Immortality certainly gives you that leeway for your own interpretation and enough compelling mystery that its puzzle can get under your skin and spill out of the game itself. There are already some fascinating readings of the game out there and much of the fun will come in discussion and dissection. I still don’t think I have a perfect handle on what it all means, despite reaching the game’s ‘conclusion’, but I have some ideas. What I do know is that this is a brilliantly clever, disturbing and singular piece of work.

Make no bones about it, this is Rocky retold in digital form. But however familiar the punches, it's how they are thrown that makes the difference between victory and defeat. Champion executes its game-plan with a skilful touch, weaving the enjoyable yarn around a deep and tactical boxing sim.

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.

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.

While the quirky details aren't as well formed compared to its predecessor, Desperate Struggle's broad strokes are still joyously insane. Far from perfect, infuriating at times, but uproarious and unforgettable all the same.

It doesn’t bring anything new to gaming, or even the South Park series of RPGs. It refines and improves, changes and updates, but generally speaking it just gets things right, plays a fun game and keeps you engaged from start to finish. The fact it made me laugh a surprising amount throughout is just a bonus.

Battle Royale isn't the most original of games, then, but it's far more accessible than most fighters, rich in fan-service and PlayStation history, and a fun party game to boot. It may never particularly surprise or break any moulds, but it's a seriously fun, well-crafted brawler, and well worth a look, particularly for fans of the franchises it houses.

It is a game that is interested in one thing and one thing only: turning enemies into bloody smears and hopefully finding some new shoes. And, thankfully, it is very good at it. If you are one of those people-who-like-this-kind-of thing, of course.

It took the best part of two decades to find room for innovation in so elegant a formula, but Hot Pursuit does it – bending it as far as it would go without breaking what made it great in the first place.

Players waiting for their shot at the throne can watch fights in the theatre, with the lovely touch of having your Xbox avatar cheer along and even mark the winner out of ten at the end of a bout. Unfortunately King of the Hill can suffer from appalling lag at times, reducing its quirky appeal in comparison to the smoother one-on-one fights.

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

Don’t venture into the Frozen Wilds expecting clues as to the nature of Horizon Zero Dawn 2, then - in truth this is barely HZD v1.2. Instead, revel in a sizeable single-player, story-driven expansion that harks back to a time before season passes, loot boxes and downloadable dress-up kits, and which also provides an excellent excuse to revisit one of the year’s most enjoyable games.

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.

Chime as a whole is utterly mesmerising in the way that only puzzlers of its kind are. An aural treat for the mind.

Here you feel like you are put on both sides of the divide, manipulated by fsociety to manipulate others. That you might start to enjoy and crave the power that the latter affords is a disturbing and fascinating thing.

If you've felt that Call of Duty has been getting more than a little tedious in recent years, as I certainly have, then Advanced Warfare might just convince that it's something worth taking notice of once again.

My word, this is very, very good horror. It is perhaps understandable that Capcom have held back as it ensures that, as Takeuchi ordered, Resident Evil is returned to its core. In that, 7 is a success, providing a rich, atmospheric and reverent chiller that is just silly enough to make sure we are all having fun.

With an excellent time-management mechanic, some great dungeon design and an emotive love story at its heart, Pandora's Tower is an action-RPG well worth checking out.

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.

Video gaming is an extraordinary medium capable of so many things; transporting you to other worlds, challenging your mettle and your beliefs, telling stories and fuelling creativity. Sometimes, it lets you get together with your mates and shoot zombie Nazis in the nuts. Consider the bar raised.

Trials Evolution is a must-have for Trials die-hards, and a perfect, comprehensive starting point for the uninitiated.

There's a haunting elegance to Oxenfree that's there because each of its constituent parts are working together to create it.

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.

There are still problems when it comes to balancing realism with spectacle, but Madden NFL 16 manages to get the mix mostly right. Certainly, when compared to previous releases, there's a far greater sense that what you're playing tallies with what you see on Sundays.

It's an incremental jump over NHL11, then, and NHL12's newest periphery additions perhaps don't fire as they should. However, it's an incremental jump over a game that was ruddy marvellous in its own right.

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.

"Committed" sums up Super Street Fighter IV 3D rather well. Ok, so it's yet another update of a two year old game, and there's no way it could ever be the definitive version, but it's a conversion built with such skill and pride it's hard not to fall for it all over again.

MachineGames haven’t exactly reinvented the FPS or even Wolfenstein here, but they have put together a consistently enjoyable, well-crafted action game and given you the motivation to blast your way through its stringier bits. If this is the New Order for Wolfenstein, then this is a promising start.