UPDATE: Always ask twitter if you have problems and not Xbox support.

Issue fixed by this step from @jochta http://j.mp/lDr5Xn

Gameplay is largely unchanged from the previous games and there are plenty of things to do to keep you occupied, from destroying Borgia towers (which opens new areas) to collecting loot, carrying out assassinations, and collecting feathers and flags.  I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the Brotherhood although I did expect some changes and beefed up gameplay which was simply more of the same from before.  That is not necessarily a bad thing, the gameplay works as it does but there could have been some more improvements to mix it up a bit.

I would liked to have seen some improvements over the platforming mechanics but sadly the old problem of randomly jumping to your death still exists. A series of jumps may work well but the  most miniscule of movements away from thumbstick forward may see you falling to your death – something which is most annoying when for example climbing the spectacle which is the Colloseum. But while this game is as frustrating as hell, it is one of those games which has a unique draw and addiction. So while I spent many a time falling to my death or surviving and having to make a climb over and over again, the charm of the game made this a non issue and there was a drive to complete it.  Had this been any other game, no doubt I would have traded it in out of annoyance. But it is Assassin’s Creed, so it is okay.

Section 16 puzzles are back and are still as mysterious as before. If you like your brain tested, the glyphs are definitely something to search out.  In a huge place like Rome though these glyphs can be hard to find. But here is a tip – Press start and go to database, then locations. Ensure Rome is highlighted then press Y to filter through to section 16 locations. Pick a location (I don’t recommend the first one early days as it is hard to access) and then you can add a map marker to take you to the location. Much easier to find them then.

I have finished the game now although not yet got 100% completion. I did complete buying all parts of Rome and was really disappointed not to get an achievement for that. I am not greatly into achievements, but it is really annoying when you get an achievement for watching a cutscene and then do not get one for something that actually requires effort.  Note to developers: Make sure your achievements actually mean somethign to achieve please.

Anyway, all in all a good game and I look forward to some download content to extend the game. Oh and a BTW, what the hell was up with that ending? That was a major WTF moment.

This game is huge. Not just huge in space but huge in things to do, main storyline and sub quests.  There is so much to do that in a single play of the game trying to do as much as possible it could take you 80 or more hours to finish and you still will not complete it all. In fact because at a certain point in the game you are forced to choose a side from the 5 fighting factions available, it is actually impossible to complete every single quest in a single play of the game.  This game is so big it would take multiple plays to finish everything. I have almost finished playing at around 70 hours and I am really not sure how I managed it, I have done everything I can and still there are things I cannot do due to the path of storyline I chose to take.

It is a simple story. You are a courier who at the beginning of the game was robbed of a package you were delivering and was left for dead by the robbers.  There starts your goal to hunt down who robbed you and why. Much of the side quests are interlinked with the main story and often you may find yourself angering a faction who you wish to side with, so make your quest choices wisely and be careful who you befriend as it may be your downfall.

Fallout New Vegas has been getting positive reviews across the world and little is said bad of the game but beware it is not perfect. The game does have some awful  glitches, at it’s best you may have to restart a quest, at it’s worst you will find your gamesave  corrupted so it is strongly advised that you use multiple save slots for your single game and save lots. Save when something important happens, save before and after a quest and save when you find a new area. Do not rely on the built in autosave otherwise you may find your 70 hour game and reduced to a pile of nothing and you have to restart – something which is a painful prospect.  A patch has been made available which fixes some of the many glitches but there are still some so make sure you connect to the internet to download the latest updates.  I had one game save corrupted but fortunately I saved frequently so only lost one hour of progress.

Aside from the glitches and bugs, Fallout New Vegas is an amazing game and if you like RPG games then you will love this one.

Available on Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. Rated 18 years and over.

Below is a list of the games I am looking forward to in the next couple of months. Please note, release dates may change and they are UK dates. As you can see that is a minimum of 8 games over 2 months. How are we supposed to afford them all?

15th October – Medal of Honor

22nd October – Fallout: New Vegas

29th October – Fable III, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2

9th November – Call of Duty: Black Ops

12th November – F.E.A.R 3

19th November – Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood

26th November – Epic Mickey

The story in Mafia 2 is well thought out and you start off as a soldier in the war against Mussolini. From there you come back home and that is when you start to fall into the life of crime which is the basis for the game. It does flow really well with a decent pace but unfortunately at about halfway through the game the pace is ruined by a chapter which drags down the game to a snails pace and really takes away from the game rather than adds to it. I don’t want to give away spoilers so that is where I will leave that comment, only to say that personally I think the game would have been better without that dull chapter and without it ruining the pace.

The graphics in the game are excellent and well detailed however at times there was some screen tearing on the Xbox 360 version. This seemed to happen really only in the first couple of hours and then settled down so it was not too much of an issue, just a little distraction.

The game uses a cover system which feels a little clunky at times but it is very important to use cover as there are times when you can be killed by one shot. The AI is not that great, but come across one with a shotgun and it may be game over if you are out of cover. One annoyance I found was the police wanted system. You have two layers of wanted – first the car you are in is labelled as wanted and secondly if the police see you out of the car they get a description and then your clothing is marked as wanted. To get rid of the wanted status of the car you must change vehicles or change the number plate at one of the many garages and to get rid of personal wanted system you must change your clothes. The problem was getting to these places. There seemed to be at times police on every corner so it was quite a task to actually shake off the police. You may lose their alert but as soon as you go near another police car the alert starts again and you can get into a vicious cycle.  Simple taking another car is not that simple because all stationary cars are locked so you have to wait for the animation of smashing the window or picking the lock before you could take it – and in that time another police car turns up. I tried running to a shop to get a change of clothes and shock horror just as I was about to go into the store a police car turned up and the alert started again, I got into a 20 minute vicious cycle of alerts and no alerts before I was able to take proper action. Frustrating times but it did not dent my enjoyment of the game.

