It’s incredibly difficult to actually criticize Portal 2. At its heart it’s a very simple game, its premise a basic exercise in navigating from A-B, yet everything it attempts, it does so perfectly. Its puzzles are always ingenious, and their difficulty always excellently balanced. What starts out as relatively basic, though still brain-bafflingly solid tests built around portal placement and spatial awareness, gradually evolves into multifaceted, momentum-based, time-sensitive tasks, something utterly intimidating in concept, yet surprisingly feasible when you reach that point in the game. Considering all the different layers often involved, some of the puzzle design here is unbelievably good, and quite how Valve conceived some of the more challenging levels on show here is completely beyond us. If you thought some of Portal 1’s tests were complex, you really ain’t seen nothing yet.

Yet despite the puzzles growing increasingly intricate throughout – particularly in the game’s co-op mode where two portal guns allow for some especially incomprehensible scenarios (and later on, when gels that modify your speed and jump height become introduced) they always avoid becoming overly frustrating; that breakthrough eureka moment somehow always hitting at just the right time.

It’s all thanks to Valve’s pitch-perfect pacing, natural difficulty progression, and the method in which the developer introduces new mechanics. Rather than throwing you in at the deep end, Valve does a brilliantly subtle job at teaching the player by doing, eventually to the point where using gels, manipulating lasers or directing tractor beams feels instinctive – as ridiculous as that may sound. Subtle tweaks, too, like switching Portal 1’s energy balls for lasers, makes the game feel more instantaneous, so that when you do finally figure out the answer to the puzzle, there’s no waiting around for the elements to fall into place.

Besides the puzzles themselves, it’s Portal 2’s frankly brilliant dialogue that will leave players hooked. Portal 2 is the funniest game of the year, with an award-worthy script that manages to put every other game to shame.

It’s arguable that TV funny man Stephen Merchant – who voices the game’s lovable bot Wheatley – is actually too good, regularly leaving us in fits of laughter with his hilarious quips and brilliant one-liners. Just like GLaDOS in the original, he’s what makes the game, astonishingly threatening to outshine J.K. Simmons’ show-stopping work as Aperture Science founder Cave Johnson, and even the cold-hearted, acutely funny robo-bitch herself, a character whose input in Portal 2 we want to avoid discussing completely for fear of revealing any spoilers.

The single-player campaign is stronger than the co-op though, with the total lack of story in the co-op game making it feel more like something tacked on later in development than a well-considered addition. It’s still utterly brilliant, mind, and though it’s restricted to a series of Portal 1-esque challenge rooms, some fantastic design decisions (like the ping tool, for example, which helps partners communicate where to place puzzles is genius), make it one of the better co-op experiences we’ve had to date.

After Valve’s ‘tainted’ history with Sony’s console, we had been expecting to see the PS3 version of Portal 2 suffer in comparison to its counterparts. But thankfully it doesn’t, running at a smooth 30fps and without barely a hiccup. The load times are perhaps too frequent and occasionally a little too lengthy (the 10-15 second load after some of the smaller test chambers can begin to grate), but other than that, there’s really nothing you can point the finger at. And with some excellent Steam features, the PS3 version is easily the better option when it comes to choosing between the console version on offer.

Portal 2 is one of those sequels that outdoes the original by such a margin that it makes its predecessor seem almost irrelevant. The tweaks, dialogue and structure put it on a level with Valve’s, heck, the medium’s very best, easily being the best game we’ve played so far this year, and deserving of being remembered alongside the Half-Lifes, GTAs and Icos of the world. This was a triumph.

Electing for the everyman option when you’ve got Space Marine, Ork, Eldar and Chaos factions to choose from may seem like a wasteful option, but thankfully every faction is selectable in Retribution, both in multiplayer and single-player, and each with their own skewed 16-mission campaign to work their way through.

