It may lack substance in the long-term, but it provides an experience which is admirably oriented towards pure intuitive fun, presented in a way which is great to look at and humorous in tone.

Castlevania means well, providing marvellous visuals and setting a superb atmosphere. But it suffers from hideous amounts of revisiting.

Despite being hampered by a well meaning, but ultimately interfering, plot, Far Cry 3 has evolved into a decadent, playful and exciting title. Be it quality programming, dumb luck or a mixture of them both, the game plunges you into a thick, gloopy world of sugary gameplay, shimmering visuals, intoxicating audio as well as a great deal more. It's long, stupid and buckets of fun - just what you need to burn away the winter blues.

There is no denying that Corruption lacks the substance that made its prequels so awesome. Despite the near-perfect motion controls, the experience just isn't as exciting anymore.

Is Guild Wars 2 a revolutionary MMORPG? Not quite. It is, however, a good game and some of the best value per dollar spent currently available.

While I did get some enjoyment from playing it, especially the first 20 hours or so, I’m left craving something more substantial, probably something that invloves the words "Fantasy" and "Final".

L.A. Noire is a fairly dull detective game unnecessarily superimposed on an open-world. Most of the time players spend while playing L.A. Noire is doing things that are boring, mindless, rote.

Let me make this clear, through capitalization: ANY GAME THAT DOES NOT SAVE IMMEDIATELY AFTER YOU KILL A BOSS AND SEE THE ENSUING CUTSCENE HAS A BROKEN SAVE-GAME SYSTEM. I don’t care if it’s supposed to make the game more intense, it’s stupid, moronic, ridiculous, pointless and otherwise detrimental to the overall quality of the game.

The surprises aren't there and neither is the awe one feels the first time they booted-up their copy of BioShock and laid eyes on Rapture.

Fortunately for everyone, Street Fighter’s core gameplay still prevails and that is really all fighting games are about.

Falters where others have persevered, the weak link in the trio that make up the Castlevania GBA series.

The story is laughable; one could argue about the themes of escapism and loss of innocence, but a group of kids getting sucked into a book pales in comparison to what this game's predecessor showed off.

Tearaway may not be the best first-party game currently available on the Vita, but it certainly is beautiful, ambitious and worth a look, if you’re willing to weather the foibles mentioned above.

It re-establishes the game's hold on the WWII shooter sub-genre and although it may not be worth a purchase for the singleplayer alone, the multiplayer makes it a worthy addition to any collection.

If you enjoyed the original Kingdom Hearts you'll find some enjoyment here too, but sadly it is not the classic it could have - and probably should have - been.

Football Manager, enjoyable as it still remains for the most part, is beginning to enter the Heskey years of its existence: it still does its job more effectively than any other striker on the market, but the tired formula is beginning to show.

Even after a few years, Onimusha: Warlords is a decent game with some truly impressive qualities. Sadly, it’s also impressive how short this game manages to be.

While the campaign is nothing to keep you entertained after a couple of play-throughs the well put together online mode will have you playing for much longer. Resistance will fit snugly in any PS3 owner’s collection.

Try to play it seriously and only anger and frustration awaits. It’s lovable in attitude for a short while but once you begin repeating cycles it soon runs out of fuel. Much like the car now abandoned on that highway.

It is still a great game, with a well-developed and interesting plot, a great balance of action, exploration and character development and a great representation of the Star Wars universe, but I feel it's incessant similarities to the first game don't do it any favours and technically it could be a lot tighter.

Its nowhere near perfect online play continues the classic case of being bummed from losses or wins thanks to lag and being S.O.L. if players have no fellow Street Fighters to game with locally.

Football Manager joins the rest of the sports titles this year in flogging a dead and diseased corpse to milk yet more cash from its demanding fanbase.

This isn't anything new for players to experience. It's the same old formula in a new package, with a new name and new ways to animate the whole process.

Instincts had quite a bit going for it (good graphics, comfortable controls, unique setting) but then does a great job of screwing it all up and making you not care (repetitive levels, stupid enemy designs, slight unfinished feel in places).

Whilst I questioned the mechanics of a game like this being the most valuable component, I am finding time and time again that when juxtaposed against the more alluring and decorative Call of Duty, I would rather spend my time prone in a ditch with my teammates on Battlefield 3.

A throwback to the classic games that created the genre. It comes bundled with a strange, obscure narrative and a flawless paint job, but the homage to the old lies there, in plain sight, beneath the sparkle.

In short spells, Battle of the Bulge is an engaging strategy game with enough depth to satisfy anyone with a passing interest in World War II history. The developers have clearly paid great attention to detail to make it authentic and ground it in the history it seeks to simulate, but you're left wanting more from a formula that clearly has huge potential.

The interesting decisions and the gripping characters still manage to hook their addictive claws into the player and almost make it easy forget about the game’s many shortcomings. In this case, “almost” is good enough.