The State Of Decay concept still holds plenty of promise but this sequel is so broken that laughing at its bugs and glitches becomes its primary source of entertainment.

There are number of clever concepts here, but they're left drowning in a sea of mediocre first person shooting and action movie clichés.

It's been a long time since we've had a decent Star Wars game though and this miserable misfire is very much more Attack Of The Clones than it is Empire Strikes Back.

A co-op orientated platformer, with cute robots and a deliberately awkward control set-up, that purposefully makes its tough challenge as infuriating as possible.

Only the smallest of improvements on the original game and still a shameful waste of the license.

The most disappointing Mass Effect 3 download so far, which once again emphasizes overfamiliar action instead of meaningful storytelling.

Almost exactly the same features as Dynasty Warriors 7 Empires, and although it’s still more entertaining than the main game the lack of effort put in is downright insulting.

Flawed racer which finds little of interest in its massive open world - least of all the race cars.

Extremely short, extremely dull, and extremely expensive for what it is. Dead Rising 3 may not be the greatest launch game ever but it deserves better than this.

The final slice of downloadable content is just as shallow in its gameplay and ambition as before.

Even without the controversies surrounding it, Yakuza Kiwami 3 is a huge disappointment, with no useful changes and a worthless new expansion.

A tragically misjudged series reboot that gets all of the fundamentals wrong, while adding absolutely nothing new to the franchise except flashier graphics.

Turning Crash Bandicoot into a MOBA is certainly a choice but not one that’s paid off, in this paper thin platformer that has little to offer either franchise fans or newcomers.

Mixing Pac-Man with Metroid seems like an enjoyably strange idea at first, until you realise just how bland and unimaginative the end result is.

An inexplicably dull follow-up to Valkyria Chronicles, that jettisons almost everything that made the original interesting in favour of bland Dynasty Warriors style combat.

A brief and slightly dull detective mystery set in the colourful and conversation-heavy universe of The Outer Worlds, that lacks its parent’s variety, character, and joie de vivre.

The worst Guitar Hero spin-off yet with a half-hearted tribute to a band who barely deserved one anyway.

It’s still going to be a long hard struggle to turn Dynasty Warriors into a top quality action game, but this is the first sequel in a long time to feel like it’s actually trying.

It's nice to see someone is making a new Pikmin game, but this half-hearted clone has neither the variety nor the imagination of its considerably cuter inspiration.

A sorely underdeveloped, crafting-orientated survival horror game, whose neat comic book art style isn’t enough to compensate for sub-par combat and storytelling.

It's good to see Assassin's Creed having a positive influence on game settings but this historical would-be epic has little else to recommend it.

Disappointing sequel that manages to undo the relative successes of the original and dishonour the film.

It looks like EarthBound, and to a degree it plays like EarthBound, but this has none of the charm or character of the SNES classic – and considerably worse combat.

The exact opposite of what Starfield needed, with a DLC expansion that magnifies the parent game’s failings and sidelines its more positive elements.

Disappointing follow-up to the already lightweight Shattered Dimensions, which seems to go out of its way to waste all the potential of the character(s).

The whole idea was probably doomed from the start but this is a disappointingly slipshod effort, with a story campaign that somehow feels more old-fashioned than the decades-old movie it’s based on.

It’s trying its best with an obviously low budget but rather than replicating the tension and thrills of Aliens this has much more in common with one of its lacklustre sequels.

Virtual On on a budget, with a fully functioning online mode but very little depth or longevity.

The motion controls work well enough but this is an unambitious and needlessly simplistic on-the-rails adventure that does nothing to help Move's cause.

In Asphalt 9, skill is a distant second to car upgrades, a situation that generates weary acceptance rather than excitement.

With a splash of gacha summoning, War Of Evolution descends into a, by now wearyingly familiar, microtransaction-based mobile template, completely wasting its early promise.

Kirby’s games never seem fair on the enemies but this tiresome and poorly balanced co-op platformer offers little chance of fun for them or you.

The cinematic atmosphere is highly impressive throughout, but that's about the only thing that is in this weirdly inconsistent 2D survival horror.

As a graphical showcase there’s nothing better on PlayStation VR, but in terms of gameplay there are far more entertaining tech demos available – let alone proper games.

The greatest offence here is not sexism but simply tedium at the game’s shallow action, although while the one note joke lasts it is a funny one.

A real misstep for Level-5, with tedious battles and an equally uninteresting plot and characters.

There's barely enough time to rail at the missed opportunities in one of the least substantial games ever.

