Fate can be a cruel mistress at times. Just when the family unit were starting to have actual conversations and the addictive grip of Call of Duty might have started to wane just a little, Activision and Treyarch go and hit us up with 4 brand new maps.

Its very rare that companies get a second chance after failing as completely as Reality Pump did with the first installment in the Two Worlds Saga. Thankfully, the Polish Developer has been given just that with the soon to be released (25th Jan) Western RPG Two Worlds 2

Well what can I say about my new friends Mr Kane and Mr Lynch? Well, It’s certainly fair to say that neither of these two characters are the kind of people that you would like to spend an evening dinner party with followed by a game of charades. However, I’m more than happy to cause chaos and mayhem with both of these misfits – never mind your heavily armoured, wisecracking Army of Two types. In Kane and Lynch 2, this is the real deal.

Every now and then a game sneaks out which defies expectation. In a market saturated with also-ran FPS crap set in pseudo-realistic Modern theatres of war, Red Dead Redemption aims to rekindle gamers interest in the long forgotten (but once incredibly popular)’Wild’ West of the late 19th Century.

‘If it aint broke, then dont fix it!’ A statement I’d defend to the bitter end when looking at some of my more cherished gaming franchises and thankfully, something which Sony’s Santa Monica studio obviously echoes with the most recent entry into the God of War Series.

Now I must admit I love stomping around Alien worlds suppressing and killing the locals as much as the next man. No, for once I am not talking about Avatar, but actually referring to the next installment in the Lost Planet franchise. 2010′s follow on from the surprise Capcom hit (all the way back in 2007) has been eagerly awaited by a loyal and adoring fanbase which, alas, has me amongst its members.

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. This is not only true of the natural world but also of the games we know and love. Splinter Cell is a series that has done just that; evolved through its iterations to keep gamers interested by adding new mechanics and elements to keep each new release fresh. The question hanging over Splinter Cell Conviction is, have ubisoft gone to far and changed the basis of what made Splinter Cell great?

It’s a fact of modern day life that almost every form of journalism now includes some form of preamble before finally reaching the point. Jeremy Clarkson, for example, rarely reviews a car without spending at least half his allocated space building up an elaborate prose about his childhood experiences upon which he then delivers a crucial fact about the vehicle in question. My reviews are just as guilty of this, although I do perhaps get round to describing the subject matter sooner or later.