Despite an intriguing setting and some solid gun combat, The Outer Worlds borrows too much from the series it's heavily influenced by, leaving it feeling void of originality.

Destiny 2 is a better game than the original but more akin to a reboot than a full sequel.

A fun, colorful throwback to yesteryear whose quirky charm and addictive gameplay just about outweigh its issues.

What that means for the third instalment remains to be seen, but as the conclusion to this particular story No Going Back lacks the punch of the first season’s finale and becomes an analogue of the second season as a whole: an above-average game which has vainly struggled to step out of its predecessor’s shadow.

If a digital ‘choose your own adventure’ book with epic audio and gorgeous art is your cup of tea, then this historical/supernatural drama will be right up your alley.

Puyo Puyo Tetris is a solid fusion of two distinct and entertaining puzzle games, resulting in a high quality, long-lasting and very challenging game.

A few extra bells and whistles keeps Splatoon 2 relevant and fun on its new platform, but Nintendo plays it a little too safe for hardened Splatters.

Beautiful to look and gentle at first, but some sections can ramp up the frustration to breaking point.

Slick, addictive, yet oddly unfulfilling, Invisible, Inc. is great for dipping into, as long as you aren't expecting deep gameplay or substantial narrative rewards.

Once you understand that this game, whilst centred on an elemental and molecular foundation, is really just about moving blocks until they’re in the right place - and have been put there in the correct order - you’ll be able to beat all one-hundred and forty four levels of it (these can all be unlocked from the start if desired) and suffice to say such a result would be as rewarding as getting an A+ in any school exam.

Like a lot of various other media and art, I can appreciate the technical skill involved in its creation, but find it a tad too vexing for my own personal enjoyment. Maybe this dog’s too old to be taught new tricks; players more able of mind may fare better. But don’t count on it.

In addition, the games are over fifteen years old, and no amount of HD polish can hide the fact that they simply haven’t dated well, (particularly Night Warriors). Darkstalkers is in the unfortunate position of being less accessible than both Street Fighter II and IV, and outclassed by Third Strike.

The Walking Dead on the Vita is still the same fantastic game it was before; the story still resonates, you still form emotional connections with the characters and you still have the same pangs of horrific doubt over each and every choice the game puts in front of you.

It’s a faithful and fun remaster, although it doesn’t push the boat out in any way.

While some technical issues plague this highly atmospheric action adventure, Control has a highly customizable combat system that is fun and addictive to play.

PES 2020 takes one step forward and two steps back in its latest entry as impressive animation and new licensing is overshadow by the same old frustrations.

A potentially beautiful game, crippled by an awful camera, archaic controls, and bizarre, frustrating gameplay.

There is certainly potential for The Wolf Among Us to excel over the next few chapters. Core presentation and plot are firmly established, whilst the offbeat world and jaded characters provide a refreshing take on the storybook theme.

The sweeping takeaway from A Plague Tale: Innocence is that it’s an imperfect but powerful story on death. It dares to explore the impact of killing in an industry that treats violence as routine and ordinary. That doesn’t make up for some glaring oversights in the acting and writing, however, but if you can stomach seas of vermin and 10-15 hours of thick French accents, this may be the story-driven stealth title for you.

Splatoon is an intelligent shooter, but it tries too hard to be hip with its “fresh” lingo and focus on superficial style.

Hunt: Showdown is a solid game, with genuine thought put into making it play in a distinct way, but it feels too anonymous in every other key area to be essential within the genre.

Chaos Theory has two big things going for it, the character of Max and its final cutscene. If it wasn’t for these two factors, our time of enjoying Life Is Strange may have been up. Its gameplay has become rather tedious and the lack of elaboration in Max’s time travelling usage is a severe let-down.

Despite all this, with the raucous chaos of multiplayer mode, Helldivers is still capable of being engrossing for long periods.

We can’t wait to see the conclusion to the story we started back in January, as well as playing the role of Max one last time. It’s been a long and bumpy ride, but we’re glad we are on board.

Sunset Overdrive is solid if underwhelming romp in parts which admirably sets out to poke fun at itself, along with the genre, and inject some joy into proceedings.

A strong opener and weaker follow-up chapter, but the third season is certainly heading in the right direction, narratively at least.

