The Grand Theft Auto games derive a huge chunk of their fun from consequence-free criminality, whether it’s random missile attacks or mowing down innocent hotdog vendors just for kicks. L.A. Noire shifts to the other side of the law completely, so can a Rockstar game still be enjoyable if you can’t do the fun stuff?

The central character in LA Noire is war hero turned good cop, Cole Phelps. Cole take assignments in straight order, starting from traffic and working his way up to homicide, arson and vice, while some variety is thrown in with street crime – basically sub missions where you answer calls for help. Throughout, expect a cocktail of car chases, shootouts, fist fights and the occasionally spectacular set piece, which are all good fun if less riotous than anything in GTA or Red Dead Redemption.

However, this “reigned” in approach allows for a strong investigative focus; the heart of L.A. Noire is cerebral and slow burning detection. The initial investigation involves searching at crime scenes for clues, detected by the rumbling of the joypad and musical prompts. This evidence can then be used in the interrogation of suspects. Intuition points earned for successful missions can be used to help you either in the interrogation, or by highlighting clue locations.

The ace in the hole for the interrogations is the amazing motion capture of actor’s faces, that allows for hugely detailed expressions. It’s a huge leap and you can really see the nuances of the performances, which really draws you into the world. Checking for lies requires concentration, and whilst some are more obvious than others, you’ll want to save some intuition points to help out.

The game is serious in tone, drawing on many real life crimes like the Black Dahlia case, and paints a grim view of humanity (and Hollywood).  Crimes scenes are gory but there is still some sly humour on display, like the posters for the innocently titled ‘Gay Cowboys’. Interrogations can provide reals moments of darkness; it’s genuinely unnerving to push the button to ask tough questions of traumatised fifteen year old girls.

Being a lawman makes the game more focused and linear than GTA – but as a result, there’s a lot more depth. Like GTA the game is set in a huge sandbox city – in this case a stunningly detailed rendition of late-40s Los Angeles – which when combined with a superb score makes a superb and original setting for the game.

L.A. Noire being episodic feels like an interactive version of a HBO series, and it’s almost better to take a break after case completion as the street crimes are not quite enough to alleviate a feeling of repetitive familiarity. Cases can be replayed to get better scores, but it may be up to downloadable installments to get more entertainment from the game.

Still, L.A. Noire is a quality, memorable experience oozing class, and almost makes you wish the fedora would make a comeback.

Often when I play through a puzzle game, I find myself pondering the existence of an ancient rulebook. One perhaps made by Alexey Pajitnov, assembled from the collective ideas of PopCap, that reveals the hidden formulae for creating the closest thing to a virtual drug. Maybe it’s passed on from developer to developer, spreading its knowledge like a cast-out magician. Maybe it contains the reasoning behind the coloured blocks or ludicrous scoring systems. But whether it exists or not, there definitely appears to be themes surrounding the puzzle genre that, when applied correctly, have the tendency to make players give up hours of their free time for what is, essentially, meaningless, void-of-plot entertainment. One thing I can say with absolute certainty is that if this guide exists, Pearanha Games followed it word-for-word when making Rollgo.

Rollgo is a game that takes root somewhere between Bejeweled Twist and Trism (that’s likely to sound appealing to many players right off the bat): the player must twist coloured “rollgos” to match them and create chains. The chains are then destroyed when matched once again to a rollgo of the same colour. Simple enough, one might assume, but the game lacks the charm of being instantly playable. Unlike Bejeweled, the tutorial is a must for new players, as some aspects of the game are difficult to pick up due to the fact that the usual mechanics are hidden behind a more complex graphical interface than is usually seen in the genre. Once you’ve grasped that, it’s all standard-fare, colour-matching from then on.

Sticking to the fictitious rulebook, the game includes: a countdown that players must recharge by completing moves; several special rollgos with different abilities; and a system called “Mojo” where players can purchase alternative methods of moving around the board. It may have all been seen before, but as a package, it delivers that required dose of short-term gaming that a huge percentage of iPhone owners are so desperate to get their hands on. However, what it doesn’t have is enough content to sustain a long-term habit: with only one mode, and nothing to entice replayability other than a high-score table, it does leave a lot to be desired if it wants to compete with the big names. Hopefully, Pearanha can address this with future updates – a simple “Endless Mode” or “Speed-Run” option would go a long way.

