Back 4 Blood is an excellent co-op zombie shooter, with a card-based perk system and wonderfully satisfying gunplay building upon the fantastic foundations of the Left 4 Dead series. But if you’re planning on playing solo you may want to stay clear, with a design clearly optimised for multiplayer.

ARMS is a unique-feeling brawler with a surprising amount of depth. It also looks great, combining a colourful flair with some of the most realistic environments and characters the big N has made for some time. Its motion controls are also a resounding success...Yet, despite everything it does right, this won’t be a game for everyone. Lacking the meaty single-player component of a game like Splatoon, ARMS lives and dies on local and online multiplayer.

Unravel Two is a fantastic successor to the original and the ultimate proof that you don’t always need to reinvent the wheel in a sequel. The addition of a second playable character and slight speed boost are all Unravel needed to elevate itself from a good game to a great one.

If you missed out on the original Woolly World, don’t make the same mistake on the 3DS. This is a beautifully made, brilliantly designed 2D platformer with lots of charm and some fantastic levels. It gives Mario’s dino chum his best outing since the original Yoshi’s Island 20 years ago.

I’m genuinely saddened that Infinite Warfare’s multiplayer doesn’t stack up to previous entries, as every year I look forward to jumping back into Call of Duty and spending a good few months shooting up stuff. The fact that another game comes in the box that is better than Infinite Warfare in almost every way is pretty damning. It's still one of the best shooters ever made, but a game that has come out a decade later should still be able to compete.

XCOM: Chimera Squad does enough to keep fans of franchise entertained while they wait for XCOM 3, but niggling bugs and unforgiving time management elements will put off newbies to the genre.

Batman: The Enemy Within: What Ails You may hurl a lot at the wall, but in doing so it’s very exciting and, at times, will have you genuinely intrigued as to what’s next. As that’s the point, it’s hard to be overly negative about it.

Sniper Elite 4 is an improvement over the last game in subtle ways, but its formula unfortunately outstays its welcome before the credits roll. For the first few hours, you’ll be in love, thanks to those stylish kill-cameras elevating each well-judged shot – but it’s a fleeting affair. Palm-striking Nazi jaws off and bursting ballbags can only get you so far in life...If you’re only here for some cathartic, hyper-violent Nazi killing, though, you’re in for a treat. It certainly delivers on that front.

There’s still something a little old-school about Dawn of War III’s RTS action, but when it scratches those same old itches so well, there’s very little reason to complain. It’s a game that takes new influences from the MOBA and uses them well, mixing up powerful Elites with tactically interesting units to create great battlefield moments, while spinning an interesting yarn from three different perspectives.

Purists will likely still prefer the Nintendo DS original due to its superior controls and increased difficulty, but this provides newcomers a perfect chance to experience a JRPG that, for many, fell well under their radar all those years ago.

Mothergunship is one of the more creative first-person shooters to come along in a while, mixing the genre effortlessly with a shoot ‘em up and having a ball with it.

The Disney Afternoon Collection takes six classic Capcom retro games and offers them to you in a delightful package that will remind you of better days. Lovely.

Telltale kicks off the second season of Batman with all the power and momentum it needs, meaning if everything goes right, this will be an outright success.

A meaty and highly distinctive package which should delight cartoon-obsessed youngsters and those who live to play Japanese RPGs. But, despite the Disney involvement, it doesn’t feel likely to challenge the mainstream. In certain respects – albeit in the grand tradition of Japanese RPGs – it’s so complex as to be baffling.

It doesn’t have the colourful personality of Overwatch, but give Lawbreakers a chance. Get beyond the steep learning curve and you’ll find a team-based shooter packed with smart ideas and interesting mechanics, where great movement capabilities and a fine mix of weapons keep the action furious and fun. If you’re looking for an online FPS where skill and speed matter, Lawbreakers has what it takes.

