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

Fallout: New Vegas - Xbox 360

“War. War never changes.”

So starts every Fallout game.

It’s somewhat ironic then that Fallout: New Vegas, never really changed from Fallout 3 either. In fact, it’s pretty much the same – but that’s not to say it’s bad. Far from it.

Set in the post-apocalyptic world of 2281, 200 years after the nuclear war between the US and China that bought the human race to the brink of extinction, the game takes place in the blasted Mojave Wasteland – Nevada, Las Vegas (now renamed New Vegas) and a hundred watering holes, bandit camps, monster lairs, military bases and assorted random encounters spread across the desert sands – not a nice place for a holiday.

Into this melee steps the player character – a courier for the Mojave Express delivery company, given a mysterious package to deliver to the Vegas Strip – but who instead finds himself shot in the head and left for dead by a gang of outlaws and their mysteriously well-spoken leader.

After you wake up in a doctor’s house in the charming little hamlet of Goodsprings, you’re tasked with finding out who killed you and why.

And after that? It’s entirely up to you.

Like Fallout 3 before it, New Vegas offers the gamer an open world, a pistol and a Pip-Boy computer – and lets you off the leash.

If you want to wander the deserts searching for lost treasure, go right ahead. Feeling like murdering an entire town and stealing their lovely collection of stainless steel forks? Sure, why not. In the mood to pick the lock on that gun cabinet and make pretty pictures with super mutant blood? Go on then. The choice is yours.

Along the way you’ll have to beg, borrow, barter or steal what you need to survive, and be assigned dozens of different quests – from freeing slaves to recovering stolen robots, and will take on mutants, giant bugs, angry mobs and insane grannies in your quest to uncover the truth.

So, pretty much the same as Fallout 3 then.

Yes, gamers who’ve previously walked the wasteland will find New Vegas instantly familiar – the game uses the same control scheme, graphics engine and perks system as Fallout 3, and while the game expands on those, it doesn’t really break any boundaries.

There are more weapons up for grabs, more improvised weapons just waiting for a tool bench, more perks and more companions.

New Vegas expands on the previous title in every way.

The game has also expanded the improvisation aspect, to include making your own ammo, food and potions – a stop at a campfire can give a wily traveller ample opportunity to whip up a healing powder or an action point booster bread loaf. It’s an addition that adds that little bit of realism to the outlandish confines of the wasteland.

The game also comes with even more bugs – and I don’t mean the mutated preying mantises.

While Fallout 3 was a notoriously buggy game, New Vegas is shot through with graphical errors, gameplay problems and programming flaws.

After 30 minutes of play, I’d accidentally started a war with an innocent town – because my character kept drawing his rifle and firing off a single shot – this time straight into an innocent bartender’s left eye.

I also encountered radscorpions stuck in rocks, heads flipping upside down mid-conversation, a super mutant who appeared to be doing a Michael Flatley and the world’s scariest gate – it vanished as soon as I opened it.

But, if you can ignore the bugs and simply enjoy the game for the freedom it offers, then there’s a heck of a lot to love in New Vegas.

Like Fallout 3 before it, the scope for exploration is simply massive. The area the game lets you tramp over is about the same as the Capital Wasteland, and is just as dangerous.

While small towns may offer bartering or the occasional quest, the gangs of escaped, dynamite wielding convicts, super mutants and crazy robots infesting everywhere else will keep you on your toes.

Good thing then that the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System is in full operation once again, allowing the gamer to target individual body parts with ease. And the various perks on offer allow the gamer to customise your version of the courier to your heart’s content.

The karma system is also in full flow, tracking each of your choices and steering you towards the end game – its surprising how quickly a few spots of thievery can stack up against you.

The most interesting aspect to New Vegas. However. are the factions fighting over the scrub and brush – The New California Republic (democrats with guns) and Ceasar’s Legion (brutal murderers with a strict moral code – and a penchant for Roman legionnaire armour.)

The gamer can chose to make allies or enemies of either faction in their ongoing war, taking on faction missions to further their cause, or you can attempt to walk the fine line between the two forces, going your own way.

This, of course, is a challenge in itself, and a few large-scale battles could quickly see you forced to join one side or the other.

Plus, if the game isn’t already challenging for you enough, Obsidian have included a ‘hardcore’ mode for the true wasteland survivalist.

This mode makes your character need regular water, food and sleep, and means radiation doesn’t fade in time, or stimpacks heal instantly.

I turned the mode on straight away and found that the need to constantly monitor my courier made the game a little more intense, but also a little too much like The Sims.

