Instead of hoppers of scantily protected chocolate buttons and fizzy snakes there are three skill trees: Might (big swords), Sorcery (flashy spells) and Finesse (sneakystabby). You can invest heavily in to one tree or spread yourself liberally across two, or if you’re feeling indecisive… all three. Then KoA:Reckoning adds further Pick & Mix goodness with the introduction of Destinies. These are bonuses based on how many points you have in each tree. Destiny Cards, like the skill trees, can be based on a variety of class combinations so there’s plenty to experiment with. You can find more about the skills of Reckoning in Debbie’s previous interview with systems designer Will Miller.

Moving further into this increasingly tortured metaphor, we have the sour cola bottles and white chocolate mice, or loot. Equipment flows fast and with lots of particle effects and there’s a pleasing variety of weapons, even for the pansy spell-casters amongst us. Borrowing from the “green is good, blue is better, purple is bestest” school of design makes it reasonably simple to kit yourself but you can run in to problems if you’ve spread skill points across all talent trees. Top level stuff tends to have point requirements in specific talents.

Gameplay is a good mix of exploring, combat and RPG stalwarts like crafting. The world feels big; not Skyrim big but nor are you being led from one side quest to another and to be honest, having spent many hours trekking up mountains only to realise I’m in the wrong bloody Skyrim place, it’s a relief to have a little bit of the “on rails” feeling. Combat is fluid and good control mapping means you can easily swap between a primary and secondary weapon whilst flinging spells and trying to dodge. The greater the combination of your abilities used in each fight the more Fate you earn. As the pool fills up (think mini experience bar) you get closer to being able to unleash the mother of all quick-time events.  Fateshifting turns you in to a big purple angel of death and allows you to take down multiple enemies sharpish, earning extra bonuses if you tap the correct button like a person possessed.

So, that “All You Can Eat” buffet I mentioned – KoA: Reckoning not only lets you combine a mix of skills but once you get bored of them, encourages you to go back for a different helping. No more soul-crushing moments as you realise the talents you’ve chosen are as satisfying as nouvelle cuisine. Head for a settlement with a Fateweaver and pay to have everything wiped clean, I started out as a bad-ass Mage and after fifteen hours had reset myself four times and ended up completing the game as a Rogue. Same goes for the Crafting skills; get bored of being a top level Alchemist and just swap to something else for a while.

Sadly, into every tub of sweets some grubby fingers must fall and the game isn’t perfect. I didn’t have any major technical bugs but there were quite a few cut-scene tears and slightly odd enemy behaviour. NPC’s would just stand in the middle of the combat field without engaging. Whilst I appreciated the pick-pocketing opportunity, it seemed a little amateur for such a massive game. My only other big gripe is the storyline; yes it made sense and yes it gave me a few moments of “oooooh” but it was just tinged a little too much with fantasy-flavoured cheesiness for me.

Slightly odd characters aside this is a beautiful, varied and absorbing release from 38 Studios and Big Huge Games. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is easy to immerse yourself in and a welcome change from the gritty fantasy of games like the Elder Scrolls series. Once you start you’ll want to scoff the whole bloody lot in one sitting and will likely emerge Monday morning with feelings of shameful remorse at your gluttony. Happily this guilt will swiftly pass and you’ll be left with warm, fuzzy feelings as you remember just how much you enjoyed yourself.

The Western Europe map that will be available is 4-player co-op and if you want to complete it on Hard as we did, you’ll need to be incredibly focused on teamwork and tactics. As Mat Jones pointed out in his own Syndicate preview, we dropped straight into MMO jargon from the outset. The level of co-operation required to complete this map makes it feel an awful lot like a small 4-man raid, clocking in at roughly 30 minutes per session.

In the world of Syndicate, you play as an Agent; a member of the Syndicate squad with a Dart 6 weaponised chip implanted in your skull. These brain enhancements let you get up to all sorts of remote shenanigans like causing your enemies’ guns to misfire, commanding computers without using your hands and healing your squad mates. No, I have no idea how a skull implant can repair bullet holes in other people’s bodies but there it is. You can also offer your team buffs in the form of shielding, breach enemies’ armour to make them vulnerable and, if you die in the field leaving one of your team-mates still alive, they can resurrect you when they get close enough. Very MMO-ish indeed.

