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.

For Avengers to entertain any thought of survival as a service game, then, there is a huge amount of work to be done. Most games in the area falter in their early days, if not necessarily to this extent, and there is the kernel of something good here, with strong combat and definable superheroes that are fun to stomp/fly/bound around with. With new heroes on the way to bolster out the roster, if Crystal Dynamics can find a way to hone the game closer to its strengths than its borrowed weaknesses, there may be hope for the Avengers yet. Otherwise the decision to compromise its otherwise solid campaign in the pursuit of all-consuming longevity could prove fatal.

Ultimately, it lacks the action set pieces that helped to push the FPS genre to where it is today.

It is a small delight, then, to be able to replay Onimusha Warlords. In truth, it is an imperfect game that thoroughly shows its age (this is an enhanced port of the 2002 original to PS4, Xbox One and Switch, rather than a full-blooded remake like the upcoming Resident Evil 2), but a singular one that reminds you of its forgotten impact.

Still, despite the inconsistencies, The Devil’s Daughter is an enjoyable thriller. Albeit one that doesn’t always know its strengths.

It feels that EA Tiburon have a conundrum here as there is both too much and not enough when it comes to Madden’s modes. Persevering with stuff like The Yard and Face of the Franchise to keep the options broad is all very well, but when no aspect of the game is given full attention, everything feels undercooked.

In Local and Private lobbies, Tekken 7 is almost perfect, but comes short of greatness when it comes to looking at the full package, which is a frustrating disappointment.

It's a decent enough game to play through, but certainly one you'll forget in a hurry. It's the kind of game perfect for a lull in gaming when there's nothing else left, and you fancy something disposable but enjoyable.

Despite the volume of content and the sharp precision and attention to detail levelled at everything from visuals to audio, Forza 6 can oftentimes feel like the standard bearer of a bygone age. On the one hand it's a mechanical wonder, but on the other it's firmly rooted in ideologies and design tropes of the past.

But its baggy middle does become more taut in The Quarry’s strong denouement; the threat and deathcount rises, the story threads come together and your decisions show their consequence. The paths you choose make for quite the spiderweb, which Supermassive lets you poke into should you wish, and it is never less than impressive to see all of those different decisions pulling together your own personal story through the game. Even if there can be some odd cuts between scenes, a skipped beat because you managed to get one of the group killed.

Just don’t expect to come away with any fond memories or exciting stories to tell. You jump around collecting orbs, you shoot things and they blow up. And that’s it. But sometimes, that’s enough.

As much as it can come off the rails, there is something gruesomely compelling about The Callisto Protocol that drags you through its dark, blood-soaked corridors. Perhaps it is its lavishly constructed world; finding your way out of the prison onto Callisto’s snow-whipped surface has quite the effect. Perhaps, when it works, it is the primal satisfaction of the combat; a perfectly executed dodge and clobber before lobbing another zombie into a woodchipper with your gravity glove is a grisly but undeniable rush. It is unrefined and often testing, but if those raw ingredients appeal, there is some ghoulish action to savour.

Nintendo's boisterous take on our national sport is thrilling and hilarious, but doesn't offer enough options to play with.

There is still a great multiplayer shooter here, but it feels more like an expansion than a full sequel - if it wasn’t for the campaign, Hardline would be Battlefield 4’s version of Bad Company 2's Vietnam expansion - it even has the vehicle music. It just forgot to bring the personality.

Fruit Frenzy is, for want of a better word, uninspired. It lacks both the originality and the imagination needed to make it stand out from the crowd nor makes use of the iPhone's touch-screen capabilities in any meaningful way.

There are some truly great games that can transcend the universe they are set in to appeal to fans and non-converts alike. Fallen Order doesn't do that. There is nothing new or radical here. But as comforting popcorn gaming to indulge in while you wait for your trip to the pictures? Job done.

When you liberate an enemy stronghold Rico sometimes says, “That was fun - let’s do it again.” This feels like a perfect summary for the game: it is 15 minutes of stupid fun on repeat. But that barely matters when you are firing remote-detonated cows at a military compound filled with the red stuff.

A good game that, on a few occasions, desperately feels like it's trying to be better than it is, but lacks the juice to succeed.

It's a shame that Homefront's gameplay is so blunt and creatively barren, as the world Kaos has built around their (ludicrous) premise is superb.

At its core, Temple Run is still a breathlessly exciting game. Equally, however, it's hard not to feel a little cheated by a decidedly unambitious follow-up that has its eye firmly trained on your wallet.

On the whole, Splatterhouse achieves what it sets out to do, even if it is spoiled in parts by some sloppy execution and technical niggles. It's mindless, tasteless and ultimately throwaway, but as the mask often intones: "I could say I wasn't enjoying this ... but that would be a lie."

