Football Manager 13 is the most in-depth, detailed and complex football management simulator ever made. But I must admit, I've bitten my tongue as I've written about most of these new features. The last thing I personally wanted was a new set of variables to worry about as I play the game, and for even more hours to have to be invested just to get through a season.

Angry Birds Star Wars is the best Angry Birds game yet, and the best Star Wars spin-off in a long time. It's going to be big, and deservedly so.

Every so often, a game comes along which is so irresistible that it leaves you wondering whether sequelitis might actually be a good thing. Far Cry 3 being a classic example.

It crosses demographic and gaming boundaries as easily as Guy Dangerous hops over dangling footbridges. An excellent sequel.

Proteus is beautiful, a beautiful thing. And it makes me happy – happy because it is so intrinsically interesting and emotional; happy because we live in an age in which things like this can be made and distributed to everyone with a computer.

The Metal Gear myth has never before appeared so agile, fresh and youthful, but more than the setting its Platinum's virtuoso coders that shine throughout, the object slicing a marvel of high-speed 3D manipulation. A technical masterpiece, Rising offers a funfair ride approximation of Konami's brooding series, but one with more than enough capacity for the Bayonetta veteran to express their dexterous expertise.

BioShock Infinite is a hell of a lot of fun to play. That really should be the only quality it needs to exhibit. The fact that it holds much more feels like an advancement of an art form. Just remember that nothing in BioShock Infinite is an attempt to be cute. Just let it tell you its story.

F1 2010 is an extremely accomplished game, which blends enthusiast-level nerdiness seamlessly with an admirable playability, and even if it is a little on the brutal side, it deserves its place on the podium of great driving simulators.

Whether or not you choose Fifa 11 over Pro Evolution Soccer is more likely to be a matter of taste and tribal loyalty, but Fifa fans will be even more delighted with this year's offering than they were with Fifa 10.

Enslaved provides a rollercoaster adventure wrapped up in a brilliantly told story, which sees you grow as attached to the characters as they do to each other.

MoH is certainly better for its shift from WW2 to modern warfare, but veterans who recall the salad days of the series may be expecting more.

Vanquish isn't going to change the face of gaming, but it's impressive to behold, satisfying to play (as long as you're reasonably hardcore) and shot through with humour (look out, for example, for the robots dancing to a ghetto-blaster which transforms into a mobile gun).

The combination of gaming styles – action, role-playing and strategy – works wonderfully together and there are some real consequences to your decisions. It may be too accessible for hardcore RPG fans but Fable 3 is hugely enjoyable and the perfect game to play on a cold winter's evening.

For our money, this is the best rhythm-action game money can buy – it would be a travesty if it failed to find an audience this time around.

But it has a sheer appreciation, and love, for cars and driving that is difficult to resist. At times it feels less like playing a game and more like indulging in a hobby.

Its only drawback is a somewhat unhelpful camera – a typical failing for platform games – although it seems to be at its worst in the earlier stages. Overall, though, Epic Mickey proves satisfyingly original, fun and absorbing – it's a pleasant, and at times interestingly twisted world in which to immerse yourself.

I've never been wholly impressed by the "sport", you have to give the developers credit for producing an epic and highly competitive experience you'll probably still be enjoying with your mates long after Christmas.

The game may look like Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven, but its philosophy is unforgiving, with painfully limited ammo and a foe that can only be taken down with a headshot.

For now, it's the single player campaign – filled with stunning cut-scenes, music and voice acting – that prove the most compelling reasons to play this excellent sequel.

It manages a pretty impressive balancing act: non-gamers obsessed with Tron will love its ambience and authenticity, and may even discover they like games more than they thought. Yet it contains enough clever ideas, and is well-enough structured, to keep hardcore gamers interested, particularly given that it takes place in that seductive Tron universe.

But DKCR is a colourful, creative romp with one of Nintendo's oldest creations, and with all the hidden levels, bosses and treats thrown in, you'll still be playing it after Christmas.

When the hype settles, the new GoldenEye will probably not be as epoch-defining as the original. However, its pick-up-and-party multiplayer, and audacious and satisfying single-player mean that Goldeneye 007 on the Wii may wear the name with pride.

EA MMA is clearly a painstakingly researched, precisely realised game. Surprisingly impressive.

Sadly, the game has one glaring flaw: the camera has an annoying tendency to zoom in too close, particularly when you're fighting.

First time out, it scored four out of five, mostly for originality. This time round it scores the same purely for gameplay. That's definitely a (pin-striped ostrich) step forward.

Throw in some surprisingly nuanced storytelling, some boss battles that can only reasonably be described as mega, and what Namco have produced here is something of a masterpiece of the beat-'em-up genre. Splatterhouse is a vulgar, noisy, shallow, juvenile, gruesome gem of a game that never forgets to be fun, even when going out of its way to be as appalling as possible.

It goes without saying that, yet again, Sports Interactive has released the best football management sim ever. It's just very hard work at times.

Thanks to a bevy of pre-loaded Setlists and Road Challenges, you now have an attractive and instant alternative to World Tour – which is still there and as rigorous as ever.