REVIEW: Sleeping Dogs

When people say it's Grand Theft Auto in Hong Kong, they're right. It is.

Sleeping Dogs is a sandbox game that puts you in the shoes of Wei, an undercover cop who has come back to his home town to delve into the criminal world of Hong Kong. Like GTA, you can walk around, hit and kill people, steal cars and the like. However, as you are now a cop you can also do right by people.

Let's start with the story. The undercover cop thing might have been done before in movies, but it's a surprise no-one (including Rockstar) has really cottoned onto this. It works extremely well. The main reason being is that you get so deep into the criminal underworld, and invest so much of yourself in it, you really do start to forget that you're actually a cop. Also the police are nothing but a hindrance as you progress and helping them is often the last thing on your mind. This plays nicely into the actual story where you are being pulled from both directions and soon you are more concerned with the criminal friends you spend most of your time with, than trying to do what's right.  For instance, you will probably begin the game trying to make sure you don't crash into anything, hit any pedestrians and so on, but I guarantee by the end that will go right out the window.

The plot takes many twists and turns as the gangs start turning on each other and the voice acting really brings you in. I was very impressed by how involved I got in the storyline and was aching to move on to the next chapter, often not bothering with any side quests just to continue the plot. Something I don't normally do (I like to pad out my games with a few side quests inbetween) and by the end you really do become quite a monster.

The side quests consist of doing favours to get Face points, buying and selling cars, street races, gambling and all sorts to keep you entertained. It is very varied and lots of fun and is enough to keep you interested for ages. Face points unlock new abilities, as does Cop and Triad points depending on how your morals take shape, and also unlock a variety of abilities. It doesn't swing from one to the other, so you can unlock all abilities by the end of the game without worrying too much about having to continuously be 'good'.

The gameplay is very smooth and fighting is much like Arkham Asylum etc. with counter attacks and a slight bit of technical button mashing for good measure, the moves are also amazing. The driving is great and the controls work extremely well. Not much to fault on this front.

The world is also amazing, conversations taking place outside your flat are often continued as you progress through the game, everything feels like a living breathing city and you can pick up food and items like power ups, as well as buy different clothes and all the typical sandbox stuff. It perhaps doesn't quite have the depth of something like GTA, but it comes close.

My main plight is that it doesn't quite feel as advanced as GTA 4 which is a long time ago now remember and the graphics, though very cool and Hong Kong looks great, still feels too shiny and not textured well enough. It also has very brief gun battles and often I find myself without a gun or knowing where to get one. So what if I'm one of those people that every now and then like to go on a killing spree mowing down hundreds of innocent bystanders? That's what we've all been doing for years, don't you agree? But the overall feeling of having to do good does ride through the game, I mean you're a cop after all.

Overall, this is a very solid game and something I would enjoy going back to in terms of completing all side quests etc. as it's got that pick up and play value and is engrossing to say the least. I highly recommend the game and would say it's a great little stop-gap before the huge titles come under way in the next couple of months.

Rating: 8/10

REVIEW: Resistance 3

As the war rages on, one man travels to New York to try and save the world.


I've enjoyed the Resistance series. The game's initial concept of war-torn Thirties London resisting an alien attack was original and exciting and was a great launch title for the PS3. Resistance 2 taking place in the States was a natural step and was the Hollywood type of sequel you'd expect as your character is infected with the alien virus and slowly changes during the course of the film. It's rather dark and bleak scenarios continue in Resistance 3.

You play Joe who was the guy who killed poor old Nathan in Resistance 2. He's in a small outback post trying to keep everyone alive when a doctor from the previous games turns up to say that a wormhole is seriously threatening the existence of mankind, he needs Joe to escort him there where they can shut it down. Resistance 3 soon turns into a road trip where you run into a couple of huge monsters and also a few bad humans along the way. It might have been a rather linear, somewhat repetitive affair but when I think back on the game, there were some great set pieces. From the horror onslaught of undead type aliens to the train ride to the prison escape, it works out to be a rather adventurous story. There's little to pick at but not much that makes it stand out from every other first shooter. People are trying to make things bigger and better and I rather enjoyed the idea of it being a desolate case of trying to survive a post-apocalyptic nightmare rather than an all out blaze of glory.

The story was good enough and the graphics were good with some great 3D effects (lasers were amazing for instance) and the general music and sound effects were brilliant making this game quite a smooth FPS. However, I couldn't help but think it needs to step up it's game a bit to fit into the current market. It was an enjoyable play but this whole Network Pass to play multiplayer didn't sit right with me, in fact I couldn't be bothered to do it and so didn't even try the multiplayer, which might be astounding. In any case, for what it's worth, it's still rather forgettable and I can only hope that in Resistance 4 they try something new as sometimes  there's only so much shooting with different guns at different targets you can take.

Now, Killzone 3 ...

Rating: 7/10

REVIEW: Dead Space 2

Sequel to one of the most original games ever, there was a very high standard for this game to live up to. But did it deliver?


I had a problem with this game. Literally. In that my second disc on my Xbox wasn't working. So after putting it down after intensively working my way through the first disc, I finally returned to Hell on Earth, or in space should I say after a 5 month hiatus.

Dead Space 2 takes place not long after the first game and Isaac is in a psychiatry ward in a settlement on some planet or other. Immediately, things start going wrong again. After an escape, your back with the monsters and you are left to survive - alone. Well, mostly. There's some woman who is helping you out a bit along the way as well - but she's hardly there so don't worry.

I can't really remember much of the story. You generally have to get from A to B via C and press a few buttons and do some things to turn things off and on in the grander scheme of things or whatever, but I never really understood the story at any point. You're also seems you're against the military as they are to recover the artefact, this ancient huge structure that seems to be the key to everything. What makes this game enjoyable is that the artefact and the story around it might seem like the main story, however it is in fact the story of Isaac's peronal issues that are the most interesting - and in fact make for the heart wrenching power behind what would usually be dismissed as a no-brainer action game.

In case you didn't know, the first Dead Space was actually Isaac coming to terms with his inner demons in relation to his wife. This denial continues in Dead Space 2 where is trying his hardest to let her go, but he cannot. She appears, calling him back into madness, Isaac trying desperately to hang onto his sanity. Again, the monsters are just personifications of his mental breakdown and it's these two levels of interpretation that make the game work. For the action shoot'em'uppers, it's a man killing monsters with a big bit of stone in the middle and some weird stuff going on, but for those who wish to, the story can be read in a multiple of ways.

In any case, EA have taken Dead Space 2 in a different direction. There's a lot more action, you get thrown about the city which has huge landscapes and more larger scale battles. However, what it makes up for in action it loses in it's original appeal. The reason why I loved the first game is that on the Ishimura spaceship, the corridors were tiny, claustrophobic, making you constantly on edge. The tension was unbearable at times and it dotted the gameplay with action set pieces that fulfilled the odd blood lust. Dead Space 2 does have tension, but it's so open that you can't help but feel like they've missed the point slightly. It's the same feeling as if it's like a Hollywood remake of a Japanese horror film. However, at one point when you enter back into Ishimura, it was one of the most emotive sequences I've had in a game. The recognisable set, the horrible closed corridors, the long elevator rides, it all came flooding back in a wave of dread upon me in a too-brief chapter that made it clear to me that the original Dead Space was definitely better.

