Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

It's hard to put a finger on what exactly Assassin's Creed Brotherhood is meant to be, in terms of a continuation of the series. It's not a sequel as such, and for that I am glad; if Ubisoft could genuinely pump out a fully-fledged sequel to such a polished game as Assassin's Creed II in just a year I would be seriously concerned about its quality. It's not in a different time period, you're still playing as Ezio, and just about every character, weapon and move you saw in Assassin's Creed II is here too. However, it's not just a repeat either, being in a fully redesigned city and with the new emphasis on teamwork, in single player and multiplayer. It's an interesting move, a 'semi-sequel' if you will, and definitely something fans of the series and its storyline will want to test the water with, though it leaves me wondering whether Ubi should perhaps have saved their efforts for Assassin's Creed III.

Following directly on from the events of Assassin's Creed II, players are put straight back into the boots of the now-seasoned veteran that is Ezio Auditore da Firenze, and he has some business to clear up. Strangely, this really is the case - Brotherhood hardly sees the Assassin guilds pursuing the members of the secret society of Templars, but rather has Ezio hunting down his family rivals, the Borgia, who are more often a troublesome bunch of aristocrats than an organised, villainous faction bent on control of the Pieces of Eden. Cesare is a detestable enemy, sure, and certainly enough so to motivate the player to continue with Ezio's quest, but don't expect to be facing an evil mastermind like Al Mualim at the game's climax. Throughout the game you'll make your way up the 'ladder' until the Borgia are weak enough to be taken head-on, and this will require the usual grind: creeping into buildings undetected, trailing targets, and in some cases having to heroically fight your way out of some sticky situations. However this time, Brotherhood takes us to a place we got only a glimpse of in Assassin's Creed II - Rome.

Being the capital of Italy, Rome is considerably larger than Florence and Venice; even bigger than both put together, in fact. Its architecture is noticeably different, too, as instead of having the contemporary Renaissance-style brickwork and tiles the other cities had, it sports a much more classical style, with many remains of old Roman temples and landmarks scattered throughout. Most importantly, it incorporates in one big map just about all the elements of the formerly used cities and towns, and this can be good and bad. On one hand, it provides one location for the story to be set without need for fast travel and always makes the action feel like it's happening on home turf, but unfortunately it also struggles by having a heck of a lot of open ground, similar to that of the Tuscany map. An open field is no place for an assassin, and with the horse controls feeling as clunky as ever I felt often that it was a chore getting to the southern corners of Rome.

As the name 'Brotherhood' suggests, Ezio is not alone this time. Being the new 'Mentore' of the Assassin Guild, his job is now also to recruit and train new assassins, who will later be at your beck and call for when things get messy, or need a quick and quiet execution. Training assassins has been made a simple, yet satisfying task; once recruited, you use pigeon coops to send them on missions across the world for EXP points. The higher level they are, the more likely they will survive the more dangerous and rewarding missions, and there are few things in the game as awesome as calling in a trio of fully-trained and armed assassins at that crucial moment.

Oddly, however, this teamwork mechanic only enters the game after quite a few hours have passed, and it is only from this point onwards that the game really holds its own as something new and exciting. The game in general, I found, struggled badly with some pacing issues, and when I look back on it I often think of the first two or three hours of Brotherhood as 'the worst Assassin's Creed I have played' - the missions are dull, the storyline is uninspired and it seems that everything you worked hard to earn in Creed II has been mysteriously lost as you go back to using the Common Sword and little else. I wasn't exactly expecting to start with the Altair Sword, but at least give us some new abilities to make up for the sudden loss - these are the events directly following, after all.

That said, when Brotherhood picks up steam, Ubi's dab hand on the series once again begins to show. New weapons such as the utterly brilliant crossbow (easily my favourite weapon, from all the games), a refined and more stylish combat system, new moves such as horse-to-horse assassinations - these are just a few additions, and from here on out it's the Assassin's Creed you love and more, all the way to the finish.

Brotherhood's campaign is roughly 12 to 15 hours long, and this really depends on how long you care to spend finding collectibles and rebuilding Rome to its former glory. After that, Ubisoft have provided what was totally unexpected for the series - multiplayer. In this, you play as Templar agents, using the Animi to catch and kill Assassins. There are multiple game types, pitting different team sizes against each other and having different objectives, but the main goal is to act inconspicuously , sneak up on your target and go in for the kill before they know what's happening. On the whole, this is fairly well designed, with particularly impressive civilian AI which really keeps the prey on their toes when trying to spot their predators. It comes with a host of upgrades, perks, and custom class settings for the dedicated, but for me this was precisely the problem. The multiplayer was original and very well polished indeed, but it wasn't something I could play for hours, nor get competitive over. This is personal taste of course, and I've no doubt some will be hooked, but there's something about walking slowly and carefully after your target, before suddenly bursting into chase that can get tiring quickly. I hope this is something Ubi improve on in the future, as this was some serious potential that wasn't quite realised.

Brotherhood seems to be a sign of a yearly Assassin's Creed, and this could be good or bad. The game is great, adding many new features to an already enthralling experience, but it still seems to feel like Assassin's Creed II with new tricks, instead of wholly coming into its own like the transition between the first two games did. Come for the story, stay for the 100% completion and multiplayer, and Creed fans will most likely love it, but I feel with a little more time put into Brotherhood it could have been something a whole lot more. 8/10

Call of Duty: Black Ops

The Call of Duty series and I have had a rocky relationship. While I greatly enjoyed Call of Duty 3, and to a lesser extent World at War's brutal yet believable portrayal of the Second World War in the Pacific and Berlin, the series' modern offerings have both greatly disappointed me, finding little excitement with either campaigns and nothing but extreme frustration in Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer. Black Ops however, Treyarch's latest entry to the series, fits in between these two starkly different eras. Taking place during the Cold War, it shows warfare as secretive and rapidly evolving, and Treyarch's work to rebalance the experience is noticeable and impressive.

Black Ops' campaign is not what one would expect from a Call of Duty game. For a start, it's not simply following orders from a radio involving clearing out trenches or assaulting an 'anonymous Middle Eastern terrorist faction', nor is a hideous mess like Modern Warfare 2's single player. Instead it tells an edgy and perhaps controversial story of a US Special Forces agent who, having escaped torture and testing at a Russian labour camp, must root out and destroy the Soviet Nova 6 Project, a deadly gas weapon that is planned to be used against the USA. It has its fair share of clichés, such as the stereotypical 'big bad Russians' and the age old 'going rogue' plan, but it also delivers plenty of twists and turns amongst the action, and is in my eyes the best Call of Duty campaign yet. Gary Oldman reprises his role as Viktor Reznov from World at War, now a weathered veteran and a central role, and plenty of new and diverse environments (from Cuba to Vietnam) keep the experience new at every corner, as does the franchise's trademark character switching, which helps to see the tale unfold from both sides. My main issue with the campaign was some pacing problems - the game begins with a bang in an attempt on Fidel Castro's life, and this extremity does not let up throughout. Sure, the story is well told and you are always aware of what you are fighting for, but with little to no down-time, many climactic moments lack punch. What couldn't have hit harder, however, is the ending which was an utterly stunning twist that defied expectation, and was one of the finest conclusions to a plot I have seen lately.

Albeit my favourite campaign of any Call of Duty released, as always it is not a lengthy experience, spanning 7 hours tops, and naturally multiplayer is the focus of the title. Modern Warfare 2 was the most popular multiplayer game of all time, meaning Black Ops has the expectations of several million players to live up to, but it also has some major balancing issues to deal with that Infinity Ward left behind. These issues are what turned me away from Modern Warfare in the first place, and I approached Black Ops' online mode with apprehension. Fortunately, my fears were dashed away, and multiplayer on Call of Duty is finally, for me, the addictive and rewarding experience that I could not find since Call of Duty 3. A host of fourteen maps are evidently sculpted around certain gametypes, and it positively shows during matches. Killstreaks, while technically harder to get due to the new 'no stacking' policy, are satisfying and original, in particular the 11-kill Gunship which allows the player to have full control over a Russian Hind - gone are the days of a boring circling aircraft aiming at enemies through a infrared scope a mile away, as killstreaks feel more as if they're part of the battle rather than observing it. The most of Treyarch's work, however, is in the class customisation. Everything now costs 'COD points' to buy, meaning you don't just have to unlock new guns and perks, you have to earn them too. These COD points are made by playing and winning matches and can be made in any playlist, but most proficiently in the new Wager Match game types. As the name suggests, you pay COD points to enter, and if you win, you profit. You lose... well I'm sure you can work out the rest. What's different about these game types is that there is no death match, or capture the flag, or demolition, but instead totally different match types such as Gun Game from Counter-Strike, or One in the Chamber - an incredibly tense tactical mode in which you have one bullet in your M1911 and will only get more ammo by killing enemies. Don't miss. The changes made in the overall multiplayer experience go on, and Black Ops is several steps ahead of any other Call of Duty as far as customisation and diversity are concerned. Admittedly, there are a couple of things I would like to see patched, such as the overpowered RC-XD killstreak and most of the SMGs being underpowered, but even with these in mind this is still the most balanced of the lot, and frustrations are at an all-time low.