While Hogwarts Legacy makes what seems a genuine effort of inclusion, much of it is muddled.

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.

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

If you're absolutely desperate for a Wii shooter, especially a multiplayer title, then Goldeneye is worth a look.

All the charm in the world can’t hide the fact that Nuts & Bolts is a wasted opportunity. In the building there is the seed of a classic title here, but skittish handling and tedious tasks means that , disappointingly, Nuts & Bolts fails to blossom as it should have.

While Sniper Elite V2 is too patchy to recommend wholeheartedly, its brief flirtations with excellence and its core sniping make for an enjoyable, bloody waltz through Berlin. It won't replace Call of Duty or Battlefield, but its slower, sneakier twist on the military shooter is a welcome concept, even if it doesn't always hit the mark.

There’s definite worth in this spin-off, and ample evidence that Climax can deliver, but a greater sense of adventure is needed if Chronicles is to truly soar.

Undead-battling co-op survival mode Zombies – an acquired taste I’ve regrettably never managed to stomach to any degree – rounds out a solid portion of CoD that can’t quite shake the notion it’s merely providing target practice until Vanguard’s Pacific-themed Warzone map enters the fray next month. Then again, perhaps that’s actually the point.

It’s gorgeous, wonderfully polished and a fascinating cast of misfits drag you through a mire of gameplay foibles that make that off switch look ever so tempting. There is some fun and satisfaction to be had in the beautiful and bloody combat, too, but we wish the gameplay was lavished with as much care and attention as the presentation.

Feels like a rushed Christmas pick-up after the incredible fan-service of Super Smash Bros and Mario Kart 8. The tennis gameplay is solid fun, and groups will certainly find some enjoyment at its core, but with a limp lack of variety and none of Nintendo’s usual personality, it’s a functional but forgettable note in Mario’s history on the court.

It's initially quite fun, but truth be told, steering with an invisible wheel gets a bit old after a couple of hours and the game has few pleasures to offer besides.

Remaking a touchstone of the medium in this fashion is like creating a big-budget, 10-part Netflix drama series out of the title sequence from Grange Hill. Franchise fans will tune in to see an outsized sausage on a fork only to be confounded by the three episodes dedicated to the netball teacher’s character arc. Curious newcomers tempted by the production values and peerless reputation could find the soporific pacing and weirdly dated references to outsized sausages leaves them wondering what all the fuss was about. And everyone else might just shrug and watch The Witcher instead.

For now Driveclub is a distinctly mixed experience; skeletal in some aspects, but breathtakingly complete in others.

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 all feels mightily uneven. For every thrilling gunfight or anecdote-worthy encounter in the wilderness are other stories of frustration or key non-player characters wandering away from the objective and getting stuck on a rock. It perhaps betrays the short turnaround since Far Cry 5, with its ideas and changes not given room to flower and make New Dawn the disruptive series experiment it could have been. But if you are willing to look past its niggles and familiarity, New Dawn still provides plenty of post-apocalyptic punch.

Much as last year, then, NBA 2K21 is a fantastic sports game wrapped in an unappealing layer of lootboxes and microtransactions.

It’s good fun, though feels more like a distraction, a shiny thing waved in front of our noses to stop us noticing the proper golf sim is so bare.

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’.

You can only review what is in front of you. And currently, PES 2020 seems out of form.

It's just slightly too bogged down in filler, slightly held back by some cumbersome and awkward systems, and just doesn't quite hit the mark all the time. When it does, though, it's a fun, hilarious experience, worth checking out if you own a Wii U, but not quite on par with the best TT has to offer.

The fact that Okabu is the work of just five people is remarkable: this is an ambitious undertaking for such a small team, but there's no denying that on occasion here it feels that Hand Circus has bitten off more than it can chew.

And yet that monomaniacal approach is both a blessing and a curse. Devotees will doubtless spend enjoyable hours perfecting their runs but those not so enamoured with Metal: Hellsinger’s central conceit might find the whole thing a little… one note.

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

Despite the fresh coat of paint they feel stuck in the past, rolled off the factory line with seemingly little question as to why they’re doing it...Pokémon fans and newbies alike will love Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl because Diamond and Pearl were great. But there’s not enough brilliance or shine here to add the lustre they deserved.

As a story, it’s all deeply unsatisfying. And that’s a real shame, because a cogent narrative could have papered over some more of The Order’s cracks. As it is, that job is left to visual splendour, decent shooting and a marvellous, if squandered, setting. And, while it lasts, The Order is a game that entertains almost as much as it frustrates. But not quite enough to shake the feeling of a wasted opportunity.

Despite the fresh coat of paint they feel stuck in the past, rolled off the factory line with seemingly little question as to why they’re doing it...Pokémon fans and newbies alike will love Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl because Diamond and Pearl were great. But there’s not enough brilliance or shine here to add the lustre they deserved.

