Crysis Warhead

Platform: PC

If games were sold like detergents, Crysis Warhead would have been called Crysis Concentrated. This is fundamentally a heavily focussed, super-strength version of its predecessor that proves that a little Crysis can actually go further than a lot.

It's a Crysis without all the dull bits. There is less time racing around vast environments, not being 100% sure how to get to the next objectives, while half the North Korean army (not to mention several irritating helicopters) hound you without mercy. There is less time where you feel like you're suddenly stuck in a lesser alien-blasting FPS while dull extra-terrestrial entities bob around. This is still a spectacular Crysis, still a bombastic and hugely macho Crysis, but it's also a more refined and exhilarating Crysis this time round.

The island setting is the same, and the story still revolves around the same events we've seen in the original Crysis. In Warhead, however, the protagonist is Sykes – affectionately and accurately known as Psycho. He's the gritty Brit special forces agent you probably tried to ignore in the cut-scenes last time around.

Having survived the disastrous early stages of that mission, Sykes kicks off as a one-man army attacking North Korean outposts, but soon gets caught up in a search and recover mission centred on a mysterious container. This is what Hitchcock would have called a Macguffin – the object that provides Sykes with the motivation he needs to run through a series of levels, racing from objective to objective to objective to objective.

And this is where Warhead gets interesting. While it pains me to say it, Crysis was sometimes a bit too open, leaving you with patches of exploration or navigation where you fumbled around in search of a route to the next objective, enlivened only by the occasional outpost or patrol.

Warhead follows its predecessor in always giving you room to explore and a whole host of ways in which you might tackle any given situation, but at the same time it uses objectives and geography to provide you with a clear, central path from A to B. Partly as a result, it feels more orchestrated, with each battle flowing on neatly to the next, and the sense of danger (and the difficulty level) steadily ramping up as each chapter pushes towards a natural climax. As a result, there's hardly any dead time. Warhead is all balls-to-the-wall action, all the way.

There's also a sense that Crytek is more in control of the overall structure this time around. Arguably, Crysis – like Far Cry – lost its way a bit two-thirds of the way through. The aliens and the frozen landscapes made for some impressive spectacle, but the action wasn't as exciting as it was when it was just you against the North Korean troops.

In Warhead the aliens are brought in earlier on and they prove much more challenging, working efficiently in groups and behaving more aggressively, even outflanking you or swarming you on occasion. The game also plays smarter in its three-way conflict, providing more battles between Nanosuited North Korean and US forces, US forces vs alien invaders and – best of all – scraps involving all three parties.

Make no mistake: this isn't a game where you can grumble about the lack of set-piece encounters. It would be enough that Warhead repeats the Half-Life 2 trick of making vehicle-based sections interesting. In fact, there's a chase sequence involving a hovercraft that's actually downright thrilling. Yet Warhead goes further – mixing up large, open battles, fights in constricted spaces, bold assaults and last-ditch defences with real aplomb.

There are some stunning examples of what you might like to call boss battles, and yet never in any of this do you feel that you have to do things in the one approved way. If you want to ditch the hovercraft and take that whole level on foot, tackling each enemy on your way, then you'll find it hard going but you should be able to do it. This is without a doubt the most continuously excellent work of FPS level design we've seen since Call of Duty 4 and Half Life 2: Episode 2.

And Warhead also does what I think nobody expected it to do: it actually trumps Crysis for visual spectacle. Now, I'd take some of the talk of lower system requirements with a pinch of salt. Last year, my – at the time – state of the art gaming system (a Core 2 Extreme 6850 with a Asus Geforce 8800 Ultra) coped with Crysis at 1680 x 1050 on high detail levels. The same machine struggled with Warhead at the equivalent settings without a drop in resolution to 1280 x 720 and anti-aliasing switched off. That said, it's worth having the fastest system you can get.

If Warhead 'only' had all the lovely, photo-realistic effects we saw last time around it would still be one of the best looking games on any system, but this time Crytek has worked harder to produce jaw dropping scenery or weird vistas that make strange juxtapositions of the tropical environment, military hardware and the alien ice. Interior sections that might have been drab are enlivened by fantastic lighting or gorgeous little details. It's safe to say that Warhead is a new benchmark by which all other FPS games must be judged.

Admittedly, all this goodness comes at a cost, and that cost is size. Where Crysis was a lengthy game, Crysis Warhead can be whistled through in around five or six hours, depending on your approach and the number of secondary objectives you opt for. To counter this, EA has released it at a bargain £20 (and you can easily get it for less online) and it is a really, really good five or six hours that you'll probably be happy to repeat at a higher difficulty level.

To bolster the value for money aspect even further, Warhead also ships with Crysis Wars: an enhanced version of the Crysis multiplayer client. The deathmatch-style InstantAction and the more complex team-based Power Struggle return, but now they're joined by TeamInstantAction - a more accessible team-deathmatch mode - plus 21 new maps across the three modes. Will this work to elevate Crysis to the level of Call of Duty 4 as a multiplayer game? Probably not, but it certainly makes it a contender for the odd quick blast and – who knows – maybe more players will make more use of their nanosuits this time around?

Even given the short length, this is a must-have for any serious PC gamer. This hasn't been the best year so far for FPS games, but Warhead is so far above every other recent entry in the genre – on any system – that it's practically ridiculous. It's the concentrated crème de la crème de Crysis at a bargain basement price. Really, what else do you need to know?

Verdict

It might be short, but Warhead gives us the juicy, rare steak of Crysis without any of the excess fat. Absolutely essential.

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Dead Space

Platforms: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC - PS3 version reviewed.

Some games make you think that originality is over-rated. Dead Space is a fine example. A heady cocktail of sci-fi and horror games and movies, there's barely a truly new idea to be found in it. Without Alien, The Thing and Event Horizon it would probably never have existed. Without Doom 3, Resident Evil 4, System Shock and Half-Life 2, it's hard to imagine a world with Dead Space in it. Yet despite the fact that you can see so many elements stolen or borrowed, this is a fantastic survival horror game. In fact, it's easily the best in the genre since Resident Evil 4.