An annoying aspect near the end, when you're up against an invincible Terminator-esque monster (which made me recall Resident Evil 3) took me quite a few attempts as I had ran out of ammo and health. I'd recommend saving at regular intervals on different slots because I'm used to just overwriting my save files again and again and I was gutted I couldn't go back to fill up on more health and ammo before launching into this battle against a load of creatures and someone that can't die. The same for the final boss battle, which took a few attempts and then suddenly through a stroke of chance I completed in about 20 seconds.

The gameplay however is a lot smoother, the graphics more colourful yet washed out and they have taken painstaking effort into the small details that grace the game's every moment. The voice acting is superb but, much like the first game, the overall story arc as I said before could have been more simplified. Why am I pushing this button again? Who is this guy? Why am I going back into Ishimura again? Luckily, it never stays like that for long and you're quite happy just to follow where you mean to go and kill some things along the way.

I did thoroughly enjoy the game and it was definitely a great purchase. However, it wasn't the survival horror that the first one was and also I didn't collect near as enough ammo or power nodes etc. by the end as I had done in the first game, so I felt like they somewhat rely on the fact you might want to replay the game keeping all your stuff again and adding to it. I just think that it's a worthy sequel but can't touch the amazing experience that I took during the first game.

Great fun but somewhat lacking in areas. I can only hope that another game like the first, or perhaps a sequel that might do something a bit different will come about. As much as I love those weird monsters, I can't help but feel that I'm going to be a bit sick of them if it's the same thing third time round. They should definitely make it more disturbing, which doesn't always mean less action.

And please no Terminator type monsters. As tense as it was, it was also very annoying.

Go out and buy it. You won't be disappointed but if you haven't done the first one? Definitely do that first.

Rating: 8/10

NEWS: Dead Island Gameplay Update!

More word on the Dead Island game that after it's successful trailer released a little while back, got a few tongues wagging...


According to testers, Dead Island is perhaps not going to be the dramatic survival horror the trailer promised, instead it will be "zombie zombie zombie all the time" so say the developers. Instead, it follows Dead Rising where you can basically pick up anything, combine and upgrade it, and make it become a bad-ass weapon. Except as you guys know from my review of Dead Rising, it was somewhat of a chore.

It's also completely ripped off Left 4 Dead by giving you a 4 player co-op option, but worse in that once you pick your character, you stay with it. This leaves out the 'pick-up-and-play' aspect that made Left 4 Dead so popular in the first place. If you're going to rip off a game, why leave the best aspects?

Apparently, part of the story is that you're immune to the zombification, meaning that if you're bit you don't have to worry about turning (or finding Zombrex), but instead can worry about the fact you've got a chunk missing from your arm. The game is a fast-paced, balls out shooter which is more cartoonish than dramatic. For those hoping for a more intelligent, Heavy Rain feel to the zombie genre, I'm afraid you might have to wait a little bit longer because it looks like Dead Island might as well be another Dead Rising in the form of an FPS.

NEWS: Teaser Trailer for Dead Island Released

My friend Simon just showed me this and I have to say it's incredible. It is clearly trying to stay away from the Dead Rising-esque splatterfest usually associated with zombies and give it a bit more heart. The score is haunting and the double narrative here is wonderful, telling a story backwards yet forwards in such a fashion would make the most accomplished of commercial directors blush. Don't dismiss it as a video game trailer because it works on a number of levels and you'll miss out.
It also reminds me a bit of Lost, anyone agree?

ARTICLE: Is Piracy Killing Gaming?

UKIE Suggest Piracy Is Taking It's Toll On The Gaming Industry. What Do You Think?

The UKIE (Association of UK Interactive Entertainment) today released a statement saying that the illegal gaming industry has cost at least £1.45 billion in lost sales. They are saying this is costing people their jobs and have stated that it ‘takes away jobs from young developers and graphic designers’ – obviously trying to make pirate gamers, who are usually regarded as young, feel guilty that they are somehow screwing themselves over.



There’s a lot wrong with this and it’s all a bunch of scaremongering. Firstly, they are basing this on the assumption that if people download a game, they are not buying it. However, some people will download the game and never would have thought of buying it anyway and if it’s good, they will tell their mates. Am I wrong?

Even though there is a vast worldwide community of hacked consoles and illegal games floating about, it’s not so common in the UK. Microsoft for example banned between 600,000 to a million Xbox Live users in a ‘wave’ at the end of 2009 that had modded consoles (remembering it costs £39.99 a year to be on Xbox Live). Of course, I understand this would be just Xbox (the most modded console available at the moment) and that they would have to be online, but still the figures are quite huge and I have no idea where they got them from. It’s also worldwide, so in the grand scheme of things, it’s not exactly huge and definitely not a threat. In April 2010 Microsoft reported it had sold over 40 million units and that third quarter profits were up 35% to $4.01 billion – that’s pure profit, $14.5 billion in revenue to be exact. That’s Microsoft’s figures. That’s just in the third quarter of one year. However, UKIE state that UK gaming took in £1.53 billion in 2010. Is it seriously suggesting that piracy has lost almost as much as has been made? That the totals would have doubled had piracy not been an issue? What do you think? I can’t believe these numbers make sense.

A lot of pirates believe the bans aren’t to stop piracy, but to make those pirates go out and buy new consoles because they can’t use their old ones online, as well as getting new Xbox Live subscriptions. Remember Microsoft have about a thousand different versions of Xbox now (well, not quite) and the pirates also argue that after you’ve bought a product you should be free to modify it how you wish and use ‘homebrew’ software, which is a fair argument but the majority of people probably do it to play pirated games, but that’s just an assumption.


People forget that the original Playstation was easily modified and was the best selling games console ever, they were rather lax on piracy because they knew people would go out and buy the consoles and, like music or film, if they were really bothered they’d make sure they go out and buy it before waiting for release. Everyone knows gamers are impatient.


It’s also worth noting that the highest selling game of 2010 was Call Of Duty: Black Ops raking in well over a billion pounds and still going but it was also the most pirated game of 2010. See a correlation? If piracy had such an effect, it certainly didn’t show here.


PS3 have recently taken hackers to court for hacking the PS3, but again they argue they should be able to do with it what they want. Other devices like the DS, PSP and Wii can all be modified but they still have no problems selling (well PSP might do), so it could be argued then that it’s the games.

However, like films, by having pirates get and play the games, it means it streamlines the shit. Word of mouth, especially with games, is key and so if games are scared no-one is going to buy them but pirate them instead then they should make better quality games instead of asking people to shell out £45 for something that’s crap. One insider was quoted as saying you get 20-50 hours out of these games and it’s value for money. I definitely wouldn’t say I have got 20-50 hours out of each game I’ve got.

People forget that the gaming industry is bigger than Hollywood and gamers are a lot more dedicated. Also pirates won’t just download any old game, well I imagine some do, but remember a game is a good 7-8GB and you have to dedicate a lot of time to it once you start playing. Also charging £5 a disc, (a compatible dual layer disc to record on costs £1-£2 each anyway) isn’t exactly making lots of money and the reason why you don’t see people selling them on the streets like DVD’s, is because it’s an expensive and lengthy process – definitely not a get-rich-quick scheme, neither are all consoles modded, so if you’re a criminal there are definitely more profitable crimes out there.


