• Battlefield 3
• Binary Domain
• Modern Warfare 3
• Gears of War 3
• Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
• Halo Anniversary
• Max Payne 3
• Rage
• Resistance 3
• Spec Ops: The Line
• Starhawk
• Syndicate
• Darkness II
• Tribes Ascend.

Winner: Max Payne 3

Though it was a long time coming since Remedy released Max Payne 2 in 2003, Rockstar’s take on the Noire inspired ramblings of the ever tortured Max Payne managed to up the production values of the Remedy classics whilst maintaining the series’ trademark narrative flourishes. Featuring snappy dialogue, memorable set-pieces and the glorious return of the surprisingly relevant reliance on bullet time, Max Payne 3 is arguably the greatest action game of the past few years.

1. Corvo Atano

Likeness: 2/10 – a hideous abomination closer depicting a sad, mechanised Voldemort.
Position: GK

An excellent shotstopper, owed to the fact he can stop time. The ability to summon plague rats can also put opposing strikers off.

2. Jesse Pinkman

Likeness: 10/10 – an uncanny resemblance of Cap’n Cook himself. Bitch.
Position: left back

Former incompetent meth producer turned nippy wing back. Loves magnets.

3. Dr Who

Likeness: 6/10 – appears to be crying blood, resulting from a botched regeneration
Position: central defender

Profile: Played for Leicester City, Nothampton Town and Nottingham Forest’s youth teams. Also, has use of a Tardis.

23. Creeper

Likeness: 8/10 – somehow more sinister than a real creeper; looks like most cosplayers.
Position: central defender

Very aggressive, amd liable to explode if provoked. Learned his trade at Stoke City.

6. Martin Walker

SPOILERS

Likeness: 7/10 – Doesn’t wash.
Position: right back

Completely out of control, devoid of morality and a husk of a human being. Club captain. See: Kevin Muscat.

We thought we’d dissect the trailer second by second, to help digest such a hearty meal.

0:19 – So begins the trailer, once the branding dies down we are sat in a rowing boat in the middle of a choppy ocean, with a lighthouse in the background. Gee, I wonder what that reminds us all of? Okay, it’s aesthetically miles apart from the opening sequence of the original Bioshock but it’s clearly a deliberate nod back to Jack’s first steps into Rapture.

0:21 – In front of us are two other people in the boat, one rowing facing towards us, face obscured by what seems to be a female  facing away. Who could this be? Another Pinkerton agent, perhaps?

0:21 – Through a character’s eyes, we see a box inscribed with ‘Property of Booker DeWitt’. We are presumably Booker at this point and again this box is obviously a nod back to Bioshock.

0:23 – In the box is a rather sexy looking pistol, like a chunky luger. Beside the gun are several pictures and what might be a Skyhook, with a birdcage inscription. Two more pictures are lining the case, one an advert for ‘Monument Island’ depicting an angelic figure, the second a girl in a white dress, perhaps a young Elizabeth.

0:24 – A voice over states ‘bring us the girl and wipe away the debt’, alluding to Booker’s task of rescuing Elizabeth. It seems Booker is quoting his task, referring to himself in the third person.

0:28 – A stunning opening vista from within Columbia, with a rather sexy depth of field and delicious colour palette.

0:29 – A golden sign says ‘Welcome to Momument Island’, the same advert as in Booker’s case. In the background is a huge golden statue of the angelic figure.

0:30 – Booker says ‘the details illude me now. But the details wouldn’t change a goddamn thing’. This suggests Booker may’ve been in Columbia for a good while at this point, or at least some major events to render beforehand insignificant.

0:31 – We see Battleship Bay, a beachy family resort with huge cannons in the background.

0:33 – Next up is the Aerodrome and a Hotel named Soldiers Field, with a very prominent promenade (or boardwalk for y’all Americans) in the foreground.

