You can let out a disappointed sigh out at the bawdiness of Dragon’s Crown, but you should remain allies for the heroic fighting, hidden depths and looks that will make the even sternest knees knock. A lute-played love song to everything fantasy, Dragon’s Crown brings crisp combat with all the RPG trimmings.

Gameplay is the best it’s been on PS3, and presentation is improved, too, with Jeff Stelling’s pre-match, half-time and post-match links upping the broadcast feel yet again. Whatever your thoughts on annual sports games, you really mustn’t miss this one unless you want to spend the next nine months feeling like a defeated play-off finalist.

With games often lasting five minutes or less, you don’t feel like you’ve lost a lot when you inevitably cark it. While the familiarity you gain with the opening world does get frustrating – you spend a lot of time there – there’s a one-more-go compulsiveness to Spelunky that leaves you chasing more gold than Jr (they called the dog Indiana).

When PES 14 truly shines, though, it outplays its megaton rival in several key areas. If you’re willing to scrape beneath the surface and accept its technical and licensing shortcomings, then this offers a nuanced, deeply rewarding game of football. If Konami can iron out those issues next season, PES United could yet be champions.

There’s simply more here than in any game before, and yet quality is never sacrificed for quantity. Personal favourites will persist, but it’s hard to put anything else on top of the pile. Everything you’ve ever wanted a GTA game to be, and a whole lot more. Consistently hilarious, constantly compelling and combining never-before-seen scale and ambition. This is going to make next-gen look bad for a long time to come.

A strikingly beautiful game that suffocates its solid action core with clumsily scripted waffle and a hodgepodge of bizarre ideas. [Oct 2013, p.90]

Monsters has a humble ambition, and succeeds in it without making too much fuss.

The world is colourful, creative and wildly diverse – you’ll side scroll your way through castle dungeons, haunted forests and pirate ships to name just three – and is brought to life with Dahl-esque wit and flair by a hilarious cast of characters.

The closest Killzone Mercenary comes to having a thing is in its touch controls, and as satisfying as they are the marriage of console shooter and iOS game doesn’t elevate it into the realm of the exceptional.

Functional and at times enjoyable, but in a derivative way that rarely stands out.

It’s an ancient evil residing in a new place, and the marriage of Blizzard’s defiantly old-school dungeon-crawling with its mesmerising craftsmanship works unquestionably. A deceptively simple and expertly constructed Beelzebub-basher, translated smartly for a platform not immediately receptive to the genre.

Level design is so good – so intricate, yet always presenting the right level of challenge – that you take for granted how effortlessly it pulls off each chapter’s musical finale. Racing through a crumbling castle in sync with a gibberish version of Ram Jam’s Black Betty has no right to be this thrilling.

A swing and a miss, but a game that at least delivers an easily wieldable flying model and holds your attention for the first few missions by virtue of endless 'splosions. [Sept 2013, p.95]

No amount of ragdoll-fumbling can save this Gothic horror show. [Sept 2013, p.94]

At just 2.99 this offers fiendishly addictive bursts of blood-splattery for your handheld. [Sept 2013, p.94]

Promise is let down by its execution. [Sept 2013, p.94]

A capable and involving massacre-'em-up shaped from a rusting cookie cutter, but one begging for modernisation via an engine overhaul and some good ideas. [Sept 2013, p.90]

Good-looking but with simple repetitive combat, there's not enough on offer here to back up the potential of its two-girls-one-game premise. [Sept 2013, p.89]

It's fun at first, but the difficulty quickly shifts from "enjoyably challenging" to "I hate and want to dismember you." [Sept 2013, p.88]

A great platform-puzzler for kids. [Sept 2013, p.87]

More hands-on control makes for a marked improvement on last year's sadistically tedious effort. [Sept 2013, p.86]

When the combat works it’s excellent, and the pinstripes-and-fedoras setting always appeals – as does Carter’s wonderfully overblown, “My God… the humanity” personality. Sadly, however, once you’re past the first few hours you’ve seen the best of what’s on offer. The tactical squad combat is hugely enjoyable and rewarding at times, but let down by inconsistency and repetition. Turn-based marvel Enemy Unknown’s remains the Xcom game to beat. Joel Gregory

It’s a clever use of Disney licences that kids will absolutely adore, even if grown-ups will be less enamoured by the mission – and merchandise – structure.

Sam’s learned new tricks, gained an almighty toybox and feels righteously superhuman to control, but spreads himself thin in an effort to impress.

Occasionally excellent, often mired in mediocrity, Saints Row 4 is inferior to Red Dead Redemption and even five-year-old GTA IV in almost every way. And while you’re always likely to miss when comin’ at the kings, Volition’s effort still falls short of the more cohesive Sleeping Dogs, the expansive frolicking on Just Cause 2’s Panau and the polished pantomime of Infamous 2.

A sequel with increased complexity but no more finesse than the original. Payday 2 has a swag bag full of worthy ambitions, but overstretches when it comes to execution.

Although Scrooge’s pogo-stick jump is a tad unresponsive, this is a handsome, crisp platformer that occasionally makes me happier than a duck doing backstroke in a giant bin full of bullion. Well, in-between doing all the swears.

So much of the success of the core series came from the sense of attachment to the characters that developed over time, and that was never going to be possible here.