It would've been nice to have trickier combat or more real RPG bits and bobs, but as an interactive South Park title, this hits pretty much every mark. The Stick of Truth is puerile, authentic, and constantly hilarious.

The three major strengths of past Thief titles - wide open mission design, sound propagation and narrative - are this game’s biggest weaknesses. That is a fundamental problem it cannot hope to overcome.

Enjoyable, authentic, and oh-so-cool... when it doesn't break.

A solid city builder that will appeal to most fans of the genre even if it's currently lacking in features and scope.

Short, but beautiful. The Wolf Among Us continues to impress.

A solid fast fun shooter that could blossom over time and it's free so it's definitely worth taking it for a spin and experimenting with the weapons.

Conquest of Paradise adds colonial and indigenous mechanics which undoubtedly improve the main game, but does it in a way that introduces a new problem or two.

A bit buggy and a bit uninventive, but a loving, enjoyable tribute to RPGs of olde.

Hardship and displacement in a Nordic-inspired world make for a splendid, and splendid looking, RPG.

Whimsical, witty, and beautiful: this is a sumptuous adventure with all of Double Fine's usual care and attention lovingly lavished throughout.

KickBeat isn't going to revolutionise the rhythm-action genre, but it nonetheless provides another perfectly solid, perfectly enjoyable opportunity to get into the flow of your music and have some rhythmic fun.

By stretching the years to 24 turns, adding seasonal weather and (all but) removing sea battles and internal politics, Caesar in Gaul proves to be an effective, though not exactly revolutionary, expansion to Rome 2.

A self-contained tale about the human catastrophe of slavery is an abrupt turn from the original’s happy-go-lucky plundering style, but the game’s mechanics adapt relatively well.

World of Warplanes needs fleshing out. In time it could be what arcade flight buffs are after but at the moment it's lacking.

It’s far too early to crown this season as a successful follow-up to Telltale’s first foray with The Walking Dead, but there are enough threads of character intrigue to suggest that Clementine and her new crew have a promising (that is to say, heartbreaking and terrible) future.

Speedball 2 HD plays worse, looks worse and is far, far easier than the Amiga version from almost 23 years ago.

It’s not a must-have purchase, but if you’ve dreamt of a Crusader Kings II scenario in which a devil-possessed ruler might have a chance to pick their own Pope, then this is the DLC for you.

For a game about dandy robot businessmen trying to fleece a robo-miner of his hard-earned gains, it’s surprisingly charismatic. A laid-back Dig Dug with a gentle scattering of Metroid.

I hope that, when episode two launches, I'll be bemoaning my own idiocy and falling over myself to award the complete game a much higher score. For now, though, I'm playing it safe: until I know how the whole thing plays out, my recommendation is guarded.

What the people want doesn’t always have to be a revolution. State of Decay: Breakdown is a full sandbox mode for the main game, carefully designed to incorporate the original's strengths in scavenging and player-created character arcs.

More stuff crammed into cities that are too small still makes the game frustrating despite Maxis' best effort. Only pick this up if you're a fanatic.

A worthy expansion that refreshes and improves XCOM: Enemy Unknown in just about every way that matters.

A very solid ARPG that brings some of the genre's best elements together mashing them up into a melting pot of free to play goodness.

X Rebirth is the most disappointing PC title of 2013. A heartbreaking, gut-churning mess.

Like its winsome protagonist, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is fixated on pursuing the riches of high-seas piracy and seems reluctant to be drawn into convoluted Templar plots. The most self-aware Assassin’s Creed title to date, and one that makes the most of some aging mechanics.

State of Decay holds together like a rusty, duct-taped piece of DIY weaponry, but offers an unusual, open-world survival exercise that few other zombie titles can match.

Like its name implies, Contrast is a game with a sharp difference between its highs and lows. There's a lot to like here, but it doesn't make it all that easy to do so.

An utterly horrible PC port mars an otherwise very, very average Call of Duty game. Nothing to see here.

A criminally short opening chapter that nonetheless offers a glimpse of Rapture at its opulent heights. The noir intentions are dispensed too soon, so the Booker/Elizabeth relationship and familiar combat have to see Burial at Sea through to its disturbing, perplexing climax.

The locations and themes in Deadfall Adventures are its stars, but neither the combat nor the puzzles really stand out and the pulp tone goes missing whenever most of the cast speak. A forgettable, Boy’s Own jaunt through well-thumbed pages of adventure fiction.

An acceptable game for the fans, though not a particularly good port in any way, shape, or form. If you have a 360 controller and love the series then you'll have a fairly good time, but you might want to consider waiting for a price drop.

The Football Manager formula is as complex and addictive as ever, but a compulsion to keep playing shouldn’t be mistaken for revelatory advances. 2014 is a marginal improvement for the series, but retains several of its shortcomings.