Simply put, Rollgo is a decent little puzzler with all the polished features of Bejeweled (right down to the pleasant vocal cries of “Good Job” and “Amazing”), but with the added frustration of too few game modes. Thankfully, there’s a free “Lite” version for the try-before-you-buy types, but for persuaded readers, the full game is available now for 59p on the App Store.

The Templars have popped up in video games before in the Broken Sword series, and most recently in the Assassin’s Creed series as the bad guys. So does The First Templar make good use of these warrior monks?

The First Templar is third person actioner with a few very light role play elements thrown in. There are two player characters, one unsurprisingly a Templar, Celian d’Arestide, and the other is the rogue like Marie d’Ibelin (though is initially another Templar). This allows for co-op play but in single player the AI takes control of one, allowing you to switch between them. Celian is from the Christan Bale school of gruff voiced acting, whilst Marie is your sassy action heroine type.

The main gameplay mechanism is fighting and yet more fighting. Defending is either done by blocking or rolling but there are are plenty of attacking options which are upgradeable with experience points as the game progresses. These special attacks are unleashed by expending zeal, basically a chargeable power bar. Lots of enemies can be fitted on screen which makes it nicely chaotic, whilst archers and shielded enemies heap on the pressure. It can descend into a button mash fest but careful use of special attacks and targeting enemies (especially the archers) is rewarding.

However just the fighting on its own can get fairly monotonous. Fortunately other mechanisms – albeit basic ones – have been added to break the game up. This includes some stealth, done by simple crouching and line of sight detection, lurking in the shadows does little to help. There are also puzzles and traps to spot (some whole levels are devoted to them), trails to be followed and the odd trebuchet firing section. There are also bonus side missions like searching for collectables and these can extend your stay in a level by quite a bit.

There is good variety in the levels in design and look, switching between Europe, the Holy Land and lost temples. The levels are all generously sized, though they can feel like slogs sometimes. The graphics are crisp but feel last generation, lacking polish or the rich effects of other recent games. It’s a shame, as some levels - like one set in a burning forest – are well conceived, but the engine cannot do them justice. Character models and movement are fairly basic and the lip syncing is poor and the voices can get lost under sound effects or music.

The overall plot feels pretty B-movie, but gives you enough reason to keep going with a few twists thrown in. Overall, The First Templar feels under par in key areas in relation to its contemporaries, and Ezio Auditore da Firenze would certainly eat these guys for lunch. However it should not be dismissed for this, and for the more forgiving gamer there is well balanced game of decent length to be enjoyed.

Brink should have been the game to realise Splash Damage’s full potential. A coming of age for the modder-turned-pro English studio built on turning id’s Nazi/Alien killing series’ into cooperative team activities. A fusion of team-based FPS, Mirror’s Edge-style free-running and an experience-led leveling system with more in common with Bethesda’s usual portfolio, all wrapped up in a beautifully fractured futurist world. Brink however shows that the developer still has some way to go before stepping out of id’s shadow.

Freed from the shackles of id’s concept design, Brink promises a bleak futuristic take on the Noah’s Ark story: A Utopian paradise resort off the coast of San Francisco becomes a reluctant host to the remains of humanity following an apocalyptic flood. The Ark, designed to hold 5,000 people, is now bursting with ten times that number and civil war has broken out between the heavy-handed Security Force and the freedom-fighting Resistance. Brink’s campaign sees you choose chose a side and fight sixteen missions over an eight-day period to either to save the Ark (Security Force) or escape it (Resistance).

id Tech 4 is obviously an engine nearing extinction. Brink is not a particularly attractive game with animation in particular years behind current standards.

On paper, Brink’s biblical tale involving oppressive tyrants and desperate terrorists offers furtive material for a compelling universe, yet somehow the game completely fails to grip the imagination. Each campaign day gives a short narrative introduction of your objectives consisting primarily of stereotypical grunts (complete with phony Russian/African/Chinese/Irish accents) spouting emotive save-the-world drivel to one another in a way that’s difficult to care about. Of course team-based FPS’ aren’t narrative-driven experiences, but in failing to build a sufficiently compelling universe, Splash Damage are giving you very little to get behind.

