Simply a must-have puzzle game. [Sept 2010, p.101]

Guardian of Light crackles with energy, and Crystal Dynamics has clearly relished adding a different dynamic to the franchise. By marrying top-down shooter mechanics with a tidy co-op mode, it adds something the series was long thought to have lost: a sense of fun.

Co-op is the highlight, adding mechanics like floating sun energy that's reaped by both players hovering their cursor over it, and dividing the job of dropping plants by giving each player four seed packets. It's well-balanced strategy that isn't hardcore, but is fertilised by adorable comedy.

But these disappointments are dwarfed by the game's vast imagination, ambitious scope, entertaining combat, boss battles, Titan battles, puzzles and power-ups. Lords of Shadow is an epic and slightly unexpected triumph.

It's tough, but also bloody funny.

Fallout: New Vegas does betray the age of its engine every now and then, but it also shows why it has aged so well, powering the same tasty mix of great gameplay, endless side-quests and a world to get lost in.

The main reason you'll keep returning to DJ Hero 2 is for a love of the music. Simply playing along with any of the tunes in the game is a thoroughly entertaining experience - particularly when you get the chance to commandeer the crossfader or perform some freestyle scratching and sampling.

It's aspirational, inspirational, educational, and eminently valuable. It's not only an achievement within its own genre, but a landmark for the entire medium as well.

If you want your Christmas to be characterised by tears of laughter, this is an essential purchase.

When all is said and done, this is the 'proper' Call of Duty fans have been waiting for. [Issue#67, p.84]

It's not perfect, but Hot Pursuit is still the kind of collision between Criterion and Need For Speed you'd hope for. It pays respect to the classic NFS games, borrows the best bits from Burnout and is a technical masterpiece. The chase to reclaim NFS's once legendary chart topping form is well and truly on.

Of the five there's only one genuine dud. Phu Bai Valley is an indistinct, formless and aesthetically muddy mess, made even worse if you play it in Rush mode with its arbitrary barriers. The other four, however, are some of the best Battlefield maps we've seen.

Madden 11 is without a doubt the best American football game on the Xbox 360. [Issue#65, p.85]

The best fitness title on the Xbox 360.

Unnecessary multiplayer aside, Dead Space 2 is a corker. It's an unpredictable powder-keg of [a] game; even when you get mulched by the Necromorphs it's great to see just how many chunks your corpse has been blown into. [Feb 2011, p.88]

Red Dead's outstanding DLC in a box. Simple as.

Wildly chaotic but obscenely enjoyable. [Mar 2011, p.91]

Strong, simple concept, executed beautifully. [Mar 2011, p.102]

Original, beautiful, and one of a kind.

An early contender for game of the year. It really is that spectacular. While the hand of Epic is evident, as the team that did the bulk of the work this catapults People Can Fly onto our list of the most exciting shooter devs on the Xbox 360. Brilliant writing, unparalleled production values and thunderous action: this deserves to be number one with a bullet.

The passion that BG&E inspires makes it too easy to gloss over the flaws - it'll take you a while to get used to the hyper-sensitive camera, the acting is choppy, and Jade's fighting style is uninspired. But this is a game in which killing comes second to the story, puzzles, the world, and the characters - it's 10-15 hours of genuinely compelling pleasure.

Crysis 2 skates on the thin ice of its own excellence. There are weaknesses, that might - if the mode-swapping suitplay hadn't been so strong - have dragged the game down. But the story and combat [are] strong enough to carry you through, and if you've got the stomach for competitive multiplayer, the Nanosuit will bring a new world of sneaky, high-jumping tactics to your online game. [Apr 2011, p.84 MC]

Champion Mode's story makes you care more about the fights. [Apr 2011, p.102]

Commandos Strike Force achieves the impossible - it's a wargame that's innovative and interesting to play. Switching characters in the middle of a battle keeps the pace high, while the solo chapters use each fighter and their skills to their fullest.

