White Knight Chronicles finally comes to the western shores after a just over a year of waiting and while it isn’t Level-5’s best game to date, nor an essential Role-Playing Game that PS3 owners must own, it’s still a very good game from the company known for their epic RPG's.

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Heavy Rain is flawed. Sometimes the game will crash. At others, your characters leg may jut out, Stretch Armstrong style, or their face may collapse in on itself, or even project outwards in a horrible mash of textures. To some, used to the high polish of Call of Duty et al, this will be an unforgivable game breaking fault. But if you allow Heavy Rain these quirks, treating them as no more than a mild irritation, or an amusing gaffe the quality starts to shine through.

It’s certainly not a game for everyone – if you are a trigger happy gamer wanting nothing more than leading an assault on the latest threat to mankind, then pass this game over and pick up Bad Company 2 instead. If you’re in the mood for a little more personal story, then Quantic Dream have delivered the experience you’ve been waiting for.

The developers describe Heavy Rain as less a game, and more an interactive drama. What this boils down to is that the main aim of Heavy Rain is to guide you through a story, and not set up a story as an excuse for the action. The story in this case is of a serial killer, and you play as a private detective, an FBI Agent, a journalist and the father of a kidnapped boy, all of whom are embroiled in the search for the missing child.

To get the best out of the game, you have to be prepared to invest in it. The heartstrings Heavy Rain attempts to pull on mostly at the beginning are parental ones, so it’s likely that anyone with kids will find it easier to relate to Ethan, the father of the kidnapped boy. Speaking as someone who isn’t a parent though, the story is still engaging, and the characters make you care about them, especially if you go in with the knowledge that it is possible for them to die, and in Heavy Rain, there are no restarts.

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Set in Feudal Japan you star as an injured Samurai, regaining consciousness on a battlefield surrounded by corpses of other warriors after a bloody battle. From here on in you get to decide how to shape the story in this sedately paced Samurai-sim.

The series, which started on PS2, has always prided itself on the amount of choice it provided to gamers with multiple endings being a key selling point. This time there are over twenty of them.  Players are allowed a degree of freedom in shaping their adventure by selecting from multiple dialogue options, usually based around being nice or nasty.

There’s also an option to draw your sword or apologise to interrupt most cut-scenes. Apologising has you drop to your knees, stopping the scene and the game resuming with the characters you’ve bowed to either disappearing or not reacting at all. Or you can draw your sword to threaten or attack people. This is generally preferable to the poor dialogue or repetitive cutscenes. The main problem is that until you play through a few times and pick up some decent weapons you’ll probably get your ass handed to you in a noodle bowl if you attack the most annoying characters.

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There’s nothing better than watching a couple of campers blend in with the ruble of a building as you sabotage it, to blitz with an RPG or a charger. There’s never a dull moment in Bad Company 2, with the Frostbite Engine’s Destruction 2.0 whole buildings and objects in the gaming environment can be destroyed realistically. You’ll spend a lot of time in the campaign shooting and blowing up destructible environments just to admire the realism.

This time around the campaign has taken a turn for a more serious but linear storyline. The Russians have set their keen eyes on a mythical WWII weapon of mass destruction, which in the wrong hands will threaten the world. Preston Marlowe (you the player), Haggard, Sweetwater and Sergeant Redford are sent on a mission to hunt for this weapon before the Russian’s gain possession.

The missions you play throughout the campaign are great fun from vehicle shootouts to avoiding freezing death in the snow trail blazing mountains. Your AI team mates are splendid bullet sponges and rarely take a shot penetrating enough to take a life, leaving it to you to pull the plug on your enemies.

At times when you progress through a mission you can see enemies being spawned right in front of you, generally after a while you start to memorize their positions. There is little incentive for exploration apart from finding the collectable guns placed in every level.

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Games have moved on massively since the days of pixelated, side-scrolling characters running and jumping across the screen. The PlayStation 3 in particular is capable of operating games with massive maps and incredible graphics due to its cell processor and Blu Ray drive. Yet ironically, one of the most popular and globally highest rated games on the PS3 goes back to the foundations of video games; side scrolling. This is, of course, the one and only, ‘Little Big Planet’.

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Bioshock multiplayer probably wasn’t too high up on the list of things we wanted to see included in Bioshock 2 given that it was everything apart from the guns that really made the game (and its sequel) really stand out. Turns out that maybe we should have wanted it all along as it’s turned out very well indeed.

