Call Of Duty Black Ops 2 review

Call Of Duty Black Ops 2 provides online warriors with tons of customisaton options, while presenting story-mode fans the best plot in a COD game yet

Call Of Duty Black Ops 2 review

Love

• Great campaign plot
• Awesome competitive online mod
• ZOMBIES

Hate

• Strike Missions are fiddly
• Franchise tipping point?

Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2 is the sixth COD title to land with the seismic impact of a neutron bomb since COD 4: Modern Warfare turned Activision’s FPS franchise into a global mega-seller. It’s also the first game pumped out by Treyarch since the first Black Ops game, which to date is the biggest selling entry in the COD series.

Black Ops 2, and by extension Treyarch, have a tough act to follow. They also have to impress an FPS audience, which in the last four years has become increasingly saturated by as many quality Triple A titles as it has worthy COD knock offs, with recent rivals taking the form of Halo 4, Dishonored, Resident Evil 6, Borderlands 2 and Medal of Honor: Warfighter.

Call Of Duty Black Ops 2: Gameplay

Perhaps aware of all this, Treyarch has made a couple of notable tweaks and innovations to the formula that shot the first Black Ops to prominence. First, it's expanded the single player campaign by splintering its narrative and adding a series of side missions that affect its final outcome.

Second, it's stripped out and completely rebuilt the game’s multiplayer, offering players unparalleled customisation options, of both the cosmetic and gameplay altering variety. Finally, it's augmented and deepened the game’s co-op – Treyarch’s signature Zombies mode. It all adds up to a pretty bold and compelling package.

Call Of Duty Black Ops 2: Story

The Campaign Mode is split between two time lines. The first is set in the not-too-distant future in 2025 and it involves a group of soldiers tracking down a terrorist who is trying to take command of the West’s AI defence network.

While this is happening, one of their number, Mason, visits his dad’s old war buddy, Woods, at a retirement home to get the full back story of their target. Players control both Mason in the future, who sports a lot of hi-tech weaponry and gadgets, and his dad, er… Mason, whose weapons are slightly less advanced, but put to no less affective service.

Without giving too much away, Black Ops 2 oscillates between sticking to historical accuracy and contemporary plausibility and dumping the player into increasingly high-octane set pieces. At certain segments players are also called on to make decisions that have plot-diverging consequences.

There’s also a set of ‘Strike Force’ Missions that have an impact on the ending the player gets in the game. In Strike Force Missions, players are dropped into an open-plan, multiplayer style map, given a series of objectives to accomplish – ie defend or take certain points – and then a squad of men and AI allies. They can take control of any member of their team at any point, as well as direct the movements and positions of the rest of their allies from an Overwatch position. It’s weird combination of RTS and FPS that actually works surprisingly well.

Call Of Duty Black Ops 2: Multiplayer

For the game’s online mode, Treyarch has instituted a massive overhaul in terms of design. The game certainly looks and plays like its predecessors, but players now have far more customisation options than ever before.

To begin with, the load-out has rejigged so it now functions on a points system. Players have a certain number of points to allocate, and they can add perks, equipment and weapons depending on how they wish to customize their soldier. If, for example, you’re a player who has never used their secondary weapon in an online match before, you can dump it and use the points you collect from this to add an extra attachment for your main weapon, or extra equipment.

Players can also use points to allocate themselves a Wild Card, allowing them to select extra perks. The perks are still divided across three Categories, but with a Greed Wild Card, players can select more than one Perk from the same Category. So they can march into battle using both, say, Hardline and Light Footed, or Fast Hands and Toughness, which in previous games would be impossible.

KillStreaks are still present, and have been left largely untouched by the load-out point allocation – presumably to keep the online multiplayer a bit more balanced. However, in Black Ops 2, they’ve been re-imagined as ScoreStreaks; players string together actions and kills, rather than just the latter, to open up their ScoreStreak rewards.

Call Of Duty Black Ops 2: Zombies

 

The Zombie Mode rounds out the package. Up to four players are let loose over a series of maps in which the main objective is to survive against the undead horde. Here, though, there are two other match types other than the main one – in which players try to survive against ever-increasing waves of zombies.