You can safely put this down to three things: atmosphere, slick game mechanics and the sort of polish that you wish all games would do their best to emulate. Basically, Dead Space bends over backwards to give you a genuinely scary, suspense-packed and thoroughly enjoyable experience - and that's for everyone, not just the hardcore few who can be bothered to put up with the huge difficulty spikes or frustration that are too often part and parcel of the survival horror game. It's still got enough depth to keep the more ardent gamer happy, but it never does so at the expense of the more casual crowd. I can see a few snobs turning their nose up at this, but I think EA should be congratulated on doing a brilliant job.

The opening gives you a pretty good feel for Dead Space straight away. The setup - troubleshooting team arrives to investigate spacecraft in distress, discovers all hell has broken loose - is pretty much a cliché, yet Dead Space's presentation makes it feel as compelling as any big blockbuster movie. Of course, it helps that Dead Space looks like a big blockbuster movie. EA's in-house engine powers an amazing looking game, with detailed, lifelike characters and environments, awesome real-time lighting and a dizzying array of post-processing and particle effects.

The viewpoint is a variation on the over-the-shoulder view of Resident Evil 4 while the overall style is reminiscent of Doom 3, but that doesn't really do justice to how strong the game looks. It's gloomy, gritty, horrendously gory and the stuff of futuristic nightmares. This is what a next-gen survival horror game should look like.

Perhaps more important than how it looks, however, is how it sounds. I played the majority of Dead Space through headphones and I can honestly say that it's the sort of experience where it's best to wear brown trousers. Things scuttle out of sight through the dark, metallic corridors. You can hear telltale growling or clanking somewhere to your left, shifting past the back of your head and creeping somewhere to the right. When you're under attack from numerous monstrosities - and you will be - the music swells until you can feel a little knot of panic in your stomach.

Meanwhile, the frantic radio and video messages from your team-mates and the audio/video logs you'll discover only serve to accentuate the game's overwhelming fear factor. That's the thing about Dead Space; you've seen or heard all of this before - the dark corridors, the unlit chambers, the logs, the lurking horrors - but EA's game uses the power of the PS3, 360 and PC to take it to a whole new level.

The creatures, meanwhile, are really nasty. Again, there's nothing here you haven't seen before from iD, Valve or Capcom - and at times Dead Space comes frighteningly close to homage - yet these guys gave me the heebie jeebies like I haven't had for ages. EA's one major tweak is to make the vulnerable spots not the usual places, like the head or neck, but the limbs. The fiends advance on your like hell-spawned variants on Mr Tickle, their evil, razor-clawed limbs stretching towards you. Some move fast. Some fling themselves at you. There are little ones that swarm you, medium sized ones that fire projectiles at you from their tentacles, and some genuinely terrifying gits that can't be killed.

Using a range of cutting and slicing projectile weapons, your engineer hero has to - literally - tear these ugly muthas apart limb by limb. For once we're out of the familiar realms of pistol, assault rifle, shotgun, rocket launcher and into a scary new world of plasma cutters, line launchers and rippers. Each has an ingenious secondary fire mode, giving you one of the more satisfying arsenals I've come across in ages.

There's more praise coming: the storytelling and pacing are just excellent, each chapter giving you a series of tasks to do that take you up against new threats and into interesting new territories, and each culminating in a satisfying climax, whether it's a kind of boss battle, a new plot twist or a cool set-piece. Gameplay ideas are rifled from Half-Life 2 (the Gravity Gun), F.E.A.R. (a slow-mo device, though more used in puzzles than combat) and Prey (lots of monkeying around with gravity), but they're all used with a real panache and there are few stretches of the game that could be described as dull or monotonous.

And like the Half-Life saga and Bioshock, Dead Space knows the value of a strong but basically anonymous hero. Isaac Clarke (spot the nods to sci-fi history) doesn't say much, but he makes a great point of identification for the player. Sure, there are moments where you can't help thinking of Doom 3 - Dead Space pulls a lot of the same sudden shock and ambush tricks - but Dead Space is a more consistently thrilling and frightening game. True, it's not as long or as varied as Resident Evil 4. Still, much as I love Capcom's bizarre plotlines and eccentric melodrama, Dead Space feels a little more coherent and believable.

EA has also worked in a lot of mechanics that make Dead Space a more streamlined, absorbing and accessible game to boot. One of the game's cleverest conceits is that Clarke's suit projects a HUD onto the environment, and the game uses this to control all switches, options, information and inventory management without ever dragging you out of the game. Lost? Unsure where to go or what to do? Just click the right thumbstick down and a blue line appears momentarily on the environment, showing you the route to your next objective without patronising you in the way that Perfect Dark Zero's infamous markers were so prone to.

Plus I can barely remember a survival horror game where automatic checkpoints and manual save points are so regularly and sensible placed. You will inevitably die and reload in a game like this, particularly once the ammo and health starts getting scarce in later stages, but will you find yourself repeating long sections over and over until you feel like giving up? Thankfully not.

Not that the game has abandoned the more hardcore gamer. Combine the gravity-gun like telekinetic power and the explosive canisters and sharp objects in the scenery and there's some room to experiment with alternative methods of monster destruction, while a comprehensive system of weapon and suit upgrades gives you a chance to customise your character and play the game your way. We're not talking Bioshock here - let alone System Shock - but Dead Space is a richer, deeper game than first appears.

OK, so there is a little bit of repetition as the game goes on, with the game cheekily revisiting areas you've already been to once the game gets to its halfway stage, though you will see new areas and new creatures and characters which stop the game falling flat. You could also argue that once you're used to the basic gameplay - and you'll have a head start here if you've played Resident Evil 4 - it doesn't do much to stretch you or surprise you, and all those gloomy, industrial spaceship interiors do have a risk of getting dull.