It feels like such a painstakingly created world could have hosted a more interesting and considered exploration of its themes. As it is, Wildlands is a vast, pretty and militaristic playground for friends to charge around in. And at that, you cannot deny its potency.

Eventually, Bolt uses up its charm and can slip into repetition. there are a few attempts to mix things up at the climax which produce mixed results, but there's a fair chance that even young players will lose interest before the denouement. With that said, Bolt is a more than serviceable movie tie-in.

Like a zombie with all its fingers cut off, State of Decay’s reach often exceeds its grasp. Despite this, it feels like a game people should play, if only for the creeping moments of brilliance.

In trying to be all things to all people, Dragon Age: Inquisition lacks the impact that it might otherwise have had if BioWare had imbued it with the same sense of purpose that its predecessors carried....Inquisition, on the other hand, offers an embarrassment of things to do but sometimes forgets to provide the motivation to do them.

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

Pokémon's first fully open-world title has a lot of ideas but never quite manages to stick the landing with any of them.

Pokémon's first fully open-world title has a lot of ideas but never quite manages to stick the landing with any of them.

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.

Look, if the Telegraph’s scoring policy would allow me to give extra points for cuteness, this game would be our highest rated game ever. I really mean that. Nothing else I’ve played comes close. Kirby makes the characters of Animal Crossing look about as appealing as the beasts from the most recent Resident Evil title. But The Forgotten Land feels like candyfloss, all sweetness but not enough substance. Kirby is one of Nintendo’s quirkiest and most charming characters, but he deserves better than a reheated take on one of his big brother Mario’s most forgettable outings.

Combat is fast and fluid, but it's also wearyingly repetitive, and even with the new weapons, there's a distinct lack of variety.

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.

Where it stumbles is in delivering a believable, human world.

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.

FIFA 15’s biggest changes are cosmetic, and that will is absent. FIFA 15 plays, more than any other recent FIFA sequel, largely the same.

Given the frustration levied by its questionable level design, Hotline Miami 2 loses its replayability factor - something its predecessor delivered ever so well.

Luis Antonio's smart timeloop starring James McAvoy is an absorbing yarn... if you can see past its frayed edges.

It’s still decent fun, though; which is the game in a nutshell. Disintegration teems with potential and it would certainly be interested to see its ideas expanded upon. But if this fun, flawed first attempt can find enough traction for the team to have another crack remains to be seen. I rather hope it does.

It weaves a miserable tale of loneliness, dehumanisation and sexual and emotional abuse. It will exhaust and upset, leaving you bereft for Renee and the thousands of women like her. Contrary to the title, there is no light here, only darkness. But that doesn’t mean it is not worth a look.

The Medium, perhaps aptly, is an interesting game of “nearly there”. It is creepy but not frightening, intriguing but not wholly engaging, clever without capitalising on it. This translates to its story, which I never lost interest in but neither was I completely hooked. The Medium goes to some dark places, touching on a slew of heavy ideas like mourning, PTSD and child abuse. It doesn’t drop the ball on these, per se, but neither does it feel equipped or committed enough to do them justice.

I spent a lot of my time waiting, begging, willing the game to spread its wings and fly. But it never left the ground. A real shame.

It’s a shame that its brains can not match its looks. If you want a visual tech demo to showcase your shiny new console to your mates, Ryse performs that role with some gumption. But at its core is a violent, shallow and desperately limited hackathon.

Whilst deep down I will always carry a torch for Guitar Hero, I just can't recommend the weakest offering in the series to date.

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.

There’s a decent game beneath some unfortunate flaws and irritating business practice, and I would genuinely like to see Vanguard have another crack at a top-down Halo without such questionable deterrents.

It professes to be a reaction to overblown, scripted rollercoaster FPSes, but never manages to bring a whole lot to the table for itself. Bodycount even makes a fuss over destructible cover, which was done better by Battlefield Bad Company. Bodycount is not a poor game, just a confused and unremarkable one, even if those instant restarts really are wonderful.

The Shoot is hard to dislike, hard to like, and hard to care about in any way.

Days Gone is a game that is, at once, both so close and so far from being what it could have been. There are certainly things here to enjoy and sufficiently pass the time. Those dusty roads of Oregon being the most prominent, but when that world is so empty and its inhabitants so vacant, it starts to become a real challenge to care.

The Layton charm is undoubtedly still present, but it's not enough to carry the series by itself. Upon solving certain puzzles, Layton exclaims 'I love the thrill of a good solution'. So do we, Hershel, so do we. And in this Layton game, sadly, that thrill is all too rare.

