This makes DJ Hero 2 a pretty important game, then. There’s a lot of folk out there with a plastic turntable taking up cupboard space and barely a fresh tune to spin. DJ Hero’s DLC program has been sparse at least, and the wannabe scratch perverts out there need something new to test out their finely tuned rewinds and crossfader crabs.

DJ Hero 2, then, is quite firmly bringing the noise. There are 70 brand-new mashups to get your digits around, featuring the likes of Kanye West, The Chemical Brothers, Lady Gaga, Rhianna and even the mighty Metallica getting in on the mix. There are hosts of big name DJs too, with Tiesto joining Deadmau5 and DJ Q Bert to lay the beat-based smackdown on your speakers. So far, so good then, but is DJ Hero 2 actually bringing anything different to the party? Well, in short, yes it is. Freestyle games has been listening to all the feedback that the DJ Hero community has been spouting since the original game’s launch, and has gone to great lengths to ensure that DJ Hero 2 lives up to the public’s expectations.

The first major tweak is the inclusion of freestyle scratch sections. Whereas before, every part of a tune that involved a record being pushed up and down against the needle was scripted. You had to do it exactly how the note chart demanded, or fail. Now though, all songs have large freestyle sections that let you scratch to your heart’s content and, brilliantly, the software is able to recognize just what you’re doing, and make it sound good. Try it in real life, and you’ll end up with a broken needle, a broken record and the worst noise you’ve ever heard.

It makes the DJing experience feel more organic, because ultimately DJ Hero has very little in common with actually DJing, but it does push some of the same buttons in your brain (well, we assume so, not being DJs and all). The more freedom you have to create new music out of two concurrently playing records, the better. Sampling has been improved too. Not only is there a bigger selection of noises to incorporate into your mashups, but they’re much smoother and match the beats better. Again, making you feel more like a master.

And it’s a master DJ you will be if and when you manage to complete Empire mode, DJ Hero 2’s single-player campaign. You may remember DJ Hero’s rather lackluster effort, which just fed you a series of predetermined sets with little-to-no fanfare. Fine at the time, but Empire mode sounds that bit sexier. You start out as a zero, a bedroom DJ hoping for fame and fortune. With a bit of luck, some vicious scratching skills and bumping into the right people at the right time, you begin to build yourself up to superstar DJ level, eventually creating your own empire. Should add a nice bit of drama to proceedings.

The real drama though, will come when you’re battling your mates in DJ Hero’s improved multiplayer modes. Our hands-on time focused on battling, which splits every song into sections. The better you do in a section, the more points you rack up. You share freestyle sections too, and the first one to activate it gets to keep the freestyle going while his or her opponent just sits there looking glum. Predictably, it’s entertaining stuff, and injects DJ Hero 2 with a much-needed dose of competitive spirit.

That’s not the only way to jam together though. There’s full microphone support this time too, so if you have a USB mic left over from your We Sing sessions, you can plug it in and MC like a trooper. The words will hover at the top of the screen in classic Guitar Hero style, although they might sound a little strange considering they’ll be from two different songs. Should make for some rather amusing YouTube clips, though.

So, there’s plenty there to get stuck into, providing you already have the kit. Is DJ Hero going to be enough to convince nonbelievers into the fold, though? Well, it should be. Those who’ve lost faith in music gaming due to the oversaturation of Rock Band and Guitar Hero shouldn’t be put off – this is a very different animal indeed. It’s far more technical and demanding than the strum-happy guitar-based games, and you feel like far less of a loser when you’re playing it on your own.

It also works very well as a party game, just because the songs themselves are so well suited to gatherings. DJ Hero 2 will be no different, unless someone decides to get on the mic and unfortunately ruin it for everyone, of course.

DJ Hero 2 is shaping up to be the most essential music game this winter whether you have a turntable or not. Don’t let the ‘Hero’ moniker fool you, it’s very much a gamer’s game, full of score challenges and deep, technical wizardry. And of course, it’s the closest most of us will ever get to spinning the wheels of steel.