Juggling impossibly huge gaming areas with varied, consistent, imaginative gameplay, it has managed to create a slice of Southern American comic violence that begs to be played. [Oct 2006, p.64]

GRAW is brimming with atmosphere, has brilliant, open levels and challenging AI that will put your shooting skills to the test. [April 2006, p.74]

FIFA 07 is fantastic. The reworked gameplay feels so right and its Xbox Live support is amazing. [Nov 2006, p.66]

If you know anything about good games, you'll love it as much as we do. [April 2006, p.70]

Vampire Smile is the product of just one man. Everything, from the slick lo-fi graphics layered with intense lighting effects, to the urgent, industrial music, is by James Silva....Don't be too quick to be jealous.

A faithful upgrade of a handheld classic.

Kinect aside, it's genuinely smashing.

DiRT 3 is one of those rare games that delivers both quality and quantity. Everything is laser-engineered to improve on the brilliant previous game. The only misstep is the anodyne Career mode interface - lots of people will be baffled by the decision to replace the bustling 3D service area with something stylish yet hollow.

The ending lets it down. The most intriguing story arc ends midway through, leaving a grander but less interesting twist to play out in an endgame that ties off the story in a clumsy and unsatisfying fashion. It's an ignoble end to a game that works so hard to keep you involved, but it doesn't stop the journey being a fascinating one, and something that manages to feel like an entirely fresh experience.

An ambient platforming essential. [July 2011, p.102]

Beneath the visuals and the voice-over, Bastion is actually a fairly standard action RPG, but the abundance of different challenges and puzzles, combined with that beguiling narration, makes it something rather special.

Street Fighter nuts will already have bought this without a second thought; if you remember the good old days of 2D fighters, this is the pinnacle.

The best bit of Fallout DLC so far.

Don't be fooled by the identikit visuals: Crimson Alliance is frantic, fresh, and utterly brilliant.

The story isn't amazing, but it takes a cheerful back seat to spending time with the characters we've all grown to love over the last five years. And, best of all, nearly all of the loose ends are tied up. In single-player it's easily the best game of the series - and online the Horde, Deathmatch and Beast modes stand a good chance of making you forget about Battlefield and Call of Duty. Bravo, Epic.

While it's never going to be as surprising or novel as Codies' first stab at Formula One, for a seasonal update there's a remarkable number of tweaks and changes, all of which are for the better. What's more, the game has become one of the most substantial and compelling multiplayer racing offerings around and, with the addition of co-op at whatever diffi culty you choose, is more inclusive for all skill levels than the majority of online racers.

When you consider the revised physics engine and fine-tuned player AI, this year's FIFA steps up as one of the best updates in a long time. A goal machine of a game and a compulsive purchase that not even Arsene Wenger could resist.

For a game that's sometimes frighteningly unfair, it's shocking just how compelling Dark Souls is. While the first game was merely ruthless, its successor feels like full-on psychological warfare - we've played difficult games before, but this is the first we've seen that actively seems to be conspiring against you.

Forza Motorsport 4 is a racing game that tries to be all things to all people, and you know what? It actually pulls it off.

The game doesn't benefit from the novelty of Rocksteady's first, pitch-perfect effort, but based on the quality and beauty of Gotham's pair of correctional institutes, we're perfectly happy to be incarcerated again.

Our favourite addition is the brilliantly insane Karaoke mode, which enables you to sing along to instrumental versions of the famous theme music. Less hilariously, but more usefully, there's support for eight players over Xbox Live to replicate the legendary showdowns that occurred at amusement arcades around the world in the mid-'90s.

A clear improvement on its already-excellent predecessor and is now absolutely the dance game that Kinect deserves. Those who can't stomach the more narrow selection of musical genres will be upset, but this is still the slickest, sexiest dance game around.

For a renewed sense of wonder about Kinect, simply play this game. In exactly the same fashion as last year, Rare is at the cutting edge of what the device is capable of and as a result Kinect Sports Season 2 is, yet again, an essential sports game.

Without question a better game than the previous three CoD games and easily the most spectacular in the series.