With plenty of self-referential humour, emotional reveals and fantastic dialogue, this is one tale that you can’t help but feel a lot more invested in.

Some missing features, specifically the ability to speed up time, holds Cities: Skylines back but it's still a competent city builder.

The game is made up of five chapters, and the final chapter of the game does begin to show promise as it's far more direct and brings back memories of classic adventures. The problem is that it takes a huge amount of time to reach that point.

Although Outlast’s probably not a game you’ll revisit once completed, it’s certainly somewhere you’ll remember for a while to come.

A strong opener and weaker follow-up chapter, but the third season is certainly heading in the right direction, narratively at least.

All told, Under Night is a reliable, enjoyable effort, especially for newcomers.

Enjoyable enough if you liked the first game, but niggling issues stop this sequel from surpassing the original.

It makes it all the sadder that this remastering shows little love or respect for the original and fails to gather in the new audience it may deserve.

Time will tell, for now Metro: Last Light is a solid gorgeous shooter which presents something a little different from the norm, if not as different as the first game in the series.

The loading times and frequency that the game needs to load is immediately and consistently depressing too and for these reasons it all becomes hard to recommend. The thing is though does that really matter? Probably not because you know, it’s for kids.

It’s genuinely fun once you hit that sweet spot and shows off the PS4’s potential in a big way, it’s just a shame that it plays it very very safe throughout.

The seeds of a story are there, however, and we can only hope that the writers are more confident grasping this particular nettle in future episodes.

A visually beautiful and hilariously well-written experience let down by an overbearing and clunky fundamental gameplay system. Unfortunately, Paper Mario: The Origami King falls flat in its attempts to bring one too many things into the fold.

Whilst not quite in the same league as Zen’s endeavour into the Star Wars universe, mainly due to the table feeling far smaller than its predecessor, The Walking Dead is a fun blast for a few hours and a great introduction to the table range for newbies.

Forza Motorsport 5 is quite simply car porn running at 1080p, 60fps. Visually stunning and without a rival on the next gen stage.

It’s very nearly a very good game, and certainly the best introduction to the series for new starters, but it just misses out on feeling like a must have gem.

This takes a lot of the best elements from classic adventures while only hanging on to a few of the weaker ones.

Overkill Software have nearly perfected this wonderful recipe and they are definitely on track to creating something exceptional.

Ultimately, LittleBigPlanet 3 is a pretty decent effort which lamentably hamstrings itself. It’s charming, aesthetically pleasing, and a lot of fun when it works – but various bugs and glitches, long load times, and a lacklustre story mode really drag it down.

For Honor brings us a surprisingly deep and downright fun co-op / multiplayer fighter held back from greatness by an incoherent, mundane single-player campaign and the use of peer to peer networking for online matches.

Its colourful presentation and various nods to other fantasy realms is a rather entertaining, if not limited, method of giving these usually pretty one-dimensional games a bit of much needed character. However, the control scheme is incredibly frustrating, particularly trying to aim the ballista with precision and accuracy and could turn the tides of war just enough to turn a few armchair generals off the game completely.

For all of its innovative bonuses however, Battlefield 4 on Xbox 360 is beginning to show signs of age. It can be applauded for great water physics and being able to handle the frame rate of a constantly dynamic environment rather well in both single and multiplayer. However, the character models and maps are definitely looking rather blocky and dated, even at 1080p.

A huge step in the right direction but is a tough on newcomers who may be put off by its complexity.

If you want a game that feels like the pad is an extension of your person, where every turn, every race feels like an out of body experience where one false move means glorious vehicular madness. This games for you. If you want a party game where you can sit back, relax and enjoy the scale of Paradise City in all its interconnected trials and tribulations. This games for you.

Safe to say though that as commendable an effort as People Can Fly have made here it is getting a bit stale. We are at the stage now where we are seeing tweaks and iterations as opposed to must have fundamental changes and it will be interesting to see where the franchise goes from here.

But, I digress – the framework is there for an excellent game. However, just as they did back on original release, the driving mechanics of Rorona Plus leave you unable to appreciate these systems fully, your journey around Arland never really feels epic enough, and apart from a couple of overpowered bosses towards the end the combat is too limited.