The art direction and character design is serious barrier to connection with Brink’s world. The exaggerated caricatures sit somewhere between Time Splitters and a Scandinavian troll, and as with Free Radical’s distinctly unique take on the human form, your appreciation of them is an entirely subjective matter. Even if I can’t abide it personally, I can appreciate the decision not to follow the crowd. The character design on the other hand is no way near as forgivable. Even though the game’s customisation count stretches to unpronounceable figures, it’s near-impossible to make a character that doesn’t look like a complete and utter prick, sporting seven Mohicans, tribal face tattoos and enough chains to make Camden market jealous. Among the quintillion permutations they somehow managed to forget to include a single female character model too. Re-population on the Ark is going to be tricky.

Challenge mode sees you tackling a number of tests for new weapon mods, like reaching increasingly precarious platforms pushing your parkour skills bto the max.

Acknowledging that artistic design isn’t necessarily Splash Damage’s forte, they fare far better in putting together the fundamentals of a solidly playable team-based shooter. Opting for a tight, yet still numerous 8vs8 format, Brink offers four classes – Soldier, Medic, Engineer and Operative. Each posses a handful of unique abilities essential to completing missions, from setting explosives, to defusing them, from healing allies to hacking safes. Teamwork is mandatory and buffing your allies’ health, ammo capacity and damage output is often the difference between winning and losing. Levels are littered with command posts that can be hacked to buff stats and switch between classes, allowing you to adapt to your enemies tactics as and when required.

Splash Damage have made much of Brink’s convergence of campaign, co-op and versus modes into one all-inclusive mode that permits any combination of AI, human opponent or lone wolf options. Perhaps unavoidably, this one size doesn’t quite fit all. Single players will be accompanied by a spasmodically unreliable AI team. A team that nine times out of ten will completely ignore any team objectives, forcing you to repeatedly switch between classes to carry out every task single-handedly. The remaining one in ten it will attack the objective with such vigor, it’s finished the task before you even broke the first line of enemy defense. Critiquing what is essentially a multiplayer game for lack of singleplayer satisfaction may seem irrelevant, but if this is where genre newcomers (an audience Brink is supposedly trying to court) are cutting their teeth, it’s worth noting this frustrating aspect is best worth ignoring in favour of real human companions.

The Resistance appears to be more concerned with fashion than the plight of the oppressed. I use the term fashion loosely.

Objectives themselves are typical fare – hack a terminal here, deliver a sensitive package there, and they generally offer a good balance regardless of the faction you are sided with and the ability to dynamically switch between them offers you a variety of approaches. They are however prone to the odd bout of miscommunication. In an early Resistance mission you’re given the task of “neutralising” a captured Resistance member in possession of sensitive information before he talks. Despite pumping him with enough lead to make him more mineral than man, his health bar would constantly refill and he would rise again to be led off by his Security Force captors.

As it turns out, “neutralising” him actually means shooting him into paralysis and then defending him while taking out his captors so they can’t escape with him in tow. It’s the kind of inverted logic that gives videogames a bad name. You really do not want to be on the receiving end of a Resistance “rescue” mission.

S.M.A.R.T allows you to reach useful vantage points, as well as finding shortcuts.

Each and every task you perform gives you experience points, raising ranks and opening access to the new abilities. These can be unique to each of the four classes, such as the Soldier throwing Kevlar’s to his partners or the Medic’s resurrecting Lazarus grenade, as well as universal abilities that span the classes. The ceiling for character maxing is rather low however, which could be seen as a positive if you like variety, or not so good if you’re in it for the long haul.

The S.M.A.R.T (Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain) parkour element that separates Brink from its contemporaries isn’t quite as drastic as initial reports suggested. Your access to free running is dependent on your body shape – heavies are extremely limited in their mobility options, middleweights are able to bound obstacles and gaps without issue and lightweights are the speediest of all with gravity-defying wall-runs at their disposal. Environments accommodate your mobility organically, with crates stacked conveniently before high fences and short-cut routes open to leap-happy players.

