The cephalopods stared back at me from the screen, their cute eyes begging to be loved from beneath their rather bizarre hats. Hats! I grasped onto this new found glimmer of hope with grim determination. Surely, any game that features interchangeable hats which bestow great power upon their soon-to-be-calamari owner can’t be all bad?

It was only after an hour of joyful squid flinging that I realised the truth. This was no empty shell of a carbon copy. Beyond the need to pull them back on their little, gorgeous, elasticated limbs and fling them across a top-down, 2 dimensional map there were no similarities at all. Full of character, pizazz and – possibly, somewhere – jazz hands, this was gem of a game. Taking a turn based strategy game and making it into something far more action orientated is a mild stroke of genius, while making some of the characters look like cowboys or fat boy American footballers is merely the result of a mild stroke.

Tasked with telling their tale via the medium of the iPhone I embarked upon a journey that featured gorgeous static imagery between battles, stilted conversation that never really hit the mark and devious, dastardly opponents hell bent on my destruction. Countless skirmishes were lost in quick succession, the difficulty ramping up considerably well before the half way mark. Strangely, it wasn’t due to the enemies’ cunning AI or masterful skills. More often than not they just sit there until you come close enough to get bumped. No, my own ineptitude at aiming and firing squid across a screen that features traps and devices designed to hurt my little friends greatly scuppered me more than once.

But, oh, the bumping! It’s all about that here – speed, distance and hat contributing to the amount of damage my multiple-legged friends would deal to the opponents as they searched for salvation. With a variety of skills between them, such as healers, sharp shooters, double movements and whirlpool attacks, it soon became an orgy of calamari as I fought my way to the finish line.

Reaching that finish line soon became most difficult and I had to turn to my dear departed Grandfather and head some old advice he gave me to succeed. You see, during the Great War he and his squad had found themselves caught amongst a spiders web of enemy troops. Ambushed, alone and scared he hunkered down in the only defensible spot he could find, the cries of his injured and dying comrades the soundtrack to his despair. After a couple of hours he grew tired of this and decided to break through enemy lines, get re-enforcements and come back to rescue his friends. Out of ammo and time, he strapped 2 bayonets to his helmet and charged into the darkness, the flashes and reports of rifle fire his only company.

2 hours later he emerged at base camp, head caked in blood and the injured forms of 4 soldiers on his shoulders. When asked how he’d broken the enemy and rescued them single-handedly, all he could do was undo the chin strap and say “Always wear the right hat for the job”. It’s our family motto now.

Having changed things about with my little sucker legged friends I sent them back into battle time after time, new hats and abilities growing as we vanquished our foes. It lent such a charming edge to proceedings that I found myself lost in this alternative universe for quite some time.

It is then that, with great affection, I can recommend you assist these little lovelies on their adventure as well. There’s something wonderfully endearing about them and the challenges they face, while the game itself is bite-sized enough to lend itself perfectly to the platform. I can do nothing but recommend you invest yourself in it immediately.

Squids is out now on iOS 3.2 or greater for £1.49. See more artwork and screenshots from Squids in our Facebook gallery

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.

Catherine is two games, kind of. It’s actually more like a game and a selection of things that feel a bit like they’re almost a game. For as much as it paints itself as a dating sim, that really is secondary to a more prominent puzzle system that involves moving assorted blocks around so that you can climb further up massive towers. In Catherine you control Vincent, an early-thirty-something in a relationship with Katherine (with a K!). She’s concerned that they aren’t moving forward and is looking for more commitment, but he’s overly self-absorbed, clinging on to his fleeting adolescence and peaceful bachelorhood. After a night of drinking, Vincent inadvertently ends up in bed with Catherine (without a K!) and begins having a series of horrible nightmares wherein, obviously, he’s a part-human-part-sheep scaling walls of movable crates.

