It focuses on cyberpunk themes not simply as a visual skin for an action game but makes its entire plot based on moral debates around justifiable disobedience, the appropriate use of technology and propaganda and whether or not it is morally acceptable to give people pleasure at the expense of individuality. In order to explore this, it eschews the idea of choice that leads to games like Bioshock Infinite feeling superficial; there is no capacity to choose a personal response to the world and instead the player is presented with a story to think about themselves. What this does is allow for a more nuanced depiction of the thematic elements; the protagonist is not a cipher on which the player projects themselves and makes choices, they simply progress the story. As a result, Remember Me’s Nilin is presented as much more human than, for example, the protagonist in Far Cry 3 or Bioshock yet the story is no less about free will and the capacity to choose for this lack of choice. The core plot device of Remember Me focuses on Nilin’s desire to regain her memories and rationalise her violent actions throughout the game with the past that led to them being necessary – she begins the game necessarily as a blank slate and as it progresses will probably move away from what the player wants her to be.

Indeed, Remember Me is a refreshingly amoral game for one about resistance fighters and oppressive corporations; there are no sympathetic parties. Its portrayal of protest as based around eschewing any limits of acceptability seems hard to stomach at first but at the same time it presents its antagonists as, if not entirely evil, so complicit in the creation of its society that accepting that they are “deserving” of violence becomes easy. The entire game maintains an oppressive, self-centred tone which the walkthroughs of Colombia or City 17 touch on – indeed that the most loathsome figures in Remember Me are ultimately unenhanced scientists and business magnates evokes also Metal Gear Rising in showing that the real evil of a science-fiction world lies behind desks. It is a game which effectively creates revulsion in the player both at the acts of the villains (and their eventually-revealed motivations, shown sympathetically but hard to accept) but also in the acts of Nilin herself. What she does as part of the basic mechanics of the game – the touted memory-alteration sequences, the finishing-moves in the combat system – make her no better than the enemies. The act of defeating a boss or enlisting the help of someone requires an act of mental coercion that, when considered at a safe distance from the game, are almost indefensible. Despite not specifically being a game about the disconnect between mechanic and plot, or the function of choice, Remember Me presents a more inventive approach to depicting it than many recent major games which may be wholly focused on it.

So Remember Me is a game which, in its fairly safe plot (which could easily be from the pen of Mamoru Oshii, creator of Ghost in the Shell and Patlabor, in its depiction of the inexorable progress of technology and the transiency of the digital world), offers a far more convincing and nuanced presentation of cyberpunk and its themes. Mechanically it is much the same story; it unambitiously takes the combat system of Sleeping Dogs or Arkham Asylum and adds safe iterative changes to it, then focuses on making this familiar experience as well-executed as possible. By attaching status effects to attacks (either healing or recharging special moves) and rewarding careful construction of combos using the simple combo design system, it offers a very nuanced – although possibly to the point of invisibility – kind of strategy. It is quite possible to win Remember Me by constructing combos at random and simply progressing at a natural pace. However, as the fights become more complex and difficult, and the small but diverse pool of enemies are combined in interesting ways, it becomes clear that understanding how the combo system works will make winning easier.

Similarly the special moves are designed not to be used sparingly but as integral parts of the combat system; each has a useful role and a specialisation against one type of enemy or another, and understanding the rhythm of the combat (switching between special moves, ranged attacks and different combos) is rewarding. Not having the pressure of constant grading between scenes as a game like Metal Gear Rising or Bayonetta has is also a valuable asset; it makes Remember Me less game-like and makes it very clear that room-clearing attacks are encouraged. In a score-attack game, special moves and items are often point-inefficient and keeping up attack chains is better. In Remember Me the attack chains are very limited and structured and the emphasis is on a more inclusive kind of combat that uses all available tools. It even manages to have interesting boss fights; while they are few in number each is well-differentiated both thematically (each touching on a different aspect of the setting) and mechanically. While many games’ bosses seem quite divorced from the flow of the action, Remember Me uses its world of augmented reality and computerised minds to fully integrate both the build-up to the fight and the fight itself into the plot.

To conclude, Remember Me is a game which plays its plot and mechanics safe; it does not overuse its puzzles, or boss fights, or overcomplicate its combat system with new mechanics too frequently. Its plot could be a story from the universe of Ghost in the Shell or something like Gen Urobochi’s Psycho-Pass. Yet in this apparently unambitious framework it has a story which is more subtly nuanced and respectful of its genre than many games, and a combat system which in its simplicity is faultlessly executed. What is more, it is a game which properly uses the idea of the player as cipher, presenting Nilin as a character first with nothing to lose and then exploring where someone may go from there if they see no reason for limits.

The story of DKCR3D is fairly simple, some bug-eyed musical instrument monsters are hypnotising animals to give them bananas, but our hero Donkey Kong is too stupid to get hypnotised and fights back alongside his nephew, Diddy Kong. No relation to P. Like any one of a million 2D Mario side-scrollers, you run and jump through levels dotting semi-linear world maps, fighting a boss at the end of each level. That’s the main similarity, but DKCR3D puts the New Super Mario Bros series to shame.

Donkey Kong has three hearts before he loses his life (although there are enough instagib opportunities to render the hearts system unnecessary), and his main weapon is hitting the ground. When DK drums on the floor, the level shakes satisfyingly, knocking fragile objects apart and rattling the bushes. The environment moves, twitches and jiggles as you interact with it which is amazingly satisfying and can vary from simple background effects to falling into place as elements in the levels themselves. It really shows off the 3D of the console and can make the world around you seem more important than simple set dressing.

DK has a few other skills, he can blow dandelions! Okay, that sounds stupid but they might hide bananas, hearts or coins so shut up, it’s a good skill. He can roll a short way, too, knocking over enemies as he goes. When he breaks open a barrel featuring his nephew/kidnap victim, Diddy Kong piggybacks to double health and add to the jump & rolling times. It’s a nice equivalent to Mario’s mushrooms which doesn’t entirely replicate that particular power-up. As well as Diddy, there’s a rhino who you can bust through levels and over spikes with. Mine carts and rocket barrels round out the extra ways DK might navigate the maps filled with billions of deadly enemies and obstacles. That’s the good (and horrible) part of DKCR3D, it will beat you up repeatedly. There’s a level of challenge which many people will appreciate and others might consider abuse. The good news is that for people who keep losing about 15 lives on a level, after a few lost lives there’s an option to have Super Kong complete the level for you. He won’t get you any of the collectibles, but it moves you ahead and as much as it feels like a surrender, sometimes it’s necessary.

Each world has a simple theme of the island Donkey Kong is navigating, but the individual levels all have their own themes which can get quite varied at times. There’s one level entirely in silhouette, Limbo style, then some which alternate between platform and mine cart, or have a monster chasing you while you’re in the really awkward-to-control rocket barrel. There’s a school of thought which says that platforming games often turn into rhythm games. Bit.Trip.Runner 2 is of course, the perfect culmination of that, but some of the harder Mario levels and Super Meat Boy all fit the type of platformer where perfectly-timed button presses are all that will save you. DKCR3D fits in with this pantheon, almost at the Bit.Trip.Runner level of rhythm at times, where only split-second jumping & smashing will do.

The boss levels are nicely varied and not as punishing as the actual levels, possibly because of the aforementioned timed jumps. In one level you’re fighting crab pirates who pop up from the ground and make a totem pole of pinchy death. In another you’re on a mine cart racing after mole miners. Once you defeat the mind-controlled animal bosses you get to smack the evil instrument controlling them as many times as you can mash the ‘punch’ button.

The difficulty is the biggest problem with the game and there are some power-ups which can help, although any which provide hearts don’t help against that fickle bitch gravity, as would being able to select any of them at any time. You can stock up on items, but a few repeat each other in the concept of what they give you and having to select which three you will use before you start the level is a bit of a nuisance. Some of the levels are simply stunning in the way they use the platform medium, with you jumping in a giant hoop as it decimates everything in the area, launching yourself at a massive stone tower or fleeing a swarm of deadly insects all falling over each other to strip Donkey Kong’s bones clean.

If you are fine with crazy difficulty in your platformers then it’s a really rewarding game to play and so beautiful it puts the NSMB series to shame.

Reviewed on 3DS; Game provided by Nintendo Europe.