Overall I really enjoyed the game and it’s storyline and would recommend it to everyone to play. It may not have the sandbox feel of other games but really it does not need it. Definite rent, possible buy.

Another change is the view, this game is a 3D top down view which at first I thought was a bad idea, as I have never really got on with top down views but this game plays well and it is very enjoyable. The controlls are very simple and unusually the gun fire action is done by moving the right stick in the direction of where you wish to shoot. This is a strange control method used also in Shadow Complex but after a while it feels natural and works very well indeed.  It is not the sort of control method I would wish for normal 3D games but for top down it does it’s job. It also aids to making the game a tad easier though as it is easy to spray your gun in all directions.

The game has lots of collectables and many which may prove difficult in getting first time round and this encourages the player to play the game multiple times to get 100%.  Other encouragements for replayability are mini objectives within the levels and also beating your level completion times. The game also has local co-op so you can play the game with a friend beside you. I believe that online co-op is due later this year as a downloadable patch.

The puzzles in the game are standard Tomb Raider fare – move cranks, blocks, balls, etcetera to release levers, traps etcetera.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is definitely a decent addition to Xbox Live Arcade and whilst the price is on the top end you do get a pleasing gaming experience and it is worthy of your money.

DeathSpank is an RPG with the usual elements of collecting items, levelling up, fetch quests and mini dungeons.  Your goal of the game is to seek an artifact but in true video game style, your quest for the artifact is blocked by doing many other quests first for weird and wonderful people en route.

The graphics are cute and have a hand drawn 2D effect to them. Scenery look like paper cut outs and it really fits in well with the games design.  I experienced no graphical glitches but there was the odd occasional screen tearing which never was a bother.

To help you along the way if you get stuck, you can collect fortune cookies and these unlock hints if you are lost and not sure what to do. My only criticism of the game is that there are not enough fortune cookies. A number of times the game does not do a great job in guiding you on what you have to do and the clues can be very vague, leaving you to possibly use up your fortune cookies too soon.  There is no hand holding to tell you where you are suppposed to be heading so your only option is to visit the entire map looking for where you are supposed to be going, or to use these fortune cookies.  I would liked to have seen an optional radar for those like me who needed extra assistance in working out what to do.

DeathSpank is an excellent addition to the library of XBox Live Arcade games and is a very good single player experience. For those unable to work alone, there is also local co-op mode as well and you can complete the game side by side with a friend.  Some games are not worth 1,200 points, but this one definitely is worth your money.

EXCELLENT/10

Toy Box is a whole town which you can build up and do mini fetch quests for different town residents. Quests are very short but there are plenty of them to keep you occupied. I have spent 3-4 hours in Toy Box mode so far and I doubt I am near completion.  It is a fun game with plenty to keep you occupied and is available on all formats.

This is not a review, just a passing comment

GOOD/10

This game has borrowed (copied) many elements of some of my favourite games. You will see elements from the likes of Bioshock, F.E.A.R and Fallout 3 just to name a few. There is an old saying that imitation is the best form of flattery and the developer here has done very well in it’s flattery and come up with a very accomplished game which is worthy of your money.

The detail in the graphics is excellent and unlike the above named games I experienced no glitches, bugs or graphical issues like tearing whatsoever.  It was like they took all these games, mixed them up and actually improved the look and feel to give a polished experience.

The story itself is a little wild and at times has you going from the year 2010 back to 1955 via a TMD (Time Manipulation Device) strapped to your arm. The game is based around time manipulation but unfortunately I do not think they used it enough in the game. There was only a bit near the beginning and some near the end of the game where you went back to 1955. I would liked them to have extended this and had more experiences of going through the time warp. It was a good feature but not used to it’s potential. This did not affect my enjoyment of the game at all, I just think it should have been utilised more within the storyline.

I really enjoyed Singularity and it was a pleasant reminder of some games I had played in the recent past and would definitely recommend everyone play it. It is an accomplished FPS and whilst it may not be worthy of the full RRP price, this is a must-play if you can get it cheaper than what the game shops are offering (£44.99). Available on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Rated 18 Years

GREAT/10

It is classic Lego game fun and while I would not rate is as highly as the previous games – Star Wars, Batman and Indiana Jones it is still definitely a worthy addition to your collection if you are also a Lego fan.

The previous games got bigger and bigger in gameplay space especially the last Indiana Jones episodes so it was a disappointment to find that Harry Potter version feels a heck of a lot smaller.  I think this is due to being mostly in the confines of Hogwarts Castle so I did feel at times a little claustrophobic and restricted and it also felt quite linear.  I suppose this is not really something I can criticise too much because of course they are trying to vaguely follow a story which was mostly set around Hogwarts and if they strayed too much away from that, die hard Harry Potter fans would find holes in the story.  As usual with Lego games there are tons of collectibles – red bricks, gold bricks, postal boxes and some which are unique to Harry Potter like shield crests – each level has 4 quarters of a shield to collect. There are also bonus levels to play for extra gold bricks.

There is really not much I can say about this game further. It is Lego, in the same vein as the other games with a different skin and a smaller playing area. If you are a Harry Potter fan you can add it to your collection, if you are like me and do not like Harry Potter but are a Lego game fan, it is still a worthy game to play because you will soon forget you are playing the series.

One final note for the developer, I think the title is wrong. I know the game is aimed at all ages, but the title Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 really makes it sound like the actual game is aimed at pre-school when it is not.

GOOD/10

What next for Lego games?  Spiderman, Superman, or maybe a collection of super heroes would be good?