SSX joins the slew of games set to ship with an online pass code included with new copies of the game. The good news is that it is not required to enjoy the game’s multiplayer mode.

An EA spokesperson told Game Informer that the code will not affect how you play the game’s two multiplayer modes, Explore and Global Events. However, in-game credits earned from the Global Events mode will be withheld from players without an online pass.

The official statement reads: “In SSX, players without an Online Pass are able to compete and play in both of SSX’s online game modes, Explore and Global Events with no restrictions. In Global Events, the top finishers from each event are awarded with in-game credits. These in-game credits earned during play will not be awarded to the player if they do not have an Online Pass; these credits will be stored so that at any time, if a player redeems an Online Pass code, all the credits that they had previously earned in Global Events will be immediately awarded to them.”

Credits in SSX are used to unlock extra equipment for characters and to gain entry to some events. EA’s statement goes on to reassure that those without an online pass will not be barred from any content in the game.

“Economy balance makes it possible to unlock all available content and allows you to participate in all event drops across both Explore and Global Events, with credits earned solely in Explore.”

SSX will be released on Xbox 360 and PS3 in Europe on March 2, following the US release on February 28.

Put on your zombie spotting goggles and get ready for an action packed visual feast as a new trailer for Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City lurches out of the shadows.

The trailer doesn’t give us a glimpse of anything in-game, but instead we get a five minute long CGI scene setter that shows the Umbrella Security Service and US Special Ops forces in action.

It starts with the Umbrella team hunting down civilians in an attempt to contain evidence of the Raccoon City disaster. The Spec Ops team on the other hand is out looking for survivors that can expose the sinister company.

Things kick off when the two teams meet and begin exchanging fire. If you thought Resi 4 and 5 were action heavy, Operation Raccoon City will make them look like a walk in the zombified park. The new take on the series is being handled by Slant Six Games who have formerly worked on titles in the SOCOM series.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City will be release on March 23 in Europe on Xbox 360 and PS3, three days after its release in the US.

• Format:  360 (version reviewed), 3DS, PC, PS3,
  
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Sega
• Developer: Sonic Team
• Players: 1
• Site: http://www.sega.com/sonicgenerations/

How long and twisting the road for Sonic the Hedgehog has been these twenty-odd years since he burst into the gaming scene. Not to get excessively allegorical here, but the path has been much like the stages he blazes through: plenty of ups, some noticeable downs, and a few loops that may nauseate you. Sonic Generations is a game that joyfully celebrates every step of the journey with reckless abandon, and that optimistic attitude alone makes it easy to like. But keep in mind that we are, after all, celebrating everything Sonic, and that means putting up with a bundle of nagging problems. This is a shame, because Generations’ splendid combination of both the old and the new could have meant the greatest Sonic game this world has ever seen.

In a time-warping tale that makes little to no sense, Modern Sonic (the current hedgehog you know and possibly might love) and Classic Sonic (the portly dude from the Genesis days) must work together and save the world or their dimension or something. Regardless, it’s a flimsy setup that serves as a nice excuse to travel through Sonic’s colourful past. At first the stark white hub world is devoid of said colour, but that all changes as both hedgehogs explore a timeline that stretches from the early ’90s to 2010.

What's this? Classic Sonic in a stage from 2004? That's completely bananas!

We’re sure you remember how to play Classic Sonic: hop and spindash your way through a wild rollercoaster of badniks while you you try to nab (and desperately keep) shiny, life-giving rings. For all the eye-popping pizazz and polygonal shenanigans, the gameplay remains remarkably close to the source material; Sonic Team clearly spent time on getting it right. Ducking is no longer required to spindash (tapping a dedicated button is an option now), which is the only relevant change – and it’s a good one. Creative stages are layered with fun routes to take, but the controls can be touchy, bordering on frustration now and then. The levels don’t quite rival the best of the Genesis/Mega Drive days, but they fit in as fresh additions of their own. Of course, Classic Sonic is only half the story, and probably the less interesting side.

Sonic has been tearing around the third dimension like a loon for years, loyal Sega always trailing behind and trying to steer him in the right direction with erratic results. The formula has been improving recently, and Sonic Generations is the best result yet. Among other stunts, Sonic can squeal around turns in a spindash, gain boost to rocket through loops, and cross huge chasms with the physically impossible homing attack. The blinding speed might throw you off at first, breaking the stages into stop-and-go stumbles; but practice will reveal tight stage design that rewards level memorisation and quick wits. Such intensely rad action makes it all the more disappointing when a glitch rears its ugly head or the controls fail you entirely. Nobody else does what Sonic Team does, but that doesn’t mean they always do it well.