Still, none of this stuff can spoil the incredible sense of raw panic that the game instils. When you're being chased around a room by demonic, clawed creatures, trying desperately to avoid lethal spots of bad gravity, or when you're fighting through a series of airless chambers, watching your supply run down while fending off monsters in a noiseless vacuum, you're not thinking how derivative Dead Space is; you're just in there, fighting for your life.

EA gets a raw deal from a lot of gamers, and often the company deserves it. Content to shove out franchise update after franchise update after lacklustre licensed game, it's been responsible for an awful lot of mediocre games. Dead Space does a lot to redeem this. It's not original and the plot and gameplay tail off a little after an incredible first few hours, but this is still a really great title. The nervous, easily frightened and generally lily-livered should give it a wide berth. Everyone else should get stuck right in.

Verdict

A five star, flesh-crawling, scary sci-fi feast. While you can hardly describe it as original, Dead Space is one survival horror game you shouldn't miss.

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Fable II

Platform: Xbox 360

When Lionhead's Peter Molyneux was promoting the original Fable, he often described the aim of the game as to make you feel like a hero. He didn't mean by this that you would feel like someone else's idea of a hero, but like your own idea. You would create the character and forge his destiny. You would decide whether to be good or evil, and your choices would change the world for better or worse. As you adventured the world would also leave its mark on you, aging you, scarring you, the goodness or darkness within you echoed in your face and body. We would all start Fable with the same small boy, but would end with several million very different heroes, each reflecting who we were and how we played.

Maybe the concepts weren't solid enough, maybe the technology wasn't ready, but Fable only half delivered on that ideal. For all that it was an enjoyable, accessible action RPG, brimming with neat features, it felt too small, the consequences of your actions too obvious or limited, to truly make you feel like a hero who could shape a world. Such was the fuss made about the loss of relatively minor features, like the ability to plant acorns and watch them grow into mighty oaks, that Peter Molyneux has seemed uncharacteristically shy about the accomplishments of this Xbox 360 sequel. Perhaps he needn't have been. Fable 2 is everything Fable should have been, and arguably more.

It's not as radical a reworking as you might think. Fable felt rooted in a tradition of British folk tale and legend rather than the Tolkien-esque high fantasy adopted by so many RPGs, and Fable 2 follows along the same lines. While the kingdom of Albion has its share of misty mountains and gothic ruins, the scenery is dominated by the kind of woodland, town and farmland that fits into a very British rustic idyll. Nor is this necessarily a grimmer, darker tale. Yes, the setting has moved forward 300 odd years and there's a touch of Dickens around the prologue, but the gentle, genre-mocking wit and toilet humour that made the original so unique hasn't disappeared. While Fable 2 has a stronger plot than its forebear and a slightly deeper, more emotional tone, if you want to play the kind of hero who finds breaking wind at a funeral hilarious, then the game will be all too pleased to accommodate you.

So what has changed? Well, clearly the graphics have had a major lift from the move to the 360. The characters are more cartoon-like than realistically detailed, but this is the most breathtaking fantasy world I've seen since Viking: Battle for Asgard, with gorgeous, deliberately overdone lighting that changes to reflect the time of day, rich vegetation and lovely, gleaming water. From the opening winter scenery it's a feast, and Albion rivals Azetoth as a place where you just want to get out, explore and see the world. It's the difference between technical skill and genuine artistry. That's good, because there's a much bigger world to see. Fable 2 doesn't throw it all at you at once, instead drip feeding you new areas as you grow in strength and experience while giving you ample reason to return and see the old ones. Between a useful quest journal and a brilliant trail effect that leads you to your next objective, it's practically impossible to get too lost. Don't worry. You'll still want to get off the beaten track from time to time. Part of the pleasure of the game is finding your own way around and – unlike so many other RPGs – the world is densely packed with villains, varmints and treasures to discover.

This is partly where your dog comes in. Lionhead and Molyneux wanted man's best friend to engage your emotions and give you an experience of unconditional love. That's probably going a bit far, but the dog is certainly a smart and useful little critter, warning you of enemies, fighting at your side, seeking out hidden treasure chests and finding you worthwhile spots where a little digging might bring a big reward. Of course, it helps if you treat the little fellow well, heal him, give him praise and read appropriate canine training literature – you'll be surprised what he can do with a little education. Whatever the dog's value as an emotional focus, he's certainly one of the most ingenious in-game feedback mechanisms I've ever seen.
On top of this, the structure of the game just seems to work better this time around. One of Fable's problems was that all the stuff about living the hero (or antihero) lifestyle still felt a little peripheral. Yes, you could get a wife, buy a house, have kids and treat the family with respect or downright meanness. Yes you could earn a reputation as the saviour or scourge of the common man, making friends or spreading terror wherever you went. But at the end of the day this seemed like the background to a slightly short main storyline which went in much the same direction whatever you did.

In Fable 2 things are different. This stuff isn't part of the game; in a way, it is the game. Earning money as a blacksmith, woodsman or bounty hunter isn't just a sideline activity, it's entertaining in its own right. What's more, without the extra cash you'll struggle to achieve some key objectives. Most of the employment opportunities really come down to very simple tests of timing, but it's surprising how compulsive these can be when you're running short of gold. I knew I was hooked when, at around eight hours in, I'd virtually forgotten about the current main story mission because I was too caught up bounty hunting in order to get enough dough to buy a new home so that my new found wife would stop moaning about our current habitation and settle down and have some kids.

This isn't a game where you're obsessing about your next sword of awesome valour or bracers of intransigence, +1. No, it's the sort of game where you're worried that a diet of pies has made you fat and earned you the title of 'Salad Dodger.' Your reputation matters. Your clothes and hairstyle matter. What people call you matters, and what your family (or families) think of you matters. Outside of a handful of MMORPGS, where the social element always has an impact, I can't think of another game where this is the case.