From here the game takes on three parts. During the day you’ll be treated to cutscenes that further expand on Vincent’s relationships with the two girls. In the evening, Vincent goes out to a bar to drink and chat with other people that are experiencing the same nightmares. After you turn in to sleep you play through a few challenging block puzzles.

Catherine’s narrative is absolutely detached from the gameplay in a way that seems almost inexcusable after Portal so effortlessly blends story into the playable sections. The disconnection makes both parts seem like they’re the least important part of the product. The story seems as if it’s getting in the way of a game being a game; the game seems as if it’s getting in the way of a narrative being delivered like an anime series. Atlus could, in theory, have released these halves entirely separate and we would have never considered they were once part of the same licence.

On occasion during sections in the bar or between puzzle stages, you’ll be given totally binary options that govern how you’ll react to different characters or odder choices about your own relationship hang-ups. Some of this is interesting as the game will often show a graph of what other people said in reaction to the same question. This interactivity is novel, but is awful in some sections. As much as you (and by extension, Vincent) make decisions about what to do with Catherine’s interruption into your life, this isn’t reflected in his attitude toward her. You could be entirely cold and uninterested and she’ll still be a part of the story until the end. This makes your choices seem meaningless throughout and even your ending might not reflect the direction the narrative has been propelling toward.

Unfortunately, as it’d be much easier for me to explain, it’s difficult to call any part of Catherine particularly bad. Certainly in some cases it’s unenjoyable, but there’s always a saving grace. The block puzzles get a little tiresome and frustrating – perhaps as a result of being jackhammered into the middle of the story as if they’re work you have to complete before reaching the good part – but they’re deep and interesting enough to take pleasure in. The story sections are too small a part of the whole experience and your input far is too minimal. Still, the supporting cast are layered enough to be compelling and you’ll be interested to see how the plot progresses.

If Catherine is anything, it’s a step forward for games using relationships in a more adult way. Catherine definitely is a game for adults, not just in the sense that there’s some extreme violence and almost constant alcohol abuse, but it’s really one of the first mainstream titles to put growing up and finding your place in life as the core struggle. If it were a more cohesive package, one that paid more attention to either of the ideas it sets up, this would be an amazing title. It just doesn’t excel enough at any one thing.

SoulCalibur V sees the long-running series undergo a serious makeover to the core gameplay. The major changes centre around the new Critical Gauge meter. Most of the moves you do consume some of your Critical Gauge: Critical Edge moves, the game’s flashy super moves, cost one bar of the gauge, while Brave Edge attacks power up regular attacks and cost half a bar. Even counters come at the expense of your Critical Gauge. Traditional parrying has been removed from SoulCalibur V, and replaced with a new Guard Impact system, which requires a sacrifice you to sacrifice half your Critical Gauge to deflect an enemy’s attack, allowing you to turn the tide of a match.

I could talk endlessly about the ins-and-outs of the new combat system but the important thing to note is that even in what is the most mechanically complex SoulCalibur in the series, there isn’t a decent tutorial mode to help explain all of these details to new players. The training mode offers character move lists and a brief explanation of tactics, but nothing like explaining the actual inputs themselves, or telling you when your timing’s off.

Despite the lack of a decent explanation for newcomers, the game is still fantastic no matter your skill level. Each match is intense and thrilling, with fast-paced action taking place in stunning arenas and supported by a beautiful soundtrack. Matches feel absolutely epic. The new Critical Edge moves really add something special to not only the gameplay, but also the presentation, allowing you to see the game’s detail up close in a series of quick, cinema-esque camera shots. The focus on block-counter-attack as opposed to all-out attack means matches can go down to the wire, and with all the tools at your disposal, you rarely feel completely overwhelmed.

Sadly, there is a lack of variety in the matches themselves. While there is a good amount of game modes, with Arcade, Story, Legendary Souls as well as online and an offline mode that replicates the online experience, there is nothing that adds something different to fights.

