Mass Effect 3 plunges you into an all-out galactic war to take Earth back from a nearly unstoppable foe – and how you fight that war is entirely up to you. Choose a fast-paced cinematic experience or delve into a deeper, more choice-driven narrative. Either way, intense combat propels the action as you fight to unite a war-torn galaxy against a common enemy.

By now you have probably read enough articles commenting on Dear Esther’s place as a piece of art and its questionable nature as a videogame in the traditional sense. With that in mind, I’m going to move very swiftly into why you should play Dear Esther: not because its some sort of redefinition of our hobby but because it is a genuinely affecting interactive experience.

While attempting to create its own identity, Rochard stumbles by becoming something we’ve seen many times before. A multi-utility gun is still a gun when you’ve got bad guys shooting at you.

A lot of folks, like with Dark Sector, suspected that we’d never get to play The Darkness II. However, after taking the franchise away from my beloved Starbreeze, themselves off to resurrect Syndicate for EA, 2K have handed over duties to a developer that has seen fit to start from scratch.

The formula for Trine 2 seems rather simple: Take the already engrossing gameplay of Trine, mix in online co-op and some new locations, and toss it out for mass consumption. In actuality, this formula yields something far better than the sum of these parts. Thanks to improved level design and some entirely new mechanics, Frozenbyte has managed to create a special experience for anyone who enjoys platformers.

Tower addictions take time to cure, and while you can lead a horse to many different types of towers you can not make it a commander. Not that we think of you as a horse. Horses are majestic creatures. You are more like a pony. A selfish pony. That doesn’t follow instruction.

It’s also fairly telling that despite writing the book on how to properly release episodic content, Telltale has decided to force users into a multiple episode purchasing model. To get into Jurassic Park: The Game, you’ll have to drop three sawbacks and honestly, that’s a big leap of faith for a game that looks like an original Xbox title… but Jurassic Park, right? Eh.

Holy crap. Serious Sam is back to barrage you with a myriad of familiar foes in the prequel to 2001’s smash hit Serious Sam: The FirstEncounter. The series is best known for being short on story and overloaded with teeth grinding intensity. SS3 has all of that and even has a semblance of an interesting overarching story this time around.

“SEGA Does. Nintendon’t.” A phrase immediately recognizable for gamers who were knee deep in the 16-bit era during the 1980 and 90’s. While Nintendo and SEGA have taken vastly different pathways to get to where they are today, their flagship mascots are always at the forefront. Speed was always the main focus of Sonic the Hedgehog’s series and perhaps that is the inherent long term flaw – being for the most part, a one-trick-pony.

Watching just one of the promotional videos for ‘The Third’ will tell you that any attempts to ape GTAs sincerity have been wholly abandoned.

This game is absolutely fucking nuts.

The story told here isn’t anything great. A simple, manufactured tale that throws plenty of fan service at the player and based on some minor quote from Gandalf or someone. Whenever you hit a safe location, the typical outcome is “well, the Fellowship is going this way, but we need you… IN THE NORTH!” Contrived, but it works and isn’t important. Here, the hacks and slashes are what matter. Did you like those Snowblind games I mentioned before? Yeah, you’ll be cool here, just give it a little time before it really clicks.

Not too long ago World War theatres were the predominant setting for some of the largest FPS franchises in both the PC and console market. The shift towards a more modern era was gradual, but today it has established itself as the time period of choice for these popular franchises. These titles all have evolved in their own way and Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad is no different.

To the Moon is a genuinely personal experience, and your mileage may certainly vary. Despite my gripes about the game, when the credits rolled I loved where I had been taken.