It’s a feat that has been surpassed only by the likes of Halo and Modern Warfare, simply for their contributions to gameplay and, of course, the staying power of their multiplayer hooks. And so here we are, over a decade later on the verge of a seriously compromising remake of the N64 classic, with Activision in at the wheel and original developers Rareware left gagged and handcuffed in the boot.

A few things to grin and bear, though. The original GoldenEye bond Pierce Brosnan has been replaced with Daniel Craig, the original story has been ‘modernized’ (albeit penned by the original writer Bruce Feirstein) and we’re slightly cautious to report that it’s all gone a little Modern Warfare.

From the mission briefing sequences, the in-game companion issuing orders (like a made to order Soap McTavish) and context-sensitive actions, Activision’s grubby mitts can be found all over this shooter. Even the target assist feels similar to Modern Warfare’s signature snap-targeting.

Of course, there are still some remnants of the original left intact. The dam level which opened the original now takes place in the dead of night, and a lot of the on-foot work has now been replaced with a truck ride completed with drive-by shooting and even a quick-time event. We even did a little bit of spy work, snapping pictures of a grounded helicopter. Ultimately we weren’t given much of the ‘disarm this’ or ‘apply proximity mines to that’, giving us the impression GoldenEye will be more of a hands-off rollercoaster ride than the original.

Single-player campaigns aren’t everything and for GoldenEye 007 that couldn’t be truer – the multiplayer was a time sink. Perhaps our memories of being crowded around a small TV, each sharing a quarter of it are faded but after a few rounds of traditional four-player deathmatches, we’re convinced it’s worth your time.

It serves as a testament to how far the multiplayer shooter has come. There’s no sign of trained army troops or well-oiled mercs, just spies and agents running around ruining their well-pressed suits. Deaths were a little too easy to achieve, and the small map we tried out meant there was rarely a moment where blood wasn’t dripping down the screen. Unbalanced? Maybe, but it still retains some of its former charm, and the promise of eight-player online matches, an XP system and an abundance of classic modifiers should seal the deal that Activision are cutting no corners with this one.

The good news is that those dreading the thought of using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk control method need not worry, as classic controller pro and Gamecube controllers are supported, along with the Wii Zapper if you’re feeling a little crazy.

GoldenEye 007 will be a sure-fire hit based on the name and promise of nostalgic gratification. There’s something of the N64 original still intact but built around it is a modern-day shooter. It’s not a bad thing. In fact, it has the potential to outshine others who have attempted to wave the shooter flag for the Wii before. But is it worthy of the GoldenEye name? The jury is still out on that one.

H.A.W.X. 2’s opening is as confident a start as any of the big-budget blockbusters we can rattle off the top of our head, and by wiping out the original game’s player character in the opening act, an inspiring sign that Ubisoft Bucharest wants to start afresh for the sequel to last year’s misfiring flight game. The story has been given a much stronger emphasis this time around, with the campaign strapping players into the cockpit of the US, Russian and British Air Forces as they battle above international skies. It’s every bit the Tom Clancy game that the original game wasn’t.

But perhaps more importantly, the team in Bucharest has recognized the biggest problem we had with the original game, the almost unavoidable – and unfortunately very boring – nature of modern day ‘fire and forget’ aerial warfare. You’ll still be able to lock on to your targets from miles away, but a large part of the action is being brought closer to you, with Ubisoft focusing on tighter close-quarters dogfights and introducing a variety of weapons to encourage different play styles and brand-new gameplay mechanics to break up the pace.

Bucharest wants you to feel like a pilot in a similar way to how Slightly Mad wanted you to feel like the driver in Need for Speed: Shift. Take-offs and landings are in, with the player taking charge of every action from the moment you step into the cockpit. Mid-air refuelings have also been implemented, though the execution seems as fiddly and ill-advised as any other flight game we’ve seen them in before. More exciting is the idea of AC-130 gunship support missions, which we presume will let us rain hellfire down on any hostiles causing problems on the ground below. A nice little shake-up from the usual – even if it may have been ripped straight out of Call of Duty. The varied mission types, too, including recon missions, night-time raids (complete with an infra-red night-vision option) and espionage missions that have you listening in on bugged telephone conversations each do well to distance H.A.W.X. 2 from the sterility associated with the genre.

