Tekken and Soul Calibur have always been my fighting games of choice. I even liked Mortal Kombat over Street Fighter in the past so go figure what that says about me. Anyway, Tekken 6 has hit the next-gen systems so does it deliver all that you’d expect?

Well, if you want a fighting game which you can pick up and play but also master if you put the effort in with a massive roster of characters to play as then I guess that’s a yes. If you want a fantastic campaign mode to play through as well then forget it because it’s rather bad.

In the story mode you play as a character called Lars who’s so tough he can punch people from the other side of a wall. You break into a corporation and then rescue a girl called Alisa who’s actually a robot. It’s more confusing than an episode of Lost and unfortunately the Tekken controls don’t translate to a run around and hit things mechanic. Combat feels clunky in this mode and it’s just no fun – however you may feel compelled to trudge through it as it’s the quickest way to earn currency for tarting up your characters and for unlocking new characters and locations.

The main modes you’ll be playing are the online and offline modes. Online modes can pair you up with anyone in the world for a quick scrap online and offline modes comprise of arcade mode, ghost battles, time trials, survival and my favourite, team battle. You can play these against the CPU or against a friend in the same room.

When it comes to looks, the pre-rendered animations are gorgeous as you’d expect but the graphics don’t quite beat those of the recent Soul Calibur. They’ve also been clever by keeping the Japanese voices in the campaign mode and using subtitles to stop things sounding silly.

When it comes to characters there are all the ones you’d expect plus new ones in there, including a massive dragon-type thing called Azazel. This thing is massive and it’s really tough to see what’s going on when you fight it as it almost fills the whole screen!

I’ve been playing Tekken 6 on the Xbox 360 and I can’t help thinking it will play better on the PS3 simply because the controller’s d-pad is better. If you have both machines, get it for the PS3. Tekken 6 gets a very good 7 out of 10.

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Related: Street Fighter review, Soul Calibur review, Youtube Tekken 6 review

Tags: Tekken 6, Tekken, Namco, Bandai, Xbox 360, PS3, Playstation 3

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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

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Related: iPlayer for the PS3, Xbox 360 Netflix access

Tags: Sky, TV, Xbox 360, PS3, Playstation 3

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

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

I must have something wrong with me because I’ve never rated the Halo games as some of the best FPSs. I think the weapons don’t pack a punch, the aliens can’t be taken seriously and the whole thing leaves me feeling pretty unmoved. However, ODST provides a different proposition as you don’t play Master Chief and in this spin off you play as some of the Troopers who drop down to New Mombasa to try and stop the Covenant.

What I like about this new game is the atmosphere. Dropping out of the ship at the start in one of your pods and landing in an empty rain-soaked city is a memorable gaming moment and as always, the soundtrack to the game is very strong and one of the best things about it. Because you’re a mere mortal you have to collect health packs at stations around the place and you can’t jump as high which makes you feel more vulnerable. You will have to take cover and wait like before though when your stamina drops or you’ll die pretty quickly. Your Trooper’s also equipped with an alternative display which, like in the Batman game, makes objectives, enemies and allies clearer to see and identify.

The campaign should last you only six hours and the game does feel almost like a bonus extension to Halo 3, however it does have a co-op Firefight mode which should keep you busy as you try to survive as long as possible as wave after wave of aliens attack. There’s also a bonus disc containing all 24 Halo 3 multiplayer maps and three brand new maps you haven’t played before so there’s more bang for your buck.

Because I’ve never been a Halo fan this game failed to excite me but if you can’t get enough of the game universe, it’s a worthy addition – it’s a shame it’s a full price title as it really does feel like extra content that should in some way be a bit cheaper. Halo 3: ODST gets 7 out of 10.

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Related: Halo 3 review, Halo Wars review, Youtube Halo 3 ODST review

Tags: Halo 3 ODST, Halo 3, ODST, Halo, Xbox 360, Microsoft, FPS, Halo 3 ODST review

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Related: Assassins Creed review, Assassins Creed 2 release date

Tags: Assassins Creed 3, Assassins Creed 2, World War II

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

If you don’t like The Beatles you won’t enjoy this latest iteration of Rock Band. However, if you’re a massive fan or even know a little about them and think they’re pretty cool, you’re going to have a blast playing this.

