Controls are responsive and players did what they were told to do without a hitch. Lack of fighting direction hurts this score.

Don't be fooled by its simplistic, retro visual stylings. Crimsonland is enormous fun, and the perfect game to dip in and out of on occasion.

Perhaps not as glorious as Lost Odyssey or Eternal Sonata, but it definitely keeps up with Tales of Vesperia and Blue Dragon. A unique, twisting story with likable, engaging characters and a deep, entertaining battle system. Highly recommended.

Failing to deliver as an effective horror story, Man of Medan is interminably slow to get started, and when it does, the narrative and performances prove more laughable than scary. The best kind of horror is the stuff that really gets under your skin, but sadly, this barely even pricks it. A soggy first chapter in The Dark Pictures Anthology, Man of Medan is best left on the seabed to rust.

A hotchpotch of ideas and themes, Karma: The Dark World is a horror experience that doesn't quite manage to come together in a satisfying, coherent fashion. As such, it emerges as a frustrating, confounding thing, albeit one that displays brief flashes of potential. There's the kernel of something great here, but the execution ultimately falls short. On Xbox Series X|S, it's also hamstrung by frame rate issues.

If you've yet to play a Katamari game, then Once Upon a Katamari is as good a place as any to start. Its time-hopping adventure offers a fresh spin on the series, with new mechanics and additions that only serve to enhance a winning formula.

Operation Flashpoint: Red River will please fans of the last game, but will still leave players of the PC originals out in the cold. It's the best military sim on consoles yet, as far as we're concerned, but in the time since Dragon Rising launched, we expected a bit more from the sequel.

A solid racing game that does a good job of recreating a sport that has been pretty much ignored in gaming terms. It may not be suitable for everyone though thanks to the control issues and lack of variety.

Sea of Thieves has the potential for some great tales, cruising the high seas, following the wind with them sails. Its lack of content and things to do hold it back, but at no point is the game totally whack. Arrr!

Despite being held back by pesky bugs, The Occupation is nonetheless an enjoyable and immersive game that handles weighty subject matter with aplomb.

The Crew 2 feels like a missed opportunity for Ubisoft after what was a decent start for the franchise in 2014. It’s a racing game with some interesting ideas, but the new main additions frankly aren’t entertaining enough and there’s too much of a focus on quantity over quality.

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII is a disappointing conclusion to what should have been a barnstorming final chapter in the Final Fantasy XIII saga. Strong combat that's severely undermined, a feeble narrative and a veritable litany of hit and miss moments all conspire to make Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII an agonising missed opportunity.

A decent add-on pack, but one that has a rather sub par song selection and absolutely no new features of note. New players should definitely stick to the original game, though this does act as a rather cheap DLC pack for those people desperate for some new material.

Neatly presented to the gamer, with aesthetically pleasing menus and a generally tidy, easily accessible interface throughout. Over-sensitive controls are a major letdown.

Capcom proves once again that it's quite good at this remastering lark. Resident Evil Zero HD is a brilliant update of another classic GameCube Resident Evil game for a modern audience that demands to be revisited once more or discovered for the first time. It's scary good.

Surprisingly, controls are quite intuitive and easy to use, and the navigation menus are pretty straight forward.

Final Vendetta is so very nearly another scrolling beat 'em up revival that could have rubbed shoulders with Streets of Rage 4. Instead, it's scuppered by an egregious level of difficulty that slowly sucks the fun away. If you crave retro beat 'em up nirvana, then do yourself favour, and play Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge.

If you miss Burnout as much as I do, then you owe it to yourself to take Wreckreation for a spin. This is about as close as we're ever likely to get to a sequel, delivering blisteringly fast open world racing, and superb track building tools.

Stupidly enjoyable and endlessly charming, LEGO Worlds is the gift that keeps on giving with different biomes – jungles, spooky forests, deserts, swamps, candy lands with gingerbread men and more - an adventure filled with quests and infinite scope to make whatever you want. LEGO Worlds is fantastic.

A fun LEGO game, but not among the best that the series has to offer, which is a real shame as the story going on around the average levels is top notch and probably one of the best. If you’ve seen the The LEGO Movie though then you can probably give The LEGO Movie Videogame a miss without too many regrets.

A retro-style beat 'em up without the retro charm, Raging Justice attempts to bring a dormant genre back to life with mixed results. Unfortunately, it just isn't as much fun as you'd hope it would be. So near, and yet so far, you'll be yearning for Streets of Rage in no time at all.

Darksiders III’s shift to a more Dark-Soulsy experience seems to fit perfectly within the Darksiders universe. The third outing in the franchise is a solid effort by Gunfire Games – one of my favourite gaming experiences of the year, in fact – let down only by some shaky traversal mechanics, a dodgy compass and some downright unpleasant frame-rate issues.

The Hitman HD Trilogy represents incredible value for money, and for the most part, it seems to have aged rather well. In terms of an HD remake though, IO and Square have seemingly done the bare minimum here to get it to market. A remastered soundtrack and some re-recorded lines would have been nice, but instead, the best you can expect is a lick of paint.

A well made, if slightly flawed, adaptation of the friendly neighborhood webhead that is sure to provide far more entertainment than it does boredom.

A wretched, annoying puzzle game that consists primarily of tedious busywork. While Felix the Reaper has bags of personality, a vein of dark humour, and the inimitable voice of Sir Patrick Stewart, it regrettably isn't nearly as fun as it looks. As far as I'm concerned, Felix can go dance off the edge of a cliff.

Kao the Kangaroo is a well-crafted game that pulls inspiration from several other platforming greats, but a lack of polish and an abundance of bugs end up dragging it down.

WWE 2K17 is a marginally better game than 2K16, as the core mechanics feel like they've been refined a bit, but with the fantastic 2K Showcase consigned to the bin and no new modes to replace it, this is a package that's now sorely lacking. You might as well play last year's game, unless you're a massive fan that has to have the most up to date roster possible. Otherwise, WWE 2K17 is an enjoyable wrestling game that could still do with a bit of a kick up the backside for next year's instalment.

I wish I could report that Zockrates Laboratories served up a playground of emergent sparks, but with such a promising trick I couldn’t help but hunger for more.