Also the idea that money from this is going to terrorists and other ridiculous bollocks like this to stop piracy is constantly promoted, makes it seem like a joke. There is definitely a small community of people who download games for free, but it’s all about give and take. People forget that, like people recording onto tape off the radio, it’s not going to destroy the industry and with the gaming industry being so successful, it definitely won’t hamper it. If people are playing and people are getting paid, that’s all that matters. If Bill Gates can’t afford an extra swimming pool he’s just going to have to deal with it. Don’t listen to the lies about it affecting the jobs of young developers because it’s stupid – games make money. A lot of money. Pirates will never be able to stop that – and they are definitely not costing the industry £1.45 billion.

Uncharted 3 Trailer!

Due to come out next year, here's a first look at Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception. Apparently the following is all using the in-game engine and with the film now been green-lit, surely 2011 is going to be the year of Drake! Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was perhaps the best game of 2009 and probably all time, so I can't wait to see this in action.

Uncharted Movie News

It's official - Sony have cast Mark Wahlberg as Nathan Drake in a movie adaptation of the incredible PS3 Uncharted series.

As anyone knows, Wahlberg's perpetual worried look will make a lot of fans displeased. Look at his Max Payne game remake for instance. Nathan Fillion had expressed an interest in playing the role, which would have been a million times better but instead we're left to see an amazing game franchise get completely raped by a crap actor. Yes crap. Does anyone else agree? "Oh what about The Departed?" umm.. wasn't he just an angry the whole time? Isn't he just supposed to look angry all the time? I think it can be safely said that whatever films he does, he's not a bankable star by any means.

So what about the director? David O Russell will take the helm which is a surprise because he's done some very strange films and is known for well... not getting on with his cast. George Clooney smacked him about in Three Kings and there's that fight on YouTube he has with Lily Tomlin in I Heart Huckabees, and he's got The Fighter coming out with Wahlberg and Bale which might be a good impression of how much he can get out of Wahlberg's limited acting. Pesci and De Niro have even been rumoured to play Wahlberg's father and uncle - which will be strange. I'm just hoping it won't be another National Treasure ... I'd rather kill myself.

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare Video Review

Where else will you see Michael Jackson attacking children? OJ as a KKK member? Sharks attacking zombies? In a review for Undead Nightmare of course! Click on the link at the right for the FULL write up with a more detailed analysis.

LA Noire Debut Trailer Released

Rockstar have released the debut trailer for upcoming game LA Noire and yes, it's a film noir type story set against LA - how could you guess? You might recognise some faces including Mad Men's Aaron Staton. As you can see, the facial movements is something that is far superior to what we're seeing in today's games so this looks likely to be one of the biggest games of next year. Will keep you updated as and when.

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare DLC

Red Dead becomes Undead in this new DLC that successfully combines the Western genre with Horror so that shooting zombies never looked so cool

Rockstar have graced us with an odd add-on that takes the original game and completely changes it by adding zombies into the Wild West without taking itself too seriously. You start as John Marston again on his farm as his dead Uncle attacks his family and turns them into zombies. After tying them up, he vows to find a solution to help them and so the action begins.

Rockstar have taken advantage of the current Grindhouse trend and given this a B-movie cult horror genre feel by exploiting it in all the right places and being completely self-aware. The zombies move realistically and can only really be put down with a shot to the head and when you do shoot, instead of a typical gaming 'blow-up' head shot, instead only that part of the head is blown away giving the game a physicality not often achieved, especially with such fodder as Dead Rising 2. As you save town after town trying to uncover the truth, you bump into the characters from the original story making it a bit of a nostalgic trip as well. Similar to the original game, you have to help strangers along the way, find missing people and other small missions but essentially you're trying to find out what's behind all this.

As fun as it was to play, saving town after town by giving survivors ammunition (something that is scarce at first but builds up rather quickly) becomes a bit of a ball-ache. You have to go up to one survivor and then head to the others giving them ammo before finishing off the zombies. Trying to negotiate a way to get up to these survivors can be taxing to say the least, especially with zombies biting at your tails. However, once you've saved all the towns and done the main storyline (with a great 'few months later' epilogue) I'd imagine unless you're a completist you'd probably leave it there.

They also cleverly use the zombie factor as an excuse to include zombie animals as well as special 'Apocalypse' horses that if you catch, give you a certain special power. Though my Pestilence horse which was supposed to be impossible to kill, died almost as soon as I got it by falling off a cliff but yet I survived, so that was a bit of an anti-climax. However, there are Sasquatches, unicorns and more to find should you wish to do so. But as fun as it was, saving the towns occupied a lot of my time and soon became annoying. Also the final onslaught in a cave wasn't the big finale I expected it to be, instead it fell quite flat. It's also worth noting that you can still use your Red Eye slowing down time meaning you shouldn't really become too overwhelmed with zombies at any one time. The good thing is there is more than one type of undead, you have the normal ones, you have little fast spider like ones, spitting ones and big boulder-like ones. Therefore, it can keep the killing fresh by mixing it up with an assortment of the four. Weapons are also customised for zombie killing including a gun that shoots dead flesh back at them.

The game still sticks to it's open world sandbox roots, with certain Ranked missions, Treasure hunting and outfit collecting so there is something for everyone here. I couldn't justify spending enough time on it to complete it 100%, but doing the main storyline with bits afterward took about 8 hours, perhaps a bit more, and that's saving all the towns as well.


For a downloadable pack, this is great but I still felt they should have eased off saving all the towns constantly and concentrated more on doing missions. It's a nice, strange 'ending' as such with Red Dead Redemption and a great alternative to the Western feel of the original game. It's unique, brave and has successfully won over a lot of the audience, it's also due to come out on disc form in the near future as well. Rockstar have also announced that a Red Dead bundle will come out at the end of November with this and all the other DLC available in one big package. I recommend you buy this, especially if you loved Red Dead Redemption and it's a great DLC but again it's not perfect. Great idea, great gameplay, but felt like there could have been more to the story and saving all the towns became more of a chore as it went along. I'd love to see a DLC to this DLC (if that makes sense) which just opened it out a bit more, but for such content, depth and originality, it's one of the best DLC's out there. Go forth and enjoy - dead or undead.

DLC Rating: 9/10

Medal Of Honor

As people are gearing up for Call Of Duty: Black Ops, Medal of Honor (or Honour depending if you've become completely AmericaniZed or not) tries it's hand at pulling in the Modern Warfare fanbase with it's own take on the current war in the Middle East. Can it rise to the pinnacle of FPS war games that it once held? Or is it still stuck in the past?

Do people remember the original Medal Of Honour games? I remember them with such fond rose-tinted glasses but somewhere along the line it lost it's way. It became preoccupied with just having people move and shoot, move and shoot, rather than giving it some story and the multiplayer went from reasonable to dreadful pretty rapidly. As Medal Of Honour declined, Call Of Duty rose in it's place, once considered the lesser of war FPS's there isn't a soul out there that hasn't heard of it. Where did Medal Of Honour go wrong? Well whatever they did, EA have decided to come back guns-a-blazing and basically copy Call of Duty's Modern Warfare series by bringing everything up to date.

Medal Of Honour takes place in the Middle East where you're basically set missions. It's all American and your mates are called Mother, Preacher and whatever. You play different roles as you jump from one angle of the mission to another but to be honest, I had absolutely no idea what the whole plotline was about. Something about a stupid General giving out crap orders while you're trying to save your own men; this camaraderie anti-authoritarian standpoint seems to be a constant issue in these games. In the sense that, war isn't about politics, in the end it's about the soldiers and they don't WANT to get involved in these fights but they have to, that in games like this you are trying your best just to make it out alive. It's as if they are standing apart from the issues of it all but doing their bit nonetheless - and my God this is trying to be dramatic. The end sequence is a plate of stilton wafting up my nose like nerve gas.