Where games like Mortal Kombat and even SoulCalibur IV excelled was in the different types of fights they offered. Some fights gave characters 50% health, poisoned, or even an inability to block. None of these are present here. The lack of fight variation is disappointing and would have been a nice twist to the already great fighting.

SoulCalibur has taken a leaf out of Street Fighter IV’s book by including a reward system for everything you do in the game. You earn points for every fight you compete in, both online and offline, which increase your overall level, and allow you to unlock different titles and player cards to customise your own playercard, as well as new characters, arenas, and customisation tools.

The large character roster sees a number of new faces, most of which are just slight alterations of older characters. The two brand new characters, Viola and Z.W.E.I (I have no idea what it stands for either), feel fresh and offer something new to the game. Each character feels strong and well balanced. Unlike other fighting games, there don’t seem to be any clear weak-entries on the roster. Ezio Auditore, the latest guest character, is a perfect fit. His move set employs all of the weapons you see in the Assassin’s Creed series, and his backstory slots in well with SoulCalibur lore.

The only filler are a few of the unlockable fighters, who act as copycats, replicating the move-sets of other fighters and changing style between rounds. If you get bored of the roster that Project Soul have provided, you can always make your own in the extensive character creation mode. You can lose hours creating the perfect incarnation of your favourite character in this mode, which is the best seen in the series yet.

Patroklos and Pyrhha, a brother and sister duo, and children of Sophitia, act as the core of the game’s story mode, which is sadly lacking in all areas. Most of the cut-scenes are presented in charcoal-drawn stills on parchment, which is a shame considering this is a graphically stunning game, and it would have been nice to have fully rendered cut-scenes. Considering the story takes place in 17th century Hungary, the voice acting hardly helps create the sense of the setting, and is dull at best. The very odd (and slightly incestuous) relationship between Potroklos and Pyrhha certainly raises an eyebrow at one or two points, and it sounds as though the majority of the male characters were voiced by the same guy. It also doesn’t help that for the first half of the story, Patroklos is an ignorant arsehole, and you not only have to fight as him, but win also. Luckily the disappointing narrative only takes around an hour or two to complete, and doesn’t detract from the fighting.

Online has been fleshed out to cater for all types, including a new Global Colosseo, which allows players to group together in large parties and take part in player matches. Text chat is supported, as well as spectator mode and the ability to upload replays of your fights.

This is a great game. It would have been nice to see more spice in the matches, but the thrilling combat, excellent roster, and stunning presentation make this a worthy purchase for anyone with a taste for fighters.

Quarrel’s really bloody good.

For the unconverted, it’s a combination of Risk and Scrabble, but it retains all the fun of both and dispenses with the downsides. Risk is too slow and can ultimately fall apart due to chance. Quarrel rewards tactical skill and planning. Scrabble can limit you to whatever bad hand of letters you’ve grabbed from the bag. In Quarrel, you have access to the same letters as your opponent; you just might not be able to use all of them.

A Quarrel match takes place on a board divided into territories. Each of these is populated by varying numbers of units. When you want to take over another area you and your opponent battle using 8 letters that form an anagram. If you’ve got 8 units you can try to spell the entire word; any less and you have to make do with fewer letters and hope the other dude has a worse ability than you.

That’s the core conceit. It’s wrapped up in bright colours and interesting character designs for the units. If Denki had simply ported the game over from iOS to XBLA it would have remained wonderful but not seemed like a worthwhile investment since there’s an increased cost. Thankfully they’ve added an incredibly viable multiplayer mode which was offensively missing from the initial release.

There are some slight issues with controlling on a pad, like how the same button to confirm a move is the same button that will completely end your turn, so double clicking it can accidentally leave you ill prepared at the end of a round. That’s an absolutely tiny complaint when measured up to the countless successes that Quarrel makes.

Quarrel’s an excellent buy if you don’t already own the iOS version and still reasonable if you do.

