When everything works and with the right control configuration, Project Cars is the strongest sim-style racer on console platforms, and the best all-rounder on PC. Less serious racers may find the career a bit of a slog, but if you prioritize quick thrills over authenticity and challenging racing, then Project Cars is not the game for you. Our only real gripe is that it's still a little buggy, with new issues creeping in with the 1.04 release. There's nothing wrong that the developers can't fix, and if they do they'll have a game that will still be a formidable contender when Forza 6 rolls onto the track.
Battlefield: Hardline can be ridiculous, with stealth and arrest mechanics that stretch the very limits of credulity. All the same, the single-player campaign works brilliantly as the video game version of a big, dumb action thriller. Cracking set-piece firefights are mixed with stealth, escape and exploration, and there's scope to play some sequences your way, not just follow the objective marker. Multiplayer, meanwhile, is fiercely enjoyable, and in Hotwired boasts one of Battlefield's finest hours. Look past Hardline's minor faults, and you'll find the best all-round Battlefield since the great Bad Company 2.
The start might be shaky in places, but Revelations 2 soon builds into the most compelling chapter of Resident Evil since the great Resi 4. The gameplay blends action, survival horror and inventive co-op mechanics to make something that's exciting, but still true to the sinister atmosphere of the original games. Meanwhile the storytelling and self-conscious humour work better than they have in years. Throw in the horribly more-ish Raid mode, and you have a major treat for Resi fans.
At its best, Evolve is tense, thrilling and what pundits like to call a game changer, with periods of frantic hunting/fleeing punctuated by explosive confrontations. At its worst, nothing comes together and it all feels strangely flat. With time and experience, we're seeing more of the former than the latter, and all the parts are falling into place. Our only concern is that the core Hunt mode could eventually grow stale with repetition, and that games mixing in the other modes are harder to find than they should be.
Some might wish for more visual enhancements or fixes for the original game's biggest flaws, but this HD restoration of Grim Fandango only underlines what a fantastic, beautifully written and gorgeously designed game it is. It's clearly a product of its time, yet like its movie inspirations it hasn't faded with time. It was one of the best graphic adventure games then, and it's still one of the finest now.
It's Dead Island meets The Last of Us meets Far Cry 3 meets Assassin's Creed, but while Dying Light doesn't score highly for originality, it does for parkour thrills and zombie-slaying antics. The pace lags occasionally from time to time, but this is a slicker, most refined game than you might ever have expected from the brains behind Dead Island, and one that deserves to be a hit.
It's a straight HD remaster of the 2002 remake, but as long as you can live with Resident Evil's numerous and well-known idiosyncracies you'll be surprised at how well it still plays. If you're a major Resi fan it's questionable whether there's enough new here to take another dip - your Resident Evil memories are probably scarier than the real deal. First timers and long-absent friends, however, should open the creaky mansion door and step nervously inside. This horror pioneer is still one of the greats.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 takes important strides forward on graphics, presentation and game modes, while out-performing its arch-rival FIFA on the pitch. Official team names, more accessible game modes and some tweaks to tackling would all be welcome, but it's great to see Konami's football game back on form.
Driveclub deserves a second chance, but will it get it? We hope so. It might not be a crowd-pleaser like Forza Horizon 2, but it's a frequently fantastic racer that's only getting better with time.
It sounds like an unholy Middle Earth mash-up of Arkham City and Assassin's Creed, but the Nemesis system helps turn Shadow of Mordor into something far more entertaining. With good, demanding combat, excellent stealth and enemies worth slaying it's more compulsive than you might expect, and it treats the license with some respect as well. This year's surprise sleeper hit? Don't bet against it.
It's not perfect, but FIFA 15 is the most exciting FIFA for a couple of years. A drift away from realistic defence towards more aggressive forward play replaces stolid midfield battles with end-to-end drama, and we still get all the great modes – including a stronger career mode and Ultimate Team – that gave FIFA 14 strength in depth. Most of all we get exceptional graphics and presentation, which make FIFA 15 look even more like the real deal on TV. There are wrinkles to be ironed out here, but this is a promising base on which a new generation of FIFA can build.
Velocity 2X takes two classic genres and mashes them up into one almost seamless, retro-flavoured whole. It's a thinking person's shoot-em-up that doesn't stint on arcade thrills, showing how you can not only remake the old masters, but re-engineer them into something ingenious and new.
The Metro games deserve a second shot at stardom, and with the sequel polished and the original considerably enhanced, they're primed to make the most of it. The first game can seem dated or awkward, but its mood, atmosphere and survival horror game mechanics make for a very distinctive FPS. The second loses some of the creeping tension, but makes up for it with exceptional stealth-tinged combat. Take them together and you get a bargain bundle of post-apocalyptic dread.
Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty! is one of the most welcome revivals in years. It's a sympathetic HD update that looks better and plays better without sacrificing any of the personality of the original game. That can make it harsh, unforgiving and even frustrating, but it won't stop you working your way through. While some vintage remasters rely on nostalgia, this one doesn't need to. It still feels as fresh and original as it did first time around.
Valiant Hearts isn't perfect, and not everyone will like its tone, its graphic novel style or its story, but it's a strange, beautiful and genuinely special game. Let's not get carried away; as a work of World War I art it's no Paths of Glory, Regeneration, Birdsong or All Quiet on the Western Front. It's not even a Blackadder goes Forth.
Watch Dogs is a very good game - and occasionally a great one - but not a landmark game or any sort of classic. It's a fine open-world game with a fantastically detailed setting, and one you'll happily play for weeks. In fact, with a good thirty to forty hours of content, that's probably what it's going to take.
A lovable combination of classic Japanese RPG adventure and European folklore, dressed to look like a gorgeous, hand-painted platform game. It's a little too slight for classic status, but it still has some of the old magic and mystery of the nineties Square Enix greats. It's superb value for a download title, and unmissable whether or not you played and loved its inspirations.
Trials Evolution was a great game and the same can be said for Fusion, even if it struggles to make meaningful advances. The worst thing you can say about it is that it's a refinement of a game that was pretty refined already, and that a few of the new elements seem unnecessary, almost working counter to the purity of Trials. Still, if it's a matter of opinion whether this is the best Trials yet, it almost doesn't matter. It might not be any closer to perfection, but what's here is more than good enough.
It's not the most revolutionary game in Lego history, but Lego: The Hobbit delivers everything fans expect from a Lego game, with the usual grace, great humour and engaging, puzzle-packed gameplay. It makes the best of its unwieldy source movies, and it has enough new ideas to feel like more than a reskin of Lego: Lord of the Rings. It's also still a great game to play with the kids.
While State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition doesn't fix all the hideous flaws of the original, its bug-fixes and visual enhancements make it easier to love. The complex, interwoven systems and perma-death take some getting used to, but the result is a fantastically tense, exciting open-world survival epic with more heart and soul than other zombie games.