F1 fans may lap it up, but for non-aficionados the series remains as niche as ever. For something a little more accessible from their driving stable, GRID 2 may be a better alternative.

A solid return to its roots, Call of Duty WWII reminds us what made us all fall in love Call of Duty in the first place. It ticks all the boxes which is both a blessing and a curse. Good fun and worth your time but offers nothing exceptional.

The the gameplay is amazing, it is an absolute blast to play, but it felt like Shadow Warrior 2 could have been so much more.

Definitely a deep and enjoyable strategy game, from the way you kit your mechs out to the way you approach each fight, everything is up to you. The battles can feel a little slow paced at times and the game still has a few bugs that can cause crashes as well. An enjoyable game but one that still needs a few more patches to stop the issues.

Age may have formed a few cracks in its legendary skin, and perhaps the over reliance on randomness from the Dungeons and Dragons’ ruleset seems rather archaic, but within this slumbering ancient beast lies a mighty heart waiting to be awakened once more.

Stellaris is a game that begs you to explore but with erratic sector AI and trait conflicting win conditions it is a confusing and at times unexciting game to play.

Battletech: Flashpoint adds some much needed mission variety alongside meaningful conversation choices outside the battlefield, but the limited number of new mechs and single new biome aren't going to justify the price for all but the most dedicated Battletech fans.

It would be hard not to recommend Teleglitch: Die More Edition because of the completeness of both its vision and its conceit. However, I would preface this recommendation with a warning that this is not for the faint of heart or those prone to rage quits. You will be rewarded for your time spent here, what you have is a masochistic delayed gratification but truth be told, isn’t that the best kind?

Fans of JRPGs will find enough to satiate their Tales craving and others would be wise to take a look into the world as well.

It’s charming and easy to fall in love with - dependant on your familiarity with storytelling in games away from the blockbuster excesses. However, picking it up expecting deep gameplay and equally involved experiences would be potentially too hasty.

Finishing a trilogy was always going to need bigger explosions and greater stakes – unfortunately this has come at the sacrifice of true horror.

Die-hard fans of Control are certain to enjoy their time with The Foundation but anyone who found the core gameplay experience frustrating, either mechanically or technically, will find very little incentive to return.

With this introduction to the world of hacking Ubisoft have created a behemoth of an IP, one that promises much. Like its predecessor though, we’ll have to wait for the tighter and more focussed second iteration, removing what didn’t work and improving that which did, to realise that full potential.

It’s the Tropico you know and love - but with a new developer, it should have had more than that.

The bugs still remain but Syndicate is saved by a wonderfully vivid London, despite everything else feeling dated.

All told though, once you get past the initial baptism of fire Charlie Murder still has lots to recommend it. With the addition of two further playthroughs of increasing difficulty available once you complete it, there’s plenty of longevity in the game. Whether you’ll want to do it solo is another matter though. Grab some friends and turn the dial up to eleven - it will make for a far better experience.

With only one episode left to go, Escape Plan Bravo offers a well-deserved but still enjoyable break in the action.

The third version of Hyrule Warriors is certainly the best version. The tweaks made to this version help it to be more enjoyable than the original and with all the DLC included, this is an incredible amount of content to work through. Worth playing if you love it, need a good co-op game, or haven't played it, but it won't win over any new fans.

A quietly compelling return to Oregon, which substitutes sci-fi gimmickry for an earnest look at growing up.

Interesting, unique, but ultimately unfulfilling.

If the story draws you in then the choose-your-own-adventure gameplay won’t matter but those tired of Telltale’s approach won’t find anything revolutionary.

Audica is certainly unique, and provides a good change of pace alongside a more robust title like Beat Saber, but it isn't yet the industry innovator that it could be. It has a high skill floor and an even higher skill ceiling, but maintains the universal reward when you put the time in and improve. [Ear; Access Score = 70]

The appeal of the series has always been in its graphics and Crysis 3 still stands tall as one of the best looking console games of this generation. As many first person shooters shrivel up in the shadow of Call of Duty, Crysis 3’s tactical gameplay and the introduction of the predator bow help it stand apart from the usual suspects of the genre. However, seen as a series that pushed graphics and gameplay to the limits, the third installment’s lack of innovation is perhaps its only weakness.

A brave attempt at cross medium entertainment, let down by leaning more one way than the other.