And while the effect of hero on world and world on hero works in much the same way as it did before, with fairly simple binary good or evil choices that move you in one direction or the other, it's all a bit more convincing this time around. The moral dilemmas actually make you think a bit harder, and there are times when the consequences of an evil act actually make you feel slightly bad about the result (though, personally, I can eat as many crunchy chicks as the Temple of Shadow can dish out). Shout-outs, taunts and acclamations are a little more varied and believable, and the system of mimed expressions you use to communicate with your fellow man and woman give you more options and work more effectively. Whether you're chuffing, grimacing, slapping, posing, seducing or dancing a jig, there's a lot of fun to be had just messing with the local population.

All of this stuff is very exciting, and the development of storyline and missions and the development of your powers are incredibly satisfying. Yet what I think really makes Fable 2 stand out is that it's a game designed for everyone to love. And by that I don't just mean 'everyone who likes action RPGs or fantasy adventure games' but your partner, your casual gaming mates, your Mum and Dad – everyone. It seems that everything is tailored so that you don't have to sweat about the small stuff – the intricacies of the combat system or inventory management – leaving you to get on and enjoy all the big stuff.

Take combat, for example. Where other games would give you a range of buttons and modifiers for different attacks. Fable 2 gives you one button to fire your missile weapon, one button with which you wield your close combat weapon and one button with which to use magic. What attack or block you use or spell you deploy depends entirely upon context and timing. Tap the magic button and it lets loose your basic spell. Hold then release, and you charge your way up through the levels. Through simple taps and holds you can let loose a barrage of slashes, thrusts and parries, impaling fallen foes or sweeping through an enemy's defences with an impressive, unblockable swing. Anyone can pick this up and make it look like they know what they're doing, though you'll get experience bonuses for fighting well. That attitude sums up Fable 2 all over: it's in with the carrot, out with the stick.

The most controversial aspect of this, in a game where instant travel and carefully managed enemy levels already take a lot of the headache out of playing, is that it seems to be impossible to die. Get swarmed by enemies or whacked down by a high-end villain and you'll hop back up, slightly poorer in experience terms, but basically ready to get back in there. Some hardcore gamers – the sort who felt the vita chambers completely ruined Bioshock – are going to complain that this is dumbing down. If it is, then let's have more of it. Not once have I felt like I've wasted time or been frustrated playing Fable 2. The combat is challenging enough to be enjoyable, but the days of loading, saving and returning to base to heal are out of the window. If you stock up on potions and healing foods, it's only because being knocked down is, somehow, a bit embarrassing.

I could go on. There are a dozen more great ideas in Fable 2, ranging from the easy to understand way in which you level up spells and combat skills with experience to the way that context sensitive shortcut controls make it easy to heal yourself or dig a hole without having to wade through inventory screens beforehand. The great thing about Fable 2 is that you don't have to think about these things because somebody at Lionhead has already thought about them for you. All you have to do is get out there, explore, try things out, be good, be bad, be brave, be silly. Just be your own sort of hero, in other words.

In terms of niggles, the only things I can come up with are the odd spots of pop-in and slowdown, and a few moments where my hero or an enemy got stuck on scenery. This is a big game and one you'll be happy to continue with even once the main quest has ended. If you have a 360 or some means of gaining access to Microsoft's hardware, this is one game you really don't want to miss.

Verdict

The most appealing, entertaining and accessible action RPG ever made, rivalling Zelda for side quest tomfoolery, but with a layer of open-world depth that even Nintendo has never aspired to. Finally, Lionhead delivers on its promise.

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Quantum of Solace: The Video Game

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, PC - Xbox 360 version reviewed.

Let's kick off with a big, bold statement: Quantum of Solace is the best Bond video game since Goldeneye.

Unfortunately, we have to follow that statement with a fairly whacking 'however'. Saying that Quantum of Solace is the best Bond video game since Goldeneye is a bit like suggesting that the new Snow Patrol album is the band's best yet. Given the often miserable quality of the preceding material, it doesn't actually mean that it's necessarily all that good. With Quantum of Solace, the team at Treyarch hasn't made as wretched a game as Goldeneye: Rogue Agent or Agent Under Fire, but neither is this the strongest or most imaginative action game you'll play this season. In a nutshell, Quantum of Solace is a solid but slightly dated FPS with a few interesting Bond elements. It's roughly enjoyable, but anyone expecting Treyarch to do for the Bond games what Daniel Craig has done for the movies will go away feeling slightly let down.

The fundamentals aren't bad at all. Treyarch - the developer behind the new Call of Duty: World at War - has been able to base its Bond game on the established CoD4 engine. We've already seen what this can do when pushed and those familiar with the tried and trusted Call of Duty control scheme will have an immediate head start in Quantum of Solace - you'll already have the 'left-trigger aim, right-trigger fire' drill down pat . There are some changes, however. With the focus on Bond and Bond alone, the AI squad mates and cover and advance mechanics that lie at the heart of Call of Duty are no more. Instead, Quantum of Solace is all about cover, with a neat Gears of War/Uncharted style system that snaps you instantly from a standard FPS view to a close third-person view of a digital Daniel Craig ducking for dear life. You can switch from cover to cover using deft taps of the A button, vault over with Y and even dash for safety while running by targetting a suitable spot and holding down A. And while in cover, you target enemies then press the left trigger to pop out and the right trigger to blast. The health system works in much the same way as in Call of Duty 2 to 4, giving Bond a certain air of invincibility, but only if you sensibly retreat when necessary. This is Craig, not Brosnan, after all.