And Modern Sonic in a stage from 1992? That's totally nuts!

Something they deliver in ridiculous abundance, however, is nostalgia; gallons of the stuff. Every level is ripped straight from a past Sonic title and positively packed with accurate details, whether it’s a familiar floating platform from the reimagined Chemical Plant or Seaside Hill’s faithful go-kart section. Anyone who’s played a Sonic game or two will get something out of it, but for those select fans who can pick out samples of Sega Saturn commercials mixed into a Sonic R remix, a true delight is in store.

Although the music can’t always rise to that level of jaw-dropping wonder, Sonic Generations’ rhapsodic smorgasbord of pumped up remixes is akin to stuffing your ears with gummi bears. These songs accompany stages brought to life with a delightful vibrancy that can differ radically from zone to zone. The sense of speed is genuinely thrilling, and grabbing a screenshot of the action would reveal textures of unexpected detail. It’s almost painful to admit that the beautiful environments and great animations are marred with a so-so frame rate that can dip into nearly unplayable slideshows during the more hardware-intensive moments. For a game focused so specifically on speed, this is 100% uncool.

And a remake of City Escape, complete with a new rendition of its jaunty theme song? That's entirely bonkers!

But for better or worse, there’s more to do in Sonic Generations than run fast. A hodgepodge of bite-sized challenges (often used to shoehorn in the non-playable extended cast) helps out with variety, but there are plenty of misses among the hits. Battles against Dr. Eggman and Sonic’s past rivals are similarly iffy, concluding with an abysmal final boss. Although a stupidly easy stage ranking system and a shop that sells passable special abilities also fall short of their potential, collectathon enthusiasts (you know who you are) will have a field day finding hidden red rings and unlocking oodles of prizes, including a fully functional Genesis that plays the original Sonic the Hedgehog.

Sonic Generations is a truly great game weighed down with sloppy troubles. Racing against the excellent system of leaderboards shows just how well put together the core gameplay is, and if not for the low frame rate and overall splapdash production, it wouldn’t have much holding it back. In short, imagine a shiny car of the coolest variety. Now imagine bashing it with a crowbar three or four times. Do you still like the car? Of course; it’s of the coolest variety! But seeing what it could have been makes the dents even more cringe-worthy. Sonic Generations is a gleeful tribute to the best of Sonic, but like our unfortunate hotrod, it takes a beating along the way.

It’s nearly Christmas. Again. The bad news is that this means you’re even poorer than usual by now, and you’ll soon have to pretend to be much more interested in what distant relatives have to say than you actually are. The good news, however, is that it’s once again time to find out what Critical Gamer’s favourite games of the year are! Also: presents.

It’s been another great year for games, though this time around almost all of the best ones have been sequels; something reflected by our choices (whether we like it or not). It was extremely close when it came to deciding which game we thought trumped all the others. Eventually however, we decided to declare that Critical Gamer’s Game of the Year 2011 (despite the notorious bugs) is:

Skyrim

Stephen K says: I knew Bethesda would have something incredible in store with Skyrim, but I was unprepared for its tidal wave of sheer excitement that swept across communities the world over. It captured the imagination of nearly everyone who glanced its way, and I could go on and on about Skyrim’s visuals, scope, and expansive wealth of content. But what really amazes me is how Bethesda finally made the promise of the Elder Scrolls series a reality. When I was back in Morrowind’s icy island of Solstheim, staring into that foggy draw distance, my imagination took over. Sparse evergreens appeared as towering forests, glitchy swipes of my sword became dramatic strokes of battle, mindless NPCs were rugged inhabitants with lives to live. And in Skyrim, all of that was true. It was adventure that welcomes everyone, retaining depth and subtlety while fixing the broken parts. Experienced travellers could rediscover Tamriel’s vast beauty once again, and newcomers had the chance to experience for themselves what it is we’ve been pretending to see all this time.

There were so many top quality games released this year however, that we’d feel ever so guilty if we didn’t talk about some more of them. Therefore we now present to you, in no particular order, nine ‘honourable mentions’ plucked from the 2011 release schedule; some personal favourites of the cheeky chappies at CG, each of which we award with a virtual medal thus:

Uncharted 3

Matt says: Uncharted 3 is another compelling entry in a series that remains the best reason to own a PlayStation 3. The outstanding competitive multiplayer returns with an array of customisable options and bonuses, and there is also a standalone co-op campaign for those who yearn for narrative drive in their multiplayer.

