With loadouts to assemble and coordinated teams laughing to the bank, every breath of The Finals’ destruction does justice to its game show ambitions.

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.

Revengeance is pretty sweet, then, but the aftertaste it leaves can be disappointingly bitter.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 would have been without doubt the best game in the series for years had it not been for the high number of bugs and uneven graphical presentation.

If Dragon Age didn't float your boat, neither will Awakening. Dragon Age enthusiasts, however, should consider it an essential purchase. It offers more of the same - no bad thing - in a great value package.

Its world, story and survival gameplay create a unique first-person shooter, and Last Light is a worthy successor to the original game, even if it carries similar problems. In a pre-apocalypse world, Last Light's roughness would perhaps not be so forgiven, but it feels somewhat suitable here.

It would be easy to dismiss it with the cutesy Miis and two games in one approach, but in spite of this, FIFA has been given what it needed to draw in the first timers and the old hands, snatching the title of best football game on the Wii with a last minute flick of the remote.

Entrenchment makes Sins of a Solar Empire more playable and accessible to 4X strategy and RTS gamers alike and builds on its predecessor’s success to create a memorable experience with both depth and spectacle. At this price, what more can you ask for?

The art design is unique, the story akin to one of Square Enix's RPG DS titles and it's a great game to play for short bursts of time, perhaps on a regular commute, because the battles themselves don't take too much time to complete.

Full of gags, bawdy humour and pratfalls (what other game gives you the chance to shoot bananas at the feet of citizens for comic relief?) it's got charm to spare. Unlike Sakaguchi's biggest hit, The Last Story's title is more likely to be a self-fulfilling prophecy, but it represents compelling proof that there's still life in the old JRPG yet.

The game engine is certainly in need of a makeover, and this might be the last year THQ can offer what is more or less a slight update, but it's a fun game and something that will get more than a few hours play with some mates.

Ultimately, it’s kind of hard to judge Lego City Undercover as a typical open world effort, because in truth, Lego City Undercover isn’t actually that much of an open world game. Some missions do let you smash the place apart in a car chase or pootle about in a chopper, but outside of this there’s little to do.

It's a workmanlike interpretation of what makes an RPG tick, placing a spotlight on all the right mechanics and features that most titles struggle to perfect. Regardless of the game's bland exterior, Reckoning is considerably well crafted.

Stealth Bastard Deluxe is a competent little head-scratcher, then, and while the death of your anonymous clone subject is constant, it is rarely aggravating.

And as a game adults can get something out of at the same time as younger gamers, it's perfect.

This is basically exactly what fans of the last few LEGO games will be expecting: fun, not-too-taxing, enjoyable gameplay with tongue-in-cheek humour, loads of stuff to unlock and plenty of replay value.

It won’t blow anyone away, but it’s another decent Kirby game, with smart levels, puzzles and unlockables that’ll keep the Kirby Hardcore happy. If the Kirby Hardcore exists. Don’t Google that.

The novelty alone is worth a punt.

Somehow, against the odds, Guitar Hero: Live has given life back to a series thought long dead. I laughed like a pissed hyena when it was announced, but Freestyle has achieved something close to excellence here.

Madden NFL 15 is an excellent return to form for the series. Yes, it’s still plagued by legacy issues, but the leaps taken on defence, coupled with the spiffy new graphics and excellent gameplay, make this an essential purchase for longstanding fans and a great starting point for players looking to jump on board.

Despite the myriad troubles, Granblue Fantasy: Relink has turned out to be rather excellent. But with several lacklustre aspects, there is a real sense of disappointment that Relink could have been so much better.

The big question hanging over Euro 2008 is if it's worth its price tag, given that it's essential a tweaked FIFA 08 and FIFA 09 is only a few months away? The core gameplay has been tweaked enough to make FIFA 08 feel slightly dated, but chances are FIFA 09 will improve on this even further.

Beaterator works simply because it provides a decent set of audio tools, and clear instructions on how to use them. At first you may feel a little overwhelmed by all the menus and libraries, but ultimately its sheer user-friendliness, the common controls, and omnipresent video tutorials win out the day.

The DLC as a whole doesn't take long to complete, a couple of hours at the very most, but it's incredibly well paced, peppered with memorable set pieces, some narrative bombshells and just the right amount of combat to stitch everything together.

At around two hours long, The Assignment is a reasonably-sized add-on which fleshes out The Evil Within's story while building on what made it so enjoyable in the first place. Let's hope its follow-up, The Consequence, lives up to it.

United falls just short of brilliance and will always be overshadowed in my mind by its slightly uglier older brother and its free expansion pack. Despite the obvious benefits offered by the new cars and track pieces, two of the best game modes have been removed and that's hard to understand.

Crucially, though, that intangible PES magic remains and expands with the potential of the new engine; matches take on their own personalities (helped by new player emotions – perform well and your play will visibly improve during the game) and you’ll discuss great goals for years, especially now that shooting and heading are weightier, more natural feeling. Even Master League is better.

The Division is not a perfect game. There are flaws. But the flaws are mostly because it's straddling genres, and this is also what gives it so many different things to enjoy. There are complicated inventory systems, daft explosives, a big open world to explore, and incredible multiplayer, but you don't need to get invested in any of them to play the game. The Division is not a perfect game, but it's really fun. Which is sort of the point, isn't it?