It’s a Neapolitan ice cream of shooters, essentially, with three very different flavours squashed together in a single serving. They’re not always complementary: it’s hard to reconcile the fact that you’ve got a former Doctor Who shouting “twat!” at Nazi zombies in the same game as a haunting glimpse of history’s worst genocide. Still, between its moments of good taste and a mode that’s more Bad Taste, it hits a consistently high standard – and though it’s mostly riffing on ideas we’ve seen before, it manages to make several of them its own. The series’ dwindling popularity has proved a tough nut to crack for its publisher in recent years; COD: WWII proves that maybe a Sledgehammer really is the right tool for the job.

It is a fantastic example of how to combine the numbers-driven loot game with a top class FPS, and Lo Wang should be chainsawing his way into the annals of FPS history. Plus it also has music by Stan Bush. What more could you want from a blood-soaked, irreverent, funny and frantic shooter?

A script that is not as elegant as the first season and one fears that, through hubris or complacency, Telltale has lost sight of what made The Walking Dead so good in the first place.

Its quality can vary as much as its storylines. Detroit’s main issue is that it is a game that is desperate to have something to say, but doesn’t know how to say it. Detroit is too heavy-handed and maladroit to get much past ‘discrimination and genocide is bad’.

The uninitiated may peer into Kamurocho's kaleidoscope and wonder what on Earth is going on, but through the eyes of the converted, the view is as fabulous as ever.

Outside the novelty factor of its genuinely innovative tech, there's nothing especially memorable about Skylanders, but it undoubtedly fired the imagination of my little one, and I found it a perfectly pleasant time-killer.

Wooly World’s gentle accessibility, then, can be its biggest strength or most obvious weakness… depending on who you are. Either way, there is no doubting the craft.

Despite its niggles, WWE Universe is a terrifically flexible mode that offers endless hours of enjoyment for the committed. For the more casual player, and the lapsed wrestling fans WWE 13 is aiming for, the main draw is the Attitude Era mode. It's flawed, sure, but many of its foibles can be forgiven when you're playing out moments that recall a time when professional wrestling was fresh, fierce and relevant.

Although far from perfect, Prototype offers an action-filled experience that few games can match, and the array of attacks on offer is almost unparalleled in both its variety and its easy accessibility. The pure adrenaline-boosting entertainment value of the finished product is enough to push most visual and gameplay niggles far enough into the background so as to eradicate them as concerns in all but the most snobbish of gamers.

Factor in the graphical glitches, rampant texture pop-in and generally asthmatic performance levels, even when running on a PS4 Pro with settings optimised to favour smooth running, and there really is no end of reasons not to love Borderlands 3 (and don’t even think about Googling developers Gearbox Games’ litany of employee relations history)...And yet... love it, I do. Guilty as charged.

Despite a few quibbles, Overcooked is terrific because of its commitment to uproarious, hilarious and challenging co-operation. As long as your friendships, family bonds and marriages can take the odd dropped champignon à la crème, of course.

For Honor’s fighting mechanics are weighty and gratifying, communicating the violence and impact of medieval combat through handsome visuals and animation. Your heavily armoured warrior (of which there are 12 different classes) has a plethora of stances, light and heavy combo attacks, guard breaks, dodges and parries that are governed by a quickly depleting stamina bar.

Unravel never entirely shakes that aura of niceness over its five hours or so. It is both its strength and weakness. The background tale of Yarny searching through a family’s memories is a bit mawkish, but the little fella’s determination to trek through the challenges Coldwood chucks at him is adorable and endearing.

First Strike's maps did a terrific job of throwing Call of Duty's strengths into sharp relief.

Will I ever understand such faith? No. But now I understand how much it can help people through something so unspeakably tragic. While nothing can ever bring back their little boy, I am glad the Greens had that faith. And I am glad they were brave enough to share it with us.

True, it’s flawed, occasionally messy, and could do with being a little more accommodating to beginners. It also happens to be one of the boldest and most original visions on any system this year, and surely cements Hideki Kamiya’s place among the great game creators of his generation.

Harmonix remains the master of mapping note charts to the music.

The improvements in AI and excellent online modes are a solid basis to continue re-building PES to its former glory, but the weird physics and newfound lack of weight are a concern. It still feels like PES just isn't 100% sure where it should be going.

A long overdue return to form, with a focus on what made Sonic fun in the first place. He's always been fast, but it's good to finally see him speeding in the right direction.

