We both thought it was an improvement on the original – not least because it demands fewer up-front purchases than its predecessor (you can now play co-operatively without buying additional characters) – but agreed that there’s still plenty of room for critical gamers like us to kvetch.

The most interesting thing about Dragon Quest Builders isn’t what it takes from Minecraft but instead how it fills in some of the gaps that have existed since that game’s inception. Namely, storytelling, quests, and building guidance

Deus Ex GO is still loads of fun. I had a hard time keeping myself from just sitting down and burning through the whole story in a single afternoon.

It’s not the easiest game to wrap your brain around. The dungeon crawling is kind of turn-based yet also not, and levels are kind of rogue-like (meaning randomized), but not completely. Instructions are rare.

This is a Mario platformer in which multiplayer – as in multiple characters on screen at the same time – isn’t much fun.

To be sure, Alienation could have done with a little more polish in its RPG systems and the inclusion of an extra mode or two.

Even without multiplayer, though, there’s a good 20-plus hours of action packed into this fun little childhood throwback – more than enough to keep strategy fans occupied until the end of the summer.

Whether this is worth $15 is really moot: if you’re a Street Fighter devotee, this is a required update, end of discussion.

The Magic Circle’s appeal runs the gamut of the video game industry. While players might have one experience, someone who has actually worked in game development might get something entirely different from the game. And with a well-written script and some talented voice acting, it has a narrative that you’ll actually enjoy instead of merely coasting through to see the credits roll.

As with pretty much any Lego game (except perhaps Dimensions), what it really comes down to is whether you’re tired of the Lego game shtick, whether you happen to be a fan of whatever pop culture property TT Games happens to have on tap, and whether you have someone to sit beside you on the couch so you can play and laugh together – these games are always much more fun experienced with a friend of family member.

If you’ve got an evening to spare and want to fill it with some great beats and alien-blasting action, LOUD on Planet X is worth checking out.

In general, The Order: 1886 reminds me of almost every super hero film franchise. The first movie is frequently decent but has a few significant issues, and it’s not until the second entry in the franchise that things get more polished and interesting.

There are some nice new touches, including the objective of protecting survivors – which I found helped bring everyone back together again – as well as a crazy powerful mech-armoured Goliath zombie. If you thought exo zombies were evil, this guy is basically Satan.

The Disney Infinity starter pack might seem like a good idea the next time you have to buy back your kids’ love for having missed a baseball game or ballet recital, but you need to know it’s probably the start of a very expensive new habit.

When it comes down to it, though, I play Gears games for their spectacular campaigns, and Gears of War 4’s single-player mode just doesn’t live up to the standard set by its predecessors. It’s too conservative to wow us the way we expect, and it lacks many of the larger-than-life personalities that made the original trilogy so fun and memorable.

Despite its imaginative exterior, the game adheres to a surprisingly rigid design. After a while I felt as though I was just going through the motions, dispatching hundreds of zombies simply to get to the next waypoint on my map...But it takes a good while for the disillusionment to set in.

If some strangely-specific apocalyptic event wiped both Warcraft and Dungeon Keeper off the face of the earth, those brave souls with the will to continue might find something to cling to in Dungeons 2. Until that happens, the probably just best to stick with the real deal.

The problem, unfortunately, is that something feels missing without a true hero character with a deep backstory and lots of personal demons and vendettas to drive the narrative forward.

The plot is thickening. Hopefully the pacing will adjust to match in coming installments.

Despite its shortcomings, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse offers up an entertaining, albeit a frequently frustrating experience. The game’s rainbow drawing mechanic makes great use of the Wii U’s GamePad but the resulting gameplay unfortunately isn’t always as fun as it could be.

What Bravely Default II ends up giving us is a nicely polished traditional role-playing game that gently shifts a few of the genre’s defining bars a centimetre or two higher while safely ducking under others. Fans of the form will find it warm and comforting, but I don’t expect it will win over many converts.

Even a remastered version of a more or less forgettable prequel from the franchise’s heyday is infinitely preferable to what Capcom gave us in Resident Evil 6. It’s got its fair share of issues and isn’t the nostalgic walk down memory lane that was Resident Evil HD Remaster, but at least it’s a bit more of what this Resident Evil fan really wants.

Crush Your Enemies engaged me enough to while away a lazy Sunday afternoon. The missions are so short that it was easy to just keep clicking one more without paying any attention to the clock on my desk.

Of course, the ultimate factor likely to determine whether you keep jiggling your buns beyond the first night will likely be whether you enjoy the music or not, and unfortunately I found this year’s batch of songs a bit disappointing. The vast bulk of them are, at least to my taste, flavourless pop fluff.

And the sad truth is that those who can’t play for scores upon scores of hours and refuse to spend more money to get the game’s best stuff will likely feel the consequences in online play as they go up against those who have. This could potentially put a serious damper on online fun as time rolls on.

Why there are so few new Pokémon and such an emphasis on the old ones is really up to speculation, but all I know is that there’s a Chespin out there who needs a pet.

Why are all of these old generation Pokémon appearing in the game? Where are all of the new Pokémon we were teased and promised? Sure, they’re there, but why are they so rare?

Despite being a deep, generally entertaining, and visually luscious tower defence experience, Anomaly Defenders doesn’t quite rank among the best in its category.