After years watch players holding the sprint button down until their fingers turn numb and smash iobbed through balls at their strikers knowing chances are they'll work out, EA has done the unthinkable. EA has changed things up.

EA has decided to slow the FIFA series down.

FIFA 14 will be slower. Well, not the game itself. Rather, the pace will be slower. Look, we'll let producer Sebastian Enrique explain this one.

"People were saying FIFA is too fast," explains Enrique. "The reality is that the game speed hasn’t changed in the past four or five years. It’s the same game speed but what has changed is the gameplay changes that affects what we call the mechanics, which is what you can do with the game - so what you can do when passing, what you can do when shooting, how you move. Those are the mechanics. When you combine all those things, it gives you the dynamics, which is how people behave when they play the game.

"So that fast speed is not that the game was faster, it’s that the dynamics of the game kind of lent themselves to a fast pace game. So the pace of the game, how people were playing – sprinting all the time with low traffic of the ball in midfield – that’s why the game felt faster. That’s how we translate that feedback into okay, it’s not that the game is fast, it’s that the dynamics are too fast. After that we think okay, why are they too fast? Because of x, y and z. Okay, what are the things we can do in order to provide for a more realistic game? The battle for possession, that build-up play is more rewarding?

"That’s what led to the Locomotion system, the tighter marking, the viable dribble touches, the sprint turns, all those things help to change the dynamics of the game… not to make the game slow but so the dynamics of the game mean you can’t sprint all the time, so now you have to think about how to play the game."

FIFA 14 - A Slower Game

When you cut through the marketing hyperbole, the main change in FIFA 14 is the Locomotion system, which simply put means it takes longer to change directions.

This solves the problem of FIFA players holding the sprint button across the virtual 90 minutes, which had the inevitable side effect of making the fastest players and teams better than everyone else. Now if you're sprinting and you want to suddenly change direction, it takes much longer, leaving the ball unprotected.

You can still sprint down the wings and play with pace but it involves much more care now, and you can't zig-zag through defenders while holding sprint. If you want to cut defenders up with sharp angles, you have to slow down to do so.

That, alone, makes FIFA 14 a slower, more considered affair.

Perhaps more realistic too. There's more satisfaction in picking apart a tight defence with a series of passes than there is in outrunning other players on the pitch (which is still possible the right scenarios - it's just not a go-to tactic anymore).

FIFA 14 - True Shooting

Shooting has also been fixed, to shift closer to real football. Shooting from range in FIFA when the chance presented itself was a mostly unengaging affair - the ball would usually travel at the same speed with the same trajectory. The only real factors that influenced the shot from range would be if you were shooting in an unfavourable situation (on the player's weaker foot, with your back to goal, etc) that would see the ball dribble towards the cornerflag rather than into the bottom corner of the goal.

FIFA 14's shooting system takes into account several factors before you shoot - the path of the ball, the path of the player, the height of the ball, the ability of the player - so you can crack fizzing half-volleys from distance at goal if the ball sits right. The animation has also been tweaked so players naturally twist and turn their body to shoot, rather than having the game load up a canned shooting animation depending on the context.

If you remember playing football at school, you'll know that there are times when you'll shoot the ball not because it's the right thing to do but because the ball has sat up in the perfect position, and it would almost be a crime not to wallop it as hard as you can. FIFA 14 evokes that same feeling, where if the ball is in the right position and you're in the right position, you will shoot.

FIFA 14 - Protect The Ball

Another feature is that Protect The Ball, which is activated by holding Left Trigger. Nothing particularly innovative or unusual in that, except it's been designed to pronounce the advantage bigger, burlier players have, where they muscle smaller players off the ball.

Sounds good in theory but in practice, it didn't quite work out. Protecting the ball by shielding it was fairly ineffective and only invited defenders to nip it off your toes and spring into a counterattack. It did more harm than good. The feature only really came into its own when running down the wings, and you could use the button to shoulder defenders away.

The problem is because you're likely to be playing fairly slowly anyway, owing to the Locomotion animation that discourages endless sprinting, and it's in those situations that the engine struggles to distinguish between when you want to shield the ball and when want you nudge a player off the ball.

There's time to fix this though and if it works as we expect it will, nudging players away should become a vital part of a FIFA 14 player's arsenal.

FIFA 14 - Same Old?

The Locomotion system changes FIFA 14, mostly by slowing the pace of the game down. It makes FIFA 14 feel more involving than FIFA 13 did and there's now a sense of satisfaction in unlocking an opponent's defence, which simply wasn't present previously in the series when you relied on speed to outrun defenders. Together with the new shooting system, FIFA 14 does have moments of exhilaration that was missing from FIFA 13.

Old problems are still present. There are still the awkward moments when the physics engine and collision detection conspire to make the game look bad - we had one moment when the keeper went to throw the ball out and he tripped over a striker who had fallen over seconds before.

We also want to see if lower league teams actually look and feel like lower league teams - it was strange having the Port Vale keeper throw himself around the goal like Manuel Neuer, for example.

But at this stage, FIFA 14 has done enough that weary 'it's the same old schtick' cynicism feels unfair, as even the alpha build we played provided air-punching and swearing with joy moments than FIFA 13 failed to reach.

There's still some work to be done but so far, so good.

For more coverage, read our Call Of Duty: Ghosts Interview with Zach Volker, Lead Animator at Infinity Ward

We've seen Call Of Duty: Ghosts in action. There will be longform features that break down exactly what to expect in forthcoming issues of our fellow publications gamesTM, Play and X360. So be sure to check those out for the HUGE information blowout. HUGE. In capital letters and everything.

But as this is the internet, where attention spans are low and thirst for information is high. So here's the quick lowdown on what to expect from Call Of Duty: Ghosts.

Call Of Duty: Ghosts – Story

• The story is written by Stephen Gaghan, who wrote Traffic and Syriana, the latter of which he also directed

• It’s a completely new universe, unconnected to Modern Warfare 3

• The game primarily follows two brothers who want to be part of the Ghosts The ‘Ghosts’ are remnants of US Special Forces. They’re fighting back after a major new world power rises up and a cataclysmic event

• Activision isn’t saying who the new antagonists are

• It looks set in the current day, rather than in the past or the future

• Call Of Duty: Ghosts isn’t going to be quite as over-the-top as the full-on spectacle of Modern Warfare 3 was. “It’s a little bit pulled back in terms of the scale of everything that was going on,” explains Zach Volker, Lead Animator at Infinity Ward.
  
  “I would say that the stakes are still high it really is America that is in the balance, so it’s not a trivial thing – it’s not like we’re losing a city. But at the same time it’s not a world scale battle that’s being fought. That’s not what the story is about. It’s smaller and more intimate. So it’s a bit of a balance.”

Call Of Duty: Ghosts – Not A Reboot

• “We didn’t set out for it to be a reboot as much as something that was just new for Infinity Ward," says Volker. "We didn’t set out thinking we were going to redefine anything. We said that we wanted to do a take on what we’ve done in the past and come at it from a different direction. So from that perspective it’s new and a lot of the new tech features are new.
  
  But we didn’t set out to revolutionise anything, or release anything significantly different. It’s a tough line between giving the fans what they expect and buying a Call Of Duty game because I know what it is and I love it and giving them something that’s new on top of that."
  
  It’s always a balance between if we don’t give them enough of what they expect they say ‘well this isn’t Call Of Duty, I bought Call Of Duty’. And if we don’t give them enough new they complain and say ‘you didn’t give us anything new.’ That’s a serious conversation that goes on at Infinity Ward of trying to find that balance.”

• What about Eric Hirshberg, Activision CEO? What does he have to say? "A lot of people say that [COD] is cresting or already has. The fact is: no, it hasn’t."

Call Of Duty: Ghosts – Visuals

• Call Of Duty: Ghosts will run on a new engine

• There will be new animations (at last). The animations for sliding and leaning around cover are more advanced, but it’s hard to tell what gameplay implications these will have without actually playing it

• The new visuals were shown off in a dense jungle map with a flaming plane wreckage in the corner. This showed off the interactive smoke and lightning

• There is lots of detail that shows the step up in character models for Ghosts – facial mannerisms, extra detail on the hair and skin tones and so on

• Call Of Duty: Ghosts will use SubD, a technique used in Hollywood film VFX that exponentially boosts the poly count, created advanced photorealistic textures. Pixar films use the technique

• A few examples of how Ghosts will use SubD: a scope view without SubD shows jagged edges and using SubD, it looks smooth and circular. Previously, Infinity Ward would use a blur effect to hide the edges

• The X95 weapon, new to the series, is shown off. SubD brings up a lot of detail in the weapon, right down to bolts and rust spots

• Infinity Ward is using a HDR-based lighting system, with volumetric lighting effects and a huge increase in particle count

Call Of Duty: Ghosts – The Level Demo

• Call Of Duty: Ghosts will be 60 frames per second across all platforms

• There will be an underwater section when you’re in scuba gear, swimming towards an aircraft carrier-sized ship. As with previous Call Of Duty games, you’re following an ally to your objective

• Large sonic wave emitting from the aircraft-carrier sized ship that knocks the player back and causes destruction all around him

• There’s lots of wreckage on the ocean floor (and detail on the surface too, such as fishing boats). Their eventual goal is a lighthouse next to the ship. Activision skips ahead ‘for the sake of time’.

• They fire a missile, which is then controlled in first-person view. When it hits the ship, the explosion knocks the player back and the lighthouse is destroyed, leaving players trapped under debris. Reminiscent of the mansion destruction in Iron Man 3

• You’re pulled from the rubble by your colleague as you both swim away from the collapsing carnage, including a helicopter that falls into the water and nearly kills both characters. Classic Call Of Duty style escape-from-the-chaos scene

• The demo ends as enemies enter the water in scuba gear and a gunfight breaks out near what looks like a sunken graveyard. So underwater gunfights look to be in Ghosts and playable too

Call Of Duty: Ghosts – Now With Dogs

• There’s a new canine member of your squad. Yes, really The dog fights enemies for you

• The dog will also sniff out explosives

• We’re not sure how high this ranks on your list of reasons to get Ghosts but the dogs are motion-captured too

• “We can’t talk too much about exactly what the dog gameplay is going to be like but we did build the dog specifically as a friendly squad mate," says Volker.
  
  So along with that comes a new AI movement set of getting him to move in a way that’s believable and realistic. That includes things like making him act like a dog. Dogs don’t go to a position and stay there like a solider does – which was how we were initially working with him. And then it seemed off and then we realised that dogs don’t do that."
  
  "Dogs go to a position and they sniff around, get bored, go over there, sniff around, they get bored then they come back to  you, look and say ‘what are we going to do next?’ Once we started to grasp that understanding of ‘oh yeah, dogs aren’t people’ then he really started to take on a life of his own.”

Call Of Duty: Ghosts – Multiplayer Details

• The main new innovation is dynamic maps – earthquakes, floods, logs falling and crushing players

• Infinity Ward hasn’t yet revealed if these can be triggered by players or if they occur randomly

• Players can set environmental traps on maps, such as exploding doors

• Character customisation will be expanded, so you can choose what you look like rather than have it dictated by your loadout

• Different heads, face paint, military uniform variations, scuba gear are some of the customisation options

• "Looking at the interactivity of environmental maps, you start to think ‘what if we could do something different here in this level, that’s appropriate for this level but not for maybe any over MP map? This map is very different. This is something we can do here that isn’t appropriate for any other MP map.’ It spitballed the idea of coming up with some very specific scenes," says Volker.
  
  "One of the levels has an earthquake that’s constantly going on and off through the level that starts to effect things in different ways. But that’s only that one MP map. So it was really an idea of how can we push things further and this was a really creative way of exploring that."

It's easy to think, reading a list of LEGO games that have come out in the last few years, that Traveller's Tales are simply milking the proverbial cash cow for everything it's worth. But, fans of the series will ask, if the milk tastes this good, then why should they stop?

And for the past few years the milk has tasted very good indeed: LEGO video games have recently been consistently fun, consistently enjoyable, consistently able to take a different franchise and give it that LEGO twist that we never knew it needed.

With LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, it's clear that the developers are not content with making just another LEGO game. However, that doesn't mean they'll be changing the classic, brick-based formula. What they'll be doing is giving gamers more content than they ever have before, and that makes this Traveller's Tales' most ambitious LEGO building project to date.

"It's LEGO Marvel New York"

The game is based around a freely explorable area that Producer Phil Ring promises is “not just New York; it's not just LEGO Yew York; it's LEGO Marvel New York”. It's this central hub that looks like it will be the star of the show. But more on that later, because Phil races straight into a demonstration of the game's opening level.

First impressions are good: it's classic LEGO simplicity woven into a very cool Marvel universe in which the characters, and their own unique abilities, are very much the focus. Hulk and Iron Man are trying to force their way into Grand Central Station, where Roxxon executives have been taken hostage by Sandman and Abomination. These two villains, along with the rest in the game, are trying to retrieve “cosmic bricks” that have been left over from the destruction of Silver Surfer's surfboard just before the start of the game.

Combat isn't particularly challenging, or all that deep, and as the superhero pair fight their way through Sandman's goons to the station itself and then through the inner terminal, the puzzles that confront them won't cause any problems. If it's silver, shoot it with Iron Man, if it's green, smash it with The Hulk, if it's a wall of sand, wet it so that it hardens and glows green and then... well, you know what to do. However, the way that the characters control provides a lot of variety that means that the gameplay never gets old.

"You Play Far More Characters Than You've Ever Done"

Phil Ring explains that the team's hardest challenge has been “making sure the core characters have all the abilities you'd expect”. “They all need to feel cool, they all need to feel fun to play as”.

At first glance, it looks like the challenge has been overcome. Controlling the agile Iron Man, you can hover in the air above the battle, fire off repulsor blasts, or charge up your Arc Reactor to take out multiple enemies, while The Incredible Hulk, whose figure is bigger (they're calling him a 'BigFig'), lumbers round the tight level like a green bull in a LEGO china shop. He can Hulk-smash his way through any obstacle, pick up cars and use them to batter his foes into quadrilateral pulps, or rip certain sections of the level apart in order to progress.

The game is based on an ever improving engine, which allows the team to make environments look sufficiently impressive. “We're always progressing our engine internally, we want to make these games bigger, show more enemies on screen, show more LEGO” says Phil, making Hulk thump the ground to prove his point, an action that sends LEGO flying into the air all around.

As Spider-Man swings into the battle, halfway through the level, Phil explains that there will –  staggeringly – be over 100 playable characters, including all your favourite Marvel heroes and villians, although not all of them will be available for the game's main storyline.

In the game's first three levels you will play as 3 separate groups, consisting of 8 different characters in total, and this variety and addition of new characters, Phil promises, “doesn't stop. From a story perspective you play far more characters than you've ever done.”

LEGO Marvel: Spider-Man, The Hulk, Captain America, Abomination

If this bulging cast of characters can each be kitted out with a personal skillset and be made to feel like their own entities, then Traveller's Tales could be onto something.

What will certainly help are the superb animations: whether you're slinging web into the face of enemies with Spider-Man or morphing from the Hulk into your human counterpart, Bruce Banner – who can do things the green monster can't such as build useful contraptions using free LEGO bricks – everything looks stylish and appropriate for the character in question. It's all done to make this an authentic Marvel experience. “We want people who are fans of The Hulk to feel like they're playing as The Hulk”, Phil says.

Even when at rest, the characters look unique. An ever restless Spiderman, after a few seconds of standing still, will take up his iconic pose, legs spread apart and chest grazing the floor, whilst Iron Man will launch into an amusing robot dance.

Clearly, LEGO's trademark silliness remains in abundance, and only through experimentation and exploration will you fully appreciate it. Holding B whilst controlling Hulk allows you to rip chunks of LEGO from the environment and use them as a makeshift weapon, but try and do that when standing on sand and the blocks will crumble as The Hulk holds the block above his head in his mighty hands, showering himself with tiny LEGO blocks that he struggles to shake out of his hair like a man with incurable dandruff.

The completely original story, which does not take place in a specific point in time in the Marvel world, will put “put characters that people have never seen together in locations they've never been before”, such as Captain America and claw swinging Wolverine, who will meet up in the game's second level.

But there will also be familiar match-ups, especially between friend and foe, which will provide, Phil says, “references for people who are fans, who know these characters, who know the history.”. We're treated to one such encounter between The Hulk and Abomination, which turns into a frantic, cinematic quick-time-affair in which The Hulk ends up smashing Abomonation over the head with his own fist before slinging him through one of Grand Central Station's huge windows as glass and LEGO go everywhere. Nice.

LEGO Marvel Heroes vs Sandman

As the trio of heroes finally take down a giant Sandman, through battling more mini sandmen and building huge water cannons that solidify the huge boss, allowing The Hulk to smash him to pieces, Phil tells us that – in the final game – you would now be taken to the game's central hub: New York City. And from the sounds of it, it's worth getting excited about.

It's not just a cardboard cut out: the recreated city will boast real landmarks such as the iconic Statue of Liberty, Time Square, and Central Park as well as specific Marvel locations such as Stark Towers. Phil wants the city to feel “alive”. “It's busy, it's bustling”, and there's no shortage of secrets to find or nooks and crannies to explore, which you will be able to do “at your own pace” from the game's very start. “When you go round corners or climb on rooftops, there's things everywhere”, Phil says.

The Marvel locations, scattered across the Big Blocky Apple, will be where fans of the comics will get their most nostalgic kicks. These areas will act as mini-levels that delve into the treasure chest of existing lore. Phil says that “there will be things where people go 'oh, I know where that's from, it's actually taken from this series or this comic book'”. These areas allow you to “take characters that don't feature in the main story arc and do something there that you wouldn't be able to normally.”

LEGO Marvel: 'Different' On Hand-Held Devices

The prospect of taking over 100 superheroes and villains through a fully explorable LEGO New York, constantly finding new secrets, is more than intriguing. As are Traveller's Tales' plans for future LEGO games. For the moment, the team are determined to make their titles “as accessible as possible”, which may give them a dilemma when the next generation of consoles finally come to town. “Younger games aren't necessarily going to have the latest tech, the latest hardware,” Phil says.

When it comes to LEGO Marvel Superheroes, there are still some secrets to be revealed. The game will be coming to both Vita and 3DS as well as PC, Xbox 360, PS3 and WiiU, and we're told by Phil to expect “something that is different to what we've done in the past” on hand-held devices. Make of that what you will, but be assured that, at this moment in time, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes looks like it's determined to make good on its lofty promises when it releases later this year.

Good series never seem to die. Halo, Sonic the Hedgehog, and soon Mass Effect: many iconic franchises will undoubtedly churn out game after game for years to come, for better and unfortunately, in some cases, for worse.

And now, with Gears Of War: Judgment, we can shove Damon Baird and the gang into that category. Actually, you probably shouldn’t risk shoving Damon Baird anywhere, unless you want the sharp end of a Lancer Rifle through the middle of your face.