So the story isn't much, but the gameplay must be good right? Well, in a way. There's a lot of helping each other up and waiting for your comrades, which grates after a while and so many niggling points that you can't help but feel it was slightly rushed to get out before Call of Duty. Little points are that sometimes, the enemies will keep coming, which is fine but is a little old hat now, that if you run out of ammo you can ask someone else for it, which is a good point, but you have to equip the right gun which makes it fiddly and sometimes it won't register, an annoying bug if ever I saw one. Other points are there is no RPG action or anything like that, they try some variety by making you shoot from a helicopter, do some hardcore sniping, some stealth action, quad biking, but really it all feels forced and linear. You won't have trouble doing this on the hardest difficulty setting either, the only times I died was through impatience. But then, another annoying aspect is that it can go from being shot to dead very quickly without immediately running for cover. This 'realistic' approach works in a way, but really it's just annoying.

What I loved about Call of Duty is not only the story but the stand-out scenarios and sequences, something that Medal of Honor tries to recreate but in a vain attempt. The cut scenes with you nearing death seem to be quite frequent, to the point where it loses it's emphasis but there are some stand out bits that I really enjoyed. Namely, trying to survive an onslaught in a tiny house in the middle of the desert was amazing, the ambush on your drop-off point and the cut scene where you're in a crashing aircraft were all bloody cool, but really that was it. You also have to have the volume turned up quite loud in order to hear what your team-mates are saying because, annoyingly, they will constantly be telling you what to do. Rarely do you use your second weapon, or even grenades and the entire game was stupidly short. I think I completed it in about 4-5 hours, if that.

So the Campaign aspect wasn't great, but visually it looked incredible, it seems like EA have put style over content so that everything looks incredible rather than concentrating on the stuff that matters - it's the equivalent of a multi-million Hollywood blockbuster that looks amazing but feels as empty as a balloon. So what about the other aspects?

The normal multiplayer game is basically an almost carbon copy of Battlefield but what I hate about it, is that unlike Call of Duty where with enough skill you can still progress and have fun, Medal Of Honor needs you to have a good gun and know where all the good hiding points are. It's basically a sniper's paradise, problem being the learning curve is so steep it'll put a lot of people off. Gamers could argue this that it's worth investing in, that levelling up isn't as tough, but it's seriously not that fun and definitely not as fun as Call of Duty's multiplayer options. I didn't do too badly either, being an FPS master of sorts, but there were too many times where I would just go round a corner and I'm dead or even more annoyingly, I would see someone, shoot them straight for ages, and then he'll shoot me once and I'm dead. It's enough to sling your control to the floor.

The other extra option they have is Tier 1 - a stupid timed way of completing the game that you have to be signed into Xbox Live to do, being on a home network means sometimes my internet can cut out if someone else is using a computer for instance, so just when I'm about to complete a level under par time? I get disconnected and the game quits. All that work for nothing. Fuck. That. That will definitely be the first and last time I play that, and it's really only for completists to show off, definitely not for the casual gamer. EA have also done this thing where you need a VIP pass in order to access some of the online features, so if you bought your game second hand, you won't be able to use the code as it can only be used once. What a stupid idea.

Overall, this has to be the biggest disappointment of the year so far. I enjoyed playing through the short campaign, but the Tier 1 thing is pointless and the multiplayer flawed. It's definitely just a stop gap for a couple of weeks until Call of Duty Black Ops. Play it for something to do, but don't get your hopes up.

Rating: 6/10

Dead Rising 2

Where killing zombies has never been so fun! Romero's "Dawn Of The Dead" was the inspiration behind the first in this series, but does the second deliver even more or is it an (un)dead series already?

I had got only about halfway through the first Dead Rising but I did remember enjoying it, but loading this game up I was questioning why I never finished it. I'd loved the swarms of zombies everywhere, taking pictures, the little strange missions etc. and then once I started playing the second one, it started to dawn on me why I had quit; and unfortunately the same problems remain.

Let's start at the beginning, Dead Rising was about a journalist caught in the middle of a zombie outbreak and they had taken refuge in a mall. This sequel is a few years later, where zombies are somewhat controlled and they've even created a game called Terror Is Reality which is essentially Gladiators with zombies. Your character is Chuck, one of the regular contestants on the gameshow and as like every zombie movie, it all goes wrong and Chuck has been framed for the outbreak. You soon have to clear your name before the military arrive while looking after your daughter by injecting her with Zombrex every 24 hours and trying to save as many people as possible.

There were many reasons why I gave up on the first game. Namely, when saving survivors you had to escort them for aaaaaages to the safe house and they would often be completely beaten up by zombies and when trying to save them, you often did more damage than the zombies. Fortunately, the survivors are a lot more hardcore this time and will keep up with you which is a massive improvement, however the escorting back to the safe house is often a huge ball ache and the loading times between different areas take soooo loooong. The next huge irritant is the saving system, you can only save your games in restrooms across the mall which means if you venture too far, or come up against a boss, you have to fight your way again through hoardes of zombies to get back to where you need to go, so if it's a tough level and you're restarting from the restroom again, you'll be likely to throw your console out the window. Why not just do checkpoints? Or restart from the beginning of the boss battle?

There's also the fact that this takes place in a mall. It's been done in the first game, why do it again? There's not many new unique ideas here, it really is Dead Rising 2 or rather it should be called Dead Rising: Fortune City seeing as it's pretty much exactly the same as the first game. There's not even the photo option which I quite enjoyed first time round, but instead you can combine weapons to a staggering degree. This might seem cool, but really unless the items are on the way you're just not bothered enough to go out of your way to do it. You don't even know where to find them unless you look it up online, the same with finding the Zombrex, there are missions to get the drug but they say you can find them in the game, unless you know where to look you'll never find it. If you want to buy anything, you have to have a fair bit of money and unless you play online (I'll come to that later) I don't know how you would raise enough.

Graphics wise, it looks OK, but is typically Capcom who really need to up their game. Reading dialogue on screen? This is next-gen gaming not PS1 time. The characters and acting are so OTT that it really does lose it's true horror essence to become more of a fun weird distraction, typically Japanese who I'd argue are losing their way. Gameplay wise, it's not very good either. The 'moves' that Chuck acquires are almost useless as you really need a weapon, and when you use a weapon or have a drink, that short animation takes so long that you can easily get attacked. Same with putting on clothes, or even looking at your mission list, if you take too long chances are you run the risk of dying. There's also not much of a learning curve. Simple fact is the higher your level during the game, the easier everything is, which means that the enemies are arguably the same difficulty but you'll die a lot easier earlier on, which is frustrating. The endings were also quite average and after checking them all out on YouTube I'd say the depressing ones worked the best, I'd recommend checking them out after you complete the game.

The missions are OK, the psychos are reasonably psychotic and the plot works well, but this is such a flawed game that a lot of the time it was more a chore to complete rather than fun. Completists might say there's a lot more to do and I'm missing a lot, such as being able to open the car, the different costumes, the weird weapons, getting to level 50, but come on - a game shouldn't be reliant on this.

Online, the game works quite well. Co-op means you can join someone's game randomly and your character will level up there so you can take your stronger Chuck and put him back into your own single player campaign which is a nice touch. The real treat however is Terror Is Reality, the gameshow Chuck is on, where you get to do the events yourselves (4 of 9 I believe each time) and I spent a lot of time on this for fun and also to win money to use in the single player game, meaning buying Zombrex was never an issue.

