Same lovable formula, but not much else.

Fun, a little repetitive, but totally replayable, just wish the middle of the story was better.

One of it’s most enjoyable episodes, with some of the best action and choices to date.

All of this has me very eagerly waiting for the next episode, and wishing it wasn’t six weeks away. But the thing behind most of that anticipation is the thing I can’t talk about - one hell of a cliffhanger ending, that I never saw coming.

A lacklustre ending and unremarkable adventure game mechanics may hold Perils of Man from reaching its full potential, but this is still a game worth checking out for anyone who likes a good time travel story with a compelling lead.

The platforming feels off, the puzzle solving is either too easy or too restrictive, and the humour regularly falls flat.

It’s like having a three-legged cat with serious temper issues - it’s a love-hate relationship and much irritation, but there is always an underlying fondness.

We’re still left with a good RPG, but one that’s held back somewhat by tedious quest design and an overreliance on sexist cliches.

This feels like a waste of time, let alone money.

While not all of their efforts have translated perfectly, Project CARS comes pretty damn close. Some frame rate drops hampered my experience, but overall Project CARS has done what it set out to do: build a fantastic looking, authentic racing simulator.

You can’t be a master of everything, and Tom Happ has cleared mastered the exploration element, level design, and sense of progression - the most fundamental parts of a Metroidvania game.

Competent, compelling gameplay, but with an uneven tone.

Empires is only a minor advancement in the franchise, but a must-buy for any series fan.

All design style with no narrative substance.

State of Decay has everything you could ever imagine in a zombie game, and than some. But, it still plays and feels like an Xbox Live Arcade game. Thankfully, at around $30, it’s priced like one too.

The very bread and butter of this game, its revolving concept, can be as frustrating as it is interesting. Creating something original does not provide free-parking on Metacritic Station, even if it is bread flying across a room.

Ultimately there's less micro-management in Cities: Skylines than in SimCity, but it in no way feels like something cut-down or "cloney." No, Cities: Skylines is its own game - an impressive feat considering the lineage of the genre.

Maybe Omega Force should make RPGs their main focus.

If you’re over 18, and you’re not sensitive to what I’ve mentioned before, I can’t recommend this game enough. It’s an amazing look at how far ahead of the game Rockstar are with their open-world titles, and their living, breathing environments.

Easily the deepest in the series, in terms of both story and combat mechanics.

Regardless of game mechanics and how many genres you could lump on top of it, Ghost Hunters is trying to deliver on story. But how well does it do that? With relative competence you could say. I would judge it solely on narrative if the situation allowed, but the developers have chosen to include something else - something that certainly makes sense in its context, but the strategy component is easily the weaker link. Sadly that’s not something I can ignore.

Too hard until it's too easy. Pretty, charming, and a cool idea, but infuriatingly unbalanced.

It tells a gripping tale of budding friendship during wartime married perfectly to its fantasy world that had me hooked from the opening moments.

It’ll leave you in hysterics, for better or worse.

Iffy physics, shoddy control, and poor camera direction means that while no compromises were made on the graphics side, the other aspects of the game was not given the same amount of love and care.

Most gamers can expect over 80 hours of gametime, fantastic characters and voice-acting and some of the best graphics seen on a Nintendo handheld. Whether you buy this for your home console or your New 3DS, it’s one of the better JRPGs to have launched in the last few years.

Amazing presentation and a wonderfully charismatic main character go a long way to making this worthwhile, but a particularly frustrating, dated brand of difficulty makes seeing this adventure through to the end a big ask for all but the most dedicated.

Frustratingly-addictive, with tons of replayability possibilities and some minor issues.

If you’re returning to Dark Souls II, you’ll either come away pleased that you’re on the same page as the designers, or annoyed by the seemingly perfunctory remix of enemy and item placement. On the other hand, brand new players may find Scholar of the First Sin to be an ideal, more guided tour of the world of Drangleic.

Simple gameplay hamstrung by freemium features.

The thing is, the core game is so good that the lack of such things is far from a dealbreaker. I’d go as far as calling this a must-play for anyone even remotely interested in sports games. You won’t regret it.

That small gripe aside, MLB The Show 15 is an excellent game and the franchise still rivals FIFA and Madden for the best sports simulation game.

