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Episodes

10. Syndicate
9. Cannon Fodder
8. Rainbow Islands
7. Sensible Soccer
6. Worms
5. Kick Off
4. Lemmings
3. Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe
2. The Secret of Monkey Island
1. Monkey Island 2 - LeChuckâs Revenge

Next week; Paul?

There are three questions that a gamer needs to ask him or herself regarding Metal Gear Solid 4. The first is whether you enjoy stealth-action games. The likes of Splinter Cell and Assassinâs Creed have set the bar high in the past few years, largely inspired by this series. Fortunately unlike previous games the rigid enforcement of stealth has been relaxed in all but a few places and a player could quite happily charge through most of the game, guns blazing and not be penalised for it. Unlike Sam Fisherâs previous outings where being spotted results in a mission restart, MGS4 gives you room to breathe and make mistakes. Itâs a completely new engine built with the Call of Duty crowd in mind and it genuinely makes a difference in how you play as Snake.

The second question is whether you have played the previous games. You could probably get by on a thorough perusal of Metal gear history online but this is a game built upon a foundation of dense characterisation and vividly realised set-pieces designed to evoke emotion. This cannot be swiftly assimilated in a few pages. To get the full effect you will have at least had to have finished Metal Gear Solid on the Playstation. Sons of Liberty and Snake Eater add texture and history to the saga, which then fully enables the player to feel the true sense of completion in Guns of the Patriots. If you havenât played any of them, track down Metal Gear Solid on the PS1 or if you own a Wii or GameCube find the remake; The Twin Snakes. It hasnât been played by many and both have their strengths and weaknesses but the improved graphics may make the transition smoother.

Final question. Do you own a Playstation 3? If the answer is no, does this single game truly warrant the hefty investment? Going back to question two; if you have completed the first three and thoroughly enjoyed them and are hankering after this final instalment then this could indeed be the one killer app to convince you. It is a fantastic game in itâs own right. Almost every facet from previous instalments has been polished up and perfected from the once-fiddly camouflage to the cluttered item selection. Now your sneaking suit mimics your surrounding environment with a single prompt and the in-game menu gives full interface with a vast arsenal of weapons and gadgets, siphoning them into handy quick-select packages. The photo-real graphics and awe-inspiring soundstage push the PS3 to new heights of excellence and the new third-person camera finally makes hunting down enemies a joy rather than a chore. It is in short, everything Metal Gear could and should have been. It will remain Sonyâs flagship game for quite some time.

It isnât without its flaws. Half the game is spent sat passively watching lengthy cut-scenes which will become tiresome if you donât know your history. Even if you do, in fact even if you have loved every previous moment of Kojimaâs unusual blend of melodrama, action and oddball humour you might wish heâd had a better editor to trim a few of them down. The crawl mechanic is still broken and clumsy and you will often hit the deck and struggle to get back up when you are being attacked. However, long-time fans will forgive these as eccentricities of the series and will most likely be glued to the screen in rapt attention as the ghosts of previous adventures are evoked and explored.

In summary, this is so far, without a doubt the best game on Playstation 3. If the clumsy, archaic online mode is anything to go by, the future of the series will NOT be spent there. So whether we see any more from Snake and friends, this moment, frozen in time will mark the noble death and rebirth of the stealth action game.

Rating: 5 Stars

Game: Grand Theft Auto IV
Format: XBOX 360

This review sits beneath a landslide of amassed praise and hyperbole surrounding this game. A title has not received such unanimously vaunting praise since Ocarina of Time on the N64. I could just repeat what everybody else has said and state that this is a strong contender for game of the year and virtually flawless, but in all honesty my experience seems to have varied. In the interests of journalistic integrity I canât just say itâs perfect. Itâs not and thatâs fine, nothing really is. So if you need validation for your purchase or a collection of how many incredible new features there are then look elsewhere. If, however you would like to know what ânot without its flawsâ means (and it has been said by many) then read on.

Before I start, may I first echo the praise for GTA IVâs central character Niko Bellic. He is a prime example of depth in a central protagonist and I never felt frustrated with the way he acted. In fact, his forthright strength of character actively left me discouraged to go on the usual killing sprees, unlike the callous Tommy Vercetti from Vice City. Niko is definitely likable and compelling and many of the characters he meets (especially at the front end of the game) are multi-dimensional and interesting and only a little clichÃd. The polish on the format is definitely apparent on start-up. The weight of the character and the vehicles he drives is apparent. The impact of hitting someone with a car or shooting them is amped up and the people behave a little more realistically. You can play for ages and still notice new things. It was only after about twenty hours that I started to see repetition, which gave way to cracks and flaws in the gameplay and eventually full-blown frustration at what eventually became apparent; polish is all that distinguishes this game from the previous iterations.

