Still the same lacklustre combination of Left 4 Dead with a twin-stick shooter, where only the status of PlayStation Plus freebie prevents further criticism.

A good, solid action role-player and a fantastic South Park tie-in, with the same caustic wit and an unashamed embrace of video game and role-playing obsessions.

Still one of the best action games ever made and although this is technically the best-looking version it still doesn’t really feel like the definitive one.

An excellent hybrid of role-playing staples that although it lacks new ideas of its own is able to use existing ones in a variety of entertaining ways – except when it comes to the story.

An almost complete tour of Pac-Man’s more than 30 year history, but the problem is that the only missing piece is the most important.

Another amusing look behind the veil of role-playing conventions, although it’s a shame the experience feels so slight and insubstantial.

The least brown shooter ever made, with the colourful graphics and accessible controls supported by an imaginative and surprisingly well-crafted online experience.

Lords Of Shadow 2 waddles on for 20-odd hours and would’ve been twice the game if it was half the length, with the all the unwanted padding and repetition taken out. It’s such a shame because the first game, and MercurySteam, showed such promise. But this is a huge backwards step and we fear the undead charms of Castlevania may finally have been killed off once and for all.

Series fans may view it as a disaster but the problem is that Thief isn’t even interesting enough to get angry about, despite the well hewn stealth gameplay.

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.

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.

Treasure’s cult 2D shooter remains as uniquely entertaining as always, and surprisingly well adapted for a modern PC.

Don’t let the name or presentation put you off: this is an impressive piece of interactive storytelling that gets more right than most other games with 10 times its budget.

No longer the Deadly Premonition of action games, just an outdated, half-broken, shooter that offers only glimpses of what it could’ve been.

The mixture of old school, new school, and Metroidvania works surprisingly well – even if Strider’s long-awaited reboot still feels slightly too safe.

Tropical Freeze is a good game, and aficionados of the genre will love it, but it does absolutely nothing to move forward either the Donkey franchise, 2D platformers in general, or the case for buying a Wii U.

It goes completely against the spirit of the movie but at least the game is able to celebrate the creativity of its developers, if not its players.

Another masterful mix of interactive story and brutal action, and which despite the short running time still packs an emotional punch.

The definitive version of Tempest and as such one of the best arcade games ever made, even if it’s only a minor improvement on previous versions.

There’s no attempt at pretence: this is a Monster Hunter clone through and through, but such a good one it actually does some things better than its inspiration.

Compounded by the nonsensical script and one-dimensional characters it’s as if the game is specifically designed to feel as shallow and disconnected as possible. Lightning Returns might be an enjoyable enough folly for fans, but there’s very little here for anyone else.

Not quite Scary Movie but certainly not the video game equivalent of Airplane, although the fact that it even tries to be is almost recommendation enough.

Spring cleaning has never been so entertaining in this well presented and cunningly addictive physics-based platformer.

The storytelling is as well up to Telltale’s usual standards, but waiting three months for such a short and relatively uneventful episode is unavoidably anticlimactic.

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.

A great alternative to Candy Crush and its clones, that’s just a few tweaks – and a visual makeover – away from being a classic puzzler.

Dungeon Keeper is not a video game, not any more. Instead it’s just a virtual beggar, constantly demanding your spare change and offering nothing in return.

A good HD remake but the game itself doesn’t really warrant the attention, with too many unfulfilled promises that even its sequels failed to make good on.