Set in the traumatic sub sector of Aurelia, the plot is set 10 years after the resolution of Chaos Rising and involves each race rushing to escape a coming armageddon delivered by an Inquisition fleet that has declared Exterminatus against an unfortunate part of the galaxy. Every being will be annihilated by massive atomic orbital bombardments which can turn a once green planet into a mass so unstable that it eventually explodes leaving only dust in its wake.

Players are placed right in the middle of it all and are asked to guide their chosen faction to either challenge or avoid the impervious threat. There is a witch-hunter inquisitor to work with those who wish to avoid the destruction, but in time-honoured fashion there will be branching options for players to explore with special loot and gear to earn on the way, as well as different plot options to determine the end of your race’s mini-story.

This doomsday backdrop is beautifully communicated with dramatic FMVs and heavily scripted missions which dial up the drama nicely. We sampled two different missions which featured the Imperial Guard fleeing from a giant Space Marine Land Raider, and another where one of the planets in the Aurelia system had succumbed to volleys of orbital cannons and was only minutes away from annihilation.

The addition which will really get strategy heads excited is the ability to build units. This was an option which was removed in Dawn of War II, but thankfully Retribution won’t be lacking in that much sought after area, with resources that can be spent on unit production via specific points on the map or channeled into upgrades for heroes and standard units. In addition, each faction will now have Super Heavy units which require massive amounts of resources to produce and have the power to almost single-handedly turn the tide of battle. Watching an Ork Battlewagon bulldoze over enemy forces or seeing a Super Marine Land Raider Redeemer toast large sways of forces instantaneously provided immediate gratification, even if your guys were the ones being rolled over. We’re happy to report that the missions still had that devilish mix of humor, destruction and delight, especially when coming across trashtalking Orks.

Content-wise, Retribution should please existing fans of Dawn of War and new players alike, as newbies are given an approachable experience, thanks to the lower difficulty levels. Multiplayer has also been given a spruce up, with new units for each faction, with a new lava-puddled map and additional Last Stand options.

For all the new inclusions, the biggest revelation we took away from seeing the game was how every type of gamer is catered for. Each race should provide enough variation to encourage plenty of experimentation in both the campaign and multiplayer modes, which should result in greater value for players. We admire Relic’s kitchen sink approach to this add-on, and if it is the last hurrah for Dawn of War II, it’s shaping up to be a good one.

Launched in September 2009, Fallen Earth is still a newcomer on the MMO scene, but thankfully most of the issues which plagued the game’s opening months have been rectified with no floating NPCs, unbalanced combat or insufferable lag.

The way Fallen Earth’s world is introduced to players is just as pitch perfect as before and manages to hold players’ hands just long enough as to not insult their intelligence. The prologue set inside the Hoover Dam does a fantastic job of clarifying your origins as a clone created by the mysterious GlobalTech corporation in the year 2156, and includes escaping your would-be prison to save any friendlies still trapped in the facility.

This segment was much more fast paced and guided than we’re used to, but it works, and introduces all of the key concepts necessary to understand your life outside of the compound. It’s here where one of Fallen Earth’s greatest assets is revealed, the first-person combat structure. Split into two parts, players have a choice of either selecting melee- or projectile-based weaponry, with damage against enemies dependent on what part of their body you hit. For gaming as a whole this isn’t new, but in MMOs it’s a rare find and makes skirmishes in Fallen Earth much more satisfying. If you hit a victim in the head, you know you’re going to cause much more damage.

The sheer amount of weaponry on offer is also staggering, with a wide array of rifles, pistols, shotguns, crossbows and even the almighty rocket launcher all making an appearance. There are close-range options too, but smashing an enemy in the face with a handy sledgehammer isn’t anywhere near as satisfying as picking them off from a distance with a sniper rifle.

Crafting is this franchise’s other main attraction, and even though this concept is common in other MMOs, the way Fallen Earth approaches it is genuinely revolutionary. Almost everything from buggies, weapons, armor, potions and poisons can be created from hundreds of different components collected from the wasteland. This is where the survival aspect comes in, because even though most things can be bought from NPCs, it is usually much more satisfying to go and farm resources such as copper, water, steel and iron from the wasteland yourself and craft them using recipes.