Gears of War: Judgment bookends the Gears trilogy, with one campaign set 14 years before the original, and another, unlockable campaign set just after the events of the third game.

Which – if you’re a dedicated fan with unanswered questions, craving more of the trademark cover hopping and polished shooting – is very exciting indeed. But for many, the main draw of the Gears series has consistently been the multiplayer.

Whether you’re slicing through armies of locusts split screen with a friend or tearing some online opponent a new one in a simple Team Deatmatch, there’s something about the fast paced gameplay and the slightly obnoxious camera that means that your time with Gears’ multiplayer always ends with white knuckles, finger imprints in your beloved controller, and adrenaline pumping through your veins.

Why Survival Changes Multiplayer

There’s a plethora of new multiplayer game modes to experience here: Free-For-All, OverRun, which pits two teams of five COGs and locusts against each other, an objective based Domination mode and, finally, Survival mode.

The last of these will provide both a nod to central pillars of the series so far, and a bold step in a new direction – or so the developers claim.

In Survival, like in previous games, you’ll still be facing waves of Locusts, increasing in difficulty as you progress. So far, so classic Horde. However, there are two game changers.

The first is that, unlike Horde mode, you’ll be protecting a small, destructible objective, maintaining defences to keep your foes from destroying it. The second is that there’s a new, class based system in play.

You battle it out with the locusts in small, claustrophobic areas, with a single objective normally sitting at the back of the map, as far away from the Locust spawns as possible.

It is the be all and end all: if the objective starts to take damage its state of repair will dwindle rapidly and cannot be recovered, meaning even a rogue Ticker can put a huge dent in your hopes of success.

Stopping the locusts from reaching it is your five man squad and a host of automatically erected defences such as barricades and sentry guns, which are designed to ensnare and distract the onrushing beasts allowing you to take them out safely.

Maps are divided into numerous smaller sections, each acting as an individual stage, and once the objective is destroyed in a certain area, your team falls back until all objectives are destroyed and you stare at a game over screen in embarrassment or anguish, depending on which wave you managed to reach.

The action is far more bottlenecked than ever before: enemies converge on one point from all directions, leaving battles hectic from the first sound of gunfire until the last.

Things start off simple, as you would expect, with predictable spawns and manageable lines of attack, but as you move through the waves, enemies will start to hit you hard in co-ordinated assaults, trying to overwhelm you with sheer numbers and targeting your defences in an attempt to reach the objective.

Pick Your Class

At the start of a match, players can choose between four characters:  Damon Baird as the Engineer, Augustus Cole as the Soldier, and newcomers Sofia Hendrik and Garron Paduk as the Medic and Scout respectively.

Not the most imaginative class list I’m sure you’ll all agree, but let’s face it: if you’re buying this game that probably won’t bother you. If there’s not enough players to fill the roles, the AI will handily do it for you, never leaving you a body short.

Each class has a specific set of weapons as well as class specific ability, which can be used on a cool-down basis. With the abilities, as with the classes themselves, there’s not much originality on show.

Medics, equipped with lancer and sawn off shotgun, can throw Stim grenades, creating an area of affect in which fallen comrades can be revived and those under fire healed, and Soldiers lay down ammo crates for their squad mates to collect.

Scouts, semi-automatic rifles in hand, can climb up to hard to reach locations and toss beacon grenades, marking enemies within a certain radius, making them extra vulnerable to your bullets, and Engineers can use their blowtorch to repair defences – vital for extended survival – as well as deploy a sentry gun to cover them while they sure up.

The results of this change are twofold. Firstly, gameplay is more varied. Racking up executions and pumping bullets into locust flesh endlessly never fails to be fun, but it’s nice to have the option to do something else.

Fed up as an engineer in one spot? Why not go on the offensive, shotgun in hand, to the front line, blasting locusts in the face and plonking down a sentry gun for extra firepower?

Tired of the same piece of cover as a medic? Back up, survey the scene, and throw a healing grenade to the front lines, allowing your teammates to push forward into the haze.

Secondly, to get to the later waves you’re going to need a hell of a lot of teamwork, which is what you want in a co-op based multiplayer. It means that if you want to be useful, it won’t cut it to simply have the fastest trigger finger on Xbox Live.

Working As A Team

Points are awarded separately for combat and support, meaning that unselfish team play can catapult you to the top of the leaderboard. Communication becomes extremely important – more so than in previous Gears titles.

If you’re a Scout up on your perch and want ammo, you’re going to want your Soldier to know so that he can lob some unceremoniously your way, and the same for an Engineer taking heavy heat, begging for the medic’s assistance.

Fortunately you’re not going to have to rely on voice chat – although that’s still the best method – to make use of the system; icons pop up above friendly heads if they’re in need of an ammo boost or health fix-up, accompanied by some in game chatter from their character. This notification system works well, although it does reveal just how shallow the system is.

The whole thing is clearly designed with shooter newbies in mind: the way the classes complement each other is too perfect, and a one-button system dumbs down the feeling of co-opearation in a big way.

It turns Gears into a game of ‘look for icon above enemies head; press button to help’. If this class-based system stood alone it would fall: it’s shallow and formulaic, but you have to think of it in context.

Combine it with an objective based game mode and you’ll get one of the most frantic multiplayer experiences around, with enemies and allies alike focused on a single point, ammo boxes, grenades, and sentry guns flying everywhere. This is Gears of War: already one of the best co-op recipes around, and all this does is add a little extra spice.

More a sprinkle of thyme than a mouthful of garam masala, but sometimes, that’s all you need.

If you’re looking to blow your head off then you’ll be disappointed, but if you’re a Gears veteran looking for something that adds to an already great experience, then this will be just the ticket.

Insomniac’s Fuse has had something of a strangled and confused time during development.

It hasn’t helped that Insomniac has quite publicly changed its mind a number of times regarding the level of humour and proposed seriousness of its co-op shooter, but this back and forth undecided development process has muddied the general perception of Fuse and what, if anything, makes it different.

Sitting down to finally play through a chunk of its campaign (which apparently appears just after the halfway mark) it becomes clear that Insomniac is struggling to define the Fuse experience.

With Insomniac and EA announcing recently that the game would be delayed to June/July, it gives Insomniac a chance, however brief, to readdress exactly what is currently holding the game back.

But what should Insomniac look to changing in its brief but crucial delay?

Humour

Much was made of Fuse’s original reveal back at E3 2011, when it was announced as Overstrike. Billed as a colourful co-op shooter with Insomniac’s expected level of comedy-infused moments, Fuse took a rather unexpected route and began to downplay these unique elements.

After a warm reception, Fuse’s muting of Overstrike's humour and colour seemed to take Insomniac’s game in a rather predictable direction and many of the studio’s fans spoke out. Those criticisms were heard loud and clear, according to Insomniac’s CEO Ted Price, who admitted as much in a recent NowGamer interview.

Price explained how Insomniac eventually ended up back-peddling and reinserting Fuse with much of the colour and humour that had been removed, but what has this back and forth development process meant for the game itself?

Well, as you’d expect, Fuse’s tone is a little muddled.

Insomniac’s vocal fans were right, though. When Fuse’s colourful, cartoon-edged world works, it’s a unique joy to experience as well as feeling fresh, too. Ted Price might like to explain that Fuse’s art design and world were inspired by mixing District 9 and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol together, but that doesn’t really do it justice.

Jumping into a random level it’s hard to gauge just how well Fuse is pulling everything together. It’s certainly a lot brighter than the more serious re-reveal had suggested it would be, but it now appears to sit a little awkwardly between the two types of visual styles.

Hopefully, these tonal inconsistencies will be ironed out because at its core, Fuse has a compelling setup that deserves exploring.

Insomniac is promising that levels will have multiple routes through for the various characters.

Difficulty

It was something of a surprise to jump into Fuse’s campaign (with one co-op partner and two bots) and discover that combat was crushingly difficult. Though Insomniac explained that by the halfway point we were inserted into, players would be well-versed with the Fuse weapons and mechanics, it did feel like the enemies found it a little too easy to overpower us and the bots we had fighting by our side.

Forcing co-op partners to work together through adversity is one thing, but at this stage, it appears that Insomniac hasn’t provided players with the appropriate tools to deal with the onslaught the enemies can provide. This was clear in the Fuse’s main campaign but blindingly obvious in its Horde mode spin-off, Echelon, which sees enemies drop in front and behind the player.

Fuse’s combat requires that players utilise their specific abilities and Fuse-based weapons to succeed in combat. Combining these attacks should mean that players are more than capable of taking on the swathes of crack-shots that head you way. But, it’s not quite as easy as that.

Relying on cover and swift communication between players to combine attacks, combat is actually rather tricky. This is due to Fuse’s mix of normal and specialised Fuse-based weaponry (of which each character has one) as well as the ways in which players are required to work together.

Fuse encourages this style of play by reinforcing it with XP boosts that allow you to level up faster, but this reliance on your fellow players (or the AI itself) could be what’s ultimately holding Fuse back.

To offer a comparison of sorts, Borderlands 2 offers similar co-op play that rewards players for working together, but it doesn’t require that you do to succeed. Gearbox finds a balance between the two styles that currently is lacking from Fuse.

This might not necessarily be as debilitating as you’d think, given Fuse’s obvious co-op focus, but another issue quickly arises and given that Insomniac only have a limited time for polish and improvements over the next few months this might prove much more troubling…

AI

Though we struggled to come to terms with Fuse’s difficulty level and style of play that emphasised teamwork over solo gung-ho theatrics, it was the AI that consistently let the side down during our brief gameplay stint.

Though far from a finished build of the game (especially now considering Fuse’s delay) the AI struggled to deal with the complex co-op interactions that were required.

Even with one person helming another character, the AIs inability to interact with what we were doing had a definite impact on our success. Despite Insomniac’s Ted Price’s insistence, rarely would an AI controlled character run to our aid and help us back into the fight.

The heavey empahsis on team work really does require constant communication between players.

Recognising the awkwardness of playing Fuse alone, Insomniac has included a ‘hot-swap’ feature that allows you to ‘Leap’ between unoccupied characters and utilise their distinct abilities. This should give you some idea just how important each character is to the success of a mission but also just how limiting the AI actually is.

How much impact these issues have on the overall experience depends on how much Insomniac can get done over the next few months. From the small slice of gameplay we had the chance to jump into, a delay seems all but inevitable and almost certainly the right choice.

Despite the issues we’ve described here, there’s still every chance that, when experience within the context of Fuse’s campaign, these salient issues fade into the background. But, as it currently stands, Insomniac was right to delay Fuse and use the time to polish what is largely a positive game.

You probably haven’t played Obscure. The little known – some may say, Obscure – co-op survival horror series launched on PS2 before a Wii/PSP sequel. It was decent.

Now, the series is being re-launched on PS3 and XBLA as a cartoony same-screen 2.5D co-op side-scroller similar to the likes of Shank.

The action sees you take control of one of four horror cliché characters: the jock, the nerd, the charmer and the cheerleader, teaming up with a host of weapons to clear objectives and kill zombs.

The biggest change from the third-person adventure titles of old isn’t the switch to a side-on perspective, though – it’s the colour.

Gone is the black and white murk of old, in its place is a veritable pallet of greens, yellows and reds. Lots of lots of red.

Drawing on influences like Left 4 Dead and Shank, lead dev Francois Potentier says his Mighty Rocket Studio is enjoying the freedom to create the game it wants, not have to worry about pleasing hordes of fans.

He said: “I’m a fan of Dead Space and Resident Evil so I won’t say that these games are crap, they are really good.

“We have more freedom to innovate and try something new. 

“When you have a lot of money, millions of dollars, your game has to be a success. “Our games cost a lot less so we can try to do new gameplays and test gameplay and if it doesn’t work, we have ten people so we can do something else. It’s a lot easier for small studios to innovate.”

He went on to say PSN and XBLA has been a breeding ground for innovation this generation, above and beyond popcorn blockbusters like Uncharted.

“When you have games like Uncharted or something, you are obliged to have big success, so maybe you prefer to stick to what you know will work and appeal to a broad range of people;” he added.

He continued: “Are they less innovative? I think so, this is my opinion. I like Uncharted, I’m a big fan of this kind of game, but I think you find more innovation on XBLA/PSN than a game in a box.”

Indeed, Mighty Rocket Studios was set up purely to work on Obscure, after previous studio Hydravision closed after development on the game began.

The team has many of the same people – taking a very different approach for the third Obscure.

It may not be too original, but its slick arcadey feel and downloadable pricepoint could win the series some new fans.

As Potentier put it: “As long as I develop fun games and have enough money to do the next game, I don’t need a Porsche or anything like that. I want to live for my passion, not being Bill Gates.”

Some games naturally loan themselves to a brief, artificial encounter. Some games do not.

BioShock Infinite is definitely the latter.

It's like popping to the Caribbean for a sandwich. The journey's too long, and the view too beautiful, for a fleeting visit. It's an experience to savor, not rush, so even though we're being forced to explore the skyscape of Columbia against the clock, we're going to make the most of this preview with Infinite's producer Mike Soden, and writer Drew Holmes, alongside to keep us company.

If you haven't quite kept up with Infinite, don't panic. Truth is, we know little more than we did in our BioShock Infinite preview last December, and Irrational are hellishly good at keeping  their story under wraps. You play as Booker DeWitt, a guy as cool as his name with a debt to clear and a very specific job to do.

Dispatched to the floating city of Columbia at the turn of the century, DeWitt is tasked with mysteriously retrieving the mysteriously imprisoned mysteriously mysterious Elizabeth. Why? Uh, we still don't know. But what's clear is that Lizzy's kind of important to the people of Columbia, and the townsfolk aren't too keen about you dropping by.

Previews inevitably mean substance over style, but when it comes to BioShock, you just can't play that way. There's too much to see and too many nooks to explore, so whilst some might opt to push on through at speed, we can't help but idle over every inch, just in case there's a kickass collectible tucked away someplace. After all, this is a franchise that demands exploration, and even turning against the grain of the waypoint brings its own rewards.

But it's not just the exploration that might slow you down. Columbia? It's stunning. Steeped in classic, early-American architecture and a palette so bright it's breathtaking, it's impossible not to be drawn into this light, bright, vibrant skyscape. But much like Rapture, you can sense that something's amiss, and it doesn't take Booker long to inadvertently scratch the surface and discover the evil bubbling underneath…

Rapturous Welcome

"Much like Rapture, we view Columbia itself as a central character," explains Irrational writer, Drew Holmes. "The way we tell our story is so much through the world, you have to spend that meticulous time and detail. We can write dialogue to our heart's content but at the end of the day, you gotta be sure that the information that [the players] need is placed there in the world."

But it's not just that, Holmes admits. The bright colours? Open areas? The skyline? "All those things - they're fuelled by the desire to try something different. We never want to repeat ourselves at Irrational."

Producer Mike Soden flicks to an image on his tablet. A rough, marker sketch of a cartoon sea and sky, there's a cross striking out the former and a check/tick approving the latter. Arrows point up to the clouds.

Seems Holmes wasn't kidding when he said Irrational were anxious to move away from what's been done before.

You'll recognise Infinite on sight. Columbia has been realised with the same deliberate, conscious care as Rapture, and it's peculiar how familiar it looks given Rapture was such a deep, damp, dark place.

That said, it's the characters of Infinite's world that you'll be mostly drawn to, and the preview, irritatingly, leaves us with more questions than answers as we slide into the second section. As DeWitt steps into battle and Lizzy scurries into cover, a nagging thought occurs: hang on. This isn't just an elaborate escort mission, is it?

Clicking Into Place

"Every time we think of an escort mission, we go 'Oh, geez'," laughs Holmes. "It was really important to us to make sure that Liz never feels like a burden to the player. The minute someone got frustrated [during development], we were like: this can't ever happen. It doesn't matter how cool the story is, or how cool the gameplay is - if the character that's supposed to be with you the whole time frustrates you, you won't care about the game."

"We wanted to make sure that she was someone you wanted to spend time with," Holmes adds. "The story is very much her story, and she's as much the protagonist as Booker is. She is not a damsel in distress but a fully-realised character, and not only narrative wise. She's also incredibly helpful in the gameplay, too. She's not an escort mission. Liz is a part of the world and a part of the gameplay and she's gonna help you along the way."

It's this that seems to be much of Irrational's focus. Whilst sculpting this new, cloud-clad colony came with it's own challenges, the meaningful and relatable realisation of Infinite's lead characters were of great importance during development. And nothing was going to be taken for granted.

"We had to re-work this really minor section early on in the game," explains Holmes. "We'd done all this work on Liz in terms of making her useful in combat - her animations were great, she looked fantastic, she was charming etc. But we were getting feedback that people were just not quite connecting with her. You have to go back, be the archeologist, and say: okay, what is she doing? Without going into spoiler territory, there's this one small reaction she had to Booker at this critical moment.

So we went back and changed it - this very small thing - and suddenly, everything clicked into place. People fell in love with Liz. It's really interesting. I think often times the solution isn't quite clear, and what you may think is the problem turns out not to be the problem at all. It might be actually something very small, but it starts to nag at people and they get frustrated. It's part of the overall game development process."

This attention to detail - particularly that of leading lady Liz - is evident in the gameplay. In the second segment we're pitted against a familiar-looking, formidable foe, and Elizabeth's timely interventions help Booker seek out additional salts and weapons, as well as help keep him agile thanks to her intriguing ability to 'tear' reality. Combat in Infinite? It's not easy. You may find yourself drawing upon Elizabeth's seemingly impressive AI more frequently than you might first think. Holmes was right; this girl is not a damsel in distress.

Grown-Up Gaming

Which is a surprise, quite frankly, given the horrifying secret of Columbia's purported success. Within the opening half hour you'll be tasked with making some uncomfortable decisions, and bear witness to the city's unapologetic bigotry, exposing that the zen-like peace of Columbia comes at the cost of freedom and tolerance. Heavy stuff? We know. But this is BioShock, where our first shuffled steps into the franchise threw us headfirst into the charming concept of infanticide.

But whilst Irrational are demonstrably unafraid of telling a mature story, have the recent controversies surrounding storytelling and adult themes forced a period of reflection in the writers' room?

"I think you're immensely conscious of it," says Holmes. "But nothing is sensationalised. It's certainly core to the factions of the world, the thinking of the world, the feel, the beliefs, and to the characters. As long as these things have a purpose and have context within the larger story, I think it diffuses a lot of the headline-grabbing 'Oh, they're trying to do this!' stuff. It's not about that. It's about what is central to the story, and not being able to tell that story without these larger themes."

"It's certainly a story that you've never seen before," he adds. "And I'm not talking about just in a game - I'm really trying to wrack my brain to try and draw a parallel to any story seen in any medium."

We wish we could concur. Or disagree. Or anything, really. Sure, what we've played has been rich, fluid, and polished, but so little of the story has unraveled that it's impossible to comment. Is this a good thing? Yeah. Probably. But when Holmes finishes his interview with hints about the ending, you can't help but be left just a little smitten by Infinite. 

