Games

Thanks to the licensing deals controlling their motion picture outings comic book fans are unlikely to see Marvel superheroes Spider-Man, Wolverine and Iron Man joining forces at the multiplex for quite some time. Thankfully, the same restrictions don't exist when it comes to this latest LEGO game, giving you the chance to play as any of the publisher's best-loved heroes and villains (and plenty of the more obscure ones as well).

TT Games has been knocking out this type of licensed LEGO game for almost a decade now, so you'd have every right to think that it would have perfected the formula. Indeed, many would argue that it did just that with last year's supremely enjoyable LEGO Marvel Super Heroes. However, the recent speed-up in the arrival of new releases has also seen a decrease in quality – first with the incredibly glitchy The LEGO Movie Videogame and now with the unnecessarily fussy LEGO The Hobbit.

Few game developers are capable of delivering such lavish cinematics for their titles as Square Enix. Boasting production values that appear to dwarf those of some animated movies, the biggest beneficiary of this has been the Final Fantasy series of RPGs. And Lighting Returns… is no different.

The first couple of Max Payne games played like the hard-boiled crime fiction of Frank Miller’s Sin City comics filtered through the action of vintage John Woo movies. With the franchise now coming under the control of Grand Theft Auto creators Rockstar Games, this belated third entry looks to shake things up in terms of aesthetics. As evidenced by the mis-registered imagery, random subtitles and sickly green and yellow palette, this is Max Payne as envisioned by somebody who has spent too much time watching Tony Scott’s Man on Fire and Domino [that’s me – HCC Ed].

Stealth has always been the cornerstone of Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid franchise. Sneaking around and avoiding detection is its entire raison d'être. Or at least it was, until now. Trust us – this isn't your typical Metal Gear... outing.

The news that Hideo Kojima was leaving Konami came as a blow to gamers around the world – but if this really is his final Metal Gear Solid game then he couldn't have come up with a better way to bow out. Make no mistake about it …The Phantom Pain is an exceptional gaming experience that is sure to be sitting at the top of most 'Game of the Year' lists when 2015 draws to a close.

Highly regarded sci-fi shooter Metro 2033 gets fashionably remastered for its next-gen console debut and the result is a significant visual improvement over the original. But there’s more to this timely remaster than extra pixels; the gameplay feels genuinely cinematic, with some great high-definition lighting and atmospheric effects. It also runs at a smooth 1080p60 on the PS4 (version tested), which really complements the FPS shenanigans.