Overall, the game was somewhat entertaining but it felt like no-one had gone over the details and it shows how much a thorough games testing is needed before putting games like this on the market. The saving is ridiculous, some of the fighting is stupid and unreliable, escorting survivors is a chore and the reading messages or dialogue rather than speech is a joke. Capcom had a long time to make something great here, but really they've just rehashed their old game and tried to make it look a bit more funny with it's costumes and weird weapons, clever, but we're not 12. Online gives it an extra point but I'd say this is a rental at best, not worth going out of your way for.

Rating: 6/10

Enslaved: Odyssey To The West

From the mind of Alex Garland and Andy Serkis comes a new take on an ancient tale. But is it an odyssey worth taking?

Ninja Theory made one of the best PS3 titles ever in my opinion, Heavenly Sword. For such an early title, it mixed up some cutting edge graphics, engaging story and some great gameplay and luckily, Enslaved ticks the same boxes but just not as well.

Enslaved follows the exploits of Trip and Monkey as they try to get Trip back home, but that's just the beginning. She has enslaved Monkey to do her bidding using the same technology the 'mechs' use for other humans to help her out, and if she dies, you die.

The graphics again look quite remarkable, yet for some reason aren't quite as cutting-edge as I was expecting. Sometimes, it looks glamorous yet at other times all the greenery makes it look rather boring. The gameplay is varied and fun, but sometimes it felt like a poor man's Uncharted with all the jumping around - generally if you press up and jump, you'll get to wherever you need to go. The fighting works and isn't the button bashing Heavenly Sword was, it takes a bit more skill and really, it's the only time you'll die if ever. But that's the main issue - it's just too easy at times.

The characters are well fleshed out and Andy Serkis as director definitely helps the motion-capturing to give a realistic fluidity to not only the cutscenes but the in-game engine. The dynamics work well yet the frustrating platform nature of the game can get a bit much, when you want to jump off onto a tiny platform knowing you can't then you realise when you do jump off a platform, it's definitely the way you need to go, making it very linear. The only times you go off-track are to collect tech orbs which are dotted around so that you can upgrade, or collect a 'mask' that shows a weird piece of the past (our present day with Andy Serkis hanging around), but really it's not worth getting too obsessed about unless you want to unlock achievements.

There's some chase scenes on a 'cloud' (like a hoverboard from Back To The Future II) which isn't used nearly enough and really, you don't get to kill enough mechs. It's definitely more of a platform piece with the odd puzzle and action scene thrown in making it a decent all round game. However, I just found it a little boring at times, and I just wasn't that bothered about the story, it didn't quite delve enough into the setting and really not even that much into the characters themselves. I don't know the original Chinese story, (yes THAT Monkey) but this plays out more like a road movie and essentially that's what it is. I felt like it only touched upon something that could have been so much more. The end might have been somewhat satisfying and suddenly quite strange, but I would have liked there to have been more of a plot rather than just getting from A to B all the time.

Overall, it's a solid game with some decent gameplay and enough to keep you sated for a weekend, but once it's completed you won't return to it. A nice little break from the boring 9 to 5, but this won't be something you'll have to tell your mates about. If you've got nothing else to do, give it a go, but there's going to be better games coming up so maybe hold on for a bit longer if you're short on cash.

Rating: 7/10

Mafia 2

After 8 years since the first installment, the eagerly anticipated Mafia 2 hits the shelves. But is it an offer you can't refuse or does it sleep with the fishes?

There's nothing quite like a good old fashioned gangster flick, the moody men, the gratuitous violence, the guns, the women, the money and the dark underbelly of society we're all obsessed with. Well Mafia 2 has this all in spades. The game revolves around your character Vito as he lives the life of crime in a New York style city trying to evade the cops, climb the ladder and make some money on the way.

Let's start with the good stuff. Firstly the graphics are absolutely incredible, I heard the PS3 version had some problems but I was playing this on the 360 and it looked luscious. The city is a real living and breathing city and like Mafia did before it, raises the bar in terms of visuals; every little detail has been considered and it's remarkable what they've done here. The gameplay works well with a standard duck, cover, shoot style that is quite popular these days, a fisty cuffs button mashing and you've got your handy map, your speed limiter button (for the car) and a range of weapons at your disposal. The voice acting, direction and feel is completely authentic, you are always in the world of your favourite mafia films like Goodfellas and The Godfather and all the cliches, good and bad, are neatly ticked off. The music of the era is great to listen to and the plot is exciting, dramatic and full of enough twists and turns to keep you interested. So whassadaproblem?

The problem is the game is full of niggles. For instance, there is a LOT of driving; unlike GTA IV you can't hop in a cab and jump to the next point but instead your left to drive for what can be quite a while and if you bump into a police car and get arrested? Back to the beginning of the drive. But then this was the main problem of the game, not just the annoyingly underused 'checkpoints', but the fact it felt like a tame sandbox game. It had all the elements to be a GTA for the Thirties but it stops short on a lot of aspects. You can't really go anywhere special, you can hold up stores but it's more of a sidenote and you just feel that for something so seemingly open, there's a lack of freedom. The fact that once you complete the game and that's it - no free roam ending - shows that this game might have spent too much on the big picture without taking note of the steps other similar games have taken in the last 8 years.

Sure you can customise your car, get some new clothes, kill some random people, hold up a gun shop, but really that's about it. The game wants you to follow it's linear story which is fair enough but surely you can bust the game wide open at the end for people to do what they want? I also had a problem with the AI, it was OK but at some points was completely infuriating, as soon as you go to shoot them, they will duck which makes gunfights sometimes a lot longer than they need to be. I also ran into a massive glitch when my AI friend Joe didn't accompany me to a final gun fight, which meant the game wouldn't continue and I couldn't restart the mission properly. Somehow, after an hour and a half of just running about trying to trigger something, it went onwards for no reason, but this almost became enough for me to throw the thing out the window. Come on now, games shouldn't be getting these types of glitches anymore. There's also the fact that if you crash your car, even a slight bit, you can die quite easily; this might seem realistic but really it becomes annoying once your nearing the end of a massive drive and a little mistake means you go back to the beginning again. I could tear my hair out at some points.

The game also felt a little short, it didn't quite have the epic impact on me I thought it would in the short space of time I played it in (app. 9-10 hours), but the overall story was what made it majestic. The plot of Vito and the different scenarios and missions they place him in are incredible, you even find out you're the one that kills protagonist Tommy at the end of Mafia and Vito's strange moral compass makes his character more interesting than the cardboard cut-outs of the others. However, the whole thing was let down by a lacklustre ending that will either lead on to Mafia 3 or to the DLC that has been announced. Either way, it didn't help the original experience.

Overall the whole game feels like you're in an interactive mafia film and that's no bad thing. It has some of the best visuals yet, missions and cutscenes GTA can only dream of and a clear love of the genre and the subject matter has gone into this game. However, it just falls short on so many levels that it's just not the complete gaming extravaganza it could have been. I would go as far as to say I enjoyed The Godfather game (where you fight the different families and look after your businesses etc.) more than this - which is a shame because the story is so good. It's slick and swish but without the balls to make it a stand-out release.

As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster ... and this helped.

