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Related: Bioshock review, Top 5 games of 2009

Tags: Bioshock 2, trailer

I had my first experience of 3D cinema the other day when I watched Up. Once my eyes had adjusted I was initially impressed but then I sort of got used to it. It’s the same with videogames. Next-gen machines come out and everyone goes ‘whooo’ but then the bar has to constantly be raised in order to impress. It’s a pity then that not only does Up have average graphics, but it’s also a very average platform game that’s of little interest to me.

You mainly play the game as Carl and Russell as you move round the 3D platform levels attached to your floating house. Similar to the Lego games, you can play with a friend and must work together to get round the environment. For example, Russell can shimmy along ledges and use Kevin the bird to reach new heights, while Carl can use his cane to climb up ledges and keep wasps and spiders away with the screeching of his faulty hearing aid. In single player mode you hit a button so switch between them which sometimes works and can sometimes be frustrating when the AI takes over and moves characters precisely where you don’t want them.

Most of the time you’re just platforming and collecting coins and artefacts as you go. Combat is extremely limited to swinging your cane at things or picking up items to use against the inhabitants of the forest. Occasionally you also get a boss fight but the action throughout is all rather slow and cumbersome. What do you expect from controlling a geriatric and a boy scout?

To break things up a bit you can also take to the skies and literally dogfight with the talking dogs. For some reason this is also the first thing you do in the game which is odd as it’s set in a scene right near the end of the movie.

Young children may enjoy playing as the characters from the film but this doesn’t offer anything for the older gamer. It’s an average platform game so it gets an average score of 5 out of 10.

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Related: G Force review, Wii Christmas party games, Youtube Up review

Tags: Up, Up, disney, pixar, THQ, platformer, Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PSP, DS, Mac OS X, Windows, Single player, 2 player, co-op, multiplayer, Youtube Up review

Last year’s Pro Evo was a big disappointment, so much so that I didn’t play it once after I finished reviewing it. FIFA was my footy game of choice last year so what can Pro Evo do this time to win my affections once again?

The first thing you’ll notice before you get into the actual game is the way the stats are displayed. Gone is the graphical representation and numbers up to 100 are back. So far, at least for me, so good. Presentation, at least in terms of player looks has taken a big leap too. Liverpool’s my team and players such as Gerrard, Torres and even Kuyt and Carragher look great. They look less ‘waxy’ than the FIFA games and far more photo-realistic. Player animations are a bit hit and miss though. Standard running and walking still looks a bit awkward but some of the animations when players poke out a toe to score a goal or fall over to get a cross in are sublime.

Like FIFA, Pro Evo also has full 360’ movement but the game still feels a lot more like an arcade game and therefore it’s easier to try to follow a set strategy for getting balls into the penalty area and score. It’s also worth upping the difficulty because I’ve been banging goals in against the AI left right and centre.

The Champions League is back and this time it’s a lot slicker and you can also take part in that, and the new Europa League in the Master League mode. You also have the ability to play as an individual but to be honest this feels like a blatant copy of what FIFA introduced a couple of years back (and since then of course, EA have expanded on it with Game Face and the like).

Commentary’s still a sore point and not much better than last year, and some of the chants from the fans are once again non-authentic and off-putting.

If you’re a fan of one of the licensed teams it won’t really bother you that the game’s not fully licensed, however, if you support a team that’s not in there you can always edit your own teams if you’ve got enough time in the edit mode.

Sorry Konami but despite a good effort, FIFA 10 is still very much in the lead. If you want a footy game where it’s easier to score that feels more immediate, I would definitely recommend this over last year’s effort. PES 2010 gets a very good 7 out of 10.

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Related: FIFA 10, Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 lineup, Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 review

Tags: Pro Evolution Soccer 2010, Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC, PES 2010, PES 10, FIFA 10

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Related: Modern Warfare 2 release date, Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare review

Tags: Modern Warfare 2, single player, petition, Infinity Ward

Tales of Monkey Island Episode 4; The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood sees the Marquis De Sade finally get his hands back on Guybrush only to be robbed of his prize specimen by a baying mob. They want Guybrush to answer for crimes he’s supposedly committed and simply drag him off to the local courthouse to face trial and punishment. To say much more could easily spoil what is probably the most intriguing episode in this Pentology so far.

What I can say is that this adventure felt a little shorter this time around lasting about four hours, compared to the five to six of the previous episodes. I believe this is because the fifth episode will likely be a longer and more complex affair. I did get seriously stuck at one time and nearly had to resort to searching Google for the answer but as usual; after walking around and trying everything I managed to solve that one really tricky puzzle. Nevertheless Episode 4 features plenty of stomping around the Flotsam Island previously visited in Episode 1; many of the characters that you met before are still there as well as some new ones including the infamous Salesman, Stan from the original Lucas Arts games.

Because it uses the same engine as all of the other episodes, Tales of Monkey Island Episode 4 looks and sounds just as good as the rest; the quality of the dialogue is once again great with many laugh out loud moments. Die-hard fans may spot some more classic references and smile, sweet.

I award yet Another 8 out of 10 for Monkey Island here folks.

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Related: Tales of Monkey Island Episode 3 review, The Secret Of Monkey Island Special Edition video review

Tags: Tales of Monkey Island Episode 4, Tales of Monkey Island, PC, Wii

Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising was a revelation back in the day. Sure it was for hardcore gamers on the PC and it didn’t let you off lightly. You’d spend ages crawling on your belly through a wood then get shot in the head. Luckily you had quick save so you could take some of that frustration away. On the consoles of course you get checkpoints which I’ll come to in a second.

In this game the fictional island of Skira is being contested by the Russians and Chinese and you, as an American Fire Team leader, are helping out the Russians. Similar to the last game this is no Call of Duty. Enemy and friendly movement isn’t scripted but left to AI which makes gameplay very different every time you play it but can also lead to frustration when your team mates stand in the open to get fired at or enemies don’t seem to respond when shot at.

There are 12 long campaign missions to fight through and you can also play them co-op with up to three friends for a more realistic experience. There are also some shorter missions to play through in co-op which should extend gameplay further.

Play the game on normal mode and the HUD tells you where enemies roughly are in relation to you and waypoints suggest the best way to go. Of course you can play in hardcore mode where everything is turned off and you’re left to fend for yourself and make your own tactical decisions.

Checkpoints aren’t very well spread out though. You’d expect one after each objective but that’s sometimes not the case and you get sent back a long way if you die from a sudden shot to the head.

Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising isn’t to everyone’s taste, especially not console gamers. The game would probably get a higher score if I was reviewing it on the PC but I think console gamers may get frustrated too soon. Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising gets a very good 7 out of 10.

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Related: Call of Duty , Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising developer interview, Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising review

Tags: Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Codemasters, first person shooter

Once again it’s time for another EA Sports game with a new number on the end. This time it’s the turn of FIFA. When you first look at the game it doesn’t look much different but you’ll soon realise that they’ve ironed out all the things that made 09 great to make this version excellent.

First of all there’s the 360’ movement, meaning you’re no longer running at 45 degree angles. This makes for a more realistic movement of the players and coupled with the improved ball physics, some truly interesting and freakish goals that are sure to make you shout out or hold your head in your hands.

Manager Mode is the main season mode where you play through a number of seasons and make transfer and squad decisions. Be a Pro mode is back where you play as an individual and now you can make your own Virtual Pro. Using EA’s Game Face technology which is currently broken as I review the game due to high demand, you can put your face right into the game and level them up RPG style in custom games and even in the arena.

Following on from the Adidas Live Season comes Live Season 2.0 where you can download the latest games your club’s played and try to replicate or re-write history. It’s a shame you have to pay for this after a 5 game demo but hardcore fans will find it worth the extra spend. There’s also a set piece creator where you can modify and save set pieces for use in games. Again, only the hardcore will probably go this deep into the game but it’s a nice touch.

As ever, presentation is slick with some great player likenesses and some good ad-libbing from Martin Tyler and Andy Gray. I usually say not to bother getting the new version of an EA Sports game if you’re enjoying last year’s, but once again, FIFA’s come up trumps. Over to you Pro Evo. FIFA 10 gets 9 out of 10, if you know what I mean.

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Related: Fifa 09 review, Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 review, FIFA 10 review

Tags: FIFA 10, FIFA, football, soccer, FIFA Soccer 10, EA Sports, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP, DS, PC

In Raven Squad you play as two groups of mercs who land behind enemy lines to retrieve some data. Quite what that data is I can’t remember as this game bored me so much I almost fell into a coma. What they’ve tried to do is marry a first-person shooter with an RTS and the result is either a very poor FPS that’s sub-standard to nearly any other FPS I have ever played or an RTS so simple that you may as well be playing Cannon Fodder on the Amiga – actually go and play that because it’s better.

In FPS mode you can switch between your soldiers to use their special weapons and struggle with the dreadful AI that seems to just stand there whilst you try and fight the good fight alone. I quickly gave up on this idea and decided to play the whole game from above, but this too was a rather dull affair as I pointed around the map and watched my little fellas run about the same drab looking levels over and over again.

Oh, actually, one thing I did find very entertaining about this game. The voice acting (if you can call it that) is hilarious. If you know the UK comedy show ‘Allo ‘Allo then you’ll find the accents in this game just as bad as the awful French and German accents in that.

And just for good measure, if you want to get rid of your housemate, get them to play the game in co-op with you. They’re sure to leave the house and never come back.

Don’t waste your money on this, you’ll have far more fun hiding in your back garden with a spud gun. Raven Squad gets 2 out of 10.

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Related: Wolfenstein review, Quantum of Solace review, Raven Squad review

Tags: Raven Squad, SouthPeak Games, Xbox 360, PC

As you may remember, Episode Two ended with Guybrush on the trail of the Sea Manatee and the Giant Voodoo Sucking Sponge. As usual Guybrush didn’t exactly know what was in store for him because soon enough; his crew, his ship as well as himself are all swallowed and therefore trapped inside the belly of said Sea Manatee. Without wishing to spoil the four or five hours of playtime to be had here I can say that in this adventure you’ll bump into the Voodoo lady’s old flame Coronado De Cava who was previously on the trail of La Esponja Grande. After years stuck inside a Manatee you’ll understand that he’s not quite as sane as he once was.
If you’ve enjoyed the first two episodes then of course you’ll love to see how the story is progressing.

Just as with the first two episodes both the graphics and voice acting are a treat and as crazy and imaginative as usual. The whole series so far is a treat for point and click fans everywhere and I’m really engrossed in this series and can’t wait until Episode 4 is ready. Another 8 out of 10.

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Related: Tales of Monkey Island Episode One, Tales of Monkey Island Episode Two

Tags: Tales of Monkey Island Episode 3, Lair of the Leviathan, Chapter 3, Tales of Monkey Island, Episode 3, Telltale, Wii, PC, Monkey Island, Guybrush, Point and Click

Here’s something you don’t see every day, Square Enix making a World War II strategy game which covers real historical events and not a role playing game which involves pointy eared characters in some fantasy land. Order of War focuses on the end of World War II and is set in the 40s as you push back the German Axis from France or play as the German army trying to repel the Red Army from the East.

A couple of years back Company of Heroes did a good job of telling this story so how does this RTS shape up? Well it turns out that Square Enix seem to have made a rather good game.

In typical RTS style you point and click your way around the map, swooping round the objectives as you command your soldiers, tanks and artillery to push forward and hold ground. You can also call in air strikes and bombing runs when the situation allows it and of course have to play to the strengths of the resources you’ve been given. For example, foot soldiers can launch surprise attacks on artillery by moving through the trees or can entrench themselves for better protection.

I’m not very good at RTS games but it’s good to see the game also caters for players like me. In the early stages each level is divided up into smaller objectives and you’re shown exactly what to do. Your commander even sends in more troops if you’re running low. And if you need some thinking time you can pause the game and still give orders to your troops to get the upper hand.

You can watch the action from above or zoom right in, and at the touch of a button the game goes into cinematic mode where you can see the fight in great detail. A nice touch indeed.

The music is also excellent although the accents of your commanders can be a little over-the-top at times. With the single player campaigns and online and skirmish modes, there’s plenty to keep you occupied. If you’re a World War II boffin and you like your strategy games, then this one’s definitely worth a look.

Order of War gets an excellent 8 out of 10.

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Related: Call of Duty World at War review, Frontlines Fuel of War review, Order of War review

Tags: Order of War, PC, Square Enix, Company of Heroes

Just because a game’s for kids doesn’t mean it has to be hurriedly put together. Luckily, it seems that quite a bit of care and attention has gone into making Mini Ninjas which means kids are going to have a fair amount of fun with it. In the game, the land has been ravaged by violent storms and the leader of the town has sent his best ninjas one by one off to solve the problem. The problem is, they never came back so it’s up to Hiro, the youngest of the ninjas, to find his buddies and stop the terrible storms and the samurais from burning down the villages.