This is not to say that GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas are not superb games, but they were all based around the same engine, pioneered on the previous generationâs consoles and significantly here not replaced with a new one. This is GTA as we know and love it, but also (if applicable) as we hate it. The old problems are still there. The refined mission system means that if you are (unfairly?) slaughtered on a first attempt you can reload the current task. What it doesnât counter for are the often monumentally long and boring drives between the islands that you often have to take. The Taxi system is a masterstroke, allowing you to skip many of these for a small fee, but all too often a specific vehicle is needed, necessitating you sitting for five minutes each attempt, having the same (or at least similar) conversations with the same characters who quickly reveal their lack of dimension through the repetition of the odious things they say. Hearing it once would be fine, twice or six times is unbearable. Maybe I wasnât a sharp enough player. Maybe I shouldnât have died so often or lost track of my fleeing quarry, but many missions are so trial and error based that you need several attempts just to know whatâs around each corner.

In the interests of constructive criticism, rather than picking at the holes in this (admittedly fantastically presented and well planned) game, I will suggest what Iâd like to see in the next instalment. For instance I would genuinely like to see the old engine scrapped. It was great for the PS2, functional and fun, but for current gen consoles, with responsive and intuitive characters like Assassinâs Creedâs Altair stalking the bustling streets, we need a model that knows when not to plummet off a rooftop because the camera whipped round to an awkward angle at an inopportune moment. We need a man who knows to lock onto and shoot the thug who is three feet away and emptying a shotgun into him and not stubbornly keep aiming at the one three rooms away behind a crate despite numerous frantic button taps. These are simple things that Rockstar surely will contend with someday. I just wish it had been for this game.

A save system that would allow you to start at the warehouse full of goons at the end of a long drive, not before it, would be nice, along with the ability to get people to be quiet in the car so you can listen to the music. Speaking of which, the soundtrack needs a mention. Over a dozen radio stations and only one or two with anything good on: perhaps a little too much like real life. This is only remarkable because the previous two games have had two of the most outstanding collections of 80âs and 90âs period music in any video game ever, and whatâs assembled here seems a little too much like the eclectic mix that would play in a smoky record shop run by a music elitist who loathes anything popular. Perhaps Iâve been spoiled by Guitar Hero, but a handful of rock songs just isnât good enough when swamped by a deluge of reggae, electro, funk and obscure hip hop. Hell, one station is entirely dedicated to Bob Marley and the Wailers. This saddens me as I was genuinely excited about the soundtrack, but the Chatterbox equivalent talk shows always seemed to be playing the same three segments, which meant that by hour thirty, I was switching off the radio and listening to the soundtrack to Layer Cake on my iPod. Next time, Rockstar, donât be afraid to put on more songs that people know and/or like. Obscure is ok, but nostalgia has more power than novelty.

It was around this thirty-hour mark that the weight of the game began to press down on me. I knew I wasnât far from the end but it just seemed to be going on forever, with each gruelling mission advancing my percentage of completion a fraction at a time. The fun began to ebb and a cold determination to finish rather than enjoy it began to set in. Again, perhaps if I had taken my time, it would have been better, but the repetitious waltz of chase/hide/shoot took such a hold that I could barely tell one mission from the next. Itâs not just that all the missions in this single game follow the same handful of themes, itâs that this is all GTA has ever done and once again, to be constructive, perhaps the next should include more variation, even if this sacrifices the playing time of the core story. There is still plenty to do once you finish the final mission (indeed, this is the gameâs key strength) with dozens of Taxi, vigilante and assassination missions, coupled with the usual treasure hunt. But once again, though they have swapped hidden packages for pigeons, itâs the same as it always was: drive/find (/shoot if necessary). The shooting system itself has indeed been refined, but after a time every single shootout became the same. Hide behind a wall or a box, wait for the hoods to show their faces, blast, repeat. Iâd have appreciated either variation or simply less of the same. Five standout set pieces would stay with me longer than twenty identikit scuffles.

