Final Fantasy XIII split fans and critics down the middle, while many loved the change in direction for the series some hated it just as much. Reviewers were scoring the game at around 8 or 9 out of 10, praising the combat system and the production of the game while fans were upset by the lack of freedom and the slog to get through the first third of the game. Die hard fans of Final Fantasy will never like change, and yes from the days of FFVII -IX which was a personal favourite time for me, the game has changed and advanced a lot, but it wouldn’t it be somewhat foolish for a company to bring out thirteen or so games that were near exactly the same.

As a long term fan of the Final Fantasy games I can see just how much they have changed over the years bringing in all kinds of new aspects and abilities for each new game and revisiting and improving the parts we know and love. Square Enix has promised that Final Fantasy XIII-2 will be an huge improvement on its predecessor and it’s clear to see that they are determined to make some major developments, so much so that it has all become a little overwhelming. But just what have they changed for the new game and will it be for the better? Decide for yourselves after reading my hands on impressions from the demo and all the inside facts.

Story
It’s been three years since Lightning and co saved Cocoon from colliding with Pulse. Serah, now living in Gran Pulse, is looking for her sister who unknown to anyone has entered a new world, Valhalla, when she fell to the base of the crystal pillar supporting Cocoon. Time gates have begun showing up in New Bodham and further afield and it is said that by passing through one of these gates, one can eventually arrive in Valhalla.

The setting and story for XIII-2 is looking to be a lot darker and more mysterious and can be seen from the sneak peak of trailers and screenshots that have been released. In my opinion XIII was a bit over the top cute and almost kooky in places and made for some rather odd character interactions. Usually Square Enix manage to translate the Japanese humour and characters well but something just didn’t seem to fit. Having the story go to a darker and more mysterious place seems like a good direction and from the short amount of story that I saw in the demo the tone has definitely changed.

Time travel has been done countless times before in many different games and now it’s here for the first time in a Final Fantasy game. You are given the option to travel forward and backward in time to change events that have passed and that are yet to come and the outcomes can change the course of the game. The key word of many people who complained about the previous games shortfalls was linearity, it was too enclosed and straightforward. This addition looks to be opening the game up for more variability and exploration and hopefully the whole time travel experience can be done in a unique and interesting way.

Characters
Passing from sister to sister the main character of XIII-2 is now Serah Farron a character who was never actually controllable in the first game and only really seen during cut scenes. She is set on finding her sister Lightning who unknown to her has entered a new world, Valhalla. Everyone else believes Lightning to be dead and Serah will have a hard time convincing them otherwise.

New to the adventure is Noel Kreiss who has time travelled seven hundred years from the future to change the fate of the human race of which, in his time, he was the only survivor. He claims to have met Lightning and to have knowledge about time travel.

Snow Villiers and Hope Estheim both make a return looking somewhat different and more mature than when we last saw them and Lightning, the main character from the previous game will also be playable for short periods of the story.

The ever lovable, or depending on how you see it, incredibly annoying Moogles have returned to the world of Final Fantasy bringing with them new combat and treasure finding abilities.

Combat
The FFXIII ATB (Active Time Battle) combat system for me was probably the strongest point in the game. It allowed for a fast paced battle against numerous foes and using the Paradigm shift system, fast changes between a team that could cause a large amount of damage and a team that could tank and heal to recover from multiple attacks. The combat system is largely untouched for XIII-2 but some changes have been made. The inclusion of cinematic battle sequences during major boss fights is one such change. These cinematic battles allow you to deal larger amounts of damage than usual and even buff your team providing you can hit a series of buttons in quick succession that appear on the screen. From first hand play I can say that this looks as if it will be a great inclusion to the combat sequences. The cinematic sequences kept me interested, even in the longer battles and increased the pace and excitement.