Creative movement (surely the defining principle of parkour) appears to favour the light body-type to a huge extent, and while it successfully manages pre-empt your movements with pleasing accuracy, the automated leaps fail to match Mirror’s Edge’s tactile movements. Meanwhile shooting controls, though editable, are often twitchy (especially on mounted weapons) and lack the kind of visual feedback enjoyed in better examples of the genre.

As a new IP in a genre with limited but established console competition, Brink is awkwardly placed between the charm and personality of Team Fortress 2 and the military grit of Quake Wars, failing to carve out a memorable identity for itself. Despite the promise, Brink fails to capitalise on its good ideas and rarely pushes beyond mediocrity.

First things first, a frank admission: There are those that genuinely believe Dead or Alive to be a serious competitive fighting game, capable of going toe to toe with the likes of Virtua Fighter, Tekken, Street Fighter and King of Fighters. I am not one of those people. The strike-throw-hold triangle system has all the subtlety of the spherical silicon fun bags that titivate the cast, leaving character selection chiefly down to who has the most abusable multi-level crush moves, with little emphasis on balance or individuality.

La Mariposa led the charge of luchadors in fighting games -- they're now a staple of nearly every major series.

Yet there is always room for the pulp amongst the pretension, and Dead or Alive has never been afraid to let its hair down in the pursuit of instant gratification. From the arcade original, all the way through to successive Xbox iterations, it has succeeded in delivering cutting-edge visuals, fast-paced exchanges and responsive gameplay. Focusing on fun factor over pesky balance concerns has allowed the series to be more experimental than its po-faced rivals – environmental hazards, dynamic arenas and hectic four-player tag battles are just some of DoA’s triumphs. And if all else fails, there’s always tits.

So why the history lesson when there’s a shiny new 3DS iteration begging for attention? Well there’s the rub. DoA Dimensions is a history lesson, squeezing the last fifteen years of DoA conflict onto a card no bigger than a nipple. Essentially built on a modified version of 2005’s DoA4 system, Dimensions pools every character in the series to date, including the series trademark overpowered bosses, but obviously excluding Halo’s Spartan-458.

Each character has nearly 50 figures to collect and pose in as many suggestive ways as your imagination can muster.

At the centre of this battle royale is chronicle mode; a chronological recounting of the Dead or Alive saga’s narrative events all the way from the first game to the fourth. Putting you in the shoes of each game’s protagonists, chronicle blends previous games’ FMV cut-scenes with exclusive new real-time story sequences as you gel together the entire tale, from Raidou’s betrayal to Helena’s reclaiming of DOATEC. Bizarrely this takes place over five chapters, and as the story resolves itself by chapter four (as per game), chapter five is redundant and reuses previous cut-scenes while adding nothing new to the story.

While the previous titles’ FMV cut-scenes are presented in their usual glory (with varying degrees of codec clarity it must be said) the real-time scenes lack any facial animation, and with the chatter incessant as it is, it really stands out. As a story delivery vehicle it’s successful, answering any lingering questions you might have about character motivations, rivalries and the like, but then your enjoyment of this is going to be largely dependent on how much the DoA story does for you. For most people, this won’t be a great deal.

Team Ninja hopes you like Kasumi as there are three variants of the ninja lady to choose from.

Arcade and Survival modes dispense with the drama and offer a straight-forward combat experience with a variety of courses and unlockables, but it’s Dead or Alive’s once-thrilling tag team mode that’s undergone the greatest change. Now, rather than one player controlling both characters in the tag battle, the CPU handles your partner. I intentionally refer to it as the CPU rather than AI as it displays no semblance of intelligence whatsoever. Your partner will routinely stand vacantly absorbing hits forcing you to switch back in, forgoing any health-replenishing rest you had in mind.

Worse still is the lack of dedicated tag button, with practically any direction or button you press resulting in an unwanted tag to your dim-witted partner, regularly overlapping commands, making move execution an exercise in frustration. It’s a pity to see one of the series’ strengths ruined for absolutely no sensible reason.

The unlockable costumes don't feature quite the level of fan service as previous games in the series and the trademark bounce is less prominent on Nintendo's hardware. There are still scenes like this however.

