This sentence greets you every time you turn on Infamous 2, counting down to the time when your hero, ‘electric man’ Cole McGrath, needs to face and defeat the monster he is fated to tackle.

“Not difficult”, you may think, at first – Cole is still the badass superhero of the first Infamous, and powered up to the hilt.

That is until the Beast arrives early, destroys Empire City (which gamers fought so hard to defend in the first game), strips Cole of the majority of his powers and sends him crawling to southern coastal city New Marais, to rebuild his strength, discover new powers and generally do good (or evil, if you’re so inclined.)

Likes its predecessor, Infamous 2 is a sandbox-style adventure game with some brilliant combat, ramped-up powers, comic book-style cutscenes and endless fun. In this aspect then, it would be fair to say that the game doesn’t really mess with the formula set down by Infamous, correct?

Well, yes, but that doesn’t mean the game is at all ‘bad’. Not by a long shot.

Like the first game, the majority of Infamous 2 features Cole free-running, power-line riding and electrifying his way around New Marais, which is modelled on New Orleans, complete with flooded, run-down, abandoned city blocks (bit close to the bone there, guys!), and an interesting selection of red-neck militia types who hate anyone who doesn’t conform.

Before long all hell breaks loose, and Cole finds himself fending off the militia, monsters of varying sizes – from exploding zombies to huge, eight-legged horrors – and the occasional supersoldier.

Unfortunately, however, there is very little explanation of where the monsters came from, once they break into the game, making Cole and co look a bit silly as the city disintegrates around them.

(Honestly! Right after fending off a pack of slavering monsters, Cole has an introspective moment about one of the women in his life – and doesn’t think “where the bloody hell did they come from?!” It’s weird.)

From then on, the game pretty much follows the formula set down by the previous game.

An interesting variety of missions await you, be it demolishing a house full of bad guys, racing from transformer to transformer to down a comms network, or throwing supplies off an offshore barge.

Add to this the exploration aspect, as you crawl over the city looking for blast shards to boost your battery-like body, and a selection of new powers to unlock and level up, and there’s plenty to enjoy about Infamous 2, even if it is mostly combat-oriented.

Thankfully, then, it’s a good thing that the combat is still great fun, allowing you to zip around, hurling lightning from your fingertips, summoning ionic storms of blistering energy, picking up and throwing cars across the street and generally floating around like some kind of crazed messiah on thrusters of energy.

Added to this is an enhanced close combat system, using a massive tuning fork called the ‘Amp’ as its weapon. Using this two-pronged death-dealing nightmare, Cole can smack ten bells out of anything that comes near to him, finishing off with a few cool finishers to boot.

All the powers can be upgraded through usage and completing certain activities and before long, your powers are varied and great fun to use, and skating along on a power cable while hurling exploding lightning grenades becomes second nature.

That said, Cole is not immortal, and the monsters and militia alike can bring him to a sticky end, fast – rocket launchers are especially guilty of this.

This difficulty, while often irritating (militia rocket troopers will happily shoot when you’re a metre away…) makes you use your powers wisely, and is all the more fulfilling for it.

Being close to death exposes another fantastic addition to Infamous 2 – a clever, creepy score.

While your screen greys out, the discordant hum of off-key violins pulls on your guts, making you want to run for the nearest health-restoring lamp post.

Aside from this, the game’s score includes a wide selection of banjo-strumming beats when you’re out in the bijou, saxophone solos as you clamber up a skyscraper and a decent selection of soulful rock as you dispatch your enemies (or innocents).

The game’s moral system also makes a return this time around, but seems far more polarised. The endless grey of Infamous’ world has been shunned in favour of clear ‘good guy’ or ‘bad guy’ choices, and it’s pretty obvious which is which.

While this comes in useful if you’re trying to unlock some of the dark-side powers, for example, it makes the moral choices that little bit more laughable.

Graphically, Infamous 2 looks great. New Marais is a fantastically varied city to explore, ranging from red-light districts (with cheeky nods to other games: ‘Coming soon: ‘Assassin’s Need’’) to the bijou, packed city streets, run-down tenement blocks, and acres of slums.