In Tranzit, players catch a bus that transports them between different maps where they can pick up new equipment and weapons. In Grief, players are split into sides of two, and the last side left standing wins the match.

There are even options for players who aren’t any good at online modes – check out the COD Casting tool set and the Theatre mode for playback.

Call Of Duty Black Ops 2: Verdict

Call of Duty Black Ops 2 is positively stuffed with content for players, and even if one gets the impression this franchise has reached the tipping point on the current gen of consoles, Treyarch’s latest beast is a thing of beauty. Haters are always going to hate it, but Black Ops 2 is one of the best and most accessible shooters of its generation and one of 2012’s essential titles.

Call Of Duty Black Ops 2 release date: 13 November 2012

Call Of Duty Black Ops 2 price: From £34.99

Kinect Star Wars review

It’s taken a while but Kinect Star Wars is finally here and we can swing our lightsabers in the air like we just don't care. Well, almost...

Kinect Star Wars review

Love

• Fun podracing game
• Decent co-op mode
• The Galactic Dance-Off

Hate

• Repetitive gameplay
• Unresponsive controls
• Horrible narrative

2012: The year Microsoft brings Kinect to the hardcore gaming masses. We've already seen the Xbox 360 add-on integrated into Mass Effect 3 and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, but our hopes were pinned on Kinect Star Wars proving that there was more to T3's 2011 Gadget of the Year than Kinect Sports and Dance Central.

Children of the 80's who queued up at their local Odeon to watch Skywalker and company, disappointed you will be with this mini-game collection homage set in a prequel Star Wars world that is individually and collectively galaxies away from the initial hype and our own high expectations.

Kinect Star Wars: Features

Once you've gone giddy over the sight of R2-D2 and C-3PO in the menu screen you've got your choice of five game modes but if you want the quickest route to waving your lightsaber then you'll need to shout, 'Xbox, Duels of Fate.' It's here where you'll be able to get instant saber action but you'll have to negotiate your way through a series of one-on-one battles before a face-off with Darth Vader.

Jedi Destiny: Dark Side is where you'll find the third person campaign action as you play a young padawan who first must learn the ways of the Jedi, which means mastering your saber, using the Force, moving, jumping and so on.

Once the basics are out of the way you'll be thrown into battle with hordes of droids and bounty hunters to tackle which is regularly broken up by cut scenes which push the story forward.

Podracing which is inspired by the Phantom Menace offers single races or a story-based Destiny mode. In terms of controls it’s very consistent with most Kinect driving games so it’s hands out holding an imaginary steering wheel with the added ability to punch a nearby opponent or wipe the windscreen when your view becomes obscured.

Feeling in the destructive mood? Well, Rancor Rampage is pretty much about your ability to control the Return of the Jedi monster and smash up everything in sight for points. To complete levels you'll need to achieve certain objectives like throwing debris a specific distance while eating droids to replenish your health.

Last and by no means least is Galactic Dance-Off which is essentially Star Wars does Dance Central. In locations ranging from Jabba's Palace and the Death Star you’ll have to bust a move to pop songs given a Star Wars re-working. So Hologram Girl is clearly inspired by Gwen Stefani’s Hollerback Girl and I’m Han Solo by Jason Derulo’s Riding Solo.

Kinect Star Wars: Gameplay

Well, where do we start? The campaign focused Jedi: Destiny quickly feels repetitive as you continually move from environments killing more droids and then doing the same again, while the cut scenes seem to steal some of the more interesting elements of the gameplay.

We were left disappointed by the gesture recognition particularly whilst swinging our virtual lightsaber around which often felt like we had limited control over the precise direction of attacks. It was also frustrating process constantly picking up the wrong objects when using the Force.

There’s also a co-op mode where another player can drop in and out of the action which is where the real fun lies, but again the action can be frenetic in split screen and feels like an action overload for the Kinect sensor to deal with.

Podracing does bring something different to the table in terms of Kinect-based driving games, and the controls worked well, however we did find it difficult to pull off some of the more complex moves during races The campaign mode helps to give the Episode 1-inspired action some context but it is by no means in-depth.