This survival horror (more survival, less horror) just feels like a total copy of the Saw games but worse, and inherits the same basic problems.  Controlling Lana – who, with the game’s namesake little girl, are trapped in a disease-ridden town after their train crashes – is laborious and cumbersome at best. At times it really does feel that you are there, pushing her along to escape the monters. If you are separated from Amy, then you will slowly become one of the creatures yourself; the visuals become more distorted, everything starts to go red, and you can hear voices whispering to Lana. Join back up with Amy, all is cured.

Both Lana and Amy need to escape both the monsters created from the contamination and the trigger-happy containment soldiers deployed to the area. In particular the soldiers; if they see you, you will die. If you walk just one smidgen too quickly, you will be heard and die. Move too slowly, you get spotted anyway and die.

At least you get a chance to tackle the monsters/zombies but you’ll wish you didn’t have to. The combat system is terr-i-ble. Like the Saw games, it’s all very swing-and-hope-for-the-best. Any attempt to sneak up on an enemy is pointless because as soon as you draw your weapon, your character is set to ‘run’ mode. Your steps become louder and, you guessed it, you will most likely die. If anything, the combat is like controlling GTA IV’s Niko Bellic after a drunken night with his cousin.

As you may have gathered, you will die a fair amount through AMY but hey, there are always trusty checkpoints to help you out, right? WRONG. If you die near a checkpoint you won’t lose much progress but you will lose any health and weapons that you had on your person. Checkpoints are also quite sparse so be prepared for a lot of trial and error. Don’t confuse these checkpoints with save points either. If you turn off the game, you will have to complete the entire chapter again.

It’s really hard to recommend AMY to anyone. Everything is sub-standard in quality. The graphics look as jerky as the controls feel. The music tries to give the uncomfortable surroundings an uncomfortable atmosphere, but it’s just flat.

Some happenings make no sense either. Quite often Lana is required to sneak through motion sensor devices very slowly so as not to be harmed, yet, whilst you’re traversing these hazards, young Amy is running back and forth through them like she’s had too much sugar. There are odes to Metal Gear sections where you must hide in cupboards or under tables to escape sight; yet if the enemy is right there, and you’re in the ‘hide’ menu, then you’ll be safe from harm anyway.

AMY is not an easy game, but only due to the problems above, not the actual difficulty level. There are a couple of decent ideas in AMY. It’s a shame the rest of the game lets it down. Some doors require DNA scans to obtain access; off you go around the facility reading scans off deceased individuals until the correct one is scanned. Quite often separation is required, due to the nature of the puzzles (crawl into small gap, etc), and with no health to assist, can be a real threat. This is not too dissimilar to the PS2 classic Ico. If Amy is caught by one of the monsters, they feed off of her lifeforce, until you come to the rescue. Some nice touches also include holding Amy’s hand, and feeling her heart rate through the controller’s rumble function. This also increases/decreases, based on the current threat situation.

Ultimately though, the real threat is continuing through the game, or having to start over. The Saw games at least had good, brain-teasing puzzles (such as the circuit breaker puzzles), and kept you on your toes at times. AMY is all too frustrating and annoying to care about, and has very little going for it in terms of plot/characters. AMY is not a credit to the download market at all, and should be avoided. Only the curious need apply. You have been warned.

Amy is available on PSN and Xbox Live Arcade now.

At various points in the game progression you’ll unlock special visits from restaurant critics offering a chance to earn more coins or more frequently surprise hygiene inspections. These see you frantically smearing the surface of your iPad pretending to scrub dishes or trying to flick rats off your counter tops. You can limit the more annoying of these visits by paying to have your kitchen cleaned. The cynical part of me suspects that this is just added motivation to buy in-game currency.

