Is this the best F1 game this generation? Without a doubt, and it's the biggest advancement the license has seen for a very long time.

I found it mightily upsetting to have something in my hands capable of such beauty, such triumphant gaming bliss, only to have that thing ultimately turn into disappointment and frustration. It's almost more upsetting than playing something that was never up to much in the first place.

The Coalition has slightly fiddled with the formula, and whilst some adjustments need to be refined for future entries, Gears 5 is ultimately the gorgeous third-person shooter you want it to be.

There's just not quite enough meat on Fight Night Champion's bones to recommend it to owners of previous games, however, and Champion mode itself is little more than a brief diversion you can bash through in an afternoon.

With a whole heap of content to unlock, including the brilliant Mercenaries mode (playable cooperatively off and online), a campaign that begs to be replayed and top of the line production values there's very little to be disappointed with.

Volume 2 isn't as impressive as the original HD pack due to not including the modern classic that is God of War 2, but these two PSP games still stand up well on the PS3. The HD remastering has been handled extremely well, and thanks to the improved controls these are the definitive versions of Kratos' smaller outings.

Top Spin 4 isn't flashy and doesn't come with any gimmicks, but it's an incredibly competent and in-depth tennis sim that the sport's fans would be foolish to pass up.

Battlefield 3 isn't quite the Call of Duty killer many were wanting, then, and it's especially jarring to view EA's 'above and beyond the call' marketing brouhaha in light of the fact Battlefield 3 falls to its most damning lows when it's trying hardest to compete with the latter.

It's most telling, however, that the game is still at its most enjoyable when you're simply smacking seven bells out of a friend. Undisputed really comes alive when you're playing with another human, particularly one who's sitting right next to you.

It brings the tried and tested formula to the Wii without as much as a hiccup, offering the most user-friendly experience yet. The game still requires patience and a solid investment of time, however, meaning that Tri is still very much reserved for the core gamer.

This is a quite beautiful game at times: attractive, detailed, and beautifully lit. The soundtrack is less noticeable, though the main theme, with driving rhythms and a strident melody that recurs in other tracks is an instant classic. But ultimately the quality of the mission design has taken a huge nosedive from the series peak of Assassin's Creed II.

And any game that features characters who perform one-arm pullups to go up ladders is automatically in my good books. Gears of War 4 features such characters. There's no doubt that the long-term appeal of Gears 4 lies in its suite of multiplayer modes, but I would 100 per cent recommend playing through the campaign. It's some of the best fun I've had in a shooter for quite some time.

The core racing is thrilling yet accessible and the amount of content on offer will keep players enthralled for some time.

Halo 5 Guardians hits all the right notes in a campaign that is thrilling from end to end and delivers a multiplayer suite full of many delights that play impeccably.

Lone players could spend months in the Association mode, and the online options are excellent for players wanting some human-on-human play.

It's painfully addictive, screen-shatteringly frustrating at times but so moreish it's like the computer game equivalent of Chocolate Fingers. The improvements are significant without breaking the fundamentals, and it seems that Sports Interactive has thought long and hard about how it can implement changes that would bring back the disillusioned without enraging the devotees. Roll on FM 13.

With a little more effort, DMC4 could have been a genuine contender for 2008 game of the year. As it is it's a brilliant, addictive, just plain cool hack and slash action game which goes some way to bringing the series back to its initial lustre.

What you essentially get here is 49 tracks metal and heavy rock tracks - 28 of them culled from Metallica's back catalogue, and a further 21 selected by the band themselves.

While there's no denying that the Guild Wars franchise is both popular and technically superb, unless you're after dedicated PvP thrills, it's hard to see it genuinely competing with games like World of Warcraft in the long term.

Perhaps No More Heroes 2, like its predecessor, works on a level our feeble brains aren't capable of comprehending. Perhaps it's so post-modern it's post-post-modern.

It's a nice touch to actually have to build things in a game featuring building blocks, and adds to the game's overall tongue-in-cheek feel.

This is the crux of Yakuza: Like a Dragon. It is fascinated by the way that games lurk at the soft verges of life, vesting our days with dreams.

The key is that you can get a hell of a lot of enjoyment out of Civ Rev without getting completely bogged down by the game's statistics.

SoulCalibur VI is an addictive and satisfying fighter, and more importantly the strongest the series has been in years.

This is the major problem with the Space Stage: in the beginning, it's just too hard. All you want to do is to quietly learn the ropes, but the more advanced races of the world have no intention of leaving you be.

It's a gorgeous fighter with vast depth, but it slightly lacks the tightness and coherence that made Street Fighter 4 such an instant classic.

Games like The Walking Dead are rare, and if you've played the first episode you'll be compelled to pick up Starved for Help, but prepare for the possibility of frustration and at worst, incompletion.

In going for detail and variety it often overshoots into complexity; where it wants to be insightful it's not as clever as it thinks it is. Mankind Divided isn't bad, but it already feels a few years old.