The animation is smooth, for the most part, and the enemy AI is as good as you’d expect (the swamp monsters just charge you, for example), though the camera does have a habit of fritzing out now and then – when you use one of the fancy melee finishers, it will often zip around to give you the best angle on the action – and ruin your grasp on the battle at the same time. It’s a double-edged sword.

Cole is also a bit of a spider-monkey, and will often grab onto the nearest climbable object, no matter if you were aiming for something else entirely. This is only a minor irritation, and it doesn’t take long to get used to his style of movement.

Overall, Infamous 2 is not particularly trend-setting. Building on its predecessor, the title delivers another slice of superhero action, with some fantastic set-piece battles, a suite of cool powers and a decent plot to tie it all together. Though it doesn’t add a lot to the series, if you enjoyed the first game you’re bound to enjoy the second, and if you’re new to the series, come play one of the best superpower sims around.

Score: 8/10

Good Stuff:
Great gameplay
Varied selection of powers
Comic book stylings are always cool in cutscenes

Not so good stuff:
Occasionally naff camera
Plotholes are an irritation
More of the same action
Cole’s voice actor has changed

La Noire - Playstation 3

Possibly my most anticipated game of 2011, LA Noire is the latest effort from Rockstar – the same guys responsible for the seminal Grand Theft Auto series and last year’s old western smash, Red Dead Redemption.

With Rockstar having already brought us games set in a variety of settings (an 80s Miami Vice inspired city, the old west and, um, a boarding school), 1940s LA seems like a natural fit for them.

They have proved themselves capable of handling large environments, both modern and old, so it’s understandable that they would want to try their craft at a genre quite often overlooked in the gaming world.

LA Noire is very much a labour of love.

The attention to detail is quite frankly staggering and visually the game is nothing short of breath taking.

From the cars to the outfits, the developers have done their homework here – making sure that the game provides an authentic and cinematically realistic experience.

The game puts you into the shoes of beat cop, Cole Phelps (no relation to Fred Phelps) and sees you progress with your crime fighting career as you get promoted through the ranks, solving cases as you go.

Being a detective story, the game features a lot of investigating. From examining crime scenes, corpses and interrogating people, with each case there is plenty for you to consider. The game quite often requires you to put two and two together and regularly requires you to use your head more than you firearm.

Reading people’s reactions during interrogations is a lot of fun – with each answer, the game gives you the option to believe them, doubt them or just label them a liar.

Unfortunately however, Cole’s questioning can quite often be a bit tougher than expected and on numerous occasions my Cole made some fragile individuals cry when I merely doubted their answers – on one occasion he accused a grieving woman of having no alibi!

It’s not all investigation though. Scattered through out the game are various side missions to complete. Answering calls, you’ll more often than not find yourself chasing down petty thieves, capturing them or either gunning them down.

The cases themselves also have a fair bit of action – gun fights, fisticuffs, the usual thing for a homicide detective.  Being a Rockstar game, if you’re familiar with the Grand Theft Auto series, then you’ll have no trouble here.

Musically, the game hits all the right notes and plays an important part during the investigation process. When examining crime scenes, the music will stop playing once you have discovered all the clues and play a little cue that serves as a reminder that your work in the area is done. It also gives the game a certain TV movie of the week feeling.

All in all, LA Noire is quite a solid, character driven game that blends the best elements of the likes of Heavy Rain and throws them into the Rockstar sandbox blender.

If you’ve not managed to check it out yet, you really don’t want to find yourself guilty on missing out on this little gem.

Verdict: 8.5 out of 10

The Good
Good plot
Looks amazing
Familiar thanks to Rockstar’s previous games

The Bad
Questioning can be off
Takes a little while to get going

Homefront - Playstation 3

You know when you go to see a movie, you come out, and have to give it an official ranking of “Meh”?

Well, that’s the impression I get from Homefront.