Duels of Fate could have been great, but with no room for freestyle combat you are essentially forced into tiresome turn-based combat that is enough to want you to give up trying to get to that fight with Darth Vader. Kids will no doubt enjoy Rancor rampaging, adults on the other hand might be an entirely different proposition.

The saddest thing about Kinect Star Wars is the game mode that we ridiculed most before playing it, turned out to be the most impressive.

Galactic Dance Off is as corny and novelty as you can get, but the body recognition worked extremely well and we actually quite enjoyed dancing like Han Solo. Again though, this is Dance Central with a Star Wars makeover, and quite how many Star Wars fans want to dance around the living room, we're not so sure.

Kinect Star Wars: Verdict

In a galaxy far, far away a great Star Wars Kinect lies, and hopefully it won’t look or play anything like this one. If Kinect Star Wars is about bringing the lucrative sci-fi franchise to a new, younger audience we’d question how long this hit and miss series of games would genuinely keep them entertained for.

Your jaw certainly won't drop at the graphics and the unresponsiveness we experienced in some game modes was a real issue. The two-player action does add some fun to proceedings while there is plenty of new content to unlock, but if we were to judge this against the standout Kinect games launched so far, this is no Child of Eden that’s for sure.

We would have preferred to have seen a solid single campaign mode that delivered a greater gesture recognition performance with a storyline to extend the game life beyond the few hours you’re likely to invest in it if you decide to part with your money.

If we had to compare this to one of George Lucas’ films we’d pick Attack of the Clones, a film we have long tried to erase from the memory and is a similar sentiment we felt after playing Kinect Star Wars.

Kinect Star Wars availability: Available now

Kinect Star Wars price: £29.99

Medal Of Honor Navy Seals disciplined

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Seven Navy Seals who worked as consultants on Medal Of Honor: Warfigher are facing punishment after revealing confidential information

 

The members of Navy Seal Team 6 have been subjected to disciplinary action.  for revealing classified information to the developers on the new Medal Of Honor: Warfighter game. According to a story published on CBS, the Seals acted as consultants on the videogame and gave the developers classified material.

The seven Navy Seals are still on active duty, but have recieved official letters of reprimand from the Navy, and have their pay partially suspended for two months. Four other former members of the team, who are also on active duty, are reportedly under investigation.

Deputy commander of Naval Special Warfare Command, Rear Admiral Garry Bonelli has issued a statement nonjudicial punishments had been handed out for misconduct. No further details were forthcoming, but it is thought that the Seals were disciplined because they didn't seek permission from their commanding officers to become paid consultants on the game, and revealed details about equipment that is specific to their unit,.

"We do not tolerate deviations from the policies that govern who we are and what we do as sailors in the United States Navy," Bonelli said.

Among the soldiers who were disciplined is one Navy Seal who took part in the military operation that ended in the death of Osama Bin Laden.

Angry Birds Star Wars hits this week

Angry Birds Star Wars official gameplay trailer heralds arrival of Rovio's latest game on November 8th

 

Fancy an excuse to run down your smartphone's battery life on your commute to work this week? Then can we suggest you cast a weather eye at the full trailer for the new Star Wars-themed Angry Birds game from Rovio. Having teased players over the last month with a series of videos, the Finnish developer has now revealed around a minute's worth of gameplay for their new title.

The new trailer shows that the game in question is certainly more than simply a quick brand-name-boosted cash-in. In it, players can marvel as the Jedi-cloak wearing fouls use lightsabres, forcefields and the odd laser gun to blast through Empire-themed constructions housing green pigs. A lot of the birds have been designed to look like the film's most iconic characters and some of the levels are even based around scenes from the original films.

There's no word on pricing as yet, but Angry Birds Star Wars is set for release on November 8th on iOS, Android, Kindle Fire, Windows Phone, Windows 8 and PC and Mac.

GTA 5

GTA 5 release date, trailer, cheats, news & rumours

 

GTA 5 release date, trailer, cheats, news and rumours all rolled up into one: What's in store for the upcoming Xbox 360, Sony PS3 & PC title?

