Fallout 4; Call of Duty: Black Ops 3; Football Manager 2016, gaming reviews

The developers have added a few extra activities and distractions to the normal quests

Fallout 4 is an enormously engrossing adventure through an interesting landscape with some wonderful distractions

Fallout 4

****

PC/Xbox One/PS4 (£39.99)

It's the usual drill: hundreds of years after a nuclear apocalypse, humanity is struggling to reclaim its place in the world.

In addition to the normal quests, crafting, cooking, etc, that you would associate with a Fallout game, the developers have added a few extra activities and distractions, my favourite of which are the town-creation tools.

Unfortunately, Fallout 4 does suffer from some pretty catastrophic frame-rate dips, but these will, hopefully, be patched out soon. This is an enormously engrossing adventure through an interesting landscape with some wonderful distractions.

Jack Fleming

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3

****

PS4/Xbox One/PC/PS3/Xbox 360 (£39.99)

The latest Black Ops has been three years in the making and it shows: not only does this fast-paced first-person shooter look great and come with a huge, four-player co-op campaign, but there is also the feeling that developer Treyarch has been packing in as many features as possible.

This 12th entry in the Call of Duty franchise may be hot on cliches but there is also a sense that anything goes. Yet it works. Loud and bombastic, it feels fresh and fun.

David Crookes

Football Manager 2016

****

PC/Mac/Linux (£32.99)

It's that time of the year, as self-proclaimed football managers across the world gear up to take their chosen team to glory. Fans of the previous Football Manager games will know that the developer, Sports Interactive, has often gone for smaller tweaks each year, rather than large changes, and this year sees no exception.

But it does see more in-depth match analysis and multi-match highlights to allow you to keep an eye on rival teams' performances.

Matt Vowles