As much fun as there is to be had in the multiplayer, it doesn't include any new developments or references to the game's main plot and suffers from the absence of its titular characters. The fact that the campaign only takes around five hours to compelete further fuels the sense Dog Days is an incomplete and flawed package.

Those looking for a breezy party game to show off their new machine will find a game with flaws and frustrations that cannot be ignored.

The game is marred by badly implemented controls, poor design and a highly forgettable plot.

It’s a mess. But a fascinating mess.

A game we wanted to like more than we did. Its retro sci-fi concept is so appealing it initially makes it tempting to excuse some of the game's rougher edges. In the end, however, no amount of nostalgia can absolve the game of its ropy gameplay, patchy plot, substandard production, generic (and sometimes poor) level design and thin content; the campaign takes around eight hours to complete and that's the only mode on offer.

How disappointing to see such potential wasted. What a shame to see a developer so clearly uninterested in their own project. Such is the lack of invention and variety on offer, The Force Unleashed II can't help feel like a cursory cash-grab, more akin to DLC than a fully fledged retail product.

Company of Heroes 2 cruises when it should be sprinting, and when you couple that with the fumbling of the tone and setting it becomes a very difficult game to recommend.

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.

As nice as it all looks and sounds, however, one can't help coming back to how lightweight this game is.

Even the co-op, local-only, fails to save the game from tedium. It’s a shame; aesthetically and mechanically there could’ve been something here, but there just weren’t enough ideas put in play to make Mother Russia Bleeds into anything special. Coupled with the often frustrating collision detection and the woefully poor friendly AI, Mother Russia Bleeds ends up as little more than a tedious, forgettable drudge.

The failure of Aliens: Colonial Marines runs deeper than a clumsy stab at sliding into the Alien canon, though. It’s not just a poor Aliens experience, it’s a poor game. There’s a stiffness to the movement and a lack of feedback to the vanilla weapon line-up that’s unexpected from Gearbox Software.

It loses a lot of the adult tone of the original, but it's far too frustrating and convoluted for kids (or all but the most patient of adults). It looks great, and there are some nice ideas, and a few great puzzles, but it's all let down by sloppy execution. Even the songs are miserably bland, which for a Disney title is especially disappointing.

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.

Everything added is a disappointment, and everything retained only succeeds as much as it did before. It’s not often that a sequel completely fails to build on the successes of the game that came before it, but Riptide achieves that defeat with a cynical lack of ambition.

As a huge series fan, I had high hopes for Maiden of Black Water. I certainly didn’t expect to find my attention drifting because the game became boring. For all its flaws in the past, the Project Zero series has never been simply dull. And yet that’s exactly what Maiden of Black Water is.

Despite its less impressive iterations over the years, the Need for Speed name has delivered some truly excellent games - from Underground’s street racing to Shift’s wannabe-simulation, all the way to Hot Pursuit’s absurd action. But rather than build upon this rich diverse history of fun, Ghost Games has sucked the fun out of a game that should epitomise the outlandishness of going really bloody fast. When you could be playing Driveclub, or Forza Horizon 2, or Project Cars, or even the beautiful and superiorly quick Forza Motorsport 6, offering a racer without speed? That’s suicide.

With something like Ring Fit Adventure, the variety of exercises and madcap storyline drew me back in time and time again, and in comparison Fitness Boxing 2 just feels flat. Even the budget RRP of £39.99 feels far too much to pay. Given that we’re all mostly housebound at the moment, it feels like there might have been an opportunity to do something more interesting with the concept.

Tales of Zestiria is a profound disappointment, and does not deserve the time investment that huge games of this length require.

Admiration and respect is due for how N-Fusion has compressed Deus Ex into its iOS form. But as a general rule, straight replicas of traditional console and PC games on touch devices is folly. Despite the developer’s best efforts, the devices have neither the grunt nor control palette to stand up to the task, resulting in a fiddly and pared-back experience.

At its heart, Mafia 3 is a simple story of revenge, but its actors sell it to you with gusto, and the linear prologue does a great job of getting players invested. Unfortunately, as soon as you’re out in the open-world and you’re free to roam, it becomes a repetitive slog, not least because when you’re doing the same thing on repeat, it only serves to highlight the limitations of the rest of the game.

The issue is these positives are dwarfed remarkably by the huge and underlying pitfalls of this title. Even if the countless glitches get fixed, and updates whip the technical side of the game into shape, there are intrinsic issues in the mechanics of Fallout 76. This hurts for me to say as a fan of the Fallout series, but 76 is a slog to play, a chore to deal with and certainly not worth your time.

Beyond the poor dialogue, patchwork visuals and ridiculous interface of the console version, there is an interesting adventure game buried here.

Much worse than a pipe in the face, though, is the fact that Shattered Dimensions' excellent structure also appears to have been a victim of cost-cutting.