Chronicling their rise to fame from playing in Liverpool’s Cavern Club right through to playing on the rooftop of Apple Corps, this game provides a magical mystery tour of the Fab Four’s career with some beautifully crafted visuals and of course most of the classics you know and love.

Playing the game is standard Rock Band apart from the 3-part vocal harmonies you can attempt with two other friends. You also don’t have to repeat playing songs to move onto the next chapter in the story mode. Between each chapter you’re also treated to some fantastic visuals as the scene is set for your next batch of songs to play through.

My favourite songs to play were the Abbey Road recordings, not necessarily for the songs but for the dreamy music videos that accompany them. Play through I Am The Walrus and Yellow Submarine and John, Paul, George and Ringo are transported from the studio into their Sgt Pepper uniforms and into some rather trippy sequences. They’re so good they actually distract you from looking at the fret board which can result in mistakes in the song.

And as a reward for getting five stars for each song you get bonus photos you can look at and little video extras. You can unlock more by then completing the challenge modes.

I play Rock Band on hard mode and usually fail the later songs as they’re quite a challenge. I never failed once with The Beatles Rock Band and that’s partially down to the fact that they never really hammered their instruments enough to make their fingers bleed. If you’re looking for a challenge, look elsewhere. If you want a lovingly created game that creates nostalgia in you, even if you weren’t around at the time, get this. You won’t be disappointed. It gets 9 out of 10.

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Related: Rock Band 2 review, Using a Wii Guitar Hero controller with Rock Band, Youtube The Beatles Rock Band review

Tags: The Beatles Rock Band, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, Rock Band, The Beatles, Rock Band, The Beatles Rock Band review

So Guitar Hero 5 is available in the shops and the good news is this doesn’t feel like just some more songs to jam along to slightly repackaged. It is in fact quite a leap forward for the game both in terms of graphical style and the way the game plays.

First of all let’s cover the track list. There are 85 songs on this and as usual, some you’ll know, some you won’t, depending on your musical taste. Queen, Muse, Nirvana and Garbage all appear amongst others and you can even unlock guest characters such as Shirley Manson, Santana and Kurt Kobain and then add them to your customised band line-up.

It’s also never been easier to get into a game. Party Play mode lets anyone just drop in or out of a song at any difficulty without interrupting the song which really adds to the accessibility of the game.

The on-screen graphics have also been streamlined. Gone are the big meters which crowd the screen. They are now incorporated into the fret display and the whole look of the band and venues looks a lot more authentic. They’ve copied the grainy look of Rock Band and the character animation and lip synching is really a sight to behold. Another great touch is the ability to play Guitar Hero 5 as your Xbox 360 avatar. You look a little out of place as you’re a lot shorter than everyone else but you can also customise a completely new character to look like you in the character creation mode.

It’s also great that you can play any song from the off in quick play mode and in career, you unlock new venues and songs even though you haven’t played all the songs in the previous category. You can also get more stars by fulfilling criteria mid-song like finger tapping all the tap sections of whammying the sustain notes.

Apart from there not being enough modern tracks for my liking, Guitar Hero 5 really is the ultimate band experience so far. Neversoft have really pushed things forward this time around and it’s tricky to say how they’d better this.

Guitar Hero 5 gets and almost perfect 9 out of 10.

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Related: play Guitar Hero 5 as your Xbox 360 avatar, Using a Wii Guitar Hero controller with Rock Band, Youtube Guitar Hero 5 review

Tags: Guitar Hero 5, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Guitar Hero 5 review

But to be honest, since then, each episode of Halo has left me feeling just a little less moved. Maybe it’s because each of them is hyped as the biggest event in gaming since… well, since the first Halo, but – for me at least – each then fails to quite live up to its promise. Oh don’t get me wrong, they all looked great and offered more deathmatch maps, new options, etc, but nothing quite matched the thrill of the first game, up to and including the recent Halo 3, which for me just couldn’t compare in either single-player campaign mode or the online deathmatch options to something like Call Of Duty 4.

