Some unfortunate flaws unnecessarily sour the experience, but this is a welcome return for the Trials series and its unique approach to motorcycle action.

It often takes the best part of two minutes to load, but after months spent locked inside, it’s just quite nice getting a bit of unfettered fresh air, even if it is only simulated.

Repetition and overfamiliarity are always the best ways to nullify fear, but until they set in this is one of the most effectively scary video games ever made.

The usual mix of the mundane, the inspired, and the not quite fully-formed, but at least two of the five maps are minor classics.

An interesting and personal feeling set of first person histories that barely constitute a video game and yet wouldn’t really work in any other medium.

The best version of the worst Disgaea might be for fans only but it's still a great strategy role-player.

Between the gorgeous graphics, solid combat, and multiple game modes this impressive fighter isn’t necessarily just for anime fans.

An impressively ambitious attempt to open up game modding to everyone, although at the moment the action is curiously backwards.

A remake more than a reinvention, but one that retains all the simple gameplay and outrageous gore that made the original games fun.

The spirit of 90s arcade racing is reborn in a homage to everything from OutRun to Lotus Turbo Challenge, and despite a few bumps in the road it’s all just as much fun as you remember.

Fantasy enemies clearly work very well with Far Cry, but this abridged version of the main game really should be having more fun with its characters than this.

Not quite a misfire but while the action is highly entertaining this time-looping adventure squanders much of its premise on disappointingly straightforward objectives and a curiously tame portrayal of unchecked hedonism.

Pac-Man Vs. is a genuine classic that deserves a bigger audience, but the high price and limited selection of other games makes this an expensive retro indulgence.

Each garden is its own discrete puzzle, that takes tapping and experimentation to pick apart, clearing the way for your feline hero to make his way across the next hedge. Lovely hand drawn artwork and a piano soundtrack complement its mediative pace.

A polished, witty mix of golf sim, platformer, and roguelike that offers sterling value for money but can’t quite overcome an increasing sense of repetition.

A simple, economical throwback to the golden age of stealth games, with fun presentation but a notable lack of depth and variety.

An excellent first person co-op game, with some spectacularly gory melee combat and a loot box system that’s not nearly as controversial as it might have been.

Lego does real-time strategy and makes it look easy - rather too easy as far as the difficultly goes.

One of the best MOBAs on any console and a good introduction to the genre in general, thanks to its more console-friendly controls and fun premise.

An excellent update of an almost forgotten British classic, and a promising start to the Gremlin Presents series.

Another fun piece of Splatoon single-player DLC, with an interesting mix of third person shooter and roguelike that would’ve been much better as the main story mode from the start.

A director’s cut that for once makes a significant difference, with new levels and the return of co-op – although the underlying game is still slightly flawed.

Higher difficulty levels are another story, adding longevity to what is a relatively short game, and also tempting players into dropping cash on microtransactions. While it lasts it’s superb, but such prominent in-app purchases in a premium game is grating.

An impressively daring horror experience that pushes the boundaries of what most people would expect from a video game, in terms of subject matter and imagery.

A fun, if slightly limited, retro reboot, that proves that first person shooters can work on the PlayStation VR if the developer dares to think a little differently.

An excellent portable flight sim that will please both series fans and newcomers - until they realise how short and underdeveloped it is.

The old Guitar Hero magic is still there but the almost complete lack of new ideas isn't going to do anything to halt the decline in music game sales.

The problem is there's very little extra of any importance and much of what there is doesn't work that well.

A hugely ambitious space strategy that rivals even Civilization in terms of presentation and addiction - despite a few rogue elements.

It might be a clone but none have copied Diablo more expertly than this bargain-priced tribute.

There’s always someone falling off something, or getting impaled on something else, in a cacophony of tiny sound effects reminiscent of the chaos of LittleBigPlanet 3’s excellent multiplayer mode.

It's not the best the series has to offer, and it's clearly just a PlayStation 3 port, but Disgaea was made for portables and has never worked better than on the PS Vita.

One of the best-looking open world games ever but the formula is beginning to feel increasingly outdated, despite the cool visuals, fun samurai gear, and surprisingly good plot.

Time has been surprisingly kind to Ghost Trick, with its bizarre plot and gorgeous graphics, and while some old problems remain, they’re very easy to excuse.

It has more in common with the original Homeworld than it first seems, but this new real-time strategy works best as an introduction rather than a continuation.