Moogles have brought with them a new system for entering combat called the Mog Clock. Monsters won’t be seen walking around the map anymore and instead you will have a moogle companion with you at all times that will alert you of nearby foes only. When one does appear the Mog clock will begin to count down and depending on how long it takes you to initiate combat you could be aided or hindered. If you are quick to attack, you may receive combat buffs and the enemy will be immobilised allowing you a preemptive strike. If you take a little time and the enemy notices you, the battle will start as normal with no buffs to your team. If the Mog Clock runs out of time, the enemy will be fully aware and alert and should you fail the encounter you will be unable to retry.

Players can now tame monsters they encounter throughout the game and call on them to fight during normal game play, taking the place of XIII’s Eidolons. Each monster will have different attacks and abilities and can even heal you so choosing the right one for each encounter and situation could make a lot of difference to progression through the storyline.

It is now possible for your characters to become wounded during battle, meaning the maximum available health for that character has been reduced and cannot be healed past with normal spells or potions but instead with special ‘wound potions’. Enemies with these certain attacks and abilities and considered very dangerous. Fortunately some abilities that you gain in your Crystarium will have the same affect on enemies and can be used just as much to your own advantage.

Previously Final Fantasy games have not included difficulties and have set all players along the same route meaning that if you get stuck you just need to try again and again or go back and level up your skills before progressing further. However if you are finding it hard going, for the first time Square Enix have included a difficulty setting allowing you to make things a bit easier and hopefully progress that little bit smoother through the game.

Customisation
One thing that I really enjoy about Final Fantasy games are the deep levels of stat and combat customisations that you can experiment with. Being able to focus your character on a certain aspect whether it be damage, healing, tanking or a mixture of all of them and being able to freely choose stats to upgrade and advance is what really makes each persons playthrough of the game unique. This was somewhat lacking in XIII and the usual wealth of options were narrowed.

Luckily for us Square Enix have brought in Tri-Ace, a Japanese developer who are well known for giving their games action packed battle and deep and interesting skill systems. The result is the improved Crystarium system used for adding stats and learning new combat abilities, which will take the shape of the chosen characters weapon. This time around there will be no cap on how far you can advance the Crystarium at any point in the story and you will be able to access all of the main roles for every character right from the start. Instead of being tiered the Crystarium is now advanced in levels and at the end of each of these levels you are given a choice of things to advance, whether it be increasing you accessory capacity, adding an additional attack slot during battle or enhancing a characters role (ie medic, commando etc) allowing new abilities to be learnt. Tamed monsters will also have their own Crystarium allowing you to further improve combat efficiency.

From what I saw of the Crystarium in the demo it seemed a little confusing as to exactly what stats you were levelling up and how exactly it all worked. Compared to XIII it did seem more in depth though and the choice of advancements every time you levelled your Crystarium was a very nice touch.

Entirely new to Final Fantasy is the Live Trigger System. This is much like Bioware’s conversation wheel in that it allows you to choose different directions to take the conversation, each with different outcomes. These decisions can shape the story and multiple endings to the game are possible depending on your actions.

Graphics and Interface
The interface is largely untouched from the previous game with the same layout and only slight changes and updates for some of the new abilities, these all fit in seamlessly though and overall it has a very polished and easy to use feel. The graphics, as always with Final Fantasy games, are beautiful and move seamlessly between mini cutscenes and live controllable action. No major story based cutscenes were included in the demo which is a shame as this is where the graphics usually excel above and beyond what is expected. I’m sure any doubts on this part will soon be put to rest as soon as the full game is out.

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While the demo is very short, it’s clear to see that Square Enix have taken in a lot of what people have been saying they want from a Final Fantasy game and brought it into XIII-2. They have also taken the time to include some aspects that have never before been seen in the Final Fantasy series. Exploration, customisation, great story lines, beautiful cutscenes and exciting battles are the things that make me keep coming back to every new Final Fantasy game and it sure looks like they are all present here. If everything pays off this looks as if it could be one of the best Final Fantasy games yet.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 will be released on PS3 and Xbox 360 on February 3rd around Europe.

