His wife and baby daughter have been slaughtered by junkies, and he’s been accused of a murder he didn’t commit, forced into a hallucinogenic drug-fuelled nightmare, betrayed by those he trusted and marched out of the New York police force. He’s even been played on-screen by Marky Mark in a film adaptation that has a Metacritic percentile average of 31. Max Payne has every right to be cynical. ...

Dragon Rising is ultra-realistic, far from the medipacks of Medal of Honor and even further from the regenerating health magic of Call of Duty. Yes, it’s one of ‘those’ games, the ones where bullets make you absolutely dead, or where, if you’re simply grazed by some shrapnel, the wound will pump blood realistically all over your uniform. ...

All the best games were invented in the playground. Cowboys and Indians, Cops and Robbers, Doctors and Nurses – their names are legendary. Few, however, have ever made a pure transition into gaming. So while the world holds its breath for Stuck in the Mud Online we’ll have to make do with APB – a near-perfect recreation of Cops and Robbers. ...

Despite the sad demise of the series’ flagbearer, 2007’s Colin McRae: Dirt managed to retain the feel of the previous games in the series while, at the same time, rebooting the franchise to give it a more universal flavor.

And what a reboot it was. ...

With the seas rising to envelop every last acre of dry land on Earth and all natural resources exhausted, mankind is on the verge of extinction. The only hope for our species is the Ark, a floating haven designed by humanity’s finest minds to make sure that the few remaining living human beings can be safe to live and breed. Of course, they also made sure to bring bundles of guns ‘n’ ammo. ...

The economy has collapsed, there’s a worldwide energy crisis and the once-great USA is in tatters. No, it’s not present day: the year is 2027, and North Korea has used its missiles to destroy South Korea and invade the States. Hmm, we could cover one eye, squint with the other and pretend we’ve never played this scenario before... ...

Seeing Dragon Age: Origins this time, we were skeptical. ...

“The Sith is an action-point class. Do you play many MMO games?”

“A few.”

“So he plays a bit like the rogu... oh, you’ve got it.”

At that point, with the help of BioWare’s Rich Vogel, we’re knee deep in Republic corpses, taking down wave after wave of plastic-clad troopers. ...

We are drowning in a sea of MMOs. This isn’t a bad thing, but it can make it tough to decide which ones are worth getting excited about and which ones will quickly be forgotten. Well, NCsoft’s Aion is definitely one of the ones worth following. From what we've seen so far, it looks great (for an MMO, of course) with the sort of crisp visuals NCsoft's been spoiling us with since Guild Wars, only better. ...