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.