A game that suffers from its fundamentals. The act of moving your troops around the battlefield, and engaging in combat, is too far removed from the player’s input – leading to frustration rather than gratification.

A whole lot more content, all wrapped up in one of Dragon Age’s most impressive zones.

Massive and beautiful. Classic roleplaying at it’s finest

Drawbacks aside, there is still so much here that adds to the base Sims 4 game I have to mark this as a “must have” for Sims 4 players.

Much more than meets the eye here - an RPG for RPG fans.

Buttery smooth and arresting visuals, but light on substance.

One of the most authentic Final Fantasy games in a decade.

It’s exactly what I want from a game set within this universe, and it more than scratches my Game of Thrones itch as I wait for the latest season of the TV show.

Out of Time takes the strengths of the debut and runs with them, while also making a respectable effort of addressing its problems. I’m certainly looking forward to my next trip to Arcadia Bay.

A series of short episodes make for one good game.

Bloodborne lends heavily from its forebears, but transforms the combat into a fast-paced dance of death. It rewards aggression rather than hanging back and waiting for opportunities to present themselves. While some technical, design, and pacing issues mar parts of the experience, Bloodborne is the freshest playing entry in a genre that has very narrow gameplay constraints.

An entertaining, fast-paced execution of the Battlefield engine.

Small victories will have you grinning from ear to ear in the face of ever greater hardship.

Tales from the Borderlands got off to a good start last year, and now that Atlas Mugged is finally here, the series has only gotten better.

Overall, Dragon Ball Xenoverse is probably one of the best, if not the best, Dragon Ball related games out there – and there are a lot. You can replay missions to enhance your character. There are various trainers to go on missions for. It also has time travelling - and that’s always a good thing.

Unique art style, clichéd humour, irritating controls.

From the moment the game begins, to the moment the credits start rolling, it’s obvious that Moon Studios were crafting this out of love. While most may play a second time to earn every achievement, many will just want to experience the fantastic presentation one more time.

Zombie Army Trilogy feels exactly like what you think it is – a collection of DLC packages. With a bare-bones frame propping it up, the game is an emaciated experience with an overly ambitious price tag attempting to tie it all together.

A complex dungeon crawler wrapped in an utterly gorgeous package.

If you are looking for a game that you can pick up and play a few rounds on your lunch break, or spend a few hours playing with friends while laughing, strategizing, and blasting your way to victory, I’d say quelling the menacing alien forces is well worth the enlistment price.

Overall, if you missed DmC when it arrived in 2013 and fancy a hack’n’slash game along the lines of Bayonetta or Ninja Gaiden, then this PS4 edition is certainly the best way to experience the game.

I want to finish the story, but not play the game to do it.

Aside from difficulty finding a quick match, and the fact that it’s a year old game that looks a lot older as it’s being sold at full price, Don Bradman Cricket offers plenty for those that don’t have the 2014 version.

Unresponsive and unintuitive controls hold back what is otherwise an excellent, atmospheric platformer.

When four small mallowpuffs are jumbled together in the corner of one small screen, you get a Kirby fluster-cluck.

Fun for what it is, but doesn’t stand out in any way.

Even in plain old two dimensions, first-person coastering is edge-of-your-seat stuff. I can only imagine what it would be like with virtual reality.

"Boring combat. Interesting writing. Constant sleaziness.

The Escapists is a wonderfully deep and complex puzzle game that reels you in further and further as you make progress from one prison to the next.

Overall, Dead or Alive 5: Last Round is the definitive version of a last gen game. Visually, it still looks great; however, it's still based on a last gen game. A new DoA running on current gen consoles with higher resolution textures can't come too soon, but for now, Dead or Alive 5: Last Round is satisfactory.

This could be the basis for a fully fledged, cross-franchise Nintendo rhythm game - now there's something I'd pay good money for.

A game so twitchy, it may just ruin your controller.

The only question you need to ask yourself is: do I need another addiction?

BeautiFun’s unique platformer has never looked or played better.

Beautiful - but not enough else.

Its relative ease makes redoing the challenges very pedestrian, and worse yet, replaying the same dungeon also means reliving all the pre-faffing-about to get there. You have to endure many of the same conversations, cutscenes and menial tasks you already know of and know how to do. Regardless of what decade you played it in, that is not fun.