The much vaunted strong point of the game is the story. True, it starts out great with a thought-provoking series of tangled relationships, and much in the way of exposing the hypocrisy behind championing the American dream whilst despising outsiders who wish to join the party. There is musing on the nature of revenge and starting over and it truly holds your attention, but again it is only to a point. At some undetermined moment the clichÃs begin to appear until you find yourself sitting in a car with foul-mouthed Mafiosi thinking, âI have so done this before.â Rockstar run out of steam and leave you stranded in a limp reproduction of the Sopranos all too early. Once again, if they have to shorten the story for the next instalment in favour of consistent quality and depth then I certainly wonât be complaining.

The friend system initially is great fun. Spending time with your buddies shooting pool and the like is entertaining, but eventually you find yourself with twelve people calling up and badgering you to go to a strip club with them when itâs (really) three in the morning and all you want to do is sleep. Eventually you realise that the limp bonuses that keeping everybody happy offers simply isnât worth the hours of your time and the ignore button becomes your new best friend.

Finally the real killer of this game for me, beyond the repetition, beyond the lame back-end characters and forgiving it the engine which still canât seem to manage to keep the frame rate consistent and a far-off vehicle visible from moment to moment, no, the real killshot for my enjoyment of this game was the frustration factor. I lost count of the number of times I roared at the screen and writhed in my chair as Nikoâs speeding car clipped a lamp-post and ground to a halt allowing whoever he was pursuing to escape within five seconds meaning I would have to jump through many hoops again just to get back to that same place and perhaps catch him. The illusion of freedom was never so present in a game. You may be able to go anywhere and do anything (weathering the consequences each time, usually involving a tedious police chase) but you still have to do a hell of a lot of things to the letter if you wish to actually play the game. You canât cunningly set a trap for the dim-witted hoods you know are going to emerge from a certain door, you have to go in the front way and hit a certain spot. You often canât shoot an enemy off the back of a motorbike because you must get to a certain place and kill him there and you certainly canât let any of the core characters die, much less kill them. This leaves you prey to occasionally retarded A.I. both for allies and enemies, and performing the same tasks in the same ways to appease the game mechanic. When the cries of protest at an unfair death outweigh the smiles of joy at the clever digs at American culture and the occasional original mission you have to start questioning the validity of those multiple perfect scores. So this is the tallest order to Rockstar and requires them to go back to the drawing board. How about an open-world game where you really are free?

The saddest thing for me is that of course they wonât do this. The engine they polished may be from the last generation but it keeps the current gen happy. The next instalment will use the same one, the same problems will be present and of course I will buy it on day one, because Iâm like that.

I donât regret buying this. In fact despite the seeming negative tone of this review I would urge everybody with the corresponding console to go out, buy this and play it to death. It is more of an experience than most other games. I have barely mentioned the incredibly fun multiplayer setup, the pure joy of just cruising around the city on free mode with your two best mates in the car seeing what you can jump over and the mysterious downloadable content weâve been promised for later this year. It is genuinely worth every penny of its price tag. Itâs not perfect. We should not demand perfection from our games. But it could be better and to that end Rockstar can take on board what many people have said, and perhaps next time I can truly say that this timeâ it was different.

Rating: ****

Name: SingStar
Format: PS3
Developer: London Studio
Release Date: December 5 2007
Reviewer: Alex Shaw

The original SingStar was released on the PS2 in May 2004 to generally positive reviews. It was praised for its easy accessibility, versatile track list and multitude of gaming modes, but also criticised for the very specific nature of its note chart. While it followed the model of a classic karaoke machine, the double-edged sword of its points-scoring nature meant that songs had to be sung in a set manner, allowing you to see exactly how well you were doing but also no real creativity while singing. This meant that if trailer-park chanteuse Christina Aguilera were to attempt her own song, Genie in a Bottle, she would have to ensure she stuck to the exact vocal pattern she created in the original track. This would mean that achieving the coveted perfect 10000 score would prove difficult, even impossible for a showboat like her.

Regardless of this, the game proved a huge success in Europe, spawning many additional song packs including Party, Pop, Rocks!, 80s, 90s, Anthems, Legends and R&B. Its initially girl-oriented audience has widened over the years to the point where the new version has a cool-looking gent on the cover, validating the more self-conscious guyâs inner desire to grab a mic and make like Blink 182.

