Wargaming.net should also be praised for the careful line the game treads between being an arcade game and full on tank sim. It's accessible enough that you can master the controls in seconds, but detailed enough to satisfy hardcore tankheads.

Forza 4 has great controls, interesting opponents, well-implemented online and semi-online modes, super smooth graphics, and can be customised to suit each player perfectly. The engines sound meaty and real - if your sub-woofer is good enough - and it even uses the Kinect in an effective, unobtrusive way.

The most moreish and brilliant game I've played in years. It's responsible for me dreaming in shades of blue for the last three nights running and I wouldn't have it any other way.

A truly fantastic game, a worthy sequel in almost every way and a joy to play. It may not pack the surprise-factor of the original game – a fact which deprives GlaDOS especially of much of her early power – but it's still just as fun, fast, funny and fantastic as we'd expect a second Portal game to be.

If there's one aspect of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings that's worth singling out, it's the fact that it's not afraid to punish you when you make a mistake. This fact, more than the gorgeous graphics, the stellar script or the incredible depth that's been built on and around Andrzej Sapkowski's lore, is what defines The Witcher 2.

Skyrim is a huge and engaging world to explore and it treats you with great moments, from your first dragon encounter to finally being able to craft dwarven armour.

Trine 2 is a fantastic game, just like its predecessor, and one which we feel we can easily and flatly recommend to gamers of all tastes and ability levels - no matter who you are, you can't help but love Trine 2.

If you love games about simply blowing up things in a stunning fashion Renegade Ops is unsurpassed. It's only made even better with local co-op for two players, or four players online, where it stands on its own two feet as a modern master class of the genre.

Yes, Limbo channels the poems of our inner teenagers about being misunderstood and lonely, but it does so bravely and beautifully, and it is a better game for it; a game that should not be missed.

Big, bold and ceaselessly bleak; a world where you really feel like you need the friends you've built over the last two titles. If you've come this far, it's a sin not to go further.

The combat isn't the best you'll ever play, the dialogue not the punchiest, the stealth not the sneakiest...But that's missing the point. Human Revolution is a game to take as an entire experience, where you can shift at will from having exciting gunfights to crawling around in vents, and where every victory is all the sweeter for knowing you chose to do it that way.

Dear Esther definitely isn't a product which everyone will appreciate - the walking-talking pace tends to polarise audiences quickly - but those who are tempted to try it out would be much advised to do so. You won't be disappointed.

Battlefield 3's multiplayer is a triumph, and while the single player campaign isn't the most original, or entertaining shooter, it's the online modes that will keep us playing for months to come.

Happiness and distraction; that's what gaming is all about really and it's something that Minecraft, for all its abstractions and division, delivers in spades. You can build cathedrals with your friends; create macro-scale machines on your own or simply drift, floating through impossible landscapes that can bend to your will - do anything you want! That alone gives Minecraft a little bit of magic.

While points have to be docked for the annoying QTEs, the rest of The Run is amazingly exhilarating. The set pieces left us panting for breath, unable to process what had just happened, and the excitement level only dropped to 'really exciting' in between.

Rock of Ages has faults - it's samey and repetitive in long-play sessions, for example, and if the trailers don't tickle you then there's little chance the full game will impress. However, considering the low price and artistic spark that lies at the heart of the game, Rock of Ages becomes a difficult game to turn down, even if the mechanical side of the experience doesn't quite rival the creative side, and there are occasional glitches with the physics of enemy AI.

Fantastically fun and tight design.

The only aspect of The Darkness 2 which doesn't carry a balancing good/bad caveat are the graphics, which are irrefutably extraordinary.

A brave game, trying new ideas while also staying fundamentally similar. There are weaknesses in the recipes that Rocksteady has created - we can't say we're personally won over by the open world approach - but a weakness isn't a failure and it can't be overlooked that Arkham City is still a very strong game.

Here is a game that uses metaphor and wit to weave a story in which a demented young girl does battle with robotic march hares. It may still gyre and gimble along the wabe, which stops it from being truly frabjous, but it's still brillig in its own right.

Gunplay that is this fluid – Run! Slide under obstacles! Jump! Slow-mo! Shoot those grenades! Kick that guy! – takes a long time to get old. Those hoping for a sophisticated and thrilling horror will be severely disappointed, but those who'll be happy with just a quite good shooter will be pleasantly surprised indeed.

Dead Rising 2: Off the Record has problems - and that's compounded by the fact that some of those issues are inherited, rather than new. It's a game with strengths too though, and while Off the Record doesn't prove to be any better than Dead Rising 2 on the whole, it certainly isn't any worse.

Regardless of the unapologetically generic setting and aesthetics though, Prejudice's scale, depth and accessibility make it a very attractive option for some cheap multiplayer gaming. It doesn't do anything new, but it does old things well enough to be worth a look, despite a few niggles and flaws.

When we played Crysis 2 on the consoles, we honestly could have taken or left it. Only on the PC do we feel comfortable recommending and replaying Crytek's best game yet – and its first chance of matching technical prowess with good game design.

It's almost impossible to die in Rage - and once you realise that it becomes hard to shake the blasé approach that the lack of fear generates. Rage's impressive variety and commitment to casual and hardcore alike is its greatest strength, but also its biggest weakness.

Sanctum isn't a truly great game – it needs more content and a few more customisation options to earn that recognition in our eyes. Still, even as it is at the moment, it comes pretty close and provides a brilliant, if short-term, gaming fix.

Universe Sandbox isn't a game per se; there are no bosses, aims or levels, merely an accurate model of astronomical bodies for you to fiddle with. It's really more of a toy – the virtual equivalent of a configurable orrery, except hugely more complex than any mechanical system.

Despite several irritations, there's a lot of innovation in this title, and a lot of fun to be had with enough varied mission designs to prevent it from getting stale.