After World at War, there is one thing Treyarch couldn't leave out for Black Ops - zombies. The Nazi Zombie mode started off as a simple post-campaign level made as little more than a joke, but it quickly grew to be the most popular component of the game. Needless to say, the experience is repeated here, giving the player two maps to start with. One of them is a hilarious bout in the White House that sees JFK, Nixon, McNamara and Castro fighting together against the undead hordes, while the other acts somewhat as a continuation of Der Reise of World at War. The voices of Nikolai and Tank Dempsey return, as do teleporters and a Bioshock-esque environment. Personally, while I couldn't put any particular faults on the zombie mode, I didn't enjoy it quite as much as I did on World at War, perhaps because of the map structure, or because slow and heavy WWII guns seem to fit the survival theme, but on the whole it's still a great time holding off the endless flesh-eating freaks and those who enjoyed the mode enough to buy the maps in Treyarch's last title won't be disappointed.

I'll always have reservations about a Call of Duty title; I still think its mechanics are bested by plenty of other FPSs and to me its smaller map sizes will never beat the large-scale intensity of a Battlefield game, but after what I have seen since Call of Duty 4, Black Ops has been a very pleasant surprise for me. My enjoyment of the game was consistent across campaign, multiplayer and zombies, and personally it seems a sign that it's at least going in the right direction. It's the title that will once again trounce the Christmas gaming market, and people all over the world are going to be having a very cosy winter indoors this year playing a solid and refreshed shooter. 9/10

Halo: Reach

9 years later, and Bungie have brought the main Halo saga to a close. Considering their previous offerings have been met with greatly mixed opinions (especially on the subjects of Halo 2 and ODST) it's interesting to see how this final episode gives the series a new direction just before it is passed over to Microsoft's 343 Industries. Taking place during an important event in a loved universe and Halo 3 being a tough predecessor to beat, Reach needs to be the best it can be if the Bungie-bred titles are to be given a fond farewell.

As the title suggests, the context of the story is the fall of Reach, one of the final human colony planets. As shown in the beginning of Combat Evolved and the novel written by Eric Nylund, it depicts the 'glassing' of hundreds of cities and the tragic end to the Spartan warriors. The player is put into the shoes, armour and helmet of Noble Six, a newbie to the Noble squad. As fate decides, this squad is destined to be the last of all the Spartan squads, and to see the demise of the planet first-hand. The scale of this is, as expected, considerably larger than Halo 3 and instead of taking part in a multitude of one-man-army skirmishes, you are on the UNSC frontline and will see armies clash around you as you fight towards your objectives. You also won't just be going on a tour of the same battlefield either; as the campaign takes the squad from ruined cities to icy caverns and, most spectacularly, into space in a a death-defying mission to save what could be humanity's last hope (and something Halo players will be very familiar with). Each mission is recognisable in its own right and consistently action-packed.

While this all looks great as a shooter, it still struggles at times with Halo 3's fairly clumsy story-telling; too many characters saying too little leaves the player with little sympathy for each of the squad's members, and this somewhat hinders the impact of their inevitable demise. It's no easy feat to make a successful action-adventure in which there is no ultimate victory, but in such a familiar franchise it was a great opportunity to pull at players' heartstrings and for me it didn't nearly deliver.

To fit with the more matured tone of the game, the visuals of the game have had their biggest overhaul since the series' beginning. The colour palette has fewer blues, purples and reds and instead has darker, richer tones. Environments are not bright and lively but are moodier and foreboding, with thunderous skies hanging above scorched earth. The look of the weapons has vastly changed; the classic assault rifle has a much sharper and more visceral appearance, and the Battle Rifle replacement, the DMR, kicks violently in your hands as it fires. Many of these visual additions are thanks to the new graphical engine that Bungie has built, and for the most part it is a welcome change, but it is not without its problems. During the campaign, and occasionally in Firefight, I had some of the worst framerate issues I've seen in a video game, and some moments in real-time cutscenes were everything would slow down and blur horribly. This is certainly not intentional, and I have seen it on other copies of the game. It looks so bad in these moments that I find it astounding that Bungie released the game with such a glaringly obvious graphical flaw.

With all this aside, it's known that with Halo most people come for the campaign but stay for the multiplayer. Of course, as it follows the same basic staple as the other games' staple, it's hard for Reach's multiplayer to disappoint. In fact, not only does Reach keep the same formula fans have come to know and love but also adds to the mix with various new objective gametypes such as Headhunter, a skull-gathering match which requires risk-taking as well as skill, and Invasion, a Bad Company-like game of pushing the defending enemies back in stages, pitting Spartans vs Elites. The intensity and competitiveness is still just as high, and with a whole host of new medals and awards you'll always feel rewarded for your hard work on the field. The old, complex ranking system is gone (to my dismay) and is replaced with a basic exp-collecting system, but with a twist - these experience points are 'credits' and can be used to buy armour pieces for your Spartan, which is now far more customisable. This is a very personal multiplayer experience and one that will certainly please the hardcore and dedicated, but my one gripe was the selection of maps. In total, there are 9 maps packaged with the game. Two of these were remakes from Halo 1 and 2, two of them are only available in Invasion, and almost all of them were taken exactly out of campaign missions. One map, the gigantic 'Forge World' has been split up into various smaller maps, but regardless of this I was greatly disappointed that there wasn't the variety nor the individuality that Halo 3 had with its maps.

Bungie keep in Halo 3's standard, however, with packaging even more than just campaign and multiplayer. Forge and Theater are still superb additions, especially with the new super-map Forge World inviting endless creativity. Firefight has also been added, carrying from ODST, and remains one of the finest wave modes seen amongst the many that have sprouted up since Gears of War 2's Horde mode. Finishing the list is the Custom Game option, and even more (yes, more) options have been added to fully customise your private game experience.

Halo 3, for me, was a timeless classic and I had some of my greatest times gaming on it and I knew from the start Reach wouldn't quite beat it for me. However, despite there being small things that put me off from saying this is the finest of the entire series, Halo: Reach is nonetheless a fine addition to the Xbox 360's biggest franchise, and one that will be more than enough to satisfy fans of the Halo universe. Thankyou, Bungie, for all your hard work. 8/10

Bioshock 2

Though it surprises me to this day, Bioshock 1 simply did not call out to me. Sure, I was deeply impressed with the game's dynamic opening and its original setting, but frankly it didn't take long until the die-and-die-again gameplay frustrated me. Upon hearing that Bioshock 2 was a 'more of the same' sequel, my hopes weren't exactly high.

Indeed, the first hour or two of Bioshock 2 hardly prove this view wrong. After a short and somewhat baffling introduction in which the protagonist shoots himself in the head, the player wakes up in Rapture and the adventure begins. This is perhaps where the game does lacks most; the awe of entering this dying, mysterious world that one gets at the beginning of the predecessor was the perfect start. Now, Rapture is nothing new; instead you're already there and expected to just get on with it. The storyline isn't as inventive either, instead of exploring good and evil, human worth and self-identity as the first did, it's now simply a struggle to save your daughter from your psychotic wife. Granted, there are emotional moments along the way, but it disappoints that 2K Games couldn't be a little more creative with the plot.

Given a little more time, however, and I found to my relief that combat is no longer such a constant losing battle. Did I mention that you play as a Big Daddy? As an anomaly to the usual Big Daddy experiments, you're not entirely programmed to follow and protect Little Sisters, you have a mind of your own, not to mention your right hand has a giant drill attached. Fear not, you won't be lumbering round like an 8-foot tall snail; you are an earlier model which makes up for a lack of titanic strength with the agility of any other human. The main difference I noticed in the balancing of the combat was that enemies are slightly fewer in number and do a little less damage. Personally, being killed and instantly being revived in a Vita-chamber rather than going back to a checkpoint really irritates me as it feels like a cheap tactic, and thankfully there was a lot less dying this time around. 

Most impressive about the revamp is certainly the sheer number of plasmids and tonics. There is now about 30 different plasmids on offer, many with two or three upgradeable forms, and a selection of tonics that is two or three times the size of the previous game's. Weapons are also an improvement. Forget ordinary human weapons - the pistol is replaced with a Rivet Gun, the Tommy gun with a triple-barreled .50 calibre turret, the wrench with the mighty drill (a personal favourite). These are only the first three weapons you'll obtain, there are several others and of course all weapons can be customized, use different ammo types and upgraded to one's preference. There isn't a large host of new enemy types, but considering the more exciting armoury of weapons and plasmids at your disposal, combat never gets old.

