There’s a key line of dialogue towards the beginning of Hunted: The Demon’s Forge, a pivotal point in the game’s opening hour. Big sweaty bald man Caddoc and foxy Elf chum E’lara are strolling through a ruined temple one morning when they’re accosted by an enormous pair of spectral bosoms.

“Hi you guys, I’m Seraphine,” husks the enormous pair of spectral bosoms, not in precisely those words. “See that funny green crystal on the plinth with the skeleton slumped against it? That’s a deathstone, and it can bring you unimaginable riches and power. Why don’t you pick it up?”

Our heroes glance at each other. “But it’s a deathstone,” ventures Caddoc, after a pause. “Next to a dead body.”

Erik Wolpaw could have done more with the material, but I chuckle nonetheless, and that chuckle says a lot. To be precise, it says: “Thank the gods. Hunted: The Demon’s Forge may be a game where sultry waifs who have trouble seeing their own belly buttons foist ominously-named artefacts on passers-by. It may be a game with runes and loincloths and monsters that look like wrestlers draped in radioactive Pot Noodle.

“And it may be a game where the man speaks Cockney because dude, that’s way manlier than regular English, while the woman talks posh because mate, everybody knows that elves are posh. But it retains just enough wit and insight to realise how truly ludicrous all this truly, truly is.”

When VGD spoke to InXile Entertainment president Matt Findley last March about the Californian studio’s new action role-player, he was careful to distinguish between Hunted’s “dark fantasy” and the so-called “high fantasy” of games like Baldur’s Gate. The difference will probably be lost on those to whom one set of pointy ears or hats is much like another, and when Findley splits hairs during our hands-on months later, observing that Hunted is towards the “darker end” of dark fantasy, we’re tempted to roll our eyes and suggest he turn the gamma up.

Despite his size and strength, Caddoc's a cautious fellow.

Actually, InXile is quite right to labour the point. High fantasy is magisterial, severe in its parsing of lore, humourless. But dark fantasy – dark fantasy can afford to crack jokes, and therein lies its redeeming value. Zooming in on the grubbily amoral and ingloriously violent aspects of fantasy’s founding myths creates a marvellous potential for absurdity. Take Hunted’s serial mistreatment of non-player characters – beloved of RPGs like Dragon Age, they’re lucky to last a minute here before the hammer comes down.

At one point in our session, for instance, an imposing bloke in a horned helmet instructs Caddoc and E’lara to commandeer an Orc – sorry, a Wargar catapult before it wipes the town of Dyfed off the map. He then follows the pair into the main square and dutifully walks under a falling house, expiring in a puff of dispersing organs.

Caddoc and E’lara are a good fit for such brutally unfeeling comedy: they’re mercenaries, wandering Hunted’s sumptuously arrayed world with no higher aim than making money, and when Seraphine’s dad, the grotesquely obese mayor of Dyfed, proposes that they scour the catacombs for the source of the Wargar threat, haggling quickly commences. By this stage Caddoc and E’lara have already (secretly) agreed to collect magical crystals for Seraphine herself, trading them for new abilities and magic by interacting with the wisps of unearthly light that dot the path ahead.

Hunted may look like a meat-grinder, a ham-fisted experience-cruncher in the old dungeoneering tradition, but the level structure is redolent of latter-day third-person action titles like Gears of War – a cinematic corridor where sword-fights and brain-ticklers jostle for a share of your attention. Nor does it suffer from the comparison – indeed, there are things Epic’s designers could learn from this game, like how to make room for exploration without losing your thread.

Entering Dyfed’s lower levels, Caddoc and E’lara encounter an enchanted door shaped like an enormous stone head, which hints at the legendary door-opening properties of a certain blue flame. A single side-passage soon leads us to the phenomenon in question, but it also takes us past a secondary objective – a tomb packed with tasty mythical weapons, unlocked on production of four mystic runes.

Pushing a little further down the passage, which eventually loops round to the talking door, we find the runes tucked into crevices and alcoves (along the way, Caddoc narrowly escapes being eaten by a giant spider in a solitary burst of QTE mashing). Back at the tomb, there’s a skeletal warrior to duff up before swiping the prize.

By contrast, E'lara's a fiesty one. Don't expect her to keep her distance forever.

Next to such gentle triumphs of arrangement and pacing, the combat can feel a little crude. The shoulder cam shooting seems ill-advisedly prominent for a game set in Ye Olden Days – however buffed, double-buffed or laden with spiky bits, bows and crossbows can’t rival the impact and, well, the bass of gunpowder weaponry. The two-button melee system meanwhile is badly in need of a lock-on of some sort, or failing that a strafe modifier – I’d often find myself turning my back on a foe when I meant to circle him, shield raised against his blows.