So, H.A.W.X. 2 looks to be one of those rarities that we can’t help but feel excited for, admirably seeking to fix the shortcomings of the first to deliver an exhilarating dogfighter. The supersonic action, ever-twisting story arc and improved multiplayer could provide the game flight-fans have been waiting for. Buckle up for lift off: H.A.W.X. 2 may well be the Modern Warfare of the skies.

H.A.W.X. 2 – Trailer

And there’s definitely plenty of that, along with the smattering of blood and bone we’ve all come to expect from the smashing slaughter-’em-up series, which sees Ezio taking center stage once again and battling against the Templar’s following a siege on his villa. Brotherhood is anything but a mere expansion pack, of course, and despite only the single year keeping them apart, it’s arguable that this year’s Assassin’s Creed builds on its predecessor much more than last year’s ACII ever did. Alongside the usual visual upgrades, Ubisoft Montreal has once again focused on the mechanics most widely criticized, completely revamping the horse controls and improving the villa upgrade system to allow you total control over the city of Rome and its economy.

New beginnings

But Assassin’s Creed isn’t about to turn into Sim City. The combat and parkour is still firmly at the game’s forefront, with the former being given a significant overhaul to offer players increased control over hand-to-hand combat and – for the first time – while fighting on horseback. There’s plenty more being introduced in Brotherhood too, including what Ubisoft call ‘ballistics gameplay’, which sees Ezio taking control of a cannon to fend off incoming armies, as well as plenty of new moves, weapons and gadgets, including a machine gun on a chariot. Yes, you read that right.

Multiple ways to kill

The biggest addition of all however, is the introduction of a brand new multiplayer mode – and thankfully, it doesn’t feel as tacked on as you may have expected. “It would have been easy for us to just do a frag game,” says Boivin, “but that wouldn’t feel like Assassin’s Creed. It had to feel Assassin’s Creed and we’re really proud of what we’re able to do because there’s not really anything out there like that.” And true to their word, Ubisoft has delivered something quite unlike anything you’ll have played on PSN before. It’s all built around the idea of cunning and deception, as players creep around Rome disguised as members of the public, while attempting to pick off individual targets without being spotted. It’s ultimately a game of cat and mouse, with players skulking about rooftops, and attempting to blend in with wandering townsfolk before delivering a deadly blow to their target.

Bonus points can be earned by performing silent or acrobatic kills, with further rewards offered to the player for humiliating their target or escaping from their pursuer. An additional option to customize the player’s abilities adds depth, with the player able to allocate two unique abilities to their load-out, including a ’Disguise’ option to cloak themselves as an NPC, use smoke bombs, throwing knives or a hidden gun, or use ‘Morph’ to transform the crowd around them into duplicates of themselves, baffling their opponent along the way. More abilities unlock as you gain experience, and we’re promised further team-based and adversarial modes when the game launches this November.

So, it seems that Brotherhood isn’t just the mere stopgap between last year’s stunner and the inevitable third game that we’d been expecting. With an awesome single-player campaign and a fresh and utterly addictive multiplayer component, Brotherhood could easily be the best Assassin’s Creed yet.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood – Cinematic Trailer

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Assassin’s Creed II – Review

This grand retelling of the classic Journey to the West story sees muscle-bound slave Monkey and hi-tech wizard Trip stuck trying to escape a cataclysmic world, one that has been overrun by dangerous technology. They’re completely codependent, as Trip needs Monkey’s strength and guile, who in turn needs Trip’s technical know-how. Oh, and if he strays too far from her, the slave collar around his head will kill him.

So there’s tension from the outset, but Enslaved creates a kind of buddy-movie camaraderie not just in its cut-scenes and its dialogue, but in how the characters interact with one another. The game itself is an action platformer in the guise of a game like Uncharted, where players take control of Monkey and navigate sweeping environments while laying the smackdown on a few robots that get in the way. Even during our brief hands-on time with the game, the variety in play styles was abundant, from vertigo-inducing platforming to cover-based speedy stealth.