As good as the competitive and co-operative multiplayer is, it’s the singleplayer that steals the show with its stunning visuals, impeccable pacing and memorable set pieces. A tightly scripted adventure that boasts witty dialogue and likeable characters, it is packed full of small, human touches that bring characters and situations to life. Such moments allow Uncharted 3 to be more than just another action game, as it thrives during the quiet moments between huge firefights and narrow escapes from sinking ships. When it comes to standing out from the crowd, it’s all in the details, and developer Naughty Dog have proven once again that they understand this as well as anyone else in the business.

Arkham City

Ian says: Following on from such a huge critical success was always going to be hard going and yet with Batman: Arkham City Rocksteady achieved this. The second outing for the Dark Knight in recent years had the same high level of visual polish and quality voice work its predecessor Arkham Asylum had, but added so much more. It didn’t fall into some of the common sequel trappings and those they did mattered little when compared to the larger explorable world, excellently tweaked gameplay, and engaging plot; which culminated in one of the most memorable endings to a game in recent years.

Portal 2

Anthony says: Following on from Valve’s masterpiece, Portal 2 took the concept demo-like experience of the original and stretched it into a proper length game. It took everything that made the original Portal great, and did it better and bigger. Larger environments, sharp humour, more diverse puzzles and a Bristolian robot; it had everything. The space-hole spewing gameplay remained largely unchanged, but the introduction of environment morphing gels opened up huge possibilities in and out of test chambers. Even the marketing that preceded the game was excellent, with funny Aperture Science investment videos and a scarily complex alternate reality game that sucked us deeper into to the crazy Portal universe. Portal 2 also introduced a brilliant co-op mode featuring two mute robots that still managed to buzz with as much personality as Nathan Drake or Commander Shepard. The chaotic and often hilarious results of four active portals really made the specially designed test chambers a joy to prance around. It’s also incredibly funny to drop your mate through a portal into spiky doom, only for him to reappear and do it to you, with death carrying no consequence other than a minor restart and a round of giggles.

LittleBigPlanet 2

Luke says: Like Portal 2, LittleBigPlanet 2 achieved what had previously seemed impossible; it made the prequel look unambitious. Again, there is a brief story mode which can be enjoyed online or offline by 1-4 players simultaneously, and this time round it’s even easier. The heart of this game is the level creation tool however, which is now more powerful than ever. The LittleBigPlanet community has created and shared platform levels, puzzle games, homages to classic titles, machinima, racing games, and much more… all for free. It’s like an almost limitless number of games in one, making it an essential purchase.

Battlefield 3

Kevin says: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was our favourite multiplayer shooter from last year, and DICE have followed it up with a tour de force experience in Battlefield 3. With the addition of fighter jets to the vehicle roster, and large open maps that are packed with destructible scenery, they have tweaked the multiplayer to perfection. This is not your usual run and gun shooter, with teamwork rather than killstreaks being crucial to winning games. In fact even modest players can reach the top of the leaderboard, thanks to the balanced points system which rewards players with extra points for capturing flags, repairing vehicles, or even laying down suppressing fire. It’s this fair system of play that encourages players to work as a team, rather than sit in a hole racking up kills. There is a campaign mode that uses the Call of Duty template, and an enjoyable two-player Co-op mode, with six different missions to take on with a friend; but these are more of a snack, and the main meal is in the multiplayer – which is a Christmas dinner that will leave you feeling full long into the new year.

Super Mario 3D Land

Steven G says: This is a masterclass in traditional platform design with graphics as good as Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii, but with the gameplay of a traditional 2D Mario title. The difficulty level is perhaps just a little too low for seasoned gamers, but there is still much to be gained even for hardened players. There is beauty in the way these levels are designed and just playing through them brings a smile to one’s face. The 3D adds to the enjoyment of the game and actually assists you in some puzzles along the way. Despite being a little too easy to finish, collecting all the gold coins and stars will take some time.

Whilst you can swap levels and powerups with other users locally and online, there is no multiplayer option such as the two player mode in New Super Mario Brothers for the original DS. The game even lacks an online leaderboard for fastest level times and other ‘achievement’ based challenges. Nonetheless, if you have a 3DS this is a superb game you need to get; and if you don’t have a 3DS, you now have a reason to get one.