Running With Rifles is a top-down shooter by Modulaatio Games. Then premise is a simple one: warfare, and lots of it. This is the kind of game I’ve wanted for the longest: a game of endless warfare where you muck in with the other soldiers. You are not special, to begin with. You don’t even start as an officer, if you don’t want to. You are just one of the rank-and-file, and you will die. A lot.

Stepping back, you begin the game  selecting which army you wish to fight with (grey or green). You then select the initial number of occupied bases, which will affect where the battle initially focuses, your initial rank, which will increase and decrease depending on how well you do, the accuracy of the AI, and then the maximum number of soldiers, from 0 to 600. There are also two large maps to choose from. As you can see, there’s already a fair bit of customisation in place.

So how does the game hold up? It’s good, actually. Really good. At the beginning of the game, you spawn in one of your bases with whatever rank you set for yourself and a weapon chosen at random. Maybe a few grenades, if you’re lucky. Tab brings up a map where your objective is always highlighted, which often involved going to an area of the map and capturing it. By killing every hostile in the area. You are never alone: your allies will have the same objectives and you can (and should) join up with their squads. When you do well, by killing things and completing objectives, you accumulate points. Get enough, and you’re promoted, which is a similar way to how the real military does things. Being promoted allows you to recruit allies into your squad (this is done automatically). At the maximum rank of Captain, you can recruit 7 others. Being killed and ‘accidentally’ killing your own troops makes you lose points, and you can very easily be demoted.

You’ll be glad of allies when you get into a firefight. Combat is quick and brutal. There is an automatic cover system in place, which you need to make full use of if you are to survive more than a few seconds. Two or three bullets can easily kill you, and firefights are usually drawn out by reinforcements from both sides as people die all around you. It genuinely feels as if you are caught in the middle of an all-out war. The urban combat in the second map (which is not in the demo) is really where the combat shines. Forced into close-quarters, entire squads flanking around buildings, machine gunners and snipers setting up on rooftops. It is intense and it is incredible fun. The AI works well and is highly reactive, if a bit supernaturally accurate even on the standard accuracy setting.

I have only two real issues, and they’re both to do with the visuals. One is that, with there being different terrain elevations, it can be hard to tell when someone is on a hill, as the area more or less looks flat. That’s pretty minor, however, and should be fairly easy to rectify. Another issue is that it is incredibly easy to lose track of where you are, even with a yellow circle around your character, and I would say that the number one cause of my deaths is losing track of where I am in relation to the enemy. Maybe it’s just because the game feels a bit too zoomed out for me to always know what’s going on. Either way, it’s something to bear in mind.

I like it. A lot. Future plans include, well… I’ll just give you the list:

• vehicles: jeeps, trucks
• more factions
• medic features, pulling wounded teammates to cover
• boats, think inflatable size
• attack dogs
• weather effects, rain, thunder and lightning, snow
• more light sources: street lights, explosions
• destructible/constructible stuff: sandbag walls, trenches
• editable terrain: trench digging, fox holes, impact craters
• occluded field of view for additional difficulty and more interesting player vs player gaming

Running With Rifles is still in early beta, with €5.25 getting you access to the beta and all future updates. There is a demo that is a few versions old, but purchasing gets you the latest build featuring a new map, tweaks and fixes, and online multiplayer. Do I recommend a pre-order? Yes. There’s a lot here to like already, with more coming all the time. Even if you think you may not like this sort of thing, I would still recommend keeping an eye on it.

You wake in a pod, no idea where you are or who you are, all you know is that a door is about to open throwing you into the unknown. That unknown turns out to be a bit of a wasteland, which, from what I saw of the early parts of the game comes across as a mix between Fallout 3 and Borderlands all tied up with id Software’s new megatexture technology and some vehicles.