I played three restaurants out of a possible seven, simply because I don’t have months and months to devote to playing the game the cheap way. The management side of the game lets you decide what dishes to stock the ingredients for. This adds a very nice planning aspect to the fast-paced swiping-like-a-maniac segments. Once the cooking day starts you’ll receive a stream of customers and the game becomes a juggling act to keep everyone happy and dishes leaving your kitchen in a timely and presentable fashion. Alongside the normal customers you’ll also be served up picky versions who want a unique twist on their order – manage to work out what they want and you’ll earn bonus payments.

I would happily recommend this game to anyone. It’s free (to a point) and it’s fun. I just wish Chillingo hadn’t gone for “making the game dull unless you pay” route. That said, there’s every likelihood I’ll roll over and pay. A good game deserves it.

Order Up!! To Go is available now for iOS 4.0 or later.

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.

Three different environments, each with twenty-four puzzles, are offered up and attractively presented. Each level has a variety of apparatus to use along with bonus marks for collecting the whistles located in fiddly-to-reach places. Points are then given for completing a level, the amount of clutter you have left unused and how many fiddly whistles you managed to bounce on. True to tradition, your points then convert to stars which in greater number allow you to open up later environments .. no junk yard for those who can’t even manage a back yard … unless you pay of course.

Puzzle difficulty ranges from “my dog could do that” all the way up to “insanely precise positioning of several springs required”. Solutions via the hints system are available but only cover the most basic answer. There are multiple ways to complete each level and this helps to increase the repeatability of quite a short game. To be honest though, I ran out of the desire to be creative about five levels in and just settled for “making do” .. this worked until I needed more gold stars to advance. Begrudgingly I returned to previous puzzles to have another bash.

Therein lies my issue with this game; it didn’t make me want to play it. It’s a perfectly nice release that you could take home to your Mum and it wouldn’t embarrass you with crudely-designed levels or piss-poor graphics. It’s just all very much the same with the soundtrack repeating, the graphics repeating and nothing to make you want to keep at it unless you’re a completionist that wants to get their pennies worth from this app.

It would work well as something you return to for ten minutes whilst waiting for public transport but it’s not addictive or amusing enough to warrant extended ignoring of your loved ones.

Backyard Bounce is available now on iPhone, iPod and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0+

Why do you play games? If you said for fun then you can pin that gamer lanyard on to your chest and wear it with pride. There were only a handful of games last year I would have counted as fun and Rayman Origins is right at the top of my big list of Games That Did Gaming Right.

Rayman Origins drags us kicking and laughing right back to the bare roots of platforming. There is a screen and it scrolls to the side as you jump around avoiding enemies or happily punching them in the face with your giant white fists. Why? Because Rayman and his pals were attacked by a mean witch-lady and her shadow minions. They were making too much noise with their snoring. What more do you need? Worlds include underwater caves, floating sky castles made from musical instruments and even see you flying through red hot kitchens on the back of a mosquito.

The art and sound direction of Rayman Origins is one of its main attractions. Beautiful cartoon graphics blend seamlessly with a soundtrack that sounds almost as frivolous. Every world has its own feel beyond the unique enemies or powers you gain from the rather well endowed maidens in distress you save. Often I revisited a level just to hear the music again.

Along with the straightforward reach-the-finish style of gameplay you expect from the humble side-scroller you have a horde of extras including unlockable characters earned by collecting the respective number of lums, medals and trophies for collecting high number of lums or beating time challenges. For the super-hardcore among you there is even a set of bonus levels that sees the difficulty skyrocket if you can find the required items to open the way. What’s that? It also has multiplayer, so now you can have fun with your friends. The wonders of gaming technology today.

Rayman Origins is pure, simple, unadulterated, brightly coloured fun. The type of fun that tickles you instead of punching you in the face with your own fist and telling you to stop hitting yourself. Unless of course you hate FUN or COLOR, reading this and all its mentions of FUN and COLOR must have been painful, I hope you hate yourself, you tyrant. The best part is, if my ramblings haven’t convinced you then go download the demo on XBL and try it for yourself.