LBP3 reaches new highs for the series by delivering some of the best levels and gameplay yet seen, but also disappoints with a fleeting campaign.

Occasionally ambitious but ultimately too afraid to deviate from the genre's well-worn formulas, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier feels like it's stuck in the past.

If you really want to play online though, or the game modes are important to you, the PlayStation 2 game is by far the better choice. This year Konami can just about be forgiven for short-changing Xbox 360 owners, but next year's game better be next-gen.

As it is, though, The Unfinished Swan is little more than a pretty picture.

Yes, the RTS genre has been seen on consoles in the past, but never to this level, and with this much polish.

There's plenty to do, with the core story missions and plenty of optional side activities making Prototype a game that you won't clock in a few sessions, and the upgrades and abilities are plentiful, but it just doesn't quite come together well enough to create a really great game.

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.

Though imperfect and moored to indelible design traditions and gameplay rituals, Assassin's Creed Shadows fizzes with style, intention, and detail, curating the best parts of the series into a confident and deeply enjoyable journey through feudal Japan.

A masterwork of atmosphere and environmental design, Alien: Isolation may be standing on the shoulders of giants, but it's also one of the few franchise games to do so that doesn't topple off disastrously.

It could have done with more franchise crossover moments, but Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is wonderful, warm and fantastic at making you feel clever. Cleverer than you actually are anyway.

It's packed full of features and is well worth a look for anyone wanting some racing thrills while out and about.

This is a game that'll stick in your brain by virtue of originality alone, then, but if Catherine can't take itself seriously then why should we?

House Flipper 2 takes the tedium of everyday chores and successfully turns it into a fun and deeply satisfying experience, with enough variety and modes to make it the ideal game for when you just need to kick back and relax.

Driver San Francisco could have been a one-trick pony, but it has managed to use that trick in a variety of clever and interesting ways, ensuring the driving gameplay never becomes tiresome or generic.

I certainly found more here to enjoy than I expected, and at times it's riveting stuff, but my interest frequently dwindled as turn-based fatigue rose.

Metal: Hellsinger merges rhythm, violence, and the fury-laden chugs of metal to create a unique kind of carnage that's a pleasure to conduct despite, at times, feeling repetitive.

Where Sackboy: A big Adventure proves most winsome isn’t in its play but in the surfeit of its surrounding glitter.

Fusion lives up to its name. Perhaps it wasn’t intended, but as a melding of the established template and something just new enough, RedLynx’s creation is a wonderful thing.

There's only so much the cute presentation can gloss over, meaning some serious changes will need to be made if the game is going to have any real legs.

It's not a watershed for the genre, nor is it a return to the franchise's glory days. This is a game for admirers (however grudging) of Final Fantasy XIII and JRPG fans in general.

Everything is a challenge, everything does something, and there's never a moment when you can't interact with the world around you in some way.

The recently released "ProStroke Golf" demonstrated how a more advanced control system can work on consoles, and playing Tiger Woods 07 does feel like a slight step back. At the same time, the controls have a simplicity to them that makes the game easy to play, and there is level of depth to the control and shot choice for the more serious players.

It isn’t that we miss the mists of Arcadia Bay specifically, or that we long to retread old ground; it’s the slow etching of stories, scattered with care.

Combine a thoroughly entertaining single-player campaign with a stunning and challenging time trial mode and you'll soon forget that you managed to run through the story in six hours or less. There's depth here that you'll only discover hours into time trialling a single stage, and as we said, no other game released this year comes close to being as cool.

It's one of those games that can quickly get stuck in your head if you let it.

It is addictive, intense and packed with detail.

I can't recommend Monolith's sequel highly enough. It might not have the jaw-dropping visuals to rival Killzone 2, but it's a hugely satisfying shooter that'll have you clinging onto that controller or mouse throughout its tension-filled campaign. If you like your combat meaty and with a solid dose of supernatural scares, there's every chance this will rank as one of your favourite games of 2009.

The single-player Career won't take all that long to complete, but with a hugely entertaining multiplayer mode both on and offline, there's a good chance you'll continue playing for a while after.