The tactics our group used on this map were very much around teamwork. In one section with distant snipers and rocket launchers, we’d send out one player to snipe while the others heal and generally try to stay out of rocket blast radius. In another section, we’d split into pairs and have one group draw the boss over to one side of the map while the others engaged additional enemies on the other.

If even one team member lost focus and failed to heal their buddy or to keep their assigned enemies at bay, the battle was over, so good communication was paramount. The HUD design is very helpful with this, showing the health bars of all your teammates at the top. There’s no excuse for letting someone die through ignorance. Thanks to the checkpointing system, having the entire team wipe was frustrating but not the end of the world. The checkpoints we needed to use were perfectly placed, so dying usually meant that we’d spawn at the entrance to a section. We never had to repeat more than one real firefight.

The game had no avatar customisation that I could see but you do get to define your own set of three loadouts named Defense, Offense and Support. These define the equipment you will have at the start of the mission. Each loadout has a free choice of primary and secondary weapons and a chip ability or “application”. These names are purely for convenience and don’t restrict your options – if you want to set up your “Defense” loadout aggressively with sniper rifles, assault rifles and, say, a chip ability that causes your opponent to commit suicide with a grenade, you go right ahead. You’ll also have the option to unlock a second remote ability once you grind enough points to upgrade your chip.

Grind. Remember that word. It will come up later.

When playing on hard mode, loadouts are more about customising for your own play style than trying to build a balanced team. In a traditional MMO raid, you’d need to make sure you have at least one healer, one “tank” to soak up damage and draw attention, and maybe someone set up for crowd control. Syndicate co-op needs people to do all those jobs yet doesn’t force you into specialising for any one role. This is just as well because, as with most games, the XP system is heavily biased towards killing.

I spent one of our four play-throughs spamming heals on everyone else while a specialist sniper took out distant targets and the remaining two took care of close-quarters fighting. This left me trailing at the bottom of the leaderboard with 10,000 XP while the sniper took home 23,000. In another play-through we all took sniper rifles as our primary weapon and clocked in with a respectable 15,000 XP each. The fire rate and low recoil of the basic sniper rifle do mean that a quick double-tap to the torso will kill most enemies as quickly as single headshot, so I fear that this weapon is rather overpowered. However, you get points for kill assists and achieving objectives as well as heals, so there’s little danger of sessions turning into a race to be the fastest sniper. I hope.

XP is important for a number of reasons. Yes, you need it to level up but you also use it in research to unlock new abilities. This is where things gets weirdly complicated.

• Killing, healing and completing mission objectives will get you XP.
• Levelling up though gaining XP will earn you chip points.
• Completing challenges will win you application tokens.
• Completing certain objectives will give you blueprint tokens.

Spend chip points to upgrade your implanted brain chip and gain new applications like the aforementioned shield buff. Spend application tokens to enhance existing abilities – for example, the basic Backfire will do some damage to a distant opponent when he next tries to shoot you. Upgrade that with the Chamber Patch and Backfire will happen earlier and cause extra damage.

But here’s the catch. You can’t use your application tokens to purchase Chamber Patch unless you’ve already spent a chip point on the ROM 1 upgrade. Even then, once you’ve purchased the Chamber Patch, you still need to unlock it by setting it as your research project and earning 5000 XP in a map. Blueprint tokens work in the same manner but for grenade and gun upgrades. To put this another way, the team have built an RPG-like technology tree but spread it across 3 different menu screens for an awkward-as-hell interface.

The upshot of all this is that unlike an MMO where you’ll run a raid time and time again in the hopes of getting a rare or epic drop from the boss, your incentive to repeat maps in Syndicate’s co-op mode is to grind your research for weapon upgrades and abilities. You can queue up multiple research projects so if you want a fairly cheap ability, any excess XP earned in the session won’t go to waste.

Having played through the demo level four times in a row on hard mode, this worries me a little. I honestly feel like I’m done with the Western Europe map already. I’ve proved that my team are good enough to beat it on the hardest difficulty available. Where’s the incentive to earn new abilities? I could speculate that this might lie in other maps, with certain bosses requiring specific abilities to beat but as yet, that has no basis in fact.

If you have a group of friends you trust, or a clan, then Syndicate’s co-op will be great fun on hard mode. Everyone else will enjoy running and gunning their way through the normal difficulty. Abilities are fun but long cool-down times meant that we hardly used them and we really didn’t need to. As such, even though I really enjoyed our sessions, I have my doubts over the longevity of this mode without a steady churn of new maps. You should definitely try it for yourself when the demo is out this week.