A campaign focused on spectacle benefits from next-gen heft (the PS4 game is comfortably the best looking console version) but hardly innovates, while the multiplayer game remains as fast-paced, responsive and downright noisy as ever. Yet if Call of Duty is, as some have suggested, the gaming equivalent of junk food, Infinity Ward has prepared it to gourmet standard.

At its best, Ace Combat: Assault Horizon hits a glorious balance of careful tactical play and explosive bombast. It's frustrating because it comes so close to perfecting the formula, only to throw it away by growing tedious when it has the opportunity to shine.

El Shaddai isn't perfect, then, but it's got a lot going for it because of the sheer energy that's gone into its construction: energy you can see in the focused poise of its combat, and in the game's astonishing desire to top itself with each new vista it flings before you.

Bar a few flaws and annoyances along the way, it's geeky, funny, genuinely spooky in places, packed with blistering, ghost-catching action and beautifully captures a unique charm and atmosphere that has bewitched audiences for 25 years. Simply put, it's The Ghostbusters.

New Super Mario Bros. 2 is a single-player construct through and through, and tossing in an extra player doesn't do it many favours, particularly in the limited confines of a handheld screen.

The satisfaction felt at the end of a hard-fought point is all the greater for the knowledge that you’ve guided that perfect shot with a deft flick of your wrist as opposed to a well-timed button press. Though ultimately lacking the precision a truly great tennis game needs, EA should be commended for a superb Wii effort which amply demonstrates the publisher’s commitment to the format.

The oddest thing, however, is how a game that's so breathlessly paced for a good 12 hours succumbs to bloat. As Dead Space 3 creaks towards its denouement, you get the feeling that Visceral packed the first three quarters of the game with such incident, they ran out of stuff to include in the final stretch. It's never dull, but never as consistently engaging either.

A quirky, delightful title. Calling it one of the best movie tie-in games we've ever played sounds a little like we're damning it with faint praise. So instead we're just going to go ahead and say it's one of the best games we've seen on the Nintendo DSi in quite a while.

The terrifying debut of Red Barrels is a masterclass in the art of video game horror that is stretched a little thin.

An extraordinary piece of work, with things to say about pacing, writing, world-building and the communication of emotion that feel profoundly valuable to the industry...Its sense of purpose is overwhelming.

The noticeable improvements aside, there are some very real problems with the core gameplay of PES that aren’t easily forgotten. The engine is well past its sell-by-date, its clumsy brand of football is given a real thrashing by FIFA in realism and too many aspects of the package remain disappointingly unrefined.

FIFA 22 has focussed squarely on the on-pitch action and has succeeded in creating the best pure football game from the series in quite some time. For me, at least, there is no better measure.

So no, it's not another Wii Sports. It isn't a game-changer, nor is it likely to be nearly as successful as a seller of hardware...But it might just be the better game of the two.

What Birds of Steel does right, it does far better than any similar game on consoles. If Second World War flying is your thing, you'll find a dizzying amount of content here for the money.

Most importantly it feels great. The colourful, muscular artwork lends extra weight to already ferocious scuffles, moves landing with crunchy force, accentuated by its brilliant habit of a split-second freeze for fierce hits. Everything is quick and forceful, with fights quickly taking on their own rhythm depending on both the characters and the players using them.

With a comprehensive class-based multiplayer rounding off the package, Bound in Blood is an altogether more polished prospect than its predecessor. At the very least it’s a hugely enjoyable parade of satisfying shooting galleries. But when it finds its stride, it’s a thrilling, wild ride down a road that remains surprisingly less traveled.

The third Motorstorm may have stripped away some of the class of its predecessors and replaced it with noise and bluster, but it has done so with a technical bravado that is, at times, astonishing.

It isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, and a couple of levels and challenges see Sonic slipping into some of his bad habits, but largely this is an enjoyable, breezily compelling platformer that captures some of that old magic that made us all fall in love with Sonic 20 years ago.

Fiddly bits notwithstanding, Thomas Was Alone is a game crafted with real love and attention. It shines through most prominently in its neurotic set of blocks, a cast so delightful you'd give them a cuddle if they weren't all sharp edges. Mind you, I'm not sure Chris would like that too much. But even that grumpy old square would admit that spending time with Thomas is, actually, a whole lot of fun.

It is explosive, barely coherent, high-budget bluster. And, for the most part, is rather good fun.

There is a lot that Life Is Strange does well. It is offbeat and interesting, if a little rough around the edges. And with the seed of a mystery planted by the end of the episode, there is enough here to be optimistic about the remaining episodes.

