The new Red Dead Redemption trailer officially unveiled yesterday is fresh evidence of one thing: when it comes to turning an awesome setting, imaginary or otherwise, into an awesome game, Rockstar has no rival.

It’s a gift that should, nay, must be shared among less talented members of the development community. Many’s the time I’ve said, or read, or written a variation on the phrase “love the world, shame it’s no fun to play”. Here are five existing game settings that could benefit from the Big R’s magic touch. At least one of the choices is going to make you facepalm, but hey – horses for courses, and all that.

Callisto, from G-Police (1997)

That the G-Police franchise failed to survive the leap to the PlayStation 2 era is one of life’s great tragedies, right up there with Nelson Mandela’s imprisonment and boot-cut jeans going out of fashion. This game pre-empted Grand Theft Auto III in many respects: while hardly as dynamic or detailed as Liberty City, its grubby yet grand Blade-Runner-ish domed colonies were the first taste, for many, of what 3D open world gaming had to offer.

The Caribbean, from Sid Meier’s Pirates! (1987, remade 2004)

OK, so giving this classic blend of sailing and strategy an unequivocal thumbs-down would be more than most right-thinking gamers could stand, but there’s no denying it could do with a new coat of paint. Given Rockstar’s successes in the field of motorised and (if Redemption’s anything to go by) horseback transport, I’m dying to know what they could achieve with galleys, frigates and dreadnoughts.

Pandora, from James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game (2009)

Ubisoft’s take on Cameron’s CGI-tastic sci-fi epic isn’t the stuff dreams are made of, which is a shame given the riotous colour and vibrancy of the alien jungle environment. Those giant organic tapestries of island-sized granite deserve better.

Nosgoth, from Soul Reaver: The Legacy of Kain (1999)

Another old PlayStation warhorse fallen on hard times. The Legacy of Kain series boasts one of the most elaborate, wordy and gothic mythologies ever to send you fumbling for your school copy of the Oxford English Dictionary, and its immense, vaporous, ghoul-haunted crypts, temples and castles are appropriately laden in backstory. The game itself was a mixed bag, though, and its sequels have failed to best it.

Ivalice, from Final Fantasy XII (2006)

OK, so I’m going to get no end of stick for this one. While enjoyable enough, for me Final Fantasy XII was too bedded in repetition and hands-off MMO-style battling to be truly stellar. The realm of Ivalice, though, is like all my childhood fantasies rolled into one (well, the fantasies I can talk about in decent company). Go on, Take Two – get yourself bought out by Square Enix and put Dan Houser forward as a senior producer.

And that’s five for five. Are there any you’d like to add, readers?

If you want to be taken seriously in the business world, it pays to keep one eye on the Next Big Thing – or rather, whatever you think the Next Big Thing might be. According to Microsoft, it’s Project Natal and the chance to high-kick Fulgore and your prized IKEA floor lamp simultaneously. According to Sony, it’s Blu-ray, or Home, or CELL, or telling your PS3 to put the kettle on over a PSP wireless connection. Nintendo is doubtless pinning its hopes on Wii Motion Plus 2 Multiplied By 3.41 To The Power Of 7.

And Ubisoft? Ubisoft thinks the future lies in making a computerised Sigourney Weaver’s wrinkles look like they’re protruding from the surface of the TV. That’s right folks, it’s the magic of three dimensions. The 1980s officially never happened.

SURPRISE.

I’m being more than a little facetious here, naturally. Today’s high definition 3D technology is to the kitsch paper glasses of Michael Jackson’s heyday what a jetpack is to a hot-air balloon. Shame then that we weren’t able to test the associated functionality in James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game, based on and produced in tandem with the long-awaited film of the same name, my trusty personal flatscreen being woefully short on firepower. A complimentary 3D-enabled set would be nice if you’re going to make a habit of this sort of thing, Ubi.

My first thought on firing up the Xbox 360 version was that Avatar looks absolutely fine without 3D, thank you very much. Ubisoft Montreal has transplanted the film’s Predator-esque, fruit-loops-on-gun-metal art direction to the humble confines of a DVD9 in spectacular style, with a color palette which puts the original incarnation of the Dunia engine, Far Cry 2, to shame. You’ll definitely get more pith out of those graphical melons if you pick the Na’vi, with their vibrantly cheesy tribal décor, over tedious old utilitarian homo sapiens, but whichever way we cut it this is a treat for the eyes.

Presumably a morale-raising visit from David Milliband is imminent.

The Na’vi and humanity, with player character “Able” Ryder ranking among the latter, are warring over the tropical fastness of Pandora, an extra-solar planet known for its carnivorous flora and improbable panoramas of dangling, vine-enmeshed boulders. Humanity is in it for the raw materials, while the Na’vi are in it because they happen to live there. No, it doesn’t take a genius to work out where the old moral compass is pointing, and real world analogies are only a Wikipedia page away.

To function more effectively in the toxic Pandoran atmosphere, the RDA have developed a method of downloading human brain patterns to the body of a genetically engineered Na’vi, letting their soldiers do battle from the comfort and security of a psychic link-up couch. This is oh so very meta, of course, and might have been expanded into a critique of the politics of commandeering a digital personality, but the script soon nosedives into that hoary old dilemma, cherished among action filmmakers, of whether to follow your conscience or stay loyal to your origins.

The cinematic version of Avatar may well have collapsed under the weight of its own colossal hype machine if it weren’t for the fact it comes from the man that bought us Terminator, Aliens and Titanic (don’t laugh, it cleaned up at the Oscar’s). This man deserves our trust.

The video game has no such weight of expectation, with your average game-to-film adaptation serving as little more than a device to separate film fans from the contents of their wallet. We caught up with Avatar: The Game’s lead script writer Kevin Shortt to learn how it will defy all expectations.

Set for release only scant weeks before the film, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game (JCA: TG from here on) is set two years before the events of the movie and Shortt assures us there won’t be any spoilers. Expanding on the same conflict between the recklessly explorative humans and the three meter tall blue-skinned environmentalist warriors, the Na’vi, JCA: TG is set on the Na’vi home planet of Pandora. You take the role of Abel Ryder, a signal specialist for the RDA (Resource Development Administration), a human-run mega-corporation concerned with farming the universe’s resources.

The Scorpion ship packs great explosive power and tears through Pandora's lush environments.

Your role as signal specialist is to track down the source of an unknown signal believed to be a sacred site of the Na’vi people. The Na’vi are wise to your intrusive human ways and have set about finding the sacred site too, prompting a race to uncover the secret that may tip the balance of the war in favour of its finder.

Shortt is keen to emphasise Cameron’s willingness to create a fully-functioning narrative that will compliment the movie: “He didn’t want to recreate the events of the movie in a game”. Instead the game is designed to expand the universe and explore the world of Pandora and its indigenous life-forms from another perspective. This was achieved by Cameron’s decision to commission Ubisoft with the game at the earliest possible stage. “Work began on the game three years ago when we were granted unprecedented asset access, including the full script,” says Shortt. “We have wanted for nothing”.