Syndicate will be released on 24th Feb on Xbox 360, PC and PS3.

Brawl Busters is the new over the shoulder deathmatch / co-op release from Rock Hippo. Like Team Fortress 2 it’s released as Free-2-Play and offers in-game currency for those who are time starved but still want weapons and plenty of ‘em. Whilst download and installation was painless I’ve consistently found that logging in to the game can mean a bit of a wait. These are not deal-breaking delays but a bit annoying if you’re not a patient type.

Character creation .. the joy, I can be a woman! As greater people than I have said “if you’re going to stare at something on the screen it might as well be an attractive arse”. Just being allowed a few customisation options makes you feel a little more unique without having to get involved in chin lengths and jewellery colours. Once that minefield of aesthetic decision is dealt with you’ll need to task your grey cells with which class to unlock first, I won’t insult your intelligence by listing and reviewing the options and besides, it would spoil the “getting to know you” stage. Suffice to say, there’s bound to be something you fancy.

There are both single and multiplayer modes but realistically the single player offering is far more about teaching you the game than being a challenge. It’s certainly worth working through these learning stages though as they’ll net you a chunk of in game currency and some nifty bits of kit. They also serve as a needed guide to understanding the chaos you’re going to meet on the multiplayer levels. You’re offered a choice of two deathmatch scenarios and two co-operative scenarios and from there on in it’s anybody’s guess as the game descends in to a fast-paced free-for-all.

Combat is good fun though, at least at first … before those rose tinted glasses start to get steamed up. What initially excited you, those bright colours, the catchy music … it starts to get on your nerves. You start to wonder if there’s really a future in executing the same few combos over and over again just because they’re the moves that are going to win that deathmatch round. Co-operative play is more engaging as it’s not just a case of running around in circles trying to avoid getting battered by someone considerably more skilled than you. Rock Hippo do introduce a nice touch with the addition of power-ups granted from hitting parts of the environment. It’s enormously gratifying to trap an opponent in jelly or stick a box on their head just as you’re about to die.

You can purchase new kit and upgrades from the in game store but these are subject to the usual balance towards far greater rewards for those paying cold, hard cash. As Flavio Caracas, Marketing Manager for Rock Hippo Productions states “Monetisation is also a key issue as publishers attempt to find the right balance between covering costs and attracting more players. There’s no one-size-fits-all model here, and there’s a lot of room for creativity.” With Brawl Busters I happen to feel the balance is a little unfair as a weapon you can pick up for cash is over two times as powerful as one for currency earned through playing but therein lays the incentive to pony up.

My big criticism of this game is the lobby system used for joining matches, I’ve spent more time sat waiting for the game leader to click “Start” than I have playing. It’s enormously frustrating to finally have an eight spot game fill up only for people to start leaving because someone is picking their nose and not paying attention. A couple of changes here and there would make this far less of a ball ache along with automatic team balancing instead of the game leader being given the option of selecting it. Do you really want to leave competitive people in charge of whether something is fair?

Brawl Busters is the perfect antidote to a long day in the office, when you fancy just a little bit of a dalliance with something quick and easy without the commitment of a nagging fishwife like Skyrim.

Brawl Busters is available now for free from the official website.

Amazingly Insane

Your home for the majority of the game is the city of Steelport which is filled with all manner of weapons, vehicles and activities to keep you entertained. From calling in airstrikes, marauding around in a tank, stealing private jets and base jumping off the sides of buildings, the game panders to your every desire. And I had a lot of desires. Heck, I spent the entire game running round as a 6 foot, gold-skinned nude guy with a giant red afro. The insane Professor Genki’s Super Ethical Reality Climax activities also gave me time to indulge my – hitherto deeply repressed – love of murdering people dressed as mascots. In other games this kind of behaviour would be a very bad thing and frowned upon. In the world of Saints Row I got rewarded with lots of money.

To give the game some structure, purpose and funny dialogue there were just under 50 missions available. All of them consisted of doing insane crap with other members of your Saints gang as you collectively battled to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons Syndicate. For reasons unknown, the Syndicate employ vast numbers of lingerie-clad hench women. This made some of the street battles resemble a La Senza flashmob gone wrong. Very wrong.

While you can ignore the missions and just explore the city, they are vital in unlocking extra skills and abilities – better health regeneration, dual pistols/SMGs, fire and explosive damage reduction which all help to make your character even more awesome.

