Looking back, it’s probably because I wasn’t up to speed with the whole plot. Apart from the fact that I was controlling some fella who was in a groovy techno suit that turned him into a double hard bastard, I had no idea what was going on.

So it was of great delight to me, that EA decided to bring the first Crysis game to XBLA marketplace.

Now, I know there will be a few PC purists out there, condemning this port and claiming that it won’t stand up to the PC version, but frankly I couldn’t care less. I’m not a PC gamer – I’m not going to fork out a load of cash just so I can play a game that came out several years ago. And if I want to play games, I’ve got my trusty Xbox 360.

It is due to this PC ignorance of mine that I have no basis of comparison for Crysis and that is probably for the best. As I can just sit there and enjoy the game for what it is.

I’m not worried how it looks, plays, feels etc compared to the earlier version. I just want to sit back, immerse myself in the world and toss chickens at Korean soldiers.

As far as the plot goes, you control a soldier known simply as Nomad. Sent into North Korea to extract some hostages, it soon becomes pretty clear that there is more at work than the Koreans.

Equipped with a “nanosuit” that features all sorts of wonderful gadgets, it’s an interesting mechanic that sets the game apart from most other first person shooters.

Enabling Nomad to become invisible, super strong and fast, it offers the gamer multiple options on how they may wish to complete their missions. You can go all stealth with the cloak mode or if you wish to go in all guns ablazing, you can take everyone out with “maximum strength” – pretty handy when you’re in a tight sport and surrounded by a bunch of Korean soldiers armed with shotguns.

Aside from the various functions of the nanosuit, you will find yourself equipped with a variety of weapons – all of which are very satisfying to use and each one complimenting the style of gameplay you may wish to adopt.

For a game that is four years old, it still looks quite remarkable. There are a few signs that highlight the games age (or if you’re a PC purist, the weaknesses of the Xbox 360). The odd bit of tearing and a few bugs, but generally the visuals are pretty solid.

The audio also adds an extra dimension to the game, with the unique sounds of the Nanosuit adding a certain sci-fi charm to the world. You can never hear the robotic words of “maximum strength on” enough in my opinion.

Sadly, the game does have a few short comings – namely the lack of multiplayer. But for £15.00, this isn’t really something to be grumbled at. The campaign itself offers enough gameplay to keep the average player entertained for quite a while and at that price, I’d sincerely recommend it.

All in all, Crysis still is an amazing game and as far as I’m concerned, this port stands up well against Crysis 2.

Maximum gameplay on.

Verdict: 9 out of 10

The good
Visually strong
Good price
Flows nicely

The bad
No multiplayer

Even though I’m a Deus Ex fanboy, even after I turned off that part of my brain and saw Deus Ex: Human Revolution as just a game – not the long-awaited sequel to my favourite game of all time – it still deserves this really, really high score.

This game is brilliant. It’s 20 hours of well-scripted, intense play, shot through with plenty of open-world gameplay, little nods to the fanbase and a wonderful re-playbility that made me want to restart the game as soon as I finished it.

It’s everything a sequel to Deus Ex should be.

Let’s start with the story: set in 2027, 25 years before the original Deus Ex, Human Revolution charts the globetrotting adventures of Adam Jenson, a security chief for a major corporation. It is a world filled with chaos and corruption as humanity stands on the fulcrum of evolution, and it’s all thanks to one thing – augmentation.

By replacing parts of your body, through injury or choice, a new genus of humans are emerging – augmented men and women who can jump higher, see further (and sometimes produce a chaingun from their arm).

With the world in a state of flux, and corporations and individuals alike seeking to exploit the brewing chaos, the player finds himself unceremoniously shoved into the midst of the action, chasing down leads from Canada to China to America, hunting in the shadows for the group who (early on) take away everything that matters to you in one fell swoop.

Finding himself augmented by fate, instead of choice, Adam has to hunt through the dark spaces of the world to discover the truth behind the chaos – and it’s up to the player as to how you do it.

While Adam has a whole suite of augmentations built into his cyborg body, the early game finds the player facing a wide choice as to how you customise the unlucky agent.

Do you give him the ability to fall from any height and not get hurt? Do you install dermal armour so you can take fire better? Do you implant a social analysing system in your eyes, allowing you to influence conversations your way? The choice is yours.

