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Tom Orry, Editor – Batman: Arkham City, Xbox 360, PS3
I’m slowly beginning to see why Arkham City got so many incredible review scores. I really wasn’t loving it at first, but now the controls don’t feel as fiddly, and the game’s story and characters are all coming together. It helps that it’s a real looker, too, with some of the finest environments I’ve seen – although the facial animations could do with some work. I’ve just fought a certain pint-sized cretin (which was great) and am now really looking forward to what lies ahead. And the sooner I can finish this off the quicker I can start on Skyrim… no, Gears 3… no, Forza 4… oh I give up!
Neon Kelly, Deputy Editor – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
By now I think we all know what to expect from a new Call of Duty, but there’s one thing in Modern Warfare 3 that caught me by surprise: it’s not an “OMG I JUST GOT SHOT” plot twist, dramatic helicopter crash, or wearisome controversial massacre. It’s not even the fact that I suck at multiplayer; I have yet to give it a go, but it’s a safe bet that I do.
No, the thing that caught me off guard is how much I enjoy the Survival mode. Wave-based mini-games are two-a-penny these days, but there’s something about CoD’s style that makes it inherently suited to the format. I certainly enjoy the action here a lot more than in the single-player campaign; you have to maintain a degree of 360 degree awareness, as opposed to the linear progression you get with the latter. I’ll certainly see the story through to its conclusion, and I’ll invariably give multiplayer a whirl, but something tells me that I’ll be spending most of my time with Spec Ops for this one.
Martin Gaston, Previews Editor – Tetris, 3DS
84 frigging lines? I can do better than that. In my peak I was clearing 120. Let’s be honest, though – has anybody ever completed all 150 lines of Tetris’ cruel Marathon mode? How about you at the back? I thought not. I haven’t played this for years, but right now I’m being t-spinned into a crazed frenzy by my continuing ineptitude.
Tetris is easily one of the most defining games of my life, but it must be one of the absolute worst games for a developer to work on – if you even try and add your own stamp or flourish it will inevitably be a failure. What the raging nutsack was Tetris Splash supposed to be? All people want is Marathon mode.
Tetris 3DS’ other modes and features? Guff. The lot of them. Especially the AR modes.
Emily Gera, Staff Writer – The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Xbox 360
It’s happened – I’ve reached that point in my career that I’ve always hoped for, where my job consists almost exclusively of looking at pictures of dragons. God bless you, Skyrim. I’ve been playing this for the last week or so and still have barely cracked it. I reckon I’m forty hours in and I’m still stuck at around level 16, which says something about the size of this thing. It’s a big game, it’s a good game – it’s crashed on me twice but it’s a good game. While I’ve never been a die-hard fan of Bethesda’s take on fantasy RPGs (the levelling system will always be a bit of a pain in the neck, in my eyes), if you like RPGs and you’re not playing this you are an actual idiot.
