We’ve discovered a new psychological condition: Gun Envy. It begins with a peek at another player’s weapon stats. Sleepless nights follow. You begin by coveting: opening crates, killing everyone, frantically searching for a bigger, better penis. We mean gun. You end up peeking jealously out of the corner of your eye at your partner’s gleaming Caustic Gamble revolver. You’ll feel inadequate. Less of a man. ...

This should be fun, right? Thrust into the squeaking, tropical shoes of a cruel and vitriolic dictator, you’re going to get to lord it up over your very own island paradise, raking in oodles of cash and setting up the sort of brutal military regime that’d make Darth Vader blush. Unfortunately, like the luxurious tropical island holidays we’ve all been on, a chunk of Tropico 3 is spent sheltering from perpetual drizzle. ...

Like a tramp thrusting his crotch at you while singing Katy Perry, Cities XL makes a bad first impression. It’s a real-time city-builder that has the management of Civilization and the presentation of a Crayola-penned Watchmen. This doesn’t mean it isn’t fun; it’s just hard to sink the initial hours into. ...

There’s a basic problem with FIFA 10 on PC that needs to be addressed up front. EA’s developers don’t believe that PC gamers have machines capable of running the next-generation football engine that powers the game on the Xbox 360 and PS3.

Therefore we get a version that feels significantly last-gen, akin to playing on the PS2. ...

We’re typing this while the Osmos soundtrack gently moans from our speakers - a relaxing ambient soundscape that makes us feel like we’re floating. In the game, we really are floating. We’re a spherical microbe, fighting for survival in a gloopy mess of other microbes. All we need to do to win is become the biggest. ...

There are games that try to follow in the footsteps of other successful games, and there are games that try to carve their own path. It’s hard not to root for the games that try to do something new, but the danger with innovation is that what’s new isn’t always good. Often original games are admired more for their intent than their execution. ...

The great zombie game outbreak of the 21st century began with a single byte. It spread quickly, digitally infecting games with unprecedented numbers of undead. Before long, you couldn’t click an executable without launching an outbreak. And then the fightback came. Nation Red is a Diablo-ish take on the battle against the undead. Top-down battles against relentless hordes of pick-up dropping zombies. ...

Based on the 1980s rubber ball toys (no, us neither), Madballs should be awful. But it’s brilliant. You play one of a few rolling eyeballs, equipped with a selection of weapons, shooting stuff in platformy 3D levels, gathering bonuses and giggling at the silly jokes. ...

Armored drop troopers plummet from orbit to do battle with hostile forces on a war-torn planet in Section 8, a sci-fi first-person shooter from developer TimeGate Studios. Unfortunately, despite a few surprisingly fun gimmicks, Section 8 falls short of greatness and winds up playing like a generic cookie-cutter shooter. ...

Fallen Earth is essentially Fallout: the MMORPG. But then in some key respects, it’s definitely not. Icarus Studios’ ambitious online roleplayer is a game suffering from an identity crisis.

In terms of setting, the Fallout series is an invaluable touchstone. Fallen Earth shares more than the first four letters of its name with the grand old gentleman of post-apocalyptic RPGs. ...