This is one unnecessary relic that can be safely re-buried. [Apr 2014, p.89]

Still feels as shallow and monotonous as ever. [Apr 2014, p.89]

It's so terrible it nearly transcends its own boundaries and becomes something jaw-droppingly incredible - being memorably crap. [Apr 2014, p.89]

A disorienting mix of the classic, the needless and the forgotten. [Apr 2014, p.89]

Funny enough, easy enough and familiar enough to feel like an old friend, but this doesn't offer the excitement we expect from a series taking its second step onto a new platform. [Apr 2014, p.81]

Betting on depth of mechanics over breadth of content is a gamble, but one that massively pays off. This is a muscular, versatile slice of stealth, and a great indicator of things to come.

Attempts to play the main character off as an unlikeable rogue immediately fall flat. Yaiba the ninja is awful to be around, while Yaiba the game is uninspired and technically shallow.

What Dark Souls does, more than any other game, is make challenges that once felt utterly impossible, possible - when the only thing that has changed is you and your understanding of the situation. It may take ten passes at a foe before you even begin to feel out its defences and formulate a strategy, but when that glorious killing blow finally comes, you'll know you've earned it. And that's an incredible feeling.

An imperfect but utterly unmissable tour de force of multiplayer design, bustling with so many new ideas that it's a wonder it doesn't fly apart in mid-air.

This episode ends on a doozy of a cliffhanger, but as a fan of the comics (and to a lesser extent, the TV show), I'm worried it's straying into another kind of scenario we've seen played out several times before. Here's hoping Telltale proves me wrong. Keep that hair short.

So, that's it. The wordiest way ever of saying "if you like the TV show, you'll like this game". I'm sorry to have taken up your time.

Updated but still dated, this feels like a step back to a more boring time and doesn't add anything new. [March 2014, p.80]

A lovely, surprisingly clever reinvention of Plants vs Zombies for shooter fans of all ages and persuasions.

This was never going to be the shock hit that the first game was, because we were forewarned of its excellence. While it does suffer a little from the stellar expectations, this huge finale is its own creature, and easily does MercurySteam's saga justice.

A decent-enough but sadly cramped and wayward take on a classic stealth franchise.

An understated slice of retro-excellence from Double Helix, Strider leans just heavily enough on its 1989 forebear before catapulting itself into its own uniquely spectacular style of energetic and fast-paced side-scrolling platformer.

Like the outfits its drab protagonist wields like weapons, Lightning Returns is all style and very little meaningful substance. Combat works well, but the world is altogether forgettable.

Whilst missing some of the violent intensity of the opening episode, Smoke and Mirrors keeps things interesting with a deepening mystery and plenty of nice character beats.

Get past the faintly patronising tutorial, and resist the slightly disappointing final battle, and stay in the brilliant, rich middle. This is an adventure that rewards the curious and the explorers.

A purer, tougher survival game for the core. [Feb 2014, p.95]

A nice bit of extra story that suffers a little from resetting and restarting progress. Still - more ACIV is good. [Feb 2014, p.94]

This parasitic barnacle seeks only to corrode and cash in on joy. [Feb 2014, p.89]

The Raven simply doesn't understand how logic in point-and-click games works. [Feb 2014, p.87]

The controls are still horrendous, but for this chapter the pace of the storytelling picks up immensely. [Feb 2014, p.87]

The controls are so badly implemented, you feel like you're fighting with the game. [Feb 2014, p.87]

A half-baked mess. [Feb 2014, p.86]

Once you've turned off the gesture and voice control, you've got a product that's a simple facelift to a game that scarcely needed it. It's the better of the two, but the game doesn't really stand up to a full replay this soon.

On a hand-held, you'd think "well done chaps, this is a good boiled-down version which keeps the core of the game intact". But on a console, and so soon after Black Flag, it feels like an over-long chunk of watery DLC.

An unexpected Xbox One knockout and a year-on-year improvement in every respect - but its spectacular visuals make the clunkier elements painfully obvious.

This is impossible to get excited about. [Jan 2014, p.84]

With a good range of puzzles, an original soul, but weak platforming, play Contrast because it's something fresh, sweet and unexpected. Just don't ask for perfection. [Jan 2014, p.84]

A decent twin-stick shooter that uses the touchstones of Halo combat effectively, but lacks the longevity or depth to warrant the price tag - and especially the microtransactions.

Perfectly priced, and long enough to leave you satisfied but with room for dessert, this is a fantastic family-friendly puzzler that deserves a place on every Xbox One.

All That Remains is a strong season premiere that plays it safe in design terms, but makes bold decisions elsewhere. Heart-rending and brutal, it's a downbeat debut episode that shows plenty of promise. Here's hoping the next five can live up to it.