After being ambushed by some chaps who mean you harm, you get rescued by a gruff leader of a small group of friendlies. You receive your first mission from this chap who provides you with some basic supplies to keep you alive. A pistol with standard ammunition is your starting weapon, it will keep you alive, and with a bit of skill you will find it a very useful tool for knocking down the many enemies you will encounter along the way. Your first mission introduces you to the combat and the death system where you are able to resuscitate yourself thanks to the nanites in your blood stream. At least that is how it is explained.

If you have any sense you will jump in a buggy to get around your first few missions, there may be plenty of scenery, but from my experience with the opening hour or so with the game, there isn’t much of anything to do outside of the mission areas. I sincerely hope that there is something to do away from the settlements and mission hubs apart from driving around, it might get a bit boring if you drive long distances. In the short time I played though, all the missions and hubs were closely connected so not too much driving was required.

It is worth knowing that the driving itself is perfectly fine, your quad-bike or buggy will bounce around nicely on the bumps of the wasteland, and a powerful boost will kick things up a gear.

Along the way in the early stages of the game you will be rewarded with some recipes for items to craft. If you need more bandages to quickly heal yourself during a fight, or more lock grinders, you can craft them with the bits and pieces you will find during the missions. It is a system that adds a bit more depth to what you get from a typical id Software game, and when you learn to craft new ammunition you will certainly be able to expand on how you use your guns.

You can also combine equipment you find with your weapons, along my way I came across one half of a pair of binoculars which I was able to use with my pistol. I went from using a pistol with normal iron sights, to a pistol useful for sniping. It is another part of the RPG elements you will find in the game, and while it certainly doesn’t seem to be anything like a Fallout or Oblivion, it does move Rage up and beyond the usual fare of shooters.

One moment which certainly caught my attention occurred when walking through the second friendly settlement you come across. While walking up some stairs to finish off a mission, a character who had seemed absolutely inconsequential when I first walked past him to get the details on my completed mission, said that I should see him after seeing the boss as he would have a job for me.

I didn’t get a marker telling me to see this guy, it was just an off the cuff remark that I tried to follow up on. What made this moment really shine was that this new mission was a direct continuation of what I found in the previous mission. While events at the original camp seemed to be jumping ahead with little involvement from me, I was quite pleased with this moment, it felt good to pick up from where another had failed.

I am hesitant to say that Rage will be one of the best games we will see this year, but I am prepared to be pleasantly surprised when it comes out next week. From my play test I can say that this is more than the usual id fare and it looks like it will be worth checking out.

Rage will be available in the UK on the 7th October for PC, 360 and PS3.

I can’t put my finger on it, but none of the previous games from the Saints Row series have ever made their mark on me. In fact, I had never played any of them until I saw the stand full of Xbox 360’s running the third entry in the series at the Eurogamer Expo. From the first moment I played it, I was in love.

I may not love it like Half-Life or Battlefield 2, but I was pleasantly taken aback by this game, I had followed the trailers and news surrounding it with only a small glimmer of interest taking for a poor mans Grand Theft Auto.

How wrong I was to ignore it, Saints Row: The Third is, without a shadow of a doubt, the game I had the most fun with at the Expo, and in a world where we have a lot of really good games which don’t always make the leap into being fun to play on your own, this does stand out.

The level of character customisation would put the create a wrestler option from the WWE games to shame. I got to the game at one point and I found myself controlling a man with a giant bunny head, tattooed upper body and hot pants, it was so bizarre. Needless to say, I kept playing like that despite the ludicrousness of it.

In my hands on with the game, I spent the majority of my time driving around town assaulting people, stealing cars and knocking people flying off their motorbikes. Some of the animations when you run towards someone and attack them without any weapons are hilarious, I know I spotted at least one DDT along with a few more wrestling moves. Knocking people flying off their bikes is another richly rewarding experience with slow-mo kung fu kicks flying here, there and everywhere.