A wonderfully imaginative and beautifully presented interactive anime, but one that cannot maintain a regular enough supply of surprises to justify even its short running time.

It feels more like an expansion than a sequel, and misses some easy opportunities to improve on the original, but this is still the best family-friendly shooter outside of Splatoon.

A strategy role-player that is filled with clever ideas and inspires great empathy with your characters, even if the battle system is a few steps behind XCOM.

It's only a slightly better game than last time but that's almost irrelevant given the impossible range and complexity of virtual objects at your command.

50 Cent's second game is an enjoyable slice of dumb fun that has plenty to teach more serious shooters.

A good collection of new maps, including one of the best remakes in the series. Exo Zombies still seems very derivative, but the co-op action remains solid throughout.

It may not be fair to compare it to Angry Birds, but it is fair to say this is a slick but slightly listless clone of The Incredible Machine.

The Journey is an almost unqualified success, but in terms of on-pitch action FIFA 17 is comfortably outclassed by PES 2017.

A fun, funny, and wonderfully gory 2D shooter, but it’s not quite as tightly designed as OlliOlli and certainly lacks the same longevity.

Essentially Assassin’s Creed’s greatest hits, you inhabit the worlds of Ezio, Kassandra and Connor in VR, experiencing their historical sites and clunky real time combat in true first person.

An open-ended puzzler whose only real restrictions are how imaginative you're willing to be in wielding its wonderfully bizarre gadgets.

A fairly straightforward arcade conversion, but still a unique mix between fighter and shoot 'em-up.

An impressive mix of game styles, and some of the most rewarding speed runs in recent memory, but that only increases the speed at which levels start to blur into each other.

Absorbing VR tower defence that improves on the original game in almost every department, but is let down by a pointless, tacked on narrative.

Still a fantastically well-designed action adventure, but this is easily the worst version of the best superhero game ever made.

A surprisingly daring mix of interactive narrative, role-playing game and life simulator - and nothing like the lazy cash-in you'd expect.

A very compelling mix of roguelike and first person shooter, with highly distinctive visuals and pleasingly difficult tactical choices.

Although it would’ve seemed madness a decade or so ago the complaint that a video game is just too long, or overstuffed with features, is becoming increasingly common. Some developers just don’t seem to know when to say no, and Shadow Of War is a prime example of a game that would’ve been a lot more entertaining as a shorter, leaner experience. Less features, rather than more, would’ve been better, and we’re not just talking about the loot boxes.

One of the best-looking games of the generation and an indie adventure with a serious but subtle message to tell… it’s just a shame it’s still not that much fun to play.

A good value compilation and three of the best Tomb Raiders ever - even if none of them quite deserve classification as a classic.

One of the best console real-time strategies in a smaller, easily digested (or at least afforded) form.

The Duke himself is an outdated embarrassment, but his best game was always ahead of its time – and still has much to teach modern shooters.

A turn-based roguelike set in a universe that’s similar to but legally distinct from Doom, and where every choice you make has immediate and long term consequences.

The new gold standard in console real-time strategies, and one that isn't afraid to invent new ideas as well as reinterpret old ones.

A low-brow mix of Resident Evil 4 and No More Heroes, that is far from the best from either creator but still a fun and subversive shooter.

The original Yakuza has been remade into a sequel to its own prequel, but although it’s perfectly competent it feels outdated compared to the newer entries.

Arguably gaming's most authentic crime story, as well as an excellent roaming beat 'em-up and (thug) life simulator.

A surprisingly unadventurous sequel, given the long years fans have been waiting for it, but the entertaining weaponry just about makes up for the overfamiliarity and obnoxious sense of humour.

The best Need For Speed in several years, which may sound like mild praise but despite a lack of variety this is a fun arcade racer hybrid that respects its roots.

Ambitious, unpolished, and very demanding – in short an impressively authentic update of the '80s classic and an action strategy hybrid almost without compare in the current generation.

An unusually innovative combat system that, although lacking the game structure to properly exploit it, still offers some enjoyably bizarre entertainment.

One of the best Kinect games so far and also one of the most successful Pixar tie-ins. Kids will love it and it'd take a seriously cynical adult not to feel the same way.

The world didn’t real need a Mario Vs. Donkey Kong remake but this is still the absolute best effort Nintendo could’ve made, with tons of new content and the same enjoyable but undemanding puzzles as before.