Where the animation rules the storytelling though, comes in the more subtle elements of Enslaved’s gameplay tapestry. An early section demands the pair navigate a minefield. Monkey has to carry the skeptical Trip on his back, and as the two hop and step between explosives, you can see a bond forming. Its clever stuff; the kind of thing that adds a layer of interest beyond the simple A to B mechanics of actually playing through a videogame.

Of course, none of this would matter have Ninja Theory forgotten to include something to play with. Enslaved, though, keeps up its early pace with surfing sections, a bit of blasting and some satisfying ‘hit robot with big stick’ rucks. The team’s experience on the underrated Heavenly Sword is evident not only in the density of Enslaved’s combat, but in the sense of grandeur and purpose that every moment of the story carries. Ninja Theory has a real knack of making your actions on screen seems really important.

Even the game’s opening, a largely scripted prison escape, has a tangible sense of urgency. Perhaps influenced by the fantastic set-pieces of Uncharted 2, or perhaps just fuelled by their own inspiration, Ninja Theory has crafted almost every one of Enslaved’s action sequences with a keen cinematic eye, placing as much emphasis on spectacle as it does on pixel-perfect jumping. If Enslaved can maintain this commitment to relentless excitement, then Namco Bandai and Ninja theory are onto a winner.

Even if not, the acting pedigree is hard to fault. Lord of the Rings’ star Andy Serkis has opened up his new mocap studio to Ninja Theory, so all the cut-scenes can be given the performance capture treatment, thus making them far more believable and emotionally resonant, and Serkis himself plays the role of Monkey. While the dialogue isn’t revelatory stuff, it’s believable and enjoyable, certainly in the parts we’ve played so far. Characters actually talk about more than just what they need to do or how angry they are, and throughout the game you should gain a better understanding of what makes the pair tick, despite all the carnage.

With stunning visuals throughout, a wealth of gameplay variety, strong characters and a general slickness and polish over the whole game, Enslaved has the potential to be the sleeper hit of the year, and that’s the real story here.

The ‘Future Soldier’ in the title is the real giveaway here. Unlike a Modern Warfare, Ghost Recon is taking things a little bit further, handing you the opportunity to play with the technology that’s on the horizon but is not quite here yet, and optical camouflage is just one of them.

At any point, the Ghosts can switch to a Predator-style near-invisibility, using their special reflective nanosuits (we don’t know how it works). This renders them almost impossible to see, and opens up plenty of options on the battlefield. Sending in one man in camo to flank your enemies while your team-mates take up strong cover positions is one obvious way of taking advantage of your new-found tech. The demo, for example, saw one particularly brave Ghost stroll right into an enemy base and take down foes with slick stealth kills. It’s going to make for some seriously tense combat scenarios – as Ubisoft likes to call them – because if you get rumbled then you’re going down.

Ubi has confirmed four-player co-op for the first time in the series, meaning that you and three real-life buddies will be able to charge through this future war together. Unlike a Gears or a Halo, success in Ghost Recon only comes from tight, tactical awareness. Rushing in headfirst into the enemy isn’t going to work, so you’re going to have to rely on communication, battle planning and careful use of the returning cross-com cameras in order to succeed. Probably not one to play with randoms, then, if Left 4 Dead and every other game ever is anything to go by.

Even on your own, though, Ghost Recon has always provided team-mate AI that’s robust and compliant enough. Playing on your own can sometimes make for a richer experience, simply because you can be the skipper without annoying your mates with your constant order-barking. The cross-com tech allows you to see what your buddies are doing at all times, so you can plan co-ordinated assaults and flanking maneuvers with relative ease.

More so than any previous Ghost Recon, though, Ubisoft is allowing players to go ‘all-action’ if they wish and just take the fight to the opposition. Spurred on by the current crop of mega-shooters, Ghost Recon Future Soldier’s slick cover mechanic and hi-tech weaponry will be ample for players to just dive in and blast the hell out of everything. It’ll be far less satisfying, of course, but the option’s there, much like it was in Splinter Cell Conviction.

There’s no doubt about it, this is Ubisoft’s big game of the winter, and its attempting to gain a foothold in the market that’s dominated by Call of Duty, Killzone and even Halo. Future Soldier is different enough and ambitious enough to make the Ghosts stand out from the pack. Quite a mean feat, considering no one can actually see them.