Five minutes into this prequel to the forthcoming sci-fi flick and we feel like we’re in one of the year’s most generic games. As we step off our transport into the alien planet Pandora, all the elements are in place for a generic third-person shooter. Main character who's a stoic military type with a crew cut: check. NPCs we have to seek out for missions: Oh yeah. A 40 foot monster that looks like a mad scientist has forced a hammerhead ...

After strolling the links in the closed beta of Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online, we've discovered that EA might be onto something here. This is a game that comes to you completely through your browser, streaming via a small plug-in called the Unity Player. Since everything is hosted on the server, the game is playable on practically any recent Windows or Mac machine. ...

HANDS-ON: Xenomorph, hunter and human taken for a brutal deathmatch test drive. ...

“Shepard! But... but you’re dead!” cries a baffled Asari crime lord having been backed into a corner by our hero. “I got better,” replies Shepard, as cool as a penguin’s bum. It’s not a dialogue choice, it’s right there in the cutscene; otherwise we’d have chosen the option along the lines of “I know, after that E3 trailer I’m just as confused as you about the whole thing." ...

Left 4 Dead 2, Valve’s cooperative zombie shooter, has had to overcome two skeptical parties: the portion of Left 4 Dead players concerned that promised free content for the original game had been replaced with a rushed, full-price sequel, and Valve co-founder Gabe Newell. “Gabe’s got a good amount of healthy skepticism about anything we do,” says Chet Faliszek. ...

We made no secret about our love for the original Assassin’s Creed. We scored it glowingly, took some flak from you guys, and stood proudly by our 10 like a Christ-like figure up against an inquisition of haters. Okay, perhaps that’s a bit much. ...

When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth. And, according to Capcom, appear in TV shows.

Years after the first game’s critically acclaimed zombie invasion of the Willamette Mall, the whole of America is infected. In the casino town of Fortune City, Nevada, a deadly TV show plays out to millions of viewers across the nation. ...

Sam Fisher has gone from shadow warrior to wrecking ball. Splinter Cell fans may remember the series as somewhat sneaky – a matter of waiting for the right moment to knife someone in the back and plonk their body in a darkened stairwell. Conviction asks, why wait? ...

The Chaos Space Marines are doppelgangers. They’re the Venom to the Space Marines’ Spider-Man; the Sith to their Jedi. They’re best buds with the dark gods of an obscure dimension. They gussy up their power armor with gaping skulls. And among the varied-shades-of-villain factions of 40k fiction, they’re a great candidate for their own expansion to Dawn of War II. ...

Only once you’ve wandered into StarCraft II’s greased-metal cantina and engaged in conversation with embittered mercenaries, or spoken to Jim Raynor’s crew about armour upgrades and the like, do you begin to understand why, and how, the Terran, Protoss and Zerg campaigns will be split into three separate titles. ...