Combat’s a simple case of hitting, blocking and stunning enemies if they choose to block you. You also have Kuju magic available which can be used to find secret shrines or fight enemies with fireballs or tornadoes. You can even possess the little animals around the land to sneak past samurais or even attack them. Hiro also has a big white hat which can be used to guard against arrows or as a boat. It’s all very cute and colourful and running about the land feels very fresh if you know what I mean.

There’s also a fair amount of platform gaming as Hiro shimmies along ledges and balances on beams.

Once you find your fellow ninjas you can then hot-swap them into the battle and use their abilities. There’s a big chap with a hammer called Tofu or something and a little girl with a flute amongst others.

My problem with this game is, even though it’s for kids, it just feels a bit shallow and easy. Combat is rarely difficult unless you’re later in the game and haven’t levelled up enough so there’s no real sense of danger throughout the game. You sort of go through the motions albeit very slick ones with tight controls and smooth graphics.

It would also have been nice to have some extra 2 player game modes in there for more family fun. Still, it’s a good game and even though there’s swordplay, no-one dies. All the enemies you fight turn into frogs, rabbits and foxes etc when defeated. Mini Ninjas gets a good 6 out of 10.

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Related: Ninja Blade review, Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword review, Youtube Mini Ninjas review

Tags: Mini Ninjas, Mini Ninja, Eidos, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PC, Mini Ninjas review

So after a disappointing delay, Batman: Arkham Asylum has finally sneaked onto the shelves so listen up to find out if it’s any good.

The game begins with Batman bringing the Joker into Arkham Asylum and then he conveniently and easily escapes further into Arkham Island to cause mayhem as he formulates a toxin to turn normal goons into super soldiers. So Brucey baby swoops from ledge and kicks and punches people in the face to put a stop to it.

Combat is a simple matter of punch and counter buttons being pressed at the right time. Build up a big combo and you can do super moves that take out more than one bad guy at a time. If you want to be stealthy, you can swoop between high perches and glide down for a quick kill or even string up bad guys in style.

Batman also has all the gadgets of his utility belt at hand. These include exploding gel for getting through walls, remote control batarangs, grappling hooks and little gizmos for hacking into security.

As well as all the usual suspects you’d expect from the Batman universe, also expect lots of riddles from Edward Nigma to pop up in most rooms. When in detective mode which is used for counting guards and following trails, you can also scan areas relating to his clues. Succeed and you get more XP which can be used to upgrade Batman’s armour and weapons.

The thing that makes this a cut above other games of this genre is simply the fact that the Batman universe is recreated so well here. It’s dark, moody and gothic and certainly more akin to the comics as opposed to the TV series or any of the movies. Even the Scarecrow makes an appearance more than once as he induces you into a state of fear with some of his lovely poison gas. It’s creepy to say the least.

The game’s not massively long at around 7 hours but once you’ve finished the game, you can go back and try to solve all those riddles, or play the Challenge Mode which will extend play further.

I was hoping this would be everything it was hyped up to be and fortunately it is. My only gripe is I wish there was more to do once it was finished. So far, for replayability, Resident Evil 5 still gets my award. Still, with free DLC on its way, things are looking good! Batman: Arkham Asylum gets an almost perfect 9 out of 10.

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Related: Batman Arkham Asylum demo available, Batman Arkham Asylum Joker PS3 exclusive content, Youtube Batman Arkham Asylum review

Tags: Batman Arkham Asylum, Batman, Arkham Asylum, PC, Xbox 360, PS3, Batman Arkham Asylum review

Okay so I know Tomb Raider Underworld has been out for a year now but I was never fortunate enough to get a copy – until now. So if you haven’t played the game yet, is it worth it? Watch and learn. Underworld follows on where Legend left off and begins with Lara escaping from her burning mansion. Even her friend Zip is trying to kill her and we don’t know why. Flashback a while and we see Lara diving for treasure in warm oceans and finding out some interesting facts about Thor’s hammer. From there she travels around the world climbing lots of cliffs, raiding lots of tombs and jumping about and shooting.

I really enjoyed Legend, so how does this compare? From what I remember, this one is less about combat and more about climbing and puzzling so in a way it goes back to the roots of Tomb Raider. Lara looks in fine form and even gets dirty and wet as she rolls about in the mud. Teenage boys never had it so good. I’ve of course played Infamous since Underworld came out and it’s fair to say Lara’s not as sticky in this game. She quite often falls when you’d expect her to grab onto a ledge and can also get stuck on things. The camera can also often point you where you don’t want to look and you end up making leaps of faith – sometimes to your doom.

Combat’s changed a bit too. It’s still a case of moving and shooting but you can now target more than one enemy at a time and throw sticky grenades. There’s also an adrenaline gauge that fills up when you shoot enemies. Click the R stick and time slows down, allowing you to kill your enemies in clichéd Matrix-style glory. It’s odd that you can’t pick up an enemy’s weapon though. When they die, it seems there gun disappears. Odd to say the least.

The story’s fun as always and things do look very nice indeed. Environments are rich and detailed but there are some clipping issues, texture pop-up and odd shadows now and again. There’s also a handy hint system and a map if you get hopelessly lost and can’t figure out some of the physics-based puzzles. Underworld is fun but it’s not the leap in gameplay I was hoping for. Tomb Raider Underworld gets a very good 7 out of 10.

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Related: Tomb Raider Underworld downloadable content, Tomb Raider Underworld Trailer, Tomb Raider Underworld review

Tags: Tomb Raider Underworld, Tomb Raider: Underworld, Lara Croft, Tomb Raider, Underworld, Xbox 360, PS3, PC

And now, at a time when videogames, and videogamers, are firmly out of the closet, and better graphics, bigger titles, clever marketing and some neat peripherals from Sony and Nintendo have managed to make gaming ‘cool’, the latest title in the Wolfenstein series has arrived, called simply ‘Wolfenstein’.

Of course, we now live at a time when the FPS genre is such a popular one that to stand out in the marketplace you have to have something pretty special. There’s not a first-person shooter out there which isn’t going to find itself being compared to Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and to a lesser extent, the not-quite-as-good-as-we’d-hoped-it-would-be-but-still-downright-awesome Call Of Duty 5. And with Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 fast approaching, there are no doubt many people who are wondering whether it’s worth shelling out the readies for Wolfenstein, or whether the cash would be better off stashed in the bank (or under a bed – probably safer these days) until November to await the latest COD instalment.