The wasteland is littered with thousands of different plants, hives and salvage piles to harvest. It isn’t just about random drops, because as soon as your nature skills are up to the appropriate level, players can predict what they’ll yield from any specific target. Constructing items doesn’t take long and thankfully you can go about your business while the magic is happening. Creating something new from what is effectively a load of junk is very satisfying.

New skills can also be learned via manuals earned during quests or bought from vendors, but everything is governed by the complicated level and AP system. All skills are governed by core character traits such as Intelligence, Perception, Agility, etc. and attributes can also be increased by targeting specific skills. This is an interesting idea; however it can confuse advancement early on, as it’s very hard to tell whether you’re moving your character in the direction you want it to go. The opening 10 hours are also a little overwhelming as the initial quests are so craft heavy, that you are usually tasked with just making items for one vendor after the next. This is necessary as you should at least try every different crafting skill once, nevertheless it can feel like a slog. This is further compounded by a lack of teleport or fast travel points between settlements, and a heavy reliance on mounts to cover the vast distances between towns. The trick is to mix up quests with plenty of exploration while keeping risks to the minimum, as slogging back to the mount retrieval point is a pain. After you get the hang of this balancing act, Fallen Earth becomes a real joy with a fascinating world to explore.

The landscape here may appear somewhat bleak, but beneath the rusted cars and decrepit buildings contained in the initially drab and dreary sector is a very accomplished MMO which has all the functionality required in a modern day MMO – like a waypoint-supported mini-map, clan contests and faction system – as well as three gigantic sectors which get even more interesting as you venture into them.

Now that all the launch kinks have finally been ironed out, this is one wasteland that you’ll surely relish spending many, many hours in, and it’s easy recommendation to any gamer who wants to sample a gaming experience that is truly original.

But apparently not. Visceral has outdone themselves again in Dead Space 2, introducing not one, but two horrific new child mutants that’ll make your skin crawl: a crawling undead fetus with an explosive sack on its back, and a pack of disfigured adolescents who prefer chewing off your face than doing the things ‘normal’ teenagers do.

Dead Space 2 is sick, in every sense of the word…

It all takes place three years after the original aboard The Sprawl, a mammoth space station built on one of Saturn’s moons, with lead character Isaac Clarke put under lock and key in the station’s asylum after having developed dementia. Admittedly there isn’t all that much to the story – the Markers are back, and so are the Unitologists, some people aren’t quite who they say they are, and Isaac’s girlfriend Nicole is still rattling around in his head. So far then, so Dead Space.

But despite sharing it’s obvious similarities, Dead Space 2 is an altogether different game to the original. Gone are the tight, claustrophobic corridors of the Ishimura (at least for the most part, as to say any more would spoil one of Dead Space 2’s greatest moments), replaced by The Sprawl’s relatively open – and populated – areas, and rather than creeping through engine rooms and ship decks, you’ll be blasting your way through horror-staple hospitals and children’s nurseries. And that itself – ignoring the new-found focus on action for a moment – is a key difference when it comes to setting up the mood for the sequel, with the relative familiarity of the locations helping Visceral play with your emotions more than they ever could with the relatively samey Ishimura.

In fact, it’s the environments themselves that are more likely to creep you out than the Necromophs this time around, trading the loneliness, mystery and dread of the first game for a sense of anger, desperation and turmoil of your own colony coming under attack.

Most of the scares though, come from Nicole, who’s now haunting Isaac for her death on the Ishimura. Whether it’s her suddenly creeping up on Isaac and screaming down his throat or doing something freakishly unnerving, Visceral manage to use the character to build brilliantly on the original’s fantastic mix of shock scares, player paranoia and ‘WTF moments’ and deliver one of the eeriest games we’ve played in years.