This is State of Decay, a surprisingly deep third person zombie game. Wait, wait, don’t run away, I know the zombie concept is tired as hell and mostly awful right now, but trust me when I say you’ll want to check this one out. It’s basically everything The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct promised but a million times better.

You’re back? Okay. This game’s a third person open world XBLA game which feels far more like a full-size game for the amount of content and use you’ll get out of it. There are elements of Minecraft, Dead Rising, Dead Island, Red Dead Redemption and GTA all packaged inside this game.

You play as Marcus, who was camping when the zombies took over. You, your friend and any stragglers you find have to find their way to shelter, loot items, make friends, deal with enemies and simply survive for as long as you can in this world overrun with the dead. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has gone into overdrive. You need a place to live and had better board it up as well as you can lest the monsters get in. Then you need food, fuel, bullets, medicine, and resources to build things. Each of these becomes a stat in your home, along with the morale of the group. Now you’ve got to manage each of these. If you’ve got managed to rescue eight people, do you have the room for them? Do you have enough food to keep them alive and enough ammo to keep them safe?

Your home is able to be upgraded and sometimes they’ll even go out killing stragglers themselves which is a blessing for the busy zombie murderer and a curse when they don’t come back. You can only carry one main resource type in your backpack at a time, so you need to radio in and get people to fetch some for you. Again, great, but then you can see the noise blips on the mini-map as they’re in a fight with a horde and need to get rescued.

This is a game where you have a lot of things to do, both scripted and random events make sure every day and night is filled with more things than you’re able to do. Survivors who radio you for help might have to be left behind for the greater good. It’s okay, you didn’t see who they were or that they were looking after their sole remaining child. You get hurt, you get tired, so you need to switch off with other characters, each with their own special skills, inventories and mortality. If your mates trust you enough, you have more of these people to control and send out on missions while the others recover, but they can die, ripped apart by hordes you were too exhausted to even sneak past.

It’s a finite world and a game of attrition, but when your base camp is your character’s whole world, the rest of the map can seem enormous, way bigger than it first looks. There are small towns, farms, forests and a crashed plane. The world evolves and changes even if you’re not taking part in what would be considered the core ‘story’ at certain points. As you can see, for an XBLA game costing 1600 moon dollars, there’s a ton of content. In this world of £40-50 game releases which can often seem samey and unnecessarily padded, I hope we see more cheaper, smaller but more interesting released.

There is a problem with the graphics which are simpler and occasionally glitchy. Sometimes you’ll get problems like murdered zombies still standing or following the wrong paths to get to you, maybe becoming invulnerable while they’re climbing over a fence. The thing is, in a game of this quality, these all become forgivable offences. There are already patches on the horizon, but even then I don’t mind. Compared to a brash, over-marketed AAA game which could look gorgeous but be actually awful, this is a far more acceptable trade-off. It’s a good game despite its flaws, not a polished turd.

One thing I would have enjoyed, and this is a rare statement from me, is multiplayer. A co-op struggle through this world, especially an offline one, would have been really interesting. Regardless, if you like exploration, stress, permadeath, free-roaming games and don’t care about how the arm hair on your man looks, then this is definitely a game for you.

Reviewed on Xbox; game purchased by D+PAD Magazine

Diggs Nightcrawler is the second title for Sony’s augmented-reality based Wonderbook which, for the uninitiated, is a QR-code imprinted book onto which the PlayStation 3 casts computer generated images via the use of the PS Eye camera. It’s all very clever, but the most impressive thing about Diggs Nightcrawler itself is that it manages to transcend the technology on which it is built; it is the story and the characters that stand out, not the technical wizardry of the Wonderbook. This is hugely important, as were we to be constantly reminded of the artifice of the whole situation (the pages are blank…you’re not reading a book in the traditional sense but viewing yourself reading book on your telly…), the illusion would be instantly shattered.

That’s not to say that there aren’t a few technological bumps on the way; as has become traditional for Move/PS Eye based games, you must go through a relatively short – but no less intrusive – set up procedure when starting the game as well as ensuring your room is well lit. In practice, once this is completed the technology is pleasingly robust and the illusion of a living and breathing world springing from the pages of the Wonderbook feels genuinely magical.

But what of Diggs’ himself? Aside from a certain Jim and occasional bouts of blowing each other up on 2D battlefields, worms have had a low profile when it comes to videogames, often only rearing their eyeless heads as mutated end of level bosses or grotesque scene-decoration, a sign of putridity. This makes the fact that Diggs Nightcrawler is one of the more charismatic leads to cross our path in some time all the more impressive, with this charisma drip-feeding down into the rest of the game. Though in many ways an entirely derivative stereotype of private investigator ripped from the noir fiction of Raymond Chandler, Caroll John Daly and Dashiell Hammett, Diggs oozes personality from his hat right down to his trench-coat and his six arms (four of which are usually tucked into four of the six pockets in his coat). He also delivers dialogue with the dry, world-weary monotone typical of the genre, underpinning a game world that successfully straddle’s child-friendly frippery and noir-grittiness.

Diggs is also the fulcrum for the entire game, the centre-point around which its world, characters and joyous logic are spun; he’s a P.I. and a bookworm, so the tale he has to tell is inevitably one of murder and mystery within a book-themed world by the name of Library City. The game opens with a murder or, as Diggs himself puts it (in a line of dialogue that typifies the high-standard of writing throughout): “My old pal Humpty, got himself bumped off the wall. Hump the Dump we called him. He was a tough egg; hard-boiled…but, somebody wanted him cracked.” It’s Diggs’ job to hunt down the culprit and bring them to justice, using nothing but his wits, detective skills and the assistance of you – the reader/player.

The game proper combines linear story-telling with interactive elements to create something that fits in the gaps between literature, movies and videogames. In any given scene, your must follow the plot and assist Diggs in his investigations; this can be in interacting directly with the world or characters, manipulating and rotating the Wonderbook itself to reveal previously hidden items and areas or, in a number cases, completing more action-orientated mini-games. For the most part the pacing and distribution of these various elements is well handled, holding your attention and imbuing the turn of the Wonderbook’s physical pages with the same sense of intrigue and wonder that you get from reading a decent book.

Though Diggs Nightcrawler requires no actual reading, its structural roots lie in fiction and its cast of characters are as much a love-letter classic children’s stories as hardboiled noir, a move that provides the hook to appeal to children who, if we’re honest, probably haven’t read The Big Sleep… Many familiar faces show up, each having been given a noir make-over; there’s Hump the Dump, the three little piggies (here, policemen) and Itsy Bitsy the Spider to name a few, and the interactions between the lovingly rendered and animated cast is a joy throughout. Dialogue is snappy and humorous, and always delivered with enough conviction to make a drama in which a book-worm attempts to unravel the mystery of a murdered egg entirely believable.

It is in the interactive elements that game’s weaknesses show. Though the illusion that you are holding beautifully rendered vignettes in your hands retains a degree of magic throughout, the Wonderbook itself is a little limited (not to mention cumbersome) as a means of control. It is functional, but its limitations are highlighted by the number of interactive elements that require you to tilt the book to guide Diggs through rolling levels. Sadly, such sections occasionally outstay their welcome, dragging on for longer than they should and leaving you itching to get to the next bit of dialogue. The PlayStation Move controller is used to some extent but takes a backseat to the Wonderbook, its main use being as investigative tool with which to explore scenes when replaying the game. The implementation of this is technically impressive, with the Move functioning as virtual-camera within Library City’s virtual sets, but it doesn’t actually add much to the experience.

London Studio had obviously hoped to encourage you to revisit Diggs Nightcrawler multiple times but, from a gameplay perspective at least, have largely failed to do so which makes for a somewhat fleeting experience (the story can be finished in a few hours). With that being said, this isn’t a game in the traditional sense, being more of a cross-media experience; should the cast of characters and plot grab you or, more importantly, your children, then Library City is a location worth revisiting.

Sony’s Wonderbook project came under a fair amount of criticism when it was first revealed at E3 2012, with commentators bemoaning the amount of air time it was given. Such criticism was undoubtedly unfair – there’s nothing wrong with attempting to appeal to a younger audience or for such titles to sit alongside their more hardcore brethren. In Diggs Nightcrawler Sony have definitely hit on something, even if whatever it is doesn’t fit comfortably within any particular art-form; it will be interesting to see whether or not the high production values on show here can be sustained for future Wonderbook releases. These are things for Sony’s number crunchers and jaded videogame writers to worry about though; Diggs Nightcrawler’s target audience won’t be thinking about the future of Wonderbook…they’ll be too busy solving the mystery of who bumped Hump the Dump.