Almost all of my stand out moments, both good and bad, took place during the missions. The good moments represent the most fun I’ve had in a videogame. Seriously. For a pilot like me, being able to fly a VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) jet armed with a death ray and homing rockets and shooting up the city is the best thing ever. I even managed to land a light aircraft on the helipad attached to my rooftop penthouse by using the swimming pool as a temporary runway. I challenge you to do the same. (Link/tweet us a more awesome picture than mine if you do).

What’s great is the game encourages you to do stupid stuff like that and never takes itself too seriously. There is none of Grand Theft Auto IV’s dull and dreary take on life. In the world of the Saints being cocky, stinking rich and coloured pink is the way forward. Sure I had to contend with the police and rival gangs if I killed a few too many people but for the most part I was able to do anything I wanted.

Incredibly Irritating

The biggest let down and the cause of all my annoyances with the game centred around the exceptionally crap AI. The other Saints are so mind-numbingly stupid that they’d happily sabotage mission objectives on a regular basis; shooting the crap out of a truck that I’m trying to protect for instance. Unfortunately, you can’t carry out missions alone so I was forced to come up with various ways to sideline my partner(s) as much as possible.

The dumb AI plagues every other vehicle driver too. If you thought that GTA IV’s drivers were erratic, the ones in Steelport are easily the worst ever. Cars will inexplicably drive into buildings, other vehicles, burst into flames or try to execute a three point turn with the finesse of a 2 year-old child. This type of behaviour was especially annoying during my many swift escapes from blowing up things like army bases, entire buildings or just driving home after a night watching strippers only to be taken out by an erratic driver.

Also Co-op

Playing the game in co-op mode is infinity less annoying, unless of course your mate’s a total dumbass. In this mode everything is exactly the same as single-player but with your mate replacing the stupid AI-controlled character. There really is nothing better than mooching around in the city together, surfing on top of jets (yes, really), destroying buildings and stealing street cleaning vehicles. Co-op absolutely rocks in Saints Row: The Third. The lack of offline split-screen is disappointing but just persuade your friends to buy and game and everything will be fine. Whored mode is also available when you fancy killing wave after wave of enemies using things like a tank or a chainsaw. Unlike its terribly-punned name, you’re not actually besieged by whores here. All sorts of enemies will race up to be shot in the nuts. This did add a bit of fun to something I usually find quite dull to play.

But Should You Buy It?

In the end none of the issues really matter. The game is rammed with so much stupid, insane, vulgar, funny and violent content that only a handful of annoying missions during the middle third of the game came close to wiping the giant smile off my face. Volition Inc have focused on removing anything that might get in the way of having fun so you end up doing more of the things that entertain you. If you don’t have fun playing Saints Row: The Third then you must be dead inside. Or a politician.

Saints Row: The Third is out now for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Also given the tie in with Games for Windows LIVE account, Microsoft Flight is clearly trying to make aviation more accessible and popular. According to Joshua Howard, executive producer of Microsoft Flight

Aviation can be incredibly technical, but we’ve taken great care to build an experience that makes taking to the skies thrilling and accessible for everyone.

Recently I’ve used Flight Simulator X with SE England satellite terrain add-on to practice for my Private Pilots Licence (JAR PPL) exams. I needed that high level of authenticity that Flight Simulator series has always provided.

I just hope the Microsoft Flight team haven’t forgotten those of us who don’t care about aero-caches or missions and just want to fly aircraft in the most realistic way possible outside a real cockpit.

You can still sign up to the closed Microsoft Flight beta if you can’t wait until the spring for the full release.

Microsoft Flight is currently in closed beta and will be available later on in 2012.

Stylistically, the game world presented is exactly what you would expect and nothing really very different from Fallout 3 or Borderlands. I will say, however, that although they may look great in screenshots, nearly every area feels like a “level” and not a real place. Later areas and enemies are reminiscent of Valve’s Half-Life 2 and I have to assume that id Software intended it as an homage to the franchise, because otherwise it just shows a complete lack of imagination.

I love the Mad Max movies and the post-apocalyptic genre, and ever since Outlander on the Mega Drive, I have been hoping for a modern game that lets me live in that world. But the driving elements are about as deep as they were in Borderlands (which is to say, not very) and they just feel really tacked on. There are racing events that you can take part in in each of the town hubs, but I found them to be extremely arcadey and simply not all that fun. It’s a far cry from a setting like Mad Max’s wasteland.