"I'm really excited to see people's reactions to the ending. It's certainly something that no-one has ever seen before. Ken [Levine]'s talked about it a couple of times, how proud he is of it. I don't want to hype it too much, but we tried to account for everything. This is certainly the best game I've ever worked on."

"But at the end of the day? My opinion and the opinion of the team doesn't really matter. It's ultimately about what people's reaction to it is, and how they connect to it."

It’s one thing to ape Call Of Duty, but a whole other to mimic that and Halo. This is something that the Crysis series’ multiplayer has always done and, in doing so, has managed a fine line between the two.

Now we’ve had a healthy dose of gameplay from the on-going Crysis 3 multiplayer beta, we’re surprised to see Crytek has really honed this very tiny market.

Here’s some of our impressions with the new and improved multiplayer mode.

Shotguns Are Overpowered

There’s a disclaimer on the beta that insists things like balancing could change prior to release, and it is worth remembering that. However, something like this seems a little tough to change.

Stick on invisibility; get up close and blast away with a shotty. As soon as you figure that one tactic out, chances are you won’t want to swap loadout again.

Snipers seem to remain a persistent threat, but again as long as your clever about your invisibility usage you should have no problems against these guys.

And say Crytek did nerf the shotgun (it’s a one-hit kill from a pretty decent range) all it could do is weaken it to the extent that it’s useless. And then no one will use it.

If you get a chance to play the multiplayer beta, seriously: try the stealth/shotgun combo. You’ll rack up kills in no time and likely feel a little guilty about it when you do.

Learning to navigate maps will be more important for success in Crysis 3.

Clever Map Design

These guys are super soldiers. They can leap large chasms, lift heavy vehicles and deftly grasp onto ledges. Crytek is aware of this, and has implemented rather clever methods of enabling you to feel like a superpowered warrior, even in a map filled with superpowered warriors.

The Museum map best shows this off, though. Fallen trees lead up to higher ground – and if timed properly you can leap from one side to the other with ease. There’s a number of situations where this has been built on the map, and it makes for some smart design.

Knowing your maps – and how to get around – is now as important as the weapons you use and the timing of your nanosuit abilities. If you’re quick enough you can get the drop on an enemy without them ever understanding how or where you attacked from.

It means there’s an increased level of verticality to each of the maps, which is something Crytek has insisted was important to the single-player content too. That design choice has clearly carried over here, and it works surprisingly well.

Here's Hunter mode in action.

The New Mode: Hunter

Hunter isn’t an original idea for multiplayer games. Halo has had its Infection mode for some time now, which sees a couple of powerful players on one side against an uneven team with rifles.

The concept is the same in Crysis 3’s Hunter mode. Starting as a Cell operative, you’ll need to try to survive as long as possible against the Hunters. Your equipment is weaker, your abilities limited and your senses hampered. The Hunters aren’t invincible, mind, but it’ll take teamwork to survive.

Hunters, meanwhile, have access to unlimited stealth, silent bow and arrow weaponry and the usual increased strength, shields and speed that comes with the nanosuit.

In other words, they’re tough. Properly tough.

A Hunter’s job is to whittle down the Cell operatives one by one. If a Cell soldier does die, they’ll respawn as a Hunter. Not original, perhaps, but there are subtle differences that make this mode quite thrilling.

The proximity reader, for example, instils a sense of panic in any Cell operative. You’ll find it hard to keep your cool when the creepy beeps of the detector signals a nearby Hunter, and even legging it won’t help since this invisible predators can run faster than you.

Teamwork is the only way you’ll survive, and careful management of the team’s (limited) supplies of EMP grenades – the only real solution to combating a Hunter – will be important in this mode. Good fun, though.

Alien Technology Brings Brief Power Surges

New to Crysis 3’s multiplayer is the inclusion of alien weaponry. A big deal in the main campaign, these powerful – but limited – pieces of equipment randomly spawn on the map.

In an homage to classic Unreal Tournament or Quake multiplayer gaming, these are a sudden but exciting way of claiming dominance. There isn’t quite as much depth to the system – you won’t be counting seconds until a respawn, for example – but the power is a handy reward for your team.

These could be a high-end plasma grenade launcher that obliterate anyone in the area or, our favourite, bipedal mech robots that is the equivalent of seeing a tank roll in on Battlefield 3.

It’s a subtle difference – and perhaps even an unnecessary inclusion into the game – but if your team are finding themselves up against tough odds, remember that these short-lived solutions are here to help out.

It’s the equivalent of the Gatling gun turrets that can be dismounted in Crysis 2’s multiplayer, but on a whole other level. Besides, it’s fun to turn people into bloody bits.

Dead Space 3, we have decided after playing the first four chapters and speaking with Associate Producer Yara Koury, is a devious little so-and-so.

It makes you think, at first glance, that it's just another Dead Space title. It sits you down in  a comfy chair with familiar game mechanics, telling you to relax, that everything is just as you remember and that the beer is in the cooler over there.

But then, when your back is turned it and your attention distracted, it grows two extra heads and comes at you, yellowing teeth bared. “We want to innovate”, says Yara Koury, “we always want to bring them (the players) something new”.

This is without doubt the bravest Dead Space game to date, and it's clear that EA and Visceral games aren't intent on pandering to fans of the series. Instead, they've made a game centred around a co-op campaign that features many new ideas that they hope will change the way think about horror games.

Going it alone

That's not to say that, at its core, the single player campaign will greet you like anything other than an old friend. You're still looking straight over Isaac's shoulder as he strategically dismembers a variety of Necromorphs and solves simple puzzles with his kinesis and stasis abilities, all whilst trying not to soil himself as flailing limbs and wild eyes appear out of nowhere.

The story remains an even balance of epic and personal, with love and betrayal mixed in to a continuing journey to discover the origins and meanings of the Markers. However, the changes that they have made are certainly noticeable as you play through, and add up to make quite a significant difference.

As you would expect, there are new enemy types to face, and chief amongst them is the Waster.

An unpredictable – if not entirely original – foe, the Waster can grow back gruesome body parts when they're shot off, which turns a fight with a group of them into an intense game of guess-that-body-part as you panic fire at anything that resembles an arm or a leg (which, after a few seconds, will be everything).

The human enemies are far more benign and tedious to battle. The game opens with Isaac being directed to safety by Earthgov operatives, fighting through waves of Unitoligist forces as he tries to escape the New Horizons colony. The Unitologists don't seem to know how to take cover properly, and leave the top of their heads poking out from behind chest high walls.

That's just asking for trouble. They'll often blindly rush out into your fire with no apparent strategy, which, although rather convenient for you as it allows you to rack up easy kills, means they pose no challenge.

Weapons free

One of the most anticipated features is the ability to customise your weapons. “It has been inspired by players”, Yara Khoury tells me, and it certainly seems to have been built with the idea of maximum enjoyment in mind.

The customisation goes deep – building a new gun requires you to choose a frame, upper tool, lower tool, upper and lower tips, attachments and upgrades, all of which require specific materials found throughout Dead Space 3's levels.

Not only does this mean you can walk around with something that feels and looks very personal in your hand, but it'll also lead you to explore your surroundings extensively for precious resources, meaning no nook or cranny or the meticulously detailed environments will pass you by.

By leaving no stone unturned and no dead alien body ceremoniously un-stomped we scavenged enough to make a weapon that boasted both a plasma core and a line gun, kitted out with a damage upgrades which meant we could knock enemies back and slice them to pieces in two button presses.

Although it sounds like a good thing that Isaac now has more firepower, it's not always what you want in a horror game. Part of the charm that the original Dead Space was so famous for was down to the fact that you felt rather helpless.

You were an engineer, using an engineer’s tools for a job they were not designed to do. Holding a gun which is part ripper blade, part flamethrower, all hold-down-trigger-to-kill equipped with damage and reload upgrades, you'll feel that sense of helplessness slip away.

Environmentally friendly

This trend can be seen elsewhere, too: Isaac now feels far more mobile than he has ever done. He's agile despite his cumbersome suit, and can now roll away from enemies or take cover behind low objects, eliminating the kind of feeling you got, particularly in the first Dead Space, that you were always exposed.

Yes, that sense of hopelessness has been sacrificed to make combat a more intuitive experience, but the heady atmosphere that made the Dead Space series so great is still here in abundance, created by a number of wonderful environments. Even though our time with Isaac didn't see him land on Tau Volantis – that happens slightly later in the story – it's clear the in-game environments are predictably superb, and more varied than ever.

The murky corridors Isaac trudges through on the ship Raonake are suitably menacing and do a good job of creating tension, but he'll also find himself fighting for his life atop a speeding train and running through a modern apartment block, never bored of something to feast his eyes on if he has a moment spare (which, seeing as Necromorphs are trying to eat his face, he probably doesn't).

The huge variety of settings mean that whilst there are scares in certain areas they are less frequent than in previous titles, hacked away like a gangrenous limb to make space for action.

Whilst this doesn't bother us - we've never felt the Dead Space series was shit-your-pants scary - you might be disappointed if it's pure fear you crave.

Yara admits that Tau Volantis is “much brighter” and more “open” than the dark, dingy spaces that we’re used to seeing Isaac lumber around in but it does seem suited to the genre. “We’re playing a lot with the fact that you can’t see in front of you”, she says, “The Ice planet felt like a great fit because it’s still very hostile environment and makes our players extremely vulnerable.”

The slight shift towards a more action packed affair is epitomised by the set pieces sequences that Yara calls “Epic moments”, which are “very carefully crafted” in an attempt to provide some welcome variation in pace.

One minute you'll be peeking around corners, chewing your nails and wondering what the hell just moved in the shadows, the next you'll be piloting Isaac as he thrusts his way through a asteroid field-like expanse of floating debris from destroyed spacecraft, all the while shooting speeding mines to stop them reaching his companions.

Expect these events to figure heavily in the narrative as the game unfolds. “One of the big action moments is when you crash land on Tau Volantis”, Yara says, “we didn’t really wanted to have them landing safely, it wouldn’t be a Dead Space game otherwise”.

Hunting in packs

All this may be very interesting for the solo player, but Dead Space 3's real meat and bones lies in its co-op mode, and the developers are extremely keen to get you playing it. Perhaps too keen, you might think, given that they’re actually holding back certain areas of the game from those playing solo in an attempt to convince us that buddying up will really make the game more enjoyable.

“I think that we have provided enough incentive for fans to play the co-op experience”, said Yara, “There are missions that are unique to the co-op experience... players are usually keen on playing as much as they can”.

This feels like a kick in the teeth to those who want to play the game on their own. As Isaac wanders through the first two hours of the game, the evidence of these exclusive co-op areas is there for all to see. Locked doors loom menacingly around every corner, glaring at him like angry bouncers at the entrance to a couples-only party.

This will no doubt irk some players, but EA's policy seems to be that if it gets you to at least dip a tentative toe in the co-op waters, it will be worth pissing a few people off.

“I’m pretty confident that they’ll at least give it a shot”, says Yara, and when they do, she's sure that “it will get them hooked”.

Although EA didn't showcase any co-op play at the event, what we saw and heard has still worked up our appetites. This will not be Dead Space as you know it – you'll have to stick to the single player for that. This will be an extremely different animal.

The main focus is the highly anticipated dementia mechanic that will permeate every aspect of the co-op campaign. It promises to create some of the most unique moments we've seen in the Dead Space series so far with both players, at various points, seeing things that the other can't through hallucinations. Yara tells me that the team have been “creating gameplay mechanics around” co-op.

John Carver –  the second playable character in the campaign – and Isaac will experience their own stories in tandem and despite the fact that Carver is easy to write off as a run of the mill, shaven headed soldier who hates everything and everyone (he keeps telling Isaac that “we're not friends” and to “try harder next time”), EA have tried their best to flesh him out.

“As an individual we crafted him very much in his own way”, says Yara. “We built this whole back-story about Carver that has been introduced in the graphic novel Liberation, so he’s very different from Isaac.”

It's clear that the co-op campaign will be a very personal, story driven journey, with both characters coming out of their shell in time.

“They have common things that bring them together”, says Yara, “their families have been taken away by the Necromorphs. Both these characters evolve together in the story” and “define themselves by playing together”. Whether Carver turns out to be anything other than a cardboard cut out still remains to be seen, but at least we know the team have put effort into his character.

Uncharted territory

The reason that creating this co-op mode was such a bold move is that it promises to be worlds away from everything we've come to expect from the Dead Space series. Whereas previous games have relied on a sense of isolation, and created fear through edge-of-your-seat suspense punctuated by big scares, Dead Space 3 will have an entirely different focus.

“We’ve explored a lot more the psychological horror”, Yara says, and although it doesn't look like the dementia mechanic will be particularly frightening, it will certainly create moments that are strange, bizarre, and above all, intriguing.

While it's a shame that go-it-aloners will miss out on the bulk of Dead Space 3's content, the addition of co-op makes Dead Space 3 one of the most interesting propositions in many a gaming year. The single player option is still there to be played and thoroughly enjoyed, but once you've run through it you'll still have that wonderful feeling that comes with having a whole lot more game to sink your teeth into.

Although the co-op follows the same story arc as the single player campaign, the difference in game mechanics means that Dead Space 3 is really two separate games. The first, a solid, familiar, single player story that is a little lighter on scares than previous titles, and the second a unique, mysterious, highly original co-op mode.

Dead Space 3 may not look just like its older, much loved brothers, but it promises to a very exciting addition to the family.

Dead Space 3’s first surprise is that it’s not Dead Space. Not purely, anyway. Between the dynamic cutscenes, the linear progression and the endless expanse of snowy blizzard you’d be forgiven for thinking Visceral have been playing Uncharted 2.

But nailing bizarre head-squid bodysnatchers and slowing down time to shoot between the gut-ripping blades of a massive drill while necromorphs scythe into your flesh? That’s pure Dead Space.

The second sequel from the freshest horror IP in years does a lot to set itself apart from its predecessors. Having crash-landed on a freezing expanse of alien planet, Isaac Clarke’s first sight is of nothing at all – just the endless whiteness of a snowstorm.

One grapple with a falling truck later (press LS! Press A! the game screams while the camera pans around the scripted action), and Isaac’s suddenly confronted with an (alien) sun-drenched courtyard and a big, badass, snow-camo tarantula which rips him from the lift he entered like tuna from a metal sardine-holding container.

The next section is more claustrophobic fare. A confined corridor sees a decapitated head/squid monstrosity burrow into a rotting corpse and take control of it, replacing its head with its own and reanimating it into a shuffling nemesis.

Unlike most necros, it takes headshots to kill them - anything south of the neck sees the sickening creatures forage across the ground for another corpse to call home. It’s sickeningly ingenious and classic Dead Space.

Stasis (slowing down time with Y) is put to good use on a 50ft spinning drill – slipping bullets between its whirling blades takes precision, even in slo-mo, and requires the right balance of shooting for its shut-down trigger and defending from swathes of pacey, dangerous enemies.

Dead Space 3 promises a mix of old tropes and new tricks, mingling its trad horror stylings with more open, action/adventure elements. Whether it has enough scares to satisfy horror hungry fans remains to be seen, but it has variety in abundance.

How it stands up beyond the demo level – and how it feels in co-op - will be explored soon, so stay tuned to NowGamer.

For now, Dead Space 3 is still looking hot - even if it leaves some fans cold.

“It’s not about trying to save the world. It’s not about winning the ultimate war. It’s about: ‘There’s a bad guy in town and we gotta get that bad guy outta town.’”

So says Rob Auten, freelancer writer on Gears Of War: Judgment as he… wait. This is Gears Of War. Isn’t this series about trying to save the world? About winning the ultimate war? Isn’t the whole point of Gears Of War that it’s about big characters doing big things in a big way?

Not so with Gears Of War: Judgment, which reinvents the formula while keeping it distinctly… well, Gears.

Stop-And-Pop Is Dead

The rhythm of Gears Of War goes something like this. You do the meaty steroid jog into a new area (not roadie-running because you’re cautious about what lies ahead) when an errant Locust shot whistles by your ear. You and your partner slam your backs against the nearest cover and then the battle of popping up and shooting behind cover begins.

Gears Of War: Judgment isn’t going to fall into the same pattern. For one thing, there’s not as much cover around, forcing players to improvise more than they would have done in the past. Cover had become something of a crutch for Gears players, an easy answer to all scenarios bar extreme flanking by the AI. With cover now at a minimum, things have opened up for Judgment. The gunplay now feels more dynamic, without cover providing easy solutions to the Locust horde ahead.

To help you out, the controls have been revamped. Grenades can now be quick-tossed with the right bumper, making them a great move to use in a pinch. Tapping the right bumper when the action gets hairy becomes instinctive and becomes a brilliant bail-out move should you feel the odds are stacked fatally against you in close combat.

Tapping Y changes your weapons, so you can have Gnasher and quickly switch to Hammerburst should you spot an enemy in the distance. Not groundbreaking considering the same thing was possible using the D-pad in previous Gears but it’s much faster now and that speed encourages you to swap weapons more often to match the scenario. This change also frees the d-pad for the other commands. Up on the d-pad is now the ‘look’ button that draws your eyes towards big set-pieces or ambushes that the developer wants you to see, for example.

The pace has also been cranked up and cutscenes breaking up the gameplay have been stripped right back. There’s almost an arcade gaming mentality powering Gears Of War: Judgment, especially as it now has a live scoring system in place. There are now three stars in the top-left corner of the HUD, which fill as you perform kills, executions, gibs, headshots and so on. Filling all three stars by the end of the level grants you unlockables such as new player skins and weapons.

What’s The Story

Set 15 years before the original Gears Of War, Judgment tells the story of Baird, the sarcastic mechanic of the series, who is standing trail at a COG court-martial to explain why he disobeyed orders. Details such as what and why are being left blank for now – Epic wants to hold something back and in any case, we wouldn’t want to spoil details – but we do know when there’s a flashback from the trial to what he was doing that led up to that event, Baird is joined by two new faces.

Sofia Hendrick is an Onyx Guard cadet who hasn’t seen action and is therefore treated with disdain. However, she doesn’t take any shit from others and for some killer lines alone, she’s a great addition to the series. In terms of gameplay, she’s a medic and Sofia has stim grenades she can throw to heal or revive players.

Also new is Garron Paduk, the scout of the group. Unlike Sofia, Garron is a hardened veteran joining the group from the UIR faction. While not as interesting as Sofia in terms of raw personality (think stereotypical Russian and you’re mostly there), he does seem to have an ulterior motive for joining the group.

Let’s Talk New Stuff

Now let’s talk specific new stuff. There are new weapons, obviously. The stim grenade causes an area of healing while the beacon grenade causes an area of effect that shows enemies through walls.

The Markza is similar to the classic Gears Of War Longshot, except it has a large magazine and can be repeatedly fired, although headshots no longer pop skulls. The Breechshot is the Locust equivalent that does pop heads although it has no scope and more recoil.