Grand Slam Tennis was a false start after all, as Sega demonstrates the full potential of Wii MotionPlus.

First released in 2009, the Apple Arcade version is unchanged, and remains a masterclass in minimalist touchscreen interface design, even if its slow pace and singular focus may put off adrenaline fans.

The unique art style belies a game that is, for the most part, ruthlessly old fashioned, but in a way that will please old school Final Fantasy fans and maybe even make some new ones.

With the spider crawling all over 3D objects there are moments where you’re not sure which way to drag the 2D joystick to get it to go where you want, and occasions when it’s unreasonably finicky about standing in the right spot to attach a web to an object, but in general this is a fun, gently puzzling game of eight-legged espionage.

A fascinatingly bizarre indie thriller that mixes multiple gameplay elements and narrative influences to create a disquieting but consistently compelling descent into cosmic horror.

A dream come true for Beatles fans, but viewed purely as a game it's not a patch on Rock Band 2.

Watching paint dry really can be entertaining, in this relentlessly cheerful mix of platformer and interactive colouring book.

To keep abreast of upgrade requirements you’ll need to watch ads to double your winnings, or pay £10 per month for what amounts to a battle pass giving you automatic gold doubling and the ability to autoplay levels, obviating the need to sit there triggering special moves when their cool downs expire. That may be a fundamentally mindless process, but like most successful incremental games, the steady flow of upgrades proves shamefully compelling, although if we have to sit through one more ad for Charm King we can’t be held responsible for the consequences.

It can’t match FTL’s perfection, and its assortment of 300 events start repeating much earlier than you’d imagine, a problem exacerbated by how story-focused it is, making the repetition particularly glaring. It’s still very good though, with a solid script and beautiful pixel art styling.

A charmingly illustrated, perspective-shifting puzzle game about paper folding, that has just enough intricacy to keep you engaged without ever making you feel stumped.

The best Spider-Man game ever made… but only just, since it fails to move the superhero video game genre forward in any important way.

A clever mix of puzzle, stealth, and action that manages to avoid most frustrations thanks to a constant stream of new ideas and a knowing sense of humour.

If you accept its purposeful limitations this is one of the few successful attempts to ensure creating your own games is as much fun as playing them.

Another quietly competent downloadable compilation, with five new competitive maps that show Call Of Duty at its close quarters best.

A solid if predictable start to the new season, but still one of Telltale's better graphic adventures.

Probably the best Final Fantasy game on mobile and a good example of how to play fair with both nostalgia and free-to-play microtransactions.

Much like the film, this is more a testament to what worked before than a genuinely new experience, but it makes the best of its voice cast and an obvious love for Star Wars.

The best portable real-time strategy game ever made - even if most of the credit belongs to Blizzard not Gameloft.

A very different kind of survival horror, that despite a few flaws is both scarier and more thematically interesting than most of its contemporaries.

An even better Dark Souls clone than Lords Of The Fallen, but there are too few unique ideas and the difficulty often undermines the rest of the gameplay.

One of the best SimCity clones on consoles, whose streamlined gameplay is accessible if not necessarily very original.

A heartwarming adventure about growing up, packed full of imagination and 90s snark, but its main strength is the way in which it manages to expertly capture what it feels like to be a young, bored teen on the verge of adulthood.

A solid start to Black Ops III’s DLC schedule, with two standout maps and only one actively bad one.

Not the greatest, or best value for money, version of the game but a surprisingly decent port that still has all the same undead charm.

A peculiar but well-conceived concept that brings together multiple disparate gameplay elements, to create a highly customisable, but occasionally somewhat shallow, vampire sim.

A raucous VR splatterfest that captures Deadpool’s brand of sardonic humour and gratuitous violence perfectly, with sky high production values largely making up for the overly simple combat.

It would've been overlooked as a retail release, but as a download this unique puzzler is a real bargain.

A story about loneliness and grief, set in a retro-futuristic 1970s and told from the perspective of a deepsea diver, which is less interested in action than creating the right atmosphere.

There are too few surprises when it comes to the story and Daud is a disappointingly blunt instrument, but a return to Dunwall is welcome no matter who’s conducting the tour.

One of the best survival horrors of recent years, that functions almost as well as the Wii U version. creating a mature-rated adventure that is as ruthlessly difficult as it is engrossing.