So… to buy or not buy, that is the question. And should you just pick this game up and play it for half an hour, you’d be forgiven for thinking that saving your cash might well be the answer. For what the game basically plays like is a Call Of Duty clone, albeit one with less weaponry choices and – it has to be said – less ‘grittiness’ than we’ve come to expect from our wartime FPS titles. That’s not to say that the game looks bad – far from it – but it just looks a lot more like… well, more like a videogame basically, rather than the ‘interactive movie’ kind of thing that COD offers. I apologise now for the number of times I may refer to Call Of Duty by the way – I’ll try and tone it down from now on.

No, graphically Wolfenstein does look very nice, with crisp, detailed graphics and some nice meaty weapons with loud, authentic gunfire noise and a healthy recoil – which as any FPS fan knows, is important in this kind of game where shooting stuff is basically the main gameplay mechanic. And it’s not just guns that you have in your arsenal either. Deserving of a special mention are the hand grenades: you can almost FEEL the concussion wave coming out of the screen as the grenade goes off, while the blast wave throws bodies (or bits of bodies) and Havok-rendered objects all over the place – when one of these bad boys goes off next to you, you really do know about it!

So as far as in-game visuals go – no problems, and while the cut-scenes that introduce the story and connect the various missions together, as already mentioned, might lack the slick realism of COD, but they do serve to move the plot along nicely, and as you get further into the narrative you soon realise that ‘realism’ is not the name of the game here anyway.

You see, while you may start off playing what appears to be a standard WWII FPS, it gradually morphs into something else. As our hero, one ‘BJ ‘Blazkowicz’, American special agent extraordinaire, soon discoveres, the bad guys in this game (played in typically efficient style by some rather enthusiastic Nazi-types) have got more than a few tricks up their sleeves. Perhaps sensing that in the normal scheme of things old Adolf’s plans for world domination weren’t exactly going to work out, these chaps have started working on a plan to try and turn the tide of World War II in their favour, and they intend to do this through the use of some ancient technology they have unearthed which makes use of some very special crystals with, for want of a better phrase, ‘mystical properties’. This technology apparently used to belong to an ancient race called the Thule, and as you progress through the game you learn more about the Thule, more about the crystals, and – most importantly – more about what the Nazis have been doing with them.

Of course, it goes without saying that young BJ soon gets his hands on one of the Thule medallions, and with it he can enter a sort of shadowy ‘side-universe’ called the ‘Veil’. Nothing at all to do with curtains, the Veil actually allows BJ to tap into a mysterious power source which rather conveniently seems to be linked to the local water supply, and with this, he can – with the right crystal upgrades – perform such feats as slowing time, stopping bullets, passing through solid matter… and other handy stuff like that.

The medallion, and the crystals that grant the user the various powers, are gathered by BJ over time as he passes through the game, and with each new ability he gains, so – more often than not – the bad guys reveal a new trick they’ve been keeping up their sleeve, usually in the form of some new amped-up super soldier. This might be a heavily-armoured dreadnought of a guy with some kind of crystal-powered energy weapon, or a super-fast mutant-ninja chap with razor-sharp claws. Add into the mix a series of progressively more powerful, exponentially more outlandish ‘end of level-type’ bosses, and what you have here is a game which, while it starts off as a reasonably above-average, but fairly standard fare WWII First-Person Shooter, gradually morphs into the kind of cross-genre offspring you might get if Call Of Duty mated with Resident Evil.

By the time you get about halfway through the game, you’ll be tackling ‘normal’ Nazis and their super-powered brethren with aplomb, switching between the Veil dimension and the ordinary one with ease, and swapping from meaty, satisfying WWII machineguns to futuristic, crystal-powered energy weapons almost without thinking. And it has to be said: the more you play through, the better the game gets. I fully expect that any gamers who don’t put at least six to eight hours into this game initially will dismiss it as merely ‘average’, which is a shame as they’re missing out on something rather special. Set in a city which you can explore more or less at will, unlocking new areas with each mission, the game employs a Grand Theft Auto-style mission select system, so that at any one time you’ve usually got at least two different missions to choose from, and often more than two. You can choose which order you tackle the missions in, or simply spend some time exploring the map for hidden secrets and lurking Nazi enemies, which makes the game seem a lot less linear than some first-person shooters. You can even, should you so wish, replay completed missions mid-game, which is handy if you want to unearth all the hidden secrets like the enemy intel and the Nazi gold which can be traded in at the local black market stores to get upgrades for your weapons and your crystal-based powers.

So that, in a nutshell (albeit a fairly large one) is the single-player game. But of course, no FPS would be complete these days without an online multiplayer mode, and Wolfenstein is no exception. Offering only three character classes – Medic, Engineer and Soldier – with just three different game modes – Team Death Match, Objective and Stopwatch, and with a maximum of only six players per team, I would have to say that the multiplayer in Wolfenstein isn’t quite up to the standard of that in Call Of Duty, but that’s not to say it’s bad. The opportunity to utilise some of the different ‘Veil’ powers in the multiplayer, once you’ve racked up enough cash to unlock them, does give it a unique selling point over COD, and as the maps are generally quite small, the action is fairly fast and furious, but somehow the gameplay doesn’t quite match up to COD 4 or 5 for either the scale of the battles, or the sheer addictiveness.

Maybe it’s because whenever I played online, the only character class who really seemed any fun was the Soldier one, because the size of the levels, and the type of game modes on offer, didn’t really lend themselves to any kind of complex tactics, instead everyone just seemed to spend their time grabbing the biggest guns possible and running around blasting anything that moved! I have spent many, many nights staying up till who-knows-when in the morning because I kept telling myself I’d have ‘just one more’ Call Of Duty deathmatch game, and I just didn’t find the same compulsion to do that with Wolfenstein’s multiplayer. The single-player Campaign mode though, well that’s another story – on several occasions while working on this review I completely lost track of time tackling ‘just one more mission’ on the single-player campaign game.

And that, basically, sums up Wolfenstein from my point of view – if, like several of my friends, you live ONLY for online gaming, buy a title solely on the strength of its deathmatch mode, and will probably never even look at the single-player game, then I would have to say that you will be better off waiting for Modern Warfare 2. If, however, like me, you like a more than half-decent online gaming experience, but what you really live for is immersing yourself in a creative narrative and tackling the solo challenge of a really awesome single-player FPS, then you’re certainly going to get your money’s worth out of Wolfenstein. It’s a shame that there’s no two-player co-op option for story mode, but I guess you can’t have everything. Overall though, I’d rate Wolfenstein as an excellent 8 out of 10.