One quick aside: I think the whole “cowboys in a Sci Fi” setting is rarely, if ever, well-executed. Most of the characters just end up sounding like bored rednecks, and honestly it’s a motif that should be done well or not at all. Developers take note: it is neither believable or compelling. One scientist character shows a little bit of life and inspiration, but like many of the other talking heads, he’s just there to move you on to the next checkpoint.

I encountered a similar experience to Nick’s “narrow corridor of plot”; the game gave me a mission briefing screen for one of the first tasks in the game. It’s a yes-or-no question and out of curiosity, I declined, just to see what would happen, but I couldn’t do anything else. I was just stuck in a backroom with no way out. It’s a little disappointing that the game doesn’t even acknowledge it in a humorous way, and aside from some “job board” side missions that you can do for cash, the rest of the story missions were the same.

Although it’s never significantly challenging on the default setting to warrant keeping lots of saves, it is nice to be able to save anywhere like most FPSs on PC. The trouble with the PS3 version is it takes so long to save and involves quite a lengthy process of going through menus in order to do so. At least the game moves you swiftly along to its ending. In addition to the resurrection minigame mechanic as mentioned in Nick’s preview, there’s also very little backtracking through levels and at the end of a “dungeon” (which is probably the best way to describe them), you will find a convenient shortcut to keep you moving swiftly on. Thank God for small favours.

Graphically, the Id Tech 5 engine looks great, except that the PS3 is plagued by the same texture loading bugs as other platforms and as of November 2011, hasn’t been patched. Quite frankly, the effect makes the engine feel a bit broken. Looking beyond this, the game does have some nice graphical splendour (once the damn textures load). Curves look smooth and beautiful and they’ve certainly gone beyond “having three triangles for a nose” for character models, and though some of the by-hand animations were a bit wooden, others were fantastic.

I also had fun shooting the weapons. They have a decent amount of variety and the ability to craft and switch up ammo is a nice touch, but like a lot of the “customisation” elements, it isn’t very deeply implemented. When I first saw the video of the electified crossbow bolts, it reminded me of Bioshock and I had hoped it might be more tightly integrated into the environment. But let’s remember that it’s a desert wasteland, so opportunities to find enemies immersed in water are a bit more slim than they might have been in an underwater dystopia like Rapture. So in practice, you have a few set places to use some of the different kinds of ammo, but the rest of the time, they’re not needed to overcome any obstacles or to complete any specific challenges, they’re really just there to provide some small variety.

As you travel, you’ll pick up lots of glowing items (perhaps they’re irradiated?) scattered about the levels. Some of them are purely junk for sale in the various shops, others can be cobbled together to make some signature items… most of which you’ll use and then quickly get bored of, even when they’ve been “upgraded” further on in the game. The little robots and sentry guns are kind of fun for a while.

There is also a card battling game which to me was abhorrent, and a few other mini games scattered about, which are similarly pointless. They seem to be there purely to give you a collection mechanic and for a moment you get the impression that Rage is a much deeper game than it appears to be. Don’t be fooled though, nothing would have been lost if those elements had been removed entirely.

As I reminisce about my experiences, I get the overwhelming feeling that Rage is one of those games that’s not quite sure what it is or should be. Perhaps I simply expected too much of Rage. It wants to be something new, but really only succeeds on where its legacy lies. If it had come out ten years ago, I probably would have said it was a solid shooter, but with stiff competition from studios like Irrational, and even Bethesda’s own studio that produced Skyrim, I think Rage fails more often than it succeeds. Again, I feel bad for maligning a game where Id Software obviously tried to do something a little differently, and it’s easy for a consumer like me to criticise someone else’s hard work. But if they were going to try to forge new territory, it probably would have been a stronger choice to really go for it, rather than produce something that appears as a half-hearted but desperate attempt to stay relevant. I wouldn’t recommending Rage at current prices but should it drop below £15, it could be worth a purchase.

You can apply for the beta via Microsoft Connect. You will need to accept the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) agreement before submitting your application. It’s all fairly standard stuff for an NDA – don’t record, talk or write about anything in the beta. But I did find point 4 quite funny:

• Do not allow others to play or watch you play the beta software

So I’ll have to keep an eye on Weefz if I get selected as our PCs are in the same room. Hmmm, that could prove troublesome.