If you’ve heard that the multiplayer takes place before the events of the first game, then you heard correct. However, don’t expect to gain any more particular insight into the fall of Rapture as all it really means is you’ll revisit some familiar locations that have less rubble and destruction than you’ve previously seen. This time though you’re one of the psychotic Splicers.

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Almost a month has passed since Ubisoft ushered us back into the world of Assassin’s Creed with their disappointing first of two DLCs: ‘The Battle for Forli.’ Set half way through the main narrative of ACII, this game saw Ezio fight for Forli as well as to protect the precious piece of Eden he had recently acquired. Not that he did a good job, however, as the DLC closed with it being stolen by the sinister monk, Savonarola. And so this set the scene for the next helping of ACII DLC.

Today, when browsing the LIVE Marketplace, I noticed that the DLC had been released slightly earlier then I had anticipated. Like ‘The Battle for Forli,’ it was also priced modestly at 320 MS points, so hoping that this wouldn’t mean another second-rate experience, I downloaded it and was pleasantly surprised.

While this is not by any means amongst the best DLCs we’ve seen, this is still a decent entry on Ubisoft’s part, and I did rather enjoy spending some time back on the sunny surface of Florence after spending a large amount of time in the dark deep beneath Acre on ‘Dante’s Inferno.’

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Visceral Games visionary of the classic poem “The Divine Comedy” by Dante Alighieri, which foretells the author’s vision of hell is absolutely grotesque and demented. If you think you know what hell looks like then think again. I can assure you this is one of the few video games that will make your skin crawl and leave you feeling squeamish.

Players take the role of the protagonist Dante, who upon returning home finds his beloved Beatrice murdered with a sword plunged into her lower abdomen. With Lucifer in full possession of her soul she is dragged into the depths of hell. Dante descends himself into hell to rescue Beatrice and ultimately redeem himself, as he realizes that he’s paying for his sins and facing his demons.

Visceral Games have played the common factors of the poem and made it into a game which overall sets the basis for levels. As stated in the poem there are nine circles of hell which are named: limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, anger, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery. Each of them has a distinct environment and demons within them. Sometimes this is not the case as other enemies from distinct circles cross over in levels.

Many see the game as God of War, in more or less every way, shape and form. The reason for this is because the level designer, who worked on the God of War franchise, joined Visceral Games development team for Dante’s Inferno. There’s no denying that Dante’s Inferno uses God of War as a strong foundation, however it makes up for unoriginality in other areas.

Take the cross for instance it’s a great weapon for spamming attacks with and keeping enemies at bay. The cross is great fun to use as there’s no limit on the amount of times it can be used. The upgrades for this weapon are irresistible; they literally make you feel as though the wrath of god is in your hands.

As opposed to the cross the scythe is equally a blast getting to grips with. This is your primary weapon and a dominating one too, depending on how you coinsit it with the cross and magic to devise combos.

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Manic Monkey Mayhem for the iPhone and iPod touch is available on the App Store for £2.99 and offers a solid game concept, good presentation and lots of games but disappointing controls and game play, giving it big potential from a future update.

A port over from the WiiWare game of the same name it has retained the humour, presentation and concept as the original and brings with it plenty of content and games, which goes some way to justifying the £2.99 price point, consisting of a 3 part campaign (plus tutorial) and 3 additional game modes: Greatest Ape in which you must outlast the other opponents to be crowned Greatest Ape, Minute Monkey in which you compete for the highest score in a minute, and Ape Team which pits you in teams against an opposing team.  Assuming you enjoy the mechanics and concept of the game there is plenty of content to Manic Monkey Mayhem, certainly enough to give you a long-time app on your device that you'll come back to again and again.  Similarly, if you really enjoyed playing this on another platform you will most likely enjoy playing this on the iPhone/iPod touch as well.

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On the surface of things, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars Review looks like to be the rightful successor to Marvel vs. Capcom 2; the spirit of teamwork, hectic, over the top fighting and a hugely accessible gameplay. But in practice? Well we can thank Capcom and developers Eighting for not just delivering an exciting fighting game, but also giving Wii owners a title they can be proud off.

It’s a given that many won’t know much, if any, about Tatsunoko and may feel they are an odd choice when compared to X-Men, Marvel and SNK characters. This is perhaps why we don’t get as many characters when compared to most of the other vs. series games. However, what we do get is a fine selection itself, though you have to ask where is Ken? And why is the Mega Man in Ultimate All-Stars the one from Mega Man Legends? Minor quibbles aside, you’re bound to have fun with characters familiars such as Ryu and Morrigan, to new stars like Yattaman-1 and Polimar.