Showcase mode gives you the option of creating your own dioramas using collectable figurines and taking snaps of them that you can view in a 3D photo album, though it joins many other 3DS titles than use 3D in conjunction with the gyroscope in meshing two contradictory features that refuse to play nice together. The same could be said of the game’s entire approach to 3D, as running the game as Nintendo intended halves the frame rate to a very beat ‘em up unfriendly 30fps. Keep that slider turned to empty however and Dimensions shines with crisp, detailed models kicking and punching their way through beautiful backdrops at a consistent arcade-spec 60fps.

The majority of the series’ iconic environments make the cut, albeit without the full range of topographical variation, and some of the more processor-intensive arena such as DoA 4’s dinosaur-filed Experimental Playground are understandably absent. The Geothermal Power Plant stage is the product of Nintendo and Team Ninja’s Metroid: Other M collaboration and Ridley’s meddlesome interference makes for a neat Easter egg, even if it’s introduced with little to no fanfare.

Tag throws are the highlight of tag mode. The CPU partner ruins most oher aspects.

Dimensions convincingly parries that most perennial of portable fighting game problem – controls. Due in no small part to the inherent ease of the series’ controls to begin with, the full range of moves are simple to execute, and even if you do find a particularly complex command, the bottom screen allows touch screen access to the complete list of your character’s move set. DoA’s trademark hold system has been refined once again with the active window for successfully countering a strike returning to DoA 3’s generous levels, following the more demanding fourth game.

Local and Internet versus modes are present, but were sadly unavailable for testing at the time of review, though Team Ninja’s head ninja Yosuke Hiyashi has promised it uses the very same net code as DoA 4 — hardly a ringing endorsement. As with any fighting game, this is where the majority of your time should be spent and with online stability such an unknown quantity, your purchasing decision should perhaps take into account how many DoA-committed friends you have.

Following a decade of Microsoft exclusivity, this greatest hits compilation might well make a greater splash in its homeland by appearing on a more Japan-friendly console, and if this leads to a true fifth chapter in the series it will have served a good purpose. DoA is at its best when pushing consoles to the limit with cutting-edge tech, and sadly not only does the 3DS tech fail to offer anything relevant to the series but we’ve seen all the content before too. However, for fans this is a very complete package, and for newcomers, it’s an accessible and well presented fighting romp.

If ever there was a platform that deserved a level-based puzzler full of charm and polish, it’s the iPhone. Trudging through the top games list on the App Store always reminds me of grocery shopping: it’s not particularly exciting, and all the produce looks the same, but you feel it’s necessary nonetheless. So then, the average consumer would be forgiven for writing World of Goo off as another Angry Birds or Cut the Rope. Thankfully, any gamer who frequents these parts will know that isn’t the case.

Not a whole lot has changed since World of Goo’s debut on the PC and Wii back in 2008, but for newcomers, I’ll explain. In short, the player must assemble a construct to get from A to B using a number of viscous blobs (“gooballs”) that act as architectural joints. In each level, you’re given a set number of said gooballs, with the aim to use as few as possible whilst avoiding the obvious traps en route to a pipeline that represents the exit. The difference in this iOS edition, however, comes not from the game, but from the hardware format itself. You may find yourself wondering, as I did, why this wasn’t released for a portable device sooner. Granted, the game was fantastic on its initial platforms, but for me, it suffered from being addictive and – dare I say it – casual, without the ability for the user to play it anywhere other than in the comfort of their own home. The opportunity to clutch your phone under a bus shelter and traverse through just one more level of glorious, liquiform engineering really brings with it a whole new outlook on what it is that makes World of Goo so enjoyable.

Part of the fun comes merely in the design: well-crafted levels with an inviting difficulty curve are perfectly suited for enticing players forward (a rare thing for the platform, I’d say), and the crafty do-it-yourself leaderboard adds replayability, as the player is forced to return to levels to collect every last gooball (aptly named Obsessive Completion Distinction). You could argue that after 2 years, 2DBoy should have included a few extra levels as an incentive for players of the original to re-purchase, but I found I was more than happy to rekindle my addiction without the promise of new content. That’s the kicker with World of Goo, it shares that Tetris attitude of “just one more go” without leaving the bad taste in your mouth you get with Angry Birds or SelfHarmville Farmville.