As the hours went on, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the game did get better and better. The storyline doesn't exactly improve, but as well as collecting more weapons and exploring new areas, there are interesting extra mechanics that spice up the pacing of the game. One of these is the underwater sections. Being in a Big Daddy suit, you're able to go to Rapture's exterior and walk the seabed at certain parts. There's zero fighting on these mini-missions, just the eerie silence in stark contrast to the hell indoors, broken only by your heavy breathing inside the helmet, and the deep thuds of your weighted boots on the ocean floor. These sections (ironically) give a breath of fresh air to the gameplay and keep the pacing in check. Another major new element is the addition of the 'adopt' choice when it comes to Little Sisters; they will guide you to a fresh body to extract Adam from, and once you're done defending her while she works, you'll be able to spend this Adam at the nearest shop on plasmids and tonics. Careful though, mess with the Little Sisters too much and you're inviting the wrath of the Big Sister, whose chilling approach leading to a frantic and desperate battle will not be easily forgotten.

The single player story will take on average about ten hours, and this time around 2K have decided to include a multiplayer mode. Just about every player had their doubts about this move, and it seems this time they were quite right to doubt. While you play as a perfectly nimble human with sensible, balanced weapons, Bioshock simply isn't a game made for multiplayer. The maps aren't exactly tactics-based, and despite a good selection of game types most matches will descend into an inevitable mosh-pit of fire and electricity plasmids flying about with little room for skilful play. Adding to this is the Big Daddy upgrade which can be grabbed by whoever happens to be nearby when it spawns, leading to one player being a near-unstoppable tank for a couple of minutes, without any real weakness. If you're looking for a few games of laughs and madness, Bioshock 2's multiplayer does the trick, but this won't be your next big online addiction.

Bioshock 2, this time around, seems to have done well on what the first game didn't, but unfortunately missed out on what the first game did. Story and atmosphere have seemingly been replaced with improved gameplay, and so it's hard to say if it has really succeeded as a sequel or not. If you, like me, felt overly bogged down in Bioshock 1 by endless hordes of Splicers, then you'll be getting your gleeful revenge in this installment. However, players wanting another great narrative in a wholly new environment that will amaze you all over again will be disappointed - this is the same old Rapture again, albeit with a few new toys to play with. 7/10.

Red Dead Redemption

I know for a fact that there are plenty of people like me who, whilst recognising GTA IV as the technical and satirical masterpiece that it is, struggled to actually find the game a great deal of fun. Let's face it; it was like a great painting when looked at as a whole, but upon sitting down and casually playing bits and pieces of it, it wasn't all that enthralling. This was my main reservation about Red Dead Redemption preceding its release - would it balance great storytelling with genuine enjoyability, and perhaps even a strong multiplayer component? Despite my initial doubt, Rockstar San Diego have blown me away exceeding all my suspicions.

You may have noticed that a Wild West game world is rarely touched upon in modern games, and while some forays have been successful (see: GUN), many have fallen flat on their faces and instead created Hollywood-esque, over-the-top basic shooters fitted into a Western frame. It's clear that in contrast to this, Rockstar have truly done their research on the context, both on historical fact and on the Spaghetti Western films that have inspired the world's archetypal view of the West. The silence of the vast, hazy plains is broken by the chugging of a passing steam train. Drunks stagger blindly out of the swing doors of saloons. The whines of bullet ricochets signal a faraway dispute that has ended in needless bloodshed. This is the world you are pushed straight into from the outset, and even by the end of the single player story, it will still astound you how real this world feels.

Speaking of which, Rockstar have certainly not slacked out on making a lengthy and involving single player experience. In keeping with former standards, it will take the average player roughly 20 hours to complete, and involve traversing the giant map for all it's worth. The storyline is not particularly original - the morally ambiguous tough guy reluctantly has to re-live his messy past to save his family - but what makes it so believable is not the plot but the characters. It's said that the script for GTA IV was ten times the length of the average movie, and this follows suit, in depth and in execution. You'll meet retired gunslingers of old, settlers from the East, bandits and lawmen, tyrants and rebels, in a tale that epitomizes the death of the Old West and the enroachment of trans-continental government rule. 

Red Dead also manages to pull away from its modern-day counterparts in terms of gameplay in just about every area. There are small-scale improvements such as the weapon selection wheel and a more flexible cover system, but there have been several RPG elements added to make every action you make in the dog-eat-dog world significant. For example, there is an Honor system (which anyone familiar with Fallout's Karma system will pick up quickly) that rewards or penalises you for how you treat others, and a large inventory of items you can carry around to either use or sell. What I was most impressed with during the single player game was that there was always something I could be doing, whether in a mission or not. Rockstar have seriously upped the ante in terms of extra activities, as on offer are highly detailed and polished games of Poker, Blackjack, Liar's Dice, Horseshoes, Five Finger Fillet and arm wrestling dotted around the map. There are also bounties to be captured, animals to be hunted and skinned, treasure chests to be found - the list goes on. The game has been in development for a long time and it is in this huge range of possibilities that it really shows.

I know there are enough persnickety people out there for the game to be decried for its technical faults, and to an extent they cannot be blamed. I can't deny that I have had plenty of instances of glitches with NPCs and textures, a couple of saving errors and more than a few animation errors, but this really should be overlooked for all the obstacles that have been overcome in making what is indisputably the best non-city environment ever. The horse animations are near-perfect, and the way animals act towards you both passively and aggressively is incredibly realistic. Visuals are another definite stand-out point and galloping over the rocky prairies as the sun sets on the red horizon is a breathtaking sight.

This huge range of 'plus' points combined to make an unforgettable campaign, but I held my doubts about the multiplayer. Much to my surprise, however, the multiplayer component wasn't just good, it was amazing. It is split between two modes; Free Roam and Competitive. Free Roam is just that - you are given the whole map to explore with friends or other players online, and you are at liberty to do what you please. Apart from having fun in your own ways (a personal favourite of mine was to have fisticuffs on a cliffside) you are given a long list of challenges to complete which easily keep you busy. In Competitive, there is the expected host of game types and map variation, and yet another list of challenges to complete for bonus Exp. It's hard to put a finger on what exactly makes the multiplayer so addictive, but provided you have some friends with the game as well, it will have you coming back time and again, even if it is just to unlock that bull at Rank 50. 

To be honest, I could go on and on describing everything that Red Dead has and explaining why it all just works so seamlessly, but I'll cut it short - this is simply a must-have. Rockstar have outdone themselves in their own form, giving everything the player needs, and doubling it. If you haven't enjoyed a sandbox game before, then this will be the game that will change your mind completely. It effortlessly surpasses every other game of its genre. 10/10.

Splinter Cell: Conviction

I remember many moons ago getting my Playstation 2 for my birthday, and waking up extra early on the day to play the first game I had for it: Splinter Cell. I was amazed at the depth of the stealth action which required serious thought and planning for every situation, but a few sequels down the line and I had a growing distaste for the series which was going stale. However, this game seemed to signify a turnaround for the style of the Splinter Cell games, and I was intrigued. 

What I was perhaps most happy about Conviction was it doing justice to the storyline of the games. The game definitely appears to have made some turns more towards a third-person shooter but it does not lose its emotional edge by reminding the player what Sam is fighting for: the discovery of his daughter's fate and the corruption of his former agency. The story and script is very well written, including one major twist which may have been a little predictable but was certainly well-presented. Speaking of presentation, the visuals of the game are a particularly strong area. Ubisoft have managed to completely overthrow the generic HUD when updating your objectives, and instead of giving you a box of text to read, throw your instructions on huge letters on whatever wall or vertical surface is nearby. This not only stops you removing your eyes from the action to read out of a rectangle at the bottom of the screen but is also effective in describing Fisher's thought processes. Sometimes a short animation will be shown, or as seen in one particularly emotional cutscene, words will fly around the room describing his mix of feelings. A matching technique to this in contemporary games is yet to be seen.

Gameplay is, however, what I was most apprehensive about as I was worried that the game would become a mundane stop-and-pop, using Sam's rage as a justification for a mindless shooter. Fortunately, this was not the case, as not only is stealth brilliantly constructed, but it's also an option. Sam's gunning hand isn't quite so slow and clumsy now and with a Gears of War-beating cover system you now can choose, at the cost of the game becoming significantly harder, to shoot your way through a situation. A hefty armory of weapons can be collected and customized to your preferences, using points earned by various in-game challenges. To add to the already solid combat, you can do all that Sam has always been able to do: climb walls, hang from pipes and sneak through shadows, which are all well-polished and keep the action fluid. While I was impressed by the exciting range of environments during the single-player campaign, it certainly suffered from the usual problem in most of this generation's games - it was short, and it was easy. When I say easy, I mean I could finish it on the hardest difficulty on my first playthrough, within 7 hours. I would suggest expecting the game to be more of a experience than a challenge. 