It’s simply not strong enough to stand on its own, and feels like an odd hodgepodge of Call of Duty, Battlefield and Halo – with a smattering of Red Dawn and a little dab of conspiracy theory thrown in.

Not to say that borrowing from the best hasn’t paid off – Homefront is a good game, but it’s hodgepodge nature and abysmally short campaign just led me to one conclusion: “Meh”.

Campaign wise, the terribly short blast takes just under five hours, and is a pretty fun ride, despite how familiar it seems.

Fighting on US soil is hardly a new experience, but despite the Red Dawn overtones, the game’s story is believable – and backed up with a pretty snazzy opening video, mashed together from news reports and global conspiracy.

It’s a shame the game feels the need to plaster “Press X to skip” all over it. I don’t want to skip it! I want to know what’s going on!

The story covers the gradual fall of America – fuel prices are rocketing, stock is crashing, rioters infest the street, and the warring states of Korea have reunited under the banner of Kim Jong-Il’s son, Kim Jon-Un (unlikely as that is).

This new red menace quickly annexes Japan and China, and blitzes its way across the planet until it runs slap-bang into America, invades, and subjugates the people of the once-great country.

As usual, the Americans don’t give up, and before long you find yourself in the resistance movement, fighting a guerrilla war against a vastly superior force.

So far, so Call of Duty.

The biggest difference Homefront slaps you with is the focus on the brutality of a country under siege – the executions of resistance fighters, the mass graves, the cruelty.

In the first five minutes – in an opening that’s a little too Half Life 2 to be ignored – you see blindfolded women being gunned down, screaming babies and the brains of some innocent civilian painting the walls of the bus you’re in – it’s vicious.

This characterisation is extended to your fellow resistance fighters – they’re not beacons of hope, they’re dirty, disheartened – ruthless. This drags you into a story that, despite its short length, is still a blast.

Starting off small, with firefights in suburban gardens, the action switches through city streets, aerial assaults, drone dogfights and tank battles, all with a descent smattering of close combat.

Story-wise the plot is nothing spectacular, but a few standout moments (hiding in a mass grave, for one) are memorable and fun – and illustrate the human cost of war all too well.

Outside of the single-player campaign, the game also features a decent – if familiar – multiplayer offering.

Playing like a cross between Battlefield and Battlefront, the gameplay is mostly team-based deathmatches, with a few objective-based modes thrown in for good value.

The standout addition to the game is the battle-points system. This rewards you with battle-points for every kill, as well as XP, and can be spent on the fly when you need it.

For example – under fire from a minigun-armed drone? Buy yourself some armour. Need a hole in the enemy lines, fast? Buy a tank, and roll into battle behind 13 inches of steel plating.

It’s a surprising and enjoyable addition to a tired formula, and keeps the action fresh and intense.

That said, the game suffers a fair bit with an odd control scheme, and the ‘bouncy’ gunplay you get from the likes of Timesplitters, and occasionally Battlefield.

The weapons don’t feel meaty, and the sounds they make as they spit death are less the boom of high-calibre weapons, and more a sneezing rat.

It’s quite telling when the sound effects in a game are not up to snuff, I find.

Thankfully, the score and voice acting are up to scratch, and carry off the weedy guns with great aplomb.

The graphics on the PS3 are pretty lacking, however. Even after a fairly large downloaded patch there’s a fair bit of screen tearing and rough edges, and despite the sprays of mud and blood kicking up into the screen it’s just not that sharp.

The same could be said of the enemy AI which – while smart enough to take cover while being shot at – is content to sit back and let you pick them off, one by one, without relocating.

They are, however, crack shots – and are more than happy to put a rifle round through your skull from five miles away, so using cover will quickly become second nature.

Overall, Homefront is a decent if uninspiring shooter. Seemingly slapped together from the likes of Halo, Call of Duty and Battlefield, the action is intense – if short-lived. It is, thankfully, backed up with an extensive multiplayer offering and some clever gameplay mechanics. While it’s worth a look if you’re a shooter fan, I’d wait until it’s out of the £30 range.