The game’s now incredibly slick, too. Controls have been remapped to allow for a more conventional setup (you can reload, for example, by simply tapping Square, rather than the convoluted L1 + X combo of the original), while movement feels far less clunky than that of Dead Space 1. But then it needed to be, with the sequel sharing much more in common with a third-person shooter than the survival horror feel of the original. In many respects, it’s almost like the difference between Resi 4 and Resi 5.

That faster, action-packed focus allows Visceral to throw scene after scene of breathtaking Hollywood-style set-pieces at the player, be it a battle on a speeding train, a gunfight out in space (the new ‘Iron Man’ Zero-G areas are a real highlight), or the insane – though disappointingly poorly designed – final boss. There’s less of a focus on puzzles and tension-building, too, (although the new Velociraptor-like Stalker Necromorphs do a great job at ramping up our heart rate every time) and more emphasis on pouring a tonne of bad guys into the same room as you – a relief for some perhaps, but a nightmare for others. Indeed, it’s quite telling that our favourite moment came via Chapter 10, a moment of brilliance that we wish Visceral could have dragged out for longer than it did. Confused? Well, you’ll see what we mean when you get there…

The inclusion of a multiplayer component further highlights Dead Space 2’s mainstream-action focus, too. Fun but ultimately throwaway, the multiplayer mode borrows from games like Left 4 Dead and Singularity to pitch man against mutant, although we really can’t see it holding you back from the more established online stalwarts that are out there.

Though it starts to waver in the second half (the confusion between straight-out shooter and well-paced horror starts to show later on), Dead Space 2’s epic action sequences and unrelenting spooks had us trembling on more than one occasion. Strap on those headphones, turn off the lights, and prepare yourself for one of the most terrifying shooters you’ll play this year. A different, but equally essential sequel.

With Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, such an identity crisis has been discarded, giving life to a sweeping and distinct openworlder that’s as much about constant story progression as it is about city-wide renovation. Assassin’s Creed has finally accepted that it’s pretty ‘out there’ in its design choices, and is revelling in it. A good thing, too.

The main thread of the plot picks up just where Assassin’s Creed 2 finished, with Ezio confronting the Pope and seeing an apparition of the goddess Minerva appear in front of him. From there, it’s a jaunt to Rome to take down the Borgia family, with the occasional jump forward in time to visit Desmond and company.

It’s a much simpler tale than previous Assassin’s Creeds, and better for it. Ezio has become an older, wiser and more stoic character, and the supporting cast (a mix of old and new) are stronger than before. Basically, it’s a lot less pretentious. There’s a lot less legwork if you just want to hammer through the plot, and the variety in assassination types and mission objectives is welcome.

You may be scaling a huge building to sneak up on a filthy lawyer, tracking an informant through the ruins of ancient Rome or sneaking up on someone during a play in the Colosseum. Apart from a few glitchy objectives here and there, it’s all strong stuff.

There’s plenty to do outside of the missions too, and to really enjoy Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, you’re best examining all the glowing blips on your minimap before you progress the story. There’s tons to do.

You can excavate tombs for treasure in classic Prince of Persia platforming style, carry out side-missions for the various factions around town, take down Borgia-controlled areas of the city, and even renovate buildings. There’s a serious amount of content here, even before you dive into the brand-new multiplayer modes.

Yes, for the first time, Assassin’s Creed has a true online component, and it’s surprisingly engaging. Those expecting the kind of pace that Halo and Call of Duty offer might be put off, but if you’re prepared to put in the time to slowly pace the city, tracking down a target and staying clear of your opponents, all of whom are trying to do the same thing. Acting suspiciously will raise your profile and your opponents will realise you’re an assassin. It’s all about patience – not something that you’d normally associate with online gaming.

At the moment, the community seems enamoured with this slower pace. After all, any attempt at griefing or idiocy will just see you sliced down in cold blood, so it pays to play the game properly. It’ll be interesting to see how the game evolves over time. So far so good, though, there are no obvious exploits of bugs weighing it all down.