Update: A new trailer for Grand Theft Auto V is in the works, but has been delayed due to Hurrican Sandy, A post on Rockstar's official website said:
"We are working on a second trailer - unfortunately Hurricane Sandy has derailed our plans somewhat but we will have something to show soon. It's hard to be precise as we have no power whatsoever in our New York office. We hope everyone else in affected areas is doing okay."
Update: Rockstar has released a new batch of screen shots - check them out, below
With Grand Theft Auto 5 now confirmed thanks to the GTA V trailer which was released a few months ago we look at all the news, trailers and rumours surrounding the upcoming Rockstar title.

 

Grand Theft Auto 5 news

Update: According to fresh rumours, we could be seeing a GTA 5 release date announcement at the Gamescom trade fair, which is held annually in Cologne, Germany.

The rumour mill went wild after a Gamescom 2012 promotional video, which was released online earlier this month, showed a brief clip of the game.

The game's publisher, Take-Two, is also included on the list of exhibitors, so the chances of a big announcement being made is extremely likely, although never gaurenteed.
Previously, developer Rockstar offered a tantalising insight into Grand Theft Auto 5 with a spokesperson for the company telling eager gamers more is to come "in a few months time."
That was a few months ago.
"Right now, we are very hard at work on the game and are excited as well to show and tell you more as development progresses," an unnamed representative for the company said.

"Expect that we'll be talking much more about GTAV starting at some point in a few months' time."
What we do know for certain is that GTA 5 will be arriving on the PS3 after Sony’s PlayStation 3 site put up an official GTA V web page.

Elsewhere the map for GTA V has been 'leaked' via a person claiming to be an employee of Rockstar who was leaving in two weeks, the map shows Los Santos along with desirable Vinewood area known for being a fictional interpretation of Hollywood.

GTA 5: Screenshots

Update: Rockstar has released a new batch of GTA 5 screenshots. They will be helicopters, car chases and all the other usual mayhem the franchise is famed for. Check them out below.

 

Grand Theft Auto 5 release date

As yet there has been no official confirmation on a Grand Theft Auto 5 release date however analysts believe that Rockstar is following a 6 month schedule which will see an E3 2012 launch.
IndustryGamers spoke to financial analysts who believe this schedule will result in a release before the end of 2012.
"We believe Rockstar Games is modeling a 4 to 6 month marketing window for their upcoming GTA V release, suggesting a Summer '12 launch period,"
If Zavvi is to be believed then the GTA 5 release date will be much later with the site stating an exact release date of 23 November which would put it in line to be Christmas no.1.
With the gaming world looking toward Rockstar for a confirmed GTA V UK release date, a developer on the title has suggested the game's release has been pushed back from a previously tipped October arrival to a new December launch.

Grand Theft Auto 5 trailer

Being the only official source of information the Grand Theft Auto 5 trailer was useful in establishing a number of facts including the location and the characters that would be featuring in the game.
Based on Los Angeles the main location of the game will be centred around the fictional city of Los Santos, first seen in Grand Theft Auto 4.

Los Santos will be situated within San Andreas and if the trailer is anything to go by you’ll be able to explore much of the surrounding countryside as well.
It’s believed that the game will feature many of the same driveable vehicles as has been prominent in all Grand Theft Auto games, again if the trailer is to be an indicator it would appear as though aircraft will also be featuring.

 

Grand Theft Auto 5 rumours

Probably the biggest GTA 5 rumour at the moment is that the game’s lead character will be played by actor Ned Luke after the game appeared on his IMDB profile (it has since been removed).
It’s believed that he will be playing the lead character of the game whose name is rumoured to be Albert De Silva.
There had been reports that the character was Ray Liotta reprising his role as an older Tommy Vercetti, however fansites such as gtav.net have agreed in their prediction of Luke as the actor involved.
CVG believes that we’ll also see the return of CJ, the main protagonist from GTA: San Andreas.
Of course while there is a likeness between CJ and the character in the trailer it’s far from solid proof so we’ll have to wait for E3 until we know for sure.

Grand Theft Auto multiplayer

According to several fan sites the game will come with a multiplayer mode, of course what that will be specifically is unclear.
Some have suggested that the game will take on board the lessons learned through Red Dead Redemption so will include a number of mini-games and with the trailer showing jet ski's and golfing you could find yourself racing around the bay in online races.