Bastion

Stephen K says: Bastion is like a beautiful melody or perhaps a really good story, the kind with meaning: you just can’t forget it and you certainly don’t want to. The brusque narrator was a game-changing method for telling stories, the music resounded with an offbeat magic, and its art was a surreal mix of muted tones and whimsical swirls. But in perfect harmony with this poetic vision was a hearty framework of gameplay, just like the old days. Whacking things with weapons and then upgrading said weapons for further whackage was a skill that took cunning to perfect, requiring quick wits and swift thumbs. The plot didn’t hinder the gameplay and vice versa; Bastion was created with both aspects in mind, and the result was something special. It’s flat out impressive to see such a small downloadable title (and an equally small team) stand shoulder-to-shoulder with this year’s colossal competition. Yes, I have a feeling Bastion will be remembered for a very long time.

de blob 2

Luke says: Almost certainly an unexpected entry here, and one that many would disagree with (including some Critical Gamer staff); but I’m the boss round here, so I stick my tongue out in mature defiance and declare de blob 2 to be one of the best games of 2011. Not only does it do something different, it does it very well indeed.

Ostensibly a platformer, this game puts colour and music at the heart of the experience. At the beginning of each level, you’re stuck in a monochrome world with what really is best described as a minimalist glumtrack for music. After filling your blobby avatar with various colours and painting in anything and everything you find however, the environment is transformed into a world of rich and vibrant colours, supported by a truly wonderful soundtrack of funky jazz. Fighting your way past the conformity loving ‘Inkies’ through to the end of the game isn’t too difficult, but finding every last secret presents a challenge you’ll gleefully accept. The wonderfully crafted cutscenes are the icing on the cake and, considering the rock bottom prices this criminally ignored title is now selling for, there’s no excuse not to buy it.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Anthony says: We’ve all dreamed of what it would be like to have robot arms and how awesome x-ray vision would be, but Deus Ex: Human Revolution managed to put a bleak spin on the whole thing. After an unfortunate work related incident, Adam Jensen is rebuilt with a variety of cyber bits that augment his body. The result: a multi-purpose man-tool players can mould to fit their desires. Want to play the game like a ninja? Improve your skin so you turn invisible. Want to be a walking death factory? Upgrade your robo-arms so they can throw vending machines and steady your aim.

The RPG-like ability upgrade system means you can go through the game and have a completely different experience each time. Chase down secrets and sub-missions in the open hub areas, and you can easily stretch one playthrough to 25 hours. I was sucked into this game and the dystopian future it was pushing. This could definitely be played as the most entertaining stealth game of the year, whilst at the same time being an action driven cover shooter. The plethora of choices, coupled with serious consequences for your actions, makes this several brilliant games in one.

So, how do you feel about our choices? Happy? Angry, sad, confused? Hungry? Thirsty? Exhausted? Feel free to let us know (not that you’ll ever change our minds about anything). You’re welcome also to congratulate Kevin on doing a wonderful job on this year’s Game of the Year award graphics. Steal them, and he will hunt you down.

Hunt you down we say!

P.S. You’ll soon be able to find a condensed version of our choices at ‘Most Wanted’, the vouchercodes.co.uk blog. In fact, if you head to the main Voucher Codes website, you’ll be able to find offers and discount codes for literally squillions of online retailers, many of which stock some or all of the above games. The codes are all free, and you don’t even need to register with the site! Lovely. 

Update 2: The dashboard update is now rolling out and should be with you soon. Major Nelson said via Twitter: “If you don’t have the #XboxUpdate yet, you will get it soon. It is in the process of rolling it out to all Xbox LIVE members.”

Update: Shortly before the release, Major Nelson announced via Twitter that the update has been delayed and to wait for further information coming soon. He said: “FYI: The timing for Xbox 360 dashboard update has been slightly delayed. I’ll have a status update later today.

“Thanks again for your patience. I won’t have additional details until later today. The moment I have new information, I’ll share it with you.”

Original article: Forcing its way onto your Xbox 360, a mandatory dashboard update will be released at 3pm this afternoon in the UK (or not, see above).

The drastic update will change many things you have become accustomed to, with a new dashboard design pressing itself into the corners of your screen when your console is updated.

The new interface is designed to be ultra Kinect friendly, with voice and gesture based navigation options allowing you to control your console as if you were in Minority Report (almost). Of course, you can still break the sci-fi fantasy immersion and still use the controller.

Cloud data storage is also introduced, allowing you to preserve up to 511 MBs of your precious game saves and profile data information online. It will be accessible under Settings or among the options when you are asked to select a storage device.

Also introduced are Beacons, a feature which sends a general game invite to people on your friends list and can even recruit players from Facebook should you set it up to do so.

TV related apps will also start to appear on your Dashboard over the next few months, with several on demand and catch up services due to launch soon. To start with, UK Xbox owners will get LOVEFiLM, with 4OD, Demand 5 and YouTube making an appearance later in December. BBC content will be on the service, but not until early 2012.