Here's hoping that the quality of all future Fable DLC lives up to the new standard set by Traitor's Keep.

There’s a lovely, bucolic charm to Pikmin which makes its brevity easy to forgive. Less acceptable is the fact that a seven-year-old game has been repackaged as a Wii title for an excessive £30 – Nintendo has certainly missed a trick by not adding any kind of extras to increase its longevity.

A brilliantly solid, popcorn, sci-fi shooter with you behind the visor. This is, for our future space credits, the best Call of Duty package in years.

Part of how much you reap from Resident Evil 3 will be down to your nostalgia for the series, part of it will be if shooting the embodiment of a virus in the face with a rail-gun is just what you need right now.

The result is a game that’s enormous fun, but tends to work best in relatively short bursts. I found myself getting through a mission at a time, enjoying playing around within each level, but feeling like I’d had enough after an hour or so. But when I returned to the game afresh, the different levels helped entertain all over again.

This sensibly-priced curio is one of the best and most original Kinect games to date, and enormously entertaining in the short bursts of play the device is designed for. Perhaps most refreshingly of all, it can be played while seated; couch potatoes discouraged by the activity demanded by most motion-based titles may have just found their ideal Kinect game.

Ultimately, Hitman’s current mileage is going to vary depending on your openness to experimentation. But as a statement of IO’s intent with this reboot, this is a confident first episode that invites you into the flashy world of murder with one of the most sumptuous, devilishly delightful levels ever seen in a Hitman game. Time will tell whether the subsequent packs will allow Hitman to regain its once-revered status, but this is a fantastic start.

To EA’s credit, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 --like all the PGA Tour games before it-- is still a very good game. But perhaps the imminent next generation of consoles will see the series receiving the overhaul it needs.

It certainly gives a great deal in the first few hours. Though it's repetitive, the mechanics are solid and the concept itself works fantastically.

AIt hits all of the usual story beats and it will scratch an itch for JRPG obsessives, but there’s an absolute lack of substance. There’s no discernable creativity, flair, or ingenuity in any part of it. It doesn’t want to either reinvent the wheel or even add a lick of polish to it. It is a game which exists and functions as it was meant to; a JRPG as by-the-numbers as they come, I just wish the developers had been brave enough to take a few more risks.

But it's not just for geeks like me, even if we will get the most out of it, as High Noon have crafted a highly polished, highly entertaining third-person blaster in its own right.

This fuzziness at the game’s heart makes you wonder what magic Fullbright could work with its eye for detail worked into a meatier tale. As it is, Tacoma drifts towards ennui more than you would hope, especially given its familiar setting. But what a setting it can be; rich craft and detailed stories worked into every corner, device and discarded piece of paper. Despite some misgivings, a trip to Tacoma is still one worth taking.

The game is pretty much a must-play for anyone interested in videogame narrative or the debate on virtual violence, and the sheer subversiveness it brings to one of the most profitable and least nuanced of gaming genres is certain to be influential in future. But dubious mechanics, cursory multiplayer and niggling design shortfalls all weigh heavily in the other scale. Spec Ops may turn out to be less notable for what it is than for what it inspires.

EA's return to the course is a surprisingly understated and supremely accomplished golf sim.

Its good-natured feel and simple controls make it ideal for families, and though some of the wonder of discovering a new species will be lost on those who played the original, there’s plenty of new content to keep everyone occupied.

Shadows of the Damned's erratic, slapdash nature leaves you slightly dazed. But despite some alarming dips in quality, despite the game never quite reaching the level of brilliance you hope for, you will be glad you played it.

Ripe for exposure to a wider audience, X is a splendid sequel/remake of the original, serving up 60 new levels of precise platforming to go with the original 40 legacy level

The cliffhanger The Dark Room finishes on opens a whole new can of worms, so to speak, while the more surreal questions remain unaddressed (what’s with the whales on the beach? The crazy weather? The nefarious Prescott family?). Finales can make or break a series and Life is Strange is precariously balanced.

There’s not much to like about a business model so brazenly designed to divorce kids from their pocket money – and the big swing in favour of untradeable reward cards this year only increases the likelihood of that outcome. That said… it is remarkably addictive, and the overhaul of the chemistry rules that underpin squad building have at least shaken up the shakedown.