The multiplayer is what is left after the campaign, unless you're dedicated enough to complete all the campaign challenges (which are, to be fair, a lot of fun), and it seems this is rather hit-and-miss. Four gametypes are available, and personally I found the selection to be quantity over quality. Last Stand is the now all-too-common wave mode, fighting off endless enemies in a small space until inevitable defeat, and it is probably the most dull of the selection. The other three are based on a fully-fledged co-operative campaign, Hunter being an ordinary playthrough of the campaign with another player, Face-Off in which two agents compete for the most kills in one certain area - including killing each other- and Infiltration which must be unlocked via Uplay, in which you must sneak through a mission without being spotted. While you are not short of things to do in this area, with another full set of challenges and upgrades, I tended to tire of it within an hour or two as it missed the certain drive of the campaign's characters and storyline, and became a shell of the real game. However, stealth fans who look more for the action than they do the narrative will not find a better title than this.

I found Splinter Cell Conviction a pleasant reassurance that the franchise is not dead. It has a great story and art style, a much-needed gameplay revamp and, if you enjoy it, a fine set of co-operative activities as well. Providing you have patience and someone to play with, this is worth your time and money. 8/10.

Alan Wake

It's finally here. Fans of Remedy's former masterpieces and of story-driven thriller games have been waiting for a development cycle spanning into the last generation for the adventure of the eponymous writer to make his journey not just into the night but into the inner workings of his mind, coming alive before his eyes in a psychological horror/shooter crossover that is bound to make you think as much as it gets your heart racing. If you like your games with beautifully written storylines, gorgeous visuals and that spark of originality in the gameplay, then look no further - Remedy Games have quite frankly done it again.

It's hard to describe the spot that Alan Wake manages to hit so well that makes it such a thought-provoking and, as the subtitle of the game suggests, thrilling experience. Storylines in games are rarely found so well crafted in games, and it would be easier to compare Alan Wake to a TV show like LOST or Heroes. What is happening to the protagonist (or protagonists) begins seeming supernatural and inexplicable, and often worrying, until the events slowly unwind during the course of the story and reveal bit by bit the whole truth, complete with shocks and cliffhangers all the way through. This is even shared in the format of the game, with it being broken up into six 'episodes' with roughly 50 minutes of gameplay in each; and every single one filled to the brim with action, emotion, mystery, and hidden clues for the player to find that may give extra back-story to characters and happenings.

Upon beginning the single player story, you are thrown right into the deep end in one of Alan's nightmares which, little does he know, is a foreshadowing of the events to come. Having given you this hook, Alan awakens to find himself entering Bright Falls which he is visiting on a holiday with his wife to get away from his busy lifestyle as an author, and it is here that the game then treats you to one its best features: the visuals. The setting is that of a mountainous lake district assumed to be in the Columbian/Alaskan area, and it is probably the most beautiful game world I have ever seen, taking full advantage of the Xbox 360's processing power to give its many vistas a crisp, warm feeling with incredible use of HDR rendering in daylight, and at night making your friendly torch pierce through the shadows in the most realistic way you'll have ever seen. After a short beginning which involves meeting some of the locals of Bright Falls, and you will certainly notice there is something eerily wrong with many of them, you are taken to the scene which kicks off the main story - the sudden disappearance of Alan's wife into the darkness after an argument. It's hard to explain much more, partly at the risk of spoilers but also because writing out the plot simply doesn't do justice to playing it out. Expect along the way to find the same things that made the stories in the Max Payne games feel so alive: appropriate TV shows to watch, things to pick up and read, answer messages to be listened to and messages on the walls that remind you that this isn't a troubled character going through an ordinary world, this is a troubled character going through a troubled world.

As the enemies you fight are shrouded in the darkness that possesses them and gives them their power, light is your friend. As such, the combat system is based on mixing shooting and the use of light combined. Generally speaking, the method of killing an enemy is to shine light on them until their 'darkness shield' is eradicated, leaving them vulnerable to conventional bullets. However, you won't just be using a torch. While throughout the game you can slowly upgrade your normal light source to heavy-duty torches and lanterns, you also have the use of flares, flare guns and flashbang grenades, and will have to make full use of environmental sources of light, including car headlights, streetlights and ultra-powerful searchlights. This adds a new dimension to the usual survival-horror shooting system found in games like Resident Evil, as it requires to think about both the ammo in your gun and the batteries in your torch, and how you can use your surroundings to your advantage. The result of this is often a frantic and frightening fight in the dark that doesn't just vividly describe Alan's plight against darkness but also humanity's general fear about what it cannot see.

It must be noted, however, that amongst all Alan Wake's strengths, the enemies are probably one of the weak points. The combat system is great, but when it comes to it, it will be a rinse and repeat process with enemies and the only real variation is their strength and what weapon you are using. There are some 'bosses', often in the form of huge inanimate objects or vehicles like bulldozers, but really these are just big enemies and usually only require more light to defeat them. With most of the bosses I encountered I could simply throw a couple of flashbangs and finish off with a torch within twenty seconds or so and this was a little disappointing. Also, while I found most of the characters to be completely unique and well scripted, their facial movements in cutscenes rarely did them justice, particularly with Alan's wife Alice, who I found difficult to actually want to find when she looked quite so stupid in cutscenes. This sounds odd but it really is hard to be sympathetic to a damsel in distress when their mouth hardly moves during sentences. This is especially annoying when contrasted with other characters, such as Doctor Hartman, who were superbly animated. Other small nitpicks I have with the experience were the relative ease of the game, and the length being just around 8 hours with no other game mode, though I understand more content is in the works, and with the standard of the current game I expect more incredible additions for the future.

Alan Wake is, simply put, another fine work of art in the gaming industry's exhibition. It rightly joins games such as Fahrenheit and Heavy Rain in terms of masterful story telling, and Half-Life 2 for its cutting-edge graphics. Any Xbox 360 owner who isn't completely multiplayer-oriented shouldn't hesitate to pick this up and witness what Remedy do best. 9/10.

Aliens vs Predator

It's been a very long time since either Aliens or Predators made any big effect on the game market. Since Rebellions original AvP games on the Atari Jaguar and PC in the late 90s which inspired the 2004 movie, all that's been made is a long list of poorly-made and low-budget spin-offs which barely saw any attention. Has Rebellion's attempt at a comeback paid off?

On face value, the game appears to have a lot going for it. Three whole campaigns (one for each species) lie ahead and are accompanied by a variety of multiplayer modes which incorporate every species' strengths and weaknesses. As such, one might think that this is a game with a lot of play time and replay value. Unfortunately, this isn't the case.

To begin with, the campaigns each manage to completely flop in their own way. The Marine campaign is the first played and will take roughly 4 or 5 hours, the Predator campaign cutting down greatly to about 2 hours, and lastly the Alien campaign at about an hour and a half. With these being successively shorter it seems all too clear that Rebellion were rushing to finish this for a deadline and needed to make some serious cuts to the single player aspect. To add insult to injury, it's also very clear while you're playing the campaigns exactly the type of gameplay that Rebellion intended in each, and it's all riddled with mistakes. The Marine's campaign starts off in a dark room armed with nothing but a torch and a pistol, being stalked by a Xenomorph and there is little doubt that the campaign is meant to be scary. However, while this works well in the first moments of the missions and there are certainly some chills to be had, it quickly wears off as environments get bigger and lighter - some of it even outside in sunlight, which seemed the dumbest of ideas - and the weapons you have get increasingly stronger. While some of these weapons are particularly fun such as the Scoped Rifle and the Smart Gun, the fact is that the game quickly becomes more of a Sci-Fi shooter than a survival horror, and simply doesn't have the thrills to work as a shooter in its own right. The character you play as also feels slow and clumsy, and having the weight of a Gears of War character in first person does not work at all. Next is the Predator campaign, which is perhaps the best of the lot. It's generally a mix of action and stealth, staying true to the films, and it's definitely a lot of fun stalking enemies from treetops whilst camouflaged, then striking just at the right moment. These moments are perhaps the best in the game but, when this campaign gets bad, it gets really bad. The Marines you hunt are an odd mix between too stupid and too sensitive; sometimes you'll be able to stealth execute and enemy with him screaming just a few metres from his squad member without him noticing, and sometimes one of your prey will magically spot you with your camo on whilst watching him from a rooftop. There's also a big problem with the difficulty, as you start with nothing but your blades. This would be fine as they do the job for those marvellously disgusting stealth kills, but get spotted and you'll need to fight your way out, and for normal close combat the blades share the Marine's clumsiness, and you'll more likely end up flailing your arms in your enemies' faces. The difficulty then becomes hideously easy about 75% of the way through the campaign when you get your hands on the Combi Stick, which, believe it or not, is a 1-hit-kill on ANYTHING, doesn't remove your camouflage, and is in infinite supply. You can't lose. Lastly is the Alien campaign and frankly there's very little to say on it, due to there being very little of it. The basic jist of the campaign is staying in darkness, walking on ceilings and executing enemies whilst not in view. The health system is just right for this as you are very vulnerable to enemy gunfire, making stealth a necessary tactic, but while the executions are just as gloriously grisly as the Predator's, the combat is also very weak and the transitioning between floor-scuttling and wallrunning is extremely disorientating and you'll most likely never get used to it.