Assuming your console is online you should get prompted to update very soon, so keep an eye out for it and be prepared to face a slight delay before you can leap into a game.

Before sitting down and getting stuck into Asura’s Wrath, I was given a friendly warning by a Capcom employee not to expect a typical demo. This wasn’t just PR hyperbole, as it turned out to be by far the most difficult demo I’ve come across in six years of attending TGS, and one that gave me a real sense of achievement once I’d finally finished it.

As well as offering up a real challenge, Asura’s Wrath took a rather unusual form for a fifteen minute demo. Instead of offering up a range of gameplay features, representative of the full experience, it focused solely on a hard-as-nails boss fight; which although probably not indicative of the entire experience, certainly gave a strong indication of its style: O.T.T action from start to finish. This will be of little surprise to those of you who have seen the early trailers which featured our fallen deity, Asura, battling a planet sized god and attempting to halt a giant finger the size of a skyscraper.

As if the breakneck and devastating combat between Asura and his overpowered foe wasn’t ridiculous enough, the battle is set on the moon and concludes with our protagonist hurtling through space towards Earth, skewered on the end of a giant sword. His six arms begin to disintegrate as he enters the earth’s atmosphere, leaving him with just the regular two – though these painful amputations didn’t seem to bother him all that much.

Between earth/moon shattering blows, our burly pair bark at each other in the gruffest of voices, each doing his best impression of Kratos in an especially foul mood. I quickly learned to ignore the nonsense each was spouting and instead focused on the combat, which kept me on my toes throughout. I have seen it likened elsewhere to games as varied as God of War, Virtual On, Street Fighter IV and even Fist of the North Star – all of which are apt comparisons – though ultimately it managed to achieve a style all of its own. I was armed with the standard heavy and light attacks, as well as blast, all of which dealt substantial damage when they found their target. But things were not quite that simple, as cornering my nimble foe was more difficult than getting Sony to give a concrete release date for The Last Guardian.

Without the ability to block, jumping and dodging became skills worth mastering, especially during the latter stages which required quick reflexes to squeeze through a bombardment of light beams. Once I had wreaked enough havoc, a much needed unlimited mode became available. Suitably powered up, and faster than ever, I could finally land some combos, which sent my opponent reeling. This reliance upon stringing together powerful attacks made Asura’s Wrath feel right at home sat next to Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Street Fighter X Tekken at the Capcom event.

The two pronged battle was riddled with QTEs. At times they felt intuitive and very much part of the experience, but at others more tacked-on and superfluous. For better or worse, QTEs will be present throughout the game and look set to feature heavily in the boss battles.

I certainly hope that Asura’s Wrath will turn out as unique and memorable as its challenging demo. Although it shed very little light on how the rest of the game will be structured, it certainly grabbed my attention with its combat mechanics and a visual style all of its own. Look for more information on this PS3 and 360 title as we get closer to 2012.

If you are bored of curb stomping Locust heads into the current arenas in Gears of War 3’s Horde mode, then the game’s first DLC pack will be of interest to you. The Horde Command pack will be released on November 1 and will cost 800 Microsoft Points unless you purchased a Season Pass for the game, in which case it’ll be free.

Horde Command adds three new maps to the current roster: Blood Drive, Rust Lung and Azura. It also adds a new fortification type to Horde mode and additional upgrades for the decoy, sentry and silverback. There are also three new characters and two weapon skins. The full list of content is below:

New maps:

Blood Drive – The Jacinto Medical Plaza was overwhelmed by evacuated citizens after the government-sanctioned Hammer Strikes, and the ensuing riots quickly turned this safe haven into a dangerous inferno. An abundance of high ground and funneled choke points make this map a returning favorite to Horde.

Rustlung – Once the pride of the Royal Tyran Navy, the foredecks of this decommissioned battleship are now riddled with bullet holes. Any team with the fortitude to hold the exposed central torpedo bay will find that the ship’s Loader has been replaced with a battle-ready Silverback mech suit.

Azura – This island resort was once the exclusive domain of Sera’s educated elite, but the tranquil water gardens and lush foliage have become a hotly contested combat zone. Dual snipers overlook a powerful explosive weapon, while the defensive central platform may be your last resort of retreat.

New fortification upgrades:

Command Center – A brand new type of fortification that allows you to call in fire support from sniper teams, mortar strikes and even multiple Hammers of Dawn.

Decoy Upgrade – A new fortification level that turns your decoy into an Onyx Guard bot that will fight in your defense.

Sentry Upgrade – This upgrade adds a fire bolt sentry that deals much more damage and is very effective against Berserkers.

Silverback Upgrade – This advancement allows you to upgrade your Silverback exo-suit with devastating rockets and extra levels of repair cost reduction.