0:34 – A live demonstration by Bettermen’s Autobodies of “The Handyman”, advertised as allowing the user to “live pain free everymore”, “a modern miracle” and “one simple procedure”. The Handyman himself obscures the bottom of the advertisement, but it seems its purpose is to act as a means of movement for the less bodily abled, accentuated by the ‘before’ and ‘after’ depictions of a hospitalised man becoming mobile again.

0:35 – A mechanical, electric horsey followed by the interior of an ice cream parlour.

0:37 – We see a crowd of men and women all dressed in long white robes. Is this some sort of cult or following? Its members appear to be bowing or at least praying before Booker. Is he their God or leader?

0:39 – Elizabeth appears for the first time, wearing different clothes to the ones we’ve seen before, very much more like a late-Victorian schoolgirl than previously.

0:45 –  Is this a new, fire-based enemy? Looks to be soaking up a lot of damage. Looks like a pressure-cooker, gas-powered Big Daddy. This doesn’t appear to be a Handyman, Motorised Patriot, Boys of Silence or a Siren.

0:52 – Skyhook can be used as gruesome weapon, seems like it may only allow contextual kills.

0:54 – Plasm- I mean Vigors look even cooler than before, depicting much more detailed and malformed effects on Booker’s hands.

0:57 – Jumping from the Skyhook seems to facilitate powerful takedowns.

1:02 – Environmental hook objects seem to exist throughout Columbia, so Skyhooks can be used beyond just skyline.

1:05 – Is that Vox populi gunship?

1:08 – The Murder of Crows vigor in action, seems to be rather powerful.

1:10 – A Handyman in action, far more mobile than Big Daddy, packs an electrical punch too.

1:14 – The fire-based vigor is truly vile, but also brilliant. That’s flesh burned to the bone. Perhaps vigors can be dual-wielded?

1:15 – Another new enemy, seemingly crow-based and carrying a coffin on its back. Looks quite like an executioner.

1:17 – Is this the Songbird helping Booker?

1:18 – This silhouetted Boys of Silence looks utterly terrifying and powerful to boot.

If you’ve not heard by now, XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a bloody good game, dubbed “very sexy” by yours truly and awarded a tantalising 9.5/10 right here on GamingBolt.

To celebrate what isn’t just a brilliant game, but an excellent achievement in bringing excellent turn-based strategy to the console without sacrificing a single facet of gameplay, we’ve got three PlayStation 3 copies to give away to you, the fans. This competition is only open to UK residents, and to enter all you have to do is the following:

In the comments section below, detail your perfect 6-person squad and what you think they’ll bring to the table. For example my first squad was solely comprised of characters from Breaking Bad, Walter White was the deadshot sniper whilst Jesse Pinkman was on point. They can be real or fictional, funny or serious, and the best three squads will win a copy of the game!

With barely functional combat, 007 Legends has the feel, look and rotten stench of a mediocre Call of Duty 4 mod, with vast segments which would’ve looked spectacularly bland back in 2007. Guns have absolutely no weight at all, with no clear distinction between one another, most scenarios can be handled with the stock Walther P99, rendering many of the allegedly more powerful weapons useless. Shotguns cause enemies to flop straight into ragdoll mode in a way so unconvincing it would make a game like Unreal Tournament 2003 red with embarrassment. Bond just doesn’t feel like the razor-sharp killing machine you’d expect, enemies take far too many bullets, resulting in combat feeling more Johnny English than James Bond.

Stealth elements feel similarly ham-handed and largely superfluous, especially when left in the wakes of combat masterclasses from the likes of Dishonored. Upon alerting an enemy of your presence, each instinctively know Bond’s position, haphazardly attempting to shoot through walls, a mere footnote in 007 Legend’s inherently abysmal AI.

With so many opportunities to recreate iconic Bond moments, with appropriate theme music and delicious combat, 007 Legends regularly yanks control away from the player to display lukewarm buckets of cinematic slop, far inferior to those of the films, negating the very purpose 007 Legends is meant to serve in an interactive medium and no amount of sporadically-placed quite-time events will change this.