One of the least worst Kinect games this year, which although it suffers from all the usual control issues is at least mindless fun while it lasts.

Part DLC and part Warzone knock-off, this is not only the worst Call Of Duty ever made but one of the most cynical video game releases of all time.

Your castle itself may look unique, as you build eccentrically-shaped rooms and staircases, but your courtiers look like Wii-era Miis, and the fundamentally uncreative nature of its gameplay makes it a depressingly pedestrian experience.

In summary we don't think we've ever seen so many good ideas in such a bad game. The spell and crafting system really is amongst the best the genre can offer, but everything else is amongst the very worst.

An outdated and uninteresting Soulslike that takes an already flawed original and makes it even less compelling, with unengaging storytelling, bland visuals, and repetitive action.

There’s probably no way to make After Burner interesting again without turning it into a completely different game, but there was no need for Sega to prove that fact yet again.

Hopefully the future of Fable won't be any more downloads, as this is another waste of both time and money.

The game is as compelling as ever, and this is an interesting opportunity to compare it with the TV show, but at launch this is one of the worst PC ports from any major publisher in a long while.

While its fun to see how absurd those distractions get that only makes it harder and harder to pretend you’re playing a real game, with consequences and genuine danger. Despite all that we’re curious to see what Violation will do for their first next gen-only sequel, but for now this second expansion is probably best left to burn.

The laidback atmosphere and gentle flower tending hide a game that is far too predictable and frustrating to offer any lasting entertainment.

A class BioWare download: short, pointless and missing everything that made the original interesting.

Despite graphical sparkle, the lack of depth and vapid gacha mechanics rob the game of both charm and longevity, leaving the long slog only to those obsessed with completing their trainer roster despite the crushing tedium.

The Drudge are a sadly appropriate named for the enemy in this artless grind of a first person shooter.

Another disappointing Silent Hill revival, that gets some of the visuals and tone right but is let down by a hackneyed script and frustrating chase sequences.

An open world massively multiplayer online racer with a decent handling model and an okay car list, that’s hampered by dated graphics, some baffling design choices, and a clutch of technical issues.

The real survival horror here is enduring the repetitive scares and gameplay all the way to the end.

Insanely repetitive, horribly shallow, and pointlessly easy – this is the absolute least interesting thing to do with Zelda on the Switch 2 and bad even by the low standards of the Dynasty Warrior franchise.

For reasons unknown, Pinball Masters fails on the most basic level, its blurry, low frame rate visuals look like an early 90s FMV game. That makes it hard to tell where the ball is at any given moment, which in turn ruins the subtle timing necessary to play. Despite the number and complexity of tables on offer, the fact that you can’t see any of them properly makes it a frustrating disaster of missed chances and late reactions.

As is traditional, the opening hours provide rapid upgrades, before slowing things down to encourage you to spend money. You and your alliance will also regularly find yourself at the mercy of bullying, big spending whales, but at least you’re not forced to watch any ads.

Even if you love the game’s sense of humour and art style, the quality of the interactions is so wafer thin it’s impossible to draw much satisfaction from them. Randomly surviving may be marginally less irritating than dying through no fault of your own, but neither is much fun.

As long as you don’t turn on 3D mode this is almost as good as the original Wii U game, the only problem being the Wii U version wasn’t very good at all.

The laziest HD collection yet, with just two titles from an eight game franchise, neither of which have been recreated with anything like the effort and care they deserve.

There's plenty of potential and good ideas here but very little fun, in a game that tries to make a pirate's life seem as frustrating and repetitive as possible.

Old school to a fault, the worst thing about this Japanese role-player is it doesn’t seem to have any idea just how clichéd and outdated it really is.

Rarely has such a big budget game been based on such a thin gameplay premise, with this bafflingly dull first person action adventure that begins to run out of steam by the end of the tutorial level.

The weapon-crafting is great but given the manipulative microtransactions this free-to-play shooter is not worth your time, let alone your money.

After the career high of Silent Hill 2, Bloober Team return to their usual routine, with a Frankenstein’s monster of other people’s ideas – all of which are expressed better elsewhere.

A remake of a rehash of a disappointing sequel… that only hints at what Earth Defense Force could be if the series would only show some forward momentum.

As a quick and dirty port this is no disgrace but it doesn't make any meaningful use of the 3DS's functions or the concept's potential.

Unwanted and unnecessary, but despite the bland third person shooting there’s an unexpectedly light touch to the script that hints at other lost opportunities.

The limitations of the PSP and a wrong-headed emphasis on combat ruin an otherwise promising spin-off.