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First off all we’ll just say you can read this review without worrying about plot spoilers for this game and its predecessor because we’re not cruel / stupid and can’t encourage you enough to go and play through the first classic game to fully enjoy this one. So there’s no need to read with one eye open from behind the sofa.

All you really need to know is that in the first game the player found themselves at the hidden underwater city of Rapture after a plane crash. Unfortunately everything had gone completely mental as all the citizens had been busy messing around with Plasmids that altered them genetically, giving them superhuman abilities. After taking it overboard, the Utopia fell before coming into fruition leaving its citizens wrecked of body and mind as they became known as the Splicers. Horrifically the city’s little girls, later dubbed the Little Sisters, were put into a trance and forced to collect Adam (Plasmid currency) from corpses. Players could choose to liberate them from this haunting nightmare or murder them to get extra Adam supplies. Well, after you disposed of their guardian first, the ominous Big Daddies.

The story now resumes ten years later but the Little Sisters and their lumbering protectors are still found wandering Rapture’s art deco halls, constantly wary of the threat of the Splicers. This time around you find yourself in a different part of Rapture and in some very different shoes. The huge boots of the first Big Daddy no less, who has been awakened to try and help… well, I said no spoilers.

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Battle Blasters is a one-on-one beat-em-up-come-shoot-em-up that packs a real punch.  Available now for £1.79 it's an addictive game with surprising depth that will provide you with hours of fun.

The game concept is simple enough: you will be pitted in 1 on 1 fights against each of the 6 characters in a tournament and to progress you must beat them in a best of three match.  Losing doesn't mean you have to start again, you can replay the match you are currently stuck on as many times as you like, and with whatever character you like; a welcome feature for a pick up and play title.  The game play can get fast, frantic and exciting.  Matches are out of 3 rounds and at 1-1 with not much health left on either side there's an excitable tension that will see you dodging their shots and firing off yours whenever you can, resulting in a small leap of joy or nearly throwing your iPhone across the room.

If the concept is simple, the controls are slightly less so.  Moving firing, blocking and special attacks are all done with a touch or swipe of the screen and there is often a lot to do at once, requiring fairly frantic, complex movements and practice which may deter non regular gamers. This could be a reason why non gamers may struggle but it might also the reason gamers will love it.

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Play it with a friend. Seriously. Army of Two: The 40th Day may allow you to take it on with an AI partner, but to do so would be doing the game a disservice, and result in a poorer experience for yourself.

EA Montreal built the game from the ground up as a two man operation, and whilst it’s serviceable when you’re on your own, it’s only really in co-op that the game begins to shine. Commands can be given to an AI partner, but that can never compare to screaming into a headset, or better yet to the person sitting next to you, to flank the heavy who can only be taken down from behind.

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Puzzle games have a hard time of it, all things considered. They’re ignored by people who consider themselves ‘serious’ gamers, and ultimately overshadowed by the giant in their genre, known as Tetris. In fact, the puzzle genre is a good example of how having one truly popular video game can wreak havoc on the rest of the genre. It’s a sad trait of the last 25 years that many puzzle games can simply be described as ‘Like Tetris but...’, and a new game in the genre would have to be something truly different to avoid Tetris coming up at least once in a review. With that said, Magnetis is essentially 'like Tetris but' with magnets.

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256 players online. What was the biggest before that? Resistance 2 with 60? That’s one hell of a step up. We’d have been impressed with a 100. It’s perhaps fitting then that MAG stands for Massive Action Game. So how does it measure up against the likes of Modern Warfare 2 and developer Zipper Interactive’s Socom games? You might want to upgrade your broadband for this one.

Creating Your Soldier
At the start of the game you choose from one of the three factions. The rough and ready S.V.E.R, the rich Raven and the middle-men of Valor. Annoyingly, you can’t change your faction afterwards, despite the initial screen looking like it has left space for you to create three characters; you have to start again if you want to change sides. A simple patch fix perhaps?

There are five loadouts you can create for your soldier with an assault, sniper or LMG weapon available at the start. Each item you carry uses up a set number of points: 1000 for heavy armour, 500 for an assault rifle, out of an allowed 4000 for example. It manages to maintain the balance quite well with a decent level of customisation.

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