The few side missions I played were as barmy as the character customisation, in one you had to cause as much damage to your own body within a set time as possible to pull off a health insurance scam, much running into vehicles trying to get run over ensued. In another I was driving around wearing a flame retardant suit in a burning car trying to clear all the checkpoints with the time limit, touching another car instantly destroyed it and gave me bonus time. I also saw someone driving around with a tiger in the passenger seat, mauling at them as they drove.

I’m not entirely sure how much depth there is when it comes to the main story, but from looking at the map there were plenty of icons indicating mini-games and side missions. It doesn’t really matter too much though, at the end of the day, Saints Row: The Third is fun, and that is all that counts.

To say that Global Offensive is the best version of Counter-Strike when it is still least three months from a possible release is a massive statement, and I’ll be honest when I say that I don’t think it is possible to have a definitive ‘best’ version of this series. No matter how many people buy Global Offensive, there are going to be those who stick to their guns and proclaim 1.6 or Source as being the best version.

However, Chet realises that just remaking 1.6 in a new engine isn’t enough, he highlights an article written by retired professional Counter-Strike play Kyle “ksharp” Miller, and said “K Sharp put up a really good article where he talked about the need to have an open mind towards this happening, and to just update 1.6 with new graphics isn’t enough, it needs to be more than that.”

It is clear from playing the PlayStation 3 version of the game at the Expo that this is more than just a graphical update for the game, Chet talked to me about the weapons, saying “There are eight new weapons, some of them are throwable and some are new weapons.” These new tools include the Molotov Cocktail and a tazer style weapon. However, Valve weren’t just happy with adding a bunch of new weapons; they have had a look at the weapons that were found in Source. “We’ve updated all the weapons almost to make sure you have different choices along the way, and it is not just four weapons you are worried about.”

It was a bit disappointing not to be able to play the PC version of the game, that will come when the Beta kicks off in October. But you can understand that at an event like the Eurogamer Expo it is important for Valve to show that there is a real alternative to the Call of Duty’s and Battlefield in the first person shooter market. After playing a few rounds of Global Offensive, you do feel a breath of fresh air. There are no perks and unlocks to give you an edge on your opponents, this is a game where success is more determined by skill than the amount of time spent playing as a particular class.

Despite playing on a PS3, I was pleasantly surprised to find that combat had that distinct Counter-Strike feel. A small things such as having to actively select your knife to use it was a stark reminder that this isn’t a gung-ho shooter. As Chet explained to me about the lack of a quick knife “it is about you making those tactical choices.”

While I was waiting for the game to load, I noticed that we were playing de_dust on Casual mode. The difference between the two modes was one that I was keen to find more details on, fortunately the difference between Casual and Competitive don’t extend too far into how the game works. Chet described Casual mode as being perfect for when “you want to play with your friends, and you still want to be competitive in the sense that someone still wins and loses right, but you want to be more laid back about it, you want to sit around and have all talk” while Competitive is going to be there for “when you want to be more focused, test your skills, your going to play with a skill based ranking.”

It was interesting to hear from Chet that Global Offensive wasn’t started with the aim of cornering the e-sports market in conjunction with DOTA 2, rather they are coming together naturally. “It is this weird thing of DOTA 2 and CS:GO were started and worked on independently of each other without that thought, and now as they are coming to maturity towards the same time, it seems that way. I think everyone at Valve, we get excited about different things at different times, and this is what we are excited about now.”

Global Offensive certainly is continuing in the same vein as Counter-Strike 1.6 and Source, but whether it lives up to Chet’s assertion that it will be “the best version of Counter-Strike” will only be put to the test when the PC beta is released. I am quietly positive that it will turn out good.

Global Offensive will be released in 2012 on PC, 360 and PS3.