New characters:

Onyx Guard
Big Rig Dizzy
Bernie Mataki

New weapon skins:

Team Plasma
Jungle Camo

Although Horde Command primarily caters for the game’s Horde mode, all new maps can also be played in Beast mode and privately hosted Versus matches. The DLC also includes additional achievements worth 250 Gamerscore.

• Format: Xbox 360 (version reviewed), PS3, PC
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
• Developer: id Software
• Players: 1 – 4
• Site: http://www.rage.com/

Silent takedowns have been slowly seeping into shooters ever since AI was granted a ‘blissfully unaware’ mode. Most of the time you need to sneak into neck sniffing distance of your target and then tap a button to watch a drawn out and often gruesome animation that depicts your stealth victory. Rage takes the alternate approach and instead gives you a silent takedown you can throw at people. It glides through the air, decapitates the target and then returns to your hand. Awesome.

We love the wingstick, a tri-pronged boomerang that features in lots of Rage’s promotional material and gives you raw killing power in your non-gun hand. It has possibly become our favourite inventory item in a game ever and definitely helps set the zanier tone that features throughout id Software’s latest title.

Crossbow bolts are a great way to settle disagreements with locals.

Stepping away from the much darker, horror museum worlds of Quake and Doom, Rage is more like a horror-themed rollercoaster. Yes, there is plenty of gore, mutilated bodies and creatures that belong in nightmares, but Rage’s setting sits a lot more on the crazy side of things. For example, one character you meet has some sort of robot parrot-like creature perched on his shoulder, and another runs a reality TV show where contestants must kill waves of mutants for cash. It’s a brave leap away from what we have seen previously from id Software, but they have made a vibrant and entertaining world that sets the apocalyptic, broken society tone well.

Story-wise, things aren’t quite as well assembled. The game is set 100 years after a meteorite hits Earth and smooshes life as we know it. Fortunately, the player was buried in an ark, a subterranean chamber designed to preserve life post-meteor. Players emerge from the ark to a wasteland and the game gets going. You meet John Goodman who hands you a gun, and then the rest of the game’s story is slowly trickled to you as you meet new characters who ask you to shoot at things in different areas. The plot mainly justifies the vast amounts shooting you’ll be doing, and fortunately, this is a very good thing.

Big shooty guns are always the core of id’s games, and there’s no exception here. Every gun sounds brilliant and actually feels like they do damage. Enemies recoil as you blow chunks of life from their bodies, each successful hit sparking a pained reaction. Slamming mutants into the wall with shotgun blasts, or hearing your bullets dent and ricochet off of dense armour is immensely satisfying. The run and gun carnage is very fun and feels miles away from other shooters that give you a bad guy shooting gallery that is best viewed through iron sights. You will occasionally run across a bullet sponge bad guy that can take four sniper rifle bullets to his unshielded face which upsets the rhythm slightly, but this isn’t a major issue for the most part.

Deformed tentacle monsters struggle to maintain friendships.

Health regenerates slowly but can be aided with healing items in your inventory. Should you go down a quick time-like event allows you to use an implanted defibrillator to revive yourself. This has to recharge before it works again and so never feels overpowered or like a cheat. In fact, this second chance helps compensate your frustration should you not have healing items equipped. Talking of equipment, the inventory system can get confusing in the heat of the moment as you can only have one item assigned to your quick-use button. It’s very easy to throw a wingstick when you mean to heal, or use a precious bandage when you don’t need it.

From a distance and at a glance, Rage looks fantastic, with beautiful sprawling environments and detailed character models that are amongst the best in the gaming world. When you get right up close to some areas and really start to study them, some of the textures look low quality and not quite as magic is it all first appeared. However, the world of Rage is so manic and chaotic that you rarely have time to stop and scrutinise the few areas that don’t quite match up to the majority of the game’s graphical superiority.

You can traverse the world via car, where the game gives you a third person view of the vehicular carnage. There are only four vehicles in the standard version of the game, but they are fun to drive and introduce another layer of combat. You can also participate in several races to upgrade your vehicles. Whilst the races do get tiresome eventually, you don’t need to complete many to get the upgrades you require, and only a handful are mandatory.

You know you've kicked the hornets' nest when these guys appear.

Vehicle combat spills over into the online mode where there are several car arena modes that allow you to compete with three other players. It’s surprisingly fun and reminds us of classic Twisted Metal style gameplay, even if the environments feel a bit sparse at times. A co-op mode also lets you and a pal pick up guns and stroll through unique missions that fill in some of the back story from the main game. The lack of a competitive on-foot multiplayer mode strikes us as odd, but the modes available are good, even if they lack the long lasting appeal that some online modes add.