Cunningly, the game doesn't rely on the new Bond film entirely. With the plots of Casino Royale and its sequel so closely tied together and no existing game of the first Craig Bond film, Treyarch has been allowed to integrate sequences based on the former into a storyline based on the new movie. Note, however, that when I say 'based' I mean 'based on the bizarre fantasies of a drunken gun nut who watched Casino Royale on the same night as John Woo's Hard Boiled and got the two mixed up.' Every conceivable scene in Casino Royale has been 'enhanced' by the addition of twenty to ninety armed bodyguards, masked terrorists, corrupt army goons, elite mercenaries, drug smugglers and exploding helicopters. Remember the scene where Bond destroys a science museum in Florida while tackling a terrorist and his mercenary army? How about the one where he spices up a dull train journey with England's most ridiculously gorgeous civil servant (shame about that accent - ed.) to gun down a small army and disrupt a drugs shipment? Or what about the bit where he fills the hotel swimming pool with corpses before setting most of the ballroom ablaze in a series of violent explosions? What? None of these ring a bell? Surely not. Am I to suppose that similar liberties have been taken with the plot of the new movie?

Still, Treyarch has realised that a Bond game shouldn't all be about mindless blasting - it needs a share of stealth and hand to hand combat too. Several missions feature security cameras to avoid or destroy (instantly winning familiarity points with fans of a certain N64 classic) and a handful include sections where sneaking around and using the silenced pistol will give you a much easier time than the standard run and gun approach. Sneaking up behind a terrorist, henchman, etc. will also give you the chance to use a takedown maneuver, as will racing towards a target with the left analogue stick pressed in.

Sadly, hand to hand combat is handled through the medium of quick time event sequences, but I guess it's a way of capturing the gritty, unpredictable style of the fights in the films, and these examples are at least pitifully easy. Not once while playing Quantum of Solace did I lose a scrap due to hard to see prompts or overly draconian time limits. Phew. There's also room for a spot of hacking (automated) and door unlocking (a simple press when prompted puzzle sequence) to make you feel like a modern secret agent, not to mention a spirited recreation of the poisoned drinks sequence from Casino Royale (anyone who has ever tried to leave a nightclub while drunk will find this oddly familiar).

Still, if the core of the game is gun fights - and it is - then at least these are handled in some style. You get a huge variety of weapons, most of them satisfyingly meaty, and while your enemies won't win any prizes for intelligence or squad tactics - even the so-called 'Elite forces' - they do make some attempt to move from cover to cover and outflank you. If all you wanted from a game was a series of vaguely exciting confrontations with multiple, well-armed opponents, spiced up by the odd set piece or spot of sneaking, then Quantum of Solace would probably leave you feeling sated.

The problem is that that is really all it does. I can't say that Quantum of Solace is monotonous or grinding in the way that Army of Two or Fracture are, but neither does it have the intense pacing or powerful moments of a Call of Duty 4 or Crysis: Warhead. The levels are well constructed but incredibly linear, and it's ridiculous to see how many locked doors, implausible barriers and pitifully obvious triggered events we're expected to put up with in an FPS in this day and age. See, Bond can't leap over that waist high barrier because it has a crack in it. That one? Not on your Nelly. Quantum of Solace wasn't designed to leave you room to think or improvise. It was simply designed to funnel you from one encounter to the next.

This isn't the end of the world, but throughout Quantum of Solace I found myself wondering how different this game could have been had Treyarch not just decided to do a heavily customised, Bond mod of Call of Duty 4, but had looked at other games for inspiration. Splinter Cell: Double Agent had a better take on espionage. Glimpses of Mirror's Edge could have given the team some new ideas on how to integrate platform elements into a first-person game. If you're going to mess about with the plot, why not open up the environment? One thing we all loved about Goldeneye was the way in which it allowed you to fully explore the film's locations. Why not take this to a new level on a generation of consoles with the power to really do it?

Of course, it should also be said that it's no good having that power if you're not always sure how to use it. There are moments where Quantum of Solace looks fantastic - the character models look believable, the environments and lighting mesh together and the scenery packs in plenty of detail. There are also, however, a lot of moments where you feel like you're looking at a first generation 360 game; times when wishy-washy textures, poor animation and boxy, uninspired environments spoil the party. And what on Earth have they done to Daniel Craig? I know he's not supposed to be the tallest chap around, but in some sequences Bond looks like a weird little goblin in a Daniel Craig rubber mask. Come on Treyarch, did the twits from DanielCraigisNotBond.com put you up to this? Still, the music is - as you might expect - excellent and the voice work from Daniel Craig, Dame Judi Dench and others helps give the game a slightly more convincing Bond feel.

All in all, I'd say that Quantum of Solace is one for rental only were it not for one thing: the multiplayer game. It helps that the feel is sort of CoD4 lite, but the game has a few interesting game modes all its own. You'll be familiar with the usual deathmatch, team deathmatch and control point options, all reworked in an 'Organisation vs Mi6' style, but Quantum of Solace also throws in Bond Versus, where one player plays Bond as a kind of one-man Counter-Strike team while all the other players try to eliminate him, Bond Extraction, where the Mi6 team helps Bond escape from the map, and Golden Gun - a variation on the classic Goldeneye play style. Here players vie over one super weapon, the catch being that the wielder of the Golden Gun instantly becomes visible on everyone's radar. It's a lot of fun, and while the odds in the Bond Versus mode at first seem heavily weighted against the player in the Daniel Craig skin, you can be surprised. With a Bond player who sneaks and snipes effectively, Bond Versus can be a real thriller. If nothing else, it's a great test for the hardcore FPS player who feels they can wipe the floor with anyone and everyone.

On the downside, the multiplayer mode does feature some of the ugliest maps I've seen in a commercial FPS game for some time (did anyone really think the Barge level looked acceptable?) and the animation of the Mi6 agents and Organisation troops is really weird at times. Why are they all doing the same camped-up imitation of a Thunderbirds puppet? Still, multiplayer Quantum of Solace is entertaining. Whether there's really room for it in with Gears of War 2, Resistance 2 and Call of Duty: World at War imminent remains to be seen.