Grand Theft Auto cheats

Of course it wouldn’t be a GTA game if it didn’t have insane cheats and while it’s unlikely that they’ll ever be able to top those that were available for Vice City we’ll certainly keep our eyes peeled for the best to hit the web.

Grand Theft Auto history

Coming in as the fifth incarnation of the Grand Theft Auto franchise GTA V will potentially be set in the modern day, making it the second game to focus perhaps on more realism.
In contrast Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was set during the 80’s in a fictional recreation of Miami and featured everything from assault helicopters to porn studios.

ASSASINS CREED III

One of the most ambitious game series ever released, Ubisoft’s historical epics have always pushed the envelope, and Assassin’s Creed III – which whisks us off to the New World during the 18th century and the War of Independence – is quite literally their biggest game yet.
Created by a team of more than 600 working at numerous studios around the world, this is gaming on a huge scale with every detail from uniform buttons to the streets of colonial New York and Boston stunningly recreated.
While there’s some disappointment in the obvious pandering to an American audience (previous titles have been gloriously Yank free), the new setting offers everything we’ve come to expect from the open-world series, and so much more.
After a series of seemingly endless prologues that would give Peter Jackson a run for his money, AC III introduces us to our new hero, Connor Kenway – a half-Mohawk, half-English Assassin with a mind for vengeance after his family were wiped out by the evil Templars. Not nearly as interesting as AC I’s Altair nor as charismatic as AC II’s Ezio, Connor nevertheless could kick both their butts with his brutal fighting style. With tomahawk in hand (along with a whole new arsenal of awesome weaponry), Connor is very much an action-is-louder-than-words kinda guy.

Connor’s adventures from city to frontier see him bumping into a cast of reverently treated iconic figures (most notably Benjamin Franklin and George Washington), but don’t go expecting a history lesson. As in previous AC games, the settings are accurately depicted and the people of the time look the part, but this is very much a work of fiction with the emphasis on entertainment rather than education.
It may take a good eight hours of a roughly 40-hour game time to gain full access to the open-world environment, but when you do the breadth is absolutely stunning. The cities are more interactive than ever before, with through-building short cuts and new freerunning techniques making up for the relative lack of tall buildings to scale, while the frontier offers mountains to climb, animals to stalk and countless places to get yourself lost in. It really is a grandiose feat as sprawling, beautiful and epic as America itself.
But that’s not to say that the smaller details aren’t taken care of. You can spend hours on side missions, hunting in the wilderness or simply playing board games in the pub. The gameplay, meanwhile, has been spruced up and features from previous titles (such as the ability to call fellow assassins in for help and the option to set up a guild of assassins) have wisely been kept in place.
The game’s biggest bangs are saved for a number of historical battlegrounds in which hundreds of soldiers can be seen fighting onscreen at once. It’s an incredible sight, reminiscent of games like Total War but far more graphically impressive. The much-hyped naval battles are also a lot of fun, albeit very unrealistic and rather silly.
With such a huge amount on offer, it’s easy to get drawn into this rich and detailed world. As such, the futuristic framing device – in which Desmond uses the animus machine to access the memories of distant relatives Altair, Ezio and Connor – still jars and makes for an annoying reminder that you’re only playing a game within a game.
While we’re on the downsides, there are a number of glitches that mar the experience. Dodgy facial movements, stuttering camera issues and horse-manoeuvring bugs are pretty darn annoying, but Ubisoft have promised a day-one patch to fix everything and we very much advise you download it before playing the game.
These, however, are minor niggles about a game that is nigh-on perfect. Even the multiplayer, usually included as an afterthought in single-player games, is very impressive and varied.
Assassin’s Creed III is a hugely successful sequel. Bettering its predecessors in almost every way, it ensures this is a saga that will run for years to come.

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HALO 4

After five long years, Master Chief is back to crack some more alien heads. T3 dons the Mjolnir to see if Halo 4 was worth the wait...