A bit of a scattershot offering, but pleasantly non-essential for second-hand owners. If you've drained the main game, it's worth a go. [Christmas 2013, p.111]

It's consistently hilarious. [Christmas 2013, p.111]

There's nothing here to make this anything other than an entirely missable Halloween-themed distraction. [Christmas 2013, p.111]

Daft story, clever puzzles, definitely worth a shot. [Christmas 2013, p.107]

Unexpectedly gratifying. [Christmas 2013, p.107]

Off-pissing checkpoints aside, it's slick and grueling old-school for the 'core. [Christmas 2013, p.107]

Becomes a mirthless, snails-pace co-op brawler set in boring marsh environments. [Christmas 2013, p.107]

It's so similar to Spongebob, Nickelodeon must have a template for offensively awful games. [Christmas 2013, p.107]

Occasionally difficult, never fun. [Christmas 2013, p.107]

It isn't a complete mess, but it's hard to imagine just who it was created for. [Christmas 2013, p.107]

Good stuff, then, but hard to get too excited about. [Christmas 2013, p.106]

There's a touch of imprecision that can make platforming a little on the sluggish side. [Christmas 2013, p.105]

With an excellent soundtrack, and beautiful [if simple] art direction, The Bridge is a sensory treat. [Christmas 2013, p.103]

Blood Knights holds as much annoyance as satisfaction. [Christmas 2013, p.103]

Less a party game than clever learning software, Rocksmith 2014 is a highly personalised, customisable and responsive guitar tutoring tool that improves upon the original in almost every regard.

Peggle 2 is exactly, but not enough of, what we wanted. When you make something this addictive, you gotta supply, man.

Despite this being one of the best 3D fighters of a generation, it's hard to recommend SoulCalibur II HD Online due to a silly price tag and some seriously poor online multiplayer implementation. The SoulCalibur name deserves more than this.

A shambolic demonstration of motion control you shouldn't allow within a hundred miles of your Xbox One.

Few will be utterly blown away by it, given the abiding similarities to Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted, but anybody who can't get through the day without buckling a few fenders should consider this an essential purchase.

I'd go as far as to say that Killer Instinct is my favourite launch title for Xbox One. With a little more content, it could seriously have been a killer app for the system. It might be only half a game so far, but what an excellent half that is.

Ryse looks fantastic - a genuinely promising example of what the Xbox One can do. But if you're not interested in co-op arenas, Ryse's five-or-six hour campaign might not offer you great value for money. If you are, you might find your weak, loinclothed gladiator is getting bullied into the gold shop.

Forza 5 is often simulation racing at its best, but Turn 10 hasn't quite rendered all its previous work obsolete. Given the reduced track and car count, and the present wobbliness of Drivatars, the game sometimes feels like it hasn't quite burst out of its shell. As a launch game, though, it's a wonderful achievement.

Other open world games dabble with the undead, but none of them do it on such a scale. Dead Rising 3's technical shortcomings mean that it isn't a game that easily justifies the purchase of an Xbox One, but it absolutely won't cause you to regret it.

The game's still an utterly charming and absorbing linear platformer, with plenty of secrets knotted into its path.

Crimson Dragon entertains most when it's the power fantasy it wants to be - when you're mopping up streams of curious beasts from an early level, with credits and items flying into your backpack as you 100% a level. When you're beset, besieged, and bullied by streams of incoming missiles, you feel cheated rather than challenged, and the beckoning gem shop makes the process feel dirty.

For all its shallowness, I couldn't help but fall for Zoo Tycoon. While its charms may indeed be too quickly exhausted, they're potent while they last, and there's an overpowering wholesomeness that's difficult to resist. There are a lot of great ideas, wonderful moments and potential memories to be made here that make it more than worth a look, but much like my experiences with real-life animal parks, Zoo Tycoon becomes less likely to delight upon each subsequent visit.

Lococycle is as hard to put down as it is hard to love. Even if the comedy scratches your itch, there will be times when the shortage of depth and aversion to polish become impossible to forgive.

Played on a gamepad, Powerstar might not have the grandma-pleasing intuitive appeal of a Kinect-powered title, but it's still a sweet and inclusive family game.

Adults and older kids will probably vibe with the GTA-like open world a bit more, though the basic physics and challenges make it very 'GTA-lite', too. What's urgently needed, though, is a patch for the flight controls that make it a game best enjoyed from the ground, ridiculous as that is for a superhero game.

The idea of Deadfall, as a genuine raid on a legitimate tomb harks back to a fondly remembered era of Lara Croft. Losing Croft's platforming for a heavier puzzle element could have been great. Unfortunately, Deadfall Adventures fails to satisfy on either of the two goals it sets itself. The gunplay is juddering and weak, and the puzzles lack depth and satisfaction. Even a cabal of supernatural Nazis can't save this one.