When it comes down to it, though, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood captures the things that has made the previous two games so successful and improved upon them. By the time you reach the second half of the story, you’ll have your own team of assassins which can be called upon at any time for a slick murder job, making you feel more like a leader than most games ever manage. You can even send them off on contracts around Europe to level them up in a pseudo strategy game. It’s odd, but compelling. Building your own little assassin army is empowering.

It’s the free-running freedom that really comes to the fore. With fewer dull mission objectives and fetch quests than the previous games, you’re free to enjoy the playground that is Italy’s grand capital to its full extent. And what a place to run around – huge towers to climb, stunning architecture to explore and a glorious view at every turn. Once you’ve mastered the subtleties of the climbing mechanics – and you should have by now – Rome is your toy to do with what you will.

Having said all that though, this feels like the last time Assassin’s Creed can rely on this type of gameplay alone to sustain it, and the inevitable ‘proper’ sequel will need to add some genuine variety. For a year’s work, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is impressive stuff. This is no lazy cash-in, it’s the hard work of talented people honing their craft, and another sure-fire hit. Forza Ezio Auditore.

Quite well, actually. LEGO Universe doesn’t try to be WoW or EVE, or even one of the simpler MMOs on the market. Rather, it sits in the middle and sets its sights on kids, both big and small. For those with children who love LEGO, this could easily be a good way to introduce them to the MMO genre, as the game carefully teaches everything we bigger kids know and love about the genre, from class archetypes, lore to other important aspects found in MMOs, like doing quests and collecting pets.

The storyline explains how the LEGO Universe is under threat from the Maelstrom, a malevolent force created from imagination itself. Only a handful of the yellow-skinned minifigures have survived the destruction and so they form the Nexus Force to try and save their universe. Player characters can take one of four roles that emulate the traditional classes under a new name. There are the Mage-like Paradox who are able to harness the Maelstrom and fight back, the Warrior-esque Sentinals, the builders of the Assembly and the explorers’ Venture League. These four classes also introduce the black and white world of opposing factions, and it’s black and white as opposed to other games’ murky grey.

The game operates on a standard subscription model but parents worried about their little ones needn’t worry, as there’s plenty to keep them safe. The game allows players to connect with their friends but also has the in-game legend of the Mythrans, who offer lessons in online safety and helping others. The developers and LEGO Group have also taken time to lay out how the same is safe for younger players, and if you’re a parent of first-time gamers then this can be reassuring. LEGO have taken pains to outline their stance on safety, and it’s a refreshing stance from such a massive, well-loved company.

As for gameplay, LEGO is understandably all about playing and building. You take the roll of one of the iconic minifigures and set out on an epic adventure across a massive universe. There’s plenty to do, too. You can race and play minigames, you can build all manner of amazing creations using LEGO blocks and other accessories which drop from smashable mobs. The collectors out there will also enjoy the pets you can tame. This involves a minigame where you have to identify the blocks in a particular pet. By getting this correct, you get yourself one of a range of crittery companions that include everything from dragons and pandas to robo-animals and dinosaurs.

People expecting graphics found in WoW or Aion will be disappointed but for fans of the other games created in the LEGO style will see a very recognisable look to their first MMO. The simple graphics accentuate the whole experience. This is a game created from one of the world’s most beloved and iconic toy brands. What it might lack in sophistication, it makes up for in inventiveness and sheer fun. The learning curve is perfectly pitched so that even big kids will be able to get in on the act, Indeed, kids might actually end up teaching their parents. LEGO Universe is not just an MMO for kids, it’s an MMO for beginners so that young gamers will easily be able to graduate to more complex games like WoW.

LEGO, quite simply, offers the building bricks that teach gamers the ins and outs of the MMO and lets them have fun at the same time. So that’s not a bad combination for something that’s so fun.