Gadgets are at best redundant and at worst an irritating means of shattering immersion. Hacking keypads requires flitting back and forth between Bond’s anachronistic deus ex machina smartphone and pad itself, creating frustration and adding to the growing desire to put the game down and do anything else.

The solitary piece of care and attention put into the game itself, aside from the fantastic opening credits, are the likenesses of the Legends themselves, Blofeld is clearly Blofeld, Goldfinger is Goldfinger and Craig is Bond but poor lip-synching makes faces look like the cheap silicon masks bank robbers wear. Combine this with Timothy Watson’s best Tesco Store Manager impression as if Daniel Craig only did it out of cold-calculated contractual obligation and you’ve got yourself a lifeless mess.

Hand-to-hand combat is equally half-hearted, thumbsticks for the appropriate high and low, left and right-sided attacks but it fails to achieve any sort of fluidity; a tedious exercise in waiting for the thoroughly patronising quick-time button icons to appear. 007 Legends is consistently both overly patronising and completely baffling in its mission markers, blurting out “shoot here” in the most obvious of situations then not affording a single clue when advice is sorely necessary.

The competitive multiplayer is but another good idea on paper, with Legends mode allowing player control of Bond villains, each with unique abilities, but the limp combat combined with the heinous crime of recycling identical segments from the single player really is the final nail in 007’s coffin. So many elements of 007 Bond are systemic indications of a short development cycle: segments of Blofeld’s lair are “night vision” with the sole intention of covering up beige level design and textures, running doesn’t decrease shooting accuracy and a myriad of elements are simply recycled from aged Call of Duty titles.

Not only is 007 Legends a terrible game, it goes one step further and is quite possibly one of the worst Bond iterations to date. Especially in this, its 50^th glorious Anniversary, 007 Legends is nothing short of an insult the good name of Bond. A game which feels more like shopping in Lidl than playing the part of Bond, chock full of bland, lifeless environments and an overwhelming sense of vapidity saps the very soul, personality or charm from a potentially brilliant game. Created without the slightest attention to detail, Bond’s Aston Martin Vanquish is a left-hand drive and Blofeld seems to have an iPad atop his desk, 007 Legends is as jaded and desensitised to the action and explosions as Bond himself. A joyless exposition of a criminally short development cycle, it’s high time the Bond name was afforded a proper developer, given an appropriate budget and given the tribute it sorely deserves.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360. 

Backed by one of the biggest publishers going and fronted by the indomitable Harvey Smith, with Half Life 2 and City 17 designer Viktor Antonov waiting in the ranks, with an equally formidable voice cast to match. Bethesda have fronted the last handful of Fallout and Elder Scrolls iterations with a huge hollywood name, but Dishonored trumps all with Susan Sarandon, Carrie Fisher, Brad Dourif and Chloë Grace Moretz lending their voices to proceedings.

Dishonored takes place in Dunwall, a vividly stylised steampunk rendition of early-Victorian London amidst the Rat Plague, tearing the city asunder with a rich vein of fantastic artistic design flows through it. it’s clear what Antonov’s vision was and how fantastically this was achieved. Much of the City Watch’s buildings show glimmers of the monolithic Isengard, and the juxtposed revolting opulence of the Boyle Mansion and Golden Cat against the abject squalor of the infected, quite literally left to rot by the powers that be. Unlike Rapture, Dunwall isn’t a dead city beyond revival, but it’s certainly on its last legs.

Unlike the Black Death, the Rat Plague does more than disease and eventually kill, having a cordyceps-like effect and inhabiting the hollow shells of former Gristonians, resulting in Weepers, an euphemism for what’re essentially docile zombies. Unfortunately the Weepers are treated by Dishonored in the same manner as its aristocracy, mere pawns, serving as little more than a narrative tool to convey the fractured nature of the city. With little exploration into personal effects the plague on the citizens, save for the odd NPC asking you where loved ones are and when set aside the likes of Rapture, Dunwall seems a little shallower than it ought to be.