Upgrading Adam to your heart’s content is no easy thing. ‘Praxis’ points are unlocked through exploration, finishing objectives, moving the story forwards or kills – or you can buy them (at a very hefty 5,000 credits a chip). You quickly find yourself being forced to seriously consider how you use your points.

Naturally, me being the stealthy, silenced pistol-type player, I chose the stealth enhancement pack, and the ‘glass shield’ cloaking system –heavy on the batteries, but ideal for staying unnoticed.

Deciding how to tackle what’s put in front of you is the core aspect of HR, and every objective you’re tasked with can be solved in any number of ways.

Take, for example, getting into a nightclub on the Chinese island of Hengsha – a city built on top of a city.

You could chat up the bouncer and buy your way in, shoot the bouncer and blast your way in, distract the bouncer by causing an explosion nearby and sidle in – or , as I did, overhear a conversation about a guy who found an air vent round the back that leads to the gent’s loos.

It all depends on your style of play. I favoured the softly-softly approach, non-lethally incapacitating enemies for an XP boost, hacking doors and security cameras, turning roving robots and fixed turrets against the enemy and generally vanishing at the first sign of a fight.

Of course, if cornered, the weapon upgrade system would allow me to turn a revolver into an armour-piercing, explosive handcannon of death – provided I’d found or bought the weapon add-ons.

This freedom is exactly what Deus Ex is all about, and it is plain to see that the developers’ focus on the core tenets of gameplay – social, combat, hacking and stealth – allow for any number of approaches to a given situation.

The environments the game takes you to – ranging from the dirty streets of Detroit to the sterile laboratories of big corporations – allow this freedom a focus that keep you playing, and rewards exploration. Hacking computers and doors, reading stolen emails and books, rifling through filing cabinets – it all turns up loot – as well as adding more and more insight into the world of HR, and the men and women behind the events of the game.

While the story, which is brilliantly written – and wonderfully morally grey – can be followed by someone out to just shoot things, reading the information lying around, watching the Picus newsfeed and listening to conversations helps to flesh out the experience, and makes it all the more intense at the finale.

While some Deus Ex purists were annoyed by HR’s addition of a cover system – similar to Gears of War – and a regenerative health system (which you will need… trust me), I found them to be a worthy addition to the game, making combat all the more fun, as you roll from cover to cover, blind-firing and ducking bullets.

Though the gunplay is pretty solid, the close combat is a little bit of a bugbear. Unlike the previous game, taking down an opponent is less about hitting them on the back of the neck with a club, and all about the animation.

Every time you take someone out close up – be it lethally, with the blades built into Adam’s arms, or non-lethally – the game plays an animation. Granted, these are cool, but the fact that this is the only way to take someone out hand-to-hand – and that it takes one of your batteries to do it – got on my wick somewhat, especially as only one of the batteries ever recharges all the way – the rest you need to top up with special energy bars, which are often few and far between.

While this forces you to play conservatively, using your head rather than your fists, it does annoy you somewhat – especially given how eagle-eyed and clever the bad guys are this time around.

Aside from this minor bugbear, the game’s presentation is excellent. Set in a post-modern, renaissance world of big coats and long dresses, the game is shot in a film-noir style, but with a yellow/orange tint to the environments, giving everything a slightly washed-out hue.

While not as sharp as some of the new-release games out there, HR more than manages to present its world in clear, exciting designs.

The score is also excellent, mixing orchestral strings with techno beats perfectly, and underscores the dramatic moments with the kind of music that sticks in your mind for days afterwards.

In a word, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is excellent, and I mean really excellent. Despite the couple of minor bugbears that niggled me somewhat, I found this long-awaited prequel to be a fantastic return to the tortured world of Deus Ex’s murky shenanigans, as well as a damn good game in its own right. From the start, the game immerses you in the gritty action and endless grey morals of a world on the fulcrum of change, and tasks the player with figuring out what’s right, and what’s wrong. In the words of Adam Jensen: “If you want to make enemies, try to change something.”