Reviewed on PlayStation 3; game provided by Sony Europe.

The underlying premise of CastleStorm is this: defend your castle and repel the aggressors trying to break it down or steal your base’s flag whilst simultaneously doing the same to your opposition. If a castle is completely destroyed or a flag is ferried to an enemy HQ, it’s game over. In this most lively and typical set-up, the side-facing action symmetrically pits you against an opposing castle with the very same defensive and offensive burdens. More than anything, CastleStorm lays heavy importance on being able to multi-task different roles at a constantly demanding (but not too demanding) pace; and executing on your chosen patterns of play is easily understood after just a few short primers. To guide you along, the game’s primary single-player campaign is also interspersed with specific challenges to help bolster familiarisation with your developing arsenal before the more substantive full-on battles crop up. Thankfully, these sections are brief and don’t coddle you anymore than necessary.

Your most direct offensive tool is an indestructible ballista affixed to the top of your castle’s gate. Analogue control over the ballista means you have total ownership of what projectiles you fling at your enemy’s utilities as well as how often you dispense them. Despite exact precision never being truly required, control when aiming can sometimes prove somewhat iffy with thumbsticks at the helm. Each of your five projectiles has an associated cooling timer attached as well, meaning the most devastating weapons (like a Worms-inspired torpedo sheep of sorts) cannot be spammed ad nauseum. Arcing a wall-busting bomb to collide with the most crucial supports of the opposing castle is naturally ideal; whereas a stream of A.I.-controlled ground troops marching towards your base are especially vulnerable to hails of stones landing on their fragile collective heads. Likewise, you can summon your own variety of creep-like soldiers to fight back and potentially pick up and capture the enemy flag. As well as having access to secondary support with healer classes and such, some of the more luxurious and resource-intensive allies like damage-sponge trolls and belligerent dragons are late-game benefits that ramp up the back-and-forth nature of things quite nicely. These additions never overcrowd the map or handicap your ability to manage the events in front of you. The mapping of these options (which also includes useful magic attacks) to the controller’s face buttons and bumpers for switching units also makes a good deal of practical sense and quickly becomes second nature as a result.

Similarly to Angry Birds, your castle is made up of distinct physics-based structural parts and individual rooms that eventually crumble when hit with a well-placed projectile. Your castle’s rooms also houses your load of troops – if your Paladin troop room is destroyed, for instance, your ability to send out any number of attack-focused Paladins is lost for that match. Strategically scoping out certain enemy rooms to destroy with this in mind is valid if slightly belittled by the most valuable rooms generally being the most secure anyway. Along these lines, the game also features an interesting custom creator mode allowing you to build your own unique structures to best suit your defensive style. That said, unless you want to fall into the minutiae of your castle’s detailed infrastructure, a generous host of pre-fab castles tend to do the job just fine. Most importantly of all, however, is the rightfully satisfying annihilation of your enemy’s entire castle; even more so when you deal a last-ditch blow that reduces the majority of its rooms to cartoony rubble. Without this feeling at the core of victory, much of CastleStorm’s appeal would be diminished – the busywork that comes before these moments is still fun in its own right, but it’s really all in service of witnessing the fatal pay-off of levelling a castle from top to bottom and ultimately winning the match.

Mission performance is graded on factors like accuracy and speed of completion (denoted by leaderboards), and you also accrue gold to spend on upgrades improving rates of damage and speed. Although when you only have, say, a finite number of projectile-based weapons to bring into a mission, funnelling your hard-earned gold largely revolves around min-maxing your most successful weapon at the expense of toying with others. Of course you always retain the choice to dump gold into whatever you like at any time (until different options unlock, that is), and the game’s laid-back difficulty makes it viable to simply go with what works for you. Plus, a range of purchasable equipment buffs allowing for perks such as increased army sizes and faster troop regeneration on top of the aforementioned weapons upgrades helps add an appreciable level of depth to your larger tactical considerations.

Solid co-op-friendly survival modes pulled from parts of said campaign exist alongside competitive multiplayer, too. Adversarial combat between two people replicates the basic stand-offish format found in the single-player content and translates really well. Being forced to face the usual viewing angle with a right-sided castle is initially a tad jarring after having played so much of the game on the opposite side, but it’s hardly insurmountable. A World of Warcraft-inspired style punctuates much of CastleStorm’s own aesthetic make-up as well as its humour-driven cutscenes (quality of the latter notwithstanding, mind you). The cutesy veneer is a little played out for a fantasy-themed game of whatever type, although it fits all the same.

CastleStorm represents the best of its muses’ ideals – namely those belonging to the tower defense genre and Angry Birds – and fuses them into something specially made and distinctly enjoyable. Minor quirks don’t leave a damaging impression, either, which can’t be said for every joyously destroyed playhouse castle you’ll come into contact with along the way.

Reviewed on Xbox 360; game provided by Zen Studios

Groove Heaven’s rhythmic leanings are not readily apparent when glancing over screenshots, appearing as it does to be a fairly rudimentary platformer. In reality, however, there is very little in terms of actual platforming, mainly as lead character Rhymi can’t jump. Instead, she must navigate through a series of short levels while avoiding hazards; reach the exit and it’s on to the next level. Of course, this alone wouldn’t be enough to sustain a gaming experience, this being a job that is left to the game’s core mechanic which dictates that you can only move in time to the rhythm of the music. So, the music functions as framework, an invisible force that you cannot directly master but must instead fall into line with in order to succeed.

In the broader scope of the rhythm action genre, Groove Heaven undoubtedly sits at the more gentle and accessible end of the spectrum and has clearly been designed with a younger audience in mind. Inputs are stripped back, coming in the form of two large buttons that appear on the 3DS’ touchscreen; on the left being ‘Turn’ and on the right ‘Move’. Tap either with the stylus and Rhymi will do just that, but only if you do so in time to the music.

The required adherence to the rhythm combined with the simplified inputs allows the levels to pose a challenge that belies their design. Where dextrous characters such as the Mario or Sonics of the world can happily charge around a leaping foe, for Rhymi even the most basic of manoeuvres is difficult if you fail to get into the rhythm of the music, as taps are wasted in between beats and do nothing more than aggravate your demonic charge. This mechanic also lends the game a staccatoed pace, with each of Rhymi’s shortened movements being sandwiched between moments of inactivity. At first, this can prove to be quite jarring, but there’s no denying that you can occasionally get lost in the rhythm of the music and your own stylus taps.

It’s unfortunate then that this mechanic and the level design do not prove enough to sustain the experience. Although things get off to a good start with a gentle but well pitched learning curve and a smattering of interesting concepts, the game soon settles into a leisurely pace that struggles to hold your attention and before you know it the credits are rolling. There are also a few slip-ups in terms of design, most noticeably in the game’s attitude to lives; you start with three and can accrue more through the collection of musical notes, but rather than rebooting your stock when you reach zero, lose them all and you must restart with nothing. The upshot of this is you will frequently find yourself revisiting levels that are filled with large quantities of easily accessible notes just to restock on lives, an option that is all the more tempting when facing levels that can be extremely frustrating should you attempt them with no extra lives to soften the impact of dying mid-level.

There are two modes of play included in Groove Heaven. First up is ‘Story’ mode – that just about lives up to its title by sandwiching the game’s 30 levels between a scene setting and narrative closing cutscenes. Although short and of limited value to the overall experience, these cutscenes are good looking and stylishly presented. The story, as far as it goes, is also actually quite sweet, telling of a Devil who has fallen hopelessly in love with an angel and who sends his minion – Rhymi – to deliver a bunch of flowers. The narrative does a good job as a bookend then, but it’s a shame it doesn’t do much more than that.

The second mode is ‘Timed’ which, as you might have guessed, presents a series of levels that you must complete as quickly as possible. Though this adds to the longevity of the package, with no real way of speeding Rhymi up, these levels become tests of memorising levels and sustaining a steady rhythm with limited scope for satiating the high-score hunters it is obviously aimed at.