Where Dishonored truly excels is through its combat, doing away with the checklist morality systems of yesteryear and such a system for a protagonist tasked with murder would be nothing short of asinine, the resultant factor being more kills lead to a ‘darker’ ending. Not to say Corvo is necessarily good or evil regardless of your approach to the game, he’s as grey as the permanently overcast skies of Dunwall itself. What’s special is just how many playstyles Dishonored caters for, neither favouring the sword-ho, the vigilante super hero or the unseen ghost. Unlike games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution which force specialisation from the outset, provided enough runes have been collected, Corvo can use his powers and inventory at will, it’s up to the player to decide how they approach the game. Rewards are there to be reaped when adopting a stealthier approach, but no more than through a sense of accomplishment, which is no mean feat in itself. Dishonored can be played from start to finish without hurting a fly, every single assassination target has some form of non-lethal means of dispatch, acquired through additional sleuthing and environmental awareness, but not all are the righteous acts they may appear to be.

The combat is largely facilitated by the excellent level design, only possible through Dishonored’s use of linear mini-sandboxes. Each level is a playground, with limitless variables and avenues of approach, not distinct paths but an entire raft of possibilities. Levels are excellently balanced, each large enough to facilitate a myriad of choice but focused enough to not lose Dunwall’s sense of craft and focus. Dishonored would undoubtably be the worse for in an entirely open setting and in many senses it feels like the game Assassin’s Creed wants to be.

Corvo even feels like a finely tuned assassin, running feels tight and slick, darting around corners gives pursuits a real sense of pace and urgency, if such an approach takes your fancy. Powers are also well balanced, beginning with but a Blink, the ability to teleport short distances, executed both simply and works well as a ‘core’ power, essential for the some of the more satisfying takedowns. And even in being implemented so simply, Corvo feels precisely like the bewitching assassin he is. Animal possession adds another dimension, although even feeling more like a camera atop a remote-control car than a creature scurrying through cracks and crevices, but human possession and combing with other powers is where it really comes into its own. Stopping time whilst under fire, possessing an enemy into the line of fire then slitting the throat of the gunner, and such other delights feel absolutely sublime when pulled off, failure is always due to player-error, the halmark of an excellent game.

Voice-acting, delivery and character animation are all flawless, standing in stark contrast to games of Bethesda past, every character has unique gesticulations, largely due to the smaller scope in which Dishonored inhabits, Arkane’s utilisation of Quantic Dream’s motion capture studios really shine through, even through such heavy stylisation. Susan Sarandon as the enigmatic and completely insane Granny Rags is a particular highlight, a synecdoche for how Dishonored approaches morality, as well as Piero and Anton Sokolov.

Arkane have delivered an excellent game, rife with possibility and marvellous combat, set within the walls of the brilliantly vivid Dunwall. Weaving it all together is a narrative that doesn’t engage quite as well as some of the greats, with stylisation opted for over characterisation, but the combat more than makes up for it. Dishonored and Arkane certainly had a tall order to fill, but it’s safe to say they footed the bill then bought drinks for everyone in the room.

Jordan Garland: Well done on an absolutely stellar job with XCOM: Enemy Unknown, you’ve done everybody proud and I think I speak for everyone when I say I simply cannot stop thinking about the next time I’m going to be playing. I appreciate you’ve been putting your hearts and souls into an excellent final product and you all deserve a massive  hug and a rest.

Jake Solomon: Thanks very much! We’re all really excited it’s out finally. I still kind of can’t believe it myself, despite having the box on my desk and everything.

Jordan Garland: First off, which key details of the original UFO/XCOM games led to Firaxis creating its first non-Sid Meier game?