Still, it's enough to give Quantum of Solace a slight boost. By no means is this a bad game, but given the riches pouring down on us at the moment you'd have to be Bond mad to justify buying it. Millions of people, caught up in Bond hysteria or just looking for a game with a recognisable name will probably do just that and come away feeling reasonably happy, but if you already know your Call of Duty from your Gears of War then there are better ways to spend your money right now.

Verdict

Quantum of Solace is a solid but slightly old-fashioned FPS that doesn't do as much as it might with the Bond material. Entertaining, but rather unimpressive.

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Need for Speed: Pro Street

Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, DS, PSP, PS2 - PC version reviewed.

What happened? Were influential road-safety campaigners putting pressure on the world's second biggest publisher? Did concerned politicians have a word in some EA bigwig's ear? Maybe the ghost of Christmas future came to some EA executive scrooge with visions of impressionable young hoodies doing dangerous stunts and capturing their efforts on their camera phones. Whatever the reason, EA's traditional Christmas contender is no longer the Need for Speed we know and love. It's gone straight. It's gone legit. The illegal street racing is out of the window, taking the melodramatic video clips, the police chases and any hint of criminal activities with it. ProStreet is arguably a bigger franchise reboot than even Need for Speed: Most Wanted. All involved with THQ's copycat Juiced series must be very, very happy indeed.

To imagine Need for Speed's new direction, just think Forza 2 with a touch of Project Gotham and an injection of aggressive street attitude. In the main career mode, your hotshot ex-street racer is out to prove himself in the legitimate ProStreet world, entering ‘Race Day' competitions until he develops enough points to win a place in a special racing showdown. Beat the reigning racing kings in three showdowns and you can take on the arrogant ‘showdown king' Ryo Watanabe. Be strong, fans of ropey racing revenge stories featuring Z-list talent and nubile young models - that's as far as this Need for Speed goes in terms of plot.


So, no more cities to explore, no more cops to outrun, no more enormous doughnut signs to demolish - what can ProStreet offer us instead? Well, this year's team has concentrated heavily on the racing itself. We get four different modes: straight drag races, ‘grip' circuit races, point-to-point ‘speed' races and ‘drift' challenges where your only aim is to get points by drifting stylishly through a small section of a track. To add a little more spice, the grip races themselves take different forms. Some are just your basic first to finish race, but others divide the cars into classes, put the emphasis on lap records or slice the track up into sections and give you points for scoring low times in each. In other words, ProStreet might resemble your average circuit racer, but there's a little more variety built than you might expect.


The surprise - particularly if you've seen some of the more hostile comments floating around - is how competently ProStreet handles everything. EA has rebuilt the Need for Speed physics engine, and the result is much improved, more realistic handling provided you're sensible enough to play it on the highest ‘King' realism setting (on the lowest setting your average five-year-old could make it around the track, but the driver aids are too intrusive to make the experience even slightly satisfying). EA has done similar work with the AI, and while it's not quite as aggressive as we'd expect from a TOCA, we're certainly not in the ‘line up in an orderly fashion then process around the track' realms of Gran Turismo. I've been cut-up on corners. I've watched them take a turn too fast and go careering off into a barrier. I've even caught them drafting behind me then speeding past for the final stretch. In short, there's more than just the handling to give you a decent gritty challenge.

The car line-up isn't going to give Forza or Gran Turismo any scares, but it's large enough and extensive enough to cover a reasonable range of US, Japanese and European makes and models, with BMW, Ford, Shelby, Chevrolet, Dodge, Volkswagen, Toyota, Mitsubishi and Subaru all getting a pretty good airing. What's more, the career mode even contains a fairly deep customization system. It's based on blueprints - with more than one available for each car - and features many of the engine, turbo, suspension, brakes and body upgrades that you'd expect from a more serious driving sim. Need for Speed's traditional meat-head audience can still choose auto-customisation or simplified options, but it gives the petrolhead tweaker something to get their teeth into.

ProStreet even crams in a respectable damage model. Like Forza's it's a little bit generous and it tends to jump between basic side/bonnet damage and a full-on write-off in a way that makes you suspect the manufacturers were squeamish about too much on-screen crumpling, but it does make you think twice about taking the bumper-car approach to driving or using the side barriers as steering aids. In fact, the game even makes you pay for damage to your own cars between retries, so you tend to think a little more carefully about constantly restarting the same race as well.


Visually, ProStreet's not bad at all. Played on my current monster system with an Intel Core 2 Extreme 6850, 2GB of PC6400 DDR2 and an Asus GeForce 8800 Ultra, it actually looks more impressive than Forza, partly because EA has gone overboard with billboards, balloons and other bits of trackside detail (if you don't like in-game advertising, you might find it all rather repulsive). The car models look fantastic in their fully reflective, nicely lit, realistically shadowed glory, and the overall presentation is very slick indeed. 360 owners might have a better looking option in Project Gotham Racing 4, but PC owners used to GTR2 will certainly see a big difference. I'd have to ask why it still stutters on the odd corner as the view swings around, however. This system plays Crysis on High, for goodness sake!


Given all the above, ProStreet sounds like a strong new direction for EA's cash cow franchise. Sadly, I can't hand on heart say that it is. For a start, there's still something a bit cold and uninspired about the racing - a problem I also found with Gran Turismo 4 and Forza 2. Whether it's the track layouts, the AI or the difficulty level, winning doesn't seem to be as much about high-speed thrills and risky chances as it is about getting the car right and polishing your technique until it shines. The other disciplines, meanwhile, aren't actually as much fun as they sound. The drag racing routine of warming up your tyres then getting a good start and perfecting each gear change soon gets old, while the drift racing is comprehensively outclassed by Project Gotham's take on the same theme.

