Games

What is it about the Transformers franchise that videogames companies find hard to get right? On the surface it's as simple as getting together a bunch of 30-foot tall robots that transform into a variety of vehicles and unleashing them on each other. It's the kind of premise most developers would die for.

In the four years since it first battered it's way out of the arcades and on to home consoles, Capcom's Street Fight IV has reigned supreme as the king of the one-on-one beat em 'ups. While much of this is down to the game's brilliant mechanics, its hasn't hurt that the developer has kept a stream of updates and expansions coming (both as standalone releases and DLC), offering new characters and countless gameplay tweaks.

One of the most revered franchises in videogame history returns for another slice of Nazi-fighting fun, five years after the previous offering. Set in an alternate universe where the Nazis won World War II and now seek complete global domination, Wolfenstein: The New Order reunites joypad-wielders with series hero B.J. Blazkowicz, freshly roused (in the 1960s) from a coma in a Polish asylum. Soon, you're hot-footing it across Europe, trying to help the Resistance halt Nazi expansion.

This next-gen reboot of the turn-based strategy game that made a name for itself on the PC back in 1994 has emerged as a strong contender for the title of the best videogame release of 2012. Not only does XCOM: Enemy Unknown transform a rather niche genre into something that can appeal to all gamers (including those who ordinarily would never touch a strategy game – such as Team HCC), it also succeeds in mapping the complex PC control scheme perfectly to a console gamepad – arguably a first for any developer.