Groove Heaven’s biggest failing is in its music. It’s not bad, but it commits a cardinal sin for the rhythm action genre by being for the most part utterly forgettable, in turn failing to drive the action onward. In many ways, the music can be used to sum up the game as a whole; it’s produced well enough and is perfectly serviceable but it never quite gets the blood pumping and ultimately fails to sustain your interest for long. Groove Heaven is a relatively good looking game, there are some good ideas here and if you approach it expecting ‘My first rhythm action game’ you won’t be too disappointed, and maybe in this it has done its job. However, it is disappointing that it fails to reach the euphoric heights hinted at by that title.

Reviewed on Nintendo 3DS; game provided by Teyon Software and Entertainment

From a presentation perspective, Revelations is pretty good (given that it’s a HD remake of a 3DS game). The graphics are surprisingly tidy, although you won’t be mistaking it for a AAA console release. The abandoned cruise ship Queen Zenobia, where you’ll spend most of your time, has a number of memorable settings, and is generally accompanied by appropriately creepy or action-packed music.

There’s a good variety of well-designed enemies, employing a wide range of tactics. A neat dodging mechanic allows you to escape danger at times, but it’s tricky enough to pull off that you can’t rely on it. Enemies take a pleasing amount of damage, which means (especially early on) that wise use of your ammo is important. In the early going, it isn’t rare to kill the final enemy of a section with your last remaining bullet.

As you explore the Zenobia you’ll uncover new weapons, all of which are effective. You’ll find a host of upgrade parts, ranging from simple (increased damage) to creative (make sniper rifles more powerful, but only at close range). The beauty of the upgrade system is that no upgrades are permanent, so you don’t need to worry that you might find a better weapon or upgrade around the corner. The promise of upgrades should keep you poking into Zenobia’s darkest corners for the full duration of the game.

There’s even an excellent rail-shooting section for one of the boss fights. I’ve never been a fan of rail-shooting, but this one is cinematic, strikes a good balance of being challenging without feeling unfair, and is long enough to begin to feel gruelling without being so long that it becomes boring.

So those are the good parts. The natural expectation is that having covered those we’ll move onto the bad parts, leading to a conclusion that Revelations is a sub-par game. However, there aren’t any particularly bad parts, and it’s certainly not a bad game. It’s just not a particularly good one either. It’s just average.

The problem that plagues Revelations is that even the even the highlights are marred by negatives that drag them down and preventing from reaching any lofty heights. Take the presentation for example; the Zenobia has a range of good areas, including the opening one: dark corridors, claustrophobic cabins, grisly corpses, half-glimpsed enemies, falling air vents, lit only by Jill Valentine’s torch. But there are an equal number of generically dull environments (especially an almost inexplicable laboratory). The music might be generally strong, but the sound effects are poor, especially guns, which sound hugely underpowered.

Graphically, the game is fine most of the time, but there are moments that betray Revelations’ handheld origins (particularly during cut-scenes). Also, during inevitable “this part of the ship is flooding” sections, weaknesses of the engine become apparent. Console gamers have come to expect such set pieces to be dynamic, desperate escapes as your environment changes around you. In Revelations, they aren’t. You’ll get told that the room is flooding, but the water sure doesn’t look like it’s rising.

While early on weapons and enemies are fantastically well-balanced, as you progress upgrades make your guns more powerful and ammunition becomes less scarce. Machine guns in particular, with some judicious upgrades, can become ludicrously overpowered. Enemies look good, but while they might be able to take more damage as you progress, that doesn’t ramp up to anything like the same extent as your firepower. By the end of the game most enemies go down with minimal fuss. The rail-shooting boss fight is fun, but the other boss fights are crushingly dull. The final boss fight, in particular, is horribly repetitive (make sure you bring a shotgun to that one).

In the end almost every aspect of Revelations ends up at sauntering down the middle of the road, with one very notable exception: the survival horror. This brings us to Revelations’ main failing: it just isn’t scary.

This starts with the enemies. They look good, take decent damage, but they don’t ever strike fear in you. Most enemies’ attacks are weak, but you’ll usually kill them before they get near to you anyway. If you do get hurt, green herbs are potent and plentiful. You’ll die on occasion, but you’re unlikely to ever be scared.

The Zenobia doesn’t help. An abandoned cruise ship has tonnes of potential for creepiness, but Zenobia never sets you on edge. It doesn’t help that the plot often transports you away from the ship to events elsewhere. These intervals relieve whatever meagre tension might have been created. Horror environments work best when you don’t get any respite; when you’re fearfully peeking around every corner, you know the environment has done its job. The Zenobia never gets you doing this, but even if it did the story structure would relieve that tension anyway.

The plot, by the way, in classic Resident Evil style, is ludicrous. It starts with a bio-terrorist attack to objections to a utopian city’s self-sufficient use of solar power (because who likes renewable energy, eh?), and it doesn’t get any smarter. It would be possible to forgive the trips off the Zenobia if they led to the revelations promised by the title, but they don’t (unless we’re talking about a mid-game twist that you’ll guess within the opening hour).

One sequence around the halfway mark demonstrates how little Revelations seems to understand horror. You need to chase down a monster that has the key you need, through the initial corridors and cabins, the strongest horror environment in the game. You press forward, knowing that every corner, every door, every shadow could be an opportunity for your quarry to turn the tables on you. Until you notice the stunningly obvious audio cues well in advance of that ever happening. Any hint of surprise is gone: you just walk until you hear the requisite sound effects. And if you miss them, don’t worry, because you won’t take any serious damage.

This had potential to be a truly memorable sequence, and it became just another corridor crawl. That really sums up Resident Evil: Revelations as a whole. Given Revelations’ billing as a return to the series’ survival horror origins, the total absence of horror and stunning ease of survival is a fundamental flaw. It’s a flaw that it could have been overcome if the rest of the game was top-notch. But the rest of Revelations isn’t a good game. It’s a game with good elements that get cancelled out by poor elements, with no horror beats to improve it, leaving an average game.

Really, the only thing that makes Resident Evil: Revelations notable is the apparent lack of knowledge of what makes a game scary. That’s a charge that couldn’t even be fairly levelled at the current-generation entries into the series but, sadly, it’s one that’s fair to level at Resident Evil: Revelations.

Game reviewed on PlayStation 3; copy provided by Capcom UK

This is arguably the best way of adapting a video game to a non-interactive medium; Persona 4, like a game like Mass Effect aspired to be, is a game where the player’s choices influence incidental details key to the gameplay experience along the path of a fixed story with a fixed endpoint. Thus while these incidental choices – and the responses to them – are one of the main draws of the game, the other is the entire aesthetic and how it contributes to the telling of the common story. To all intents, Persona 4 The Animation sets out its premise in the very first episode aesthetically; it recreates the entire experience of playing Persona 4 in a non-interactive form. This would not work if the recreation was an inexact one; the adaptation to television already takes one of the pillars of the game’s appeal away in removing the choices and so much more emphasis is placed on those that remain.

Obviously, as the choice elements are removed, the version of the story being told is not a definitive one but instead one of many – something which gives the adaptation a different kind of appeal to someone who has played to someone who has not. Seeing one presentation of a story they are familiar with and comparing it to their own experience is a natural kind of extension of the way in which games foster conversation and are memorable. What defines the lasting opinion of a game is incidental detail and the potential for randomness and different experiences that individual players might have, especially as the trend for choice in games becomes more focused on creating decision points that are superficial in the long run yet seem significant immediately.

Thus Persona 4 The Animation appeals to fans of the game as a sequence of familiar scenes – backgrounds such as the flood plain footpath, or the department store’s electronics display or even just a school corridor are infused with significance because they are such precise reproductions of common areas of the game. What it does not so much do, though, is assume that familiarity is present. The pace of the adaptation is much faster than the game’s simply by virtue of the use of a different, continuous medium. A game must progress at the speed of the player – a rate driven by their reading speed, skill at the game and capacity to solve puzzles. By contrast, a television series divides itself differently to a sequence of play sessions and focuses more on narrative chapters than anything else. Each of the first two episodes of Persona 4 The Animation focuses on one “chapter” of the game; the period between one plot development and the next, retaining how comprehensive and expository this must be for setting up the plot and future mysteries while removing the significant investment a game requires in explaining its mechanics.

It is in this way that the other appeal of the adaptation shows through; by focusing entirely on the plot (what is ultimately the result of the choices made via the game mechanics) it is, as described above, depicting one possible playthrough – a kind of intriguing unpredictability in a predictable frame. A player of Persona 4 watching the adaptation has a different set of mysteries presented to them to someone unfamiliar with the overarching story. A new viewer will watch and wonder what is going on with the main story of vanishing people in a small town. A fan of the game will watch knowing what the mystery is and looking for the places where this retelling will differ from their experience.

