Reviews by Someone

A new challenge-based campaign structure and some fresh multiplayer action make Gears of War: Judgment a worthwhile scion of the celebrated franchise.


The Good

Difficulty modifiers spice up combat
Character classes engender teamwork in Survival and Overrun
Free for All and Domination are great multiplayer additions.

The Bad

Narrative flow is regularly disrupted
Aftermath campaign is lackluster.


With the conclusion of the Gears of War trilogy, the Locust threat has been exterminated and Sera's humans can begin to rebuild their devastated world. Marcus Fenix and his surviving Delta Squad brethren have laid down their arms, but a fictional setting as rich as the Locust War provides the potential for many other stories to be told. Gears of War: Judgment ventures back to the early days of this conflict to tell a tale of a disobedient squad standing trial for treason. Though it's a decent story, the campaign structure favors action over immersion, delivering rousing combat challenges at the expense of narrative flow. It's a change of pace for the series, but Judgment successfully serves up the tense, brutal action you know and love, and an assortment of new online modes make it an exciting game for competitive and cooperative players alike.

Before he was the wisecracking private in Delta Squad, Damon Baird was a wisecracking lieutenant in command of Kilo Squad. Just about a month after Emergence Day, Baird finds himself in Halvo Bay, a coastal city that looks a lot like every other Locust-ravaged city. With him is series regular Augustus "The Cole Train" Cole and two new characters. Sophia is an Onyx guard recruit who does things by the book, offering resistance to Baird's crazy plans and sporting an unfortunate hairdo that looks like molded plastic. Paduk is a former enemy of the COG conscripted to fight Locust, and his disgruntled anti-COG potshots are the highlight of the otherwise unremarkable squad chatter.

The story is told in flashbacks as the squad stands trial for treason, with each member taking a turn as the narrator and primary player character. The sneering colonel who prosecutes them makes a good antagonist, and the narrative tells a decent story from the annals of the Locust War. Yet it never achieves the dramatic heights of its predecessors, and this is partly due to the fragmented mission structure that isn't very conducive to long-form storytelling.

It plays out like this: Once the campaign is under way, you walk toward your objective while voice-over and squad dialogue set the stage. Almost immediately, you come upon a big glowing red skull-and-cog, the logo of the Gears franchise. Press a button, and you are presented with the option to deliver declassified testimony, which changes the narration and adds difficulty modifiers to the upcoming combat section. As a soldier testifies about the extra hardships that Kilo Squad faced, these modifiers impose limitations on things like your time, visibility, ammunition, and weapon selection. On normal difficulty, these modifiers are a welcome challenge; on harder difficulties, they make things very challenging indeed.

The combat in Gears of War: Judgment is the same brutal, weighty gunplay that the series has thrived on for years. It's still inherently fun, and the modifiers mix things up enough to make firefights feel fresh. There are new guns and enemies to contend with, as well as a few tweaks that serve to streamline things. You can carry only two weapons now, switching between them with the press of a button, and the hey-they're-sticky-now grenades are mapped to the left bumper for quick release.

With modifiers activated, combat is as lively as ever, but while this structure benefits the action, the focus on scoring disrupts the flow of your adventure. Beginning each combat section is painless, but at the end of each one, you are given a star rating and shown tallies of your accomplishments. With that section complete, you soon come upon another glowing red logo, and the cycle begins anew. The interruptive tally screens and the regular notifications comparing your stats to those of your Xbox Live friends make it feel like Gears of War: Judgment is primarily concerned with encouraging you to perform combat feats for glory. This tallying can be fun when you're playing cooperatively or striving for perfect three-star runs, but the regular appearance of the game-halting score reports makes the campaign feel oddly stilted.

The focus on scoring is not an unnatural evolution, however; previous Gears games were eager to remind you of your achievement progress with pop-up notifications, and the tally system in Judgment takes that accomplishment-focused play one step further. There's a lot of fun to be had with this structure and these modifiers, but those looking to experience another grand Gears campaign will be disappointed. A shorter, unlockable campaign called Aftermath follows the traditional structure (no modifiers here) and tells the story of a mission Baird and Cole undertook during the events of Gears of War 3. It's nice to see Paduk again, but Aftermath moves too slowly and spends too much time with a dull new enemy type to provide much excitement.

