Those coming to Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 primarily for multiplayer will find a polished, thrilling package that will last all year. Those seeking a memorable solo campaign will leave disappointed.

Let’s hand Lost Twins 2 its laurels. Making a cooperative game that delights the experienced gamer just as much as the inexperienced is witchcraft. Only Hazelight can do it consistently. But in comes Lost Twins 2 who nails that AND arrives with an innovative mechanic.

Ah, Love! Season 2 takes everything it has from its previous entry, and that leaves it scrambling for any reason to exist.

I cannot stress enough about how important it is for games like Torii to exist, as they push boundaries and try new things in the gaming space, working all-new narratives. I like how this game uses symbolic visuals, rarely spelling out the narrative to the gamer, leaving them to instead figure out the message being told.

A great family-friendly game to play with the young ones, I like the simple mechanics on offer in Once Upon a Jester. It has good writing, delivered with charm and humour. It also has a good heart to the story, even though it is a bit predictable towards the end.

While Schildmaid MX has no valkyries, hydras or griffins, it gets a pass for being awesome. The shield-tech that underpins everything is sublime, and the more traditional SHMUP stuff is very good too. So good, in fact, that the lack of enemy variety doesn’t hurt as much as it really should.

Dark Atlas: Infernum has a lot of promise in terms of its story and creative atmosphere. I liked what the game attempts to achieve, and in some parts, it does that very well. However, the lack of a map, the constant darkness and issues with overall focus don't help matters.

I have enjoyed spending time with Truck Driver: The Dutch Connection, getting immersed into the narrative as I went. But, at times, driving for long distances, working from A to B and then back to A again, becomes extremely tedious.

Kiosk is okay, at least for the couple of hours it’ll take you to get through the story.

This is one of the more accessible sim city games out there and so if you have never played one before and fancy seeing what all the fuss is about, then maybe make Anno 117: Pax Romana your first port of call.

Dollmare has enough about it to entertain over a period of a few hours. Yet if I had one criticism, the in-game money that is handed out fast becomes a bit redundant.

Dora: Rainforest Rescue achieves its goal. It is perfectly weighted for a young player to play, yet it’s far from simplistic. There’s hidden stuff, replay opportunities and minigames. Throw in co-op, so an adult can act as a safety net if the kid gets stuck, and you have an admirable My First 3D Adventure. ¡Muy bien!

With a good number of dungeons to explore, and multiple quests for each one, there is a lot of content in Dragon Ruins II, and I found myself being sucked into the world of dungeon crawling rather easily.

If you are invested into Virtua Fighter, you’ll find lots to love about Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage. And even if you’re not, this is easily good enough to drag you in. The action on display is smooth, the gameplay is fast, and as long as you avoid the sharks online, you’ll have an enjoyable time with this one.

I could have done without some of the stealth mechanics in Sleep Awake, but I absolutely loved the other parts of the journey. The visuals and sound design are easily some of the best you might find on this current generation of Xbox.

If I had to play a racing game that wasn’t Forza, it would be RENNSPORT. That’s about all the praise you need to hear.

Kotenok is a basic platformer game that can be beaten in under an hour, rarely trying to be anything special.

Bomb Kitten is more like a stress toy or fidget cube than a competitor to Bomberman.

For about the length of the Lost Boys (and the price of renting it) I had a jolly old time with Halloween 1985. Sure, it’s not hugely deep or overflowing with levels. But setting traps for Witches and Mummies was at least initially fun, and the desire to unlock everything kept me going beyond that.

StarLightRiders: HyperJump does what it sets out to do – it is a fast paced arcade shooter, and while it is very much a case of “it does what it says on the tin”, there isn’t too much drive to keep plugging away. If you want a rock hard shooter, then have at it, but there are better entries in this genre to choose from.

Monster Hunter Stories doesn’t really excel at anything, but it doesn’t do anything particularly poorly either. What it does though is lay foundations for better games to come.

As a side-scrolling beat ‘em up, Terrifier: The ARTcade Game is very generic, with nothing to really shout about. And as a Terrifier tie-in, it feels like the license hasn’t been utilised well at all. It is a game with little substance, and a missed opportunity.

Aery - Winter Wonderland is horribly jarring. ‘Wonderland’ is not the term we would use.

PAW Patrol Rescue Wheels: Championship is thinner and more charmless than PAW Patrol: Grand Prix but - hey! - it’s got Rescue Wheels in it. It just about, by the skin of its teeth, retains its role as a gateway game for prospective racers.

Combat is not a focus in SILENT HILL 2... but that’s okay. For each beat of action, or flying zombie head lacking, there lies purposeful level design, an array of chilling foes to scream your lungs at, and an atmosphere so truly terrifying, you might just have to sleep with lights on and eyes open.

THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD 2: Remake is more brains than pains, through the thrilling on-rail action maintained from the original, and stellar boss fights with behemoths.

Morsels is a fun game with a unique atmosphere and a lot of heart; more than other games in the genre.

It feels like there is so much more potential that Rue Valley never capitalises on. The world is a good size and the characters are interesting, but the game gets tunnel vision on specific plot points and they resolve too quickly to tie-in to the conclusion