What makes the visual aspect of this adaptation particularly interesting, above the simple reproduction of the stylised characters and familiar locations, is how it copies the visual language of the game’s user interface. Part of the appeal of the Persona games is their style (which extends beyond the specific style of character and scene depiction into a visually unified and atypical design for menus and combat animations) and in order to communicate this in a non-interactive medium (which will not have the user-interface needs of a computer game) these stylistic touches must be applied to the requirements of television. In the case of Persona 4 The Animation this comes from credit sequences and ad-break transitions that use the trademark visuals of the game, as well as scene transitions using the iconic calendar graphic that separates in-game days. This is not wholly pervasive, and much of the structure of an episode is that of a regular television series, but its presence provides continual reminders to fans that this is an adaptation of the game. Furthermore, the fight choreography, while not an exact replication of the game’s strategic combat mechanics (which are by definition concessions to gamism over cinematic combat) uses the visual language of the game’s battle animations; cutins, close-ups and gestures contribute to the Persona “experience” that the entire series tries to foster across media.

To conclude, Persona 4 The Animation establishes itself from the start as a comprehensive adaptation; it does not seek to retell the game’s story in a different medium so much as to reproduce the entire game experience in music, aesthetic and even structure at times. This is primarily appealing to fans of the game who will see the parallels and appreciate them while also enjoying the unfolding mystery of how this invisible, artificial “player” is directing his own Persona 4 experience – yet it also gives the series a unique and eye-catching style that in its challenges to the usual traditions of television gives it an aesthetic appeal to outsiders.

(This article is based on DVD purchased by D+PAD Magazine)

As mentioned, Gunslinger abandons The Cartel’s modern-day angle and scarpers back to the Old West, boasting a standalone story from the other games in the series. While Gunslinger handily plays on all the expected tonal tropes and narrative twists from a Wild West-themed story, it does so with a clever wink and nod along the way. Playing as bounty hunter Silas Greaves, events play out in the form of flashbacks as Greaves relays his adventures to a small crowd of investigative bar dwellers. Humour is key to Gunslinger’s charm – back-and-forth banter between Greaves and the curious punters narrates the in-game action throughout, allowing for some genuinely funny interludes and mid-battle re-evaluations of Greaves’ questionable memories. When one of the more skeptical characters refutes Greaves’ account of taking on “hundreds” of enemies at once for instance, the level suddenly pulls back from pitting you against hordes of incoming foes to a more accurate scant few. It certainly helps that, from start to finish, the writing and voice acting come together wonderfully to really sell the idea with some class. It’s not quite in league with the deftness and quirk of Portal, but it manages to carve out something rather special for itself all the same.

As a first-person shooter, combat is sharp if mostly conventional. Bullet-time features and is essential to staying alive during the game’s more trying encounters, as is a Matrix-like dodge mechanic which staves off biting a lethal bullet when close to death. With the story mode clocking in at around five or six hours, levels are brief and funnel you along a fairly linear path. As well as leaderboard-friendly scoring, you earn XP as you shoot your way through each chapter and unlock weapon-specific buffs and upgrades. The benefits they grant aren’t always that apparent outside of more intense battles, where something like jamming ‘X’ to reload your weapon faster can get you out of a jam a little faster. Boss battles are pretty weak too, most of which amount to little more than spam-fests with dynamite sticks until it’s time to move on.

Even so, the general moment-to-moment action in Gunslinger is always satisfying in spite of its simplicity. Throwing sticks of dynamite into a crowd of baddies and popping off those perched above has a certain slickness and works well with the short stretches of gunplay in between story beats. Duelling is effective too, usually cropping up as Greaves faces off a contract or nemesis at the climax of certain levels. Its riffing of the classic Western scenario is done way better than even Red Dead Redemption’s confusing take, largely thanks to well-suited mechanics based on twiddling the thumbsticks to align your speed and focus before the time to take aim strikes. Arcade-centric modes also extend the life of the action beyond the story; and on top of the usual collectible carrots to chase after, story completion also opens up options for a new game plus and harder difficulty to go through.

The Old West aesthetic of Gunslinger is boosted by a cel-shading style not too far off from Borderlands. Locations are bright, detailed and varied, ranging from dusty mountain-sides to a steam train fit for a Jesse James-fronted heist. That’s another of Gunslinger’s better hands, by the way – a host of legendary Wild West figures just so happen to make appearances along Greaves’ path, with usual suspects like Billy the Kid and Butch Cassidy taking prominence on the roster. It’s not as hokey as it sounds, either – the game’s catch-all approach works well to deliver on its glorification of classic Western tales even if you’ve seen, read or heard them all before. It’s not original in this regard, but it’s still damned fun.

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger redirects the series’ tribute act to the Western with a comic sensibility perfectly suited to a short, action-heavy campaign. It looks and plays better than just about anything in the Techland catalogue, and does so as a downloadable title at a fraction of retail cost. Suddenly, The Cartel seems twice as unfortunate.

Call of Juarez: GUnslinger reviewed on Xbox 360; game supplied by Ubisoft UK.

Chris Braithwaite:

Well, that didn’t feel like a console launch, did it? The marked absence of games saw to that. The most interesting parts of Microsoft’s presentation were the non-gaming aspects of it – Xbox One as an entertainment and communications hub. But as this is a games website, I’ll focus for now on what we know of the gaming parts of Xbox One… which isn’t much really. The marked absence of games was disappointing, and it feels like a rather large misjudgement on Microsoft’s part. It’s extremely odd that a product reveal press conference would essentially ignore the core demographic (apart from the announcement of a Halo TV show). However, with E3 just around the corner, Microsoft should be able to recover from this fairly quickly.

Despite the absence of actual games there were some interesting titbits on offer. The small but intelligent improvements to the (already decent) controller all sounded good (especially vibration in the triggers), but the main part of the presentation that piqued my interest from a gaming perspective was the focus on voice control through Kinect. I think voice control is a much better input method than motion. Motion control is vague; voice control is precise (or at least it can be). Assuming it recognises non-American accents, if there are well-defined controls (such as the “Xbox, on” and “Xbox, music” examples in the presentation) there’s a lot of potential here.

I can’t see anything replacing controllers in the foreseeable future, but voice control could be excellent at supplementing the controller. In the (few) games shown, there are some obvious simple applications, such as calling for covering fire in Call of Duty, or for attacking runs from team mates in FIFA. Those are things that can be done with traditional button inputs, but voice controls have the potential to make actions like this much more intuitive. I’m not sure this is a game-changing exclusive feature though. If it works as I hope it might, Sony should be able to replicate it fairly easily. A software update and a Bluetooth headset could provide similar functionality.

Now I’ve mentioned the word “exclusive”, I’ll go onto my other main gaming thought from the launch event: the emphasis on exclusives. We didn’t get much information on what the exclusives were, but it was the major gaming-centric focus of a thoroughly non-gaming presentation. The four games shown were either billed as Xbox-exclusive, or as having Xbox-exclusive features. Exclusives annoy me. I understand the reason for them: Sony and Microsoft need something to differentiate themselves from their competitor, and exclusive games are a big factor in this. They really only serve to disadvantage part of the overall consumer base, stopping gamers who chose to buy one brand from being able to access a marquee piece of content on another. We wouldn’t be happy if there was only one brand of freezer that was allowed to store particular flavours of ice cream and that’s how console exclusives feel to me. In this metaphor I’m not really bothered what kind of freezer I have, I just want the ice cream!

Exclusives are here to stay. I know that. It’s just a bit disheartening that in a presentation so notably lacking in anything to do with games, the only direct gaming news of note was that there’ll be a host of games you can’t play without this brand of box.

Of course, the other big news was that there’s a dog in Call of Duty. Don’t worry, Whiskey from Commandos 2. He’ll never replace you in my heart.

Charles Etheridge-Nunn:

I had some difficulties watching the presentation. I came home early from work and got ready to stream the show on my 360 while on a G+ Hangout with Dave Stuart. The streaming video was fine for about 30 minutes (up until they were finally starting to show games) and kept pausing to buffer. In the end, Dave pointed his camera at his television where he was streaming the video. Nice one Dave. Here are my thoughts on what I saw, pretty much as they happened.