It’s very pretty but this patchwork of other game’s ideas never has enough of its own to keep you interested during the repetitive and overfamiliar open world action.

An inspired piece of Final Fantasy 7 fan service, and a very good remaster, but as a standalone game the story and gameplay has very little value.

A disappointing misstep for Harvest Moon's sister series, where neither monster fighting nor crop planting offers any real entertainment or variety.

One of the best looking point ‘n’ click adventures ever made, but the unique visuals don’t compensate for illogical puzzles and a weak script.

What’s most unforgiveable is how imprecise slugcat is to control. We know there’s the whole slug side of things to consider, but he’s a lot heavier than he looks in the videos and because of the procedural animation he often doesn’t respond as quickly as you need him to. Add in the boredom and repetition from having to constantly hibernate and the game proves to be very aptly named: it’s dull, miserable, and makes you want to stay inside and do something else instead.

Not much more than an expanded StreetPass game, and while the Mii integration is cute the shallow gameplay is just frustrating and dull.

Some clever visuals and a modern setting can’t stop the third Chronicles game from being the least successful, even if it’s the most ambitious.

Unfortunately, unlike Archero, it’s mind-numbingly dull and lacks any sort of compelling reason to continue drowning in its multiple currencies and lacklustre, microscopically incremental upgrade paths. There’s a genuinely free Netflix version that removes all the microtransactions, but it’s equally tedious.

FromSoftware’s first VR game is full of interesting ideas but very little entertainment, with frustrating storytelling and tiresome puzzles.

Three obscure lightgun games and the world's most unpopular online shooter do not exactly prove a great showcase for PlayStation Move.

A Star Wars version of Overwatch is not the worst idea ever, but its full potential can only barely be glimpsed through a miasma of cloying microtransactions and purposefully shallow gameplay.

A horrible disappointment that not only fails to capture the magic of its predecessors but seems oblivious to what made them popular in the first place.

The same linear, patronisingly simplistic time waster it always was, but if you really must have a remaster of Resident Evil 6 this isn’t a bad job.

Bustin’ will not make you feel good in this shallow and repetitive asymmetric multiplayer, that is one of the worst of the recent crop of 80s movie homages.

It’s effectively a State Of Survival clone that uses Resident Evil themes and settings. So it’s a base builder at heart, except your base is Raccoon City – not that it makes much difference since you’ll be raiding rival Raccoon Cities in dull multi-hour engagements and paying real cash to unlock legendary heroes like Leon S. Kennedy. There are zombie-orientated exploration segments, and lane-based tactical battles, but the meat of the game is gacha and pay-to-win base building of the type that’s by now wearyingly familiar to mobile gamers.

A tepid sequel to Kirby And The Power Paintbrush, that even with its short running time barely manages to stretch it’s small collection of ideas across a whole game.

A pale shadow of the original turning a perfectly constructed platformer into a bland retread.

The corpse of Symphony Of The Night proves far too putrefied to work as a co-operative platformer.

An interesting mix of first person shooter and real-time strategy, from the co-creator of Halo, but the chalk and cheese mix of gameplay elements never really gels.

No matter how the new movie turns out this tie-in makes all the usual mistakes with bland, unoriginal action and an incoherent narrative.

Acceptable fodder for undemanding children, but wasting such an epic crossover on such a non-event of a game has never seemed more perverse.

Not nearly as awful as it first appears and a surprisingly effective movie adaptation, that channels much of the same mindless energy as the first two sequels.

The visuals still impress, but for a game obsessed with storytelling at all costs the dopey plot and underwritten characters in no way make up for the lack of gameplay.

An inexplicably bland shooter from the usually reliable Insomniac that has no personality and no sense of purpose beyond a few hours of empty co-op action.

An ill-conceived port of a game that seems to make little sense on the 3DS, especially given the compromises in controls and graphics.

In terms of gameplay, it has little in common with the 37-year-old original but the fact that this is a generic and unremarkable copy of other, better games unfortunately makes this a very authentic sequel.

Far Cry is a series that’s gone on to much better things since the flawed original, and revisiting it 10 years later almost feels like pointing and laughing at the afflicted.

It looks and controls like the originals, but this lacks anything of the challenge, design flair or variety of a really super Monkey Ball.

A cosy hobbit-themed life simulator that can look pretty but is almost entirely made up of thinly veiled multi-part fetch quests and drab, under-developed minigames.

A beautiful-looking space combat sim with many fine ideas… all of which are almost ruined by horrendous difficultly spikes and the galaxy's stupidest spaceship pilots.