Jake Solomon: I have always been a huge fan of the original game. X-Com was the reason I majored in computer science, and I have been bugging everyone since I joined Firaxis 12 years ago for a chance to remake it.. In some ways, it’s good nobody listened to me, because I think we ended up with a perfect combination of talented people, solid technology, and support from 2K when we got the greenlight to make the game.

As far as details go, I think most XCOM fans would agree that there are a few key features which have to be in the game: Turn-based combat, a strategy layer over top of the combat game, and seriously punishing consequences. In a lot of ways, the story of XCOM is the one that comes out of your play, and we wanted to make sure that our XCOM still had those classic moments, like a rookie taking a Hail Mary shot and killing the alien that was going to destroy you next turn.

Jordan Garland: The Thin Man looks like a lizard wearing a Yoko Ono costume, where did the inspiration for him come from?   

Jake Solomon: I can honestly say nobody has ever made that Thin Man comparison. Usually people say he looks like their cousin or this guy they know. He’s inspired by the Men In Black of UFO mythology. He also had a really important gameplay role to fill as a poisonous alien that might appear weak, but had to be respected by even veteran soldiers.

Jordan Garland: I was 2 when the original UFO: Enemy Unknown came out. How does it feel to be bringing such a marvellous franchise, recreated so impeccably, to an entirely new generation?   

Jake Solomon: Like I said, it’s sort of unreal. We’ve made this game because we love the original so much and we want people to have those classic XCOM moments that you remember years later. We really wanted to get those emotional high points of the original in there. There aren’t too many games like XCOM out there, and we wanted to bring that experience to more people. People who were fans of the original game have been great at spreading the word to their friends who maybe didn’t ever play the original: “You must play this game, and you must name all your soldiers after your friends and they’ll die and it will be awesome.”

Jordan Garland: What’s your opinion on chest-high walls?   

Jake Solomon: They’re excellent for keeping small dogs in the yard. No, seriously, the cover system was a way to let us emphasize positioning as part of the combat system. My personal opinion is that half-cover is good, and full cover is much better, and cars are only good cover if there’s nothing else around.

Jordan Garland: Did you originally design it to be as cover-heavy as the finished article?

Jake Solomon: We started with a prototype that was very similar to the original X-Com, where there wasn’t cover per se. We wanted a system where soldiers interacted more, and so we added abilities that linked together in interesting ways and started to work more as a squad. That actually made the game less interesting tactically when you had a huge number of guys because you could pretty much sweep the opposition on your turn. So we kept iterating on squad size and combat dynamics, and I think there was a pretty big shift at some point and the current version of the combat system was added, and suddenly the game felt a lot more tactical, and a lot more about making decisions with real consequences.

Jordan Garland: What exactly led the team to the two-step move/shoot mechanic, rather than giving some units more/less based on their attributes?

Jake Solomon: A lot of the decision was tied up with the other aspects of the combat system: classes, abilities, inventory, and so forth. But another part of it was that the time unit system really got in the way of people treating their squads as a team. It was more like trying to optimize a whole series of algebraic formulas all at the same time. The really interesting decision is: “How am I going to handle two Mutons over there and a Thin Man who ran away a second ago but might come back later?” The move-action system is a more direct way of implementing your plan: Heavy fires a rocket, the Assault run-and-guns up the flank to shoot the survivors, and the Support goes into overwatch.

Jordan Garland: Were there any game play features that were originally part of the game but you guys had to leave them due to any technical, financial or time-constraints? 

Not really. I had a lot of stupid ideas that deserved to be cut because they were bad design, and the team called me on them. We got everything we wanted into the game.

Jordan Garland: What made you decide to bring the game to consoles, historically strategy games have often fared poorly in that area so was this move seen as somewhat of a gamble?   

Jake Solomon: We didn’t think so because we knew the original game was awesome, and if we could get people fired up about the game, it almost didn’t matter what hardware you were developing for. And full credit goes to 2K for fully backing us up during development, which was a very creatively brave decision.

Jordan Garland: What are your thoughts on current generation of consoles? Do they offer a stream lined development process like the PC does?   

