There are a lot of good ideas here, but they haven't found a way of comfortably sharing a bed together.

There's a great deal of content here for the money, and a set of high-level weapon unlocks, combined with challenges to complete on every mission, should keep you coming back to the single-player or co-op games as to the online versus modes. Dismal story aside, this is a solid, professional, deeply enjoyable product. Like the Ghosts themselves, it's so good at what it does that you run the real risk of not noticing how superbly it's doing it.

While those opening hours can feel like a languid tutorial, Game Freak know that the challenge will need to climb. And if anything there is a sudden spike that might come a little hard for newcomers, given the breeziness of the early game.

There's a strange juxtaposition between restriction and fun, and I still don't feel they've accurately nailed it.

it’s a touching and satisfying finale, with a lovely coda that brings a smile to the face. It’s that type of game, a warm-hearted collaboration’s of the DS’s most moral, smart and determined heroes. On this evidence, no-one could object if their paths crossed again.

Where it counts, F1 22 is right on track.

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.

Mario Vs Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem is the sort of title Nintendo does very well. It's charming, fun and cleverly constructed. And even if it's not what I expected, it's a reminder that I should endeavour to make the portly plumber more of a fixture on my gaming landscape.

OlliOlli is, at its heart, a blissfully simple game. A focus on four wheels and a plank of wood, and not planting your face into tarmac. But for all of its channelled simplicity, it is a markedly clever piece of work, melding the best of trick-based sports games and twitch 2D platforming and executing it with poise.

A fragmented kaleidoscope of elements that finally form a rich, if imperfect, vision once everything is aligned. Some may find the apparent simplification disagreeable, but it's more a concentration of focus that allows BioWare to tell the more personal story of Hawke, and add polish to the world they have built around him. And noone builds a world like BioWare.

It’s as compelling a ‘pure’ single-player shooter we have had in many years. What is perhaps most surprising, and welcome, is how well an FPS controls on the Switch in handheld mode. It isn’t as naturally suited as other controllers, perhaps, but after a little adjustment I found myself tearing around hell blasting demons with no problems at all. A great game worth the technical compromise if you want to play it on the go, and a promising sign that FPS can find a home on Switch.

Dirt 5 is not a complicated game. And while racing purists may want a game with more meat on its bones, that is to its credit. It is almost old-school in its focus on delivering a breathless parade of rough-and-ready racing. And if you have a next-gen console to show off its extra bells and whistles, then all the better.

"Hmm, I was thinking probably an eight." I reply. "It's great fun and beautifully made, but it can be a bit awkward at times." / "I think eight is a bit stingy." Vikki says, curtly. "I mean, it's the best Lego game yet isn't it? You should give it a nine."

Each new locale is seemingly more rich and detailed than the last, and I regularly felt compelled to stop looking for the next path forward and instead just take in the magical realism of my surroundings.

It’s Gears at its very best, fierce gunplay mixing with a fabulous ebb and flow across smartly designed maps. It’s nothing revolutionary, rather existing elements melded into a satisfying whole. It’s the kind of thing that makes Judgment a more long-term investment than its campaign demands, but even the single-player’s familiarity and conservatism can’t take away from the base thrill of pulling the trigger or revving that chainsaw.

It’s a fascinating, if flawed game and this Switch version isn’t a rush job either. It runs well on the console (even if it’s so big you will need an extra SD card) and takes advantage of some its unique features. Playing LA Noire on the go in handheld mode is tempting enough, but it also brings in motion controls for investigation when playing at home.

While the new features are certainly interesting, the series hasn't moved on significantly enough to make it a must-have title. That having been said, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 is the best Tiger Woods game to date.

The most ingenious/insidious (delete according to taste) addition is the confusingly titled Season Objectives, which have nothing to do with the football calendar and instead are a version of Fortnite’s Battle Pass. Pretty much every action in the mode, from playing games to listing items on the transfer market, now accrues XP which in turn unlocks rewards, ranging from new stadium decorations to coins, packs and, ultimately limited edition players.

It’s one of the most innovative and enjoyable survival horrors for many a year.

But it's the first title in years to rekindle a passion I had for the series,the one I had back when I were a lad and Pro Evolution Soccer ruled the football landscape with an iron fist and cheeky grin. Now it's finally back on track.

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.