All three campaigns are tied around the same storyline. I would explain what said storyline is but to be honest I still don't actually know; it appears you're expected to already know what planet you're on and who Mr Weyland and what scientific experiments are going on, but I didn't and as such was utterly clueless about what it was all based upon. The other notable thing about the story is that it means all three campaigns visit the same places. And I mean the EXACT same places. I'm sure the idea is to give you a feeling of 'oh, so that's when THIS happened here', but generally it seems like an excuse to not make new environments and more often than not I was confused as to which species actually visited each area first, or if it all happened at the same time. However, apart from the storyline issues, the game manages to stay very faithful to the films, with Predator having everything you ever saw in his first two films, the Pulse rifle sounding and looking absolutely spot on and the Alien being able to 'harvest' humans with Facehuggers.

After this array of disappointments, one is drawn to the multiplayer. It's definitely impressive how many game types are available, including standard deathmatches and free for alls, and some more original modes. Infestation is similar to a 'zombie' game, starting out with a bunch of Marines against one Alien. If the Alien kills a Marine, the Marine's player becomes an Alien too. This continues till all the Marines have become Aliens and the pace picks up as numbers of survivors decrease. Predator hunt is another success, with a squad of Marines facing one Predator, who must kill as many in one life as possible. Kill the Predator and you take his place. Most overall kills wins. One mode which could have been much greater than it was would be Survival which is, unsurprisingly, another Horde mode (though it should be known that it was the old AvP games that invented it) but one that unfortunately is too slow and isn't as scary as it could have been. It's also a shame that the clumsiness of the game in general does carry over to multiplayer and it feels like it could have done with another few months in development.

Aliens vs Predator is, in short, a big disappointment. If you were a huge fan of all the films then you may get some kicks out of this, but if you play a lot of the games of today you'll know there are better places to get your scares, or your super stealthy moments or your shooting thrills. This one simply doesn't cut it. 4/10.

Just Cause 2

Just Cause 2 had a very long stretch of time in development. Long enough, hopefully, for us to erase our memories of Just Cause 1 and allow Avalanche to start anew, and to put back to the drawing board a game which had potential for kingship of the sandbox genre and blew it. Just Cause 2, however, is most certainly not a lost cause.

The two things that dominate both Just Cause games are without a doubt a huge map, and ridiculous stunts. In the previous game, the huge map was there, but the fact of the matter was that there was nothing to do, unless you genuinely enjoyed running through endless miles of empty rainforest. Thankfully, not only is the new map both absolutely huge (16 times the size of Fallout 3's map) but it's beautifully realised with the best draw distance I've seen in a game, being able to see all the forest, snowy mountaintops and desert that lie in front of you, and filled to the brim with places to see and missions to do. With the context of the game being similar to the last one - that is, cause as much anarchy within the country to stir up a full-blown revolution - every location is an opportunity to blow stuff up, steal vehicles and reap the benefits in money and upgrades. The sheer number of unique locations, races to be beaten and odds and ends to collect around the game world allows for plenty of extra hours of fun to be had outside of the story missions. This is truly a sandbox game and, despite the lack of airstrikes and a decent destruction engine, this is more fun than you'll be having in a majority of competing explore-and-blow-up games of today.

In terms of actual gameplay, Just Cause 2 has its strong points, amongst its weakest. Stunts and skydiving are vastly improved and feel a lot more polished, bolstered by the grappling hook which has been taken back to the drawing board and made absolutely awesome. Instead of just being able to hook onto moving cars and effectively parasail, you now have options to yank yourself onto any object in range in a Spiderman-like fashion or tether objects together and let physics do the work. Surprisingly, this allows for hundreds of possibilities, such as tying an enemy to a gas canister, shooting it and watching them both fly off into the sky and explode. This isn't exceptionally useful but it's definitely very original and amusing to do from time to time. Practically, however, it be valued enough. Whilst gliding in the 'chute, you can grab the ground or a tree and pull yourself forwards to keep momentum, and this with a little practice can be one of the fastest ways to get around, and get away from a fight when it gets a little too hot. Shooting is also improved from the first game and no longer is there the plain silly training-wheels auto aim. However, this is often where one of the main problems of Just Cause 2 intervenes. Enemies, in most places, will constantly spawn until you've completed your objective or completely destroyed the base, and they can absorb a lot of bullets if you're not hitting them in the head. This leads to a very heavy ammo usage, and you will run out fairly quickly, meaning either you go through the lengthy process of calling in a resupply through your irritating Texan chopper pilot, or picking up an enemy weapon which is usually fairly poor and low on ammo as it is.

Another problem is annoyingly in one of the places in which the game prides itself most - vehicles. Yes, there are a lot of them (though the variety in them isn't huge) but absolutely none of them feel just right. Cars have horrendous handing and feel far too heavy; go too fast a try to turn just a bit and you'll likely end up spinning off into a forest. Helicopters are much the same, they take too long to take off and are particularly clumsy, and while planes are perhaps the most successful of the vehicles, the fighter jets are far too sensitive and also don't go as quickly as you'd like. A 'boost' button to go at 800mph or so would have been both thrilling and a great way to get across the map quickly, though perhaps I'm too ambitious. Most of the time, you'll probably want to get the Extraction to your destination, though, like getting more ammo, it's a lengthy process that involves an irritating Texan.

Just Cause 2 has missed out various other additions that could have added to its general enjoyability like a decent soundtrack, good voice actors - as the game does feature some of the worst voices I have ever heard in a video game - and it could even have tried to scrape a storyline out of the highly unlikable protagonist Rico Rodriguez, but in all it's a much more solid experience than Just Cause 1. While Avalanche have not created the perfect sandbox game, this is a must-buy for anyone who wants a carefree single player game that can provide 20 hours plus of running, gunning, driving and flying (both in and out of planes) without having to think about strategy, story or artistic merit. 8/10.

Mirror's Edge

With but a small look around at the games on the shelves today, it's clear we're living in the age of the first person shooter. Left, right and centre we're blasting bad guys through the eyes of our protagonist but, enjoyable as they can be, it's hard to find games of the genre which actually push the boundaries, and give us more on the visual aspect than looking down your sights. That's where DICE's Mirror's Edge comes in.

It's interesting that a game which revolves around freerunning and parkour works in first person. To see exactly where your feet are going, what you're grabbing onto, it would be expected that it would be from a third person perspective, to give a whole view of your body. However, in a HUD-less first person view, with the ability to look down and see not just your feet but your whole torso and arms moving incredibly realistically, this is an immersing experience beyond the norm. I say this first and foremost because this will be the first thing that hits you, the player, as soon as you are put in the running shoes of Faith, a 'runner', tasked with delivering messages and information in an unnamed dystopian city. After a short introduction this is the environment you are thrown right into and shown the ropes of running, but it is perhaps not what you'd expect from a city under the grip of a police regime. Warm blue sky, gleaming white buildings with occasional drips of orange and yellow dotted around the concrete jungle; more a place of silenced resistance and forced smiles than one of gang violence and public execution. The visuals are really nothing short of stunning, with the Unreal Engine 3's lighting effects being pushed to their limit; white buildings with the sun shining directly on them will look dazzling, and when bursting outside from a shadowy building you will be momentarily blinded by the glare. My only real issue I had with the aesthetics would be the cutscenes, which were a halfway point between anime and later Disney cartoons like Mulan. These tend to take Faith out of her stern character, and are more often than not quite boring. It perhaps would have been a better idea to have made these cutscenes fully in first person and in real time.