The Booshka is going to cause chaos in multiplayer. It fires bouncing bombs and the fuse doesn’t start ticking until the first bounce. Better still, you can fire three before you need to reload.

Also new is Declassified Testimonies, which is a fancy name for side-missions. These appear during campaign but have story linking it to the overall narrative. For example – one section has to be tackled with shotguns only but has voiceover explaining why. Having the extra variance keeps the gameplay fresh and having it actually tie in with the story gives these side-missions purpose too.

Another new gameplay element is Dynamic Defence Scenarios. These are essentially Horde mode segments placed within campaign, as you grab ammo, weapons and set up automated-weapon turrets before waves of enemies come crashing in. Just to make things more interesting, there are fresh combinations of enemies generated on the fly throughout Gears Of War: Judgment, not just in these scenarios.

Finally, there’s Karn, the new bad guy heading up the series. He rides around on an overgrown, armoured corpser and makes his entrance by way of crushing an Onyx Guard. Boo! Hiss! And so on.

Multiplayer Changes

And let’s not forget what Gears Of War is known best for – multiplayer.

One immediate change is how DBNO (down but not out) has been removed. There’s no crawling around on your hands and knees, leaving a trail of blood as you hope a team-mate scampers over to revive you. Now, you just die.

The reason Epic made the change was in response to those moaning about having their kills stolen after putting in the hard work of downing the player. We understand the complaints but it’s a change we’re not too sure about, given that was one of the distinct mechanics, which helped Gears feel like Gears.

Then again, there are changes that have a far bigger impact on multiplayer than the lack of DBNO. For example, classes. While choosing characters in Gears meant little beyond superficial changes and maybe minor hitbox considerations, now you’re choosing a class where there are distinct advantages and weaknesses. Medic, Scout, Soldier and Engineer all offer cooldown abilities that can be deployed during the heat of battle.

Medic has the all-healing stim grenade while Soldier can throw down ammo for team-mates. Engineer can repair barricades and set-up automated defence turrets while Scouts have beacon grenades and can climb up higher than the other classes.

Judgment will also bring 10-player Free-For-All to Gears Of War for the first time. It’s seems strange that it will be the first time Free-For-All will be in the series but Team Deathmatch has always been the de facto Gears multiplayer mode of choice. It’ll be interesting to see how fans take to a mode that takes all teamwork away.

One mode that will prove popular is Overrun, which is a Gears-themed take on attack-and-defend. The Locust are the attacking team while the COG are the defending team, with three capture points that the Locust are aiming to destroy. If you played Beast Mode in Gears Of War 3 and wondered why Epic locked the human side to AI-only, now you can actually play as them, fending off the Locust horde.

It’s a brilliant mode. Each of the Locust has their own unique cooldown abilities, just as in Beast mode. Wretch screams stun COG while Kantus can heal other Locusts. Giant Serapedes, Maulers, Grenadiers, the whole ugly army is here and the carnage by the sprawling Locust vs COG battles in Overrun are a highlight.

It’s a different take on the usual Gears multiplayer. Just like Gears Of War: Judgment is different. Can this appeal to Gears veterans while providing enough change to bring in those who didn’t get on with previous versions? That’s the big plan and while it might not be about saving the world, so far, things are looking good for Gears Of War: Judgment.

Resident Evil 6 has multiplayer DLC coming on December 18th.

Onslaught, Survivors and Predator are three new multiplayer modes which will be made available for 720 Microsoft Points or 320 individually.

But are they any good? You can wait until December 18th for that answer. Or you can get an answer now! Well, below. You have to read some words first. Sorry.

Onslaught - Dr. Mario Meets Mercenaries

“It’s a bit like Dr. Mario!” said Capcom. We snorted. Dr Mario indeed! What fools. This will be nothing like Dr. Mario.

And then, it turned out Onslaught is basically a Dr. Mario twist on Mercenaries. Oh. Whoops.

It looks like Mercenaries but there are two significant twists. The first is that your arsenal has been stripped down to the absolute bare essentials. Sherry starts with 30 rounds, a flash grenade and a stun rod. Agent has a knife and seven Magnum rounds. Other characters have similarly light loadouts.

Unlike Mercenaries where your pockets bulge under the weight of your collective arsenal, ammo here has to be found and snatched up in the rare quiet moments. Ammo is surprisingly hard to find too, adding to the feeling of desperation as you fight off the undead.

The other twist is more significant. Rather than comboing enemies  to rack up a high score, you’re comboing enemies so you can send them send your opponent’s way. See! Like Dr. Mario! Or rather, Dr Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine where combos send ‘dud’ beans at your opponent.

Maybe weird puzzle game references aren’t working out too well but you get the point. The better you do, the harder it is for your opponent to operate.

Your opponent is playing at the same time (although not in the same arena as you) to do the same and send zombies your way although the flipside to this is the more zombies onscreen means more chance to combo them and send them back. The short version: as the match develops, the tug-of-war between both players becomes tougher.

The concept makes sense immediately although the user interface is a little tricky to understand right from the off, bombarding you with numbers, percentages, zombie silhouettes amongst the usual Mercenaries clutter adorning the screen.

So, Dr. Mario with zombies then. Good stuff.

Survivors - Join The Undead

Survivors is a basic free-for-all between six players but when you die, you come back as an enemy. Getting a kill when converted to the infected side sees you come back as the ‘human’ player you started the match with.

As a human player, you have the same stripped-back arsenal you do in Onslaught but human vs. human combat is strangely flat.

It’s usually whoever gets the first knockdown then goes on to get the kill unless something unexpected happens, like another player wading into the ruckus. As there are no other zombies in this mode and the maps are fairly large, this doesn’t happen as often as you might expect given the general commotion and noise involved when knocking a player over until they die.

But it’s when you die that things become a lot more fun (a first for any multiplayer shooter, probably).

The infected enemy you come back as depends on the map you’re playing on. On Urban Chaos, you come back as a zombie wielding an object like a pipe or a cleaver. On Liquid Fire, it’s the weird creatures populating Resident Evil 6’s later stages and Ada’s campaign.

Each enemy has its own moveset – standard infecteds can grab, crawl, throw objects or vomit while others have stronger melee moves and faster moving speed.

Compared to the shotgun wielding, melee-attacking, grenade-throwing characters like Chris and Leon, most infecteds don’t stand a chance against them in direct confrontation, so you have to be creative and work with other players who have converted to the enemy side.

Cornering human players works well, as does ambushing them, as you can use your numbers to overwhelm them. Sneaking up on human players while they’re busy shooting at other infected players is definitely the best tactic and much of the match is spent weighing up the right time to attack, slowly moving around the edges of the map.

It quickly becomes carnage. What often happens is enemy players get close, the human player panics and does something stupid like throwing a grenade about two feet in front of him and chaos ensues.

The mode ends when time has elapsed or all human players have become converted to the enemy side. The scoring system is hard to work out, although it’s mostly survive the longest as a human player and you’ll win.

A decent mode then, if only because playing as Resident Evil 6’s ugly creatures and figuring out how to take on its cast of heroes is an interesting concept. It's messy in a good way but it's a shame that human vs. human fights aren't nearly as captivating.

Predator - Play As Ustanak

This is the best mode of them all. By far.

It’s also the most gimmicky. There are six rounds of two minutes each. In each round, a different player takes control of Ustanak, the monstrous creature from Resident Evil 6’s campaign that chases Jake and Sherry, and the aim is to end the mode with the highest score.

For a creature that’s eight foot tall and made entirely of burgers, Ustanak is surprisingly nimble. He’s able to hop over cover and climb up boxes and shipping containers and runs slightly faster than normal players do. Given his speed and Resident Evil 6’s cramped maps, the best way to evade Ustanak is to twist and turn around the environment, something he can’t do as easily given his size.

Ustanak also has a wide array of moves available – a shoulder tackle, two melee swipes, a big boot and a grab attack.

When you grab someone you can either throw them at the other players or hold onto them for as long as possible, keeping them out of the match if they stay in Ustanak’s grasp. The human team can shoot the player free though and Ustanak loses some of his moves while he has a player grabbed, so there is a trade-off to consider.

Players earn the bulk of their points while playing as Ustanak, as it’s fairly easy to down players (although you can’t kill them) but those up against him can also boost their score by injuring the creature. Helping out in the one-sided fight are weapons dropped into the arena such as rocket launchers and magnums, although Ustanak can also grab some of the attachments he uses in the game, such as the massive shotgun he clicks into his arm.

That’s the GameFAQs-style technical breakdown. In terms of how it plays, it’s a lot of fun. A lot of fun.

Playing as Ustanak is the highlight but even playing as one of the five trying to injure him is surprisingly compelling, most because – again – there’s a lack of ammo that leaves you feeling vulnerable as you’re forced to search for extra rounds while Ustanak is running rampant.

Resident Evil 6 did a good job of communicating Ustanak's power in the main game and that's something that carries over to multiplayer. He's an absolute monster. Running through gunfire to chase and grab players is strangely empowering and the occasional clumsiness of the controls even fits the towering, awkward creature in a way it simply can't with the likes of Leon and Chris.

Predator is easily the highlight of the package and worth revisiting Resident Evil 6 for. Survivors and Onslaught are cute multiplayer riffs on the main game but Predator feels like something distinctly unique to Resident Evil 6.

Tomb Raider is Crystal Dynamics' chance to reboot Lara. With so many games encroaching on what had previously been the preserve of Core Design and Ms Croft, Tomb Raider has to take a chance and do somthing new.

Can Crystal Dynamics successfully reinvent Lara and rebuild her brand from scratch? We spoke to creative director, Noah Hughes, to find out just how Crystal Dynamics was approaching design on Tomb Raider.

And, to see for ourselves we played through the first three hours of Tomb Raider...

Unto the breach

Time: 0:59
After watching the opening CGI cutscene (it’s the same one Square Enix released a while ago) that sees young Lara violently thrown into the water, Tomb Raider neatly switches to the impressive in-game engine.

As she struggles to reach the surface and catch her breath we get a glimpse of the weather-beaten island that’s to become Lara’s home for next traumatic few days (at least we assume it’s days).

Lara succeeds in reaching the surface, crawls onto the beach and collapses, unconscious. We don’t think we’ve ever seen her react to a bad situation so clumsily and it’s an interesting set-up to Crystal Dynamics’ reboot.

Rescuing herself

Time: 8:45
It turns out Lara’s opening few moments see her captured by an unseen menace in the same sequence that was showcased to the press when Tomb Raider was first shown off.

Hanging from the ceiling in some sort of cocoon, Lara has two swing herself back and for in order to set the rope that’s holding her up on fire. It’s the first of a few physical puzzles that Tomb Raider establishes early on and it sees her fall and then impaled on the spikes below.

These opening moments have been well documented and it’s easy to see why Crystal Dynamics wanted to use them to show Tomb Raider's new direction.

Time: 10:05
Limping and bleeding, Lara pushes on and discovers she is in fact inside a cave system with lots of creepy, ritualistic markings on the wall. There are broken boxes and parts of wooden ships everywhere.

Lara discovers a torch and uses it to light a set of boxes on fire, clearing the path forward. What follows is yet another physical puzzle that sees Lara using fire and a counter lever to explode yet more boxes that are in her way.

Tomb Raider's hub environments take a while to come into their own but are perfect places to explore with Lara's increasing abilities.

Time: 12:01
These first moments are tense, moody and dense with detail. Lara talks to herself to keep her spirits up and incidentally lets players know what’s going on and what they should be doing.

Things come to a head when her captor catches up with her and is noticeably a bit miffed that she’s managed to escape. Queue lots of running and screaming as she attempts to escape.

The cave begins to collapse after an explosion and the scene ends with Lara scrambling up out of the darkness to a pinprick of light (The Descent style) with the player mashing LT and RT as fast as they can.

Once she reaches the surface Lara stands and the player is treated to a stunning view of the bay and the title comes into view. One thing is for sure, Tomb Raider has never been this cinematic and the debt owed to the Uncharted series is clear.

Finding her friends

Time: 13:38
Not knowing what to do or where to go, Lara begins to travel down the cliff to the beach below. It’s here that we’re a treated to a few of Lara’s first fumbles.
 
Attempting to balance on a log isn’t an easy thing to do and it seems Crystal Dynamics is going out of its way to reinforce just how green this new Lara is.

Lara’s talking to herself and remembering the teachings of her mentor, Roth. As Lara makes her way in-land we’re treated to some climbing as she scales a derelict plane hanging from a tree and eventually a corpse dangling from some nearby branches provides Lara with a bow and arrow.

So far the only exposition that’s important has been to get Lara to safety, find food and then eventually shelter and a fire. No tombs have been discovered and the only enemies we’ve seen was the one ghoulish man that attempted to kill Lara in the caves.

Hunting & skills

Time: 16:23
After taking down a dear and building a fire, Lara finally has a moment to reflect. With a bow and arrow and a small wooden axe she’s at least armed, but it’s also a chance to take a look at Tomb Raider’s new XP system.

Skill points are awarded for finding ‘Salvage’ parts and performing certain actions, like taking down a dear for food. Hunting, like so many of the games that have presented it over the last few months, is a slow and steady affair.

Lara is able to utilise her Instinct by pressing LB, which highlights animal footprints and their direction of travel.

Lara also has a skill tree that’s divided up into three distinct areas:

• Survivor Upgrades
• Hunter Upgrades
• Brawler Upgrades

Survivor upgrades see you able to improve Lara’s animal instincts for hunting and her climbing agility. Hunter upgrades improve her shots and ability to lift heavy objects and Brawler improves Lara’s ability to fight hand-to-hand. You can give her extra abilities such as ‘Dirty Tricks’ or ‘Axe Strikes’.

This is one of the actual tombs Lara can discover. Once you've worked out the quick puzzle you can get Lara's hands on a secret artifact.

These are some of the initial abilities Lara has access to and they’ll eventually open out to much more powerful moves. Tomb Raider might be about exploring the events that made Lara the characters we all know, but Crystal Dynamics isn’t wasting any time proving that Lara has what it takes.

Pulling herself together

Time 17:02
Still at the campfire Lara has a bit of a cry. We’ve certainly never seen this side of her before. As well as acting as quick-travel locations Crystal Dynamics uses the campfires as a way of furthering the plot and explain back-story.

Using a camera Lara watches footage of the voyage and we’re introduced to the major players on board. Roth is Lara’s mentor and father figure. A friend of the same age, Sam, is also introduced as well as an expected motley crew of sailors.

After re-watching the events that lead to their shipwreck, Lara attempts to contact any survivors with a radio. A group from the ship answers and instead of saying she’ll make her way to them Lara asks to be rescued.

Unfortunately, that can’t happen and Lara’s forced into making the trip herself, even if she’s cold, frightened and alone.

Time: 35:24
Lara makes her way to her friend’s location and when she gets there she finds the others have left and only Sam and a strange man remain guarding a campfire. The old man is Mathias and he’s been marooned here for some time.

Not one to ask questions or worry Lara promptly falls asleep thinking everything’s as safe as they are going to be. How much she has to learn. When Lara wakes up, Sam and Mathias are gone and scruffy looking men are burning down the forest and derelict buildings.

They’re killing any survivors they find and Lara’s forced to escape.

A time to kill

Time: 36:54
Without a weapon Lara is forced to sneak around the men and using cover she’s able to avoid their sight. Lara doesn’t ‘stick’ to cover like Drake or Fenix, rather adapt to whatever’s around her naturally. It gives her a much more organic feeling to moving around the environment, but it’s certainly unlike anything any previous Tomb Raider has attempted.

Lara’s not known for her stealth, or subtly for that matter, but hiding behind walls and scrambling to get into cover makes for an interesting twist. With the forest burning all around, with embers flying and people screaming, there’s a cinematic edge to this latest Tomb Raider. 

There are a number of moments in Tomb Raider's first few hours where it can look really impressive. 

Lara doesn’t get far, though, and after attempting to hide from her captors she’s spotted and we’re treated to the infamous first kill. A quick QTE instigates the action as she kicks her foe away and after a struggle on the floor, Lara fights for control of his gun, eventually flinching as it goes off and takes half of the guy’s head with it.

It’s a horrible scene. It’s dark, dirty and Lara is left covered in mud and blood as she escapes into the night.

Time: 1:14:33
Now that Lara’s killed her first person it seems she can’t stop doing it. Making her way further into the island, with its strange architecture presenting a mixture of Mayan and Inca structures, Lara finds herself surrounded by enemies.

It’s here that the cinematic nature of the gameplay is reinforced. Lara approaches quietly. Armed with either her pistol or bow she can approach situations loud or quiet. Overhearing the conversations also gives Lara and the player insight what’s going on and why these guys are stuck on this island.

It’s a mystery best left for the game to explain and Lara’s only real motivation is to survive. Attacking with the bow she can take the guys down easily and even sneaking up on them sees her able to quickly and quietly take them out with a swift (and violent) motion.

On the standard difficulty these guys go down with two/three arrows and gunshots, but Lara can always finish them off with a quick slice of her axe.

She’ll more than likely be spotted at some point and it’s here where the enemies show off their teamwork AI. Using fire arrows to draw the player from cover and continually moving around the environment themselves, Lara has to keep on her toes.

Combat is fast and, like much of Tomb Raider, focused on providing a cinematic quality to the gameplay.

Taking control

Time: 1:35:02
After a few fierce firefights, with Lara remarking on how easy it was to take a human life, she moves to the interior of the island. Despite ample opportunity for the campfires to provide respites and XP assignment, the narrative of Tomb Raider has continued to push events forward giving very little time for exploration or even checking out an actual tomb.

Moving about the environment reveals buildings that can’t be entered (they’re roped off) and other seemingly incidental details that could reveal themselves to be accessible areas later into the game. There’s clearly a heavy Metroid influence, but within the first 3 hours of gameplay this is only really touched on.

Enemy encounters like this require QTE button presses to survive.

Time: 1:50:02
Lara’s given the chance to explore her surroundings and some of the ruins on her own and as well as hunting and picking up salvage points it’s a chance to see if there really are any actual tombs to discover.

After receiving a radio distress call from Roth, Lara makes her way across to his location. She finds him fighting off a pack of wolves that have managed to take a chunk out of his side. Lara rescues Roth and he informs her that they need to get a radio transmission out if they’re to survive.

Handing Lara a metal pickaxe that allows her to scale certain surfaces, Lara is informed she has to head up to the wolf’s lair and retrieve Roth’s pack that contains the ability to send out a long-range transmission.

Lara is once again reluctant claiming she doesn’t think she’s ‘that kind of Croft’, but Roth is having none of it.

The wolf's lair

Time: 2:05:45
Entering into the wolf’s den is creepy enough without having one of them jump out at you. Wolf’s were the first enemy Lara ever killed in Tomb Raider but these things are aggressive and think nothing of actively stalking Lara in the long grass before choosing their moment to jump out at her.