Chaps, It's Time For A Bad Weather Approach

Once you’ve accepted the NDA there’s a few basic questions to answer – Name, age, country, email address and gamertag. If you don’t have a gamertag you will have to create a new one otherwise no beta for you. The Flight team will then contact successful applicants in Jan 2012.

You can keep up to date with all the latest Microsoft Flight beta news via their website and/or Facebook page or right here on The Average Gamer.

Microsoft Flight will be released during 2012 for PC.

The campaign of Battlefield 3 opens with a mechanic that has been a feature of many of the latest blockbuster FPS’s of recent times. You start with an ending scene, then spend the rest of the game figuring out how you arrived at that point as the plot unfolds. The main protagonist, Sgt Henry ‘Black’ Blackburn is interrogated by government agents. As he tells his tale of bravery you play as the characters in his story, revolving through several scenarios as both allied and enemy forces. The theme of playing as different characters to advance a plotline is one we have seen in previous games of the same genre.

The missions through the campaign contain some of the most breathtaking moments in video game history. It’s said that the major game releases of today have the million dollar budgets akin to big summer blockbuster movies and we can really see that come to the fore in Battlefield 3. The improved Frostbite 2 engine is working overtime as buildings collapse around you and explosions are a truly 360 degree experience. Battlefield’s infamous deformable environments are still very much apparent, where blowing a hole in a wall to get to the enemy is just as much fun as it always was. The only criticism is that these moments could’ve been more widespread as we have seen in earlier games of the series.

The use of vehicles such as tanks, helicopters and planes in the Battlefield series has always been one of the elements that raised it above the competition and this is none more so apparent than in the latest instalment. From blasting through the desert in a 40-ton Chieftan tank, to soaring through the clouds in a dogfight with enemy jets, Battlefield 3 makes you feel like a true badass, unlike the vehicle sections in Modern Warfare 2 where there isn’t really a sense of involvement as you’re more often than not a passenger to the action.

As you move from storyline to storyline, you play different characters in their various scenarios along the way. Although it’s a tried and tested method to get a few different viewpoints of the plot, it can be somewhat of a hindrance to your involvement in the action. That’s the problem with moving between protagonists. Every time you change you feel less and less attached to them and the storyline itself. It’s an issue that the shooters of recent times have had to face, and it’s a shame to see that Battlefield 3 has also fallen foul of the same fate. When you have one central character to believe in, it’s easier to relate. It didn’t matter if all you saw were his arms flailing wildly in front of you, this was your guy.

Scattered throughout the single player campaign are several Quick Time Event segments where you have to react with the correct button press when it flashes up on the screen. If you fail then you face a grisly death as the soldier jumping out on you pushes a combat knife slowly through your sternum. Since such games as Resident Evil 4, QTEs have been used to add an air of interactivity to a section or particular cutscene. Done well, these can really enhance your gaming experience. However, in Battlefield 3 these events feel lifeless and tagged on. A single button press can cause you snap an enemies spine in 26 places or stab a rat in the head. It’s all a little unbelievable.

The DNA of Battlefield is rooted firmly in a strong online multiplayer element, and here it’s perfected into a fine art. The visuals are beautifully polished and slick in their feel and execution. It’s an intense experience as you rally up your buddies to attack or defend an enemy stronghold, or work as a maverick renegade having a hell of time blowing shit up.

The class system itself is very interesting and is similar to the one you’d find in Valve’s brilliant Team Fortress 2. Battlefield 3 features fully customisable options and loadouts to enhance the individuality of each round. The loadout can be altered to reflect a different class depending on what feels the most comfortable, creating a whole new gaming experience every time you played. You start with your main weapon and the secondary varies depending on class. This can be anything from a medikit you can leave for your other team members to a rocket launcher you can use to blow up an entire building full of enemy players.

Tucked away across Battlefield’s two discs is a neat co-operative campaign consisting of several missions which embellish upon certain parts of the storyline. You and a friend over the net can get together and tackle the enemies both in the air and on the ground. It serves as a quirky change to single player action, which can feel like one guy against the world at times. By having a friend on board fighting the same war, it harks back to the good ol’ days of the Bad Company.

The familiar levelling and badge experience system that fans of the series will know and love is present here in full force. Adding a longevity that achievements can only dream of, experience points and badges are doled out depending on your kill/death rate, use of different weapons and vehicles among other factors. Obtaining more experience also yields weapon and player upgrades such as silencers, scopes and speed. It wouldn’t be a Battlefield game if there weren’t a large array of different vehicles to choose from, too. Tanks, helicopters and armoured cars litter the landscape ready and waiting to deal death to anyone who’s unfortunate enough to get in the way. Watch out, as the helicopters are notoriously difficult to fly and the first dozen flights will probably send you screaming into the side of a mountain until you get the hang of it.

