Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix is full of beautifully animated worlds and nostalgic throwbacks to classic Disney movies. Unfortunately, it brings virtually nothing new or fresh to this aging series.

Despite the exotic setting, there’s still a pervasive sense of familiarity about Primal. Liberating outposts, saving allies from enemy attacks, swinging on grappling hooks, going on hallucinogenic drug trips, hunting specific critters to unlock upgrades, gathering plants to make ability-boosting concoctions... Hell, Far Cry 4 had us riding elephants and commanding a tiger to shred enemies, so even those experiences aren’t entirely fresh here. Sometimes Primal feels like a brilliant 10-hour Far Cry spinoff that got stretched out into a 25-hour, full-priced game.

Jack’s time-based superpowers are a ton of fun to use in combat, but environmental puzzles and platforming sequences, such as a cargo ship caught in a looping time stutter after plowing into a bridge, feel like they’ve been shoehorned in simply to give players something to do between firefights.

In any other year, we’d probably be more in awe of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. But in 2016’s heavily contested battleground, its just one powerful combatant among many.

Let’s call it a game of great breadth, if not depth.

Gamers who love a good challenge are bound to be satisfied with this collection of levels. Anyone else - whether they're as casual as it comes or even longtime fans of the series - may not be so enamoured with the spike in difficulty and lack of originality.

It has strengths. It has weaknesses. And whether or not it burrows its way into your own psyche depends on your tolerance for familiarity, that breeder of contempt, that warm blanket of comfort.

Possibly the best thing about Gunslinger, though, is how little it costs. At just $15, it’s one of the best bang-for-the-buck games I’ve seen so far this year, and has a slickness and confidence that belies its budget price.

The Old Blood is just OK. It’s a great deal for the price – as a $25 digital download via the PlayStation Store, the Xbox Games Store and Steam, it’s a rarity in an era when 25 bucks might get you a couple map packs’ worth of downloadable content – but I’ve discovered there’s such a thing as too old-school.

But it's entertaining and engaging throughout, and lovingly faithful to the source material. And that, chummer, is good enough for me.

Rivals is an arcade racer through and through. Despite the near-photorealistic graphics, action is as over-the-top and arcade-y as it comes. You’ll deploy awesome Bond-like gadgets to give yourself an edge, put your car into perfect drifts simply by tapping a button, go faster than any sane person would go and make a laughingstock of the laws of physics.

For its vibrant visual design, wonderful music and sheer whimsical weirdness, Hohokum is well worth experiencing. But at times it seems to be meandering back and forth between a video game and a piece of interactive art, unsure of which world it belongs to.

Ground Zeroes probably won’t alienate fans of the series, and in terms of giving players a taste of what to expect in the as-yet-undated Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, it delivers. But between its poor value proposition and its jarring darkness, it’s not likely to make Snake and company any new friends.

Simply put, if you’re playing with a friend who’s sitting beside you on the couch – the campaign has no online co-op – you’ll likely love Revelations 2. If you’re stuck relying on the mostly-useless AI, you’re in for a far more frustrating experience.

It’s really good. Just not, ironically enough, all that original...What ultimately keeps Arkham Origins from being as exceptional as its predecessor is the weight of the franchise itself. Origins has the disadvantage of being a prequel to a game that’s nearly impossible to top, by a new studio that understandably doesn’t want to drop the ball.

While the more-than-the-kitchen-sink approach to customization and content provides plenty to do, it’s clear that until the entire combat system is overhauled, gamers won’t be able to create art on the canvas.

It’s tough to get excited by video game zombies these days, but by blending a detailed open world, cool parkour moves and a satisfyingly deep system for character and weapon customization, Dying Light has clawed out a novel space in this crowded genre. Long live the undead.

It adds that element of strategizing, especially in online play, where a player can knock out all three of their opponents in fell swoop. Plus, much to my amazement, a character I had no experience using won me my first online match – thank you, Jak.

In fact, here’s a handy metaphor for Killzone: Shadow Fall’s ending: Imagine finishing a meal in a restaurant, and then for dessert having the chef drop his pants and take a huge, steaming turd on your plate. I don’t care how good dinner was – and in this case, it wasn’t anything to call the Michelin Guide folks about – but when the very last thing you’re served is easily the worst part of the entire experience, it can’t help but leave a lingering bad taste.

It’s rare to see a compelling hack-and-slash dungeon crawler work as well as Pandora’s Tower, but this game needs to wear its accomplishments proudly. You very well may never go back to your Wii after this transition between console generations.

Just Cause 3 doesn’t hold too many surprises, particularly if you’re familiar with the previous titles in the series. But it offers an almost unlimited number of ways to create your own flavour of mayhem, and is a source of constant “did you just SEE that?” moments. If the next Michael Bay movie features a dude hanging upside from a helicopter while blowing up a bridge with a missile launcher, you’ll know where it came from.

If you're a fan of battling bots, Hawken is definitely worth checking out, and you should certainly have some free, fleeting fun with it right off the bat. But as the game lumbers towards an official release, I really hope they dial down the mechanized money magnets.

Massive Chalice’s personality and ingenuity ultimately win out over its shortcomings, and it’s certainly worth a try for strategy fans who don’t want anything too ponderous or serious. But its cup does not, as they say, runneth over.

I love games that experiment with a unique visual and emotional palette. But compared to amazing PlayStation indies like Journey and The Unfinished Swan, Rain is just a passing shower that fails to soak through to the skin.

I’ve never played anything quite like Guild of Dungeoneering, and while its lo-fi look took some time to win me over, it’s become my go-to game for quick, bite-sized gaming that still satisfies an overall sense of achievement.

There’s nothing unexpected about this journey, but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable.

True to its name, Unity is a cohesive collection of the fundamental elements of the Assassin’s Creed experience, and feels like a much-needed reset for a franchise that was starting to become bloated and scattered.

The technology works consistently well, assuming you’re sitting on the floor in a reasonably well-lit room. But just as importantly, Book of Spells has clearly been crafted with the Potter fan in mind, featuring incantations, settings and characters taken straight from the books.