The sound design is top-notch too, from the enigmatic Elfman-esque intro theme, right down to the glorious rubbery squeal of each balloon gooball. But it’s fitting when you consider the art direction and presentation. Seldom are indie titles as inspired as the realm created in World of Goo: the gooballs with their animated eyes; the structures with their buoyant fragility; the dry wit of the “Sign Painter” – it all comes together to deliver a charming experience that is currently unrivalled on the iOS platform.  

It is, however, initially apparent that the touch screen controls (whilst providing some level of added interactivity) come at a rather heavy price: you’ll find your finger obstructs a fair amount of the screen during play. As some may recall, the game often requires delicate and accurate control, and as a result, it can lead to frustrating unforced errors. But personally, I found it became less of an issue the more I progressed, and frankly – when taking the hardware into consideration – the developers really had no alternative.

What’s astonishing about World of Goo though, is the simple fact that it’s merely £2.99. At that price, it completely goes against the current trend of labelling iPhone games as second-rate or “disposable” (as Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime recently put it), and stands testament to the idea that cheaper gaming should be just as much a part of the industry as AAA titles and £40 retail releases.

World of Goo is out now for all iOS devices.

Sanctum is probably best thought of as a first person shooter blended up with a generous spoonful of real time strategy. The player takes the form of a nameless avatar equipped with three weapons: an assault rifle, a sniper rifle and a freeze gun. This arsenal, plus a myriad of stationary towers arranged into a formidable maze of death, is all that stands between the player and certain destruction. Sort of. The goal of the game isn’t really laid out other than “Don’t let monsters get to this point.” But that’s good enough for the StarCraft Tower Defense generation, and damned if it isn’t good enough for us too.

The tower defense element of Sanctum is very basic, while still being deep enough to be enjoyable. Towers can only be built on top of blocks, and blocks can only be built on designated blue squares. There is a certain element of mazing involved, but the maps are structured in such a way that it’s more blocking than mazing. Putting a block down to bar enemies from taking a certain path and forcing them to enjoy the scenic route is the standard strategy for most levels. Occasionally a level will simply be a grid of building squares but the blocks are so big compared to the units that only basic mazing strategies can be used. If Sanctum falls short anywhere, it’s here. My fondest memories of tower defenses all involve incredibly complex mazes but unfortunately there’s no room for them in Sanctum.

As with most tower defense games, Sanctum comes equipped with a few varieties of towers that can be upgraded to increase their damage and range. Also common to many other tower defenses are varying enemy types, and while Sanctum certainly does have varying enemy types, they’re anything but common. Instead of resorting to using different tower damage and enemy armor types that tediously need to be matched up, the distinctiveness of Sanctum’s enemies come from their sizes and movement speeds. Each enemy also has a weak spot that the player can shoot for extra damage.

The first person shooter aspect of Sanctum is pretty basic, but it almost feels like it needs a level of simplicity, what with the player having to simultaneously manage their towers. The same currency that is used to build and upgrade towers can also be invested in the player’s firearms to power them up. The player needs to level up their weapons at some point, or else the game becomes almost impossible.

Sanctum is a pretty fun game. In addition to the single player missions there’s also a cooperative multiplayer component and a whole list of achievements to be… achieved. It will only run you $14.99 on Steam, so if you have any interest in the tower defense genre, Sanctum is definitely worth a look.

Elements of War is a real time strategy game that attempts to combine modern warfare with futuristic elements, such as power armor and vehicles that can turn the force of the weather against your enemies. While this is supposed to be the selling point for the game, the weather weapons are far too rarely used (at least in the seven or so hours I played) to actually motivate the player to continue with the story.

Upon deciding to start the game, the player is treated to a cut-scene very reminiscent to the load-screen cinematics present in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. While in CoD we are treated to some enjoyable dialogue, with Elements of War we are forced to endure three plus minutes of a script that was clearly lost in translation. Many of the onscreen subtitles lack proper grammar and quite often the dialogue doesn’t even match. Going back to the Call of Duty comparison one final time, in CoD the game is actually loading, but with Elements of War is just looks like it is. After the cinematic we are treated to yet another loading screen.