Syndicate is a massive shame. Ubisoft’s yearly development cycle is really beginning to leave its mark on the series. Assassin’s Creed has been good. It is a series that can be great, but unfortunately Syndicate is a misstep. For a series concerned with making its players historical tourists, it is ironic that it is so stuck in the past.

It is still zippy and enjoyable enough -with touchscreen mini-games for purifying and Soultimates- but strikes an awkward middle-ground where combat isn’t involved enough for more experienced players, but is chaotic enough with its machinations to befuddle newcomers.

With its varied combat, ridiculous story and outlandish weapons it's a fun and engaging title and it's a real pity that that Activision haven't given it the attention it deserves. If you're willing to overlook its shortcomings and enjoy old school running-and-gunning, Singularity is an immensely satisfying romp.

For those that have played through The New Order and are keen for more of its beefy action, this delivers around 7 hours of it for a decent price. I’d argue The Old Blood also makes a satisfying starter to The New Order’s more substantial meal if you haven’t yet had a taste. A well-priced piece of downloadable content that works equally well on either side of the main game? Clever.

Techland's horror sequel features crunchy combat and thrilling parkour, but buries its best bits with a clumsy story and open-world excess.

A world with a sense of humour and fun that will appeal to children and adults alike. A bit like a Pixar film, then. How about that?

There's perhaps a little too much repetition of particular rhythm tasks --and some are certainly more successful than others-- but Rhythm Thief is a joy from start to finish. And with a huge amount of collectibles and post game content, provides a package that should form part of any 3DS owners library.

It is all thoroughly enjoyable. If you have had your fill of Ubisoft’s open-world template, much of Primal may give a sense of ennui. But for me, stripping it down to focus on hunting and gathering, while removing heavy ordnance and vehicles, gives it a calmer rhythm. It is slower and more methodical, with you soaking in the splendid prehistoric world Primal provides. It isn’t the future of the genre, but you will have plenty of fun knocking around in its vision of the past.

The game’s greatest strength is avoiding the pitfalls of the first; removing frustrating boss fights and lessening the amount of forced stealth sections. It also manages to sustains its variety for a long time – you will fight similar enemies and you will see patterns in how it deals outs its frights, but the interesting setup and constant design flair begs to be seen as you tiptoe through its suspenseful world.

People looking for the next Halo will most likely come away disappointed, as will anyone hoping for a solid single-player experience. But those of you who are up for something a little bit different and more thoughtful will find a lot to appreciate in Section 8: Prejudice.

There always seems to be a caveat with Nintendo, but for me the quality of the game outweighs the concerns. In play, this is Super Mario making himself at home on mobile, and few can match our favourite plumber when he gets into the groove.

It's just a pity that when compared to the franchise's most recent successes, Band Hero comes across as both a bit of a cash-in and more than a little soulless.

It’s a great game in a slightly flimsy initial package, then, but Popcap has stated that it plans to release free bi-monthly DLC to thicken the crop of modes.

Sure, you’re left with the nagging sensation of unfulfilled promise, but away from the circus of its development and that (perhaps unreasonable) weight of expectation, Broken Age will, in time, be a game many players remember with genuine fondness.

In keeping with the period aesthetic, Black Ops Cold War feels like a throwback in all senses of the word. It’s unlikely to be remembered as a Call of Duty classic but throw in the multiplayer mayhem of Zombies too and there’s enough here to help keep the lockdown blues at bay. Which, frankly, is the most any of us can ask for right now.

Every single aspect of Hyrule Warriors is great fun and utterly compelling. I've easily been losing hours at a time to it. Everything it tries to do, it pulls off with aplomb; there's not a single aspect I've disliked, or found to be a misstep.

It’s a convincing facsimile, which makes trying to save it from Albion and its assorted cronies a more compelling task. And Legion’s big gimmick is that you can play as, well, anyone. Construction workers, lawyers, YouTube stars, retired cage fighters, Anarchists, football hooligans. All are served up by Ubisoft’s smart procedurally-generated trick, each with their own look, background and sometimes even voting record.

At its best, it rivals anything in City. At its worst, it's comfortably the weakest of the three Arkham games. It was a lot harder to recommend a couple weeks ago, when it was a more broken, but now it's certainly worth checking out if you're a bat-fan. Just don't go in expecting anything fresh, new or groundbreaking.

The fighting itself is the best, most tangible, its ever been, which is essential to the most battle-heavy title in the series since Lego Indiana Jones.

