Prison Architect is a full-on sim that will eat your time. If you fancy a dark look inside the running of a prison, look no further.

If the game has any major flaws at all, it's that whilst the two halves of the game, RTS and RPG, mesh together brilliantly, if you take either of those elements in isolation, they're perhaps a little on the lightweight side. Fortunately, the game does have real synergy: it's greater than the sum of its parts.

Trine isn't as new and exciting as current 2D platforming king Braid was on its release, but its combination of tight controls, exiting action and physics-based puzzles makes it easy to recommend to platforming fans. It's a shame the multiplayer isn't more interesting, but when played alone it shouldn't be hard to get many hours of fun out of Frozenbyte's impressive looking title.

Dishonored is a great game that doesn't quite achieve excellence, and this collection is the best way to experience it all on consoles, but the port simply offers a crisper image and more defined textures. There's very little reason to buy this if you've already played it, but newcomers will still find a very entertaining title if they embrace the stealth mechanics.

Sleeping Dogs may not offer anything particularly new and certainly nothing groundbreaking, but what it does do is deliver sharp, thrilling and just downright enjoyable action to savour. Other open-worlders have tried to veer from Rockstar's path, some have even tried to lampoon it, but Sleeping Dogs has shown, confidently and emphatically, that you don't always need to change the rules. You just have to know how to play.

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.

It's testament to Telltale Games' storytelling qualities that each of the DLC's five mini-episodes could be fully developed during Season Two. While the depth and severity of the original series is missing, this quintet of sub-plots is well worth picking up for 400 MSP.

It’s a beautiful, gritty and spectacular strategy game, and while it doesn’t do much particularly new, it doesn’t have to.

Other games of its ilk may punch harder on their message, and the challenge here is all but non-existent. But RiME is a beautiful painting come to life, backed by an exceptional score that will make your journey across this island a joy.

One of the best action games on the Wii. It's a gamers' game, with old school mechanics some will find tiresome (mentally and physically), and control issues guaranteed to frustrate. But it all comes together to work well, which is the most important thing.

If we're being picky, we could say that Ninjatown might be a bit too cute for some, and not quite as in depth as other tower defence games on the DS (the recent Lock's Quest springs to mind), but on the whole it's a fun, accessible strategy title with a lovely art style that's sure to please fans of the genre.

For a next-gen price tag you expect to get a next-gen product, and sadly MotoGP '06 hasn't quite made a successful leap to the next-generation.

Complete Saga will charm the socks off Star Wars fanatics and platforming fanboys alike.

If I didn’t feel the sugary twinge of sentiment in Alba: A Wildlife Adventure, it is down to its pastel starkness.

What is without doubt the biggest disappointment of all is the online implementation. It's currently woefully behind what we've got in Forza 2 and PGR4, lacking even basic support for custom races. Support for up to 16 players is excellent, but without a friends list or any proper match making you're left to pick from the 35 events currently listed.

The familiar Fable experience is as engrossing as ever, and it's incredibly hard to stay mad at a game that oozes charm from every one of its pores. Fable III is a game that is inexplicably better than the sum of its parts.

Despite the occasional glimpse of dollar signs in its publisher's eyes, Skylanders Giants is that rarest of beasts: a kids' game that's very, very easy for adults to like.

As much as I want to commend Treyarch for essentially reducing Black Ops to fit on the Wii, it's impossible to engage with the game when so much of what's been lost is absolutely crucial to the overall experience.

The game is certainly rewarding and fun if you can get into it. Unfortunately we can't see the average gamer having the patience to do just that.

Pokémon Sword and Shield is a bold move into a new generation. There are technical hiccups, but those pale in comparison to the bustling Wild Area and the charming Gen 8 additions.

This is definitely a case of evolution over revolution and, although the franchise makes a confident leap into the future, 2142's engine and gameplay are firmly rooted in the past. The action is still fast and frantic, the warfare is epic and exciting and the loading times remain as excruciating as ever.

I reckon 15-year-old chavs should be forced to play A Boy and His Blob after they put videos of themselves having a fit over Modern Warfare 2 on the internet. I wonder if David Crane would approve.

There's a lot of choice to be had for your money, but the campaign feels a little bland compared to its predecessors, and the idea of repeating it over and over for each of the six races is hardly a pleasant one.

A challenging and at times flawed experience - one that serves up plenty of frustration along with the rampant good times. Because no matter how hard you try or how carefully you plan your outings, you're almost certain to hit some kind of wall.

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

The game is as close to Pong as the London Philharmonic Orchestra is to a caveman banging a rudimentary drum and, continuing that analogy, Virtua Tennis 3 is just as primal and instinctive as its most ancient of relatives.

As a long-term PES acolyte who has favoured FIFA for the last four seasons, I'm heartened to see Konami's series finally approaching something close to its best form – even if it's not the domineering force it was in its glory days of 2004/5.

The true beauty of GTA Online is its endlessness. There are bigger worlds, but none as dense and rich with possibility and hilarity. This is a game that will give and give, and that makes its technical hardships mere distant blips on its radar.