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With their brightly coloured hats and denim dungarees, there isn't a golf course in the world that would welcome Mario and Luigi in real life. Fortunately, while Mario Golf is good at simulating the game's physics, it's a lot less po-faced, offering numerous game modes, power-up shots, RPG-style elements and familiar Nintendo mascots to play as and against that separate it from stultifying realism. There's nothing here that hasn't been done before in past Mario Golf outings, or that might be mistaken for innovation, but at least the wholesale recycling means that everything's been polished to perfection, the beautifully detailed courses and golfers underpinned by game mechanics that have been refined over 15 years of tradition. If you're looking for a solid game of golf, you won't be disappointed, but you won't find a new perspective on hitting small balls with long clubs here.

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Hearthstone: Heroes Of Warcraft, PC, Mac & iOS

Although it uses characters from World Of Warcraft, Hearthstone is entirely separate. Instead, it's a collectible card game that pits you against another player or AI opponent on a chunky little board, where each play is depicted with sparkly graphical touches and hefty sound effects. Inspired by fellow collectible card battler Magic: The Gathering, this is simpler and more welcoming, but still manages to offer an array of strategic options that expands as you earn or buy cards for your deck. Although "free to play" is often shorthand for "surprisingly expensive to play", Hearthstone generously garnishes players with gold and new cards, and given patience and enough time you can scale the leaderboards without spending anything at all, building up decks from scratch through luck and tactical victories.

Blizzard Entertainment, free