All told, the two campaigns last about seven hours, so you'll likely want to spend some time in multiplayer to get your money's worth. Fortunately, the brutal and tense combat continues to thrive in both competitive and cooperative environments. Team Deathmatch is joined by two familiar shooter modes that are new to the Gears series: Free for All and Domination. Whether it's the gory anarchy of every Gear for him- or herself, or the frantic intensity of trying to hold a capture point against a surging enemy team, these modes deliver thrills that fit very nicely into the competitive catalog.

On the cooperative side, the new Survival mode puts you and up to four others in a struggle to defend three sequential points against 10 waves of AI-controlled Locust enemies. A sort of replacement for the absent Horde mode, Survival doesn't let you construct fortifications, only repair them. To do so, you must play as the engineer, one of the four new classes with specific support abilities. Engineers can also deploy temporary turrets, while the soldier, medic, and scout all have grenades that bestow ammo, health, and increased enemy visibility, respectively. There are a few other strategic wrinkles, and in order to surmount the stiff challenge, you need to talk strategy with your teammates.

Overrun mode is essentially the same as Survival, except the Locust are controlled by other human players. This can make struggles significantly tougher, but it also gives you the chance to relish in destruction. Whether you're rending fences and soldiers with your horrible Locust teeth or staunchly defending with your new support abilities, both Survival and Overrun work best when your team is coordinated. Some matches can feel like landslides in which one team never stood a chance, but the better ones are tense and increasingly frantic as you struggle against the clock to rally your team to victory.

These two modes replace the Horde and Beast modes of Gears games past, but they scratch the same itches and add a few new twists. These changes, along with the structural differences in the campaign, make Judgment feel like its own game, worthwhile and exciting in its own right. Yet it still stands in the shadow of those that came before it, and little flaws like loading hiccups and soft textures underscore the fact that Judgment feels like a lesser achievement. Still, it's a heck of a lot of fun, and if you still enjoy utterly destroying hulking monstrosities with one blast of the sawed-off shotgun, you'll find a lot to like in Gears of War: Judgment.

Gears of War 3 concludes an excellent trilogy with engrossing cooperative play, taut competitive action, and a masterful campaign.


The Good

Exciting, emotional, and eminently satisfying campaign
Beautiful locations enrich story and gameplay alike
Fortifications make Horde mode more strategic
Switching sides in Beast mode is brutal fun.

The Bad

No tutorial for Beast mode.


It's hard to believe that almost five years have passed since Emergence Day. The bane of the humans on Sera was a boon for the gamers on Earth, as we plunged headlong into a grim new world of brutal, cover-based combat and gorgeous visuals. Now the third-person shooter trilogy comes to a superb climax in Gears of War 3. Building on the savage shoot-outs and merciless melees of its predecessors, Gears of War 3 hones the series' signature action to a wickedly sharp edge. Cooperative and competitive opportunities are broader and better than ever, but the most stunning achievement is the campaign. It's an exhilarating, emotional, and thoroughly satisfying finale for the series, and it makes Gears of War 3 one of the best shooters of the year.

Things haven't been good for the Gears since the first cutscene of the series, and this time around, the human race is really on the ropes. Having sacrificed their last civilized holdout in a desperate bid to destroy the Locust, they now cling to survival in isolated forts and on ships, teetering on the verge of annihilation. The included "Previously On…" video gives you a disappointingly meager refresher, but the first act of the campaign sets the tone beautifully. It starts with a surreal surprise that undermines your expectations right from the get-go, and then it reacquaints you with Delta Squad. Marcus grumbles about taking orders while Dom cultivates plants, and this brief moment of quiet offers a nice contrast to the chaos moments later when Marcus is barking out orders and Dom is threatening to kill the enemies that mess up his garden.

Gears of War has always done brash well, and this game is no exception. A salty new female squad member named Sam gives Baird a run for his sarcastic money, and the Cole Train barrels along, full steam ahead. Some of his lines are groan-worthy, while some are genuinely amusing, and the same holds true for many characters in the game. Regardless of whether you cringe or chuckle, the dialogue does a great job of creating a sense of camaraderie that bonds both new and old members of Delta Squad into a cohesive unit. Their fraternal connection makes you feel like you know the characters well, and sets the stage for the outstanding campaign to come.