Dragon Quest Heroes 2 is an acquired taste. It helps if you’ve acquired a taste for either Dragon Quest or the Warriors series previously, preferably both. That said, it’s easily one of the most accessible and enjoyable games Omega Force has produced, and a real joy to play if you already know and love Dragon Quest...Richer, deeper and more varied than the original, it’s also closer to the true nature of Square Enix’s beloved series and a much stronger hybrid than the underwhelming Hyrule Warriors.

Fullbright has crafted an impressive yet ultimately unfulfilling narrative adventure in Tacoma. Its characters and setting are some of the best in the medium in terms of dialogue and atmosphere, but the overarching plot is far too weak to hold them altogether. That being said, exploring the lonely space station is a journey I don’t regret taking.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a condensed version of the modern Assassin’s formula. That may disappoint some who hoped for something that felt new while also significantly harkening back to the series’ past. Stealth does get a boost, alongside occasional engaging narrative and characters, but there’s plenty of padding that dampens the fun.

Frozen Synapse can be clunky, frustrating and terrifying in equal measure. The tactical level is tightly balanced and, when played competitively provides a real spectacle, even when it’s your soldiers that are getting wrecked. The city-level strategy is a flawed gem.

Mortal Shell is one of the year’s biggest gaming surprises, offering a deep, fascinating journey into a melancholic world that’s well worth taking. It takes blatant inspiration from Dark Souls and Bloodborne, yet builds upon the combat and progression of such classics that it more than stands on its own two feet. As Cold Symmetry’s debut title, Mortal Shell ensures they are a studio to walk as we dive into the coming generation.

Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle might not have the sheen of Slayaway Camp or be an homage to its namesake series like Friday the 13th: The Game, but it’s still a heck of a lot of fun and great value for money when you consider the amount of content that’s available here.

FIFA 23 is a modest final hurrah for one of the most iconic game series of all time. It feels like EA Sports is saving the big advances for its EA Sports FC replacement coming next year, with FIFA 23 only offering marginal flourishes of something great and a lot of repetition. On the pitch, the game of football is good – better in many ways than FIFA 22. Animations are smooth and varied, there’s more free-flowing action and more variety in player types. Yet, everything else feels half-baked. Career mode is, to put it mildly, awful and Ultimate Team remains a cash grab that’s only for those willing to put far too much into it. The commentary is equally terrible, and while the larger focus on the women’s game is great, it‘s too limited.

Hanger 13 has crafted a gorgeous remake of an action classic, but the picturesque city of Lost Heaven and the characters that call it home are sadly lacking in substance, resulting in an adventure that could have been so much more.

Super Mario Party is a joyous bounty of content picked out in lurid colours that comes together as a great way to play games with friends after a couple of drinks, or with younger relatives...However, it really only works as a multiplayer title with friends sat around in the same physical space. Strip that away, and you’re just shaking a Joy-Con in a room, alone.

An enjoyable puzzle adventure with an excess of charm behind its silly characters and lovable premise. However, its lacklustre presentation and 3DS origins mean the overall package suffers on Nintendo Switch. It simply doesn’t look very good, which is detrimental for a puzzler so reliant on its outlandish world.

It’s not quite the sum of its many parts, the combat in particular begins to feel like a chore, but otherwise Ever Oasis is a real diamond in the rough late in the life of the Nintendo 3DS.

But if you’re looking for a really big, extravagant sandbox game that’s great fun solo and hilarious in co-op, don’t be shy. Wildlands isn’t Ghost Recon as we know it, but it’s the wildest party in town.

If it’s possible to preserve a sense of tension and genuine horror in an open-world setting, The Evil Within 2 hasn’t discovered how. In an attempt to introduce a more contemporary gameplay style than that of Shinji Mikami’s classics, this game ends up diluting its best qualities by filling your time with tedious milling about and resource-gathering. With that said, its peculiar imagery and narrative, which is so far past ridiculous that it comes full-circle back to engaging, still shine brightly enough that The Evil Within 2 still gets under your skin.