Rage is a great single player game that offers excellent gunplay from start to finish. The ending appears very abruptly after about 10 hours and serves as the game’s biggest disappointment, but other than that there is not much to fault. The shooting mechanics are fantastic, as are the enemies and environments. Navigation is never an issue as you just need to follow the carnage around the brilliantly designed mission areas to find your next objective. Id have done a great job at creating a shooter that has a classic feel to it, whilst still sticking to modern FPS principles.

• Format: PS3 (version reviewed), 360
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: EA
• Developer: Grasshopper Manufacture
• Players: 1
• Site: http://www.ea.com/shadows-of-the-damned

Shadows of the Damned was a Suda 51 project from the outset. The CEO of Grasshopper Manufacture, and the man behind Killer 7 and No More Heroes, Suda was eventually joined by Shinji Mikami – the creator of Resident Evil, Devil May Cry and more recently Vanquish – in the role of creative producer. The final, high-profile member to join the team was composer Akira Yamaoka, best known for his work on the Silent Hill series.

Despite its other noteworthy contributors, Shadows of the Damned is a Suda 51 game through and through, and your opinion of his previous work is likely to dictate whether or not you pick it up. However, it can be enjoyed by any gamer, irrelevant of their fondness for OTT violence, juvenile humour and gobshite protagonists.

We join Garcia Hotspur, our foul-mouthed, demon hunting lead in search of his girlfriend who has been kidnapped by the demon lord, Flemming. Garcia and his ex-demon side-kick Johnson – a skull that transforms into a variety of weapons – traverse the varied locales of the underworld in search of this blonde-bombshell. Despite being rather juvenile – Garcia’s arsenal includes the phallic Hot Boner and the imaginatively titled Big Boner – the journey is an entertaining and engaging one.

The underworld is a rich and varied setting; far more than the collection of lava and torture devices that has too often passed as a video game hell. It displays the sense of style that Grasshopper are well known for, and when the poor jokes have been long forgotten it will be the aesthetics of a unique rendition of hell that you’ll best recall. It starts off in a rather pedestrian Victorian looking town, but over the course of 8 hours you will be led through a collection of striking locales. From a dank village that wouldn’t look out of place in Resident Evil, to an evil bowling alley, there is so much to see.

The fruits of Suda 51′s twisted mind, these settings could have felt somewhat disparate without Yamaoka’s brilliant score bringing them all together. Covering a spectrum of genres, from Spanish guitar to a spot of metal, this eclectic set of tracks does wonders for the atmosphere. Time and time again your ears will prick-up as you are introduced to a new piece of music, completely unlike anything else heard elsewhere in the game, yet perfectly suited to the moment and setting from which it emerged.

The subtlety that is to be found in the score does not carry over to the combat, which is brash, bloody and at times infuriating. There are three firearms – a handgun, machine gun and shotgun – but they are far more weird and wonderful than they initially sound. Levelling up as you progress, they tear through the legions of the damned, shooting bones, teeth and skulls at their fleshy targets, as well as offering some explosive secondary modes.

Combat is partially concerned with the movement between light and shadow; the demons prefer the darkness whereas Garcia will quickly perish if he lingers for too long outside of the glare. Each gun offers a light mode, which can be used to momentarily stop marauding enemies in their tracks and ignite lanterns and goat-headed chandeliers, which dispel the darkness. Many of the boss encounters revolve around this manipulation of light and dark, offering some of the most exciting and challenging moments of the game. However, the less said about the time consuming, bullet-sponge final boss the better.

The third person controls do take a bit of getting use to and are entirely unpolished. You will be tearing your hair out as you sprint straight into walls and bounce into the clutches of an instant death enemy, and swearing more freely than Hotspur as yet another bullet sails through an enemy, undetected. Some sort of auto-aim would have been a god send, and you have to wonder why such a simple addition would be left out.

Unlike many of Shinji Mikami’s past games, Shadows of the Damned offers no new-game+ or bonus features to make you want to return after the first run-through. Non-stackable difficulty trophies/achievements are a shallow attempt to get you to return, perfectly demonstrating the laziness that hounds certain aspects of the game. This is in stark contrast to those elements that clearly interested its creators far more and were lavished with attention, such as the setting, music and outlandish characters.

Picking faults with Shadows of the Damned is like shooting fish in a barrel, but by doing so you would be ignoring its many qualities and the simple fact that it is a very entertaining game. It will keep you on your toes throughout, offering rich and varied gameplay, such as one section which ditches the third-person action for a side scrolling shooter, featuring simple but charming cut-out visuals.