Another day, another PC launch riddled with bugs and issues. Battlefield 4 is a perfectly decent game with a crashing client, crashing servers, and a whole host of issues that cause lag, disconnections, graphic and sound glitches, and plenty more. When they get fixed it's easily worth a purchase; right now, it's a frustrating experience.

Uninventive, but still enjoyable thanks to the quality of the basic mechanics on offer. Unfortunately, the PC version's bugs make it a much harder sell than it should be.

A turn-based, space trading and combat title which benefits from its open-ended nature and undemanding PC requirements. Aspects of the dynamic universe are too detached, and the combat doesn’t hold up forever, but these shortcomings do not undermine Smugglers V’s laudable player freedom.

A few technical problems mar what is otherwise a mix between a fantastic rhythm-action game and a fantastic method of learning an instrument.

A solid and enjoyable opening entry into a series that, thus far, is impossible to judge. The Wolf Among Us perhaps hews a little too closely to the first arc of the comic it's based on, but it does an admirable job of translating that world to a new medium.

FIFA 14 is the reassuring central-defensive midfielder of the series. Dependable, rather than revelatory. Physical, tenacious and tight on space. It does the job without fuss, but also lacks flair.

F1 2013 can make even the most naive neophyte feel like a legend. But if you’re already a legend of previous games, there may not be as much here to impress you.

Urban Trial Freestyle’s big problem is not its similarity to the Trials series, but the inability to offer anything that casts it as a credible alternative.

A gory old-school shooter that largely makes up for a lack of variety by being making combat very, very enjoyable.

In a year awash with excellent PC strategy titles, Rise of Venice is stranded on the shores of disappointment. But at least the trade skills it imparts may enable you to swap it for a better game.

Frustratingly difficult, and not in a good way. When it's not doing its utmost to irritate you Alien Rage isn't a bad shooter, but it's not a particularly good one either - and in this crowded genre, there's little reason to get this over something else.

A whimsical Roguelike(like) that’s as dangerously addictive as it is addicted to causing danger. To you. And all of your precious hats.

In six months time Rome 2 could be a decent game. At present, it’s in desperate need of a lengthy patching schedule to shore up the walls against a barbarian horde of troubles.

Rayman Legends is one of the finest platform games on any system. It's bright, colourful, clever, well-designed, and the vast majority of it is a sheer joy to experience.

Like the redacted CIA documents featured so heavily in the game’s marketing, The Bureau comes across as disjointed, baffling and inconsistent. But moments of clarity may well keep you interested in what lies beneath that faltering surface.

I still haven't got the multiplayer working, but the single-player is good enough to be worth the asking price by itself.

Silly, exuberant, funny, chaotic: Saints Row 4 sets you loose in a virtual world and lets you cause havoc however you damn well please.

Payday 2 is what the first game should've been: a more than competent co-op shooter with replayable levels, multi-mission jobs, an option for stealth, and loot bags full of style.

The Brigmore Witches does honour to the base game it expands on.

Like Crusader Kings II, Europa Universalis IV retains the depth and complexity of its forebears while offering newcomers a way into the absorbing strategic shenanigans of 15th-18th Century power politics.

A solid Metroidvania brawler with a whole lot of heart and a whole lot of humour.

An invigorating mix of snooty lizardmen, jetpacking dragons, absorbing political decisions and strategy of both turn-based and real-time hues.

The weakest part of BioShock Infinite in four unremarkable wave-combat arenas.

Fraught firefights and desperate scavenging in an uncaring world.

A faithful and enjoyable update of an overlooked FPS classic. It won't set the world alight, but Rise of the Triad deserves the attention of anyone who fondly remembers the FPS games of yesteryear or resents the slow hand-holding and cover-taking of recent corridor shooters.

Cloudberry Kingdom is a very varied, very clever, and very, very hard platformer. It never quite hits the heights its competition does, but then, it's really trying to be a very different game.

A perfectly capable tactical RPG that's unfortunately light on both the tactics and the RPG. Not really bad in any way, but I suspect this won't really shine until the community get to grips with the editor.

A very mixed bag, but one that's certainly worth a look if the Polis Ranger scenario intrigues you.

Convincing characters, a well-realised, unusual setting and sensible puzzles. All evidence points to a strong opening for this episodic adventure series.

If there’s a better puzzle-platformer than Toki Tori 2+ released on the PC this year, someone please construct an elaborate series of events to lure it into a pipe leading directly to my house. Thanks.

If tropical islands and resort management sound like fun then you'll likely enjoy this; if they don't, then you're really not missing any major updates to the base game. Either way, though, you'll likely want to wait for a price drop.

Despite some annoyances, this is a fantastic close to Borderlands 2, and comes highly recommended.

There’s no shame in derivation, and Magrunner applies its Portal-like mag-glove idea with confidence. A worthwhile, if unoriginal, addition to the first-person puzzle genre.

