It's not without its faults, some of which are more serious than others, but Splash Damage achieves the impossible: a game that feels fresh in the stalest of genres.

Just Cause 2 is a gorgeous, fun, rollercoaster of a game. It's far from perfect, but its best qualities shine through, leaving the lacklustre gunplay as more of a mildly unpleasant aftertaste than a meal ruining disaster. It's a game that begs to be messed around with, for you to discover new ways to use the tools at your disposal and to take it all in the light-hearted way the developer intended.

Depth way beyond that of any other action game released this year, sleek presentation and some of the best levels ever created in a video game.

While it's clear Q Entertainment perfected the game's formula on their very first try, this iteration of the neon-lit puzzler is so charming and elegantly formed you'd be a fool to say no.

An interesting and imaginative remix.

It may well be more of the same, but Mexico beckons, ravishing the eye and devouring up the miles.

It's a game whose appeal lives and dies in its online time trials and sensational visuals, and whose sense of one-upmanship and competition is leaps above the rest of the pack.

Campaign is dull and forgettable, but multiplayer is great fun and Zombies has had some real effort poured into it.

ZombiU has more than enough value as a solo experience to strongly recommend. It's a hell of an achievement for a launch title from a third-party team getting to grips with strange new hardware – who'd have thought that not Nintendo but Ubisoft would have created the defining Wii U experience?

Quibbles aside, The Old Blood works: shorter, more tonally cohesive, and better than its forbear, it's also – for most of its five of so hour running time – a better distillation of MachineGames' goals than that which preceded it.

It might be a predominantly linear path shooter, but who cares? When the atmosphere and level of action on offer is this great, the fact that I can't wander off to see what's behind a tree half a mile to the East really doesn't bother me.

With Shenmue III, we are offered a glimpse into a gifted mind, constantly turning the everyday into play.

The magic of exploratory freedom is rife here, and not even the weaknesses of the main plot manage to excessively taint what is top-quality DLC.

It rarely swells beyond the sum of its parts; with parts as precision-tooled as this, it doesn’t need to.

Despite the lack of a campaign and any tonal consistency, Black Ops 4 boasts a thrilling entry into the battle royale space.

A cyberpunk exploration of humanity, manipulation and getting tanked, The Red Strings club is lovely and melancholy and well worth a look.

It's just a massive disappointment that this PS3 port is so bare bones.

The new game world looks great, and the omnipresent vegetation is a real change from the barren rock and destroyed highways that we’re used to. At times the frame rate seemed to take a bit of a hit, but this issue never became serious enough to affect gameplay - the action was just a bit less smooth than usual.

Skate 3, to be blunt, doesn't offer a great deal that's different to the previous two games in the series, with the added team, online and sharing functionality being the key additions.

It does, however, offer plenty of gameplay for your money, particularly with the inclusion of bonus levels that offer a slightly different challenge to the main game. My only complaint is in the lack of any multiplayer mode.

The whole thing is wrapped up in a darling Fisher Price aesthetic and presented with wit and style. A lack of offline multiplayer and Microsoft's dodgy dictionary compromises the package, but it's got more modes than you deserve and a ridiculous 400 point price tag.

The double agent element gives the game a slightly unique feeling, but at times it's hard to shake the thought that you're playing a Chaos Theory expansion pack; albeit a very attractive one.

Need For Speed: Shift is a brilliant new start for the franchise and has clearly been built by a team that loves racing.

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 a gorgeous, decent football game that's trying a bit too hard to be "PES" when it should be celebrating what it already was.

The Nail the Trick mode is the evolution the game has been waiting for, and it alone is enough to recommend the game.

The Disney Infinity 3.0 Starter Pack is a great introduction that will keep kids and kidults alike entertained for a long time.

Remnant 2 successfully evolves on its predecessor, isolating and expanding upon the best aspects to create a cohesive and challenging shooter experience, supplemented by stunningly designed environments and a unique story system. A cooperative game at heart, its single-player campaign takes a hit, but never enough to substantially detract from the game’s successes.