What's more annoying is the whole ‘street attitude' of the thing. I can see why it's there, and the graffiti graphics, the race-day atmospherics, the flag-waving bimbettes and the MC commentary do give the game a buzz that similar racing titles are usually missing. All the same, the music, the repetitive dialogue and the constantly in your face style really do grate on your nerves after a while. At its worst, playing ProStreet is a bit like playing Forza 2 in a teenager's bedroom while some ropey dance/indie/emo/nu-metal compilation blasts out of the stereo at full volume and MTV's playing loud in another room. Were I fifteen years old I might think differently, but all this stuff actually hindered - not helped - my enjoyment.

On the plus side, ProStreet does have two major saving graces. First, there's not anywhere near as much competition on the PS3 or PC as there is on the 360 for this sort of thing. If you got this in preference to PGR4 or Forza then I'd say you were mad, but PC gamers who fancy something that sits in between Need for Speed: Most Wanted and GTR2 might get some mileage out of this one, as could PS3 owners looking for a game to keep them going until GT5 swings around. Secondly, EA has put a lot of effort into the online modes. It's easy to find and join an online ‘Race Day' or create your own, and you can also upload and download shadows to compete against, car blueprints to do time trials in and a host of other goodies. In this respect, ProStreet is only just behind Forza 2 on features. The action, meanwhile, seems to be relatively lag-free.


Still, overall the new direction has done little to stem the downward slide the Need for Speed series has taken since the much-loved Most Wanted. What EA seems to have missed with both ProStreet and Carbon before it is that what we really want isn't a bold departure or a return to Underground form, but a bigger, better Most Wanted with more locations, more variety and a little more finesse. I can't blame ProStreet for not being that game, but taken on its own merits it simply doesn't deliver the right amount of speed, spectacle or fun. It's a solid game - even a fine one from time to time - but it's not a game to get all that excited about. And excitement is what we need to see from Need for Speed when it resurfaces again in twelve months' time.

Verdict

Need for Speed goes straight, but the thrills have gone AWOL. ProStreet is a competent attempt to take the series upmarket, but can we have the old bad boy glamour back next time?

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Need for Speed: Carbon

Platforms: PS2, PSP, PC, Xbox, Xbox 360, GameCube, DS, GBA - Xbox 360 version reviewed.

I was a big fan of Need for Speed: Most Wanted on the Xbox 360. Despite the fact that Project Gotham Racing 3 grabbed all the headlines when the X360 launched, I actually enjoyed NFS more. Don’t get me wrong, PGR3 was a stunning game to look at, but when you’ve bought yourself a McLaren F1 after only a couple of hours of play, there isn’t much incentive to drive around those damn cones one more time. Yes, for me NFS: Most Wanted may have been a far more simple game, an arcade racer if you like, but it was also a far more enjoyable game.

Although the cars didn’t look as staggeringly realistic as the vehicles in PGR3, NFS: Most Wanted was arguably a better looking game. It wasn’t so much the cars (although these did look superb), it was more the environment that blew me away. NFS: Most Wanted had some of the best lighting effects seen in a console game, and the feeling of speed was second to none. Even the odd drop in frame rate couldn’t spoil the overall spectacle that this game produced. But it wasn’t just a pretty face, Most Wanted also give you a shot of adrenaline in the arm every time you played it, along with a career mode that kept you wanting to take the next Blacklist driver down, while keeping the cops at bay. So, it’s fair to say that I was quite keen to get my paws on Need for Speed: Carbon and see if EA had improved on the Most Wanted formula.

The first thing that struck me when I fired up Carbon was that EA definitely believes in the old adage “if it aint broke, don’t fix it”. It’s safe to say that Carbon plays very much like its predecessor, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Many developers will change a winning formula just because they feel that they should. But for me, the idea of extending my Most Wanted experience into Carbon was exactly what I wanted. Don’t get me wrong though, Carbon isn’t just a rebadged version of Most Wanted, there are improvements and additions, but they are quite subtle.

Although the game engine is clearly the same beast we saw in Most Wanted, Carbon harks back to the Need for Speed: Underground era, where all the action happens at night. In some respect this is slightly disappointing since you miss out on all the beautiful lighting effects as you drive toward the sunset, or emerge from a tunnel and find yourself momentarily blinded. That said, things have moved on considerably since the Underground series, and the streets don’t look like they're constructed from polished glass, while the rain looks and feels like an environmental effect rather than pure eye candy. And although the autumnal, sun dappled lighting from Most Wanted is missing, the effects created by street lights, headlamps and shop fronts is no less impressive.

Like Most Wanted before it, Carbon creates a truly staggering feeling of speed when you nail the throttle. The road surface is dirty, uneven and cracked on close inspection, which just adds to the feeling that you’re hurtling down the road when it’s flying past your view. Likewise, the scenery whizzes past with some very impressive motion blur effects, all of which really does put you in the driving seat.

Carbon isn’t going to win any awards for originality when it comes to the story, in fact you could probably flit between this and Most Wanted and barely notice the difference. Instead of working your way up the Blacklist of street racers, in Carbon you’re out to conquer the city by taking down all the turf bosses and their crews. Obviously you win territory by winning races, but all the time there’s an underlying plot that progresses with each win. Even the cast of characters is spookily similar, with Maybelline model, Josie Maran being replaced by Emmanuelle Vaugier as the token babe to complement the fast cars. It’s almost like EA is appealing to the male stereotype!

Talking of cars, you start the game driving the same BMW M3 GTR that you have at the beginning of Most Wanted, and just like in Most Wanted, you lose your car pretty much instantly. You’re left having to work your way up the ranks driving something pretty low rent and basic, although not quite as low rent and basic as in previous games. I kicked off my career mode driving a Mazda RX8, which was the best of a bad bunch. I’m not saying that the RX8 is a bad car, but the Wankel rotary engine has a distinct lack of torque, which would be quite a major issue if you were street racing in the real world. But the other two choices were a lot worse – you’ve got a Cevvy Camaro SS which will be fine in a straight line, but woeful when cornering, or an Alfa Romeo Brera which is a big, heavy excuse for a coupe with pitiful handling. Of course, the cars in NFS land don’t necessarily equate to the real world – I realised this when I saw that EA reckons that a Renault Clio V6 handles better than a Lotus Elise! I’m not sure who worked out the attributes for the cars in Carbon, but they must have either had no idea about driving or just dropped some acid that day.

