Something special for a select audience who's able to fully embrace its peculiar nature. That it doesn't appeal to everyone will likely only strengthen this appeal.

Still funny and absurd; as ridiculous as it is clever. It is an interesting throwback to adventure games, creating an odd bunch of characters to interact with, even though it never properly demonstrates the danger that the town is said to be in.

Resistance 3 stands as a whimpering end to a franchise that never quite found its stride. With a little more risk and less reliance on the successes of its peers Resistance 3 could have become the jewel in Sony's crown.

Certainly the best of the trilogy. It is a highly refined experience, an exceptional showcase of the growing experience of the team at Epic.

It's nowhere being as wealthy as Dead Money, it's more dishonest than Honest Hearts, and compared to Big MT, it's the real Big Empty.

Today this game acts as a historical piece. It lets you see where the franchise came from, and why the revision that Resident Evil 4 brought to the series was so necessary.

In just a few minutes the last painstaking levels were worth the time it took to get there.

Renegade Ops is a fairly conservative game, in terms of scope and originality; where it succeeds is in its execution of a well-worn game type and by transporting its players back to a simpler time.

Renegade Ops came out of nowhere. It's one of the most stress-free, funny and downright playable titles of the year.

It's a pity that a video game which attempts to revel in back to basics no nonsense escapism - through a hail of bullets and bodies - somehow ends up being more forgettable than the Black Ops campaign. And that's saying something.

SOCOM 4 is a light and breezy third-person shooter that's pretty good by genre standards, but perhaps a bit lacking in comparison to SOCOM 2.

One of the best visual experiments of the last few years.

What it lacks in personality and options it mostly makes up for in classic track design and strategic power-up and boost usage. With a little more polish and a bit more thought, SkyDrift could have been something great, instead of something good.

What's most disappointing about The Cartel is that it feels like a point of no return for what was once a promising franchise. It has really dropped the ball on the whole Western motif in favor of mostly grim urban environments and an almost actively disengaging plot.

Simply put, it's consistently fun, never taking itself too seriously, and instead focusing on how enjoyable the act of driving can be when you throw in a supernatural curveball.

Despite those small issues, BloodRayne: Betrayal works, and works wonderfully. WayForward has done an admirable job dusting off the BloodRayne franchise and resurrecting the red hair dhampir. In the process they did the unthinkable, finding a way to inject a welcome dose of class into the comically trashy franchise.

Somewhere along the way, the vision for this game was lost and what remains is a jumbled, unsatisfying mess. There are good ideas here - the controls work very well and the core ideas the game calls on have potential. It's just very poorly conceived.

This is a superb game, one of the finest games that I've personally played in years.

VVVVVV's fusion of styles is exactly what lends it its endless playability; there's not a dull moment to be had in this tight, rewarding and above all blisteringly fun package.

But once you look past all fan-worship and hype, you'll discover just how well the game stands on its own. It addresses the numerous flaws of the original version, and remedies it with a vastly improved control scheme and item menu.

Bastion doesn't need gameplay gimmicks to feel innovative - instead, it plays with presentation in clever ways, and ends up feeling incredibly fresh, despite essentially being action RPG lite.

A pretty good – if not unexceptional – action-RPG where an arcade-oriented simplicity and an experiment with pricing structures are the orders of the day.

It's difficult to criticise EDGE for being a bad game when it's simply a well-executed product of frustrating concept. Until the latter stages, it's a simple albeit handicapped walk through a series of refreshing virtual environments.

If you love, or are curious about, Ugly Americans just watch the show. If you need a good sidescrolling shooter fix, an 8-bit snack should suffice to satisfy your palette.

Despite the incongruous nature of Human Revolution's bosses, they remain a minor – but noticeable – blemish on an otherwise fantastic experience.

The Baconing's witty, daft and fun, but also doesn't do enough to improve on the faults of the previous entries in the series, and in some cases pushes those issues to the forefront. The bacon is now well cooked and about to burn.

Hector isn't innovative. It doesn't raise the bar for gameplay in adventure games, nor does it really bring anything new to the table. It does, however, offer simple gameplay - offering an experience that's easy to get into, along with a downright funny adventure to boot.

Any way you peel it, Fruit Ninja Kinect is a bare bones game about swinging your arms at flying produce. If you're too proud to see the stupid amusement in doing as much, you will hate it. For those of us wanting a bit of silly, mostly mindless fun, it's a refreshing new way to work up a sweat and look like an idiot.