Space Marine can't compete with the genre leaders in terms of spectacle, budget and direction. And one has to question the wisdom of releasing in such close proximity to Gears of War 3. But for Warhammer 40k fans, or those who just can't wait to engage in a little alien slaughter, Space Marine's solid genre mash-up should prove a satisfying battle ground.

Sports Champions is really rather good on the whole. Table Tennis is exceptional, Archery is great and games like Gladiator Duel and Bocce are fun while showing off some of Move's potential.

Watching my kids play through Diggs Nightcrawler it was interesting to see how strong a connection they had to both the genre and the play style. Certainly, playing a game with a book feels a very different way to spend time that sat staring at their handhelds.

The game's sense of style, great humour and compulsively intuitive gameplay goes a long way towards forgiving many of its flaws.

It's certainly not a title for those who prefer more traditional video games. Instead it's more an interactive exhibit, rewarding you for attentive observation and approaching its unique make-up with an open mind. Do so and you will find a haunting, thought-provoking piece of work.

Alan Wake fans will want to check it out, if only for the morsels of story it gives them.

Perhaps the biggest innovation here is also the most controversial. Making good on their ‘The world’s game’ tagline and pre-release promise that this would be their most inclusive iteration yet, EA Sports have now extended their integration of women’s football to Ultimate Team, the series’ most popular – and lucrative – mode which sees gamers collectively spending billions of real-world pounds buying virtual Panini-like packs of players to assemble the best teams possible.

Conversely, Modern Warfare II’s multiplayer offering is rock solid, comprising a highly polished suite of modes catering to a wide range of playstyles. Traditional small-sided shoot-outs still dominate, of course, but quirkier maps help keep things fresh. Santa Sena Border Crossing takes place on a stretch of highway filled with empty but highly explosive vehicles, while Crown Raceway inexplicably takes place in the pit lanes of an F1 track.

As a Tomb Raider game, as a coherent game in general, and as a narrative experience, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a startling fall from grace. A severe disappointment in a series that was previously going strong, and a sign that this version of Lara Croft might need to retire.

A gleefully amoral riot of a game shot through with a devilish sense of humour. It's not perfect, and it's certainly not as immoral as it pretends to be, but it is consistently enjoyable throughout and more than guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

Dragon's Dogma is one of those rare games which is brilliant, broken, amazing, infuriating, and one you absolutely, unquestionably have to play.

The sheer variety and novelty of what Hohokum offers, as well as the attention paid to making sure that something as basic as the movement feels great (the only game I think does this as well as Hohokum is another Playstation title, Journey), means that Hohokum is going to be something I come back to, on occasion, for a pleasant escape. And it’s one well worth your time.

Almost all the depictions of women in the Metal Gear Solid series have been awkwardly sexualised, a fact admirers have sought to explain away by citing Japanese cultural differences or emphasising that these representations barely impinge on the gameplay. I don’t buy that, personally — it seems clear to me that the director just enjoys this sort of stuff — but it will be fascinating to see his apologists attempt to explain away the scenes that show up, quite unadvertised, on the audio tapes in Ground Zeroes.

The racing experience is zippy and robust, while its gleeful celebration of all things SEGA is wonderfully endearing.

But these hopes were dashed in the final third where poor design, repetitive waves of enemies and button-bashing gameplay took all that my enjoyment and curdled into a numbing disappointment.

For a game made by a team of any size, Mind: Path to Thalamus would be incredibly impressive. For a game made by such a small independent team, it's a masterstroke. Stunning, intelligent, fun, with wonderful puzzle mechanics and a thought provoking denouement, Mind: Path to Thalamus is a game that deserves to be remembered for a long time to come.

But you'll plow through most of what the game has to offer to a single player pretty quickly. And while multiplayer could have been king here, WWE All Stars is also notably lacking in both online and off...But it does offer a silly, accessible and effortlessly entertaining brawler that will particularly appeal to lapsed WWE fans.

This seems unlikely to be a game that can be played hard for 12 months. But it’s also a far more polished and properly executed tie-in than films are typically given. Battlefront does a particular thing very well - it is not so much shallow as strategically popularist. Skill and tactics play their part, but it’s one subservient to the John Williams-scored rush of finding yourself in these battles, in these surroundings.

At launch, in the here and now, it's a satisfying celebration of Ridge Racer's breezy ubiquity at getting the best out of shiny, new hardware.

Whilst FM10 tries its hand at all aspects of football management, it isn’t entirely successful in all its pursuits and does end up lagging behind its older, slightly more mature brothers.