Retrieving the bag, though, Lara makes it back to Roth who then informs her she has to make it to the radio tower at the top of the mountain in order to send out the distress signal. She’s not happy about it.

Time: 2:25:57
Lara begins making her way up to the old WWII tower and with Roth's pickaxe opening up access to new areas, we’re finally given the chance to explore a tomb.

Though it does somewhat go against the urgency of the narrative, Lara is able to enter a cave system and make her way to a tomb that contains a puzzle and subsequent reward on completion. You have to go out of your way to discover these tombs on your first trip through the environment. Lara will also be able to return to each area and explore them fully, even if we’re currently not able to.

Hit them where it hurts

Time: 2:31:26
Lara has to keep moving though and it’s entering the WWII base that sees Tomb Raider become much more of a shooter than we’d first expected. Lara switches between weapons in the same way as Nathan Drake or Marcus Fenix and moving further into the buildings sees the setpieces take a turn for the dramatic (not to mention explosive). 

It’s inside these new buildings that Lara takes out a small army of enemies. Using a shotgun and an AK47 she’s able to move from cover to cover picking them off with ease. The enemies call out her movements, shouting at each other to bring in reinforcements.

Eventually, Lara has to fight an armoured soldier carrying a shield. Jumping out of his way and attacking his exposed backside is the only way forward.

Sneaking up on enemies is easier than facing them head on, but Tomb Raider attempts to balance its action and stealth.

Time: 2:48:26
It seems the derelict WWII base is home to hundreds of men and Lara has to lay waste to them all. With the walls inside covered in more creepy writing and references to the wider world, Tomb Raider is slowly giving up its secret. Though even Lara must be confused by the scrawl, ‘the storm is watching you’.

But there’s not time to worry about that now. Lara has to climb.

Send for help

Time: 2:56:45
It might be falling apart, but Lara’s climb to the top of the radio tower is much more reminiscent of her earlier adventures. With no one left to shoot at her (they’re all dead or dying in the base below) Lara is able to simply rely on her climbing ability.

Crystal Dymanics takes this opportunity to showcase some fancy new camera angles that highlight Lara’s physical excursion as she climbs up the crumbling tower. Platforming here is accurate and unencumbered by irritating moments, but overall it’s hard to escape Naughty Dog’s influence despite the obvious beauty and scale of the scene in front of Lara.

Time: 2:59:27
Lara manages to get the signal out of a quick QTE fix of the radio equipment, but despite the triumphant music and feeling of success we can’t help, but feel this is just the beginning and Lara’s ordeal is only just beginning.

“Any of you boys ever finish on a c-section scar before?” Take some time to drink that in. This is a quote from Lois Griffin, mother of three. In the opening chapter of Back To The Multiverse, the conically nosed redhead is spotted grinding on the roof of a family sedan spouting filth just like this. And that’s not the worst of it. Brian melees frat girls with broken whiskey bottles, Stewie plugs Amish hordes and wheelchair users with his ray gun and you kill Santa. Dead.

Seth MacFarlane’s animated sitcom is at its funniest when the offending material teeters along a mild plateau spiking infrequently for bursts of aggression. Think Brian’s bloody beating at the hands of Stewie when the toddler demands his money back or Stewie carjacking someone at gunpoint. Family Guy: Back To The Multiverse is littered a little too liberally with the show’s most excessive jokes.

Die-hard fans need not fear. There are some laugh-out-loud-funny moments but these are restricted to original dialogue recorded especially for the game. Incredibly there was a point during development when Heavy Iron Studios considered producing Back to the Multiverse using only voice talent lifted directly from the show.

For example, at the beginning of the second level, Something’s Amish, the infant is heard saying: “Smells like sweat and anger and shame.” The inclusion of this line and others is very tenuous indeed and will leave you trying to pinpoint its origin rather than enjoying the game. These moments of awkward cut and paste scripting burden Stewie and Brian’s co-op adventure with long lulls in hilarity.

'Whose leg do you have to hump to get...' Is Family Guy still funny? We can't tell anymore.

At two hundred and seventy words you might be thinking; “Why the flip has this guy spent half his word count talking about the in-game funnies?” Unless you’re one of the 5% buying the game because you thought the studio behind UFC Personal Trainer, SpongeBob’s Truth or Square and several Disney tie-ins would make a game worth buying, we figured the Family Guy link would be the number one USP. No? OK.

It takes a lot to get past the weirdly 3D-ified Family Guy world. Cutscenes flow at a laboured pace but in third-person the models and animations loosen up and begin to feel like MacFarlane himself has breathed life into proceedings. As the four preview levels unravel it becomes clear this trip through time is an exercise in object retrieval and boss bashing. Stewie is on a mission to destroy Bertram, his evil twin brother, before his ginger nemesis visits the Griffin household in every universe and kills the family’s youngest child.

Rounded edges of the each world hide a flat mission structure. Shooting the disabled population of Rhode Island in the face is novel but the basic mechanics feel sluggish. Snap-aiming, borrowed from Activision’s other shooter, will be your best friend amidst the mayhem as you take aim at scores of foes who, in any other situation, would be rather pleasant people.

Nods to the cartoon keep you moving on. The ruthless resentment of Meg, the climaxing dairy cow, greased-up deaf guy’s slippery escapes, the giant fighting chicken power-up, all drag the show’s wit into the game. Different weapons demand different strategies and add welcome layers to a game that otherwise feels undemanding.

An in-game economy allows you to purchase weapons and iconic clothing like Brian’s Sinatra-inspired tux. Like Borderlands the co-operative campaign mode really makes Back To The Multiverse feel like a proper experience. If the four-player split-screen isn’t up there with GoldenEye, taking down Joe Swanson’s Crippletron with a friend will be.

Family Guy: Back To The Multiverse won’t push the boundaries in terms of gameplay, but it will have you giggling like a child who knows they’re watching something they shouldn’t. Whether the recycled humour will be enough to keep fans coming back is a question we’ll have to wait to be answered.

1. It’s Unique

It was really easy to label Dead Space 3 as ‘Gears Of Space herp derp!’ following EA’s presentations at E3 and Gamescom of its latest survival horror outing. Really easy. It’s third person, it has chunky characters, it showed an increased emphasis on action, it’s man vs. monsters and it had co-op.

It ticked every box on the Gears Of War list and seemed happy to move into Marcus Fenix’s territory. Fans weren’t happy but Visceral Games anticipated that reaction.

“The addition of co-op on its own… a lot of people are going to have questions about it, we knew that was going to happen,” explained Executive Producer Steve Papoutsis. “But hopefully by showing people the game they can see with co-op that we’re taking it in a very Dead Space direction and we’re innovating with a feature that nobody’s ever done before.”

And that feature is…

2. The Second Player Suffers From Dementia

Well, okay. Not the actual person stabbing at the buttons. Rather, it’s the character that second player is controlling. Unlike the sturdy demeanour of Isaac Clarke, John Carver is a soldier who has seen the death of his wife and son. His goal in Dead Space 3 is revenge but he suffers from dementia and is slowly losing his mind. Which is… a problem.

The Carver player will see things the Clarke player doesn’t. One doorway has a giant wooden toy soldier next to it, which only Carver sees. Getting close to that soldier triggers a cutscene where Carver reaches out to it, only for Isaac Clarke to step in and bring Carver back to his senses. But Clarke’s face has become that of Carver’s dead wife – bloodied, zombified and horrifying.

Yet through the eyes of the Isaac Clarke player? He sees Carver reaching out for nothing, and he doesn’t see his own face as any different. It’s an interesting way to change up the traditional co-op divide and leads to a lot of ‘did you see that?’ moments.

“One of the goals with co-op was that when you chose to play with a friend it felt different,” Papoutsis told us. “It didn’t feel like a tacked-on second character, it wasn’t just a soldier guy with Isaac – it’s John Carver, a man who has his own back story, who is fighting his own demons, who is actually in the Dead Space universe through one of our graphic novels and has his own back story.

"When you chose to play with a friend, that story would evolve and was added to by having him involved – there’s moments in the interaction like you talked about of ‘whoa, did you see that?’ ‘I didn’t see that, what are you talking about?’ – now there’s motivation. Now there’s a conversation. Now it’s meaningful and different and additive to what you normally play. So it feels like I can play the single player, then I can get my friend and jump in with them and I’ll decide maybe I’ll play as Carver so I can see what they were talking about.”

3. Co-Op Set-Pieces Are Unique

Leading on from the dementia angle, it’s not just cutscenes and scenery that will change for Carver but also set-pieces themselves. One ambush takes place in a long tunnel and while Clarke is fending off creatures, Carver sees the tunnel as a burning, twisted, hellish vision of his son’s birthday party. Clarke becomes more of a protector, helping Carver through his own personal hell.

It doesn’t mean the Carver player shies away from any sort of responsibility in the game, as he also has to kill the creatures (which become shadowy, demon-esque… things in his alternate reality). But it does mean there's potential for some interesting, unusual set-pieces by playing up Carver's dementia.

4. Co-Op Only Content

Dead Space 3 has some doors that can only be accessed through John Carver. That, combined with Carver’s unique take on events in the game itself, means some players will inevitably miss out on content unless they get stuck into multiplayer. Visceral Games isn’t overly concerned with that.

“That’s one of the challenges when we started the game – we knew that we were going to make content that some people just weren’t going to look at because they just don’t want to play co-op,” said Papoutsis.

“That’s okay. It’s their loss, because they’re missing out on some cool stuff that the team’s done. But hopefully when people see it, read about it, hear about it on a forum and read about how our co-op actually works and how it’s actually additive through an article like this, people will become more interested and want to play with their friends.

"One of the goals with adding co-op was to have people be able to experience Dead Space with a friend – the feeling of going to a horror movie with someone. You can go to a horror movie with somebody and you can both be really into it, it’s tense and you’re on the edge of your seat, or you could go with a friend and you’d be drinking your sodas and eating popcorn and laughing but having a great time – we wanted players to be able to experience the game in a number of different ways.”

5. It’s Still Scary! Sort Of

Aha! This is obviously subjective because fear is subjective. Some players will have balls of steel, others will dissolve into a puddle of wee at the sight of a spider, there are even those who will catapult backwards off their sofa in fright if someone speaks over the headset at the wrong time.

The big concern with Dead Space 3 is that the presence of a second player will rob Dead Space 3 of its atmosphere and stop it from creating a suffocating sense of fear or paranoia.

“Again, that’s one of the challenges we have in making the game. I think it really comes down to who you’re playing with,” answered Papoutsis. “If you’re playing with a friend who is really serious and is playing on the headset and is really into what they’re doing then I think it’s going to be really different to if you’re playing with a friend who’s laughing all the time, who’s talking to you, where you can hear the noise in the background – it’s going to be different.

“What we did create in the demo you saw today was a situation where Isaac had to have Carver’s back and protect him as he’s experiencing his dementia. That adds a different level of tension or suspense to the game that we’re really looking to deliver throughout. So not only do you have the experience of going through the levels and shooting the necromorphs, but now you have to deal with what Carver is going through, what player two is seeing – ‘hey, what are you seeing right now?’ – and how you have to make sure that you both survive.”

It was hard to judge if Dead Space 3 will retain the unease of the original from the part we played, partly due to the environment we played it in (EA Showcase, lots of media chatter nearby, bright lights) and partly because… well, nothing we played was particularly scary. Twitchers were annoying to fight. The dementia bits were definitely interesting. But scary? Real, genuine, sofa-staining fear? Nope.

That’s one challenge Dead Space 3 has yet to rise to.

Nothing is as simple as one game sparking the birth of an entire genre or gaming movement but if there was ever a year zero for the dudebro military shooter, it was the original Army Of Two.

Fist-bumps, air-guitaring, bromance and overwhelming amounts of ‘banter’ strapped onto the back of a generic somewhere-in-the-Middle-East co-op outing, Army Of Two was the first military shooter this gen that had huge question marks hanging over its tone. Its sequel, Army Of Two: The 40th Day, scaled back the dudebro antics but didn’t feel particularly sincere or confident with its new direction, much like a fratboy dragged away from his bro-pack and unsure how to proceed.

And the tone is important, because Army Of Two: The Devil’s Cartel is working against its own history. Army Of Two was one of the first games to capitalise on what was the growing co-op shooter trend at the time – it was released in 2008, bridging the gap between the likes of Gears Of War and Resident Evil 5 – and it had interesting ideas such an Aggro system where one player drew fire, allowing the second player to flank.

But all that was drowned out by the tone. It’s something that the team has acknowledged and will change for The Devil’s Cartel.

“One of the first things we did, was we felt a lot of the negative press…” starts lead designer Julien Lamoureux, before he pauses to think. “One of the key takeaways for us was definitely the tone, maybe it was not hitting everyone equally. Some people loved it other people thought it was too cheesy. So that is something we worked on. Not to say that we don’t have humour anymore but we’re trying to be a bit more sophisticated about it. Mexican drug cartel is a serious subject, so we’re trying to approach the humour in a more sophisticated way. So instead of the heroes air guitaring and high-fiving in the middle of combat what you’ll get is more sarcasm in the middle of encounters.”

Isn’t it a worry that regardless of what The Devil’s Cartel does with its tone and characters, it will get lumped in with the dudebro shooters like Call Of Duty?

“I’m not sure about the comparison,” answered Lamoureux. “I think we’re doing a very different game. If people want to compare on this and that then good for them but I think the entire package is different enough, also the cover system as well, the interactive elements, the epic and crazy moments, the storytelling. This time around we made sure that the story was really well integrated with the design, getting good actors, good cinematics, we’re really taking our time. We didn’t want cinematics of just two face talking, we want to be that action blockbuster game where as other games for that more realistic approach.”

It's Shooting Time

But hey! Let’s not be grumpy sourpusses, moaning about the tone when it’s something Visceral has acknowledged and will look to change. Let’s talk about the co-op. The action. The shooting.

You now play as Alpha and Bravo, replacing the previous duo Salem and Rios, and the story sees up against a drugs cartel in Mexico. Like prior Army Of Two games, The Devil’s Cartel encourages co-op by showering you with rewards for working together.

You earn meter for your Overkill bar by working as a team – shooting at the same target, suppressing for your buddy to flank, taking cover together and so on. The level of meter you earn depends on what exactly it is you’re doing at the time.

Filling your Overkill meter is important. It turns you into a killing machine – unlimited ammo, no need to reload and the screen saturated with a hazy hue because why not, that makes everything a little bit cooler. But more importantly, there’s a surprising amount of resistance from enemies as they pour into cover, taking potshots at you from all angles, so Overkill is important just to survive.

The cover system is also nicely done. Rather than running up to cover until you’re close enough that a prompt appears, the prompt appears from some distance away, allowing you to run and slide into cover. It removes some of the clumsiness sometimes found in cover shooters as you stumble about trying to find the right prompt part.

While The Devil’s Cartel defaults to a fairly ordinary pop-and-stop shooter from cover itself, the act of sliding towards safety at least feels satisfying and stylish.

“We have a couple of guys at the studio who are working super hard day in day out making sure that the cover and animation is bug free,” Lamoureux told us. “It’s pretty hard, honestly. Instead of spreading our resources super thin with various stuff, we were like okay, what what’re going to do we were going to do right. So we wanted to make sure that the cover system was not another feature tacked on but a natural extension of the actual controls.”

If you don’t like cover? Just shoot it off. The Devil’s Cartel has been conjured up by Frostbite 2 sorcery, which means destructible cover, which means errant shooting slowly strips back cover and scenery, which means an extra tactical element to shooting cover. That’s what we call it anyway, when we miss all of our shots. It’s tactical. See?

Ultra-Violence

If there’s one thing The Devil’s Cartel gets right, it’s shooting. It that’s hard to convey through our magical verbal skills alone the sheer feedback from each weapon. One section sees the duo doing the classic slow-mo breach-and-clear move and this is where you seem the violence in almost pornographic detail. Limbs severed, blood sprayed, bodies being blown back… it’s excessively violent and adds a level of gore we’ve not seen in the series before.

If Army Of Two’s guns rattled like frozen peas shaken in a tin, enemies reacting to shots with more disdain than pain, then The Devil’s Cartel’s arsenal feels colossal in comparison. But why go ultraviolent?

“At first it was just part of the Overkill,” Lamoureux told us, “In the same way we wanted players to working in a cooperative way to gain the Overkill. We wanted that once you finally get the Overkill with co-op kills, that it was really satisfying and really maximising the impact of Frostbite 2 in terms of the destruction. It was a natural progression to go to dismemberment, it was really swish. And knowing that we’re Visceral Games, Dead Space has been known for cool dismemberments. It was just something we thought was worth investing in.”

Just Banter

If nothing else, Army Of Two: The Devil’s Cartel will be a solid shooter. The cover mechanics are slick, the difficulty is stern and there’s real feedback behind the guns this time. The actual moment-to-moment shooting is far more engaging as a result.

The section we played ended with the duo shooting a helicopter out of the sky, which went on a little too long, but speaks volumes about the design – there’s subtlety in getting the two players to work together, everything else is balls-out action.

What we need to see now before we’re convinced the series has finally turned the corner is how Visceral Games will change up the rhythm, what variety we can expect and, most importantly, what sort of 'banter' there will be between the two characters.

Sonic might be the fastest, but Knuckles is a better all-rounder. Ralph – from Wreck-It Ralph – is slower overall but has a higher top speed. Aiai accelerates quicker but won’t have much of a high-speed capacity.

Not that it matters, because none of them are Beat and our reverence for Jet Set Radio simply won’t let us pick anyone else and, really, that’s what Sonic & All-Stars Racing is all about. 

It’s about your favourite Sega character, game or location. It’s about the fanboys that squeal each time Shenmue is mentioned, adamant that Shenmue 3 will one day get released.

It is a celebration of all things Sega.

So the new addition to Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed really makes sense. With mods you can play your favourite character but tailor it to your given play style.

Each character starts out with a single build, but get a few races under your belt – you don’t even need to win – and you’ll soon level up, unlocking up to five others. Each one comes with preset stat boosts, perhaps enhancing speed instead of acceleration or favouring overall handling performance.

So it’s simply a case of picking your favourite and sticking with it – balancing concerns be damned.

We had the chance to try out a number of tracks based on a bevy of classic Sega franchises: Shinobi, OutRun, After Burner, NiGHTS and – our favourite – the colourful Samba de Amiga event that speeds through bouncing buildings.

Most interesting was the After Burner track, though. As you might expect, this was the perfect opportunity to trial the airborne racing.

There are legitimate concerns over the flight racing since it offers a bit too much freedom for a ‘kart’ racer: boats are just cars on the water, after all, but when you can direct your vehicle through 3D space surely there should be some restrictions?

It’s true that there are: in some tracks clever boundaries will funnel you down paths or through certain areas, but the After Burner track was surprisingly open.

This has been counteracted with the inclusion of a number of aerial boost pads – fly your craft through these and you’ll be rewarded with a temporary speed boost, the majority of which aligned in such a way to create an optimal route.