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Related: Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 2

Tags: Wolfenstein, FPS, Xbox 360, PS3, PC

Another year sees another roll-out of all EA’s sports franchises such as Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 and Madden NFL 10 is no different. Here we see a couple of new gameplay innovations along with the ones which worked from previous years.

First of all, let me say that the game’s presentation is fantastic. It really feels like you’re watching a football game on a Sunday and the player models and graphics make for a really great game atmosphere. It’s a shame the commentary doesn’t shape up so well but to be honest you can choose to ignore that, much like a member of your family trying to turf you off the console because they want to watch a rerun of friends.

I also like the fact there’s no calendar system in Franchise mode. Some of you will miss the opportunity to train your players between games but all I want to do is play the game so for me, this works.

When on the gridiron play’s also been slowed down a bit so it’s now a bit simpler to see a defender charging towards you and make a pass or dive out of the way in time. There’s also the new Pro-Tak system at play which basically means multiple players can now go in to take down a player and you get even more realistic action on the field.

SuperStar mode is also back so you can create a player and play through a whole career with your big muscle man.

If you’re new to Madden games you’re also going to have to look for the holographic training section in the game. Last year you had to play through it at the start, now it’s hidden in the menus. It is there though so if you’re not sure of the rules or how to play, check it out and get with the programme dude.

Online play has also been refined. There’s an online franchise mode and online co-op and everything’s been sped up to make sure your opponents don’t spend ages browsing through their plays before finally snapping the ball.

Once again, as I always say with EA’s sports games, the game’s good but I’d only buy this over last year’s Madden NFL 09 game if you really, really like American Football games.

Madden NFL 10 gets a very good 7 out of 10.

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Related: Madden NFL 09, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, Youtube Madden NFL 10 review

Tags: Madden NFL 10, EA, Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Wii, Madden, NFL, Youtube Madden NFL 10 review

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Tags: Mass Effect, Pinnacle Station, xbox 360

I know Project Origin’s been out for a while now but I never got round to playing it and things are quiet in the summer months so here goes my review.

Set just before the end of the first game, this tale of terror and gunplay begins in an office block as you try to extract Professor Aristide from an apartment. During your mission the massive explosion is seen which wipes out the crew in the first game and you’re then involved in experiments, flashbacks, lots of slow-mo shooting action and of course Alma pops up now and again to scare the living daylights out of you.

People have complained that this game’s more of the same, but that’s no bad thing. The action is slick, controls are tight, the frame rate is consistently high and the graphics are fantastic. The weird hallucinations you experience are once again suitably scary and there’s some shock moments in there that are guaranteed to make you jump if you have the sound turned up.

The game’s also not as repetitive as the first game. You may spend the first couple of levels wandering around an office block and a hospital but you also get to walk around the charred remains of the city and explore an underground scientific bunker. You’ll be using the slow-mo mode to pick off your targets once again, as not using it usually results in death. The enemy AI is super clever and the action’s thick and fast if you decide not to slow the pace down with the touch of a button.

They’ve also put a new cover system into the game where you can slide or topple over furniture to hide behind. Unfortunately, you won’t actually use it much as it’s far more efficient to just shoot your enemies in the face than try to tip over a plant pot.

If you like strong, story-driven FPSs then this is definitely worth checking out. There’s also a token multiplayer mode thrown in there for good measure but single player is definitely where it’s at. F.E.A.R. 2 gets an excellent 8 out of 10.

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Related: F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate, Dementium The Ward review, Youtube FEAR 2 Project Origin review

Tags: FEAR 2 Project Origin, F.E.A.R. 2, Project Origin, FEAR, Xbox 360, PS3, PC

Bound in Blood is a prequel to Call of Juarez and this time the wrong reverend introduces us to two brothers, Ray and Thomas McCall. The game begins with a stand-off between them over a woman and then flashes back to an adventure where they soon leave the Confederate Army and go on their own quest in Mexico whilst of course shooting everyone around them.

Think of the game as a bit like Call of Duty, in that it features a strong storyline and plenty of set pieces where the aim of the game is to shoot everyone shooting back at you. Of course being set during the civil war is a neat touch and there’s great rapport between the two brothers regardless of which one you choose to play as. One of them is a bit of a brute who can take more damage and despatch of enemies better at close range, the other is better at distance attacks and has a handy lasso for reaching higher ground.

As you kill enemies you also build up concentration points. When your meter is full you can then slow down time to target enemies all at once and unleash a flurry of gunfire. You only have a minute to do this though which works well as it means you don’t save it all up for later.

You’ll also face outlaws which you’ll have to duel. It’s a good idea but can sometimes be annoying when you only have one shot to either do or die. Another annoying aspect of the game is a pause of about 5 seconds every time a checkpoint’s reached while the game saves. Environments, light and particle effects look fantastic as do animations. It’s a shame the faces of friends and enemies aren’t quite up to scratch but the majority of the time, things look pretty convincing.

There’s also an expanded multiplayer game over the first one with added game modes and more player types to run and gun with. If you’re itching for more FPS action before Modern Warfare 2 comes out, this could just be the thing to keep you going. Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood gets a very good 7 out of 10.

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Tags: Call of Juarez Bound in Blood, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Call of Juarez, Bound in Blood, Call of Juarez Bound in Blood review

Buy now: Championship Manager 2010

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Tags: champtionship manager, 2010, Eidos

Can’t decide whether to play World of Warcraft or write messages on Twitter? Now two of the world’s biggest distractions join forces with the new World of Warcraft Twitter client called TweetCraft. The client allows you to send twitter messages without leaving the comfort of Azeroth, post screengrabs to TwitPic and automatically tweet your World of Warcraft achievements. TweetCraft is a free add-on so you can download it from the official Tweetcraft site and get talking to your friend now and don’t forget to follow Gamesweasel on Twitter.

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Tags: World of Warcraft, twitter, Tweetcraft, twitter client, twitter for World of Warcraft, WOW

Anyone old enough to remember the G.I. Joe cartoon and toys? Well if you do, you may or may not be excited about the new movie. This is the game of the movie of the cartoon and as you’d expect it’s actually a load of watered-down rubbish so I’ll be quick.