Repetitive and unashamedly fun (but a lacklustre port to PS4).

The atmosphere in Resident Evil is second to none, and it's something that needs to make a comeback.

Total War: Attila is as painstakingly difficult as it is rewarding.

Evolve is a great, but sadly unreliable, experience.

The humour is corny and sometimes you want to slap Mark Matthews for his lack of conversation choices, but it’s an enjoyable way to pass the time, and if you fail then you can play again to try and nab that hot Army guy or try to unlock the "secret easter egg date".

Arcade fun, short and sweet and cheap like a short sweet cheap thing.

An irritating bug severely holds back this setup episode.

For someone under time constraints and with little patience for having to repeat a long, slow, tough, scenario multiple times, I have to confess that although I wanted to like it, Blackguards 2 hasn't been one of my top gaming experiences.

As was the case with so many games from the Golden Era, the pros in Pirate’s Curse far outweigh the cons. If the Super Nintendo has a special place in your heart, like it does in mine, this is a game you’ll want to waste no time in picking up. Even if you’re of the misguided opinion that other generations are better (hint: you’re wrong), if you like platforming, pirates, genies, or just good games in general, Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse is worth your attention.

A game so good no changes were needed.

By the end of my time with Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved, my arms were aching, and my shoulders were stiff, but I had had a great time.

The characters and plot are great. The dialogue, not so much.

Bad storytelling and mission design that brings mechanical flaws to the forefront, however, and dampens whatever momentum the experience has. If the best time you can have with Dying Light is through avoiding the main content, maybe that says a lot about how you shouldn’t be structuring an open world game.

There’s a decent game buried somewhere underneath the muck, but the laziness of the port makes Dokuro on PC a game best avoided.

A solid JRPG, which suffers from the occasional frame rate drop; it seems the developer Gust were so focused on adding costumes, they neglected to optimize it for the PS Vita’s hardware.

The new content is certainly welcome, but how much replay value the new area will generate still remains to be seen. In any case, the ability to crash your obnoxious Sim, permanently, at anyone's fancy digs is never going to get old.

Rocksmith is worth checking out for intermediate guitarists, especially if you’re of a generation that recognises a lot of the artists in the track-listing. It’s also worth a shot if you’re an accomplished player, but for complete new-comers to guitar who have never picked one up before, it might pay to get a few of the very basics down with a tutor (or knowledgeable friend) first.

It’s the length of the game that makes me say that you should wait for Tengami to be on sale before you buy it. While I had fun playing it, I wanted more and was actually surprised when I reached the end. On the flip side, this will not be a game you leave unfinished.

It’s a fun, if shallow, platformer that’s held back by poor design beyond that core hook, a sense of humour that’s crass more often than it is funny, and plenty of bugs.

A mediocre first entry in what I hope will branch into a kind of informative gaming genre.

More nostalgic than your nanna’s box of baby photos.

It’s a wonderfully crafted experience that looks and sounds fantastic. There’s been a lot of love given to this “demo” in ensuring it feels right at home next to the others in the franchise.

At around $25 from Xbox Live Store it adds a little bit more to everything that was great about the original game - without bringing anything significantly different to the party.

Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris is an enjoyable action-puzzler. It effortlessly presents combat and puzzle encounters to the player, without inundating or starving them of one or the other. Just make sure you bring some friends along for the ride.

Overall, if you want to get the full experience you will need the season pass. That is your shortcut to unlocking everything, and any future DLC. Commentary is just a bad as ever, Michael Cole doesn’t sound right in NXT. The new additions were ambitious, if poorly executed.

It’s the perfect blend of Borderlands’ humour and Telltale’s penchant for great writing and narrative-driven gameplay, and I’m eagerly awaiting the rest of the season.

A must for Persona and Etrian Odyssey fans alike.

I had an absolute blast with the title and was blown away with how they managed to get all the highs, lows, shocks, twists, lore and excitement of the series into a snug 2-3 hour gameplay session.

When I sit back and think about Smash Bros I think about how amazed a gamer from the mid 90s would find it.

Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire aren’t going to turn anyone who doesn’t like Pokemon into a believer, but then, that isn’t their goal. Instead, they set out to take the Pokemon that we know and love, and deliver the best version of it .