Halo 4 review

Love

• Engaging plot & campaign
• Superb & varied multiplayer
• Wonderful soundtrack

Hate

• Covenant getting boring
• Still little weapon variety

Halo 4 is chief (hah) among the biggest releases in a pre-Christmas period that includes huge FPS titles like Borderlands 2, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, as well as other keenly expected games such as Dishonored and Assassin's Creed 3. Master Chief definitely has his work cut out.

Step forward 343 Industries (or 343i for short) – a new studio set up by Microsoft to exclusively handle the Halo franchise, after Bungie exited stage left following their last hurrah – Halo: Reach. 343i now have the unenviable task of delivering a new, better than ever before Halo, in a climate where decent first person shooters are thrown blissfully out of studios like wedding confetti.
Master Chief hasn’t had a day as big as November 6th for a long time. It seems impossible that his last great outing was way back in 2007, but it is five years - in fact, over five years - since we left Spartan 117 in cryo-sleep, in a dusty storage pod amid the floating wreckage of the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn.

Halo 4: Campaign

The story starts where it left off in Halo 3, and you clamber out of your pod to have a little chat with Cortana, your AI companion. It turns out that the UNSC are actually at a truce with the Covenant, and predictably that lasts all of two seconds - why would we be here otherwise?
The plot revolves around two central pillars. The first is Cortana's descent into 'rampancy' - essentially AI death, where her processes and subroutines begin to run out of control (we're thinking it's a little like virtual memory thrashing). The race to get Cortana back to Earth is on, but it isn't long before you find a new enemy blocking your way. The new foes are a Forerunner military caste of sorts, and naturally they don’t like the ‘Chief one bit. Presumably because he has a habit of brutally murdering everything.

Different Forerunner units work with great synergy - Crawlers will keep you pinned down, whilst Knights will pick you off from a distance before teleporting in for the kill. If you don’t pick your targets wisely, it’s very easy to waste plenty of ammo and find yourself no closer to victory. Indeed, Knights troll like no enemy I've seen in a while. You can take them down from afar, but if you don't shoot down his accompanying Watcher as well, you're going to turn the air blue when you realised he's been resurrected.
As such, walking into the midst of a raging battle between Covenant and Forerunner lads - a Halo favourite since Combat Evolved - forces you to choose your targets carefully, as indeed does a battle with Forerunner forces alone. If anything, it's a little disappointing that you still spend much of the game fighting the Covenant, and the experience only feels different when there are Forerunner units involved.
If you’re playing on Heroic or Legendary difficulties, you're in for an exercise in cover and ammo management. Cover is a necessity, as even a pack of enemy grunts can tear through your shields at higher levels. Play on normal and below and you'll be stomping through enemies the way you'd expect a giant, metal titan to.

Halo 4: Graphics

There's no great change in visuals from Halo: Reach. That’s not a slight on Halo 4 though - Reach was a fantastic looking game, and It's become fairly common knowledge that developers have stretched both the Xbox 360 and the PS3 to their maximum capabilities now. If anything, Halo 4 feels a little more vibrant, without being over-saturated.

Campaign levels are well designed, with a tangeable emphasis on avoiding the linearity that has plagued the FPS genre for years, and there are some really beautiful vistas on show.

Most importantly, the frame-rate is excellent even during intense firefights and there was nothing in the way of screen tearing or graphical glitches. All in all, it’s very impressive.

Halo 4: Weapons

The presence of three distinct factions in Halo 4 means this games has more weapons than any of its predecessors. On the UNSC side, both the DMR and the Battle Rifle are included, along with heavy weapon favourites such as the Rocket Launcher, Spartan Laser and Sniper Rifle. A new addition is the 'Railgun', which is charged like the Spartan Laser but fires a mini explosive on release.

The same is true on the Covenant side, with the exception of the Plasma Rifle, which has been replaced in name and aesthetics only by the 'Storm Rifle'. The Needler has also been upped in terms of damage, with needle supercombines now capable of taking out multiple targets.

The real news here is the addition of a whole arsenal of Forerunner weaponry. Many of these weapons mirror some of their UNSC or Covenant counterparts - the 'Suppressor' for example, is essentially a UNSC Assault Rifle, while the longer range Forerunner 'Lightrifle' is the spitting image of a Covenant Carbine.