An early revelation shocks Marcus Fenix, but you get only a glimpse of internal turmoil as he overrides his emotions to be the leader his squad needs. It isn't until halfway through the first act that the game really flexes its storytelling muscle. Stepping out of Marcus Fenix's boots, you play as Cole Train on a foraging mission to the town where he earned his reputation as a star athlete. Your first encounter with his past includes a simple line that foreshadows the journey you are about to take: "You ever feel like you're dead, but nobody told you?" As you catch more and more snippets of the life that used to be, the horrifying reality of the life that is begins to sink in deeper than it ever did before. By the time you see this chapter through its hallucinatory climax, you don't just have a whole new understanding of Augustus Cole; you have a richer understanding of what it must be like for everyone still alive on this war-ravaged planet. As the campaign progresses, different characters, environments, and situations intertwine to further flesh out your emotional investment in this world. Gears of War 3 delivers some truly poignant moments and boasts some of the best storytelling ever seen in a shooter, complemented by great facial animation, an expressive soundtrack, and excellent pacing.

As you journey from ship to shore and beyond, you visit a variety of beautifully designed locations. Improvised settlements of human and Locust alike convey the desperate state of Seran surface dwellers and contrast starkly with the areas humans have forsaken. These places all have meaningful connections to the story, so every narrative detour feels natural. The same goes for the gameplay detours. Logical on-rails vehicle sequences link major locations, providing exciting interludes that last just long enough to add some welcome diversity. The only vehicles you actually pilot are squat exoskeletons that move like a bulkier, robotic version of you. They are used sparingly and handle well, offering a heady feeling of destructive power. Gears of War 3 doles out cutscenes, combat, and changes of pace in skillful measure, and maintains this delicate balance within the on-foot firefights.

Conflict zones vary widely in size and shape. Claustrophobic rooms channel you straight into your enemies, while larger areas give you plenty of room to flank your foes. Such spacious locations often play host to a new type of enemy spawn point, the Lambent stalk. Like the emergence holes before it, the stalk must be damaged to stanch the flow of enemies, and this can require some active maneuvering on your part. You need to use cover to stay alive, but you also must venture out into the field of fire to stop these spawn points and locate powerful weapons to wield against your foes. Returning favorites like the Mortar and Mulcher are joined by the One Shot (guess how it got that name) and the massive Vulcan, a devastating minigun that can only be moved by two people. Most of your arsenal is made up of guns that will be familiar to series veterans, providing a gruesome and satisfying array of ways to deal death at all ranges. Bullets still hit their marks with gratifying squish noises, and roaring chainsaws proclaim that the tried-and-true combat mechanics are once again in top form.

The pace and intensity of combat change drastically depending on your difficulty level and how many cooperative teammates you have along for the ride. The Gears of War 3 campaign supports four-player online co-op throughout (and two-player splitscreen), and it is an absolute blast to play with friends. Having actual humans on your team increases the campaign's natural sense of camaraderie, though the friendly AI still creates very capable companions. Still, having more folks along for the ride makes the battlefield feel more lively and encourages you to vary your play style to support and complement your teammates. Cooperative campaign play is one of the most exciting and rewarding modes that Gears of War 3 offers, and it's easy to drop in and out of a friend's game. It's a little trickier to join a public game, because you have to limit your search by act and difficulty level, but once you've found a match, you quickly take control of a Gear and start shooting. You can also play the campaign in Arcade mode and earn points for every enemy you kill. Racking up a big multiplier and notching a high score is gratifying, just as getting downed and watching your multiplier slip away is frustrating. Teamwork is crucial to high scores because you share a score multiplier, so a downed ally translates to points lost. A variety of Mutators let you mess with battlefield conditions to make things easier (every melee hit causes an explosion), harder (friendly fire is enabled), or just flat-out goofy (dialogue is complemented by a laugh track).

If you're looking to test your skills against other people in a more direct way, the Versus mode provides a bunch of great maps upon which to do battle. Up to 10 players can clash in a variety of game types, including staples like Team Deathmatch and King of the Hill. Other types make good use of specific gameplay mechanics, like Capture the Leader (hold an enemy hostage) and Execution (only executions will kill players). You can now resurrect yourself if you are downed, provided you have enough time, which adds extra incentive to close in for the kill. Furthermore, a number of these Versus game types have limited respawn counts, creating the possibility for some incredibly tense final showdowns. Death can come quickly on these battlefields, especially if you get close enough to put the new sawed-off shotgun to work. Fortunately, newcomers can play in a kiddie pool of sorts before swimming with the sharks. A beginners-only multiplayer lobby ensures that you have a chance to compete against other novices and learn the ropes without getting mercilessly slaughtered at every turn. Once you join the murderous multiplayer hordes, you find that skillful movement is almost as crucial as skillful shooting. The difference between slow players and nimble players is more drastic here than in other shooters, meaning that with some practice, you can navigate these maps significantly faster than your opponents. This makes for a special breed of competition that deftly serves up the thrill of a great kill as well as the heartbreak of seeing your own intestines paint the floor.