There's no downside, save an easily-forgiven sense of familiarity and the absence of online co-op. You can't even resort to the usual retro-gaming caveat of high difficulty - the learning curve is perfectly judged, the checkpoints agreeably spaced. This is the year's best platformer without the faintest shadow of a doubt.

The love that's gone into this HD remake makes it more than worth its budget price. If you've never checked out this series, don't get bogged down by details: Halo is about a big bloke shooting cool guns at cool aliens in cool places. Ten years later, that's still enough.

A glorious example of how much fun there is to be had when you let rip with both barrels. Screw reality - ridiculous overblown madness like this is exactly why video games are so great. Thanks for justifying our pastime, Volition.

While the years haven't been too kind to their spruced-up SD assets, the chance to fully experience the MGS saga is one Xbox 360 owners definitely shouldn't pass up.

Trine 2 is a vivid and stunning game that spins the colour wheel on nature. It's completely absorbing as a single-player experience and bawdy puzzle fun with company. Just remember to turn on the unlimited mode and get stuck in.

It's one of the best shooter-stories we've seen in years - justifying its own ludicrous nature in interesting and unexpected ways. If the ending didn't feel like such a cop-out, The Darkness II could have been on par with BioShock. As it is, the gripping narrative and wonderfully empowering combat mean you'll be talking about it for months after completing it.

As a series reboot this is perfectly acceptable, but it's the new and innovative online aspects that make SSX feel absolutely superb. Packed to the brim with clever ideas, SSX is a truly unmissable surprise. While most other online modes feel like painting-by-numbers, SSX shrugs and tries something refreshingly different. This isn't just brave - it's brilliant.

A fantastically substantial fighting game. If Marvel vs Capcom 3 was too wacky for your tastes, this sits comfortably between it and Street Fighter IV on the lunacy spectrum. The tag mechanic is brilliantly robust, there are loads of new moves to master and the Tekken characters slot in more comfortably than a bum in a favourite armchair. Welcome to your new favourite fighting game.

At 800 MP, Forces of Nature is hard to resist. Epic's final and most dramatic dose of Season Pass content turns out to be its most conciliatory, a club sandwich of new and warmed-over jollies that belongs on every menu.

Sine Mora is a brilliant shooter that doesn't burst immediately into life. But once you pick up the ways in which it tests you, dicks you around, and emasculates you, it'll be one of the best abusive relationships you've ever been in.

A huge, complex and expertly written RPG that has the capacity to consume weeks, maybe even months of your life. While its roots are on the PC, it's translated effortlessly to the Xbox 360 with no compromises and stacks up well against the prettiest games on the system. It's more hardcore than Skyrim but by no means inaccessible.

Relentlessly clever and deviously charming. [May 2012, p.85]

The brilliant thing is how carefully stage-managed this madness is... A bizarre but brilliant online brawler. [May 2012, p.98]

Trimming off dead-weight as often as it adds something new, this is the strongest LEGO game yet. We've had seven years' worth of iterations, but these cheeky blocks of plastic are still fantastic.

Despite the blatantly rushed execution, it's impossible not to love The Walking Dead Episode 2. This is thought-provoking, clever, and genuinely grown-up entertainment. Heart-rending decisions and spectacular pacing make this one of the most intense gaming experiences we've ever had.

Even if you're confined to single player, Spelunky is yet another small but perfectly formed nugget of joy to be unearthed on the Games Marketplace. Like Fez, Joe Danger and Super Meat Boy before it, the charm simply oozes out of the screen and leaves a saccharine sticky patch at the base of your TV. That initial infuriation crystallises into solid determination and 1200MP buys you an endless supply of levels against which to test your wits and skills.

A game of rich variety and strong personality that never gets boring over its ten essential hours - many more if you stop to check out the full and entertaining world... It's shorter than GTA IV, for sure, but it's also much sweeter. [Sept 2012, p.82]

It's Virtua Fighter 5, only tarted up. [Sept 2012, p.105]

Lee is the best protagonist we've seen in years, and his relationship with the group continues to fascinate. Delicate, thoughtful, and unreservedly brutal - The Walking Dead is one of the most mature gaming experiences that money can buy. This is the most exciting game of 2012, and you won't even find it sitting on shelves. Hop onto Xbox Live and buy it immediately, before we're forced to destroy your head and/or brains.

