games(TM)

Check out our interview with Shinji Mikami to hear what he had to say about making Resident Evil and why he wanted it to be like beer.

Find out what the PES team had to say about rival FIFA in our football rivals interview here.

It speaks to the strength of the challenge and club systems that DriveClub remains wholly enjoyable despite such an omission. A few less serious forms of racing would do a lot to improve to the experience and catapult it into the same realm as the greatest of arcade racers, but what's on offer represents a commendable attempt at changing the way we think about how competition is served in a racing game.

As well as the main story mode, Trap Team offers longevity in the form of a large number of redeeming quests for each villain, a silly amount of Arena battles that will put even the toughest Skylander veterans through their paces and the epic Kaos Doom Challenge. Part horde mode, part tower defence, it features 100 waves across nine different locations that proves that Activision's franchise is not just for kids. An enjoyable adventure, but it's really starting to show signs of fatigue.

It's here, in the Toy Box, that Disney Infinity 2.0 thrives. The game suffers from a few technical hiccups in frame rates and broken quests, but there's a wealth of content here waiting to be unleashed by your own imagination. On the surface it looks like Infinity 2.0 is offering less (with its one play set compared to last year's three), but the truth is the opposite. With a focus on improving the creativity tools matched with a wider selection of characters and settings, there's more game here to sink your teeth into.

It's a tough game to criticise. The setting is perhaps not quite as striking as the original game's clay-coated Colorado, but that could be as much to do with the familiarity of the European landscapes for a European reviewer as it is the actual layout of the roads. Perhaps the offline mode could have a little more structure to keep you locked in to its most thrilling events, but that would damage the freeform amiability of everything. It's just a very special racing game. There's a depth of content here that matches the game's undoubted class, and ensures Playground Games is a genuine powerhouse in the world of digital racing. Forza Horizon 2 is a gorgeous, confident and relentlessly gratifying drive, and easily the best first-party exclusive on Xbox One.

Like its predecessor, Civilization: Beyond Earth is going to benefit from Firaxis' attentive and proven post-launch development plan. Its series of interconnected systems are well balanced and while some of them will feel disappointingly familiar to series veterans, there's sufficient diversity and flexibility here to feed the series ongoing evolution.

So, goalkeepers aren't as good as promised, the soundtrack is rubbish as usual and the menus still aren't as simple as they could and should be. Regardless, when all is said and done, FIFA 15 is the best football game we've ever played. It combines match day pageantry and superb gameplay perfectly, and builds nicely on last year's sterling effort. After so many years of trying, EA has, with the exception of a few little missteps, finally gotten player AI right and created a fast, fluid football experience that looks and feels like the real thing. This will go down as the year that EA finally ticked all the boxes.

Super Smash Bros. for 3DS does an immaculate job of bringing Nintendo's beloved fighting game to the handheld system and has packs in the best character roster and feature list to date, but the shortfalls of its hardware prevent it from reaching greater heights. It's the perfect Smash Bros. game on an imperfect console. We wait with much anticipation for the Wii U version later this year.

Yes, there's some weak voice acting (Loki, we're looking at you), some pretty straightforward level design and a few too many gratuitous pieces of camera work. But mechanically, Bayonetta 2 steps into the original's heels and somehow looks even better in them. A near-perfect action game, then, and a irrefutable reason to own a Wii U.

Nothing like it has been done on console before, and we have to respect Bungie – and Activision – for that.

Brilliant stuff.

In many ways The Sims 4 is a beginning, its core foundation of functions playing their parts beautifully. But in others it feels like a step back, like a set of systems designed around future expansion in mind and not providing the necessary wealth of options from the start. Though The Sims 4 does so much to widen its berth, diehard fans will likely be looking to moor up somewhere else entirely.

Ultimately, Creative Assembly has delivered on its promise of an unforgiving thriller that refuses to pull its punches. Isolation reaffirms the Alien as the ultimate horror icon, both terrifying and awesome; trapping you within its cage proves to be the shot in the arm the franchise needed. Bold, unrelenting and very scary, Alien: Isolation is a triumph in every department. No prior knowledge is necessary. Just prepare yourself for the most terrifying game of the year.

It's disappointing that Shadow of Mordor couldn't match the originality of its superb Nemesis system with a more engaging world, but the characters which populate it are more than enough to spur you through the campaign. Shadow of Mordor might owe something of a debt to numerous games that have come before it, but by adding its own flavour to the mixture the result is a surprisingly expansive and hearty experience that is more compelling than plenty that have come before it. A hugely entertaining, tongue-in-cheek and fulsome experience, it's a worthy expedition whether you're a Rings fan or not.

New 'N' Tasty is exactly what it claims to be: a new experience still instantly familiar to anyone that played the original, and vital playing for those that didn't. Oddworld was a defining presence on the Playstation, and New 'N' Tasty will remain a defining experience on the new generation of consoles, too. It's a pleasure to see a remaster done so well.

But it won't be a game for everyone. The game offers a Trophy for completing it in under an hour, but we can't imagine the type of players Hohokum attracts will find this prospect appealing. It should be taken almost as a palette-cleanser; the type of experience you find yourself spending a few quiet hours immersed inside, soaking up its atmosphere and getting lost inside its dreamscape. There's little doubt Honeyslug has created something truly original and utterly absorbing, but it's also a game that requires a detachment from reality along with a complete investment from its participants. Don't venture into Hohokum hoping to understand what it's all about, just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Arriving late, yet feeling premature, check back in a few months time.

The whole experience isn't awful, just thoroughly uninspiring; a box of biscuits where some are moldy and all are digestive. It's fun to be a pirate, but it's far, far more fun elsewhere, with Risen 3 once again struggling and failing to rise above anything but its own mediocrity.

But that isn't the problem with the puzzler, however; difficulty in and of itself is not criticism. Though the beasties change – and the increased difficulty with each round will definitely get you thinking – the game itself never does. Its art style, tone and unique gameplay all make for a fascinating experience that you should certainly give a try, but it's hard to ignore the sense of repetition you'll encounter as you play. Randomly generated puzzles results in increased replayability, but it also means a lack of variety – and that forms the ultimate demise of Road Not Taken when it is so clear there is a direction, an end goal, a climax. Original and novel it is, but there just simply isn't enough reward to keep you going against the odds.