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Fallout 3
The Fallout series has a long and beloved history with gamers and the latest in the series makes excellent first or third-person use of that tradition.
Set in a post-nuclear Apocalyptic dystopian future – in which everything has a slightly 1950s feel due to the fact that the bomb hit in... the 1950s – the game sees players first having to make their way out of the underground Vault 101 mini-city.
Using good solid RPG stat and inventory balancing that will appeal to lovers of detail, planning and strategy, Fallout 3 blends in first and third-person shooter style familiar to Call of Duty, GTA and Metal Gear Solid fans.
All of this is played out in a graphically rich open world. And if the visuals are not enough, then the atmospheric soundtrack will be enough to lure and then retain gamers of all tastes.
Once in, there are a series of side-quests than can be carried out to build up the points, experience and skills needed to complete the task of discovering what happened to your in-game father. He, like you, escaped Vault 101.
The less experienced shoot-'em-up player will also benefit from the ingenious targeting and combat system (V.A.T.S.) that adds in the playability of turn-based gaming to the fast-paced action of the traditional blaster. This is just one of the elements of a huge... no, vast gaming experience on console.£9.99 -
Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare
Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare is either a brilliant idea or a totally bizarre one, depending on which way you tilt your head when you look at it. On the one hand, the game has its roots in a casual strategy title that's designed to be easy to pick up and play - that doesn't scream 'make a third-person shooter based on the Battlefield engine out of me!' On the other, the franchise is about plants and zombies trying to blast each other apart, so you can kind of see where EA is coming from.
The game is multiplayer only, with not even a half-baked attempt to introduce a campaign or solo play in a multiplayer style. It's all about taking on other players. And, of course, it wouldn't be much of a multiplayer shooter without direct competition, so in a break from previous games the zombies are playable for the first time.
The two sides are divided up into classes, with different weapons and styles for each side. For example, the Sunflower heals for the Plants, while the Scientist will do this job for the Zombies. The former heals with a beam of sunshine, while the latter uses a fire hydrant filled with purple goo. That gives you a bit of a taste of the strangeness you can expect to see on the screen at any given moment! The differing weapons means different tactics will be needed for each side, too, making for a deeper experience than you might expect.
This might sound like a bonkers idea for a shooter, but with such a strong pedigree behind it it could be the bridge between casual audiences and the FPS hardcore.£14.99 -
Tom Clancy's EndWar
It's war, folks, but not as we know it.
We spend all our lives worrying about when it was actually going to happen and then one sunny Spring afternoon Ubisoft went and casually announced it with Tom Clancy's EndWar! Doesn't really seem such a big deal, this World War Three after all!
Except the title 'EndWar' seems to suggest otherwise. Getting amongst it at the end of the world are three factions to play as: U.S. Joint Strike Force, European Enforcers and Russian Spetsnaz. Yup, them pesky Russians. Russia makes a return to the status of Big Bad in EndWar, as quadrupled oil prices elevate it back to the status of superpower.
Ubisoft plans to put you right in amongst it, too. Ditching the traditional, top-down view of other real time strategy games, EndWar sticks you in the thick of it with a third-person floating camera. You'll be at ground zero as hundreds of units do battle on fully destructible battlefields.
What really makes EndWar stand out, however, is its voice control system. Using intuitive menus, you'll be able to command your units without ever touching a controller.
Throw in a persistent online multi-player campaign with massively customisable units featuring cutting edge technology, and Ubisoft have given you something worth fighting for.£4.99 -
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
The X-COM series of strategy games has gone through a number of versions, mainly on PC, since its 1994 origins on Amiga, Playstation and PC - but it's now more than 10 years since the last one; X-COM: Alliance.
X-COM: Enemy Unknown began life as a remake of Julian Gollop's classic 1994: UFO: Enemy Unknown, which was released on Sid Meier's now defunct MicroProse label. But the guys at Meier's new company, Firaxis put so much into it that it evolved into a re-imagining. For the first time since that early iteration, console versions are available: for PS3 and Xbox 360. The game is powered by the Unreal 3 game engine.
Enemy Unknown takes place on a modern Earth, under attack from an alien invasion. Facing an unseen enemy of clearly superior technical capabilities, Earth's governments combine to create X-COM. Playing the commander of this global force, your mission is to create an operational base, research alien technologies, organise combat missions, and control your soldiers in battle. You'll dispatch aircraft to intercept and destroy or capture UFOs, and manage ground forces in their battles with alien invaders. All of this is controlled from your XCOM base. Yes, that's base in the singular, unlike the 1994 original, only a single base can be constructed and managed: this adds a strategic element to the game, because your base has to be defended at all costs.
The forces you command are not your own, but like the United Nations, you act a liaison between many disparate governments, and this adds to the tactical aspects of the game.
The Ant Farm view gives you an overview of the XCOM headquarters: you can then zoom in to individual departments to direct specific activities such as research and weapons construction.
Battle strategy takes pace on the Geoscape global view of the world, and you can be directing battle in many theatres of combat simultaneously. Ground combat is turn-based on an isometric-3D playfield. You directly control a squad of four-six soldiers or robots. As you would expect from a modern game, the user interface has been updated considerably from the original game, and gameplay has been tweaked to make it faster and more engaging. Players can make use of suppressive fire and active camouflage during combat.
One-on-one on-line combat missions enable players to control a squad each, and have a points budget to assemble and equip them before leading them into battle against your human opponent.
Console players will be happy to hear that they are not being offered a dumbed down version of the game. Apart from the mouse-based control method, which is exclusive to the PC version, the console owners are getting the same game as PC-gamers.£14.99 Buy Now