This ninja is marked for greatness.

Codemasters has tweaked the driving physics to work surprisingly well with a stock Xbox 360 controller.

The words "awesome" and "badass" are used a lot in this game, but Gearbox has earned the right. When you gunzerk into a crowd of bandits, get killed, and your shield's nova kicks in, wiping everyone out and bringing you back to life, you'll think so too.

Dribbling's expanded, players are fallible, and online modes complement the real world unlike any sports title before it.

Dishonored is an evocative game. Even without knowing the pedigree of its key developers, you won't fail to spot similarities to the angular black steel of City 17 in Dunwall's quarantine barriers. The European twist on old London is true to the concept art, and what the textures lack in up-close resolution, the world makes up for in grand complexity and generous options.

Sophisticated, unnerving and reliably unforgiving, XCOM: Enemy Unknown isn't just Xbox 360's finest strategy experience - it's also a strategy game which changes how you think about strategy games. Go into it expecting a deadening flow of unlocks and build queues, and you'll get a nasty surprise. Approach the game as you would an odd noise in the basement, and the Earth might just have a fighting chance.

As a street-legal version of a purebred racer, Horizon is something that anybody with an interest in cars can pick up quickly and play for ages. And if you don't like cars already, well, it might just persuade you.

Artorias of the Abyss successfully revitalizes your initial wonder through Dark Souls' world, and for that it's worth every Microsoft Point.

343's attempts at endowing this carefully constructed husk of a protagonist with psychological depth are predictably timid.

Everything about the world revolves around entertaining you, whether it's the wide scope of murder-options or the amazing dialogue in between. Whatever kind of killer you decide you want to be, Absolution is an unmissable hit. [Dec 2012, p.68]

Indie fun that jumps through all our hoops. [Dec 2012, p.79]

More time-travel sci-fi needs heel kicks. [Dec 2012, p.87]

The Walking Dead offers a level of narrative quality that outshines anything else currently available in gaming. It makes the TV series of the same name look dull, poorly paced, and insignificant. These are the most important games released this year, and we simply can't recommend them enough.

Far Cry 3 isn't too much of a departure, once you actually get to grips with the landscape that stretches behind that fidgety, histrionic exterior. It is, however, handily the best game in the series so far, and deserves to hold its head high among this winter's noisy crowd of sandbox offerings. If madness is repetition, this is one reworking of a formula I don't mind losing my mind to.

If you never played RAGE, buy it. Then buy this. Play it, love it, and when the "Insert Disc 2" prompt pops up, simply walk away, smiling.

The combat system is deep, satisfying, and just welcoming enough to let you in, before losing the smile, slapping your face and making you pay attention. Ninja Theory has bottled Danté's soul, and given him an excellent new life.

One of the finest console strategy games ever. [Jan 2013, p.96]

The combat is gripping, taking a successful formula and bulking it out in ways that make it more demanding, tactical and entertaining...You're expecting a 'but', and we've got one. The only place where Infinite falls any distance short of brilliance is in its own audacious plot.

Generous almost to excess, Battleblock Theater is one of Xbox Live Arcade's masterworks, and a reminder that genuine, bona fide imagination is possible even in the twilight of a console generation.

Deficits notwithstanding, this is a superb port of what may be the best survival-horror game on Xbox since Dead Space first lurched onto the scene.

This is solidly built, quality gaming, made by a team that's put a lot of care into adapting the license. [June 2006, p.62]

The big word this year is 'depth', and with 217 new and classic teams (yes, we counted), tons of new gameplay features and both an in-depth Franchise Mode and an all-new Superstar Mode, there's plenty here to keep fans happy until 08 inevitably rears its helmet-wearing head. [Oct 2006, p.74]

It's amazingly easy to play, user-friendly, good fun and looks great throughout, but you may still find yourself completing it in a couple of sittings... A classy game that's a joy from start to finish. [Apr 2006, p.54]