Repetition and overfamiliarity are always the best ways to nullify fear, but until they set in this is one of the most effectively scary video games ever made.
Not quite Scary Movie but certainly not the video game equivalent of Airplane, although the fact that it even tries to be is almost recommendation enough.
Treasure’s cult 2D shooter remains as uniquely entertaining as always, and surprisingly well adapted for a modern PC.
Series fans may view it as a disaster but the problem is that Thief isn't even interesting enough to get angry about, despite the well hewn stealth gameplay.
A slight improvement on the first episode, but still basically just plot set-up for a story that too often feels out of your hands.
An expansion that improves on almost every aspect of the original, fixing obvious flaws and adding a much greater sense of variety to what is now one of the best retro role-players around.
A brief but entertaining prologue that is marred by the question of value for money and an empty story that has no resolution unless you buy the next game.
The game may never live down the notoriety of its designer but this is still one of the most entertaining and imaginative indie games of the last decade.
It won't win over Diablo III haters but this is a competent expansion that will renew the addiction for fans and help to earn new ones.
The next gen space combat simulator now plays almost as good as it looks, even if there are still many more improvements needed.
One of the weakest Lego games of recent times, and not just because the formula is getting old but because The Hobbit isn't a particularly good fit for it.
Less than the sum of its many and varied parts, Mercenary Kings never gets the mix of modern and retro influences right – apart from with the amazing visuals.
Not an evolution like the last game, and certainly not a revolution – there's a great deal of fun still to be had in Trials Fusion but unfortunately not much in the way of new ideas.
The best Nintendo sports title for several years and although it offers little in terms of innovation it's certainly not short of content or addictive fun.
The least hand-crafted horror game ever, whose legion of design missteps and tepid scares make the worst of an already clichéd set-up.
A carefully considered sequel that avoids upsetting existing fans and offers an olive branch to newcomers – but although the PC version is the best it's by a slimmer margin than many would've hoped.
An unlikely mix of the bland, the predictable, and the surprisingly excellent – which only makes the mediocre end result all the more frustrating.
It can be a little inconsistent in terms of both actions and puzzles but late entry or not this is one of the funniest and best-presented adventures of the year.
A superb mini-game compilation that's as addictive and raucously entertaining as it is ugly, with Johann Sebastian Joust blurring the lines between video and parlour game.
A Frankenstein's monster of other people's ideas, that if not for the sleazy script would be laughable in its desperation to include every fantasy cliché imaginable.