That’s thinking about the mechanics in isolation from the co-op functionality, though, on which much of Hunted’s entertainment value is predicated. Caddoc and E’lara skew towards hand-to-hand and ranged combat respectively – her primary weapons are longbows, while he favours cleavers and maces – and set pieces draw out each character’s strengths in simple but successful ways.

There’s a boss battle at the close of our demo, for instance, which kicks off as a cover shoot-out, E’lara stuffing wall-top goons full of exploding purple arrows while Caddoc does his best to look threatening with a bog-standard crossbow. Eventually the Wargar mage at the heart of it all throws a tantrum, descends to ground level and starts teleporting around the arena, tossing fireballs. The balance between partners thus shifts – Caddoc wrecking faces, E’lara reacquainting herself with the beauties of the evasive roll.

If one character is downed, the other has a few seconds to revive him or her by tossing a resurrection vial. Last year, we feared that letting players patch each other’s wounds from afar would take the risk out of splitting up, but in practice, having to face a needy comrade and hit B button during a brawl is engagingly hazardous. Only a handful of healing and resurrection potions can be carried around at once, visible on the character models themselves in a Dead-Spacey twist. All told, anybody worried that InXile has taken the easy way out with co-op should quit their wittering.

Besides the old revival juice, the glue holding Caddoc and E’lara together is magic. Lightning bolts and tornadoes have obvious applications, but you can also use them to power up or “battle-charge” your partner, which is probably a good way to forge lasting relationships online. Elemental spells also facilitate tag-team moves, because nothing says “let’s go for a pint afterwards” like turning somebody to ice so your mate can shatter them with a hammer.

Co-op is available in online and splitscreen flavours. Apparently there's a level creator waiting in the wings, too.

Actually, Hunted’s handling of spells tells you a lot about the game as a whole – about its blend of cleverness and stupidity, of cliche, meathead action, black irony and elegance. Fireballs are the “default pistol” in a wizard’s arsenal, but the ones you’ll call on here behave just a little differently – they roll like grenades, and require a touch more finesse of the player than is usual.

And when you’re working in genre fantasy, and attracting comparisons with the likes of Gears of War, those little flashes of individuality are crucial. Hunted won a few headlines last year by promising to “bring back” the classic dungeon-crawler, but we’re more excited, in the end, by how InXile has brought it forward.

Hunted: The Demon’s Forge is out on 1st June in the UK and 3rd June in the US.

The English-language version is due on the American wing of PSN next month, but for those of you who just can’t wait to play a disc-free version of what is undoubtedly one of the good’uns in Square Enix’ hit-and-miss series of epic RPGs, well, Final Fantasy IX is now officially available for download from the Japanese PlayStation Store.

Weighing in at 1550MB (the original was split across four discs) and costing 1,500 yen, everything about the reappearance of FFIX a decade on from its original release says “BIG ADVENTURE”. Thing is, have you even finished FFXIII yet?

I’m not the hugest fan of White Knight Chronicles, but this trailer still raised a smile.

The game cuddles up to UK PS3s at the end of the month.

Here’s the first teaser for Fallout: New Vegas, straight from Bethesda’s servers to your Pipboy 3000 (or equivalent). Not much to deduce from this, other than that fascist headgear and 50s crooning are still in vogue.

It’s out in the fall.

You've only got three days to kick his arse, UK readers.

Fact: you’ll enjoy Mass Effect 2 a lot more if you’ve played Mass Effect 1. Going by early reviews, at least. Reportedly, the brawniest of the game’s strong points is its carrying-over of plot dynamics and characters, filling in the picture between the destruction of the Sovereign and Shepard’s reanimation at the hands of shadowy pro-human organisation Cerberus. New allies (and new enemies) are doing the rounds, but you’ll also reunite with former comrades and adversaries, now scattered across the galaxy, visit familiar locales and find answers to some of the original’s pressing questions.

I don’t know about you, reader, but I don’t intend to start this sequel – perhaps Bioware’s best title to date, and a definite GOTY candidate – on the back foot. LevelSkip’s most advanced survey probes have been trawling the ether, scooping up choice Mass Effect haxploits (“Mass Exploits”?) to hasten your progress to the end credits, and thus to a thoroughly well-informed first playthrough of Mass Effect 2.

Don’t read on if you’re a goody two-shoes, or you’re happy to enjoy Mass Effect’s charms at leisure. Do read on if you’re anxious for a glimpse of Miranda Lawson’s underwear.

1 – Print your own credits (infinite cash)

This lucrative work-around is a bit laborious. First, complete the Citadel side-mission involving Dr Michel and her blackmailer. As thanks, she’ll give you a store discount. Avail yourself of it, selling her all your expensive gear. Then trot over to the merchant Expat in the Wards, buy all your gear back at a lower price, return to Michel and sell it again. Rinse, repeat, recline on a bed of cash.