In terms of what you actually do, though, Burial at Sea is fairly tepid stuff - a fetch quest followed by shoot-outs that introduce Infinite's Tears and Skylines to Bioshock 1's Splicers and turrets, a puzzle that involves finding a new Plasmid, a puzzle that involves doing X of Y, and a boss encounter that's all about attrition.

Returning base commanders might want to ponder whether new classes, maps and foes are worth a second investment, but those who slept through the original extra-terrestrial invasion should pick Enemy Within up immediately.

While it's a noble attempt to change pace and style, Last Light was balanced well - this breaks that balance. [Dec 2013, p.93]

Even at a handful of minutes, the levels seem over-long. [Dec 2013, p.91]

It's still frantic bite-sized arcade action. [Dec 2013, p.91]

This gives you the thrills of playing poker with real money, without the hassle of winning real money back. Ah, microtransactions. [Dec 2013, p.91]

A creaking but stellar current-gen send-off. [Dec 2013, p.91]

Although this simple brawler has some intriguing multiplayer ideas, the solo game's repetitive and the Crusade metagame is hard to invest in. [Dec 2013, p.87]

Hits an unexpected sweet spot of Hollywood-style bombastic entertainment. [Dec 2013, p.86]

The game's the best it's ever been, but it's more of an update than a revolutionary overhaul. [Dec 2013, p.84]

Call of Duty is, and has always been, a series about instant gratification. It's fast food gaming at its most refined, a continual adrenaline rush that never thinks beyond the next kill. Ghosts maintains that heady, intoxicating momentum of shoot, kill, win, reward - but pales at the thought of taking the franchise in any interesting new directions.

Battlefield 4 combines a middling campaign with some of the finest larger-scale online warmongering ever conceived. As a package it constitutes extraordinary value. Levolution aside, it hasn't reinvented any shooter tropes, but it has refined and improved them to impressive degree.

Where Assassin's Creed 3 kept players at arm's length for hours, refusing to let you make your own way, Assassin's Creed 4 spreads those arms wide. We don't miss Connor, so much, but somebody should get this new guy a trilogy.

We'll find out next year if WWE's stable-change to 2K really changes the world of digital man-squeezing, but for now, like Wrestlemania, WWE 2K14 is a comforting combo of familiarity and nonsense.

It doesn't bring many new tricks to the table, but Origins is still thoroughly entertaining.

The most exhilarating moments, however, arrive care of the game's brutal action sequences.

Simplified controls. [Nov 2013, p.97]

As much fun as you'd expect from vermin. [Nov 2013, p.96]

Avoid like you would a corpse flower. [Nov 2013, p.95]

Far from a masterpiece, nowhere near awful. [Nov 2013, p.95]

Hugely imaginative but slightly irritating. [Nov 2013, p.95]

A grand idea, but needs deep pockets. [Nov 2013, p.94]

Only hipsters and farming fetishists need apply. [Nov 2013, p.91]

Its also frustrating that a game that can give so much on the pitch has very little to offer beyond it.

FIFA 14 represents a difficult step forward for a very popular franchise, but a successful one nonetheless. The changes have such a significant effect, that returning fans may find them off-putting through the first five to ten games. But those that embrace them will be rewarded with perhaps the most satisfying, engaging FIFA yet.

An entirely shallow addition to the fighting franchise, but it's slick and stylish nevertheless. [Dec 2013, p.87]

Rockstar's Xbox 360 swansong is probably the console's greatest technical achievement, and as such it's unmissable.

Decent, cheap and slightly interesting. [Oct 2013, p.103]

It's not changing the game. It's more like finding a third finger in your Twix packet. [Oct 2013, p.103]

Silva has got a razor-keen eye for what makes a satisfying brawler, and fans of The Dishwasher will be relieved to find his art and musical direction intact. [Oct 2013, p.89]

Doesn't totally transport us back. [Oct 2013, p.89]

Diablo 3 isn't an experience for the time-poor, though it's surprisingly possible to nip in for half an hour, just to level yourself up. But treat it like a casino: set yourself a limit, and stick to it. Otherwise, you might find yourself wide-eyed on Nephalem Glory at 5am.

Lost Planet 3's basic competence doesn't mask an almost complete reliance on recycled fetch quests. Its story ends on a relative high, but once the pace finally picks up in the final couple of hours, it's much too late and the 14-hour slog to get there isn't worth the payoff.

This is the most polished and satisfying platformer on Xbox 360. It's another masterpiece from Montpellier.