Title: Dead to Rights: Retribution

From: Volatile Games

For: PS3

The third-person shooter genre is full of forgettable also-rans that failed to either bring something new to the table or alternatively perform the basics well. Dead to Rights: Retribution is the rebirth of an old franchise and while it does introduce a newish element, the game will undoubtedly be destined to the bargain bins within two or three months.

You play as Jack Slate, a vice cop who is charged with infiltrating the dark criminal underbelly of Grant City. Helping Jack out is his faithful and extremely vicious Husky dog Shadow.

You get to control either Jack or Shadow depending on the situation at hand. Shadow can be used to attack and rip the throat out of enemies while Jack takes cover to regain some health or he can be used to fetch scattered weapons or ammo as Jack can only carry about 2 clips at a time. When he runs out Jack will have to resort to hand to hand combat and perform take-downs or disarm enemies and kill them with their own weapons.

The game has some thrilling moments but just isn’t polished enough and it too repetitive to make it memorable enough to pick up again.

Score 60%

Title: God of War III

From: Sony Computer Entertainment

For: PS3

Kratos returns in this spectacular finale to the highly successful God of War series. And it plays out like any good finale should – with all the characters of the past making an appearance for their final curtain-call along with brand new ferocious monstrosities hell-bent on destroying Kratos’ mission of ultimate revenge.

From the exhilarating opening sequences through the multitudes of evil creatures, mind-bending puzzles, and platforming to the fitting ending, everything is bigger, better, faster, stronger and more grandiose than ever before. Sony haven’t reinvented the series by any means, this is God of War through and through.

Newcomers to the series will struggle as the game does presume that you’ve played at least one game in the series before. Tutorials are kept to a minimum and right from the get-go you will be required to utilise every trick you’ve learned in the past. Later in the game the strategy you use to attack changes from creature to creature. Just button-mashing the same old combo won’t get you far in God of War III.

If you own a PS3 then this is likely to be one of the best games you play this year. It’s a spectacular finale to a spectacular series.

Score 98%

Title: Final Fantasy XIII

From: Square Enix

For: PS3

It’s amazing that a solitary game franchise can make it to its 13^th release and still gave gamers climbing over each other to buy it. There have been some downright awful games amongst those 13, but they’ve got it right Square Enix have produced some of the most memorable games of all time.

I don’t blame you for thinking that there’s not much point in climbing on the Final Fantasy bandwagon at number 13, surely it’d be like starting to watch Lost in the final season, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Final Fantasy XIII is an excellent entry point for the series and in fact the RPG genre in general. It’s accessible, the combat system is somewhat simplified compared to previous games, the story is thrilling and the graphics are truly next generation.

The gameplay is very linear, which is fairly typical of Final Fantasy, but it is intense and the streamlining and innovations in the turn-based combat make it interesting rather than a chore.

I’ve only dabbled in the series since FFX as I became a bit disillusioned with the genre in general, but FF XIII has renewed my interest for a while at least.

Score 90%

Title: Heavy Rain

From: Quantic Dream

For: PS3

Heavy Rain.

Remember those two words, because they mark a particular time in history where gaming took a definite turn towards interactive movies and even real life.

The ‘Origami Killer’ has left a city terrorised and the police are running out of leads. In Heavy Rain you take the role of four different characters (at different times in the game) whose previously unconnected lives will be confronted by the same question: How far are you prepared to go for love?

This stunning and groundbreaking game is essentially an interactive movie where you are constantly making choices. Choices that may be as major as whether to shoot or not shoot, or choices that may be as minor as whether to clean your teeth now or do it later. But rest assured that every choice you make will have an impact on how the rest of the game, and ultimately the ending, plays out.

While choice-making games are nothing new, having it presented in this movie-like fashion and around such a heart-pounding psychological thriller is an edge of the seat experience.

Congratulations must go out to Quantic Dream and Sony for changing the way we view games from this point on.

Score 95%

Title: Aliens vs Predator

From: Sega

For: PS3

Expectations were high for the latest Aliens vs Predator game with some amazing teaser trailers. Unfortunately it could have done with another 6 months to a year in development to polish it off.

You get to play as either the Aliens, Predators or Marines in what amounts to a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors. Each race has their strengths and weaknesses – Aliens are fast, agile and can hide in the shadows; Predators can jump from tree to tree, have firepower from a distance and can go invisible; Marines have an arsenal of weapons, armour and a radar. Then each race has a strength to cancel out one of the others.

So there are three different parallel campaigns to play through – the most fun of which is as the Aliens, however if you’re up for a scare then the Marines campaign is genuinely freaky.

The online multiplayer is where it’s at, with all the standard modes available. I preferred the three-way battles as you needed to approach each enemy differently. However the online player base can be a little sparse at times.

It’s a shame that the game’s potential wasn’t fully realised, perhaps next time, although I feel we’ll all be a bit more cynical in out anticipation.