The Battlefield 3 booth at the Eurogamer Expo is split into three distinct sections, first is a brief single-player demo on the PS3. Second is Rush mode on Operation Metro for the PS3 and 360. Finally, the granddaddy of them all is the PC area where you can take part in a spot of team deathmatch on the impressively adaptable Operation Metro map.

The single-player demo was sadly very short, it takes place in a night mission where your squad is assaulting a town, and ends when you jump into a HUMMWV. After you are locked into place with your team leader talking you through the place, you have a mighty downhill charge to find a spot to set up a mortar. With the mortar set up, and an illuminating round sent up, you get a lift over a wall into enemy territory.

In order to effectively take down the enemy you need to use your iron sights or scope, gunning from the hip isn’t going to get you far. With night all around, you need to be sure of your shots to avoid hitting your team mates. After taking down a few bad guys, I picked up a lovely modified G3 rifle. This was my favourite weapon in Battlefield 2, and it is just as fearsome in the new game. Emboldened with my new weapon, I ran to one end of the canal trench we were fighting in to take out an MG nest.

My gung-ho tactics paid off and some of my squad mates followed me around, while the rest of the team made a move on the far side to get out of the canal. After clearing the MG nest and being out of ammo for my trusty G3, I grabbed a new gun and advanced with my team to clear out a house. The first door was opened for me and after a bit of close combat which involved me fumbling around with the PS3 controller, I came across another door which I was able to open myself.

This led to a set piece where an enemy behind the door knocked me flying when I made the breach, a bit of mad shooting from the floor later he was dead and my route was clear. Sadly the demo ended soon after with the arrival of the HUMMWV, but I was impressed by what I played. The single-player is always going to take a back seat in Battlefield to the online aspect, but I got a good feeling from this demo. It was just a shame it was so short and only on the PS3.

The next aspect of the hands-on was a 360 or PS3 multiplayer session on the Operation Metro map in Rush mode. It was interesting to see that the queue for the PS3 session was always considerably shorter than the 360 queue. If you were in the Alpha then you will know what this is all about, and with the Beta starting in the next few days we will see everyone get the chance to try Rush on Operation Metro. DICE have made some tweaks to the map since the Alpha with the MCOM points in the first stage being moved around quite substantially. I’ll have more thoughts on the Rush mode when the Beta goes live when I am able to play it on the PC. Needless to say, the console version was fun to play, though clearly lacking the finesse that you would expect from the PC build.

Finally we had the PC build of the game being run on a bunch of very powerful machines which we clearly being powered by a nVidea set up with a lot of advertising around for the graphics card manufacturer. I was pleasantly surprised to see fairly long queues for the PC version, it was just a shame that it was hidden behind a few pillars and the walls of the console area.

The PC session took place on Operation Metro again, but was set on team deathmatch mode. Before I talk about how it played, I will say that the game looked absolutely stunning, I can only assume it was set to the highest settings, but it absolutely blew the PS3 version out of the water.

It also blew the console version away with how it felt to play, it was enjoyable on the console, but as soon as you have a keyboard and mouse to use, you have such a greater level of control and accuracy which is really important to a good game on Battlefield. It came across as being quite a pure version of team deathmatch compared to the recent Call of Duty games. Well if you can ignore the revives that is.

There was certainly a slower, more tactical pace than I was expecting, hopefully that resonates into the final game, but certainly 6v6 felt very comfortable for the game mode and the map size. I wouldn’t expect team deathmatch to be as popular on public servers than Rush or Conquest, but I think there might be room for it to grow as a competitive mode. Of course that would depend on server customisation options, but it is something to think about.

At the end of the day though, while it is great to play some of the single-player campaign, the demo was too short to gain any meaningful insights, other than that it feels a bit different to other shooters which have a modern setting. While deathmatch on the PC was enjoyable, it was definitely a skewed vision of the game taking place on extremely powerful machines and with limited player numbers. The continued lack of conquest is worrying, hopefully it will be shown off in the beta.

Battlefield 3 will be released on the 28th October 2011 on PC, 360 and PS3.

