It´s almost a given that any game with "Shock" in the title carries some huge expectations. Irrationals "sequel-to-a-spiritual-sequel" has some huge shoes to fill, both in terms of gameplay and storyline, and the inclusion of a multiplayer mode was a surprise to many. So, Big Daddy is back, and this time he is meaner than ever before.

First things first, I am going to assume that most people reading this have played the first game. If you haven’t, I strongly recommend you play that first as the story and characters of the first tie into the world of Rapture so strongly that you will only get half an experience (and a confusing one at that!). For those who have, Bioshock 2 is set around 8 years after the first game, with the city of Rapture in a worse state than it was before.

Mass Effect 2 literally starts off with a bang. This lays the foundation and impressively keeps the action packed momentum going throughout the game. The opening scene also provides justification for restarting Shepard from level 1 in a manner you would least expect.

As Mass Effect 2 presents a great story and one that is better experienced first hand rather than reading it on a review, I have not discussed the plot. As we have come to expect from BioWare games, the story is top notch and is delivered at just the right pace.

Bleak, shocking, terrifying, empty, compelling, tough. These are just a few words I scribbled down after my first couple of hours with the latest instalment of the STALKER franchise, and I feel they sum up my experience perfectly.

STALKER: Call of Pripyat  (for those not in the know) is the third part of GSC Gameworld ´s collection of FPS tales about the wasteland zones surrounding the infamous Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986. The fallout of the explosion and subsequent radiation of the district has lead to the creation a contained society, inhabited by fortune hunters, mutants, warring factions and all manner of crazy things. In CoP, the government has decided to reclaim the area, and you have been sent in to discover the fate of an advance party of helicopters. Alone.

Noby Noby Boy is a project by Keita Takahashi, a game designer made semi-famous by the Katamari Damacy series of games. Takahashi is synonymous with off-the-wall Japanese gaming, creating the types of titles that can’t really be defined by conventional norms.

In Noby Noby Boy, you control Boy, a worm type creature whose front and back halves can be steered independently, and can be stretched and shrunk to any length. Boy exists in randomly created worlds, populated with people, creatures, strange vehicles, and structures. Boy can swallow most things in the game, which can be stored in the extended out sections of his body, and sometimes combined to create new items when he “poops” them out. Creatures can also be tempted to ride on Boy, structures can be climbed up and down on, objects can be gripped onto, and Boy can also jump into the air.

Get your friends online, turn down the lights, as those darned infected are back with a vengeance! Valve have released the sequel to last year’s hit, Left 4 Dead, amidst controversy, boycotts, and rabid fan-boy enthusiasm, and once again turn gamers loose in their post-apocalyptic world.

The game’s story is about witches and sages, two groups with different magical powers that represent hell and heaven respectively. Usual norms don’t apply as neither group is necessarily made to be good or evil.

Quite frankly, although the plot had potential, the story and characters are never properly developed and the actions not well explained. This makes the gameplay the primary focus. And boy, the gameplay is good!