OUR look at the latest games

Marvel's Spider-Man *****

PS4; Action

£47.99

MARVEL'S Spider-Man achieves the remarkable feat of making Spidey and his world feel fresh. This Peter Parker is a veteran crime-fighter and within moments you're swinging through New York's skyline like a pro, thanks to intuitive controls that immediately convey a matured Spider-Man's potency and power. Later upgrades enhance your lethal skillset still further, supercharging the already superb Arkham-style combat. There are irritations: 'Real-time' crimes like bank robberies are actually scripted events rather than features of the free-roaming city environment, breaking the magic slightly, while the terrible hacking puzzles fail to offer the same quality of slower-paced gaming as Batman's detective sequences. But with its terrific plot, all-action fisticuffs and awesome visuals, Marvel's Spider-Man is a blockbuster PS4 exclusive.

Skip to the end: A top-quality PS4 exclusive to make Xbox owners weep

Victor Vran: Overkill Edition *****

Switch; RPG

£34.99

SUCCESSFULLY blending the energetic skirmishing of Devil May Cry with the loot-hungry depth of Diablo, Victor Vran: Overkill Edition forges a distinctive adventure that is easily the rival of such big names. It even echoes DMC's combination of sword and gunplay without feeling unoriginal, and shotguns are joined by revolvers in the Motorhead-themed expansion included in this edition. The secret ingredients are timing-based combat (precise button presses equal devastating assaults) that rewards practice, a levelling system that turns the traditional grind into more of a breakneck honing, and varied zone-based challenges to keep things interesting. Victor Vran has both the impressive commitment to fine details (the inventory interface is exemplary) and the inventive approach to familiar territory of a true classic.

Skip to the end: An inspired action RPG with its own innovative flair

Shadows: Awakening ***

PC, Xbox One, PS4; RPG

£34.99

IN Shadows: Awakening's overly serious, David Gemmell-esque fantasy you play a demon called The Devourer, who moves in the shadow world but can consume human souls and use them as conscious 'puppets'. On the one hand, this creates intriguing conflicts between your characters as the fleshy slaves complain about being violated. But on the other, it powers a fussy experience where isometric dungeon hack-'n'-slashing is broken up by arbitrary obstacles, passable only by switching between worlds. Like chasms in the human world, walls in the shadow world and guards the Devourer can't pass straight through like he can every other human. Then there's the uninspired bestiary and stiff feel to the fighting, making Shadows: Awakening an encounter to avoid.

Skip to the end: Undermines its own good ideas with ambitionless execution

Dive Inside ***

iPad/iPhone; Action

£0.79

DIVE Inside's enticing set up drops you into a miniature sub probing the depths for floating treasure. Hit the sea bed or underwater rock formations and you're dead. Get caught by a hostile sub, you're dead. Trapped without oxygen, dead. You must survive the return trip to upgrade your craft for longer dives, while each watery grave resets you to the surface, your haul left where you perished. But all too often, the poor difficulty balancing leaves you irretrievably ensnared, unable to afford the upgrades you desperately need in order to reclaim your last haul or reach new treasure. Dive Inside ought to be a thrilling, risky plunge but it all too quickly descends into a futile and frustrating exercise.

Skip to the end: The initial excitement soon gives way to unfair disappointment