To give us a taste of things to come Konami have released a demo featuring the likes of AC Milan, Man Utd, Napoli, Porto, Penarol and Santos. After watching an excessively long and unskippable video showing you how pretty the game looks you can choose either an exhibition match between the European teams, play the Copa Libertados final between Penarol and Santos or you can play some training challenges.

The training challenges introduce you to some of the new features of Pro Evo 12‘s gameplay, like being able to control team mates when running with the ball. This mode, while quite enjoyable, won’t be needed by PES veterans but if you’re a FIFA fan make sure it’s your first stop.

Most of the changes Pro Evo 12 are clear from the kick-off on the pitch though. The game feels a lot more realistic than previous instalments with the focus shifting from the ultra attacking approach that football games have been taking since Sensible Soccer to a more balanced and defensive outlook.

Breaking through an opponents defence requires skill, whether it be from elaborate passing, great off-the-ball running or deft footwork. You can’t just run into a defender and expect to come out with the ball you need to work the defence, pulling them out of position before you even have a chance at getting a shot on target.

As a football simulation this is the closest any game has come so far. Players all feel unique and all act in appropriate ways when controlled by the AI. Nani brings out the skills at every opportunity, Gattuso hunts down players like a rabid terrier and Hulk hammers through anyone who gets in his way.

From the demo alone it’s clear that PES 12 is a major step forward in the series and with more improvements on the way before it hits stores on the 14th of October this may be the first time in years when gamers will have a real decision over which football game to buy.

Pro Evolution Soccer 12 will be available 14/10/2011 on PC, 360 and PS3. It will also be available on PS2, PSP and Wii later this year. Demo played on the PS3.

The level of detail in each new Forza game is astounding, each new titles builds exponentially on what we saw in the previous entry in the series. Massive amounts of car customizations are available from paint jobs to engine and tyre upgrades, Turn 10 have also added around 15 new manufacturers bringing the total up to 80. New racing types have been added such as auto-cross and multi heat races and improved 16 player online racing modes will give you and your friends increased options for multiplayer.

A new feature known as Autovista allows you to inspect all aspects of the car, inside and out, finding out information and available upgrades. The interiors of the cars have been given a big graphical upgrade and you will now be able to view them in full screen.

One thing which always got to me in Forza 3 was being awarded a random car when you won a race, this concept is getting a shake up for Forza 4 where you will be able to choose which car you want from a list of three. This has to be one of my favourite new features as it felt like the cars were forced upon me and I would often get rid of the ones I didn’t need or which were duplicates. With more choice comes more individuality and more challenge.

The inclusion of Kinect in Xbox games these days is a hot topic with many gamers giving it the evil eye and it’s no less the case here. When using Kinect in a race the game takes control of acceleration and breaking for you, leaving only steering. Hardcore Forza fans are not going to like this addition as it takes a lot of control away from the game. However Forza has been known as a serious racing simulator and this should open up the game for arcade and casual gamers to get something out of the series. Kinect will also track your head movements, looking to either side of the screen will move the view to your mirrors allowing you to see who is closing in on you and voice recognition will also available to navigate menus and start races.

It’s an interesting inclusion to the Forza series, but for me Kinect lacks what an actual controller can give you which is total control of the game. Microsoft will be releasing a wireless wheel around the time the new games comes out, so if you’re not a Kinect gamer like myself then I think this will be something worth looking at.

As with Forza 3 Top Gear are getting content in the game but this time on a much bigger scale. In the spotlight will be the much loved Top Gear test track for you to trial your new cars and tuning setups on along with occasional series item “Car Football”. Jeremy Clarkson will be voicing the narration during the Autovista feature which will be within the Top Gear studio set.

Impressively Turn 10 plan to keep Forza 4 updated on a monthly basis. Adding new content this often will surely make this the biggest and most in depth racing simulator to date with a long, long lifespan.