Score 65%

Title: MAG

From: Zipper Interactive

For: PS3 (exlusive)

Don’t have decent broadband and a PlayStation Network account? Then move along – nothing to see here. MAG is an online multiplayer first-person shooter only. There are no offline single player modes whatsoever, so if you want to have a decent crack at MAG then you’d better bump up that data cap asap.

MAG is billed as a MMOFPS game (that’s Massively Multiplayer Online First-Person Shooter) in which 2 to 256 players can battle it out simultaneously in team-based combat on huge levels.

It can be quite daunting to begin with, seeing so many players on the battlefield at once, but you soon come to realise that teamwork amongst those members who have headsets for communication usually wins the day.

It can be frustrating to be working tactically within a likeminded group, flanking an enemy stronghold only to have some trigger-happy players charge in and ruin the whole game plan. It’s a constant theme though unless you sort out your own clans.

I found there was a heap of intermittent lag in the majority of the games I played, which was annoying even with a decent broadband speed.

MAG is fun however and with a few updates should realise it’s full potential.

Score 75%

Title: Dante’s Inferno

From: Visceral Games/EA

For: PS3

The literary classic Dante’s The Divine Comedy has largely shaped the Western view of Hell for many years. Visceral Games has picked up this epic tale and had some fun with it in producing Dante’s Inferno.

Dante is a young Crusader who becomes disenchanted with war and decides to return to his fiancée in Florence. He finds his house obliterated and fiancée dead outside. As he approaches, Satan appears and drags her soul screaming into the depths of Hell. Your quest is then to carve your way through the horrors of the underworld in an attempt to save your loved one.

If you’ve played any of the God of War series then Dante’s Inferno is a piece of cake. Most enemies can be defeated with a basic attack and the harder ones only require simple combos. There is a decent amount of solid platforming to break up the regular combat too.

Graphically it’s stunning and the violence and gore is shocking at times – as you would expect in Hell. But I’m left wondering how the game escaped an R18 rating.

Dante’s Inferno could have been better, but there will be more games in the franchise to build upon a good start.

Score 75%

Title: Avatar: The Game

From: Ubisoft

For: PS3

It was always inevitable that the groundbreaking movie Avatar would be accompanied by Avatar “The Game”. Had the same amount of effort been put into the game as was put into making the movie such a joy to behold then we may have been looking at a work of art. But alas Avatar: The Game is yet another movie/game cash-in that looks enticing from afar but soon leaves you with a bitter taste in your mouth.

The game serves as somewhat of a prequel to the movie, yet provides little to no backstory – so it’s important to have seen the movie first to fully understand what’s going on. About 45 minutes into the game you are presented with a choice to play as a human with the RDA Corporation – a which point the game becomes a very generic 3^rd person shooter, or play as one of the Na’vi – at which point the game becomes a very generic 3^rd person action/hack-n-slash.

Unlike the movie, there’s no gripping storyline running alongside the action, which means you just don’t become emotionally attached to anything in the game – hence you’re left feeling empty inside as you go through the motions.

Avatar: The Game is definitely a rainy day hire.

3 out of 5

Title: SingStar Take That

From: Sony London Studio

For: PS3

So here we have it, a game that will either have you fizzing with excitement or running for the nearest toilet to lose your lunch.

I was aware that Take That are one of the biggest selling boy-bands of all time (or, middle-aged man bands as they appear now), but I would never have thought they’d have enough recognisable hits to warrant their own SingStar release. To a certain degree, I was right.

There’s 25 Take That tracks included on the disc with high-definition videos where possible. I have no doubt that avid fans of the group will recognise most, if not all of the titles, but personally only half of them rang a bell with me.

A brief glance at what’s on offer includes: Back for Good, Beautiful World, Never Forget, Relight My Fire, Promises, Patience and It Only Takes a Minute.

Fans will love SingStar Take That, but I think it would have been better as a 12 track download from the SingStar Store rather than a 25 track standalone.

Score 65%

Title: EyePet

From: Sony Computer Entertainment

For: PS3

Ok, hands up who used to have a Tamagotchi. Quite a few of you I bet. My hand isn’t up – I couldn’t stand the things, but the virtual pet world has come a long way since those little LCD creatures. Take Nintendogs for example along with many other similar titles, virtual pets have become a very lucrative business.

Now Sony has taken the genre to a new level with EyePet, in which you can physically interact with your furry little pet.

Using the PS3 Eye camera, you place the supplied card on the ground and this is used for multiple purposes. Initially you must hatch your EyePet from an egg by using your hands to sway it back and forth. Coordinating your movements on screen with an object that isn’t physically there takes some getting used to. But once you get a feel for it you’ll be playing with your EyePet all around your room. Teach it tricks, dress it up, groom it, feed it, clean up after it and play minigames too.

EyePet is quite clever albeit frustrating at times and unfortunately the target market for it might get bored before they really get the hang of what it can do.

Score 65%