The gameplay mechanics for Elements of War are also incredibly clunky and hard to use. Instead of allowing the player to move their point of view by mouse-ing to the edge of the screen, as almost every RTS before it has, Elements of War forces you to use the WASD keys. Interestingly enough, there is also no way to rebind gameplay keys. The mouse I was using to play with didn’t have a middle mouse button, so for the entirety of the campaign I was unable to change my camera angle.

Selecting units is fairly standard; you can either click on a unit or drag a selection box around a group of them, however selecting units out of a group is next to impossible. Each unit has a unique special ability and it is often necessary to select a specific unit and use its ability. Upon choosing your single unit, all other selected units are dropped and the player has to drag around them all again.

Along with some major gameplay issues there are also many smaller subtleties that conspire against the player. Alone, any of these smaller issues would probably go unnoticed but Elements of War continuously piles them on and they eventually become overbearing. Perhaps most noticeable is the lack of any sort of sound level balancing. After adjusting the volume to a comfortable level for the dialogue in a cut scene, the scene will abruptly switch to a firefight which is so loud it becomes impossible to hear the dialogue. Another niggling issue is that soldiers will play idle sounds while they are standing still (e.g. sniffling or farting). This isn’t really a problem, except for the fact that those sounds continue to play over cut scenes. Combined with the American soldier’s inexplicable Russian accents and it becomes impossible to take anything seriously.

Overall, Elements of War feels like some old RTS from the early 90’s. The clunky controls, uninteresting story and frustrating gameplay elements make it almost impossible to enjoy. While the weather controlling vehicles are fairly neat, they don’t really make the game enjoyable or fun to play. Returning to the old, busted car metaphor, it’s like having a brand new radio in that car. Sure it’s enjoyable, but it doesn’t change the fact that the exhaust is battered, the windscreen is cracked and the battery is leaking onto the floor.

For me it was because of the arguably still-unmatched Half-Life 2 series, combined with the first Portal – one of the most pleasant surprises to come out of any studio in this generation of gaming.

While the first Portal introduced players to the series’ now-trademark wit, charming art style and most importantly, the best 3D puzzle-solving action gaming ever conceived, ultimately it felt like rather a small, if perfectly formed little game.

And there’s a good reason that Portal 2 has taken this long to surface. It’s Valve we’re talking about here – and Valve seldom does things half assed.

GLaDOS is one of gaming's best loved characters. Will she still have the attitude this time around?

Portal 2 not only lasts as long as most any other full-price release you could mention these days, it also feels like a full-price epic in terms of its awesome production values, fantastic audio visual presentation, much broader art style, settings, characters and more developed narrative than the original ever set out to accomplish.

It’s one of the few games this year I was really excited about and after losing a night of decent sleep literally dreaming about how to solve one of the game’s trickier puzzles, I’m pleased to say I’m not disappointed.

My fear was that Valve would just offer some rehashed puzzles we already got in the original, tack on some random gameplay mechanics, while investing a bit more time, money and manpower to soup up the graphics and sound… but not much else.

You'll see a more diverse set of environments in Portal 2.

Well… they certainly souped up the graphics and sound. There are some scenes in this sequel that really blew me away. The whole art style of the game retains the character and charm of the original but does it real justice with a more elaborately constructed world and a richer palette, which features several further types of environment than we found in the clinical-looking box-world from before.

Admittedly most time is spent in Aperture’s “test chambers” (though even these exude a lot more personality than before, because of the decay that has occurred in the unknown amount of time since the first game was set), but you will also see jungle-like and factory-style settings that border on Pixar-like beauty at times.

And sure, some gameplay elements have been added, but fortunately not randomly tacked on. Just as every gameplay element was perfectly realised in the level design of the original, so too is the new stuff in Portal 2.

There are three different coloured “gels” (that look like big blobby coloured paint) that when applied to certain surfaces (often via portal use, obviously) produce different effects – running faster on red, jumping higher from blue, and the ability to convert many non-portal-able surfaces to portal-able ones using white.

The creative direction Valve's taken with Portal 2 can't be gleamed from screens and videos alone. The way story, characters and game experience come together is masterful.

Several other strange and funky new mechanics have been added but I think it makes most sense to let players discover them for themselves, because this stuff is better experienced than explained. Rest assured: it all works wonderfully in gameplay and puzzle-solving terms, and is exactly the kind of serving I was looking for above and beyond what I already got from the original. If you’re worried about just replaying the same levels or that Portal 2 might be more about nostalgia than innovation, don’t be.