Score: 9/10

Good Stuff:
Excellent plot, 20+ hours of play
Brilliantly realised moral and multiple-choice career path
Plenty to see and do, loads of side missions

Not so good stuff:
Animations for close combat get old
Long load times

The Green Lantern - Xbox 360

I rarely hold my breath for movie tie-ins and I have to say, The Green Lantern title hasn’t been an exception to that rule.

This is probably because as a comic-book geek, I’m not as familiar with The Green Lantern as I should be and the last time I played a movie tie-in was GI Joe – and the memories of that experience are still very, very painful.

Starting off with a cutscene, it is established that the game is set some time after Hal Jordan has acquired the power ring which gives him his special abilities to conjure up green stuff. Sadly, we learn little more of how this happened as Hal is quickly thrown into battle against a bunch of intergalactic androids, known simple as The Man Hunters.

The other thing that we learn is that this game suffers from framerate issues and as the animation stutters along, it doesn’t really give the player a good first impression.

Fortunately, this problem doesn’t hinder the gameplay. However, the uninspired mechanics do.

Essentially a hack and slash game, much of it relies on you beating up the various robotic nasties before you can proceed to the next section. It is literally a case of go here, beat them up until the invisible wall disappears and then repeat the process again.

Every now and then the game will give you an object, like a door or some rocks to smash through, but that’s about as varied as it gets and when it does, it rarely makes it clear what you should be doing and at times it can take a little while to solve.

Despite the mundane level design, the combat does bring some redeeming features to the game.

The controls are quite responsive and there is a healthy amount of combos for Hal to perform that should keep the average hack and slasher fan busy for a little while. Slinging the mechanical enemies over cliffs is actually quite satisfy.

The game also keeps the combat quite fresh by rewarding the player with various upgrades, new combos and constructs (glowing green weapons that Hal creates). The ability to assign them to your preferred button is quite intuitive and offers a bit of customisation.

Visually, the game is a bit a mixed bag. While the cut scenes are marred by the frame rate issues mentioned earlier, the levels themselves are vibrant and colourful with lots going on in the background.

The audio is suitably cinematic, featuring an orchestral score (possibly from the movie) and the voice of the actor Ryan Reynolds, who also lends his likeness to the game.

As I mentioned earlier, I’m always weary of movie tie-ins and The Green Lantern: The Rise of the Machines has done nothing to change that. However, I have played some pretty bad movie adaptations previously and The Green Lantern is no where near the worst that I have played.

Verdict: 6.5 out of 10

The Good
Good controls
Engaging combat
Easy to pick up

The Bad
Boring level design
Framerate issues

It’s been almost 6 months since I have bought Microsoft’s motion tracking gadget and aside from playing Kinect Adventures and occasionally inviting family and friends over so they can see me wave at my X-Box, I was beginning to wonder if I should keep it or not.

So with Kinect sitting above my TV collecting dust for the last few months, Ubisoft and Q-Entertainment have come to rescue and released what many have dubbed the prequel to Rez.

Developed by legendary games designer, Tetsuya Mizuguchi, Child of Eden is a rhythm action game set in a virtual world in the far future. The objective of the game is to Project Lumi from a virus attack.

Seperated into five different sections, each one has it’s own unique identity with areas of the game looking like lakes, underwater caves and a section that appears to be the insides of a computer.

The game is essential an on the rails shooter with a good bit of music rhythm thrown in. Execute your attacks on the right beat and you are rewarded with bonus points and various unlockables.

Playing the game using Kinect can take a little while to get used to, but once it clicks the experience is quite immersive and almost becomes second nature.

Visually, the game is very pleasing – with graceful animation and vibrant colours, the game reminds me of an up-to-date version of that not-so-classic 90s film, The Lawnmower Man.

Musically everything hit’s the right note. While the trance inspired soundtrack may not be to everyone’s taste, it fits the proceedings like a glove.

The game can be finished in under an hour but thankfully the developers have included a few mechanics that will keep the player coming back for more, including new difficulty settings and a hidden challenge mode.

Overall, Child of Eden is a worth checking out, especially if you are a Kinect owner looking for something that might be a little different. Visually and audibly arresting, Child of Eden is unlike any other game you’ll play this year.

Verdict: 8 out of 10

The Good
Very pretty
Nice music
Unique

The Bad
Kinect controls can take a while to get used too
Not to everyone’s taste