Forza Horizon 2
Xbox 360, Xbox One

Forza Horizon 2 thinks of cars the way 80s technology ads thought of women: as objects to be aggressively and lasciviously ogled. That means lingering close-ups of rain-beaded bonnets and mud-spattered wheel arches as you progress through the game’s luscious recreation of southern Europe. There’s an enormous variety of vehicles from Transit vans to Bugatti Veyrons and it’s a game that delights in keeping you in the driving seat, giving ample incentive to drive between events, enjoying the scenery and upgrades earned in the process.

Microsoft, £32.94-£49

RGB Express – Mini Truck Puzzle
iOS

Touch screens are perfect for the kind of small, brightly coloured puzzle games that used to be the sole province of Nintendo’s post-Game Boy handheld machines. With that in mind, Bad Crane’s RGB Express certainly looks charming, its chunky little delivery vans chugging around simply drawn maps, picking up and dropping off parcels while avoiding travelling twice down the same stretch of road. But like so many of its disappointing stablemates, RGB Express only looks the part, its levels proving unutterably dull, lacking the invention and ingenuity that make games such as Pullblox or Mario Vs Donkey Kong so rewarding.

Bad Crane Ltd, £1.99

Stronghold Crusader 2, PC

In Stronghold Crusader 2, you must gather resources, build and defend your castle, and attack opponents’ fortifications. Playing first as Richard the Lionheart, you then swap sides to play as Saladin, defending the Holy Land from the infidel, before heading off to build castles from scratch in skirmish mode. There are rough edges galore: it’s difficult, and the interface is so clunky that in the heat of battle you’ll be wildly cursing like an enraged inn keeper, but there’s a complex and detailed resource-management and real-time strategy game underneath all that. And at least this is one Middle Eastern conflict that Tony Blair won’t have an opinion on.

Gambitious, £20.32-£29.99