Special mention must go the game’s audio production, which just like previous Valve work, is really outstanding. The soundtrack on the whole is suitably epic and on some levels, where tension is starting to build, the behaviour of (often essential off-screen) gameplay elements even affects the chords of the music, which is really proper next-gen audio production, folks.

But the audio also benefits in a BIG way from the excellent contribution of famous UK actor Stephen Merchant (of The Office fame) alongside the returning voice of GLaDOS, as well as the (at least to me) surprise introduction of J.K. Simmons (you know, the newspaper editor in the Spider-Man movies, and the CIA supervisor in Burn After Reading).

This cast comes together unbelievably well as it interacts with the Freeman-like silence of singleplayer character Chell not only in terms of casting and voice acting, but in terms of narrative as we continue to learn more and more about the personalities, stories and histories of this bizarre group, even after the game is finished. The cocktail Valve has come up with on this front is, simply, creative genius.

Plenty of surprises await.

While I did get stuck on two levels in the immensely entertaining singleplayer (for which I think Valve should consider a “hints” option after a very large amount of time in a level passes, or if less skilled players choose to play on an “easy” setting), I’d still easily put the single player at 8 hours+ even for players who don’t get stuck much. Challenge on the whole is rewarding, and about the same as the first game.

And when every level is so well realised, that makes this a smart, stimulating singleplayer experience that’s absolutely not to be missed.

Ed already discussed much of what works well in multiplayer in a separate feature, so I’ll take the easy option of echoing that – really this helps complete a superb end product from Valve. Having said that, while I appreciate the Directors’ Commentary that’s been included, it would have been nice to see some sort of time trials or other play-through extras to add longevity.

Buy it. For science.

Portal 2 is also the reason why, with talk concerning Half-Life 2: Episode 3 once again hotting up recently, I have new faith that the series’ send-off will not only be fantastic but hopefully a whole lot more than we got in the first two brilliant episodes.

At a time when so many games just look and feel more and more the same to me, Portal 2 is unique and wonderful. Clearly it’s going to be one of the best sequels in gaming this year, and it won’t surprise me to see people saying it’s the one they liked best.

Buy it on PC, Steam, Xbox 360 or PS3. (Xbox 360 version tested).

In Tom Clancy’s world, the Ghost Recons are the top forces within the U.S. Army.  It’s their job to prevent a war from breaking out in the face of corrupt presidents and politics.

But it’s not your usual Ghost Recon FPS that you’d find on consoles. This is a turns-based strategy game, where you take it in turns against the computer or in multiplayer mode to move your army. I’m glad Ubisoft took this approach because honestly, I don’t think FPS games work too well on the DS.

Although the top-down graphics aren’t up to much or even particularly clear, this doesn’t detract from the brilliant and addictive gameplay.

In the main Campaign Mode, the harder the setting you choose to play it on, the more XP you gain for your recruits as you upgrade and level up your army with better equipment and health. You have six recruits to choose from, and during some missions you may only get to take four of them with you – so choose wisely, as each recruit has different skills and attributes. 

There’s also a Skirmish Mode, where you can choose any unlocked singleplayer  mission, as well as a solid multiplayer mode where you get to share the same DS and take it in turns with a friend, controlling an army and fighting against one another. 

There’s quite a lot on offer here and the Campaign is REALLY long too, which is not to be sniffed at in times when a few minutes can pass before the credits are rolling.

So what about the 3D feature?  Well to be honest, the 3D is all very unnecessary in this game; you can’t really tell it’s even on that well, and I don’t see why you would even want it on in a game of this style – the graphics are small and everything is top-down, so it’s not like the graphics have something to prove.

I feel the game could be improved with an online Wi-Fi feature for people to play against other players’ armies, and it would have been nice to include the 3DS’s Play Coins feature so that players could unlock new maps or skins for their army.

Shadow Wars it is a long, addictive and mature game – but it won’t appeal to everyone, and if you’re after a quick fix it might not be for you. Also, this is one for the adults more than the younger players for it does include some mild violence and it can be often quite difficult.