Rather than lazy design, this is more a recognition that certain weapon styles are core to Halo's combat dynamic. Fear not though, there are other weapons that are really changing the game. The 'Boltshot' pistol is a revolver by nature, but when charged it discharges four bullets for a close-range shotgun blast. The Scattershot? A mere shotgun, you say. But the bullets also bounce, making it prime for killing people round corners, off ceilings... the possibilities are nearly endless.

Halo 4: Vehicles

Again, pretty much every vehicle from the Halo series makes a return on both the UNSC and Covenant sides so get ready for more running Warthog battles, Scorpion Tank sieges and Banshee dogfights. Sadly no Halo 2 Elephants though.

New to the series is the 'Mantis' - a single pilot mechanised walker that packs rockets, a machinegun with limitless ammo, and a powerful pneumatic stomp for taking down closer enemies. The Mantis also has a shield, but no jump or sprint abilities so you are a bit vulnerable if you get swarmed, and particularly vulnerable when jumping in and out of the back.

Halo 4: Spartan Ops

One of the major new components that 343i has brought to the table is the episodic co-operative 'Spartan Ops' (we like SpOps for short). The Spartan Ops story is based six months after the end of the campaign, and sees you take your customized Spartan into the thick of battle with Crimson squad, completing weekly missions. This can either be with friends or in open match-making.

There will be an accompanying video every week, which progresses the story of the Spartans on board the UNSC Infinity.

Halo 4: War Games

In terms of play-time and longetivity, Halo 4's multiplayer is arguably the core of the Halo experience. The emphasis here has been on tweaking. Halo's fantastic multiplayer experience is one that has continually improved via community input and a policy of not fixing things that aren't broken - a policy that 343i are still enforcing.

Spartan customization still includes a huge range of cosmetic options, but now you have a Call of Duty-style loadout that lets you pick a primary and secondary weapon, and a grenade type, followed by an 'Armor Ability', a 'Tactical Package', and a 'Support Upgrade'.

The latter two are similar options to Call of Duty, including increased explosives damage, shield regen, faster reload times and the like, mainly a case of fine tuning your Spartan to suit your play style.

Armor Abilities are more Halo-oriented, and include jet packs and boosters, 'Promethean Vision' that allows you to see nearby enemies through walls, the ability to project a hologram to distract enemies, an automated sentry turret and many others.

Another Call of Duty-esque addition are the new 'ordinance packages' that act very similarly to CoD's 'care packages'. Hit a killstreak and you'll be able to call in one of two weapons (both chosen as being useful for that particular map) or an ability boost (damage, shields or something similar).

Any accusations that Halo is all getting a bit Call of Duty are wide of the mark. There are some additions here, but all have been made with the utmost care, and with advice from fans and MLG pros alike. Indeed, all the maps have been built from scratch with the help of numerous MLG pros. The result doesn't feel new, but it does feel fresh and it plays as well as any Halo game - indeed any online shooter - has ever played.

Halo 4: Verdict

This is tough, because Halo 4 epitomises some of the things that plague the games industry today. While there are tweaks, and good ones at that, this isn't the reinvention that many were hoping for, and 343i could be accused of a lack of ingenuity. At the same time, why fix something that isn't broken? One man's 'boring and dated' is another mans 'vintage' after all.
This game should be judged in it's own right, far away from Bungie's own efforts. The single player is exactly the right mix of classic Halo point-to-point gameplay, with a battlefield dynamic that feels new and instantly more challenging. The multiplayer has plenty in there to attract new fans, and is an absolute joy to play, as it always has been. And the soundtrack is mind-blowing. 343 has added real artistic flair to a universe that needed rebooting with a splatter of vibrancy.
In short, Halo 4 is the definition of classic. It's quintessential, an embodiment of what made Halo so fantastic in the first place, but brighter, bolder and with a few tugs at the heart-strings. We can't promise you'll like it, because you've seen a lot of this before. But five years has been long enough to open our minds, and it feels great to be back.
Halo 4 release date: 6 November 2012

Halo 4 price: £40
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