As you can see, the game almost plays like Commando or Contra in that you just run into the screen and shoot everything in front of you. This wouldn’t be so bad if the game played like Gears of War but it actually plays a bit like the 80s game Commando which of course is unacceptable. You can play alone or co-op and if you’re playing single player you can swap between characters mid-level, however, they skate around the environment like the 3rd person mode in Fallout 3 and the cover system isn’t worth using at all. So, you just end up strafing all over the place and shooting stuff. And if you do have to backtrack, the camera doesn’t move so you run blindly into the edge of the screen.

Character models are shoddy, environments are boring and the whole game feels like something you should download from the Xbox Live Arcade. If you want some good run and gun action instead, pick up Gears of War 2 – it should be pretty cheap now. G.I. Joe gets an awful 2 out of 10.

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Related: Gears of War 2, Bionic Commando review, GI Joe The Rise of Cobra review

Tags: GI Joe The Rise of Cobra, GI Joe, Rise of Cobra, G.I.Joe

Mothership Zeta is the latest expansion for Fallout 3 and this one’s a very different proposition from what you’ve played before. As usual the expansion starts with a distress signal and this one points you towards the crashed alien spacecraft. This time though, you get caught in a tractor beam and are abducted by some very clichéd looking greys.

What follows is a strangely linear experience battling with just aliens and a couple of other creatures that have been beamed aboard, but it’s a lot of fun. You get to meet other abductees who help you complete some of your quests and get to play with some brand new energy weapons and have a fiddle with some alien technology.

It’s a nice change to be completely away from the wastelands of Washington DC and of course you can keep your weapons and outfits you find when you get back to terra firma.

As I mentioned before my only complaints are the lack of variety of enemies on board the ship and the fact that it’s rather short. Compared to Point Lookout it really is rather short but in my opinion it’s well worth getting if you’re running out of things to do in Washington.

Mothership Zeta gets a very good 7 out of 10.

All Fallout 3 reviews

• Fallout 3 review
• Fallout 3 Broken Steel review
• Fallout 3 Point Lookout review
• Fallout 3 Mothership Zeta review

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Tags: Fallout 3 Mothership Zeta, Fallout 3, Mothership Zeta, Xbox 360, PC, , Fallout 3 Mothership Zeta review

Now heading back into the present day TellTale Games are here and bringing us a brand new five part Monkey Island adventure for the PC and WiiWare. I’m not strictly sure if this counts as the fifth game in the series but what I do know is that it continues the storyline where it left off.

Just as with the previous games you take control of the mighty Pirate known as Guybrush Threepwood; you don’t start on Monkey Island this time but on your ship. You are travelling on the high seas to rescue your wife Elaine from hands of the evil Pirate Le Chuck. The first scene is a short introduction which also acts as your training mission and trains you to use the new inventory menu and control scheme. It starts with you just a few steps away from finally banishing Le Chuck to hell forever. But things go wrong (I won’t spoil how) and you end up unconscious floating towards Flotsom Island which is where your adventure really starts.

Soon after washing up on the shore you meet some of the inlands inhabitants who are generally quite friendly considering they’re pirates; they inform you of the island’s freak weather system which traps everyone who lands upon it. It seems the wind constantly blows towards the island and doesn’t ever change thus preventing anyone from being able to sail away. Even if they wanted to sail away the island only has one ship in port and it’s never been sailed on the open seas. The Screaming Narwal has been built from scraps found on the island and from previous Shipwrecks, not exactly a fine example of shipmanship. I don’t want to spoil anymore of the storyline here because it would be easy to tell you too much of this short but jam packed 6 hour chapter and it’s so much better if you experience it for yourself. All you need to know is that as Guybrush you will have to uncover the secrets of the Island in a very funny and lovingly created adventure with plenty of characters, item finding and puzzle solving. There are quite a few references to the original games which I’m sure will raise a smile to anyone who’s played them.

Telltale has managed to capture the essence of Monkey Island with the help of the original creators Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman. Whilst I was a little nervous about heading into this brand new 3D Voice Acted style of point and click game I’ve been won over, I really enjoyed all of the time I spent with this episode, yes even all the time I was stuck wondering what to do (probably one hour out of the six). Gameplay feels fresh and plays a little like the recent Strongbad and Wallace and Gromit games also from Telltale but features a slightly revamped control scheme. Rather than the traditional point and click which I used to love; Tales of Monkey Island introduces Point and Drag.

Instead of using your mouse cursor and clicking where you’d like Guybrush to walk you can now hold the mouse button down and drag in the direction you’d like him to walk. Personally I don’t like this change and instead chose to make Guybrush walk using the arrow keys on my keyboard, I felt I had greater control and accuracy this way. The new graphic style took a little of getting used to for me because mentally I was coming from the original 16bit games; everything looks lush with lots of attention to detail. All of the characters are really well voice acted and become instantly memorable; hopefully we’ll bump into them in future episodes. Veterans will recognise lovely new renditions of the classic Monkey Island soundtracks too!

I whole heartedly recommend Tales of Monkey Island and can’t wait for the future episodes coming every month up until November 2009. I know it seems unusual to purchase a game for $34 right now and receive it in five separate six hour chunks but Chapter one scores 8 out of 10. Bring on Chapter 2!

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Related: The Secret Of Monkey Island Special Edition review, download the Monkey Island: Launch of the Screaming Narwal demo

Tags: Tales of Monkey Island Episode One, Monkey Island, Amiga, Strongbad, Telltale, Adventure, Xbox 360

I originally played The Secret of Monkey Island on the Amiga and it completely opened my eyes to a new type of gaming when I realised you didn’t just go from left to right and could actually walk the other way! Although some of the puzzles were mind-numbingly hard or just plain silly, it was still very funny and I still have very fond memories of it. Now Special Edition is here and they’ve given it a complete makeover with brand new graphics and a voice-over.

If you’ve never played the game before you play as Guybrush Threepwood, a wannabe pirate ready to seek his fortune. Of course, you get in a right mess and end up fighting a ghostly pirate called LeChuck who incidentally was completely ripped off by Geoffrey Rush in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

What you get for your money or points is exactly the same game as before with the added cosmetic touch. A neat touch is the ability to toggle between the original and new game and somehow, the old graphics are a lot more charming if a little pixelated. And you’ll be pleased to know there’s a handy hint system now so you won’t have to go on Gamefaqs every five minutes when you can’t figure out what to do. Of course back in the day you’d just be stuck for days on end randomly trying stuff until something worked.