Jake Solomon: There are some production advantages to working on consoles because obviously their hardware is consistent, and any PC developer can tell you how much fun compatibility testing can be. But I love them all – it’s been a great console generation cycle.

Jordan Garland: XCOM weaves a more in-depth and compelling narrative with ‘voiceless’ marines than most manage with bonafide characters, why do you think this is? Do you feel this says something about the state of storytelling in war-games?   

Jake Solomon: I think XCOM is special because so much of the story is what happens in the game, and your imagination creates the scene around it. We can do little things like give Sergeants their nicknames, and give you the ability to change the appearance and names of your soldiers, but the narrative is created by the gameplay. That’s part of the beauty of these kinds of games, where so much of it is open ended that you almost can’t help telling yourself more of the story as you go along. Sharing those stories is a common thread that binds veterans of XCOM.

Jordan Garland: Thanks for your time Jake, we all really appreciate it and plan to be playing XCOM for months to come.

Jake Solomon: My pleasure! It was great talking to you.

Well if that hasn’t whet your appetite for the destruction of alien scum then literally nothing will, ever. XCOM: Enemy Unknown scored 9.5/10 and I’m seriously considering asking it to move in with me.

Booty doesn’t just mean bum when it comes to Borderlands 2, this little venture also contains pirates and at its helm is Captain Scarlett herself. She’s a sexy peg-legged pirate queen who’ll probably almost definitely betray the vault hunter/s at some point, tasking them with recovering three additional pieces of an amulet to recover a lost treasure. Her dialogue is as sharp and snappy as we’ve come to expect from Borderlands, Captain Jack Sparrow with the voice of Elizabeth Turner nee Swan. It also depicts the ‘Bri’ish’ pirates startlingly well, pirate bandits known as rogues will quite convincingly yell out such colloquialisms as ‘where’s me bloody shield gone?’ without making an entire nation flinch with embarrassment.

Rogues are your run-of-the-mill pirate, a thoroughly reskinned bandit with appropriate companions. Midgets are now cabin boys and goliaths have turned buccaneers as well as everyone’s favourite genre-smashing pirate ninja. Our pirate friends have been somewhat neglected in recent years, if we simply ignore Risen 2, so it’s nice to see the little swashbucklers at least get a run out. Just you wait, give it 2 years and we’ll be pining for zombies again. Even existing beasties have also been given additional upgrades, with the introduction of the horned and elder skags.

Captain Scarlett isn’t the only star of the show; Shade, the predictably insane sycophantic ‘mayor’ of Oasis, a town ironically bereft of water. Requesting you ask his ‘friends’ for spare parts to a Catch a Ride Vehicle, a simple enough errand which tickles and torments in equal measure. Shade’s rabid appearance, a limpet-like attachment to the vault hunter/s and a Sander Cohen size slice of crazy make for a thoroughly interesting character and missions to match.

The aforementioned vehicle is a sandskiff, a hoverboat available from all Catch a Rides, possessing the standard machine gun and sawblade weapons, as well as a third explosive harpoon. Whilst it may match the theme perfectly, the over-sized reticule combined with the ever-moving nature of the hoverboat makes it virtually redundant; its raw explosive power doesn’t make up for the lengthy reload time and general inaccuracy. Harpoon aside, the hoverboat adds a element of manoeuvrability not previously present and will become the vehicle of choice for most players.

If Captain Scarlett and her Pirate Booty continues on this trajectory, it’s sure to be another successful DLC for Gearbox. It extends the core game beyond existing parameters in way which both compliments its existing personality but takes it to new places. At £6.99 it’s well worth an investment, if you can just pull yourself away from XCOM: Enemy Unknown or Dishonored.

