Unlike their last effort, Age of Conan, Funcom is using an original setting for this online game: the real world. But don’t worry: this isn’t a game that has you washing +1 dishes before travelling to the supermarket to purchase increasingly nutritious vegetables. Like the classic shooter/RPG Deus Ex, The Secret World is grounded in our most intriguing urban legends, myths and secret societies. ...

The world is a post-apocalyptic dustbowl populated by mutants and proud retro-fitted scavengers with fast, growling cars, deadly makeshift crossbows and upturned woks for hats. You, the unwitting outsider, emerging prematurely from your Armageddon-proof panic room, find you’re somehow better at surviving in this hostile environment than those who’ve been living in it their whole lives. ...

Generals are shifty buggers. Hitler, for example, would often call up Churchill and claim to have sent 4,000 Maus tanks to Newcastle. Winston would hop on the train to go up and have a look, leaving Number 10 undefended. Such deception is a key element of war, as established by Sun Tzu in The Art of War – a book now read exclusively by advertising bumholes. ...

What do LittleBigPlanet, bikes and Sonic and have in common? ...

The first order of business in Just Cause 2 isn’t to steal a car, or motorcycle, or ATV, or fighter jet, or attack chopper. It isn’t to go exploring the miles and miles of jungles, mountains, and cities. No, first you must wrap your head around the grappling hook and parachute. ...

Who’d have thought that, just 200 years ago, it was fashionable to hate the French? It’s one of the great burdens of having an empire. Poor Napoleon: before declaring himself the Emperor of France, he probably thought back to the time when he was the plucky revolutionary underdog, and all the blokes said “way to go, Naps.” ...

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." ...