With the gameplay, just like the lack of HUD, simplicity is key. Except for the odd occasion of flicking a switch or disarming an enemy, you will be using all four shoulder buttons. These, combined with each other or with forwards movement will perform downwards moves like crouching or sliding, jumps and vaults, punches or kicks, and a quick 180 degree spin. Chain these together in the right way and, as an example, you could pull off a wallrun, followed by a jump to an adjacent wall, a climb then a final jump to grab the edge. The potential for variety in this is huge and when you're not given the goal to freerun to a certain place, it will usually be to use your skills to solve a puzzle of reaching a high-up point in a large room or a tall roof. In this way, players may find a few similarities to Portal, not least because of the clinical and clean environment.

I think what players would ask for in this area is simply more. The campaign isn't long by any means and most players will be done within 4 or 5 hours, and throughout you don't learn any more skills. It feels great to link together a long set of moves and nail a very smooth trick, but there could perhaps have been some more high intensity moves for when the chases really get going. There could also have been a lot more freerunning sections in general, as about 50% of the campaign will, quite unfortunately, be spent indoors infiltrating buildings. Of course, these sections won't be walking around and there is some parkour to be done inside, but being indoors - and in particular the elevators - tends to kill the pace a little. The combat could also have done with a polish. Kicks, punches, and the incredibly cinematic disarm moves all look great and there are a few combos available, but there is still a lot of room here too for improvement. By the end of the game you'll probably have worked out a specific move chain which will beat any enemy and you might just rinse and repeat.

Once the campaign is done, you are given the options of two more game types: Time Trial and Speed Run. The latter is very simple and not exactly mindblowingly fun either, the task is literally to run through a campaign mission as quickly as possible. Time Trial, however, is another moment where Mirror's Edge shines. You are given a series of objectives to reach and a time to beat. Taking the most obvious choice would be to freerun to each as quickly as you can, but smart players will try to find shortcuts and faster moves to use. Your results are put on the online leaderboards and this can become very addictive and satisfying. Expect this to be a true freerunning experience.

Mirror's Edge is an incredibly original game and one which is perhaps underrated because of its brevity, but I can see that any FPS fan looking for something different will probably warm to it. With DICE's passion for improvement I can see Mirror's Edge 2 being even more spectacular than this little gem. 8/10.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

It's been a long wait. Fans of Bad Company 1 and everyone who had heard of this 'Modern Warfare beater' were all in anticipation on the days leading up to March 2010, when the new multiplayer big kid on the block was to show up and, apparently, rock the online gaming world. I think it's safe to say that DICE's latest creation might as well make any other multiplayer game obsolete. 

Multiplayer is the clear focus of any Battlefield game, not least Bad Company 2, sporting the phrase 'Defining Online Warfare' on the cover, but I shall begin with the single player campaign. This features the return of the squad from Bad Company 1 (how they are back in the army after their gold-stealing escapade is unexplained, but it's no obstruction) who again go AWOL after they become separated from the US Army and instead receive a mission from the American Secret Service to venture into Russian-owned territory and find out whatever they can about an old, mysterious weapon the Russians are recovering which will apparently have the power to end the war entirely. This of course does not go wholly to plan and the squad will find themselves in tricky and sometimes ridiculous scenarios, but it must be noted that this is not a comedy-orientated game like the previous Bad Company. Haggard will still made the odd stupid remark, Sweetwater is still an embarrassing geek, and Redford an exhausted, strict veteran, but the obvious gags (such as driving golf carts or a gold-plated helicopter) are clearly avoided and replaced with a gripping, intense, and explosive - to put it VERY lightly - campaign. Twists and character development aren't particularly prominent but it definitely works very well in being a military shooter by using a balanced mix of realism and the necessary mad moments, in brilliantly realised environments, this time around usually based in Bolivian jungles and snowy mountain tops. Weapons now have a variety tripled in size, due to customisations such as scopes different ammo, and instead of having 'kits' in single player you may now carry two weapons of your choice, which tends to be a lot more convenient. This may be similar to a lot of FPSs of today, but with every weapon being quite so different and there being very few all-round guns it's both beneficial and enjoyable to be carrying two instead of just, say, an assault rifle and an attached grenade launcher.

When Bad Company showed up for the first time, apart from being 'the funny one' it was known to the Battlefield where stuff blows up. 'Tactical destruction', it was called. Fortunately, that worked well with walls nicely blowing up to remove cover, trees being crushed by tanks and bridges collapsing after taking enough stick from rockets and shells. It seems that this was just the tip of the iceberg with the Frostbite engine as this has been managed to be improved also, now more destructible wall and roof sections, entire buildings collapsing (and crushing everyone inside) and 'microdestruction', meaning small shards of fence or concrete can be broken off by firing any small arms weapons at them, instead of a wall being either completely together or entirely gone. By the end of a skirmish or multiplayer match, it'll be nearly impossible for the scenery to be anything less than annihilated and it is badass. The engine will also shine through with improved graphics, character models, animations, and best of all, draw distance. There are plenty of moments in the campaign where, clearly on purpose, you are given a huge vista to take in, such as a huge stretch of lush jungle, or a towering white mountain, and it will not fade into the distance or have rough edges but instead stare right back at you, almost photo-realistically. 

With just about all the basic boxes ticked, it leaves the bulk of Bad Company 2's appeal: the multiplayer. I was addicted to Bad Company 1's online play, but now trying to even describe the quality of multiplayer in Bad Company 2 makes me lost for words. Liked Gold Rush in BC1? It returns, now with the name rush. Liked Conquest in the DLC? That's packaged too. Combined with this is Squad Rush and Squad Deathmatch, where the named game type is played but in a free for all between squads, offering tight, tense and tactical matches aimed, for the most part, at the more hardcore of the fanbase. Regardless of what you're playing, however, you're guaranteed for some absolutely mindblowing fun. Stacks of weapons, attachments and upgrades to unlock, improved ranking system and squad play, sorted issues related to hit detection and weapon damage, great variety in vehicles including some fantastic additions - in particular the awesome Black Hawk helicopter - to name just a few. To say it challenges Modern Warfare's running and gunning/camping/grenade spamming/idiot fest with no teamwork incentive is one of the great understatements in recent gaming journalism. Given you have a good squad of friends to play with, you will almost certainly become addicted to this within a week; you have been warned.

What else is there to say? Criticisms, on the rare occasions they show up, are small and insignificant, and usually in the form of some maps allowing for a little too much frustration with snipers sitting on the sidelines. However, with the help of the new deathcam, it doesn't remain a problem and barely distracts from the overall experience. In summary, this is going to be one of the best multiplayer games you'll ever play, at least of this generation. It seems DICE know how to spot errors and slip ups in their former games and simply improve every time around, eventually and inevitably building up to a stellar title such as this. 10/10.

Army of Two: The 40th Day

It's good that in this day and age we can get another properly co-operative shooter, at a time where split screen and co-operative modes are being pushed aside to be replaced by online play and competitive game modes. The sequel to Army of Two improves upon many of the mistakes of the first game, and will be an enjoyable and visceral two-player experience, though perhaps with too many errors to become a classic.

It's hard to properly describe the context of the game as, while it does not hugely diminish the gaming experience, the 40th Day has the most non-existent storyline in any game I've played since Mario Bros. The two mercenaries, Tyson Rios and Elliot Salem, are working in Shanghai when, all of a sudden, it begins to blow up. This blowing-up will continue throughout the game, and as you progress through areas they will blow up around you, buildings will blow up and collapse, and you genuinely wonder how Rios and Salem survive the whole game without being... blown up. So the real objective is to work your way out of Shanghai to safety whilst  fighting off hordes of private military groups who apparently are responsible for the mass attacks on the city. It will bear a lot of visual resemblances to rail shooters like Time Crisis, in the way that you are two bustly American football players who soak up bullets better than a concrete wall and face up against some of the most ridiculous looking bosses in a shooter that takes itself quite seriously. However this tends to show that the emphasis is on fun and teamwork, rather than being an immersing, realistic experience. 

Speaking of shooting, there's something in the 40th Day which is done better than in any other game of today, and that is the weapon customisation, and this is the true highlight of the game. As you play you earn money, and this is spent on buying weapons and upgrading them to be some of the most awesome (or ridiculous) looking guns you'll ever see. Want a fully-automatic shotgun? Good. Add a huge metal plate to it to act as a shield. And gold-plate it for good measure. This sort of customisation can be done on almost every weapon and it's great to know that the gun you're firing is uniquely yours and built for your style of play. This has a big effect on the 'aggro' system which returns from the predecessor to bring in the most tactical element of play. One player runs around guns blazing, usually using brightly coloured guns with muzzle enhancers and huge attachments, to attract the attention of the enemies, who will begin to return fire as the aggro-meter indicates towards that player's name. At the same time, the other player, using camouflaged weapons with silencers will sneak around the back and snipe or flank. As such, it is better to assign one player as the 'aggro guy' and one as the 'sneaky guy' at the beginning of the campaign, and customise all future weapons accordingly. EA also made an effort to distinguish what type of players you and your friend are by including 'moral choice' sections, where you have an interactive cutscene of which you can choose the end. These don't really have a lasting effect on the game, and the rewards for each choice are usually either money or guns, accompanied by a comic-book short describing the effect of your choice, but it's a nice addition.