Worms Revolution presents itself with a three-pronged attack: Matt Berry, environmental water and a class system. Berry, known for his lacklustre Chris Morris impression in The IT Crowd and exactly the same bit-part character in The Mighty Boosh, his most definable quality being his voice. On paper, this is a marriage made in heaven and with even barely-adequate writing it should work without a hitch but somehow it just doesn’t. His delivery lacks any comic timing, both heavily stressing largely irrelevant words whilst neglecting those which matter. The writing isn’t exactly bad either, unlikely to win any awards but on such a budget, nobody is at fault other than Berry himself.

Environments have been given a very welcome visual upgrade too; surfaces now possess the cloth-finish of LittleBigPlanet, with similar explosions to boot. The environmental damage, again, is far more believable, also impacting on the plane behind the 2D one in which the Worms inhabit, giving further depth. Much effort has also been put into background action, tailored to one of four themes, bringing each level to life, giving it a little context however unnecessary it may be. They’re not exactly varied in terms of theme, but given that Worms has never been particularly hot for this, it’s a rather welcome addition with equally relevant music to match.

Water now exists beyond the Boggy depths of the death lake, now encased within the level itself. Providing an extra dimension to gameplay, water now acts in a similar fashion to poison, granting a -5 health penalty for each turn spent underwater whilst also limiting worm’s movement. The water physics aren’t half bad either, little water globules engulfing worms with a smack of A Bug’s Life and washing them to a wet death. Aside from water, objects now inhabit the environment as more than destructible shapes, many of which move when struck, some emitting poison, water or a gigantic explosion. These doesn’t impact on gameplay heavily, but help to make Worms Revolution feel a little more modern and current.

Classes now worm their way into Revolution for the first time, each with a distinct silhouette. The Heavy, hilariously bloated in size and movement, soon to turn into a beautiful butterfly, has larger health and understandably packs more of a punch. Scouts are petite and swift, inhabiting the nooks and crannies which other worms can only dream of, at the expense of health. Morbo’s formidable forehead belongs to the Scientistic worm, granted health bonuses and additional turret damage. Also is the solider, your Boggy standard classic worm. Evident is the fact Team 17 have spent much time making each unique, whilst all still possessing an indefinable oblivious charm in their movement and demeanour, inching along with nary a care in the world, soon to be Concrete Donkey’ed into submission.

One trick which seems to have been missed a lack of new weapons, few and far between but with our old favourites returning, except for the ludicrous Armageddon. The key addition is Boggy B, the stalwart hero of all wormkind, with a move not entirely dissimilar to Solid Snake’s final smash in Super Smash Bros Brawl. His ability to throw a grenade anywhere on the map can cause unexpected havoc, at the expense of a King’s ransom, also serving an excellent final insult to your enemy. The Plughole drains water from given area, useful for those living below the water line, harking back to the very charms which endeared us to Worms in the first place. The detail of many of these weapons is a treat for the eye too, be it the shockwave caused by some of the larger explosions, or the lovely particle physics brought on by missile trails and explosion smoke.

The biggest disappointment is the inclusion of ‘Memes’ as a choice of worm voice, previously one of the most humorous portions of worms, although in reality more a hideous indictment of 2012 than worms themselves, it’s just a shame to see such a cancerous growth penetrate a previously untouched bubble of sanctuary. Some buttons are also a little unintuitive, zoom happens in stages rather than being continuous, although this is a minor niggle at the very worst.

A Worms Revolution this isn’t, but what it is is Worms. Add a friend or three and you’re still unlikely to have more fun kicking 6 shades of grey out of each other than on any other game. Perhaps guilty of merely wallowing in the waters of its forefathers but what better to wallow in than a pool of dead worms?

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.

A base description of ‘turn-based, squad-based cover shooter’, whilst indicative of some of its core mechanics, its true beauty and brilliance cannot be confined to a simple tagline descriptor. XCOM begins life with as 4-person squad, largely faceless men and women, touting assault rifles and chucking grenades, a slightly underwhelming introduction which simply cannot prepare you for what lies ahead. XCOM’s strength lies in its ability to weave an entirely unique narrative for each playthrough, even with a voiceless gaggle of international marines. Each soldier hails from a randomised nation, with an appropriate name, as each progresses and grows, so does your relationship. Whilst each can be customised to a degree, the magic lies in the ones left untouched, especially when the game forces your hand in order to preserve the greater good.