As with any Suda 51 game, you have to be willing to take the rough with the smooth. If you are prepared to see past its various shortcomings, there is one hell of an adventure to be had, one that is as exciting as it is eccentric. Just remember to ask your Grandma to leave the room before you start playing.

If we told you that we recently had a chance to play an open-world post-apocalyptic first-person shooter with an emphasis on RPG elements and bloody combat, you’d likely ask “Which one?” In this case it would be id Software’s very own Rage, available to play at QuakeCon 2011 and a title that has every chance to shoot itself in the foot. We had about an hour and a half to get acquainted with Rage, and despite the initial sense of unpleasant regurgitation, we had a good deal of fun.

The opening kicked off with a large meteor crashing into the earth (a flash of pre-apocalyptic action, we suppose), followed by chaos. Hiding in some sort of stasis pod seemed to be a logical move in this situation, and the protagonist did so. Upon emerging from the chamber, however, it was discovered that this was no silly episode of Futurama: the world was smashed up, blew up, and beat up with reckless abandon. We took control at this point but stood no chance against the mutant forces of awfulness, so it was a lucky break when a survivor took pity and helped us out.

He and a small band of resistors lived out their days in a junky yet welcoming gas station (also smashed up, blew up, and beat up) and invited us to stay. The offer of companionship and a chance to go kill lots of bad guys suited us just fine, so we wasted no time in loading our pistol and driving a four-wheeler into the unknown.

If this situation does not look appealing, Rage might not be for you.

Our buggy was faster than a man with a mutant on his tail (we would know), especially when the boost was activated. Flying up ramps and launching the poor driver into walls was exhilarating, but the controls felt a little squirrelly, especially when using the all-too-sensitive brakes. Still, it got the job done, and we roared our way through the semi-open world with eager anticipation.

The mini-map pointed the way via a handy dotted line, and we were soon in enemy territory; only a pistol stood between us and a horrible death as angry survivors attempted to murder us. The shooting felt both responsive and fluid, rewarding us for paying close attention to our foes. They hid behind cover of all sorts, sometimes taking us on with blindfire, to make good use of the grimy environment. The bolder ones (including those with flaming bats) charged us with all their might, but a sound smack to the head sent them spiralling away. However, they used melee attacks of their own, so spamming the punch button did us no favours.

The animation was a highlight of our experience. Enemies limped away when injured or even fell to the ground and tried to shoot at us from their prone position. Of course, gore flew every which way, specifically when grenades were in use. We also found ourselves a shotgun and some sharp blades that could be thrown through the air, upping the count of beheadings substantially.

It's not the muscles, the scars, the belt of grenades, or even the tank tattooed on his chest; that mustache commands respect.

Rage wasn’t very tough on Normal difficulty, but when we did finally go down, a mini-game was there to pull us from death’s icy grip. By dexterously aligning the thumb sticks and nailing the timing on some button presses, our health was refilled relative to our (sloppy) performance. Whether or not this skill can be abused as an easy way out remains to be seen, but it’s a neat addition on its own.

While Rage’s combat certainly hit the spot in terms of solid, tried-and-true shooting, there wasn’t anything especially original about it. There are, however, some light RPG additions to spice things up: for example, junk can be salvaged and combined to make brand new items. We made ourselves a device to break locks and a nifty scope for our pistol, both of which came in handy right away.

We sold the extra contents of our inventory back at the base, purchasing some healing kits in exchange. The locals were also willing to teach us how to use certain weapons and hand out missions to complete, the latter of which move the story forward. Tips during lengthy loading screens told us to head off the beaten path and explore, but most of these excursion ended with dead ends or invisible walls; often both. These early parts of Rage might be more confined than later portions, but we didn’t see a whole lot of open-ended opportunities.

Many mooses died for this manly costume to live.

For such a thoroughly apocalypsed world, Rage managed to look spiffy. Character models were detailed to an impressive degree, set in a dusty land under a glorious sky. It’s often ugly, sure — but that’s the point. Our main concern was the texture pop-in that plagued even the nearest of surfaces. We only had access to the PS3 version, but it could use some polishing up before hitting store shelves.

We weren’t blown away during our time with Rage, yet the intense fights kept us pushing forward and yearning for more. Ninety minutes was hardly enough time to dig into this promising game’s many layers — we didn’t even touch the racing or multiplayer — but it’ll have to work hard to dig itself out of the potentially stale genre pit. Keep your eyes open and your Acme Mutant Repellent at hand as we rapidly approach its October release date.