* An opening montage of people talking to camera about how inspirational the new Xbox is. “The first time you and your tv will have a relationship”? I’m pretty sure I’ve had a relationship with my television before. I mean, it’s huge. When I first bought it… actually, you don’t want to know what I did to it.

* Let’s look at the old 360 and describe how that was. Looking at the old 360 ‘blades’ actually made me nostalgic. I remember that time, the 360 in my bedroom, unhindered by being trapped away from the internet. A simpler time, where I only had Oblivion and Dead Rising.

* Look! It’s the console! Take THAT Playstation 4! It’s blocky, a bit like a retro look at something science fictiony, and it’s called Xbox One? Odd name. I don’t know why, but I was trying to keep a straight face while calling it that.

* Apparently no one was ever able to use Skype on a television before, or to watch a film and do something else at the same time. You can do these things with Xbox One! You don’t need to use your phone, tablet, laptop, netbook or Wii U tablet, instead you can do it all on your Xbox One. Pfft. Sorry. It can also do the Kinect things now, only they’re slightly more advanced. Some of this is great, like picking up games where you left off and instantly launching in or out of things. Being able to tell your Xbox to turn on is okay, but it has a hard enough time interpreting things and not messing around when you’re talking to friends in the room already. We had a moment of panic when it thought the words, “Mock rape” in a conversation with friends was something to search for. There was a lot of yelling “CANCEL!” before Bing found… God only knows what. Kinect is going to be totally essential to use the 360, and that unblinking evil SkyNet eye apparently knows a lot more about what you’re doing.

* Sports! Look at all the sports! Don’t you like sports? Why the hell not?

* There’s an example of the TV schedule and they’ve got The 700 Club on there. Ew.

* There’s a lot of talk about The Cloud here, and connectivity. Given that there’s no talk about the ‘always on’ rumours, it makes me think that this is their admission that it’s always on, but as a feature instead of a bug. Smartglass sounds like it’s going to actually work this time. I like the idea, but it’s not really worked on the 360.

* More sports! But this time it’s games (finally!) and EA Sports is making 2014 versions of their usual games, but with prettier graphics. Athletes have been brought in to speak about sports. Not the game, just sports… all while wireframe tech demos play.

* Microsoft Studios! Another Forza game! It looks very pretty, but doesn’t look like a gameplay video, though it’s not as creepy as the racing game presentation on the PS4. Quantum Break has some live action footage featuring Lauren Stamile of television’s The Secret Circle and The Event, then some CGI footage of a ship smashing into a bridge. But who cares, fifteen new, exclusive IPs! That actually is interesting, as long as at least half aren’t hoo-rah-ing macho shootybangs.

* They’ve brought a woman on stage! and it’s a definite step forward from some of the creepy guys from the PS4 presentation. Apparently TV is going to become social, and while I don’t know what that means, it’s okay, because apparently they don’t either. Halo is going to be a new television series by Stephen “Boomblox” Spielberg. They name check Breaking Bad, Band of Brothers and Game of Thrones. An interactive Halo TV show sounds exactly like that.

* More sports? Don’t get me wrong, some of you might love sports, but there was a bit for that earlier, wasn’t there? They’re talking about fantasy football and NFL exclusives but I have no idea what any of this is.

* The new Call of Duty will release DLC first on Xbox One. I admit, I was having problems with my video, so I thought this was the new CoD being an exclusive for the Xbox One, which would have cost Microsoft a bazillion dollars but sold a LOT of systems, even if it was just a month’s exclusivity. Dogs! Muscles! Filthy men’s fingernails! The multiplayer maps having dynamic events sound interesting. Apparently America’s fallen and you’re part of a Spartan-style fighting unit, plus their dog. Now you can lean out from cover and shoot! The fish are smart! Smart fish, you guys! There’s a look at Modern Warfare 3 to show that the new CoD looks better, which surprises no one. Also look at @CollarDuty on twitter. The dog already has a joke twitter. I love you, internet. All flippancy aside, it looks pretty and the story sounds okay, but it’s bound to be full of all that hoo-rah macho nonsense. That aside, it could still be pretty good.

* I’m torn. I loved my 360 but I went into the PS4 presentation expecting to go into this generation with the Wii U, 3DS and Steam. I still feel that way after both the presentations. Neither console has inspired me. Apparently this is just part one and E3 must be the part with all the game footage. I’m sure the Xbox One is a good media hub, but televisions can do a lot of that now, many people have blu-ray players and a lot of us have PCs hooked up to televisions now. It feels like a lot of this innovation isn’t that much of a move forward from what we have now and is ultimately a distraction from being a games console. While the PS4 felt like a lot of hot air, the Xbox One (to me at least) seems devoid of any reason for a purchase.

Dave Stuart:

By this stage, a good few days after the Xbox One reveal, there have already been more words written, opinions expressed and memes generated from the conference than any one person could reasonably process. So whilst a busy couple of days has delayed me, it has also given things some time to sink in, something unusual in our first-to-the-post culture where every immediate thought must be floated around the internet. As such I won’t harp on recapping everything that was shown, or speculate too heavily on what was held back, but instead all I can really offer is a personal view that may not speak to the long-term success of the console, or even reflect the feelings of those to whom this presentation was clearly aimed, but will give you hopefully some idea of my reaction. It was a shrug. Now that’s an awfully facetious response, and perhaps justifiably so. After all, the machine itself seems an impressive piece of technology, at least on the surface. The improved Kinect certainly seems to have fixed a lot of the problems that left the original model severely hampered and there is a certain Star Trek novelty to the notion of commanding your electronic devices around like some authoritarian Roman Emperor. But as I watched the conference the one thought I kept having was; I don’t really care. None of the big selling points or ideas spoke to me at all.

Which is fine I guess, but it’s not like I’m not the target audience (well aside from not being American and caring about their sports) I would argue I am the sort of gamer who these new consoles should be speaking to directly, and yet I was left unmoved. The lack of actual games certainly was a factor in this, and the fact that the games shown were of little interest, Call of Duty looks like more of the same, not necessarily a bad thing but my disenfranchisement with the series has yet to recover from Black Ops 2 and this didn’t really seem to stem the tide. Of course there will be more at E3, and good games to boot I’m sure, but I’m far more interested in new gameplay innovations, new types of interactive experiences and storytelling, not more detailed forearms or shiner looking cars.

Sony’s conference suffered from this a bit too, but theirs was in a different context and with a different purpose, they appealed to the gamer and were early enough to get by on promises and demo reels. E3 will be the big test and with it being less than 3 weeks away it will be interesting to see the messages both companies bring. Largely though my apathy towards the Xbox One (and it remains a rather clumsy name) is borne from the fact that, like many people, I’m pretty happy with the consoles I have now. I have no doubt I’ll upgrade one way or the other at the end of the year, but the success of the Xbox 360 could be the biggest hurdle here. Incremental improvements and solutions to problems that few people actually have are not the most persuasive tools when it comes to asking people to fork over hundreds of pounds on a machine that won’t let you play old games, and increasingly is looking like has some fairly strict used games policies in place. As a consumer it’s right to stand up and ask ‘how is this better for me’, and whizzy but unnecessary functionality isn’t a satisfactory response. Personally I just want to see games expand, to do things that they couldn’t before and to take advantage of this connected and integrated world we now live in, and for Microsoft and Sony to be flexible and proactive enough to take advantage of these things, rather than lurching forward with one foot firmly in a past that increasingly doesn’t exist any more.

It remains to see how Microsoft will fare in this regard, the presentation was by no means a disaster, but the lack of genuine enthusiasm, and focus on commerce and TV integration was disheartening for someone such as myself, who just wants the best possible platform on which to play new and exciting games. As of now it doesn’t feel like the Xbox One is for me, which does beg the question, who exactly is it for? If Microsoft can’t work this out by the end of the year, then they will have a serious problem.

“The arms in MW3 were beautiful at the time,” we are told, “but the new engine allows for significantly increased texture resolution”

Delivered as it is without a hint of irony, it’s a statement both ludicrous and crushingly dull in equal measure, dryly espousing the given aspect of any next gen console (namely: better visuals) while also encapsulating the lack of imagination and excitement behind the Xbox One announcement as a whole. Yes, yes, it’s all very clever…but where’s the magic?

