Bright, bold and beguiling, Puppeteer reinvigorates the humble platformer, with its unashamedly honest and engaging design. Problematic physics and sluggish story aside, we think you could do a lot worse than pay to see this show.

Zombie Studios has certainly got the visuals and rampant multiplayer matches down, but the entry price is too high for most players to pay if they want to succeed.

It’s impossible to say Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is a bad game; this has all the hallmarks of quality you’d want from a Nintendo game. But it doesn’t have anything new or exceptional to praise either, and that’s more telling of the problems of Nintendo these days than anything else.

The smart online modes and novelty of Legends Of The Majors do enough to justify a sequel, in what's a solid if unspectacular edition of the long-running Tiger Woods series.

The tiniest slice of why gamers love Metal Gear Solid, but not enough to make up for the high price.

An average puzzle platformer that is saved from mediocrity by strong visual and audio design.

A good attempt at bringing a handheld game to a home console, although one let down by the same problems that affected the original. Not a bad game, but one with untapped potential.

It is a budget RPG and it feels like one, but that's not always a bad thing.

It's a playful excursion into basic mercantile capitalism, striking the same tones as games like Euro Truck Simulator, turning the apparently mundane into tangible entertainment. Built upon sturdy foundations, and executed effectively, Rise of Venice is a simple game with simple core, but enjoyable all the same.

You'll likely know by now whether or not Deception 4 is for you, but there is an intriguing idea here waiting for you to discover if you do.

When Thief remembers to be a stealth game, to focus on the kleptomanic joy of cleaning a place out unseen, it's great. Unfortunately, Thief tries to do too many other things and does them badly, preventing a good game from being a great one.

Warface is a perfectly fine free to play shooter that looks nice, but it does very little to differentiate itself from certain other military shooters that are on the way.

Plenty of depth there for those willing to make the most of it, but too many barriers for those not already predisposed to like it.

Octodad: Dadliest Catch is a game fettered by artifice and a noticeable absence of failure animations suggestions a game unfinished. Send Octodad back to the kitchen, he's not quite done yet.

Fuse is two games. As a four-player co-op shooter with friends, it's light, frothy fun that ticks along at remarkable pace with inventive weaponry. On your own, the AI of your team-mates drags the entire experience down and kills the fun.

Simplification and removal of some key components harms the game, though there’s still some great stuff here for younger gamers and those willing to grind their way to it through the tedious story.

There are a lot of faults here – the messy map design, the awkward cover system, the surprising co-op fumble – but Army Of Two: The Devil’s Cartel manages to make its core action of shooting things engaging and fun, and that’s what will pull you through the game.

A quaint stroll through Rapture, but not nearly enough focus in the right areas to make this a must-have BioShock experience.

I wouldn’t call it broken as such, it’s just so … meh. Not terrible, just far from mind-blowing. The big map is literally the coolest part of it. If you want a brilliant open world racer, go for Forza Horizons 2 instead.

Contrast is a picturesque, romanticized vision of 1920s Paris that masquerades as a graceful platformer, falling flat on its face at pivotal moments.

Lost Planet 3 gets the hard stuff right and is ultimately likeable, but its gameplay just isn’t capable of sustaining any warm feelings you might harbour for it.

Content-wise this is more than worth it's full priced retail release however, but a lot of assets are reused – whether from the original or repeated themselves within the game – so you will revisit locations of uncanny similarity.

Burial at Sea is a game that struggles with Bioshock’s legacy and while, generally speaking, it’s unfair to judge a game for what it is not, when you have a game that borrows as heavily from its predecessor as Burial at Sea does, it’s impossible not to be disappointed by what is an inferior imitation.

At its most basic, shooting guys in the face in Killzone: Mercenary can be enjoyable but never gives the player any credit in any other facet of the game. Not to mention a repetitive, uninspired mission structure and pocketfuls of missed opportunities, the campaign length coming in at just under four hours.

Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z is fun 80% of the time and utterly loathesome the other 20%, the difficulty spikes goring what could have been a light, frothy, tongue-in-cheek zombie hack and slasher.

WWE 2K14 excels in terms of fan service and is generous with content, but the game at its core is severely lacking.

It's a Greek myth that best describes the experience of playing Crytek's Rome-em-up: that of Sisyphus. Ryse: Son of Rome's hack and slash action does offer some fun, but the repetitive nature of its combat will eventually grind you down.

An over-simplified equivalent of the console Civilization game that doesn't even beat its predecessor.