Lost Planet 2 is a mongrel of a shooter – huge, vivid, intricate, feature-heavy, unfailingly cheesy and, at times, a bit broken.

Super is the perfectly refined poster child for an entire genre, and is once again one of the best games this generation.

Super is the perfectly refined poster child for an entire genre, and is once again one of the best games this generation.

A merciless, intimidatingly featured, almost grotesquely involved role-playing timesink, perched balefully atop a platform whose users take to higher difficulty settings about as readily as pigeons take to cactus plants.

Paradise fails on every level. As a collection of minigames it’s woefully inept. As an adult Animal Crossing-style gift-swap holiday it’s devoid of personality and any sense of interaction. As a pervert’s plaything, it’s about as arousing as a Chanel 5 softcore skin flick – the PSP supports MP4s, download the real thing if that’s what you want.

Red Steel 2 is complex without being incoherent, innovative without being off-putting, and one of the finest brawlers we've played full stop.

As fans of S.T.A.L.K.E.R will testify, Ukrainian games offer a distinctly unique flavour. From the obvious, such as the mere act of witnessing a range Russians behind the crosshair as opposed to always underneath it, to that less definable ambience created by different cultural input, Metro 2033 is a fascinating take on a well-explored theme.

The highlights of this iteration are all in the technology; as potent and polished a hack-and-slasher as God of War 3 can be, the myth of its continuing relevance in design circles has worn thin. Series fans should and will invest, as there's fundamentally nothing broken here that wasn't broken before, but don't come expecting a bold rebirth, and don't come expecting the game of the year. Kratos is a frequent visitor to the Underworld; perhaps it's time he stayed there.

DICE has essentially repeated one of 2008’s better party tricks, rolling out a hearty, well-defined shooter that offsets limited solo enjoyment value with immense online replayability. If we must dwell on the profundities of blowing stuff up, this is the way to do it."

Heavy Rain isn’t a film, or even a game trying to be a film. It’s proof of just how compellingly a game can use film, of how gripping a warmed-over scenario or humdrum script can become in the hands of a skilled design team. It filches ideas from cinema, doubtless – what big budget character-driven release doesn’t? – but it’s because it’s a game, in the final analysis, that it’s marvelous.

It’s unlikely the idea could survive another sequel without stretching the universe too far, but for now BioShock 2 is an unmissable journey back into a suffocating, intoxicating world.

There’s nothing broken about Dante’s Inferno, and much that’s enjoyable, but it’s more an act of homage than a game in its own right. Like the shade of the Roman poet Virgil, the Ghost of Sparta keeps Visceral company throughout its underworld adventure, but unlike the former, Kratos casts a very long shadow.

Ultimately your purchasing decision rests on your comfort with the Wii Remote as control method. If you are a die hard SMB professional that truly mastered the Wii Remote and you’re longing for 70 plus levels of challenge, the main game will satisfy that.

Mass Effect 2 succeeds ultimately on the strength of its world and BioWare have created one of the most beautiful, fantastical, consistent, comprehensive and coherent universes seen in science fiction, let alone video games.

Mass Effect 2 succeeds ultimately on the strength of its world and BioWare have created one of the most beautiful, fantastical, consistent, comprehensive and coherent universes seen in science fiction, let alone video games.

The potential is there for a third game to capitalise on the series’ positive features, but until that day, the 40th Day stands as a perfectly competent but ultimately disposable title.

The potential is there for a third game to capitalise on the series’ positive features, but until that day, the 40th Day stands as a perfectly competent but ultimately disposable title.

Darksiders is a fine example of giving gamers what they want and doing it well.

In an age of endless bald space marines, colour pallets that know nothing beyond brown and grey, and gritty urban sandboxes, Bayonetta is a breath of fresh air.

In an age of endless bald space marines, colour pallets that know nothing beyond brown and grey, and gritty urban sandboxes, Bayonetta is a breath of fresh air.

Spirit Tracks is still such a polished and wonderful game that its faults are only relative to other entries in the series and is therefore still better than 99% of all handheld games out there.

It’s a good purchase if you loathe intricacy, enjoy reliving foreign policy quandries in sci-fi guise and are eager to get to grips with Cameron’s universe, but the Next Big Thing it most certainly is not.

However tighter its act, however convincingly it integrates player-imposed logic with a pulsing, subversively organic 15th century milieu, Assassin’s Creed 2 feels a little vacant. The second game in the series is palpably its best, but it trades too heavily on prior successes and introduces comparatively little of actual worth.

Darkside Chronicles is a vast improvement on its predecessor and offers the dedicated RE follower an archive of unlockable memories, reading materials and fan service in an especially well-presented package.

In the Left 4 Dead series, the perennially over-performing Valve has put together yet another classic franchise, and while the absence of fundamental overhaul obliges me to be sparing in my praise of the sequel, it should serve you long after Modern Warfare 2’s charms have faded.

Shooting the PSP’s anaemic line-up full of proven material may seem sound commercial sense on the face of it, but for my money the last thing the increasingly sidelined machine needs at this point in its life is more leftovers – even leftovers as delicious and nutritious as LittleBigPlanet.

NSMBW bends over backwards to be inclusive and somehow manages to succeed.

With another memorable single player mode to look back on, in addition to the excellent Special Ops mode and more multiplayer goodness to look forward to, Infinity Ward has once again come up with a cinematic masterpiece.