All that aside though, I was still extremely keen to get my hands on the latest in the Halo series, Halo 3: ODST. Not so much a sequel as a spin-off, this game takes the focus away from the super-human, super-cool Master Chief, and revolves instead around the soldiers of the elite division of the United Nations Space Command Marine Corps, the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers – basically the USNC’s futuristic equivalent of the British SAS or the US Navy SEAL teams. If there’s a situation that’s too tough for the cannon-fodder UNSC grunts (who you’ll have seen massacred by the dropship-load in Halo 1, 2 & 3) to handle, then the ODST, or ‘Helljumpers’, are the guys you call.

Our story starts with the Helljumpers deploying from orbit aboard their USNC transport on a hush-hush mission via their signature single-person drop pods. Unfortunately, everything doesn’t quite go according to plan, and things get a little ‘lopsided’ just as the ODST deploy into action, when a massive energy burst close to the planet’s orbit sends their pods tumbling off course and out of control, with the result that the team winds up getting separated and crash-landing at a variety of locations. This means that you, the rookie of the squad (called, rather imaginatively, ‘Rookie’) have to spend a fair part of the game tracking down and locating the scattered squad members before the mission can continue.

What this basically amounts to, at least to begin with, is wandering through a very dark urban cityscape, battling hordes of the alien Covenant troops and trying to locate waypoints which trigger new instructions and various ‘cutaway-missions’ that let you play the landing from the perspective of each of the different squad members. Did I say ‘very dark urban cityscape’? Make that: very, very, very, VERY dark urban cityscape! Because in a lot of these urban levels, you really can’t see your hand in front of your face – it’s THAT dark. In fact the only way you can see anything at all is by making use of your helmet’s VISR, which is basically a low-light vision system coupled with a targeting aid that marks enemy targets in red and the ‘home team’ in green.

Now to begin with, these dark levels are quite atmospheric and eerie, as I’m sure they’re meant to be. As you wander through the shadowy world, with suitably tense incidental music to match the mood, it’s quite nerve-wracking… at least for the first 10 minutes or so. After that though, it starts to get annoying. You find yourself wishing for some decent lighting, as yet another shadowy Covenant soldier shoots at you from behind a shadowy obstacle in the shadow of a big shadowy building… you start thinking that it’d be nice if you could just have a gun with a big flashlight fitted on the end instead of the VISR, which gives about the level of illumination you get when you first turn on an energy-saving light bulb, before it warms up (ie: not much). This is particularly bad inside of buildings, where you often find yourself bouncing off the walls trying to find your way out, and the darkness gets to be so oppressive that when you eventually do get to a cutaway mission which is set outside in broad daylight, it’s such a relief that you almost don’t want to finish it for fear of then getting dumped back in the Rookie’s twilight world.

It’s not just the darkness of much of the game that left me feeling a little cold either, it’s the sense that everything in this game I’ve done before. I’m shooting the same aliens, using the same weapons, driving the same vehicles… to put it simply: it’s basically Halo, as I remember it, but nothing’s really new. Yes, it looks shinier (when it’s not pitch black that is) and yes there are new levels and new characters, but frankly, for me it’s just more of the same, and personally I’m starting to get a little bored with it.

So… am I gonna recommend giving this one a miss? Well… no, actually. And that’s for two reasons. For one, I know that while I might have reached my fill of samey Halo storylines and repetitive Covenant-blasting combat, there’s a massive section of the Xbox-owning public out there that hasn’t. They’re the ones who are buying the Halo books and toys, logging onto the fansites, even making their own Halo-themed TV shows, and for them, they’ll probably love every minute of this game. A game being very similar to something you’ve played previously isn’t a bad thing in everyone’s book – just look at the oodles of gamers who year on year buy each new EA Sports update, each of which is almost always essentially the same as last year’s instalment, just with slightly more polished graphics and some updated stats.

The second reason that Halo 3: ODST doesn’t get a negative review is that when it comes to Halo, the single-player (and indeed, two-player co-op) Campaign mode is only a small part of what everyone loves about the series. The other thing is the online multiplayer, and this is where Halo 3: ODST really delivers. A whole second disc comes in the box, and is packed with online features including 24 different multiplayer maps which takes in all the ones from Halo 3, the DIY Sandbox option and three brand new maps. In addition, up to four friends can play either online or via system link in a new co-op mode called Firefight, which is basically a cooperative ‘survival’ mode, similar to Call Of Duty: World At War’s zombie level which faces players with wave after wave of ever-more-demented Covenant troops.