2 – Instant White Knight/Lord of Evil (infinite Paragon or Renegade points)

When you get to the part of the game where Lorik Quinn is deliberating whether testify against Anoleis, it’s possible to chat your way up the morality ladder. Simply approach Lorik once, convince him to testify via fair means or foul, then walk away, walk back, ask him something unrelated, then pick “answer another question” and steer the conversation back to the case. Each time you get him to testify, you’ll bag another 25 Renegade or Paragon points.

3 – From greenhorn to veteran (infinite experience)

In a hurry to bump up your level? Simply chat with Liara the Consort for around a thousand EXP (depending on your progress up to that point), then reload your save and chat to her again. Before long Shepard will be swimming in skill points.

4 – All the armour you can eat (wear any gear irrespective of class)

The most complicated slice of Mass Effect code-trickery of all, but worth doing if only to see fragile pretty-boy Kaiden style some Krogan heavy armor. So here we go: fire up the equipment screen and pick the character you want to equip. Count the pieces of armor from the bottom of the inventory up to the desired item (inclusive). Make a note of the number. Then press X to go to the upgrades screen, and – very quickly – hold Y and press A in succession. If performed correctly, you’ll hear the salvage sound and be prompted to reduce the armor to Omni-gel. Hit B to back out.

You’ll be returned to the upgrades screen, which should now contain duplicated data. Count up from the bottom by the same number of places as before. Now press A to equip the upgrade you’ve lighted upon. Voila, the character should be wearing the “unequippable” armour. Tricky one to get right, this, but persevere.

All these tips apply to the Xbox 360 version – PC users may reap different results. Hope you enjoy Mass Effect 2.

How do you motivate a development team to surpass a game that is the sixth highest rated Xbox 360 exclusive on Metacritic? The answer, apparently, is to promise them booze.

Speaking to VideoGamesDaily at a recent preview event, Mass Effect 2 producer Adrien Cho has revealed that a little “liquid incentive” was required to correct issues with the first game’s textures.

“Early on when we started Mass 2, one of the things we felt we could improve upon was the blurred textures,” he said. “That’s part of the nature of the technology we’re using, but I was like “we’re going to solve that problem.” So I bet my friend – the lead cinematic animator – a case of beer that we will fix that problem.”

“I’ve got a lot riding on that! Aside from the pride, I’ve got some beer to make sure that the game looks a high def and as polished as possible.”

If trailers are anything to go by, Cho’s approach has been successful. Remember: it’s all about the ends, not the means. The game’s out in January next year on PC and Xbox 360. Our interview will be live tomorrow.

As a genre name, ‘dungeon crawler’ doesn’t sound particularly enticing, but as games like Diablo and Baldur’s Gate have proven, spending time trawling through dark and dingy dungeons can actually be a rather pleasant experience. Enter Demon’s Souls – a game so harsh and unforgiving it makes Ninja Gaiden seem tame, yet running through its gloomy and oppressive tunnels is never less than entertaining.

Take the tutorial for example. Demon’s Souls gently coaxes you into getting to grips with its dual trigger combat system – L1 to raise your shield, R1 to strike with your sword – imparting info on it’s online note system (more on which later) and generally letting you carefully dip your toe into its scalding hot bath of unrelenting challenges.

Bring the ruckus. Some battles can get pretty heated.

Dispatch a few weak enemies, learn to parry attacks with your shield – a well-timed press of L2 – and you’ll start to feel fairly comfortable playing Demon’s Souls. That is until the tutorial ends with you entering a room where a giant Vanguard beast just happens to reside. The game hasn’t even properly begun yet, and already you’re being pounded to puree by a 15 foot tall creature with fists the size of houses.

Before entering Demon’s Souls labyrinthine dungeons, you’ll need to build your own character using the detailed editor. As is de rigueur with the majority of character creation tools, there’s an ungodly level of depth, so you can tweak the size and shape of your nostrils until you’re ready to collapse in a quivering, teary wreck. And yet, no matter how long you try to make your creation look good, he or she will invariably become a dopey, vacant-eyed fool. Still, it’s nice to have five million sliders to fiddle with.

Boss characters are fearsome and usually cause instant death. Increasing your soul level is essential to best them.

There are also several classes to choose from, each with varying initial statistics. Pick wisely though, because while a knight might be exceptionally tough and handy in a scrap, his soul level is low, unlike a lowly thief with lesser aptitude in combat whose soul level is much higher. As you’ll quickly discover in Demon’s Souls, it’s good to follow the example of the late, great James Brown and get some soul(s).