mechanics are thin, its micro-transactions are annoying and the plot in the campaign makes the story in Call Of Duty: Ghosts look like high art. But if you fancy thumping barbarians and you don't mind the lack of depth, Ryse is arguably the most beautiful hack 'n slash you can play on the Xbox One.

To some, Super Mario may appear tired: a mascot whom Nintendo trots out every few years to sell another console with repackaged but fundamentally stale ideas. Super Mario 3D World is a fierce rebuttal to the accusation. Mario and his makers once again assert their dominance of spatial navigation games, displaying a rude abundance of ideas to delight, surprise and celebrate innocence and playfulness.

There's a certain sense of familiarity to it all, but there are enough new notes to keep the faithful glued.

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.

A fun and life-absorbing game, yes, but a fickle one. In so many ways, it's like the real thing.

And while the previous Skylander titles no doubt drew plenty of inspiration from these legendary releases (the series has its roots in the old Spyro the Dragon adventure platformers after all), it is Swap Force that really re-captures the magic.

The finest Sonic game in years, a riot of ideas that at times approaches the quality of Nintendo EAD's work. It may not provide much insight into where games are heading, but as a Sonic-themed celebration of the past few years, it's a surprising delight.

F1 2013 oozes quality, fully living up to the illustrious nature of its official licence, and the presence of the 1980s and 1990s cars, drivers and tracks gives motorsport nuts a real reason to buy it – which is much-needed for such an annual franchise.