And no matter how bored I might think I am with the single-player action and storyline of Halo, I simply can’t keep away from the online deathmatch mode, which is the reason that, while this game would probably get just an average 5 out of 10 on the single-player mode alone, it actually gets a deserving ‘very good’ 7 out of 10 rating for the overall package.

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Related: Halo 3 review, Halo Wars review

Tags: Halo 3 ODST, Halo, Halo O.D.S.T., Xbox 360

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Related: official Final Fantasy XIII web site, Final Fantasy XIII PS3 and Xbox 360 versions compared

Tags: Final Fantasy, trailer, Xbox 360, PS3

Where once you could pretty-much categorise any videogame under one of a handful of different types (such as the eight or so featured on Gameswipe), these days as the power of the machines, and the imagination of the game developer grows exponentially, we see game genres mix and meld, and whole new genres seemingly emerge on an almost weekly basis. One genre which has been around since almost the inception of the games console though, and which doesn’t seem to have changed a whole heck of a lot since it began, is the beat-’em-up.

The first beat-’em-up I can remember playing on a console (or ‘home computer’, as they used to be called) was ‘WOTEF’, or ‘Way Of The Exploding Fist’, which featured two small chaps in simplistic martial arts gear who could use but a handful of martial arts moves on one another. It was basic, and not much to look at, but still I was hooked. Of course, if you really wanted to play a PROPER beat-’em-up, then the place to be was the arcades, where a few big names were just starting out and the power of the dedicated graphics boards made for better graphics, sound and animation.

Now though, you’ve got to wonder why anyone ever goes to arcades (if indeed anyone still does) because we can have arcade-quality games in our own home, and that’s exactly what King Of Fighters XII is: an arcade-quality 2D beat-’em-up on your home console. Yes, if your every waking moment is taken up with thoughts of which button combination you need to master in order to perform that flying roundhouse kick, or overhead fireball attack, then this is the game for you. In terms of visuals, it proffers graphics exactly like you might expect a late-90s arcade cabinet to offer, with all the action taking place in one two-dimensional playing area, while the tried and tested ‘parallax scrolling’ technique is used on the backgrounds to give an illusion of depth.

There are 22 colourful characters on offer, each with their own range of different attacks, throws, special moves and ‘super special’ moves to master, and they get to duke it out across six different backdrops.

Control is simplicity itself to pick up – use the d-pad or analogue stick for directional control and the triangle, square, circle and X buttons for Heavy Punch, Light Punch, Heavy Kick and Light Kick – but a struggle to master, as each character has different moves and attacks specific to them, some of which require various lengthy sequences of pad and button combinations to pull them off. Combat consists of three-on-three ‘winner stays on’-style matches, where if you beat the first opponent, then your character gets a small energy boost and then stays in the arena to tackle the next guy. You can either compete against the CPU-controlled opponents, or go to head-to-head with a friend. And that, pretty-much, is all you really need to know.

For, unlike something like Resident Evil or Grand Theft Auto, there is not a huge amount to explain about this game – it’s about one thing: arcade-style, gratuitous one-on-one beat-’em-up action. Whereas some games try to draw you in with complex storylines and multiple twists and turns, with King Of Fighters XII, what you see is what you get.

So if you like colourful, detailed, zany characters, each with their own different skills set, bashing the hell out of one another, then you’ll like this. If not, then you won’t, simple as that. Where the longevity comes into it is with the special moves – with this game it’s not just about finishing the single-player (that can be done in about 20 minutes), no, you’ll find that hardcore gamers will spend hours trying to master the special moves. Why? Because they’re there. So like DS owners might find enjoyment in solving every clue in the latest Professor Layton adventure, hardcore KOF fans will get the same satisfaction in pulling off all the special moves for every character in this. Sound a little strange? Well if I tell you that back when I used to work on videogame magazines, I remember one memorable press lunch where the PR guy who’d taken us out, himself a confirmed Street Fighter addict, spent literally two whole hours discussing with two writers from GamesTM magazine the merits of just one particular Street Fighter special move, then maybe then you’ll understand just how seriously some beat-’em-up fans take their games.