Score: 7/10

Good Stuff:
Fun, fresh multiplayer
Decent campaign

Not so good stuff:
Short campaign
Feels too familiar

Motorstorm: Apocalypse

When I first got my PS3, Motorstorm was one of the first two games I had on the system.

The following year, Motorstorm: Pacific Rift was released – a worthy sequel that ticked all the right boxes when it came to surpassing it’s predecessor.

In fact, I enjoyed both games so much I even went out of my way to treat myself to Motorstorm: Arctic Edge on the PSP. A console that had up until then, been collecting dust on my shelf for the last few months. So, to say I am a fan of the series is something of an understatement.

I love the series – for me, it represents everything that a racing game should be: fast, extreme and exciting. You petrol-heads can keep your earnest Gran Turismo games – I want fast-paced racing action on a cliff’s edge, with plenty of crashes and pumping rock music playing in the background.

With Motorstorm: Apocalypse, the developers (Evolution Studios) have changed a few things – and sadly a lot of it is not for the better.

The first (and most bizarre) thing I have got to get out of the way is the introduction of a story mode. Why this was introduced I have no idea, as it certainly does nothing to benefit the game.

It tells the story of a character that you control– Mash – who has gate-crashed the event. These cutscenes make a desperate attempt to appears comical and cool, but sadly come off as forced and completely redundant.

Maybe I’m missing something, but for me what has made the Motorstorm games so great is their “pick up and play” quality. I don’t need to know the story nor relate to any character – I just want to pick up the controller and finish the race, getting from A to B as quick as I can.

Luckily, these scenes can be skipped – something I recommend you do if you want to get to the fun stuff as quickly as possible.

The courses themselves are what you would expect from a Motorstorm game. However, this time round the event organisers have picked a city that is in the process of being ripped apart by an earthquake of epic proportions.

With buildings collapsing, bridges falling and the ground shaking, it’s a health and safety nightmare.

It all makes for an exciting experience, and the destructive element certainly adds to the trademark pace of the Motorstorm series. As statues and structures crumble around you no lap is ever the same, and quite often the course will force you to change your tactic.  However, once you have completed a few course, the novelty of the shaking screen will begin to wane.

Aside from the story mode, there’s also the “Wreckreation” section, which the hosts the multiplayer modes and the option to set up a quick race.

Featuring a lot more flexibility, the quick race mode allows you to play any track you like, in any setting. So if you want to try one of the harder levels in the eliminator mode, you can.

However, not all vehicles are available to you and to unlock them you will need to play the story mode.

You can also set up a multiplayer race, either online or as a split-screen match – something you don’t see enough of these days.

The game handles pretty well, thanks to the simplistic controls. Like the other Motorstorm games your vehicle comes equipped with a booster that, when used in short bursts, can really help you out. Of course, used at the wrong moment it can cost you the race, when you smash into the side of a building. Also… overuse can lead to your vehicle exploding.

Visually the game is pretty strong and hard to fault. My only gripe is sometimes the night-time levels are a little too hard – due to the lack of light and the sheer speed of the game.

Audibly the game does pretty well too. The engines all sound the part, as do the crumbling skyscrapers.

However, for some reason, this time round the developers have decided to give the latest Motorstorm installment, a completely unique soundtrack.

Unlike the first two games, where you’d be speeding along to the likes of Primal Scream or Spiritualized, this time it’s to an unfamiliar piece of dance music. It doesn’t sound too bad, but the familiarity of a decent rock song is sorely missed.

Overall, Motorstorm: Apocalypse is a bit of a disappointment. The race sequences are fun, but after a while the earthquake novelty wears a little thin, and it left me longing for the pacific paradise of the previous Motorstorm game.

Verdict: 6.5 out of 10

The Good
- Fast-paced racing
- Graphically strong
- split screen multiplayer

The Bad
- Cutscenes that belong in a Guitar Hero game
- Earthquake sequences can get a little tiresome