Rating: 7/10

Singularity

This FPS from Raven flew under the radar a couple of months ago but has been bubbling under the surface of anonymity and gaining an almost cult status. Should it be your next purchase?

I hadn't heard much of Singularity and when games like this aren't marketed enough (or in this case it seemed not at all), it's a dangerous game. Mainly because the market is full of FPS (first person shooters) and it's hard for the average gamer to know if a game is any good without seeing either some footage, a demo, or a preview article. None of which was easily available or advertised for this game.

This is another aspect where films and games differ. With a film you know who is going to be in it, what it's about, who is making it and the budget with trailers and posters everywhere. It's enough material to make a judgement before you go in, but with a game there's only a few recognisable names in the industry and you're also forking out a lot more money than a cinema ticket. All you have sometimes is the artwork and the back of the box. That's unless it's a franchise or a big game with a massive company behind it like Rockstar with Red Dead Redemption.

So what of this latest offering from Raven/Activision? Well the story is that you are sent to check out some strange activity coming from a hidden island, but once you get there all hell breaks loose. It starts as a horror story where horrible creatures walk around these abandoned schools but as soon as you pick up your TMD device it goes full-pelt into action. The TMD is a hand device that allows you to control time where you can fizzle away enemies into dust, open up time portals, rejuvenate ammo crates and by the end you can pretty much do anything. Along the way you pick up items that allow you to upgrade your TMD and the various weapons so you can personalise the gameplay to your style to a degree. As you progress in the plot, you see messages scrawled on walls and then time starts to go a bit ... well ... funny.

The first thing people will notice once they start playing for a while is that this is very similar to Bioshock. Just like your plasmids, you acquire different 'powers' as you progress that work alongside your weapons, but just like Bioshock these powers are fucking cool. Whether it's using the TMD to pick up oil barrels and throw them at your enemies, turn them into monsters, create a time 'shield' around you or more, the TMD has been well thought out and structured. The weapons are somewhat okay, once I had found an 'Autogunner' it was basically game over - I upgraded the hell out of it and nothing could stop me. This was an issue because after a while the game does get easy.

At first, the monsters are difficult to kill and the horror element is amazing, but where Bioshock kept this atmosphere going, Singularity settles for more explosions and such. They know the TMD makes you powerful, so perhaps they realised it was worthless creating tension when you're so badass - and you really are badass. The gameplay has a decent variety to an FPS, whether it's swimming underwater, trying to solve puzzles while you're in a gas mask running out of air, moving quietly amongst the blind monsters or just trying to pull boxes through time so you can stand on them to reach places, it does enough.

Picking up E99 tech and upgrading worked, but often they're everywhere and I had almost completely tech'd myself out. The tape players (similar to the diaries in Bioshock) fill in gaps of narrative as well as notes left around the place but I quickly got bored of just standing there and hearing them rattle on and unfortunately, if you move away from them, you can't hear them. Yawn.

The monsters were okay, a boss on top of a train was a good laugh but by the end you're killing more soldiers than anything. It's as if the monsters just gave up and the soldiers are far easier. The graphics looked great and the dialogue was okay. The actual island (with some references to Lost) had a geography that I just didn't understand, I never knew where I was or what exactly I was doing. The common problem with most FPS's, they tend to have a fleshy story but have trouble communicating it to you efficiently and unfortunately the same applies.

The plot is a good one, lots of twists and turns with multiple endings (and an ending after the credits if you hold out), but essentially you're getting from A to B, doing something like flicking a switch or using your TMD then moving on - which I guess is the same as any FPS perhaps. Strangely it doesn't feel repetitive though and the set pieces are fun but there just feels like there is something missing...

Overall, this game was a pleasant surprise. The TMD element was new, fun, adventurous and a great idea but the weapon element was not utilised enough and the monsters became more and more scarce and less and less fierce.The story was good and had much more depth than a lot of other FPS' and was a unique, well-devised plan - you can never really go wrong with time travel stories. The graphics and gameplay were good so why isn't it perfect? Firstly, it was too easy, secondly you become frustrated that there isn't something more solid here in terms of stand-out moments and real drama or tension, it just lacks huge set pieces that can sometimes make or break a game, you also can't help but stand it up next to Bioshock where it pales only slightly in comparison. It feels like something that's a bit too little too late. It was a great time but it's something I'm not going to come back to but definitely glad I played it. If you loved Bioshock and are on the lookout for something similar, or to keep you quenched for Infinite, then this will do nicely. It's just a shame it couldn't be so much more.

Rating: 7/10

Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days

Kane & Lynch are back from what was a disappointing first game to try and improve upon its flaws and make killing people just look darn cool. But is it time to put this dog down?

I never played the first game 'Kane & Lynch: Dead Men' because I was one of the people who hated the demo. It was a shame since I enjoyed the premise of these two psychotic killers in for all they can get, but I just found the controls and gameplay not worth the hassle. It seemed like I wasn't the only one.

Everyone was willing to give it a try, but critics found many a flaw and the audience reception wasn't too great either, which made me wonder why they wanted to continue the franchise. A spokesperson said that this would be more character orientated, that the gameplay would be a lot smoother and will be a massive departure from the flawed 'Dead Men'.

In a sense, he's right. The story takes place some years later from the first game, so the characters have aged a fair bit, and Lynch is living in China, slightly overweight and looks like he could be in a retirement home soon. He needs Kane to help him with an arms deal and in a nutshell it all goes tits up. Plot-wise, it's sound, I enjoyed it but I wish there was a bit more depth, the story moves too quickly and it feels too forced. However seeing as that this is an action game, you don't want to be twiddling your thumbs for ages but there's a balance and unfortunately the game hasn't found it. It's close, but it's not quite the 'character piece' we were promised.

Saying that, the gameplay works well and from what I remember, it's a massive improvement from the first game. You press a button to cover and pop out with the aiming and then shoot. The problem is, this is pretty much the whole game. Run, cover, shoot, move on. It works the same way as say, Army of Two, but at least you got to drive things, customise things and you had loads of weapons. Instead, with Dog Days, you pretty much pick up whatever you can and just keep running forward. I don't really mind this per se, as for the realism it works (you're not going to be able to carry an arsenal with you) and you can't drive a tank through Shanghai but there wasn't really much variety to keep me entertained. Every time I went into a new room, I'd take a deep breath and move on knowing that I had to kill a bunch more people and then move into the next bit. Once a game begins to feel like a chore, you know there's a problem, no matter how cool it looks.

Also, the cover system isn't great. There were times where I'm covered and somehow, someone from a slight angle is still able to hit me so I'd have to 'uncover', crouch and move out of the way a bit, which becomes frustrating. Also the aiming can be annoying, unless you have a sniper rifle, you're going to have to move quite close to make sure you hit an enemy, which does add an element of realism again, but I felt like I had to shoot these guys a lot before they would die. The AI is also quite exemplary but could do with some tweaking, they will take cover and slowly try to flank you and will hide while you're shooting but sometimes it makes them a pain to come out to kill. At the same time it works well if you're badly injured; just keep shooting in the general direction while you find cover and you should be safe - something I imagine would work in real life!

When you do get hit, blood starts to fill the screen and the picture goes fuzzy and at times you will get completely smacked off your feet meaning you can shoot people on the ground or press a button to get up to cover (or if no cover is around just to get up). This works well because I imagine even with protection on, getting hit by a shotgun might knock you back a bit. There's enough guns to make the average gamer happy but in essence it's quite repetitive. However, when it does mix it up a bit, it works well. Flying over the skyline of Shanghai shooting a glass building from a helicopter was a real treat for instance and running around the tiny back alleys of the city felt like a real crime thriller. A lot of the shoot-outs would feel like they came straight out of Heat and it just felt fucking cool. You can even grab someone and use them as a human shield as you move forward.