In December 2007 SingStar was finally given its current generation console update. Some things were different. Some have changed. Gone are the sparse, white menus, replaced with a welcoming HD front-end offering access to the SingStore and your online profile. These are the two key facets of SingStar on the PS3 that set it apart from its earlier instalments. The SingStore itself is at this moment four months old and boasting an impressive girth of 200 downloadable tracks. At 99p a go it is unsurprisingly easy to find yourself loading your cart up every time you pop in, and each time you do an old favourite or something new is brought into the SingStar format in what has proved to be a very pleasing manner. It is this feature above all others that set SingStar on the PS3 up as something different to its predecessors. The initial thirty songs are a fine mix, sure to contain at least one song that everybody knows, but soon you will find yourself hankering for more and itâs the expandability that makes this a truly lasting game; almost a platform in itself.

If you are lucky enough to acquire a PS3 camera then the other feature opens out before you; namely the ever-growing online community of SingStar players each able to download half-minute snippets of themselves performing. You donât need the camera to view the videos of course, but anybody with a sense of fun would want to get hold of one anyway after seeing what these people can come up with. Some are great, some are plain awful and a few are genuinely inventive, their creators utilising their thirty precious seconds to truly entertain. This reviewer has seen Chewbacca dancing for joy (presumably over his new Star Wars PSP), singing fruit, chin-people, cross-dressers and the most ridiculous pair of pyjama bottoms ever. The interface shares a similar flavour to YouTube and Facebook, allowing you to make comments, keep friends, rate videos and be rated. It gives a grander sense of scale to the game and seeing everyone performing the songs we have in common creates an unusual sense of unity for a console game.

On the subject of performing we come to the great divide that is an undeniable part of the SingStar experience. There seems to be two very distinct ways of playing, depending on which of two ends you want to achieve. Firstly there is performing a song; actually getting up on your makeshift stage and belting out Life on Mars in a manner that would make Ziggy proud. This makes it a fun experience for you and everyone else involved, and can leave you with a score that is mostly admirable. The other way is the calculated discipline of getting your voice to follow the sliding pitch bar without missing a single note. Unfortunately this is where the game falls down for the average person. Trained singers will likely be able to control their voice so that it sounds effectively like the original track, whether they channel the original artist or not, and still hit the notes, but the other 98% of the population will come off sounding more like what Alan Partridge would refer to as a trapped boy. A horrible, monotonous whine will escape your lips, interrupted only by the occasional swiftly stolen breath and instrumental pauses, and everybody in the vicinity will feel their flesh crawl and desperation to leave the room. It is a weighty choice when deciding whether to play for points or for the general fun of the SingStar experience, which when done right can make for a truly memorable party, often captured forever in a grin-inducing scrapbook of pictures and videos thanks to your camera. Those who can genuinely sing need not worry, but if you have that much vocal control, you should be doing it for a living anyway.

It is significant that Harmonixâs Rock Band has a far less stringent requirement from its vocalists on the Easy setting. Since the front man is the mouthpiece of the band, a player desperately playing for points and singing technically correctly but droning abominably would swiftly destroy the rhythm and morale of the rest of the group. However, Rock Bandâs note charts have a forgiving flow to them allowing for that all-important performance to shine through. On Expert itâs a different story, though, and many a slapdash vocalist will have to be rescued by their teammates repeatedly should they attempt it. I myself save the high score attempts for times when nobody else is around to feel the pain.

SingStar PS3 is a significant step forward in the series, broadening its horizons extensively. Now when you have your family over you can let them browse through the store until they find something they are prepared to sing and then video them while theyâre at it and keep the clip for all time. As far as future instalments go, Vol. 2 is due in June and promises harmonising on duets (singing different lines over each other on tracks like California Dreaminâ) and PSP interactivity with the SingStore. Hundreds of tracks will no doubt be released in various European languages (fingers crossed for Cochise by Audioslave, already on a song pack in the USA) but perhaps some editing tools would be a wise element of future DLC, to ensure that the submitted videos remain fresh from those who enjoy channelling their inner star. If youâve never played before, own a PS3 and this appeals to you then now is the time to take up the mic, but if youâve been annoyed by the playing system in the past then little has changed to make it easier to get a high score and still sound human. This reviewerâs advice: let the points go and just sing your heart out.

Rating: ****