Ouch! This was supposed to be Square Enix’s attempt to make a truly global RPG. Not so much a Japanese RPG, more an Everywhere-RPG. So why is the opening hour so utterly confusing and unwelcoming? An unfamiliar battle system, all stats and weird terminology and with not much in the way of a helping hand. We can’t think of an RPG that starts this badly. ...

Rescue is here - after a long, bloody battle with countless zombies, you and three fellow survivors have made it to the rooftop of a ravaged hospital, where a helicopter lands to evacuate you to safety. In a blaze of gunfire and guts, you and two of your companions fight your way to the helipad and climb aboard the chopper, but the fourth member of your team is wounded and limping behind you. ...

Unlike most other shooters, Left 4 Dead hinges on cooperative multiplayer. You and three friends must shoot, tear and slash through an unrelenting mass of raging zombies. From the moment you leave the safe house to the final rescue chopper, you are completely dependent on each other and constantly hunted by special boss zombies that behave with their own aggressive, strategizing intelligence ...

Ever since Spyro the Dragon first glided onto the PlayStation 10 years ago, he’s been struggling to find solid footing in the platform gaming world. His games have been criticized in the past for being overly complicated for younger gamers yet too childish for older ones. Unfortunately, Dawn Of The Dragon is pretty much more of the same. ...

There’s a lot that’s cool about Legendary, in theory. The opening level is a tour-de-awesome that’s fifty percent “Oh hey, everything’s exploding!”, and fifty percent “I hope I get to shoot something soon”. The story is simple – you’re an art thief who was tricked into opening Pandora’s Box, and you’ve unleashed the creatures of myth into the modern world. ...

Who is Batman to you? The violent lawman of the modern comics? The wink-wink star of the 60’s TV show? Tim Burton’s gothic icon, perhaps? The point is this: Travellers’ Tales have never had a subject so open to LEGO interpretation, and with it, playful experimentation. And boy, do they love it. Did you feel that Indy was a tad shackled to his tombs and dusty continents? ...

Steven Spielberg and Traveller’s Tales are in a similarly tough place, both fine purveyors of last-gen thrills struggling to find relevance in the modern day. Indy 4 showed the director selling out his brand of practical derring-do for a handful of CG monkeys. Tales too try something glitzier, and under the extra weight their creaky design shudders like Harrison Ford’s knees. ...

How can a game that’s identical to the brilliant LEGO Star Wars in almost every respect not be as good? Simple - the setting. The Star Wars universe is vibrant, colourful and fantastical, while Indy’s real-world ’40s setting is more subdued. This works in the context of the films, but recreated in LEGO it has none of the outlandish flair of Lucas’ galaxy far, far away. ...

When the disparate worlds of LEGOs and rock stars collide, strange and wonderful things can happen. Seeing LEGO versions of an emaciated Iggy Pop, a mustache-emblazoned Freddie Mercury, a pretty boy-era David Bowie, and even the guys from Blur bash out their hits amidst a visual rock-n-roll cacophony of plastic toy bricks and rampant silliness offers far more enjoyment then we might first care to admit. ...