The real plus here though is the style, something that IO have kicked up a real fuss about - and so they should! The whole game looks like it's being recorded through a shaky camcorder, so the whole things compressed, when it's dark it goes grainy, lights smear the lens and it moves all over the place. This looks absolutely wicked. When you sprint, the screen is everywhere and it feels like you're in a real movie with the camera keeping up with the pace of the action. I'm hoping this innovative style will influence a lot of other game production companies to take notice and think of things slightly differently, Dog Days proves that it can work. It's sometimes just the little details - a naked woman is blurred out, or an exploded head is blurred out, all while you are still playing. It's great. The cut scenes which are presented in the same style are exciting, the sets are exquisite, and bits such as where you're being tortured (which looks like something from Martyrs) really do make you feel like you're in a Tarantino movie. I mean, you're spending most of the game killing cops - you can't get more bad-ass.

So what's the real problem? Firstly, apart from the repetitive gameplay, I found the dialogue levels weren't quite right. Maybe it's my TV, but I couldn't hear what some people were saying which was infuriating when you're trying to move with the quick pace of the plot. But the real issue here is the length. It must have taken me about four or five hours, if that, to complete it - that's with dying occasionally and all that. The whole thing just feels short. You wonder if it's because the gameplay is perhaps too tiresome that it doesn't want to make players angry by stretching it out too long - but at least make it an 8 hour game - that's standard these days. It's a massive problem and hearing that there's the arcade mode (for the people who want to complete the levels with a score system), the co-op system (which I haven't tried and is supposed to work well) and a somewhat flawed yet interesting heist multiplayer mode, there isn't really that much here to justify it as a full game. It's like an EP rather than an album.

I have to say, I really did enjoy playing the game and it took me no time to complete it, you could easily buy it, complete it, and refund it within a day. I'm not joking. Keep in mind I completed it in three hour and a half sittings. I would recommend people play it just to see what they've done with the game but I don't think £40 (or £33 in Sainsbury's tomorrow) can justify it. I just feel there should have been so much more, which is a shame because for some reason I like these characters, I liked the game but once again it is ruined by some massive flaws. Maybe they should just come back to Kane & Lynch when they can do it justice. Rent it, borrow it, or wait until it comes down to £20 or something because it's well worth a play, but I just can't rate it highly against other, more 'full', games. I really wish I could.

Rating: 6/10

Transformers: War For Cybertron

Is this another crappy spin-off videogame about our robotic alien friends, or is there more to this than meets the eye?

When I first saw the trailer for this game, I wasn't sure what to make of it as Transformer games in the past have been pretty crap. But the idea of fighting on the home world of Cybertron without crap Earth stuff around was a new concept I was quite excited about. I then read IGN's review, which gave it an incredible 9/10 and so gave it the chance.

For those who don't know, the game takes place way before the Transformers have even discovered Earth, Optimus isn't even Optimus Prime yet, instead this game covers how he becomes leader of the Autobots and why they must leave their home planet. For the geeks out there, you see how Prime gets the Matrix, the first view of the ship they crash to Earth in and how Starscream met Megatron. What makes this game special is it hasn't followed the films at all and instead has kept with the original (and better) premise.

You start off as a Decepticon (though you can do the story of the Autobots to begin with if you wish) and you're trying to contaminate Cybertron with 'dark matter', whereas with the Autobots you are trying to stop them. This makes the evil storyline more sneaking around (if you can call it that) whereas the Autobot storyline is more gun-ho and a lot more fun. There's nothing much else to it! You complete mini missions in an epic setting as different characters (should you wish) and all the usual characters get a look in, including Soundwave, Bumblebee and other favourites.

Cybertron is a living breathing planet and looks great, but it's so detailed that soon it gives you a slight headache. It's like there is a wire mesh over everything and, though I can't think of a solution to this, it makes the visuals seem almost messy. Apart from that it looks good, but I still feel there's something missing, there's not much of a score and everything looks the same no matter where you go in the game.

The gameplay is satisfactory, the transforming plays well and works and you have enough different guns and grenades to keep you busy. The AI is also impressive, your teammates know what to do and the enemies don't always just concentrate all their fire on you. The flying and driving plays well, but feels soft and slow which is unfortunate as I would loved for that to really work, but it could have been a lot worse.

It's a lot of good fun but it really is just the same thing again and again. You have to get somewhere, push a button, kill some bad guys, and move on and so on and so forth. They try to make it slightly varied but really, it feels like a poor man's Halo but tinged with Gears of War. Saying this, that doesn't make it a bad thing, but I wanted to complete it for the sake of completing it rather than for enjoyment.

I never got the chance to try at online co-op but I think this would make it a whole lot more fun and the deathmatches etc. were a good laugh. You unlock different modes, create your own Transformer but after playing the entire game, you can't help but feel that really, it's just the same thing against real people and soon the novelty wears thin.

How anyone can give this 9 out of 10 is slightly mind-blowing. Yes it works for fan-boys and the general public alike and it's great fun with a different twist on the Transformers franchise but it's a one-trick pony, and yes it might be one hellavu trick, but there's not enough to justify it as being one of the best games out there at the moment, because it isn't. If you like Transformers then you'll love it, but I'd wait until it comes down in price or maybe rent it for a bit, but if you just want to play a good shoot 'em up, there are better ones out there.

Good, but not great. Sorry IGN.

Rating: 7/10

God Of War 3

One of the most popular and critically acclaimed series comes to a climatic end as Kratos continues on his path to kill Zeus ...

Each God Of War has always been a benchmark of gaming since it's first release in 2005 and with it's unique hack'n'slash gameplay mixed with button-press timing, it has paved the way for other titles to try and copy the format but alas they have never been able to fully capture God Of War's sheer ingenuity and originality.

For those who don't know, you play Kratos,a Spartan, who after offering his soul to Aries for victory was tricked into killing his own family and became a servant to the Gods of Olympus. But since then, he has rebelled and taken it upon himself to get revenge by killing Zeus and anyone who stands in his way.

This game was created by Sony and therefore is a PS3 only title. It also means that they have been able to push the console to it's limit and it looks stunning. Graphics are lush, the gameplay is smooth and it looks and plays like a dream. As always, God Of War remains epic - the huge backdrops, the incredible enemies, the amazing score and a story that doesn't let up.

As you travel your way up to Zeus through all kinds of scenarios, you benefit from a great array of weapons. If you've played a God Of War before, you'll be used to many of these already but you do get some cool little extras like wings to fly (or rather glide), the Head of Helios - literally a head ripped off someone that exudes light, and more. The fighting doesn't ever grate, even though it's essentially the same thing, and the puzzles are original and satisfying. The voice acting is inspiring and the entire experience makes for an outstanding game.