As rewarding to play as it is mentally exhausting. Company of Heroes 2 consolidates the progress of its predecessor, expands into some new territory and keeps alive the grand tradition of major PC RTS releases.

A great strategy-RPG hybrid that’s a patch or two away from being an exceptional one.

Not exactly Incredible, but a charming and capable action-RPG at an enticing price.

A top-notch racing game that artfully straddles the line between arcade and simulation, without being either too daunting or too simplistic.

It looks like Sanctum and it sounds like Sanctum, but it plays totally differently. While the more devoted fans of the first game might take issue with a lot of the changes, and while it doesn't match up to that game's heights, there's still a lot to enjoy in Sanctum 2.

What Metro lacks in pitch-perfect game mechanics, it makes up for with an atmosphere that you can taste.

The broad stylistic flourishes do a fair job of masking the underwhelming reality of much of the gameplay, but once Greaves’ tall tale is told you’re left with a pretty linear, whack-a-cowboy shooter in a no-horse town.

Not exactly the cross-media revolution that was promised, but there's a decent (if flawed) third-person shooter inside this light MMO structure.

Anomaly: Warzone Earth was a well-designed and entertaining alternative to typical tower defence games, and Anomaly 2 is its bigger, badder sibling. Levels are better designed and more varied, you have more unique units and abilities at your disposal, towers are generally even bigger bastards than they were before, and the dev team’s experience means that the basic mechanics are generally more polished.

StarDrive is a collection of solid ideas and features waiting to be unified by the necessary finishing touches.

There may be no backstory but there's plenty of combat. A solid wave-based space shooter for a bargain price.

An expansion of Zeno Clash’s fantastical world and inhabitants, at the cost of some of the original game’s brutal tactility in combat.

More irritating than Neelix: Star Trek is a buggy and broken cover-shooter with cover that doesn't quite work and shooting that's no fun.

What could’ve so easily turned out to be disastrous piece of self-indulgent trash, replete with dumb “hey, remember the 80s, they were so 80s!!” referential humour, succeeds in paying worthy tribute to its subject matter. It’s trash alright; sublime, entertaining trash that lifts the desert chrome absurdity of VHS action movies and dumps it all over a compact version of Far Cry 3‘s open world and open choice combat.

£12 for this level of perfectly-crafted entertainment is an absolute steal.

Play it with care and attention, and this is another six hours or so of Dishonored for a mere £8. In short, this is the DLC I've been waiting for since October of last year.

If Molyneux's Bullfrog had pulled an all night coding session while watching re-runs of Eurotrash, this is probably the football management sim they would’ve made.

A faithful recreation of the rapid-fire FPS’ of yesteryear, with Nadeo’s usual sturdy foundations for community development.

Though it sometimes struggles to reconcile its genre-constrained combat with its lofty storytelling goals, BioShock Infinite exhibits ambition and a boldness of theme rarely seen in FPS titles.

Objective: Follow Diaz. Objective: Do everything he says. Objective: Buy a different game.

It’s a bit of a guilty pleasure – it’s like buying a birthday cake for no real reason and just eating the entire thing by yourself in one sitting. You’ll enjoy yourself more than you have any real right to, but you’ll probably feel a little bit ashamed. That’s Resident Evil 6.

Runner 2 is a bit of a one-trick pony, but it’s a trick that’s done so flawlessly and with such variation that I don’t mind seeing it again and again.

Despite its shortcomings, SimCity is proving a compelling and absorbing city builder. Given a few months to implement community suggestions this could be everything we had hoped for from this beloved franchise.

This is the first entry of a rebooted franchise and it’s a really, really good one. There’s still plenty of room for both Lara and the game to grow, and I’m eager to see these mechanics – and Lara’s character – evolve as this series hopefully continues.

Crysis 3 is a decent set of free-form mechanics trapped, like the New York of its embarrassing sci-fi plot, within the bubble of an all-too-often constricting design.

A puzzle title with the same careful attention to subverting perception, while adhering to its own strange set of rules, as the Escher drawings it emulates.

It won’t scratch the Dungeon Keeper itch because it has no ecosystem – it’s an RTS rather than a dungeon-building game. But it also won’t scratch the RTS itch because it’s repetitive, offers little strategic challenge, and is deeply, deeply tedious.

As clear a warning as there has ever been about the risks inherent to pre-ordering games.

Perfectly decent and enjoyable enough, but the lack of scares hurts it more than you might think.

This third-person, multiplayer cover-shooter has firm foundations, but an uncertain life-span.

It’s not going to blow your mind, but if you’re happy with a total disregard for realism then Ace Combat: Assault Horizon will keep you happy and entertained for a good few hours.

Omerta is not a title I have plans to revisit, but the single player campaign had a definite spark to it that kept my attention. My advice: keep an ear to your digital download platform of choice and wait for it to make you an offer you … well, you know.

A combination of a not particularly good puzzle game and a not particularly good platformer, helped out by strong writing and animation.