Choose to try and evade these and you will quickly drop behind, however, cleverly keeping players on the same route.

Some weapons react differently in the air, too. The Bee Swarm – for example – increases the size of the pests and spreads them liberally throughout the area. They’re not quite as much of a pain as their track-based equivalent, but it’ll still prove a nuisance to navigate.

And while we’re talking about navigation, flight control actually works really well. It’s slower than cornering in a kart – and rightly so – but there’s still plenty of control.

Dipping or climbing will slow you down so you’ll need to use it sparingly where possible, while ‘drifting’ tips your vehicle on its side, improving the plane’s turning circle.

We’ve no doubt there will be opportunities exploit the flying sections in someway – and truth be told we were having too much fun to worry about finding ways to break it – but it seems it has been implemented very well.

Especially with some tracks having hidden transformation gates – rewarding you with early access to flight control while remaining racers stay confined to the ground.

Our only concern spotted during our time with Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed was the All-Star powers. While they are easier to access – they’re no longer gathered from a pick-up – they do feel a little diluted.

This is in effort to balance everyone’s power more: some characters did have better effects, so in a lot of ways it is better.

It’s only that the power is much less unique – All-Star increases speed, makes you invulnerable and equips you with a blast to use while passing enemies – that noticing the distinguishing differences between each character’s All-Star power is pretty tricky.

But that’s literally it, and since it’s all in the name of balancing we can’t actually complain too much about it anyway.

It’s just the fanboy in us, really.

Remember Far Cry 2? Of course you do. It’s one of this generation’s most ambitious, enthralling, frustrating, idiotic titles. For everything it did right, which was an awful lot, it did six things wrong. It broke our hearts because it was nearly brilliant. Far Cry 3 shares its predecessor’s ambition: a mixture of the first game’s tropical environments and the sequel’s grand scale ¬– minus the drawbacks, from what we’ve played.

From the get-go, it’s apparent that Ubi Montreal isn’t interested in rehashing its narrative from either the series’ past or other shooters. Here, you’re not a killing machine; at the start you’re a guy in a cage, uttering muttered squeals of fear while psychotic antagonist Vaas threatens to cut you to pieces. You’re scared, and the one guy you’re relying on soon takes a bullet in the throat as you make your escape.

Tropical island paradise this it not.

It’s all part of Ubi’s plan, however. You might be a pencil-necked holidaymaker, kidnapped by pirates at the start of the game and trussed up in a cage nearly as small as our flats, but soon you will be killing people. And soon both you and Jason Brody, your all-American avatar, will start liking it, causing rifts between you and other survivors who don’t, funnily enough, like jabbing machetes in people’s faces. Like we said, ambitious. But when broken down in relation to the gameplay mechanics, it makes perfect sense. Brody is learning the ropes, and so are you.

You, a player of FPS games, enjoy shooting people, and soon so does he. How this changes your relationships with your fellow survivors – of a holiday gone wrong, natch – remains to be seen. But it’s certainly a good start. Also good is the mission flow, which is intermittently reminiscent of Far Cry 2, Red Dead Redemption and Assassin’s Creed. Radio towers, like in Ezio and Connor’s adventures, hold the key to surveying your territory.

Climbing these and disabling the equipment at the top gives Brody the lay of the land around him, while also giving you access to weapons and supplies. And you can zipline down from them, which is always a bonus. Like in Red Dead, the world is yours to explore freely, with rewards on offer for those who take the time to mess around in the environment. Hunting animals and skinning them enables players to manufacture better backpacks and wallets for holding onto the loot they find or take from dead bodies, and the island is absolutely stacked with flora.

There are definite shades of Crytek's original game here.

Picking and mixing these gives you access to medicines and other mind-altering substances, potentially boosting your fighting power. Just avoid the mushrooms… Elsewhere, there are pirate strongholds to be raided, and you can even take on wanted missions, hunting down certain NPCs and killing them in particular ways to fulfil a contract. There are tons of stuff to do, and we didn’t spot any ridiculous respawning enemy checkpoints of the last game as we explored the world.

That said world seems to be populated with an abundance of side quests and other tasks to take on is welcome, and there are also three different skill trees to level up in. Broadly based around stealth, assault and increasing health/resistance, you should be able to tailor your play styles as you wish. We opted for the stealthy approach, but if you want to go in all-guns-blazing while high as a kite, we’re sure you can do that as well. So far, then, Far Cry 3 looks to be righting the wrongs of its predecessor while introducing a few interesting elements of its own to the FPS pile.

The narrative is solid so far, and any game with the hilariously psychotic Vaas and drug-addled, delusional Dr Earnhardt on the roster has to be interesting. The open world is easy to navigate, and the side missions and currency system that governs purchases seem well implemented. Shooting is fun, if a little unspectacular so far, and you can get eaten by a shark. Not enough games enable you to say that these days. If Ubisoft can keep the missions interesting and the side quests engaging, then Far Cry 3 will be the game that Far Cry 2 always should have been.

After a six-year hiatus, Agent 47 finally returns to exact revenge on the agency that betrayed him. But has the baldy assassin spent his time off wisely, or is this just Splinter Cell: Absolution?

After playing the game for days and speaking to the gameplay director Christian Elverdam, we’re more confident than ever that 47 can get the job done.

Stealth Playthrough

The Terminus Hotel isn’t one of Chicago’s finest, that’s for sure. Ancient and dilapidated, it looks like the sort of place you’d say at if you wanted to be murdered in your sleep.

To Hitman players worried that Absolution might have slain the series’ trademark stealth at the altar of mass appeal, however, it’s a thing of beauty.

Rain-lashed and distinctly one-star, it looks ready to fall down at any moment. Bad for tourists; great for contract killers who like to dissect their environments as much as their targets.

The dilapidation of the hotel provides opportunity: entry points, distraction mechanisms, dark corners to lure unsuspecting guards into, plenty of scope for devious play styles to take shape. Welcome back, 47.

Our target is Blake Dexter, Absolution’s big bad guy. He’s holed up on the eighth floor of the hotel. All we’ve got to do is get to him.

The main door is too obvious: Dexter’s men have locked down the entire building from the front, and don’t take too kindly to strangers wandering in unannounced.

Two entry points remain. The side entrance is guarded, and passing hotel mechanics provide a further complication. This being Hitman, there’s always another way – you just have to look for it.

It’s not long before we find it: tucked away to the left of the entrance is an open manhole.

Sliding down into the sewer, we navigate a broken waste pipe and haul ourselves up into the hotel basement.

In the past this would have been grounds for termination by the guards, but in Absolution you’ll merely be asked to leave. (There are now various stages of alert, and even if you are caught in the act, killing the witnesses will solve the problem.)

Not that we plan on being spotted. Now, almost everything you see can be picked up and used as a lure or distraction.

Grabbing a nearby wrench and pinging it against a wall, a guard comes looking for what made the noise. One sneaky fibre wire kill later and we’ve got a new set of duds.

We’ve also lost points for non-target kills. Absolution’s mechanics might be much more refined than before, but that Silent Assassin ranking isn’t just going to fall into your lap. Your score is shown in the top left of the screen – a handy reference.

In previous games a disguise would have offered you a certain level of protection, although you would never truly know when you would get busted by genuine guards.

In Absolution it’s much more firmly defined: get too close, marked by a rising threat level with a definitive tipping point, and the guard in question will harass you to confirm your identity.

Keeping your distance, hiding in a crowd or using Instinct to act like a guard will stop your cover from being blown.

NPCs are also broken down into factions. If you’re dressed as a guard, for example, as long as you’re acting like you’re supposed to you won’t have to worry about, say, mechanics, since they don’t know you’re actually a phoney.

The basement is crowded with people from the various groups; hotel staff, mechanics, and hired guns mill around, their patrols overlapping.

Spying a broken-down lift being attended to by a mechanic – and wary that the top floor will invariably be filled with guards who will see right through our current disguise – we lure him into a side room.

This time we merely subdue the unlucky target, by tapping X constantly until he’s choked out.

Again, we lose points for this, but by hiding the body successfully we regain them. It’s now possible to stash two bodies in one space, be it a cupboard, bin, or anything else, and one of these bodies can be 47: leaping into the cupboard, we check that the noise hasn’t alerted the guards. We’re clear, and set off in the elevator.

Stopping on the seventh floor, a whole new set of options opens up in front of us. Going directly to the eighth would have been too risky, so we’ve got to get upstairs somehow.

Scoping out our surroundings, we find a massive, conspicuous speaker outside a room. We tamper with it, and a bewildered DJ runs out to fix the problem.

Taking our chance, we slip into the room, out the window, onto the ledge and up the emergency exit to the eighth floor.

And that’s where, to avoid spoilers, we’ll leave it.

In this one level Absolution showed us that, despite the changes, at heart this is the same Hitman that came before. We may have climbed out of the window this time, but on our first playthrough we set off a fire alarm on the seventh floor, sending panicked guards running from their posts, enabling us to sneak up the stairs.

From there, we could have tampered with a movie projector to blind and distract the guards, enabling us to slip by, or dressed up as a hotel cleaner, giving us free rein over the place.

Or we could have gone in the front door, sneaking through the receptionist’s office, hopefully bagging a disguise on the way. The open-ended nature of play is still there, lending Absolution a comforting familiarity.

Not everything is the same, however. In other levels we played through, IO Interactive has made some striking, if logical, changes.

Not all of your assignments play exactly like the large sandboxes found in the previous games; some are a series of smaller areas connected by linear ‘funnels’ that link them.

This could be a bit confusing for seasoned Hitman players, but it does open up a new challenge: multi-part Silent Assassin runs. The stage ‘Hunter And Hunted’ has you engaging in multiple missions, each requiring you to adapt your style.

In one part you’re infiltrating a strip club in a bid to kill its proprietor, ‘accidentally’ offing him with a falling disco ball if you’re a true pro, while the next you’re playing cat and mouse as the police close in on you in a far smaller environment, using fireworks and other distractions to make your escape.

Then, just as things start to feel like they might be getting too linear, you’re back to the larger environments.

The preview code finishes with another assignment in Chinatown during Chinese New Year: a multi-target hit with satisfying scope for devious accidents and cunning executions.

Sabotaging gasoline pumps for taking care of those pesky smokers, throwing knives into the back of heads and… uh… dressing up as a giant chipmunk before infiltrating a corrupt cop ring was the order of the day, and that’s not even the half of it.

We’re still not sure we’ve found everything to do in the level, even after more than ten attempts.

What we are sure about is that the Hitman we all know and love is back, tweaked to better suit the narrative and the demands of a broader audience.

Instinct mode seems like a win button at first glance, but when you consider that it’s just an improved map and is hugely reduced in power on harder difficulties, and that you’re still reliant on your planning skills, it becomes second nature to use it.

Everything is clearer and more explicit in Hitman: Absolution, from the game warning you when you’re somewhere you shouldn’t be, to marking out what items in the world you can and can’t use. How you use these tools, however, is up to you, and the vast replayability is still there.

Action Playthrough

The front doors of the Terminus Hotel swing open like saloon doors, and the cowboys inside wheel around to see who’s entered. There, in the decaying, downmarket lobby, wet, pissed off and carrying a snub-nosed revolver, is Agent 47.

The guards yell for backup, but it’s too late. Using Absolution’s new third-person targeting mechanics, we swiftly drop a couple of them – aided by some COD-style target-snapping – before a too-close-for-comfort shotgun blast sees us head for safety.

Prefer to use your trigger finger more than your brain? Hitman: Absolution has you covered.

Whereas in previous Hitman titles Agent 47 was curiously inept at ‘going loud’ – he only learned how to throw a punch in the last game, cheats for Hitman 2 aside, and the shooting has always been awful – here he’s much more like the trained killer he’s always been made out to be.

IO’s new Glacier 2 engine has improved both his stealth and action capabilities, as is obvious from the aforementioned balls-out shooting and when we snap to cover to avoid the incoming fire that our actions just brought down on 47.

He may be a genetically altered super soldier, but the Agency’s finest isn’t invincible, even on easier difficulties.

Blind-firing over the reception counter, we peek out and pop an accurate shot right into an onrushing guard’s face. He cartwheels backward in grimly satisfying fashion, a big red hole where his cheek used to be.

Blood pools beneath his body, the bullet entry point visible for all to see. More than a little disturbing, even for us.

There’s no time for pesky things like conscience, however. Rolling around cover and SWAT-turning past an open door, we pick up some ammo, reloading for the next assault.

The fastest way of reaching the eighth floor and our target, Blake Dexter, southern industrialist and all-around bastard, is via the lift.

The lobby is still teeming with guards hunting us, and we can’t proceed until their alert status calms. Down in the basement, though, the entire floor is now a confused mess of angry guards and panicked staff.

We use this to our advantage. A mechanic runs past, and we grab him as a human shield, dropping two more guards over his shoulder before subduing him by hammering X – hey, we’re not animals.

A little message pops up on our HUD, telling us more guards are inbound. We duck into the reception area where, mercifully, the manager of the hotel keeps his shotgun.

Grabbing it, we head confidently out into the back, unloading round after round into bad guys. Without wanting to sound too much like we need a visit from the men in white coats, there’s a methodical sense of power to 47’s killing sprees these days.

Maybe it’s the solid shooting mechanics. Maybe it’s the way he nonchalantly carries his weapons. All we know is that, in his latest incarnation, 47 is not to be messed with.

After letting the heat cool for a moment – by taking a break in a cupboard, of course – we get in the lift. It stops at the seventh floor, opening to gang members sitting around, shooting the breeze.

They’ll never know what hit them: another volley of gunfire sees them dead in their seats. The maid and guests scream, and more guards come running.

At this point, in the moments before the rest of the gangsters pour in, we’ve got options. We could lure one into a guest room, hide on the ledge and pull him out of the window as he comes to investigate.

We could grab a knife and throw it into the back of someone’s head. We could even pretend to surrender, grabbing the hapless fool that comes too close, and use him as a human shield.

Stomping up the stairs to the eight floor, we fling open the door, hosing the two guards in a hail of gunfire that pierces a grand piano in the ballroom.

A huge gunfight erupts, and pinned down towards the back of the room we’re given a first-hand look at the new AI: swarming, flanking, shooting from cover and working in pairs, we have to use all our skills to put them down.

Holding down RB, we tap X to start Point Shooting, similar to Red Dead’s Dead Eye system. After painting our targets, we drop them all in slow motion. It’s how John Woo would have wanted it.

Standing outside the presidential suite that hides our true prey, our mission draws to a close. We daren’t even glance at our score.

It was quite a rampage, but even when you’re doing your best impression of the Terminator vs the Los Angeles Police Department, you’ve still got options.

In previous games, going in all-guns-blazing was a last resort, and even then the game’s mechanical deficiencies meant that it wasn’t a truly satisfying experience.

The opposite rings true here, and just like playing it stealthily, you have the option of adding your own murderous signature via creative kills, such as electrocuting a guard knee-deep in water in the hotel basement.

Chinatown is absolutely teeming with people – who’s going to notice if you, dressed as a chipmunk, run up behind someone and double-tap them?

The immediate crowd might recognise that something’s up, but you can use the confusion and the people to your advantage, blending in to slip away. Just don’t let off any explosives…

‘Guns loud’ might not be in the true spirit of the game, but it is totally possible and utterly enjoyable. Hitman used to be a fantastic stealth game with a ropey action element. Now, it’s brilliant across the board. Welcome back, 47.

Are you worried about Forza Horizon? It’s okay. We know some of you are.

After all, Forza made its name on the track, and now we’re staring down the barrel of some sort of crazed, festival-based open-world thing.

Instead of racing against cars and other sensible vehicles, now you also race against planes. And, most shockingly of all, it’s got a story. Fortunately, Forza Horizon is much more than your average spin-off.

This isn’t Operation Raccoon City – in fairness, no one could match that terrible feat. This is Forza, transplanted from the track to the trail, the highway and everything in between.

Our hands-on time revealed that although massively different in structure and the way you go about entering competitions, when it comes down to throwing a car around, this is the same game you know and love, modified to fit.

For the uninitiated, the Horizon of the title is a festival, which the whole game revolves around. Arriving on the scene to try to wrest the title of Horizon racing champion from the reigning king, Darius Flynt, the opening hours are dedicated to showing you the ropes.

Not unlike other open-world games, you’ll be introduced to the world and its inhabitants via a series of races and tutorials. And cut-scenes, which if we’re being honest are about as interesting as watching the paint dry on a Seventies Skoda.

Once these are out of the way, though, you’re free to choose your destiny. Competing in events will earn you credits, which are then used for the usual reasons: upgrading your car, buying your way into races, and so on.

Forza Horizon continues the series' tradition for jaw-dropping visuals.

As you compete, you’ll also rank up towards receiving different wristbands, which then enable you to take on different race types. All of these events take place across one seamless slice of Colorado.

The map is big but not too big, and there’s a nice variety in the environment. From desert sands to small towns and long, two-lane black tops, Horizon wants to give players plenty of variation in where they race.

And, as a consequence, how they race. Developer Playground Games has had access to the entirety of Forza’s core mechanics, and it shows. Each car feels different from the last, which has always been what Forza does best.

But now you’re up against the shifting environment as well as your opponents. It’s for this reason that Forza’s legendary tuning options have been reduced, although not omitted altogether.

Although this may seem like a slap in the face to fans who spend every waking minute worrying that their gear ratios are all out of whack – really, they should be worrying about their lives being so if they care that much – it’s a concession to the world.

Upgrading is still there; it’s just handled in a more all-encompassing way. This is to ensure you’re competitive in your favourite car and not going to be borked when you hit the road.

After all, when you’re flying around from one road type to another, you’re not going to get too much time to get out and inspect whether your vehicle is correctly set up for what you’re racing on.

And, if you’re still hung up on that, politely remind yourself that this is the series where you can rewind time.

Yes, you can still rectify your mistakes with a cheeky rewind, and there’s also the PGR-style Kudos meter to reward aggressive and stylish driving.

There are also environmental challenges for players to take part in: smash a certain number of signs, or drive as fast as you can past speed cameras, for example.

It's all about the open road, but can Forza go up against NFS: Most Wanted?

These are nice distractions when on the road, and racing against the CPU is as fun as ever. But it’s against real opponents where the game will excel.

Perform well in an event that one of your friends has also competed in and you’ll be asked to go up against the ghost of your nemesis. Hidden cars can be found around the world, ready for you to take online and hose your friends with.

And then there’s still the livery editor, for when you need to indulge your creative side. Fundamentally, it’s the same: the feeling of weight, the attention to detail, the ability to scale assists to your skill level, the satisfaction of taking a corner perfectly.

You might sometimes race against planes, but you’re still doing it the Forza way.

Hybrids can be funny things.

All too often attempts to fuse the strengths of two very different genres can leave them disproportionately balanced – very strong on one side, but weak on the other.

Interestingly the pirates that roamed the waters of the Caribbean in the 17th Century and served as the inspiration for Port Royale 3: Pirates and Traders exemplify that.