But then, I wouldn't say it was perfect. For one, even though it does summarise it's history as it goes along in quite a cool animation style, you do seem to have to have a knowledge of sorts of the first two games, but then this would be expected at the end of any trilogy. Also, there is some rather annoying aspects of the game that I found infuriating. Firstly, the 'flying' scenarios that occur are enough to make me throw the controller at the screen. Why they added this is a mystery, it goes back to 80's gaming where up, down, left, right and memorising the sequence as you die each time doesn't make for a satisfying experience. It wouldn't be so bad if you could potentially do it after a couple of go's, but by the end of the game, they get so ridiculous that you feel like relying on chance would be a better idea. There was also a sequence inside a cube where you had to hang onto a flying thing otherwise you get impaled on a spike. However, it all got a bit hectic and you had to wait to the last minute to do it successfully three times in a row, or you'd have to go back to the beginning which made for a lot of retries.

Apart from these few problems it makes for a terrific game and one that ends the series well. However, I couldn't help but feel I'd done all this before and it wasn't quite as varied as I would have liked. You cannot fault it for it's looks, style, story and gameplay but I just felt that as epic as it was, it would be the same thing but in a different backdrop and as varied as the weapons and enemies are, it is ultimately a hack'n'slash that compared to the more contemporary games coming out these days, feels slightly outdated. This might be a controversial statement, but it is by far the best of it's kind and perhaps the best-looking games on the PS3, but I can't get blinded by it's beauty as, at it's core, it's the same game as it was back in 2005.

Rating: 8/10

Red Dead Redemption

One of the most highly anticipated games of 2010 has reached such a fever that there has become a shortage of copies! But is it all it's cracked up to be?

A loose sequel on PS2's "Red Dead Revolver", this game follows the same 'spaghetti western' concept that it's predecessor laid out. Except this time, they've blown it wide open.

If you haven't already heard of this game, it's an open sandbox game (which means you can go anywhere at any time and do anything) that takes place in the wild west of 1911. You play John who was left for dead by his old gang and has been asked by the government to hunt down his old compadres.

What you immediately notice about this game is the incredible graphics. Rolling landscapes, wildlife, the weather, the cities and the bustling people look incredible. You are literally stepping into a fully interactive Western. Not only that, but the acting, the straightforward plot (unlike GTA's often confusing storyline) and pretty much everything about this game is near perfect.

But that's the problem, it's NEAR perfect. A lot of review sites have been going crazy over this game calling it one of the greatest games ever, and I'd agree if it wasn't for some niggling bits. Seeing as most of the people reading this review would perhaps have already read about or bought this game, then let me go through the bad points first, because I'm sorry to say that even though it lives up to the hype, I do have some issues with it.

Firstly, the horse riding. It works much in the same way as Shadow Of The Colossus, tapping the button to go faster, but yet because of your horse's stamina, you can't do it for too long. Which is fine except, there's a lot of it. At first you'll love taking in the scenery and travelling about (the world here is HUGE)but after a while you just want to get from A to B, which is lucky that they have stagecoaches or you could use your campsite, but I felt it relied somewhat on you wanting to spend the next ten minutes or so just riding around. Which at first is amazing, but after 20 or so hours, you just want to get things going. Also when you are shooting and riding, your horse will slow down or end up going somewhere else, I felt they should have left it so your horse keeps going onwards if you're aiming instead of pushing buttons and trying to aim and fire at the same time.

Also I found many a glitch, at some points having to re-load a previous save because I couldn't do anything the glitch was so bad. This is understandable for a game as complex as this, but still, it shouldn't happen. I also had a problem with some of the side games, firstly the bounty hunter which I got stuck into straight away but couldn't figure out how to take them alive, that was until further down the line I found out that you get given a lassoo. But then, unless you have a blood fetish, it's so easy to take the bounties alive that it becomes a chore. In fact, that's an overall issue I had with the whole game. It's almost way too easy. The covering system helps, but along with your auto-lock-on and Dead Eye which slows down time - you're pretty much sorted from the off. I rarely died in a gun battle but annoyingly would perhaps die by chasing a bounty, and then getting mauled by an animal to death which is SO annoying I can't tell you. Especially since half the time you can't even hear them!

Many people have also dubbed this GTA in the West, which essentially is what it is, but there's a lot GTA offers that Red Dead doesn't. Firstly, this might sound strange but, I can't sleep with prostitutes. Why not?! If I beat someone up or kill them, I'm almost automatically hunted down, very different from GTA. But then, I chose the way of the light, and it is possible to go the evil way, though I'd say this time round the good way is probably more interesting than the evil. I don't think I'll quite go the way of the outlaw because you get rated in Fame and Honour and since you work on getting it up, you don't wanna bring it back down, so it feels like you choose either one way or the other from the off, which I found irritating.

Another annoying aspect is the Master Shooter/Hunter/Survivalist etc. where you have to kill, collect, and ... pick flowers. This is fine but you have to do it in a certain order and you might have killed a whole bunch of animals, skinned them etc., but none of it counts because you didn't kill those 2 rabbits to get you up to Level 3. So when I was left after doing the main game missions to do these extra bits, I had to keep travelling around and re-doing things I'd already done at some point. Couldn't they have them listed out separately like in other games? Not have it all in an order?

There was also the case of the weapons. I had so many weapons, I couldn't begin tell you. To be frank, it was more than what was needed; although it is better to have them than to not, they could have made them slightly more different perhaps, one rifle seemed as good as the next. Then there's the money side. At the beginning money is hard to come by, as is always the case, but soon enough you're rolling in it. I never had an issue with money ever and this is for the following reasons: if you kill and skin enough animals, you can make a huge amount, especially with animals like bears and horses. If you're any good at poker at all, you can clear up (the poker game is fantastic) but the five finger knife thing you can really make some money at. After winning against a couple of people you can make a $100 bet, which is a lot in the game, and the button sequence is the same. So if I ever needed money, I'd just do that - it's too easy. The Liar's Dice and Blackjack aren't quite so guaranteed but good fun nonetheless.

Also, once you think you've finished the game, you start doing more mundane things like herding cattle etc. until a final battle. But it all shattered the dream for me, I wanted John to kind of waltz in and waltz out, that he was from somewhere else in the big wild west when actually, sorry if this might ruin it for you, he lives just down the road. Then once all that's done and you've finished the main game, you're left to do all the stuff you wanted to do except something's different ... hmm ... I won't ruin it for you, but I would have preferred to do it all before completing the game. You'll see what I mean ...

There's a bit of variety in the game, but not as much as I'd prefer. Whether it's breaking horses, nightwatch duty, the confusing arm wrestling game, or duelling with other gunslingers there's enough to keep you busy but just falls short of the amount that GTA has. But then this is the main problem, it's not GTA and I just feel as open as this game is, they could have made it even bigger. Not in size, but in scope. The world in there is so incredibly thought out and well-made that it stuns people into submission but, in fact, this game is ever-so-slightly flawed and I feel, though this is an amazing game, I think Rockstar will come out with a new Red Dead that will truly advance on this game at some point in the future.

The multiplayer aspect of this looks incredible too. Whether riding in your posse or doing certain missions, you'll be hard pressed to get bored. There has even been talk of downloadable co-op content on the horizon and for that I cannot wait.

Overall, all the side quests, plots and shootouts are great and feel like they have come right out of a true spaghetti western. The graphics incredible, the gameplay smooth and everything about it makes other sandbox games feel like dirt on your shoe. I played this game thinking nothing could ever beat it, but after the 22 hours of gameplay I've already invested into it, I can see room for improvement and that's why it can't get 10/10. It's a game that you'll always find yourself coming back to and anyone who has ever loved Western films, whether you're into games or not, should pick up and play this game. You'll be hooked whoever you might be, I guarantee it mister.

Rating: 9/10