If you’ve played it all those years ago or are new to the game, I highly recommend picking it up. It’s cheap, highly entertaining and takes you back to the classic days of gaming where no-one got shot in the face.

Monkey Island Special Edition gets an excellent 8 out of 10.

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Related: Zack and Wiki Quest for Barbaros Treasure, Monkey Island for the Xbox 360, The Secret Of Monkey Island Special Edition review

Tags: The Secret Of Monkey Island Special Edition, Xbox 360, PC, Xbox LIVE Marketplace, XBLA, Monkey Island, Special Edition, Guybrush Threepwood

We all know that most movie licenses are very bad but Disney’s G-Force actually bucks the trend and delivers a satisfying action adventure with high production values and tight controls. In the game you play as Darwin, one of the G-Force team, as you try to put a stop to electrical appliances that have come alive thanks to a virus.

In a change from the swine flu stories in the news at the moment, this time a virus is making irons, microwaves, toasters, shavers and headphones come alive and start attacking humans. Of course it’s far-fetched but these appliances provide suitably-sized opponents for your little guinea pig to fight with. Darwin has a plasma gun which can be upgraded, a quick-fire blaster rifle and a saber whip for melee combat. You’ll also have to employ some strategy with some of the appliances as some of them only show their weak spots at certain times or need to be destroyed in some other cunning way.

You also have the help of your housefly friend Mooch who you can control to squeeze through grates and slow down time to make it past fans and lasers to open doors and hack security for you. It’s really fun flying around the rooms and finding a way to get Darwin further into his mission.

Of course, the game’s very linear as you’d expect from a title like this and unfortunately there’s not too much variety in the game. Apart from a couple of levels when you’re in your hamster ball vehicle, all the environments look very samey and drab and most of your enemies can be killed by moving and shooting until they explode. Still, in short doses this game is great fun to play with high production values and responsive controls.

The game also comes with 3D glasses and you can switch this mode on in the options. To be honest though, I wouldn’t bother. The game doesn’t look much more 3D than it does in normal mode, everything looks washed out and it gave me a headache. Disney G-Force gets a very good 7 out of 10.

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Tags: G-Force, GForce, g force, Darwin, Disney, guinea pig, hamster, Mooch, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Wii, PlayStation Portable, PSP, iPhone OS, G-Force review

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Related: PS3 to get exclusive Joker content for Batman Arkham Asylum, Batman Arkham Asylum announcement

Tags: Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Batman, Arkham Asylum, demo, XBLA, Steam, PSN, Dark Knight, The Joker

I’m a big fan of EA’s Battlefield games. Of course they’re not much cop in single player mode but online they’re a lot of fun indeed. Battlefield 1943 gives you a bite-sized, simpler version of the original 1942 game and it’s available to download for a budget price.

The game lets you play in the Pacific theatre of battle as the Japanese fight the Americans. Not only can you play on the ground over three maps as infantry, a rifleman or a scout, you can also fight from above over the Coral Sea in a big dogfight as you all attempt to shoot each other down in planes.

Vehicles on the ground include tanks and jeeps as you attempt to capture and hold checkpoints around the map in order to win the battle. Up to 24 players can get involved in each arena and if you’ve played the other games you’ll notice some changes.

As I said before there’s only the one game mode and three maps to run around in, but you also have infinite ammo this time around to keep the action going. You’ll also notice the game has a lighter arcade feel to it – it’s almost cartoonish which does feel a bit odd as your fellow soldiers get blown up by a frag grenade. If you’ve also played Bad Company then you’ll also recognise the level of destruction on offer here as you carve chunks out of the landscape, knock over trees and bash holes in the walls of buildings.

It would be nice to employ proper tactics when you join a squad of four people but to be honest, there’s rarely any time for this due to the faster-paced nature of this downloadable version, however, if you want some team-based action and you want instant action, you could do a lot worse than download this onto your hard drive.

Battlefield 1943 gets a very good 7 out of 10.

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Tags: Battlefield 1943, Battlefield, 1943, Xbox360, PC, PS3

I quite liked the first Overlord game. Sure it had a few little problems like the camera control being the same as the control for your minions but nevertheless it was great to look at and fun to play thanks to some silly humour. I was hoping they would iron out some of the problems for this sequel but instead they’ve given us a slightly different game, only with the same problems as before.

You play as a new Overlord in this game, starting off as a child you do a tutorial mission where you learn the basics of magic, minion control and hitting things with your big hammer. You then fall into a lake and freeze, only to be found by the minions and raised to become their new lord.

Once again you control your minions by either locking onto a target and sending them to fight or interact with an object or you can sweep them around in front of you using the right analogue stick. The same problem exists though. You go to sweep them and as they move about, the camera moves with them and causes all sorts of chaos which makes you go cross-eyed at times. It all becomes very messy at times when there’s a lot happening on the screen. And remember you have to control your Overlord at the same time as the minions. Patting your head and rubbing your tummy has never been so crazy.

The gameplay is also a lot faster and action orientated this time around. There’s the occasional puzzle if you can call it that where you have to choose the right kind of minion for the job but most of the time you just plough through your enemies collecting their life force and summoning new minions via some portals around the landscape.

There are some more new things in this sequel. Your minions can now ride wolves and other beasts which gives them new abilities such as jumping over gaps and you can also operate catapults and other machinery at times to access new areas and progress. You can also go back and explore areas to find extra goodies with new found powers but there’s not really much incentive to do so.

And there’s multiplayer there if you really care. I can’t really see the demand for it though. Unfortunately Overlord II isn’t a great action game and that’s really what it’s become. It’s still slightly charming but not as much as the original Overlord. It’s still fun though so it gets a good 6 out of 10.

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Tags: Overlord 2, Overlord II, Overlord, II, 2, Xbox 360, PS3, PC, minions, Youtube Overlord 2 review

Fallout 3’s latest downloadable adventure once again takes you away from Washington DC and this time you charter a small boat to the land of Point Lookout, an eerie swamp-infested land, as you primarily look for a desperate mother’s daughter and of course find lots of other things to do in the meantime.

And it sort of feels like a nice holiday this time around, if you like your holiday filled with in-bred hicks from The Hills Have Eyes, weird swamp creatures and Tribal people.

The game has you defending a mansion and then infiltrating the Tribal base to help out a ghoul, investigating a Chinese spy’s movements around the town before you got there and lots of other side missions including making moonshine for a few extra caps and getting the lighthouse back online.

The emphasis in this expansion is very much in exploration and you’ll be rewarded with extra things to see and dow as you explore. There’ are also a couple of new high-powered rifles and a double-barrelled shotgun to get your hands on.