Their modified merchant ships crewed by bloodthirsty former soldiers were speedy predators of merchant shipping. But they usually lacked the firepower or discipline to take on the bigger ships and professional sailors of the major European navies – a disparity eventually leading to their demise.

Developer Gaming Minds Studio is very familiar with blending different genre elements in the Port Royale series, and balancing real-time Sid Meier’s Pirates style ship combat with deep economic management of a chain of Caribbean islands.

Until now however its strength has been on the sim side, which appeals to a PC niche but isn’t quite as attractive to the console gamers. So as the franchise comes to consoles Gaming Minds is attempting to make the action and cerebral halves of Port Royale 3 equally attractive, and more accessible.

Port Royale 3 is split into two campaigns, an Adventurer campaign and a Trader campaign.

The former, action based half, will see your fleets roaming the sea’s capturing booty by terrorising shipping while the latter has you trade your way to success – but you can still use bloody piracy or buy your way to victory with sly management in either campaign.

 Pirate ship combat is based around direct joypad inputs on console and you can actually control individual ships or whole fleets as needed.

There’s a thrilling amount of detail as you zoom in on battles and watch your cannons blow enemy ships apart flinging little pirates on their decks to a watery grave.

The economics are also more engaging, as you haul cargo from island to island, driving up prices with clever trading tactics and as well as being able to develop towns, you can build special structures, depending on your levels of notoriety as a pirate. 

Just as importantly it’s looking like the developer has worked hard to optimise sim controls for console  – not an easy given the PC used a keyboard – and is making a great deal of the economic micro management and/or combat automated if you just don’t want to deal with it too much.

So you’ll be able play Port Royale 3 as you prefer, but still have scope to learn new mechanics.

Overall it’s looking like the extra development time on console is giving Gaming Minds the time to polish the flaws of its PC offering, and better appeal to console gamers.

Whether it can fully balance out this particular hybrid so it can sail choppy console waters without listing one way or the other remains to be seen, but we’re hopeful.

The question is: where to start? We imagine players will linger ponderously over this little quandary as Resident Evil 6 illuminates their television screens for the first time come October, presenting them with three names and not a lot of guidance.

It’s also a question applicable for any discussion about Resi 6 following our extensive hands-on time with it.

Three campaigns and six characters, with each of the former inimitably distinct and some of the latter markedly familiar and all of which weave together at various points to tell one incredibly ambitious story over 40 hours of gameplay time.

It’s a huge undertaking – and from hands-on experience with over 15 hours play, it might be too ambitious. Resident Evil 6 is one of the most confused, and confusing, experiences that we’ve yet played.

It’s simultaneously excellent and terrible, and it’s all down to Capcom taking a surprisingly mottled approach to crafting the sixth entry in the main canon, rummaging through the design broom re-emerging with three story strands that represent separate distinct eras in Resident Evil lore.

Fine in theory. But as it stands, only one of these campaigns is any good, with the other two going from bad to abysmal.

Of the three, Leon’s campaign is the most enjoyable – because it’s the only one that seems like it wasn’t created by 6,000 different people, most of whom have apparently never played a videogame before.

Depending on where you shoot J’avo troops, they will mutate into different malformed creatures.

It’s lean and focused, with a commitment to the old Resi ideal of fighting your way to safety, not glory or the President’s daughter.

Over the four hours of gameplay present in the preview code, it is the Resident Evil 2 that we imagined when we first saw that preview shot of Leon standing amidst the flaming wreckage of Raccoon City’s streets, with a dash of Left 4 Dead’s fast-paced running battles and a smattering of Outbreak’s focus on common survivors. It really is very special indeed.

The opening of the demo sets the tone, before kicking breathlessly into higher gears. As you navigate Leon through the narrow corridors of an abandoned campus after shooting the President of the United States, rooms are illuminated by cracks of lighting pouring through towering windows, shadows shifting nervously in the distance, and an unsettling silence instils dread at every turn.

After a 28 Weeks Later - shaming jaunt onto the subway, players find themselves on the streets of Tall Oaks. But rather than arrive at the scene after the fact, you’re there as it happens: the trains still run, driven eerily by no one, unlike the cars and ambulances that crash around you as panicked survivors try to flee.

Yes: this is classic Resident Evil. You might be able to suplex zombies, but you’re once again trying to survive the world, not save it. Ammo is sparse and the graphical grunt of the engine means it’s genuinely unsettling.

Much like in RE3: Nemesis, prepare to spend the majority of Jake's campaign in perpetual fear from Ustanak.

You’ll meet fellow survivors, each as desperate as the last, and make a stand with them in scenes that resemble a better version of Leon and Luis’s cabin siege in RE4.

It’s familiar, but small changes bring big results in terms of the overall feel. The camera differs from the last entry, zooming slightly more on targets when aiming, which restricts peripheral vision a touch.

It does however add another, albeit minor, dynamic layer to the intense panic of overwhelming odds, compounded by the low ammo and tightly formed environments, when things take a turn for the Resident Evil 4 later in the demo – with Leon and Helena arriving at a ominous cathedral – and it’s tough not to be impressed by Capcom’s combination of panic and action.

Also impressive is the substantial boost in the partner AI for solo players. Resident Evil 5’s major sticking point was Shiva: Chris Redfield’s selfish AI partner spent the majority of the game pinching ammo and herbs, rather than demonstrating an overabundance of aptitude.

That said, these small inventory sacrifices were somewhat minor compared to the absence of sustained chills, leaving genre buffs unimpressed by the defused tension thanks to Shiva’s presence.

It’s been such a point of concern that – as Resident Evil 6 once again places heavy emphasis on teaming up for co-op gameplay – director Eiichiro Sasaki had to reassure players it had been addressed in the sequel.

Capcom has yet to confirm whether Chris will be facing his greatest nemesis once again: giant boulders.

“When you’re playing co-op with someone you feel at ease. You feel relaxed because you’ve got someone by your side all the time,” Sasaki explains. “We’re putting things in the game so that won’t always be the case.

"There are going to be times when you are forced to split up and you are going to feel horror, not always on a psychological and not always on a visceral level, but because this person is not by your side any more.

"I know you will say this is just a continuation of what we already had in Resident Evil 5, but we’ve studied that and we are trying to expand on that a little more.

"We are putting characters in different types of situations, so it is not what you would normally expect from two-player co-op. This is Resident Evil 6 and we wanted to do something special.”

This is certainly the case, in Leon’s section at least. The AI certainly seems less intrusive, as Leon’s new partner Helena Harper strikes an encouraging balance between usefulness and discretion, capping undead adversaries and staying back appropriately.

Which begs the question: if Capcom can so successfully meld old and new in this campaign, why bother to create two extra chapters to go along with it? In doing so there was every chance that Capcom might have diluted its product, and that has come to pass.

The four-player co-op enables online players to join forces briefly and fight alongside one another. 

In contrast to the considered pacing and taut atmosphere of Leon’s campaign, Chris Redfield’s chapters are a brash, adrenaline- fuelled jolt of nonsense: a poorly paced procession of confusing kill rooms that serve to make a mockery of any claim Capcom has to having passable shooter mechanics.

After a brief introduction wherein Chris has hit the bottle in Eastern Europe, we find the lovable lug forming an allegiance with a military squad quelling the J’avo threat in Asia.

If Leon’s chapter harks back to classic Resident Evil tropes – all prolonged viewpoints, a few disquieting notes from a distant piano and creeping terror – then Chris’s chapter thrusts players right back into the action where we last left off in Resident Evil 5.

As the action switches to China and the fictional, Balkan-esque Edonia, Chris and his partner Piers battle across rickety rooftops and bombed-out buildings as they tackle incessant waves of the latest addition to Resident Evil’s variants on the original plague, the J’avo.

Their malformed appearance and various transformations are directly affected by how you interact with them, so accuracy when shooting is paramount if you want to avoid a dozen winged creatures cluttering the battleground.

Resident Evil has finally innovated its long- past-sell-by-date formula and enabled players to walk while shooting, but still finds alternative ways to unnecessarily convolute simplistic third-person shooter mechanics.

Chris's campaign is spent largely in the midst of a warzone.

It culminates in a frustrating, awkward feeling to play, with infected enemies rushing Chris and little time for the player to fully get to grips with other innovations to the formula such as dodging and taking cover.

Director Eiichiro Sasaki explained that the control system is just one of the many new facets that will reinforce the primal horror. “While you are on your back, something might jump on top of you out of nowhere and you have to try and shoot it before it eats you,” he enthuses. “We’ve added ways [to the controls] where it is scarier now.”

Unfortunately none of this was present in the code we played. Chris’s segment fizzles thanks to protracted fights with gun-toting enemy troops, yet again highlighting the weaknesses of the lumpish control scheme and the onerous efforts players go through to survive clichéd encounters.

Worse still, its boss encounters are confusing and boring, melding turret sections with muddled objectives. It’s far more of a shooter than even Resi 5, and so far a bad one at that.

Chris’s campaign is so far poor, but Jake’s is awe-inspiringly bad. The campaign for new character Jake Muller – son of nefarious, sunglasses-wearing and mostly invincible Albert Wesker – is Capcom’s attempt at Uncharted-style high adventure, with into- the-screen running and dramatic escapes from onrushing avalanches.

Chapters revolving around Chris place a large emphasis on teamwork.

The problem so far is there’s no consistency in the way the game plays, and Jake’s specialised skills – he’s supposed to be able to fight in an aggressive hand-to-hand style like his father – aren’t sophisticated enough. That’s right: it’s a Capcom game that can’t get fighting right.

Pairing with Raccoon City survivor Sherry Birkin, little context is given as to how Jake and Sherry end up where they are – another derelict shantytown recalling a few districts of Resident Evil 4’s grey-washed Spanish town – but they soon find themselves pursued by a giant foe dubbed Ustanak.

The key inspiration here is Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, another tonal reference point that is sure to attract as many detractors as it does fans.

Ustanak is an unstoppable behemoth with an unquenchable bloodlust and appears to have eyes for our heroes. His appearance triggers an elaborate run-away-from-camera sequence (thankfully without QTE accompaniment), which – after scrambling across some wooden walkways and jumping through a window – culminates with Jake and Sherry in a large crumbling building. Full of explosive barrels.

You know the drill. Lure the hulking beast towards one of the crimson containers and let rip. It’s not very impressive at all, and things get worse. After defeating the Ustanak you’re then plunged into another encounter with him, only this time it’s a stealth section with instant death if you’re discovered. Yes.

Chris's sequences evoke the same adrenaline- fuelled action of Resident Evil 5.

Player’s have to creep around, not disturbing the creature or his minions that serve to give your position away. Get spotted and you’ve got two choices: run and hide in a skip, or die. The latter will happen a lot, especially with two players.

It’s a contrivance, of course, because not much earlier the Ustanak grabbing you was just one of those things that happen when you’re saving the world: a quick QTE and you’re out.

It jars gameplay-wise, but also sabotages the pacing of the campaign, the crucial element that makes Leon’s section so enjoyable.

Things then go from bad to worse as players jump on snowmobiles to outrun a gigantic avalanche. Filled with instant death and poor player direction, it all feels like Capcom ran out of ideas.

On reflection, the three-chapter concept looks to be barrelling toward failure, which is both a huge shame and something we dreaded happening.

That said, still of note is perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this approach: how each of the three distinct chapters will weave in and out of one another.

A later boss battle involving Ustanak will have Leon and Helena joining Jake and Sherry to battle the enraged beast, switching the action from two-player co-op to four-player when online.

he dialogue is suitably hammy, but it's a vast improvement on some of the bilge spouted by the characters in previous Resi games.

For producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi the idea behind the crossover was to craft the most immersive Resident Evil story told in the series to date.

“I should make it clear that the crossover element of the game is not just about gameplay but it’s also about story,” says Kobayashi. “It’s kind of the guiding feature of Resident Evil 6.

"There will be points in the game where it is not the four-player co-op that is a crossover but you will see stories from different points of view. You might see the characters from another game run across your field of vision or appear on a TV screen or something like that.”

Whether anyone will persist long enough with the latter two campaigns to see these crossovers is another matter entirely. It’s an ambitious project to say the least, but one that feels forced and ultimately poor for most of its run time.

From a gameplay standpoint, Capcom has made noticeable improvements to the AI, some long overdue enhancements to gameplay and returned to the classic scares that have been conspicuously absent from the series for the better part of a decade.

But so far only one chapter – Leon’s eerie jaunt through Raccoon 2.0 – can be called a success. The other two are simultaneously too ambitious and not ambitious enough, plagued by poor design and half-baked mechanics.

It feels like Capcom’s reach has exceeded its grasp, and with only a few months left in development we could be looking at one of the most lopsided gaming experiences ever made.

We're not sure enough of you are excited for Dishonored. Luckily, Bethesda recently gave us hands-on with a large portion of Dishonored, giving us even more ammunition to tell you just why you should be interested in Arkane Studios unique game.

Corvo’s powers of persuasion are legendary

Again similar to BioShock, players will be able to customise ‘their’ version of Corvo. By finding runes scattered around the world, Corvo can augment his supernatural abilities, which loosely fall into lethal/stealth categories.

‘Blink’ is one of the most fundamental, enabling players to teleport short distances. Others, such as the Force Push-style Windblast, are more offensive.

Combining these powers is pretty much a game in itself, with some impressive feats available to those with the imagination to match the power, but you’ll have to choose wisely: not all are available in one run-through. 

Could it all go wrong?

In all honesty, it’s very difficult to find anything bad to say about Dishonored. Having played over two hours of the game, we’re confident in saying that it is – barring a legendary screw up between now and October – one of the best games of the year.

The only thing we can think of that even constitutes a slight worry is length: we’re going to be gutted if all of that creativity leads to a short game.

That said, we’re absolutely convinced that won’t be the case. So really, our only real worry is that the game will be so good that it will make other games seem insignificant next to it.

As one of the few North American sports games that gains traction in the UK, it’s easy to see why the NHL series is popular: it’s like football, but faster, and you get to smash people into glass. It’s the sport of the future.

NHL 13 is no different, of course, and is just as much fun to play as its predecessors. You don’t have to be an aficionado of the game to enjoy yourself here. This isn’t Madden with its trillions of plays/rules, after all.

Nope, you just skate around, attempting to break people’s spines and score goals. It’s a fast game, but one that also requires some tactical thinking, especially if you want to get past the very capable keepers.

Playing the game for the first time at EA’s Vancouver office, we found ourselves in the middle of some pleasantly enjoyable back-and-forth matches, featuring everything from slaloming runs to tense, crunching battles for territory and possession.

Off the ice, EA is making a big noise about its new dynasty mode, GM Connected. By taking the popular Be A GM – general manager, for those of you not into US sports or wrestling – mode from previous games and moving it online, EA is giving players the option of partaking in 30-team leagues that feature 750 players.

It sounds very cool indeed. EA, like most publishers, is keen to position its product as a ‘platform’ or a ‘service’ to stop you trading it in – you pesky consumer, you – and with GM Connected it looks like it’s got a pretty good hook.

Goalies are difficult to beat, especially on your first few goes.

Also of note is NHL Moments Live. A scenario mode in all but name, the most memorable moments from the 2011-12 NHL season will be on the disc for players to emulate or change.

Complementing these will be regular updates featuring moments from the ongoing season, so if you’ve had a bad week you can digitally erase the cause of your frustration, or emphasise your elation.

It’s another solid package from EA Sports, then, and one that will definitely appeal to both rabid hockey fans and those that pick it up as a complement to FIFA.

It’s probably no coincidence that the day CERN announced that it had found the god particle, thus sending the human race careening down an apocalyptic path of barren, desolate wastelands, Mad Max hairstyles and bad food – a bit like Chingford – Gearbox decided to unveil a few more details about its very own wasteland, Borderlands 2, sequel to the surprise hit first-person shooter/RPG hybrid of 2009.

Borderlands 2 takes place five years after the original game, if the plot really matters to you that much. The main antagonist is Handsome Jack, who’s taken over the Hyperion Corporation – because no action game is complete without a despicable all powerful mega conglomerate to throw bombs at – and deemed himself de facto leader of Pandora, the planet where the game takes place.

Naturally it’s up to you to make him regret any such delusions of grandeur, via the medium of bullets.

It’s a horrible, shameful thing to descend to such a rubbish cliché, but Gearbox has gone down the old ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ route. This is still the same Borderlands you know and love, the same gleefully daft, cartoony fix of schlock ultra-violence that’s inspired as much by Looney Tunes as it is Westerns.

Not many other games have you firing a steampunk chaingun with incendiary bullets at incredibly dense bandits while some Ennio Morricone-esque music twangs away.

Believe it or not, but this isn't concept art.

But there’s been no resting on laurels either, as Borderlands 2 adds and improves on enough of the first game to sate bloodthirsty fans of the original, as well as suck in new players.

You’ll take the role of one of four new heroes – the chaps from the first game are still around, albeit as NPCs – for Borderlands 2, with naturally very different abilities.

There’s Salvador the Gunzerker, Maya the Siren, Axton the Commando and Zer0 the assassin. After picking the Gunzerker class because the name is too tempting for idiot manchildren, Salvador was sent on an errand in the town of Sanctuary, the hub of the game, thus giving him an excuse to have a wander, see the sights and put some holes in bandits and other monstrosities.

Salvador’s a tough little bugger; his special skill as a Gunzerker lets him dual-wield any weapon for a time, should he need to go postal and clear the room of every last wastelander that so much as looks at him funny. It’s fabulously cathartic and meat-headed.

Immediately, Borderlands 2 looks like an improvement over its predecessor. It’s clearer, more colourful and a heck of a lot grander than the first game. Funnier too, but more on that later.

Borderland 2 is designed around pure fun. The RPG elements are back for sure, and in a deeper, more integrated way with lots of lovely number-crunching and grinding, but its primary aim is making enemies explode and die as entertainingly as possible.

The character customisation is more in-depth than last time.

It doesn’t want to punish you for messing up or getting killed; it wants to keep you going for as long as possible while plying you with immensely gratifying kills and XP.

Nowhere is this fun philosophy more apparent than the fairly placed checkpoints and the returning Second Wind function, which gives you the chance to get back on your feet should you be able to make a kill near death.

All your guns are stacked with ammo too, and it drops easily, so there’ll be no timid stealth gameplay or funny crouch-walking to avoid fights.

Even more so than the first game, Borderlands 2 wants you to channel your inner Arnie. The feedback and recoil on your cel-shaded boomsticks have a good amount of kick, and they sound louder than God having a sneezing fit too.

Add the fact that they’re outlandish enough to make the weapons in Bulletstorm seem like something out of a dull military shooter, and you’ve a recipe for delicious, gory fun.