One of the main foci in the multiplayer of Battlefield 3 is how you work as a team to either obtain the most kills or how many times you managed to defend or attack the target location. The multitude of game modes have been stripped down to just a few to give the player a more focused experience. As a result, you can just jump straight into the action with as little downtime as possible. The rounds roll one after the other with just a minute to review statistics and other information, and then it’s once more unto the breach, dear friends.

There were some connection issues at first launch; however these have been reportedly ironed out by regular system updates released by Battlefield’s creators. Battlefield 3 also features a fully interactive BattleLog, similar to Halo’s Waypoint system, where all your multiplayer scores are recorded on a huge online database website to compare with your friends and trade bragging rights with your enemies.

The ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ mentality of Battlefield 3 is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, the multiplayer has stuck to what has been a proven success in past incarnations (and those of its competition), winning widespread acclaim as some of the best to be had. On the other, adding a narrative that wouldn’t have felt out of place in any other FPS is a major issue with Battlefield 3. Instead of trying to carve its own niche with something unique to rise above the rest, there’s a distinct feeling of emptiness as the credits roll.

Battlefield 3 is the first game in its series to try and create a synergy between a well thought-out single player campaign and a strong, varied multiplayer. The latter here is a beautifully presented tour de force on how it’s done and has set the bar for shooters to come. However, the cues (and curses) of its peers are all far too evident. With the latest instalment in the all-conquering Modern Warfare series out now, Battlefield 3 needed to have a campaign that made it individual. However what’s here is a sad attempt at one-upmanship that fails to make the impact that it truly deserved.

Even with its campaign shortcomings, Battlefield 3 is still an incredible game and at £30 is very worthy of any gamer’s collection. After all these years, its multiplayer alone still sets the benchmark to which other shooters humbly strive. COD players take note; there’s a new gun in town and it’s name… is Battlefield 3.

I played a few matches on the PS3 version Counter-Strike: Global Offensive at the recent Eurogamer Expo. Yep, it feels exactly like Counter-Strike but looks and sounds better. The only map available was the classic Dust (de_dust) and I had the option to buy weapons at the start of each round. I also had a bit more health which helped me survive longer than normal. Since I’ve never been much good at Counter-Strike it was fun to play the game for more than a minute before dying and watching events unfold via the spectator mode.

The code grants access to the beta that starts on the 30th Nov 2011. The beta is for PC only although the full game is coming to Mac, PSN and XBLA in 2012.

To enter the competition:

• Follow @TheAvgGamer on Twitter
• Tweet – Win a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive PC beta key. Follow @TheAvgGamer to enter. Closes 18:00 GMT 26th Nov 11 http://bit.ly/rEEpJ6 #CSGO

The competition closes at 18:00 GMT 26th Nov 2011. We will randomly pick a winner from all the entries received before the closing date. Make sure you’re following TheAvgGamer on Twitter otherwise we won’t be able to send you the beta code.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is due for release in 2012 on PC, Mac, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

For those amongst you old enough to remember classic AMIGA games like Rick Dangerous and Benefactor this game will have somewhat of a familiar feel to it. It also features some distinctly Metal Gear Solid like gameplay but with added fun.

I’ve been playing Stealth Bastard for quite a while and have been loving it to bits. The controls are really simple with your character’s abilities limited to walking, jumping, crouching and pushing objects. No weapons or extra kit to faff around with. The aim of the game it to survive long enough to reach the level exit. This involves avoiding all the security cameras, robots and laser beams. I can tell you now, there are some fiendishly horrible traps lying in wait for you.

One of the contributors to this site – Tikipod – is responsible for Stealth Bastard’s graphics and some of the most evil levels in game like RailJump and Raider. RailJump in particular had me using quite a lot of expletives along with Tikipod’s name.

The game also comes with a very powerful level editor. The same editor Tikipod used to cause me so much suffering. Once you’ve created your level you can upload it and share it with the world. You can also download and rate other people’s levels too. I’m really looking forward to seeing what fantastic levels people can come up with.

Here is the official trailer for the game, so you can see what lies in wait for you.

Download the PC version of Stealth Bastard for free at StealthBastard.com.