The problem is, gamers are no longer quite so easy to impress and all the hyperbole in the world about realism and emotional impact will fail to convince if all you can fall back on is the detail of the hairs on the back of an arm; a tattoo on a dog’s ear and authenticity of virtual skin. And yet, this is sums up what Microsoft’s gala press event was – a re-skinning of the last gen, pitching the same old experiences with a new lick of paint. Worse still, the whole thing was buried under a mountain of TV and sports content of (I’m certain) minimal interest to those present, whether it be in the flesh or peering at it through the virtual lens of the internet.

In fairness to Microsoft, the event was a little less cloying than some of its previous E3 performances (there was no definitive ‘Skittles’ moment , even if much of the show now appears to have been overshadowed by a virtual dog’s twitter account). Sure, only the gargantuan size of the console itself was able to match the smugness of the various hosts, but at least the whole thing didn’t stray into the ridiculous.

Sadly, somewhere it did stray into was dullness, and I’m not only saying this because games seemed to very much take a back seat. With nearly half the presentation being taken up with discussion on the Xbox One’s ability to control your TV with gestures and voice controls while seamlessly switching between gaming and the latest Star Trek movie, much of the conference felt like the type of speech you could expect to hear out a Hi-Fi convention. It was all very clever – and, if I’m honest, indicated an integrated future that I would definitely welcome – but there was nothing to get genuinely excited about, nothing to set your mind reeling at the possibilities that will come with the arrival of the next gen. “It’s all very clever, but…” is not the type of reaction one should be having to a mega-high profile event of this kind, and yet my head-space ping-ponged between this and sheer boredom for much of the 60 minute run time.

What of the console itself? Well, the name certainly caused an eye-brow to rise and forced a quiet chuckle from my throat. It’s certainly not what I expected and, if I’m honest, I’m not sure I like it. As a gamer of 34 years of age, I can remember the original Xbox and I’m finding it hard to not think of that when anyone mentions the words ‘Xbox One’. Additionally, it’s hard to see how the moniker will enter broader lexicon of games culture and beyond – will people refer to it as ‘One’? ‘The One’? XBone? Or just Xbox? And if, as I suspect, the latter will prevail, what kind of presence does this give this particular device within the wider cultural landscape? Sure, we all laughed at ‘Wii’ when Nintendo first announced it, but this silly, three letter title played a considerable role in making the Wii much more than just a console; it became a cultural phenomenon. An icon. Maybe Microsoft just want the name ‘Xbox’ to become synonymous with gaming, or more specifically entertainment – but this just feels like iPod chasing. Though ‘Xbox’ has undoubtedly established itself in the gaming landscape, hasn’t it been around far too long to stand any chance of increasing its cultural status beyond its current position as a primarily being a games-console?

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If you loved Metal Gear Rising enough to consider diving in once again, then the next thing to decide is whether or not you find an hour of gameplay substantial. Like Jetstream, Blade Wolf is given no fresh areas to explore, being tasked instead by Mistral to stalk through remixed (or lazily reversed) regions that you’ll have already sliced your way through as Raiden. Around a third of this story takes place in the VR simulator, but at least they’re not nearly as yellow as the optional VR missions themselves, which can be found scattered about the main regions if you take the time to explore.

What you’re getting is a prequel chapter that delves just that little bit deeper into the relationship between Wolf and Mistral – the red-haired, multi-armed vixen of the Desperado team. Themes such as Wolf’s struggle with human concepts as well as his obvious desire to attain his own kind of freedom are explored, which actually makes some of his actions in the main campaign easier to digest. There aren’t too many cutscenes, but at least the download tries harder to engage than Jetstream did a month or so back. You’ll get a sense that it’s an area that was genuinely worth exploring and if anything, it may have served as a successful experiment should Platinum Games decide to make him a playable character in a sequel.

There’s no escaping the K-9 unit’s lack of strength (not that you’d have known it during his boss encounter in the main storyline), as three hits are enough to put him down on the normal difficulty mode. Stealth is an absolute must, as was clearly the intention if the grading after each location is anything to go by. It’s not a mechanic that’s especially fleshed out, but it’s functional enough that it can be used to thin the herd before all-out war ensues. The game expects you to have played and completed Metal Gear Rising, demanding a good degree of skill on anything other than easy mode. There’s no tinkering with Blade Wolf himself, though points earned can be used to upgrade Raiden in the main game.

Stealing power cells from cybernetic spines must be par for the course for high-level cyborgs of the near future, as it’s a trend that continues for both Sam and Wolf. Chainsawing enemies to pieces is great fun, if not quite as satisfying as it was with a high-frequency blade. Throwing knives and grenades boost the suitably basic arsenal, which you’ll want to use on occasion when the going gets tough. You might experience occasional stutters during these moments, but it’s never intrusive enough to become a major issue. The reused environments are among the most visually pleasing from the campaign, plus a new foe makes for a unique and thoroughly enjoyable boss battle.

Blade Wolf has tried its hand at something different, encouraging stealthy kills over the usual full-frontal assault. Still, by clocking in at around an hour on a first playthrough it’s anything but a must-own, even if the approximate five pound/seven dollar price seems right for the work that’s been put in. The length won’t win over the more casual players, but for those who still can’t get enough of Metal Gear Rising, Blade Wolf serves as a welcome slice of cyber-dog action.

Monaco: What’s Yours is Mine has been a video game darling in production for the last few years and certainly earns a lot of its indie game credentials. It’s beautiful in a unique yet semi-retro way. It has an interesting soundtrack and some fantastic ideas which work about 90% of the time. At the surface, it’s a twin stick shooter by way of Payday: The Heist. You have 1-4 players running around a black and grey map of a building, lighting up a bright, vivid level as they go, but only as far as their field of vision allows. Icons like safes, wall sockets, computers and first aid kits are highlighted on the map and if you’re the lookout then enemies pop up as red blips moving around.

Each level is short, but there are many of them in The Locksmith’s Story (normal mode) and The Pickpocket’s Story (a hard mode retelling of the events). As you go through the levels more items and classes are unlocked. You start with the locksmith who is the master of unlocking, the pickpocket with his trained monkey to steal coins, the lookout who marks where enemies are and the cleaner who quietly knocks out enemies. Later on classes like The Mole add variation with his ability to knock through almost any wall, or the Gentleman who is disguised for a few seconds if spotted by enemies. The items range from the noisy but effective shotgun to plasters to revive allies, wrenches to complete actions and smoke bombs to provide momentary cover. With several different maps and events to deal with, each level feels like it provides a unique challenge to your team. In one level you’re trying to get inside The Gentleman’s trap-filled boat while dodging guard dogs. In another you’re rescuing The Hacker from his secure room in a hospital while the criminally insane rattle around in cages.

The look and sound of Monaco: What’s Yours is Mine is key to the gameplay. The fog of war will block the majority of a level at a time, even after you’ve explored it. As you walk along, you might get a sudden glimpse through a window and a guard’s has a moment where he thinks he can see you. The characters all have their distinctive look and movements, even in their idle positions. Anything you need is highlighted which is a saving grace when four players are on opposite ends of the map, forcing it to zoom out. While the retro aesthetic may be grating to some people, the use of it is interesting enough to blot out any such problems for long. The maps are thought out enough that the toilets are usable, shower curtains can be hidden behind and they do a good effort of showing little pieces of what’s at the edges of the level. You can see the rain falling in the opening level, or the lower levels of the Gentleman’s house through the upstairs windows. It may look like blueprints in the fog of war, but the levels are engrossing to run around in and interact with.

As a single player game, you’re able to take your time, case the joint and find effective ways to complete the map. Like Metal Gear Solid and other stealth games, it’s satisfying to get through each area, work out guard patterns and find the perfect hiding places. As a multiplayer game it’s a whole different monster. Sure, an organised group can probably best a level as quietly and efficiently as single player, but with offline play and friends like yours, you know what it’s going to be like. Someone’s going to play hero, someone’s going to run back for the last coins while the police are searching for you. Just like a heist movie, are you sure you can trust the people on your team?

Both of these methods of playing are fun, although multiplayer Monaco has had me angrier with my best friends than any other game not called New Super Mario Bros U. But in a good way. Even after the game you’re chatting about how that heist went down, what went wrong and how better to plan the next one. Maybe if the mole keeps up his weird wall-digging fixation to break through to the hall outside the safe, but this time the cleaner’s going to sort out the guards on the computers, hack the machines and the other two can pick the safe and loot everything while everyone else is already by the getaway car holding the door open. Brilliant, now you’re thinking like a true thief.