This all adds up to a mixed bag of a conclusion. The quality of the action, the design of the maps and the addition of novelties for Daud is top-notch and deserves credit. Arkane themselves earn great respect for supporting the title with narrative-based DLC ensuring fans are sated. But in so doing they perhaps dilute what’s gone before.

An aesthetically charming adventure with an important message, if you can tolerate the occasionally mundane game play.

Sanctum 2 is a jack of some trades, and while it doesn't master them it makes them a lot of fun.

Despite an increase in action, Game of Thrones continues to disappoint with a sidenote storyline.

Soul Sacrifice can stand on its own feet proudly, but it’s the potential of the birth of a franchise that should get gamers everywhere smiling into their Mountain Dew. With a few tweaks and additions Keiji Inafune’s baby could well come back to rule the roost – until then, dive in and experience it but try not to lose your soul to the game...

A Crooked Mile continues the Fabletown tale in fine form, elevating it above the weaker second chapter and putting it on a par with the first.

A beautifully realised and often harrowing cyberpunk tale let down by repetition and gameplay which is both simple and frustrating in equal measure.

If the thought of a long-range shot passing through the eye-socket of a Nazi appeals well, then, give it a shot.

Jump back in time to the 16-bit era with these Disney classic games originally found on the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. Not a collection for everyone, but for those gripped by this pure nostalgia. These titles haven’t necessarily aged well, but there are enough added features to mitigate some unfair difficulty with; save features, a rewind button, extra difficulty settings, and the ability to watch a game playthrough and jump in at any point. Also with a lot of bonus content with multiple versions of each game, interviews with the creators and a plethora of original art that grounds you in the context to help you appreciate the games more.

Despite its flawed boss design, Remnant: From the Ashes has enough to make a case for it being an action RPG in its own right with solid progression systems, good combat and its own take on the Souls formula.

Veterans of the point-and-click genre may find many of Broken Sword’s puzzles straightforward but if you haven’t already picked it up it’s a game worthy of anyone’s collection.

Northgard certainly is not a bad game by any means, though I felt myself wanting it to be more of a game. Whether simplified for console release or not, I found myself craving more depth throughout my time in this Norse world.

Tiger Woods 14 continues the EA Sports trend of iterating a winning formula, presenting a solid package which people will flock to buy, just like last year and the year before that. EA have made the right move by downplaying the Tiger part of Tigers Woods 14 but sadly we still see an awful lot of DLC and very little in the way of pushing the franchise forward to new heights. If you are a fan of the franchise then you know what you are getting with a new version and if you are a newbie then this is as good a place as any to start.

Overcooked Special Edition on the Nintendo Switch is a fantastic slice of old school local player co-operative fun held back by the lack of a workable single-player mode and dogged by a series of annoying but not game-breaking performance issues. Packaged with both pieces of paid DLC for free, if you are a Nintendo Switch owner who will routinely have the opportunity to play with family or friends then even with the stated issues you’re in for an absolute hoot.

A polished puzzler, built on a great mechanic that is utilised in impressive and enjoyable ways.

New Super Luigi U offers a far greater challenge than any of the previous entries in the New Super Mario Bros. series but little else new beyond the altered physics.

If you go into it knowing what you have today and that in the future something might - or might not change - then you’ll be left with an enjoyable and long-lasting experience. If you expect the future that might be now - if you have bought into Bungie and Activision’s chatter as being the day one solution, well, with that your joy will be muted.

A fun and charming action RPG with robust gameplay and some great battles. It's just a shame that there are very few surprises.

With these simple colours and the odd puff of chalk the world of Dokuro is brought to life on the Vita in a breathtaking fashion, the simple art hiding so much potential underneath.

It’s a small step in the right direction for the genre but the lack of players means that in this particular space sim, there’s no-one to hear you scream.

Rome: Imperator is one of Paradox’s biggest and best games - it also has a bigger focus on military expansion than their other games.

Cake Bash is a fun party game with a lot of potential, but with relatively few bash modes and minigames, it can feel repetitive after a while. The limited progression and fast unlockables also mean that when your completion hits 100%, you may see little reason to continue playing. However, with the freedom to play against bots, local friends or online, if looking for a cute, quick and easy party game to jump into, Cake Bash may fit the bill.