This 6-8 hour campaign is definitely a blast with a friend, and the co-op aspect as been done very well indeed. Unfortunately, this is a point where the game really only has one leg to stand on - without playing it on co-op just about all fun is gone. The AI isn't horrendous but without being able to talk tactics with a team-mate and generally share the experience it feels like another average shooter. Some of the environments are quite good but on the whole this won't give you as many thrills as many other third person shooters will. 

The multiplayer is another is another part of the game where it tends to fall flat on its face. The maps are fairly underwhelming ports of campaign missions, the game types could be used to be a lot more co-op friendly (as you play online with a partner) and it has to be said that the health system works fine in campaign, but not as well online and every enemy seems a little too tough, bolstered by unfortunately unbalanced weapons. The multiplayer is also the most affected by one of the critical flaws of the 40th Day, and that is the technical side. Most commonly you'll get lag and being split up with your partner in the lobby, but other glitches I encountered included bad textures, enemies disappearing and, worst of all, shamelessly not coughing up the achievement for completing the game on the hardest difficulty. The cover system could also have been hugely brushed up on, as although it does a good effort at replicating Gears of War's perfect system, without an actual 'cover button' it's far too unreliable and I've been shot and killed plenty of times due to Rios refusing to protect himself.

I think it's safe to say you should only really buy Army of Two: The 40th Day on two conditions: that you're not shelling out the full price as it simply isn't that replayable, and that you have someone to play with, either split-screen or online co-op. Great weapon customisation and teamwork elements complemented by Rios and Salem's badassery make it a good runthrough, but without a decent multiplayer function and single player mode it's not something to be picked up more than once or twice. 7/10.

Halo 3: ODST

I'll start this review with a very minor spoiler. Remember back in the day when this game was still going to be called Halo 3: Recon, and Bungie said that Master Chief 'might' be seen at some point during the storyline? It's a lie. The old hero of the Halo franchise is neither present nor spoken of. Disappointment. It would have given ODST the kick up the backside that it needs.

I think it's a harsh but fair statement to say that Halo fans and newcomers alike will be disappointed in the storyline. Judging by Bungie's past reputation for a strong central story, and by the fact that the game has Halo 3's tag in the name, one might have expected perhaps not a blistering epic tale, but at least an exciting military campaign intertwined with some character development on the part of the Rookie, the silent ODST soldier you play as, and maybe some involvement with the Halo 3 storyline. However, the most part of the game is spent trudging around the desolate city of New Mombasa, now in wreckage, to find clues of your squad's location - which will then trigger a flashback mission which is more likely to see you some action. While these help build a sense of loneliness and desertion, you can't help but feel you have to walk around in the dark killing the odd brute simply as filler between the real missions. Because the Rookie never talks, it's very difficult for the storyline to get anywhere without being on an actual mission, and perhaps Bungie should have taken this into consideration. However not much can be said for other characters either; while other ODSTs act in the light-hearted way that marines always have in the Halo series, and it is a comforting sound, what usually plagues them is that your contact with them is always limited. A few ODSTs in the squad you will see not much more than twice, and when you do, you haven't seen them enough to tell them apart.

So while Halo has fallen down in one of the things it has done best, there are some things it still has to be credited for. Graphics haven't improved as such (though there were already rich in great textures, character models and a VERY steady framerate) but visuals on the whole are sometimes incredible during the campaign, such as looking over a 2-mile stretch of burning city and wreckage, or seeing a giant Covenant cruiser approaching the heights of New Mombasa preparing to raze it to the ground. The soundtrack, of course, has also to be noted as Marty O'Donnell returns for another piano-led accompaniment which still blows most other game music out of the water. It's not as bouncy as that of Halo 3's, and don't expect to hear any signature tunes from the previous games, but nonetheless this is still a soundtrack that will beat most movies' and games' scores outright. 

Multiplayer is what kept Halo 3 flying off the shelves for years after its release, so naturally it is to be expected that ODST makes it just as addictive yet 'all in good fun' as 3. Unfortunately, there is very little new in terms of multiplayer and I think it is right for many to question the full price for the game because of this. On the multiplayer disc it will include normal Halo 3 matchmaking with all maps, but now with an extra 3 Mythic maps. Good stuff, but no new weapons or vehicles? No matchmaking playing as an ODST? A lowly addition of 3 maps makes the 'Halo 3' in the title seems an excuse to add very little indeed. On the main campaign disc is the other multiplayer type: Firefight. This is the wave mode that a lot of games are latching onto these days, and there are some good maps to be playing on with Firefight against the classic hierarchy of Halo enemies with a bunch of friends, but it seems to be flawed in some basic areas. For example, you'd expect the first few waves to be easy and get harder as you progress with tougher and bigger enemies, but instead they seem to throw everything at you in a fairly random order. 

Apart from that, a very general problem with the game is a lack of weaponry. This isn't to say there are no new weapons (though there are only two...), but the range of guns you'll be using is minute. A silenced SMG which does a pathetic amount of damage and a surprisingly powerful and accurate pistol is what you spawn with, but it's an uncommon occurance to be able to find anything better. You can carry three grenades of each type which is an improvement, but you'd expect shock troopers to be a lot more well-equipped, and at least carry some shock weapons. 

It's a shame that Bungie have lost some momentum here. We can hope good things for Halo: Reach and perhaps for good reason, but Halo 3:ODST at the moment seems to be the runt of the pack. A disappointingly mediocre campaign and a few feeble additions to multiplayer isn't the standard we should expect from the makers of one of the great FPSs of our time. 6/10.

GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony

A year and a half from Grand Theft Auto IV's huge release, and expansion numero deux comes out for Xbox 360, downloadable or on an 'Episodes from Liberty City' disk. And despite the title and surface-level looks at the game, it's not just about nightclubs and dripping homosexuality. In this you'll be getting not just more great GTA:IV action, but everything else they SHOULD have put in.

The story starts with a very clever intro that describes how the new protagonist Luis Lopez is not actually someone new; but someone you've been staring at the whole time. He was not just a bystander at the Liberty Bank robbery as the opening cutscene directly shows, but the man in white who ambushes the Museum of History-Jewish Mafia diamonds deal, and the one accompanying Gay Tony when Gracie is handed back. Accompanying Gay Tony is, not surprisingly, what you are doing for most of the game as you are his assistant manager - and NOTHING MORE as it never fails to emphasise - in his nightclub businesses, however his drug addiction and dangerous friends lead him down a dangerous blood-fueled path that you have no choice but to follow him through. Make no mistake as I do not understate 'blood-fueled' path; there are around ten new weapons to add to the armoury including a M249 light machine gun, a .50 calibre sniper rifle and a grenade launcher, brutally over-the-top vehicles with the golden Little Bird military helicopter mainly in mind (not so much the frankly disappointing APC) and some satirically silly yet exhilarating missions which often make you laugh as much as your heart pound. 

So while the storyline and general missions are definitely set for a whole lot of city-rampaging fun, Rockstar have kindly thrown into the melting-pot a lot of extra things which will both please older GTA fans and take the action up a notch. For instance, you may remember in GTA:IV that the fabled Infernus or, as it is meant to be, Lamborghini, will almost never be seen out of multiplayer. It is given to you by Bernie as a gift, but should you lose it, it's likely to be lost for the rest of the game. Well as if as a reward to shelling out 1600msp on the Ballad, Rockstar have kindly given players the ability to find a growling supercar roaming the streets a lot more frequently, and you're almost certain to find an Infernus in particular from 5 minutes searching in the right areas. In addition to this, there are two new supercars up for grabs, an Aston Martin Vanquish (though very similar to the DB9 in the original game) and a Bullet GT making a comeback from previous GTAs. However don't just expect new cars, as the highlight of 'awesome extras' is undoubtedly the parachute, used to make a lot of adrenaline-pumped missions as well as Base Jumping side missions and some brilliantly ridiculous messing around. 

While the character of Luis could have been improved and given depth of Niko Bellic standard, this has to be one of the only small areas in which the Ballad falters. Rockstar have made mistakes and success in many of their previous games, but it seems in this 10-hour-or-so story they've encapsulated everything they do well. I would strongly recommend any owner of Grand Theft Auto IV to purchase this as soon as possible, as this is arguably the 'true' experience. Easily worth the 1600msp or the money paid for the disk, and definitely one of the best things on the Marketplace. 10/10.