Game reviewed on Xbox 360; purchased by D+PAD Magazine.

It was pleasing to see then that the restaurateur’s behind the diner has opened up a branch on iOS, purveying its unique dining experience and giving us a chance to feed legions of hungry werewolves, zombies and vampires with a flick and tap of our fingers rather than laborious mouse-clicks. Thankfully, the iOS version of the game retains the polish and character of its PC-based original, but now we’ve finally got what we asked for, is this still a diner worth visiting?

Though the lack of physical inputs is often hailed as a short-coming of touch-based devices, their ability to put multitasking (literally) at the tips of your fingers is not to be scoffed at. It is for this reason that Dead Hungry Diner feels so at home on the iPad, and anyone who has played the seminal Plants Vs Zombie’s will know why; the speed and fluidity with which a large multi-touch display allows you to issue orders, place objects and react to ever-increasing odds is second to none, offering an experience that an analogue-stick and buttons could only ever hope to emulate in the loosest, most compromised way.

That we can mention Plants Vs Zombies in the same sentence as Dead Hungry Diner should have piqued your interest, and this would be a piquing that would be well rewarded should you allow it to reach fruition with an actual purchase. Unlike much of the interactive entertainment that fills the App Stores virtual shelves, Dead Hungry Diner is not a title obsessed with the quick fix; wrapping your head around its rule-sets, its quirks and its often demanding pace takes time, patience and speedy digits. Neither does it take the micro-transaction route, a fact that Black Market Games are keen to point out in its publicity material - ‘It costs £1.49 / $1.99 / 1.79€ and does not have a single in-app purchase’. We have to say it’s refreshing to see a developer not shying away from actively reducing its feature list in such a way, and resisting the quick-bucks that it could have easily reaped from purchasable resources, characters and levels.

In terms of content, Dead Hungry Diner has made the transition intact, with Black Market Games also taking the opportunity to include additional content such as new monster types and an ‘affection mechanic’ (which, we have to admit, the impact of which hasn’t been readily apparent during our time with the game). The core experience has remained untouched, with the player being tasked with satiating the needs of increasingly demanding and numerous customers eager to masticate the Dead Hungry Diners’ signature ‘Brain Berries’. Directly controlling restaurant owners Gabe or Gabby with screen-taps, you dash around the restaurant collecting and delivering buckets of brain berries, cleaning tables, directing guests to seats and ordering resident bouncer, Frankie, to move into action should a fight break out. Move too slow, and impatient diners will leave, harming your profits and ultimately your score. This is the game at its simplest, but the addition of upgradeable spells, differing monster types and the ability to create score-chains by seating guests at tables previously occupied by a creature of the same type creates layers of tactics that must be mastered to achieve that elusive three-star score rating.

Aside from a few content additions, Dead Hungry Diner has also repositioned itself slightly for iOS, most notably with the inclusion of a level select screen allowing you to replay levels in attempt to achieve a high score. This makes perfect sense, as although the narrative is engaging enough, this is essentially a game focussed on time-limits and the mastery of systems and thus serves high-score hunters well.

At its best, Dead Hungry Diner is a pleasing mixture of frantic, reaction-based taps and more considered tactical and long term planning underpinned by a requirement to read and respond to a range of aural and visual cues. Slightly less successful is its endless mode (title ‘All you can eat’), the problem being that the challenge doesn’t increase enough, quickly enough – resulting in sessions that can last slightly too long while failing to deliver a satisfying tonal range. There’s definitely scope for improvement though, and with a few tweaks Black Market Games could make this an essential part of the overall experience.

Dead Hungry Diner’s transition from PC monitor to iOS screen has been handled admirably, and – just as we suspected back in June 2012 – in the iPad it has found a made-to-measure home for its brand of frantic time-management gameplay. Its presentation remains hugely charming, and production values are high throughout and though it arguably could have done more to differentiate this version from its PC sibling, the impact of the change in control method cannot be underestimated. Dead Hungry Diner was always a fun title, and with this latest iteration it has achieved its full potential while giving itself a fighting chance of finding the larger audience that it rightly deserves.

Reviewed on iPad; download code provided by Black Market Games.

Persona 4 Arena succeeds here; it is among the most accessible and easily-comprehensible fighting games around yet the desirable complexity of the genre never feels compromised. This is a result of its three-level tutorial system – firstly a “Lesson Mode” which explains controls and fighting-game staples, then moves into explaining how it specifically differs from other games of its type. This is followed by a “Challenge Mode” of the sort many games have, systematically explaining and teaching each character’s move-list and combo timings. Finally there is the staple customisable training dummy, allowing a player who has mastered the system to try applying it in fixed conditions.

What differentiates it from other fighting games is the deceptive simplicity of each character’s move list. The standard four main attack options mapped to the controller’s four main buttons are present, but there is much more emphasis on differentiating the characters with small libraries of very different moves. A fighting game like Dead or Alive or Street Fighter gives all its characters a large basic move-set of combos – combinations of light, heavy and medium kicks and punches – as well as a smaller number of unique special moves. Persona 4 Arena has four groups of attacks, light and heavy “attack” strings (kicks and punches in combination) and “persona” attacks (projectiles or easily-used basic specials), which are supplemented by health-draining character-specific techniques and throws. This adds spectacle to the game, with summoned assist characters an integral part of combat, but also adds variety as each character’s attacks are unique to them. The result is like a more refined version of the Blazblue games in which the characters feel far more differentiated mechanically, and characterful as a result. What this means in game terms is that the player is more strongly encouraged to focus on a smaller number of favoured characters since there are fewer transferrable strategies.

This much more focused design is inherently divisive; the quite disparate cast of characters can make finding one that suits a play-style require significant time investment and practice and changing character requires learning an entirely new style. This is in some way mitigated by the standardisation of inputs to simple quarter-circles (each characters’ moves require the same basic library of inputs – meaning the challenge is entirely predicated on learning the reach and timings of the attacks). Indeed, as one plays the game over time the apparent lack of ability to transfer learned skills between characters becomes less of an issue – understanding of the game’s systems remains transferrable.

The diversity of design is built on an elegant framework which is as predictable and learnable as any fighting game – and it is this which is Persona 4 Arena’s mechanical draw. The simplifications (such as the automated one-button combos and the standardised inputs) add a strategic element since they provide a learnable basis for strategy. Basic attacks are always short-ranged and always chain in similar ways. Persona attacks factor into these combos in known fashions and can be interrupted – a successful “Persona Break” forbidding their use for a period and impacting certain characters far more harshly than others. The small movelist, in comparison to other games, thus becomes a strategic factor. Furthermore, the prebuilt combos are as restrictive as they are accessible – getting locked into unfavourable move sets can backfire.

The emphasis on differentiation of characters is not only mechanically useful but thematically vital; Persona 4 Arena, unlike many fighting games, not only has the narrative emphasis of a game like Blazblue but also a heritage in an RPG series predicated on socialising and friendship. Rivalries and friendships are the defining thing of the Persona series and so their importance within the fighting game spinoff is significant. Without the series ties – in fighting style, in characterisation and even in UI design and general visuals – all the strengths of the game would be worthless. It is important to note that although the game’s story mode is a continuation of Persona 4’s plot, it is a lighthearted one which explains salient plot points from the original for those who have not played it and seems quite self-aware in its justification for turning former allies against each other. The “feel” is Persona through and through, and long-time series fans will appreciate the references and story in a different way to a newcomer.

Thus, Persona 4 Arena is a standout game; it marries theme and mechanics closely, and through its apparent simplicity allows a total novice to enjoy it all while layering on levels of strategy for advanced play based on positioning and timing rather than specific dexterity at inputting attacks. This much more strategic aspect is almost a way of translating RPG combat to a fighting game and changing the focus much more towards system mastery. As a result, it accentuates the strengths of fighting games while working to avoid the inaccessibility and confusion that can make them offputting. Most notably, its concessions to accessibility do not compromise the strategic depth, or add alternate control schemes such as one-button special moves only for those players who choose to use them (which simply means that such players are disadvantaged by the simplification against opponents not using it, and do not get a chance to learn the full game); there is one method of playing, applied to all, but that method is easily-understood and standardised.

Reviewed on Xbox 360; game purchased by D+PAD Magazine.