Thankfully, I didn’t need to tell my courier to go to the toilet every 30 seconds.

Graphically, apart from the bugs, New Vegas has only slightly improved the bleak outlook of Fallout 3.

While there is much more colour in the Mojave, and the bright neon of The Strip’s casinos and nightclubs are a great change from the sand and dirt (and of course feature all the bottlecap gambling a drifter could want), the engine only does a reasonable job with the lighting and textures, and the rate of item pop-in is horrendous.

The sound is pretty good, however, as is the score – is a wonderful collection of country and western and Vegas classics, including a fair few from the chairman of the board, Frank Sinatra.

The voice acting is top-notch and the many varied characters you run into each have their own personality – and secret agenda. It’s a veritable minefield of dodgy dealing and backstabbing, and a damn good thing too.

So, to throw the dice one last time, Fallout: New Vegas, is a slightly enhanced Fallout 3 set in a new location with a more succinct plot, more weapons, perks, ammo, enemies and bad decisions waiting to be made. If you loved Fallout 3, you’ll love this, but be prepared to overlook the numerous bugs if you want to make it big in Sin City.

Viva New Vegas.

Score: 7.5/10

Good Stuff:
More Fallout goodness
More perks, enemies and quests et al
Good plot, excellent scope for adventuring

Not so good stuff:
Buggy, very, very buggy
Pretty much Fallout 3.5
Crushing difficulty early on

Halo Reach - Xbox 360

From the beginning, you know the end. And it ain’t pretty.

Ten years ago Halo bounced onto the original XBox. Within weeks, that game alone had sold millions of copies, saved Microsoft’s white elephant from the scrapheap and launched a brand which has gone from strength to strength, spawning two sequels, a real-time-strategy title, add-on packs, animated films, books, posters and… soap.

Halo is a powerhouse.

So we come to Halo: Reach. The last hurrah. Bungie’s final goodbye to one of the most influential gaming series’ of my generation.

And my goodness does it kick ass.

As a package, Reach ticks all the boxes – stellar story, great gameplay, thrilling multiplayer and so on – but what really shines through, as soon as you pop the disk in your shiny white box, is the sheer effort put into the game.

Picking up shortly before the beginning of the first Halo game, Reach tells the story of Noble Team, a six-strong unit of Spartan supersoldiers, and their battle to protect the human colony of Reach from the invading Covenant armada – a battle which, thanks to the series’ rich storyline, we already know ends badly.

The player assumes the role of Noble Six, a new recruit to the team, who is quickly thrust into an arching storyline which fits nicely into the Halo canon, and features just about every good bit from the other Halo games.

There’s a stealthy mission with snipers and night vision, huge tank battles, close-range sword fighting and fighting retreats against the endless tides of the Covenant, among many other stand-out levels.

There’s even a space mission – which plays a bit like Lylat Wars – and is a nice addition to the campaign, acting as a welcome change of pace from shooting hunters in the back with a shotgun.

The rest of Noble Team, which are often fighting alongside you, all have their own characters and abilities, and watching the disparate personalities of the Spartans play off against each others is a highlight of the campaign.

As Carter, the leader of the specialist unit, says: “You can drop the ‘lone wolf’ crap, Noble fights as a team.”

A good thing then that rather than being the traditional Halo NPCS (of mis-thrown grenades and constant death fame) Noble Team, and the other marines you run into on your long journey, are clever, fast and deadly accurate.

Good thing too, as the Covenant are deadlier than ever. The Elites (at this point in the Halo storyline still the bad guys) are agile, command their squads intelligently and have bought a whole load of new tech, weapons and vehicles along for the ride.

The new weapons on offer range from the deadly needle rifle (think a needler with a scope), to new shotguns, assault rifles, an improved rocket launcher, a weapon which fires four plasma grenades at once and my personal favourite, the ‘focus rifle’ – a sort of sniper beam weapon which cuts through shields like a hot plasma sword through Spartan armour.

Also included this time are ‘armour abilities’. These pick-ups give your Spartan extra skills, be it the ability to sprint, dodge incoming fire, fly into the sky with a jetpack, turn invisible or put up a bubble shield – there’s even one which makes you invulnerable (and immobile) for a second or two. These abilities are a pleasant evolution of the pick-ups from Halo 3, and can really mix the action up, both in campaign and multiplayer.

New vehicles making their debut include the Falcon – a combination helicopter and transport gunship, a small, two-seater Covenant skimmer with a miniature Wraith plasma mortar attached and a new variant on the Halo standard Warthog – this time rocket pod-flavoured.