The irreverent attitude and character of the first game returns in spades too, and Borderlands 2 is genuinely chuckle-worthy. In the preview mission there’s a teenage bomb expert called Tiny Tina, who’s like a chimerical bastardisation of Fatman from Metal Gear Solid 2 and Princess Superstar, making bombs and dropping verses, as well as petulantly demanding her ‘badongadonk’ back from some thieving gits.

There were a few bugs to iron out, and it’s too early to tell yet whether or not the full game will wear out its welcome a bit like the first one did after numerous hours, but Borderlands 2 is very definitely on the right path.

In a world full of hellish beige and boring cinematic gameplay, we need the impudent, shamelessly silly likes of Borderlands 2 more than ever. Before CERN destroys us all anyway.

It’s so easy to compare Dishonored with Irrational’s underwater hit, BioShock. Both offer the sort of cerebral thrills that are often absent from the FPS genre and both set themselves in the sorts of environments where subversive political writing is the obvious choice of wall-scrawling for the socially concerned.

Like BioShock’s Rapture, the citizens of Dunwall are oppressed and surrounded by the sort of architecture that Twenties expressionists would find a little bit depressing.

Beyond exploring the sorts of themes, characters and stories that most modern shooters leave for the big guns, Dishonored is carving its own path and creating something quite special in the process.

Arkane is building (or should that be re-building?) on a genre that stalled with Thief: Deadly Shadows and has never really been successfully reignited.

Dishonored Brings Classic Stealth To Xbox 360

Open-ended stealth has been reinvigorated over the course of the 360’s life with crowd-pleasing action games such as Assassin’s Creed, but the shadow-hiding and clinical edge required to play something like Thief properly have disappeared.

Though the stealth genre hasn’t really gone away, more evolved into something else, it’s obvious to see that Dishonored is harkening back to a style of play that’s been absent for far too long.

It’s all about the tools of the trade, too. We find Corvo hunkered down in a dank alley, the sounds of scuttling rats at his feet and it’s the first chance we get to have good look at his abilities.

Luckily for us, everything is unlocked, though we’re reliably informed at this stage In the game most of these abilities will be unattainable, at least to some degree.

Dishonored wants you to experiment, but it wants you to earn that right as well as choose your style of play. We’re not limited right now and experimenting with Blink (teleporting), Dark Vision (Bat-vision), Windblast (Force push), Time Bend (says it on the tin), Possession (ditto) and Devouring Swarm (death by rat, lots of rats).

And they said the Crazy Rat Lady was harmless...

Unparalleled Freedom Of Choice

Corvo is in this particular alleyway because he’s been sent to capture (alive, we might add) Anton Sokolov, the royal physician. Anton, right now just a white arrow on the hud, is in his rooftop greenhouse at Kaldwin’s Bridge.

With no limitations on our choice of approach, exploring the breadth of options open to us is a truly daunting prospect. And there’s no shortage of guards between our prey and us, too, but possessing fish and rats and slinking through the building’s inner workings takes us out of harms way.

It’s not just about empowering players with more choices of approach than they’ll ever realistically need, too. Reacting to opportunities as and when they arise will also see players rewarded with much-needed Runes (to help with the upgrading of Corvo’s abilities) and cold hard cash (for weapons and ammo).

The discovery of a dead body clutching a note, which explains that a hidden stash of goodies can be accessed through a secret doorway, is enough to send us on a hunting spree.

The crumbling streets of Dunwell are dense and littered with secret nooks and crannies like this that Arkane has exploited. Paying attention to this and taking the time necessary to discover them will pay off in Dishonored’s world.

It’s a style of play we are woefully unprepared for. After gaining entrance to the lower levels of Anton’s building we find the most obvious routes through it are heavily guarded.

There's a number of BioShock-style abilities at your disposal.

Classic Gameplay Makes Dishonored Feel Refreshingly New

Dishonored needs you to think laterally about the situations ahead and sneaking into a dining room, by Blinking our way across the hallways sees our best laid plans unravel.

We had planned on a merciful mission, but getting spotted by a guard (in a fashion similar to Ubisoft’s recent Future Soldier) we have to resort to violence – beautiful, disgusting violence. Though you can hold your own for a while, you’re not the super – health-recharging – men of most FPS games.

It’s so refreshing to explore Dishonored’s world and discover that if you prod it in a certain way, Arkane has ensured it will prod you right back. Everything is built around experimentation and approaching situations with more forethought than ‘Who should I shoot first?’

We never did discover everything in the level, but we did get to Sokolov. We were able to sneak up behind him and choke him out before Blink-travelling our way across the rooftops and to freedom.

We don’t think we’ll surprise anyone when we say that the original Metro 2033 failed in a number of ways to realise the vision at the heart of its post-apocalyptic setting.

A brooding FPS experience that placed a heavy emphasis on character, story and the depressing world in which we discovered humanity scratching out its survival in the Moscow underground, it painted a bleak and yet enthralling picture.

Mutant creatures, underground fascists and all manner of spooky happenings occurred around the struggling survivors, and though rough around the edges, Metro 2033 offered up an experience that many compared to Valve’s Half-Life 2. 

It was lofty praise, undone by the game’s obvious issues, but it highlighted just how ambitious Metro 2033 was. Ukraine-based 4A Games injected its own Eastern European brand of culture into a genre rammed with me-too military shooters and now, Last Light is aiming to create the FPS that was originally envisioned.

The setting remains the same and Artyom, after surviving the events of Metro 2033, has become something of a revered figure in the underground. He finds himself pulled between the mystical world that’s been revealed to him and the survivalist nature he’s had to adopt to endure the world’s apocalyptic rules. 

Moscow may be thawed, but the climate is still punishing.

Rules that stated the bullets in your gun are also the currency of the world and if you’re a little trigger happy (like us), you might find yourself running out of supplies pretty quickly.

One of the original’s more esoteric concepts, Metro: Last Light, rather surprisingly, isn’t doing away with any of Metro 2033’s confusing ideas. 4A is confident the ideas weren’t the problem; that it was how they were presented to the player that dragged the experience down.

The design has become much more focused, improving the core gameplay concepts and Metro: Last Light will ensure it tells its story and explains the concepts in a way that keeps its cinematic styling but also doesn’t confuse players. 

It’s one of a number of changes that should see players are never left quite as much in the dark as they were before. That’s not to say that Metro: Last Light will hold your hand the entire time.

You can cut the atmosphere with a knife.

4A Games is still encouraging players to manage their resources as they explore the dank metro and the (now thawing) ruins of Moscow. Juggling everything is no easy task, especially when the massive rat-wolf Watchers are intent on ripping your face off.

Keeping on eye on your oxygen, wiping your visor clean of anything that splatters across it and ensuring, most importantly, you have enough ammo ups the tension considerably. 

This makes Metro: Last Light appear much more like a survival horror action game but 4A is adamant the huge hub areas and roaming cast of characters to interact with will balance things out.

It’s an encouraging direction that’s exploiting everything that made Metro 2033 such an interesting game. With Last Light learning from past lessons and improving the visuals considerably, we’re quietly confident this will be the perfect antidote for the unending wave of military shooters.  

Can Batman beat Flash? Would Solomon Grundy smush Wonder Woman? Can any of them defeat Superman? It’s a set of questions Injustice: Gods Among Us looks likely to answer – except for the latter one, to which the answer is ‘of course not!’

DC Universe has teamed up with Mortal Kombat developer Netherrealm, who is looking to pitch all of its greatest characters in one-on-one combat. We took at closer look at Injustice at E3 2012 this year, and here’s what we thought.

Matches Are Epic Battles Between Superhumans

Okay, so that might be a bit of an obvious statement – but the connotations behind it are what matters.

These aren’t just any old characters flinging flaming dragonballs at each other, these are characters with superhuman powers beating ten bells of hell out of one another.

It feels like it too. Injustice: Gods Among Us is just as brutal as Mortal Kombat, just without the blood. Characters can be thrown around like a baseball, crushing the environments around them.

It’s punishing, and really relays that feeling of an unstoppable force taking on an immovable object that superhero battles are supposed to convey.

This is true of some of the arenas you might fight in, from the humble Batcave to Superman’s own Fortress of Solitude. Everything has a sense of place within the DC Universe, and really feels part of the world.

This wouldn't happen in Batman: Arkham City.

Each Character Is Totally Unique

It wouldn’t be a superhero game if there wasn’t a sense of individuality and personality to each of the warriors. Thankfully Netherrealm knows this, and has carefully tailored each character to its style.

On the surface this means a selection of unique area entry and exit animations and victory stances of each character in iconic poses. This means Superman soaring through the air or Batman keeping overwatch on top of a gargoyle.

Then there’s combat. Superman, as you might expect, is a tough melee fighter, though he’s not afraid to use his piercing heat vision for ranged attacks.

Flash Gordon is nimble and agile, evading attacks and closing the gap safely then striking faster than his opponent before dashing away again.

Batman, as you might expect, is replete with gadgets and tools to gain the upper hand, ranging from the must-have Batarang to the Batclaw for ranged combat.

Or Solomon Grundy, who is a mountain of muscle and an unflinching mass of strength. He is slow and cumbersome, but with enough brute force to make it matter when he hits you.

Not only this but there’s special, unique skills too – Flash will race around the world in an instant for an Ultimate Punch, while Superman blasts his enemy into space to bring him crashing back to earth.

Each combatant is unique both in style and function, and providing Netherrealm can keep it both balanced and fun then Injustice could be onto a winner.

Grundy's special ability is smashing things with other things. It's a unique trait.

Knowing The Environments Is As Important As The Move List

It’s not unusual for fighting games to feature environmental hazards. Some will have instant kills should you be able to coax your enemies into its trap, while others will change and adapt depending on the situation.

Injustice: Gods Among Us will be much the same, except rather then finishing enemies through an environmental hazard it’ll simply deal a relevant amount of damage.

These are superhumans, after all. It’ll take more than a collision with the Batmobile to put these guys out of service.

Each level has numerous interactions – ranging from the ability to tear objects from the scenery and use it as a weapon as well as more specific instances, such the numerous gadgets and machines found in the Batcave.

During a battle between Batman and Solomon Grundy on the streets of Future City, the pair duke it out across multiple levels as Grundy launches Batman through the air. 

After landing on the roof of a nearby building, Batman’s response is to throw Grundy through a number of floors through the building itself.

There’s a lot going on in these matches, and the potential we’ve already seen is incredible. Netherrealm is adding interactive elements throughout a stage, then opening each one to multiple different locations within a level.

It’s hard to say just yet whether this will affect the overall outcome of Injustice: Gods Among Us, since it could detract from its balancing. For now, however, what we’ve seen is pretty damn exciting.

Dishonored is looking very, very good. In fact, it looked good when we first saw it at Gamescom 2011, and it gets better every time we see it.

Developer Arkane and publisher Bethesda pulled back the curtain its stealth opus further at E3, as we joined them for a stunning hands-on session. Join us as we explore why Dishonored is a classic in the making.

Dishonored gives you freedom to complete missions as you see fit

For those out of the loop on Dishonored, it follows disgraced bodyguard Corvo Atano, as he fights for revenge against the corrupt Lord Regent using a mixture of stealth, gadgets, brutal kills and plain old strategy.

Fans of Deus Ex and Thief will absolutely love the way all of this comes together in Dishonored, and although it isn’t an open world game, Dishonored does give you total freedom to approach each of your contract assassinations

This freedom isn’t as black and white as, “You can go in all guns blazing, or use stealth if you want” – in fact, Dishonored goes much, deeper than that.

In this particular mission, Corvo is tasked with killing two members of parliament lounging around a bathhouse. Starting far from his target, Corvo uses a teleport power called ‘Blink’ to flash past patrolling guards on the dark, menacing Dunwall streets.

Now, Corvo could use the rooftops to slip into the bathhouse undetected, or he could fight his way in without a whiff of caution. But instead, he possesses a fish.

No, you didn’t read that wrong. Corvo has the power of possession, and in this mission he uses it to inhabit the body of a fish in Dunwall’s river to swim through the drainage system of the batthouse, only to emerge out the other end in human form. It’s simple, clean and utterly rewarding if you do it undetected.

Dishonored is a true stealth game that recalls the Metal Gear Solid series.

In Metal Gear Solid HD Collection – specifically in Metal Gear Solid 3 – there is an achievement called ‘Peace Walker’ that is awarded if a player completes the whole game without killing anyone. In the age of the shooter, few modern games reward you for showing such immense restraint.

But in Dishonored, the option to complete the whole game without killing a single person is open to you, and this is why fan of stealth will absolutely adore Arkane’s game.

The challenge for being clever and pulling off missions without anyone knowing you were ever there is alluring, and Arkane has implemented this system perfectly.

It’s all in the planning – as Corvo spies through keyholes to map out enemy locations, listen in on conversations and work out patrol routes. As he makes his way down to the steam room, he spots a man and a prostitute having some ‘fun’ near some heating pipes. 

Corvo now has the option of slipping by undetected, or rupturing the steam pipes to burn them both alive. It’s the same freedom to be inventive with your environments as IO Interactive employed in the Hitman series, and it couldn’t be more welcome here.

Dishonored’s gadgets and brutal combat make you feel powerful.

Corvo completes his mission by sneaking up to his target’s room, possessing him, walking him to the window ledge, returning to his own body and then using his a wind ability to blow the target off the edge. It’s a nice cocktail of powers that shows the options available to players.

We’re told that you can even possess your target, commit suicide by jumping off a lethal drop, and then possess an innocent bystander just before impact to avoid getting killed. 

This leaves the mark splattered in a bloody mess on the ground, while Corvo walks off as a civilian, as if nothing has happened. It’s very smart stuff.

But then Arkane plays through the same mission without being stealthy. We watch as Corvo uses his Blink skill to teleport among a group of confused guards, taking them out one by one like X-Men’s Nightcrawler, or Batman’s FreeFlow combat in Arkham City.

Corvo is eventually overrun and killed by the aggressive and mounting pack of guards, showing that being brash and wading inknife-first still demands skill, but that you have the option to do this if you like. 

Dishonored’s missions don’t always involve assassinations.

Where missions in some stealth games go wrong is that they always end up with you gutting some poor sod like a rather evil fish. The best stealth games of previous years – Tenchu, Thief, Deus Ex, Metal Gear Solid to name a few – aren’t just about the kill. 

Variety is crucial in these games, and once again, Dishonored definitely delivers. We finally get our chance to play as we embark on a new mission that sees Corvo attempting to kidnap a doctor from his mansion.

Using Corvo’s ‘Blink’ skill to teleport from rooftop to rooftop doesn't take long to master and soon you'll be using it to dodge patrolling guards effortlessly.

However, guards aren't your only worry, as civilians can rat you out if they spot you, alerting guards to your location if you stick around in the same spot for too long.

Corvo is capable of controlling Dunwall’s rat infestation, and this skill can be used to shake off any guards foolish enough to give chase. The ability sees a portal opening up and spewing a torrent of vermin.

The rats then rush the guards, gnawing at them until nothing is left but bloody skeletons. It’s sadistically hilarious in how gory it is, but hey, it works.

Once inside the doctor’s mansion, Corvo can peer through cracks in open doors, to spot his target inside. You can then approach the doctor in any way you wish.

Perhaps the most inventive method is to summon a single rat, possess it, and then crawl into the doctor’s room, re-emerging behind him before choking him unconscious. Corvo then slings the doctor over his shoulder and teleport out into the night undetected. 

Dishonored is on the path to being one of 2012’s standout releases – thanks to the freedom given to players, and its stunning art direction – but that aside, it’s a solid stealth game at its core. Plus, in the age of the sequel, we’re always happy to see new IP shaping up this nicely.

Want more from Dishonored?

• Dishonored Has A 'Mission-Based Structure' With Levels Like Deus Ex, Thief
• Dishonored: E3 2012 Trailer Reveals Tall Boys, Combat
• Dishonored Bringing Steampunk Back To October After BioShock Infinite Delay

Nothing like 343 Industries has ever happened before. No other publisher has ever head-hunted over 200 of the most talented, most experienced people in game development, stuck them together in a big building and said, ‘Make us the biggest, best, most successful game in our history. You’ve got till November 2012.’ It’s a new thing, it’s how Microsoft has decided to get Halo 4 made, and it really might not work.

343 Industries is a team. Some teams are greater than the sum of their parts, but many are considerably less. Talented individuals don’t necessarily gel, particularly when they’re thrown together from a wide range of cultures and backgrounds. It could all turn out to be a horrifically expensive mistake.

But you know what? We’ve seen Halo 4 now and… obviously it’s way too early for a verdict, but it looks very impressive, doesn’t it? Sure, we haven’t seen anything massively different or new or innovative, but there’s no denying Halo 4 looks quality.

Staunch fanboys might object, but abandoning the bright, angular, primary coloured Halo style of old has done it a world of good. It’s not photorealistic, by any means, but Halo 4 does have a new depth and level of detail to it that lends it atmosphere and believability.

It doesn’t just look good; it looks absorbing and satisfying. Like a massive rum baba.

And that’s just the single-player campaign. We haven’t even got onto the multiplayer yet, although single-player and multiplayer are one and the same from now on. Kind of.

Will mech combat be coming to Halo 4? Would that even be a good thing?

Multiplayer isn’t an arbitrary game thing any more, it’s part of the story. And it ties in with the new, innovative Spartan Ops mode. Both multiplayer – which has been fancily renamed ‘Wargames’ – and Spartan Ops chronologically take place after the single-player campaign.

Spartan Ops is a series of daily, episodic missions, averaging about 20 minutes in length, that 343 is promising to run for months. These episodes will largely centre around teams of Spartans beaming down from the UNSC Infinity to the planet’s surface and Wargames will represent the advances training simulation systems aboard the ship.

Given what we’ve seen of main campaign’s opening, the single-player mode will likely consist of Master Chief’s journey across the planet’s surface to where the Infinity has been brought down. Then it’ll climax with him liberating it, probably just by asking nicely.

Just kidding. He’ll do it all by shooting loads of stuff. We promise.

While you don’t have to complete the campaign before dedicating the rest of your life to Spartan Ops and WarGames, that would be the logical way to go about it.

You liberate the Infinity then you create your very own Spartan and start training him or her up between daily Spartan Ops missions. You use the same character across each mode, so XP earned in one benefits you in the other.

Here's Master Chief's new design. His hair has changed.

It seems Microsoft and 343 understand that the point of DLC should be to keep people playing your game in the long term and not just to squeeze more money out of them – the free episodic DLC is a great idea, no matter how you look at it.

We’re sure there’ll be some paid for DLC at some point too, new WarGames content and possibly even a second ‘season’ of Spartan Ops, but still…

So, it looks great and it’s innovating in some inarguably fan-friendly ways – it’s difficult to find fault in Halo 4 at this point. It looks like the super-studio idea is actually working, which is perhaps because of one important detail we forgot to mention in the opening paragraph.

The most important quality each and every member of the 343 team brings to Halo 4 isn’t their talent or experience; it’s their love of Halo. Over 200 of the world’s most hardcore Halo fans are making Halo 4 and, so far, it shows.