It's well worth a play for anyone looking for an intelligently told, challenging story, or anyone who's a fan of adventure games which happily bring you back down to earth with a thud.

The Evil Within could be leaner and more technically sound, but the blemishes on its blood-stained carapace fade against its thick atmosphere and the frantic thrill of battling its monsters in the dark.

Not A Hero thrives in its messy, hedonistic chaos.

An extension that creams off the outwardly silly side of throwing cars around muddy tracks, and packages it up in a bright, boisterous party bag. It may lack a little single-player finesse, but then, you can't have a shindig without a crowd.

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

But there are times when it all comes together majestically.

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.

Like its central character it's a violent, ferocious beast which more than makes up for its lack of perfection by being brutally entertaining.

Evolve is exactly as satisfying as the people you're playing with. It serves a concept that is so precise that anything less than perfect unison between participants results in a confused mess. But when it all comes together, when your fellow players are all singing from the same hymn sheet, there’ are few more striking multiplayer experiences to be had.

But it never crosses the threshold into greatness, either in its visceral thrills or in its sober, but ultimately a little bland, tale of the soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan.

I have no hesitation in saying that Majin & The Forsaken Kingdom is one of the most memorable, enjoyable games I've played this year.

What holds Titan Souls from greatness, then, isn’t the difficulty posed by besting its bosses - or even the lack of narrative elements - but the act of felling the foes themselves. What should be a momentous occasion - particularly following waves of near countless failures - is too often anti-climactic.

The combat, and it's worth noting that this makes up the majority of the game, is superb. It's not particularly deep nor clever, but it's immensely rewarding, as too are the scripted first person sections which exist purely to, yes, let you punch things in the face.

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.

To embrace Disney Infinity is to buy-in to the whole package: collecting the physical toys, building in the Toy Box, enjoying the Play Sets. Without interest in all its components, its appeal is diminished.

While it does occasionally creak under its years, at its heart Shadow of the Templars is an enthralling, sumptuous adventure with wonderful characters and a marvelous sense of wit and charm. The kind of things that just never get old.

Really, with the levels of customisation as huge as they are, the player's enjoyment is only held back by their lack of imagination.

As much as the red-blooded manly man who exists inside me (however fleetingly) wants to pigeonhole Kinectimals in the casual-core-for-kids category, I just can't do it. This is because, in the interests of journalistic integrity, I have to admit to having been completely disarmed and won over by the experience of interacting with the cute cuddly, virtual cubs in the game.

It is scrappy in places, and often trite, but is well structured and compelling. Let’s hope Techland take this success and run with it.

The game doesn’t outstay its welcome over its 12ish hours, which is, truthfully, something of a blessing.

As I played Child of Light for review, I found it to be a game that I wasn’t itching to play, but rather enjoyed myself when I did. A pretty, diverting yarn that I’m thrilled exists, but is perhaps a little too nice to recommend wholeheartedly.

A lack of variety doesn’t stop this being a wholly welcome return for Amplitude. It has a thumping heart and soul, a timeless nucleus of gameplay that I hope Harmonix has the opportunity to build upon. A euphoric finger dance across a fizzing, abstract space.

Luckily [the checkpointing is] never quite that bad, and the compelling narrative, stunning action setpieces and beautifully realised game world more than make up for the few shortcomings.

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.

This is pretty much the perfect Xbox Game Pass title. Persuade some pals to download it too and you’ve got a cracking co-op shooter for zero financial risk. Solo players might find it slightly harder going but for genre aficionados, The Ascent is a salve for both the eyes and the trigger finger that will scratch your cybperunk itch until you-know-what gets its act together.

Head and robot gameplay styles mesh together in a fluid, intuitive way, and the gorgeous colourful space stations and melodramatic sci-fi synth soundtrack makes this sci-fi romp an enjoyable, surprisingly sincere tribute to the wobbly sets of old.

Virginia hit me right in the chest, the kind of game I’ve wanted to exist for years, and the first game to actually nail it in a way that I think fully takes advantage of the potential. It is the game that titles like Dear Esther, Gone Home and Firewatch have hinted at, but in a way that evolves the interactive narrative form way beyond anything we’ve seen before. It’s a game to savour and talk about for years to come, one that left me, just like the inhabitants of Kingdom, Virginia, speechless.

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.