Left 4 Dead 2

And in only just over a year, Valve are back with the sequel to the multiplayer masterpiece Left 4 Dead, and inevitably, the game is bigger and better in just about every way, with four new characters, twice as many guns, brutal melee weapons to hack away with, more Zombies and a distinctly improved set of campaigns. Might as well throw away your old Left 4 Dead, because this has all you need, and more.

Fans of the first Left 4 Dead will surely have good memories of the four campaigns. They were great, it's safe to say, and it was one of *the* multiplayer greats. But while this was a lot of fun provided you had some buddies to play with, there was always room for more. You started with an SMG or a Shotgun, and later you could upgrade to an M-16, an auto shottie, or a hunting rifle. Course this will do, and it gets you through the mission, but it's not spectacular. There's no real variation, and you'll find on average two of the survivors blasting away with the shotgun and the other two mowing down with an automatic rifle. Storyline is also completely absent, each of the campaigns is entirely standalone and requires no prologue or epilogue which is fine as the focus is on the survival, but wouldn't it be good to show some continous journey, and maybe some character development? These are all things Valve saw, picked up on, and did something about and the result is visibly what Left 4 Dead not only should have been, but was meant to have been.

For a start, Valve HAVE decided to make a skeletal storyline this time around. It's not Metal Gear Solid, but it at least connects the campaigns together into one big escape plan across Southern USA to a military safe zone and, since the start where all the characters give brief introductions of themselves to each other in an elevator between gasps for breath, they noticeably begin to know each other a lot more and communication becomes slick and natural through the course of the story (though I must add, like Half-Life 2, it is worth putting subs on as some voices come out fairly quietly). The environments in each campaign are not just different from each other but this time are very original in their own right; Dark Carnival particularly in mind. It has to be one of the most hilarious and downright trippy campaigns/missions I've played since the hallucinations in Fallout 3: Point Lookout. For any fans of Zombieland there are a few clear references in the game and the zombie clowns in Dark Carnival are undoubtedly one of them.

The formula of the campaigns are also mixed up nicely. Each section doesn't have your standard witch/tank/alert horde but instead will differ entirely based on where you are. This is helped along its way by an improved selection of Special Infected, which now includes Spitters, Jockeys and Chargers, and the finale of each campaign always being not just different but usually very tongue-in-cheek and ridiculous.

Of course, because of the way the multiplayer is so well wrapped together with the single player, the experienced is improved online (or split screen, but it's not nearly as good) drastically too. Versus as the Infected became often dull on the previous game as there was only a selection of three creatures, all with irritating flaws and a painful respawn time, but now with double that number, a decent balance of strengths and weaknesses and a slightly shortened respawn time Versus is as fun as it should be. The classic 4-player co-op is a heck of a lot of fun still, obviously made better by the improved campaigns, and while I was let down by Survival having barely changed, Scavenge is what stood out to me. It is based on the finale of the first campaign in which you have to collect gas cans and load as much of the petrol into an escape vehicle before the time is up. You take turns as the survivors and Infected and this can get incredibly tense and there is plenty of room for some very amusing Left 4 Dead moments, and gleeful satisfaction as the Infected, pulling off a successful ambush on the survivors and foiling their plans. 

For whatever you're playing, on top of that you're given a selection of weapons that puts Rambo to shame. The original weapons are still featured but now there's also a SPAS-12, a SCAR-H, an AK-47, a G3, a Desert Eagle and more. Not enough? Good. Because there is a horde of melee weapons at your disposal which aren't just effective, they're incredibly satisfying. Ranging from crowbars to chainsaws, you'll find yourself using these time and again, and there's nothing in Left 4 Dead 2 that feels as good as taking a Zombie head off with the heavy end of a guitar. Yes, a guitar.

Left 4 Dead 2 could have brushed up on Survival and maybe a couple of other minor details, but everything else is nothing short of outstanding. You don't have to be a fan of Left 4 Dead 1, or even of zombie games/movies; this is a groundbreaking survival shooter and probably the greatest FPS of 2009. 9/10.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

PRE-REVIEW NOTE: If there are any random wanderers of the internet that have stumbled across this, there's a 99% chance that they can't fathom the idea of Modern Warfare 2 being bad and will think this review is biased. For the record, I have played to the point of having 100% completion of campaign, that means all intel and Veteran completion, have got over half the stars on Special Ops, and reached level 30 on multiplayer, which for me is about 7 hours of gameplay on competitive multiplayer. Happy? Probably not, whiny bellends.

After I rated Call of Duty 4 a less-than-generous 2/10 and have cursed the Call of Duty franchise on multiple times on my Rantings blog, one might wonder why I have so much as touched this game. Indeed I now wonder the same thing, but being me it is because I cannot stand to criticise something I have not fully experienced myself. So, I gave this game a rent, and it basically confirmed to me that the whole gaming world has lost its mind.

I shall begin with the... unflattering campaign. Unflattering in that it feels the need to treat the player as a child, strangely enough I think that is the best way to describe it. The storyline begins as follows, 'Call of Duty 4 has ended, the Russians are defeated... but now they're not, because of some guy called Makarov.' During the course it will throw at you your staple fighting-with-your-teammates-against-loads-of-enemies-missions, along with a huge variety of special operations missions in which you will clamber up ice-clad mountains, scramble through Brazilian slums and free hostages on a Russian oil rig. Variety? Isn't that a good thing? Absolutely. But despite Modern Warfare 2 placing you in countless different environments, some with very convincing environment-specific dynamics like blizzards reducing enemy soldiers' ability to see you, it always shamelessly returns to the same boring formula: loads of enemies, and you being able to effortlessly despatch them as if you were born with a gun in your hand. I'm not suggesting you should resemble a helpless baby as you do in Flashpoint, but for a game that prides itself so much in making the 'best modern warfare gaming experience', it tries to make you God far too much. It has you now using vehicles such as snowmobiles and speedboats in first person, and firing with one hand, but this also brings you straight out the action as not only do you move at roughly 200mph and making the whole thing look, as I have said many a time, like something like Time Crisis, but the ability to aim perfectly whilst doing so makes it seem like a really, REALLY stupid movie. 

Infinity Ward HAVE upped the ante with some more advanced technology which CoD4 lacked; things such as thermal sights, heartbeat sensors and manually-guided Predator missiles. These are nice little additions, and I can't fault them much but what I can say is that it simply isn't enough. They're fun for a minute or two but they don't change the game from being just another mindless, and I mean mindless, FPS. The storyline is also nothing short of a joke. In the brutal, but stupid attempt at breaking moral boundaries, mission that is No Russian you are an American agent undercover with Makarov, and are forced to kill as many civilians as you can in an airport in an act of terrorism. Finding your body after Makarov betrays you, the Russians think Americans committed the act. So the Russians decide to invade America, which apparently takes about 5 minutes as before you know it you're fighting off hordes of Russian soldiers in Virginian suburbia, and in ruined Washington D.C in a mission resembling Fallout 3. The group of cliche gruff-voiced SAS tough guys are back and they take on many different stealth missions, which tend to not exceed mediocrity, where you are collecting information about Makarov. Various double-crossings and more attempts at moral messages follow until finish, and I don't want to ruin for anyone the glorious stupidity of the ending. 

Of course, there's still the multiplayer to be judged. Usually I would be convinced that 'maybe there's some good in it' when everyone drools over it as the 'greatest multiplayer game of all time', but after CoD4 I went in with a cynical mind. To my surprise, I was genuinely impressed for the first few hours. In the lower levels you are rewarded in exactly the right intervals for the right amount of accomplishments, and I found myself thinking it may beat CoD WaW (the only CoD game I reserve today to have good multiplayer). However, it simply doesn't develop from there. A majority of the maps are incredibly poorly designed, in particular Sub Base and the lazily-made Wasteland, and after enough matches you realise the exact same things happen every time around, and without any strategy necessary due to instant respawns and a lot of overpowered weapons it becomes an endless fest of run/shoot/die/run/shoot/die in helpless monotony. Additional killstreak rewards, and ways to customise which ones you want and when to have them is an advantage, but you will find that because of this you can hardly set foot outside without a celestial AC-130 drilling bullets into your skull from the heavens, or a Predator missile coming out of nowhere, or there to constantly be a Harrier Jet hanging around in the sky killing whatever sees the light of day. Irritating in-your-face action which tries so hard to be fun that it's just chaotic.

I think it's safe to say that Infinity Ward made every possible mistake... all over again, and all in a bid to win the hearts of every moron out there, which they safely did. There are some mild improvements from the previous game but it's simply another game made for another buck or billion. 3/10.