What XCOM does superbly is that efficiently conveys both close, personal nature of the soldiers and combat, whilst still making the overall ‘global’ threat relevant. In having its cake, eating it and asking for seconds, the gameplay is so delicately poised it creates for some very tense firefights and frantic battles, each casualty means so much more than just a meaningless statistic. Even the soldiers-past are remembered through the XCOM memorial, detailing past exploits and triumphs, each name carries a personal significance and tragic end.

On a larger scale XCOM also feels like a global game, bar for the all-American voice cast. The XCOM base can be located in any continent, each with its own bonuses, with XCOM rookies hailing for all four corners of the earth. Each continent, containing several key countries, has a panic level attached to it, rising with subsequent alien attack and falling when XCOM step in and do their thing. The system comes into its own when the game forces you into a balancing act; three countries are being invaded at once, only one of which can be saved. The higher the panic level, the more difficult each subsequent mission becomes in that area, so once a location is too far gone it becomes almost impossible to reclaim. One an area reaches a panic threshold, they leave the XCOM program and with it goes their funding. Even before the ‘core’ combat, purely in selecting missions its a complex being, and no facet exist simply for the sake of it, everything in XCOM is entirely necessary and is much the better for it.

There’s no denying that XCOM is a difficult game, brutally punishing tactical mistakes with devastating results. Only a couple of poor missions can completely destroy your game, so each move both in combat and micromanagement needs to be thoroughly reasoned before proceeding. Even the ‘standard’ alien enemies are a force to be reckoned with, the tide of battle can easily be turned with but a solitary soldier out of place an entire campaign can be irreparably damaged.

Even from the outset, the tutorial shows that the alien visitors are a force to be reckoned with, all but one of the initial XCOM recruits are shown the door almost immediately, enforcing the notion that XCOM isn’t an elite force straight away. Much like the fledgling United Nations or European Union, XCOM posits an imagined future where nations come together to fight a greater evil, naturally beginning as a turbulent melting pot which may eventually gel together to become a formidable force or fall apart at the seams.

Characters appear to have no real visual style to speak of, but the beauty lies in the environments and enemies. Each location feels unique and very distinct from the next, and even each level based in a similar urban environment is still crafted and carefully designed. Some of the fire and scorched earth textures are marvellously detailed, especially when it comes to burned wood. XCOM’s also brimming with nods and hints towards the retro: fog of war takes an unconventional approach, rendering the undiscovered or unsighted black and white, 50s sci-fi at its very best. The standard ‘sectoid’ aliens exude a similar vibe, with disturbing arachnid eyes and no mouth to speak of, or the Thin Men, like a preying mantis wearing the skin of Yoko Ono. The cinematics also possess a similar retro charm as the sectoids, reminiscent of the poorly-rendered avis of 90s gaming, now rendered in glorious high definition. The AI is not only rather smartly dressed, but also presents as a very aggressive and rather intelligent threat, flanking at any given opportunity and simply cannot wait to make you pay for your crimes.

XCOM is a very sexy, fully-fledged PC strategy game which works seamlessly on the console. In trading platoons for individual soldiers, Firaxis have created but a much more personal, yet at the same time more ‘global’ game with an immense degree of re-playability even before you reach the multiplayer. The only criticism is that occasionally soldiers will inexplicably shoot through cover, but that’s all. XCOM: Enemy Unknown does the series proud and perhaps serves as a very rare example of a 90’s remake being better than the game from which it derives. Intelligent in its punishment, XCOM deliberately doesn’t want you to complete first, second or even third time around, teaching you valuable lessons and forcing you to adapt, and failure to do has catastrophic consequences.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.