For those ‘dedicated’ individuals (I resist the urge to say ‘sad’, because when you really think about it, it’s no more obsessive than your average football fan spending hours in the pub dissecting a particular tackle or goal attempt) this kind of game represents hour upon hour of top entertainment. For more normal… okay, let me rephrase that: for ‘less fanatical’ gamers, what you’ve basically got is a game which will be great fun to pick up and play with a mate for a few hours every so often, but which doesn’t really have the depth to keep you playing it for long periods – it’s more a ‘post pub’ activity that you’ll dust off every so often when you’ve got company. As a result, while it’s well recommended to the legions of King Of Fighters and Street Fighter 2D beat-’em-up fans out there, for your more casual gamer, I’d have to give it a fairly solid ‘good’ 6 out of 10.

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Related: Street Fighter, Professor Layton

Tags: The King Of Fighters XII, King Of Fighters, Gameswipe, Charlie Brooker, beat em up, Way Of The Exploding Fist, Xbox 360, Playstation 3

As soon as you load up WET you know exactly what you’re getting in terms of style. If you’ve seen Kill Bill, Grindhouse or any other exploitation movie, the style is instantly obvious. The game even has a flashy film grain effect over it throughout which you can thankfully turn off in the menu so it doesn’t give you a headache.

You play as Rubi Malone, a fixer who solves people’s problems. The pre-title action begins with you retrieving a heart in an ice box which is for some London geezer’s father. The afore-mentioned geezer then goes missing so you’re hired by “Mr New Heart” to go and find him. Of course, things aren’t that simple and you’re double-crossed, which leads to lots of shooting and stabbing people with your sword.

Bethesda make a big deal about you being able to shoot doing acrobatics and if you’re jumping, sliding or running up walls when you shoot, the game slows down so you can target more than one bad guy at a time. As you gain XP you can then buy more upgrades that let you shoot whilst hanging off ledges and swinging off poles too.

There are moments where you move through the levels and also arenas where you must destroy ‘spawn doors’ and collect multipliers whilst killing everyone in sight.

And to mix things up a bit there’s even a couple of sections on the highways as you jump from car to car and shoot enemies who are shooting back at you.

My problem is that I’ve just been spoiled by the intensely satisfying combat of the new Batman Arkham Asylum game. In comparison the combat here feels really clunky. It all goes a bit Max Payne as you jump around in slow-motion but for some reason the combat is rarely satisfying. Even slicing and dicing people at close range just doesn’t seem to feel like it ‘connects’. Even the platforming sections don’t seem to go that smoothly when you consider Rubi is a lithe young lady who should be able to string together her moves a bit more seamlessly.

Presentation, however, will please fans of pulp movie genres. There’s a great soundtrack, good voice acting and some genuinely well scripted moments. It’s a pity the gameplay doesn’t live up to more recent 3rd-person action adventures. WET gets an average 5 out of 10.

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Related: Madworld review, Batman Arkham Asylum, WET review

Tags: WET, Bethesda Softworks, W.E.T., Xbox 360, PS3

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

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Related: Halo 3 review, Halo 3 ODST at E3

Tags: Halo, ODST, release date

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

If you’re still waiting to play Ghostbusters on your Xbox 360 in Europe, you’ll have to wait a bit longer. It should have been out before Halloween but you’ll now be able to put on your proton pack on 6th November.

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Related: Ghostbusters videogame review, Ghostbusters developer interview

Tags: Ghostbusters, Xbox 360, release date

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

Tags: Arkham Asylum, batman, DLC, free, downloadable content, Xbox 360, PS3

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

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Related: Xbox 360 red ring of death, Xbox towel trick

Tags: Xbox 360 slim, xbox360 slim, xbox slim, 360 slim, red ring of death

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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

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

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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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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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Related: Lego Indiana Jones review, The Chronicles of Narnia Prince Caspian review, Youtube G-Force review

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