All of these vehicles fit brilliantly into the long campaign’s big levels, which are less corridor-shooter and more open-world than previous titles. There are usually two or three routes to an objective, but whether you fly in, shoot your way through the massed ranks of grunts or try to sneak around the back is up to you. The only downside to this open world effect means it’s quite easy to get lost. The game doesn’t use waypoints very much, meaning I quite often had to look at the objectives and match the ‘go to the east’ instruction with the compass in my visor.

Outside of the campaign (which can again be played with three friends along for the ride) the game is fully loaded with all the Halo classics you know and love.

First up, there’s the multiplayer.

Once again Bungie have served up a masterpiece of competitive battles, ranging from team slayer to rocket race (Mongeese and unlimited rockets = good times).

The maps are varied, including a new version of Blood Gulch, and are perfectly rounded when pitted with the vehicles and armour abilities on offer.

Several new modes also make their first appearances in the menus. These include Invasion – a six vs six battle which plays a bit like Battlefield, and high-roller matches for the wannabe MLG professionals among us.

Firefight, the Gears of War Horde-alike mode, also makes a return – and it finally has matchmaking.

The gameplay is as intense and enjoyable as ever, and thanks to Bungie’s ridiculous amount of game customisation options, if you want an entire wave of grunts armed with fuel-rod guns who explode in a ball of confetti when you kill them, that’s perfectly logical.

Also, if you fancy throwing a spanner in the works, some of the spots on the enemy waves of dropships can be taken by human players, making the whole experience a heck of a lot more intense.

Forge, Bungie’s incredible sandbox of death, also makes a welcome return – but this time, it’s on steroids.

Not content with giving you every multiplayer map to tinker with, Bungie have created a massive arena (with its own ecology, including animals and birds) in ForgeWorld.

Within this gargantuan space you can build just about anything your imagination can come up with, and the game lets you save all your screenshots, game modes and maps to share with your friends.

The really good homemade maps are even slated to enter their own matchmaking mode, so keep your visors peeled for that.

As for the matchmaking system itself, it’s as tidy as ever, and the developers have made it a lot easier to move from multiplayer to campaign to firefight without losing your party – it’s now as easy as pie to zip about, trying the numerous modes.

The only mode which can’t handle a party is the theatre mode, which is a shame, as it would have been cool to re-watch that sweet grenade stick with a few mates in the back rows.

Graphically the game is a cut above Halo 3, and has been built from the ground up to portray Reach in all its glory.
The colour and depth the developers drew the world with is simply stunning, and the textures are lush with no discernable pop-in, even when the action gets intense, as it frequently does.

The animation is sharp and does a brilliant job of showing off both Spartans, humans and Covenant at their best.

The score is another series highpoint from composer Martin O’Donnell, who manages to go from quiet drumbeat to a symphonic climax and still create a sound which is quintessentially Halo, but has a haunting melody of its own.
(He also does a great line in drum-heavy battle themes.)

The voice acting is also excellent, with Noble Team each having their own personality and inflection on their characters.

There’s not much else to say about Reach. I can’t recommend it enough. If you’ve never liked the Halo games, stay clear, but if you’re a fan, or indeed have never played a Halo game before, get your wallet out.

That’s an order, Spartan.

Score: 9.5/10

Good Stuff:
Great plot
Brilliant gameplay, both online and off
Great score and graphics
ForgeWorld is just ridiculous

Not so good stuff:
No parties in theatre mode
The AI, while improved, still struggles with driving

Mafia II - Xbox 360

Vittorio ‘Vito’ Scaletta is not an evil man.

He may kill cops, rob banks and socialise with the scum of Empire Bay, but he lives by a strong moral code – it’s a delightfully perverse lifestyle.

That’s the first thing you realise about Mafia 2 – there is no black and white, it’s all just endless shades of grey.

The game – the sequel to the reasonable, if uninspiring Mafia – is a brilliant return to the seedy underbelly of ‘Family’ life.

Picking up just after World War 2, the game opens with a simple tutorial which teaches you everything you need to know, as Vito serves time in Italy taking on the Blackshirts.

After getting sent home for leave, the young future-mobster discovers an Empire Bay in the grip of the war – rationing is at a high, cars cruise the streets amid the snow and Vito’s best friend, Joe, has mysteriously done rather well for himself.

