An evolution of last year's FIFA is enough for EA to win the battle of football games, but it may need to step up its game next year with PES improving.

One of the best smartphone games of the year, with stunning cartoon visuals and gameplay that's as easy to control as it is to become addicted to.

Probably the best dungeon crawler in the world, including Diablo III. And what it lacks in storytelling and originality it makes up with pitch perfect design and pacing.

An evolutionary improvement on the original and by consequence one of the best co-operative first person shooters ever made.

One of the best remakes ever, not because of its loving recreation of the original Half-Life but because it dares to change and improve it.

But despite all that it gets right we do wish that Guild Wars 2 had been bolder with the art style and the setting of its game world. Or that it had pushed its combat system even further and created something genuinely unique. Although the fact that it has no subscription fee is an unqualified positive that needs to be adopted as standard before free-to-play ruins everything.

The best LittleBigPlanet has ever been, and although there are still problems with the platforming mechanics at least it's easy now to build around them.

It may not have changed very much from last year's entry but what small improvements there are still makes this the best F1 racer of the modern era.

We do sometimes, even if it is briefly, get the feeling we're playing a classic PES game from the series. Still rough around the edges though.

Not the silly novelty it might sound like but one of the most enjoyably addictive and cleverly original action stealth games on the PlayStation 3.

It looks and sounds as amazing as it ever did, but even if the control issues are a little more obvious now this is still a fantastically energetic and imaginative arcade game.

As gaudy and over-the-top as the '80s itself, but not quite as shallow. This masterful reboot of the granddaddy of scrolling beat 'em-ups has real punch.

Some of the best map design DICE has ever come out with and a combat experience no other game can match. Useful range of new vehicles and Tank Superiority is great.

On consoles it's merely good, but with a full complement of 64 players this is the best, and biggest, that Battlefield has ever been.

It doesn't even try to reinvent the fighting game genre or itself, but this is still the most enjoyable – and accessible - Tekken has been in years.

Don't let its low price or simple visuals fool you, this is the most demonically addictive game of the year and it takes no prisoners.

One of the best stealth games in years and an accomplished 2D platformer in its own right, with a near perfect balance, of depth, accessibility, and bloodshed.

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

Hearthfire is certainly a download that shatters preconceptions, but only in the sense that it never really allows you to do any of the things you thought it would.

A superbly effective combination of the very best of Persona's storytelling and character design, with one of the best 2D fighters of the modern era.

For a Japanese role-player this is a fun, accessible romp, but it stops short of reinventing its ways out of any of the genre's more long-standing issues.

Harmonix are still the masters of their craft but this feels less like a rebirth for Rock Band and more like a cash-grabbing backwards step.

Despite some interesting visuals and world-building BioWare just can't escape from the shadow of Mass Effect 3's ending, or the now overfamiliar action.

The best episode yet, that ups the ante in terms of not just the zombie threat but how you interact with some of gaming's most convincing characters.

The new content is exactly as good as you'd hope, but the PC version of From Software's classic is also exactly the sort of technical mess you probably feared.

Easily the best Transformers game ever, but also a tantalising glimpse of how to transform current action games into something more inventive and imaginative.

It doesn't even try to reinvent the Counter-Strike formula, but this is easily the best version for consoles and a refreshing retro alternative to the modern military shooter.

It's not original, and its often unfocused, but the willingness to always offer just one more piece of loot and one more giant boss battle makes Darksiders II a hard game not to enjoy.