As you’d expect from a Need for Speed game, the level of customisation available to you is incredible. The most import stuff comes under the Performance section – here you can upgrade your engine, transmission, suspension, tyres, turbo etc. The interesting part is that you can tailor each upgrade to your driving style, so if you like to have a surge of torque at your disposal (as I do), then you can tailor your rig to suit. Likewise you can tailor your turbo so that it comes on boost earlier in the rev range, but obviously that will limit the amount of raw power it provides. You can even tailor the bias of your braking to the front or rear, depending on whether you want to shave of speed as fast as possible or initiate some oversteer.

There’s also a plethora of cosmetic changes that can be made, simply to make your car look that bit different from everyone else on the street. To be fair the cosmetic changes aren’t totally pointless, since once the cops know what car you drive, it’s worth changing the colour and styling regularly. Also, if you’re going to be playing online regularly, you’ll probably want a car that looks as individual as possible, and with the amount of customisation options on offer, you really can create a car like no one else. Unfortunately for me, how my car looks is somewhat irrelevant, since I always drive from the bumper view, rather than hovering behind the vehicle. Winning races will unlock new upgrades, so you need to nip back to your safe house periodically to keep your car competitive.

How you play through career mode is a personal choice. The Free Roam aspect allows you to drive around the city looking for races, finding challenges and provoking the cops. However, if you just want to bust through the game you can jump directly to each race from the World Map. If you take the latter option, you’ll soon find yourself building up your cars, and taking over the city, but you’ll miss out on a key aspect of the game – immersion. Like Most Wanted and NFS: Underground 2 before it, the Free Roam mode adds a real sense of location to the proceedings. So much so, that I used to fire up Most Wanted and just drive around the city for a while without actually participating in any races. I often found this quite relaxing and therapeutic, and the night time setting of Carbon gives the whole experience an even more chilled feel. Of course if you want a happy medium, you can still select each race point on the world map and then activate your GPS, which will then guide you to the race rather than teleporting you to it.

The race types are fairly basic, with standard circuits, sprints and the excellent speed trap race carried over from Most Wanted. Drift challenges have also been thrown back into the mix, and these are most definitely the hardest to complete. Clearly EA has been watching the last instalment of The Fast and the Furious franchise, but unlike in the movie, drifting in Carbon is very difficult, just like in real life. The basic principles of sharp turn in, lift off oversteer and a generous handful of opposite lock are all present, but pulling that all off using a game controller isn’t that simple. There’s something terribly wrong when I find it harder to pull off a manoeuvre in a game than I do in a real car – perhaps it’s time that I invested in a steering wheel for my 360!

Where Carbon does depart from previous NFS outings is the canyon races. Once you’ve challenged a turf boss for their territory, you have to race them through the city, and then out of town in the canyon. The canyon races really get the adrenaline pumping, and it’s all too easy to crash through a barrier and into a 400ft freefall. A boss battle canyon run is split into two halves – first up you’re chasing them down the hill, trying your best to keep as close as possible. On the second run you’re in front and you have to put as much distance between you and them as possible. This is without a doubt the most challenging part of the game, but it’s still not too much of a challenge. And that’s the main shortcoming of Carbon – it’s just a bit too easy.

The problem with Carbon is that as long as you’re a half decent driver, you’re never going to lose a race. The AI just feels very basic by modern standards, and even if you start at the back of the grid, you simply hit the nitro, pass the pack and then cruise to first place. Obviously things get more challenging as you plough through the game, and you’re going to have to make sure that you have the right car, with the right mods to win some races. But in most cases you’ve saved up so much money from the early part of the game, that if you do find yourself outgunned, it’s just a matter of cruising back to the safe house, adding some more firepower and heading out to race again.

As if it wasn’t easy enough to win most races anyway, EA has added a new feature to make things even easier – a wingman. You can build up a crew of up to three other drivers who will shadow you during races, each with different abilities. You get blockers who will take competitors out of the race and clear the way for you, scouts who will find shortcuts in the circuit for you to take, while drafters let you slipstream in their wake before you pull out with a burst of speed. Arguably the blocker is the most useful since he actually takes other racers out of the picture. The scout can be cool, although once he shows you a shortcut the rest of the field will also follow. The drafters are close to useless, since you’re better off using your nitro in the majority of situations.

As always with a game from EA, the production values are sky high. The whole game is so slick, cool and stylish that it puts the Fast and the Furious movies to shame. The soundtrack solid and very diverse – anything from Tubeway Army to Goldfrapp could start playing next. And although completely cardboard acting is a thing of the past in games, all the players in Carbon seem to be taking their jobs seriously enough to make the cut scenes convincing.

Finally there’s the online play, something that EA is getting better and better at. I’ve been playing a bit of FIFA 07 online lately and I’ve been amazed at how smooth the gameplay is, without a hint of lag. Of course with a game like Carbon, you’re going to notice lag even more, but on the whole the experience is first rate. After a couple of races you almost forget that you’re playing online and just get completely immersed in the racing. There are even some pretty cool new online modes, like having one player driving a racer and all the others playing cops and trying to nail him/her. Unfortunately, the majority of online players just want to race and improve their ranking, so the chances are that that’s all you’re going to find.

Verdict

Need for Speed: Carbon is more of a continuation of Most Wanted than a new game, but I’m not too bothered by that. There was so much that I loved in Most Wanted, that I’m happy to have another playground to race around. Carbon isn’t without its problems though and EA needs to come up with improved AI for the next game to make it a bit more challenging. I also need to mention that Carbon does drop the odd frame, just like Most Wanted did before it. On the whole though, this is a great arcade racer with stunning visuals, amazing production values and a truly believable feeling of speed.

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