One word of warning, make sure you take a lot of weapons and Stimpaks with you because everyone in this game is hard as nails. Although the in-breds have no armour, they seem to take a lot of damage before they finally fall over. The same goes for the Mirelurks and other swamp creatures all waiting to kill you.

Point Lookout is probably one the best of the bunch when it comes to DLC for Fallout 3 so it gets and excellent 8 out of 10.

All Fallout 3 reviews

• Fallout 3 review
• Fallout 3 Broken Steel review
• Fallout 3 Point Lookout review
• Fallout 3 Mothership Zeta review

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Tags: Fallout 3 Point Lookout, Fallout 3, Point Lookout, Xbox 360, PC

I haven’t seen the movie yet but braved reviewing the game on the Wii nonetheless even though it of course contains spoilers. I won’t go into the plot of the game or the movie here but it’s safe to say the game features lots of running about Hogwarts as you uncover another mysterious plot that always comes back to Voldermort.

Being on the Wii, you use the nunchuck to move Potter round the environment, but then use the remote in what boils down to three games throughout the main game to either pilot your broomstick in games of Quidditch, mix potions, or cast spells around the castle and when duelling opponents. Unfortunately, apart from running around the castle to trigger the next cutscene, that’s all you really do. Anything else just seems like a lengthy tutorial, even hours into the game.

Let’s start with Quidditch. Basically the game goes on around you as you concentrate on catching the snitch. The action’s on rails here as you follow the snitch and point the Wii remote at the screen to steer Harry through stars that keep you on target to catch it. Keep hitting the stars and you win the game.

Potion making is probably the most fun but not once you’ve done it 20 times. Here you press A on the remote to pick up a potion then you tilt it to pour it into a cauldron. You also shake the remote and nunchuck to heat the pot and can also stir the mixture all using gestures. This works really and translates what you do with your remote almost exactly on screen.

Finally, there are the duels which you’d hope you would be able to employ some strategy in. Unfortunately, all you really have to do is get as close as possible to your opponent and blast them repeatedly as fast as you can until you beat them.

Unfortunately, that’s all there really is to the game. The likenesses and voices are good but the frame rate struggles most of the time and cutscenes (of which there are many) appear a bit rushed. If you’re a Harry Potter freak there’s something here for you. For everyone else, it’s just very, very average, like a Muggle. Harry Potter gets 5 out of 10.

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Tags: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Harry Potter, Half Blood Prince, Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PC, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince review

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Tags: Monkey Island, Xbox 360, PC, LucasArts

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Look at the box or the screenshots for Damnation and it appears pretty cool. It looks like a sort of steam-punk Western complete with alternative technology and weapons that should mix things up a bit. Unfortunately when you play it, it’s plain to see it’s borrowed a few aspects from other games and, unlike, say, Uncharted, doesn’t implement it into the gameplay particularly well at any point.

You play as a guy called Rourke who’s looking for his fiancée. Of course, there’s a bigger picture here and you’re also part of a team who’s trying to stop a military contractor from succeeding in his violent takeover.

The majority of the time you’ll be having shootouts in open areas and also climbing up buildings to access new areas. You’d think if these were the main points of the game they’d be done well, but they’re not. Aiming is really tricky and over-responsive, enemies just stand there anyway waiting to be shot and to reload you have to click in the left stick! Who’s idea was that in the development meeting? And after successful climbing in games such as Prince of Persia and InFamous comes some of the clunkiest climbing since playing Hunchback on the Spectrum. For some strange reason you have to press a shoulder button to jump away from a wall when in other games, simply moving the direction away from the wall is enough to make the character jump where you want him to!

Your team-mates also aren’t much help either. Sometimes they scale buildings to show you the way, then you can’t find them above you and thus don’t know where to go, other times they’ll teleport onto your vehicle if you leave them during a driving stage.

Thanks to your Native American friend you also get a special vision which lets you see enemies through walls and downed team-mates. Again, it’s pretty pointless and only shows you their rough position while you’re using the limited cover system to hide behind a wall.

There are plenty of better action adventure games out there. If you’re looking for something with a Western vibe, wait for Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption, it’s bound to be better.

Damnation gets a damning 4 out of 10.

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Tags: Damnation, Steampunk, Westen, Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Red Dead Redemption

After a couple of successful FPSs after the reboot for Call of Duty, it seems it may be turned into an MMO. It’s not clear exactly how this would work but it may involve a monthly subscription for an “enhanced service” featuring regular map packs and “team management services.” I await the details with bated breath.

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There’s been a lot of talk about Prototype and Sony’s InFamous being very similar and they are in the way that both stories take place in sandbox worlds and both let you scale buildings and glide down to the ground. That however is where the similarity ends. Play Prototype and you’ll soon realise it’s a very different game which offers a much more intense action experience.

As Alex Mercer, the story is told as a flashback. You begin the game with all your powers and when you’ve completed the tutorial, the story shifts from day 18 of New York’s viral outbreak where you escape from a facility and begin finding out where you fit in all the mayhem.

Alex is known to the military as Zeus, a weaponised virus on the loose and of course that gives you lots of cool abilities. You can absorb people in the street to gather their memories, looks and abilities, you can run up buildings and leap across cars and have a variety of powers including Wolverine-style claws, iron fists and a very big blade which you can use to cut tanks into little bits. You can also commandeer tanks and even air-jack helicopters to take to the skies for even more destruction.

Movement is similar to Assassin’s Creed in that you press a button which automatically makes you free run over obstacles and up the sides of buildings. This makes the action a lot more fluid than the slower scaling in InFamous. You often end up fighting the military, the infected and big Reaper monsters all at once and you will find a problem locking onto enemies due to the fact that the right analogue stick is used for switching targets and controlling the camera. It doesn’t ruin the game but it can result in confusion and sometimes death. Luckily checkpoints are regular.

Because there’s a lot going on at once in the game, textures aren’t fantastic but the atmosphere of New York with infected running about more and more as the days go by and the sky turning slowly red makes up for this. Music and sound is also great with Batman-style strings playing as you hear the military radio calling air strikes into your position.

Prototype is an absolute blast as you play through the story. Unfortunately the side missions feel like a bit of a waste of time but you’ll really enjoy the main game while it lasts, and the story alone should last you about 10 hours.

Prototype gets an excellent 8 out of 10.

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Tags: Prototype, Activision, Xbox360, Wii, PS3