This moment, when Vito decides “Life is better when you have more stuff”, sets the morally ambiguous character off on an adventure fraught with betrayal, action, brutality, hookers, drugs, guns and sex, and though it takes a while for the plot to really get cracking, stay with it and Mafia 2 becomes an offer you can’t refuse.

Beginning in 1945, the game moves through a decade or so of Vito’s life, following his journey from enforcer up the line of one of the four ‘Families’ who run Empire Bay’s underworld.

A massive cast of characters flesh out an enticing and thrilling story, which can often leave you wondering who to trust as the city starts to fall apart.

The voice acting for the cast is superb, and though the animation sometimes fails to match the brilliant vocalisations, you’ll quickly fall in love with the no-nonsense enforcers of the Families, Joe’s southern drawl and the curt put-downs of police officers who wander the streets.

The city itself is the other star of the game. In the 1940s – the first quarter of the storyline – the city is cold and dark. Snow litters the streets as trench-coated men stumble along, the icy conditions making driving the wonderful selection of period cars all the more difficult.

Vera Lynn and Glen Miller pipe out of the three radio stations as you cruise the streets, the gaudy neon of shops throwing shadows across the pavements.

Later, after the war has passed, the city is hits the 50s. As America recovers from the devastation of war, rock n’ roll is king.

It’s all Hawaiian shirts and hot-rods as Buddy Holly blares from every radio, and scantily-clad ladies adorn the posters slathered on the wall.

The attention to detail is delightful, and though the city itself isn’t a massive area (about a third of the size of GTA4’s Liberty City), it has enough variety in the districts to keep the action fresh and exciting.

And a lot of action there is to be had.

While the early part of the story is all legwork – answering phones and doing odd-jobs for mob bosses – give the game the time to reach its stride and before long you’ll be engaged in rolling shootouts, assassinations, brutal, close-range firefights and more fistfighting than you can shake your fist at, literally.

All of this is made all the more fun with a brilliant selection of period weaponry, from ex-Marine Garand rifles to the ever-popular Colt .45, a magnum that would make Dirty Harry proud and, of course, the Thompson sub-machinegun – the Chicago Typewriter itself.

Add to this a great (if rather small) collection of snappy suits and fedoras, and before long Vito goes from street-level punk to fully-fledged member of the Family, with the duds to match.

Outside of the story missions however, which play out chapter by chapter, the game is sadly lacking in other activities.

Mafia 2 is game just screaming out for a free-roaming world like GTA, but outside of the story missions Empire Bay offers very little in the way of side-activities.

You can scrap cars for extra cash, piss off the cops, rob stores and generally raise hell, but there isn’t really any point to it.

You can pay to upgrade your cars, change the number plates to lose the cops, or get that stolen hot-rod a new coat of berry red, but there’s simply not enough to do outside of the campaign, and that’s a real shame.

In a world where Just Cause 2 and Red Dead Redemption make such good use of their massive, open worlds, Mafia’s city is the odd one out.

Graphically the game is pretty stunning, with the city looking spectacular as the years roll on. The animations can be a little jerky at times, but the little touches – like snow sliding off the roof of your car as you screech around a corner, and the clouds of cigar smoke hovering in front of the camera in seedy diners – bring the game to life.

The control scheme is a little harder to get to grips with, however. The driving is simple and easy to pull off – but don’t expect to go like a cannon out of the windshield if you crash – slam a heavy chunk of Detroit iron into a wall and you’re dead, it’s that simple.

The cover system is pretty decent, with Vito only hugging the occasional invisible wall. The button to detach from the wall is a little trickier however, leaving the Italian-American either jumping from cover to cover like a jackrabbit or running straight towards the enemy.

The gunplay is also a little stiff at points, and the accuracy at long ranges often leaves a lot to be desired, but this is not a problem all that much as most of the gunplay is close in and brutal – one stand out battle takes place in a meat locker, with hanging slabs of pork and beef taking Tommy Gun fire as the characters duke it out at short range.

Mafia 2 is a brilliant, story-driven campaign with some likeable characters and a fascinating world to explore. While it’s a shame the city wasn’t used to its full potential, as the game is begging to be a free-roaming epic, the campaign is an enthralling ride through life in The Family – and its burdens. Give it time to get to the meat of the story and let the brilliant writing and stellar voice acting take you away to a world of girls, cash and death.

Score: 8/10

Good Stuff
Great story
Brilliant voice acting
Slick, exciting world to explore
Great musical score

Not so good stuff:
Empire Bay is begging to be a sandbox, but isn’t
Lots of legwork early on
Tricky driving