Two distinct cooperative modes offer even more great Gears gameplay. The Horde mode introduced in Gears of War 2 makes a return here, once again pitting up to five human players against wave after wave of bloodthirsty Locust. This time around, however, you can use money earned by killing Locust to build fortifications and bolster your defenses. From a simple row of spikes to a makeshift turret to an apparently very convincing cardboard decoy, each element helps you deal with the enemy in a different way. The more you build, the better your improvements get and the better your chances of survival. You can only build between waves, however, and your resources are limited. Deciding what to build, what to repair, and when to save your money can make the difference between a long, successful run and a short, brutal run. This engaging strategic element livens up the already-frantic moments between waves when you are scrambling around to replenish your weapon stores from the guns your enemies dropped. Once the next wave begins, these assets disappear and it's just you, your teammates, and your defenses. Struggling to survive is an exciting challenge, and the extra tactical depth makes it that much more enjoyable.

Beast mode offers you a taste of how the other half lives. This is essentially an inverse Horde mode in which you (and up to four teammates) spawn as the Locust and try to slaughter increasingly strong groups of human survivors. Playing as the bad guy is every bit as sinister and satisfying as you want it to be, and like in Horde mode, you earn currency for all your gleeful murders. You then spend this resource to spawn as the type of Locust of your choosing, from the humble Ticker to the hulking Berserker. Time limits can be pretty tough in the early going, which forces you to aggressively seek out your prey. It can definitely take some trial and error to get the hang of each type of creature, and you may find yourself trying to execute a familiar maneuver but failing to do so. Not all Locust can use cover, for example, and sometimes your healing screams seem to stick in your throat. Fortunately, once you've worked it all out, Beast mode makes for some gory and challenging fun, with a range of difficulty levels that make it accessible to anyone.

In fact, accessibility is one of the strengths of Gears of War 3. Though it is an undeniably intense shooter, it scales very well to accommodate a range of skill levels. This is just one facet of the pervasive attention to detail that suffuses the whole game and gives you the sense that you are experiencing the pinnacle of the series. From the taut Versus competition to the two great cooperative modes, Gears of War 3 delivers immensely entertaining experiences on both sides of The Locust War. But the real triumph is the campaign, a masterpiece of exciting gameplay and emotional storytelling that stands head and shoulders above its predecessors. Even if you don't remember where you were on Emergence Day, this is one adventure you won't soon forget.

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue may be only a practice lap for the real thing, but it's a beautiful joyride while it lasts.


The Good

A technical work of art
Varied lineup of vehicles
Brings 16-player online racing to Gran Turismo.


The Bad

Not nearly enough tracks
Only a prologue to the real thing
Online suffers lag at times
No option to upgrade vehicle parts.

If Gran Turismo 5 is going to be the real driving simulator, then Prologue could be described as the warm-up lap. Although the game is an astounding technical achievement that looks and sounds nothing short of amazing, it's ultimately only a brief taste of the smorgasbord to come.

Prologue is available to download via PlayStation Network or on a Blu-ray disc from stores. As with previous iterations of Gran Turismo, the structure of GT5 Prologue is based on competing in a series of races, unlocking new event classes, and earning enough credits to purchase better cars, though you won't be required to complete any license tests before you're allowed to compete. With more than 30 events to unlock, the single-player game isn't overly lengthy, but it features a challenging difficulty curve as you progress from beginner to professional level. There are several different formats for events, from standard races and time trials to varied challenges, such as overtaking the entire grid in a single lap.

You start the game with 35,000 credits, which is enough to buy a basic car, such as the Mini Cooper-S '06, Citroen C4 Coupe '05, Ford Focus ST '06, Honda Integra Type R '04, or our favourite, the Mazda RX-8 Type S '07. A few race victories should give you enough credits to buy something better, but the option is always there to save your money and complete a 10-race series to win an exclusive new ride. Unlike in earlier iterations, Prologue doesn't give you the option to upgrade car parts, although you do gain access to the quick-tune option later in the game.

Prologue is hands-down one of the best-looking games on the PlayStation 3. Environments are packed with a stunning amount of detail and really make the most of a high-definition display. An incredible amount of attention has been paid to the cars, which look absolutely beautiful as they fly around the tracks. Environments are similarly impressive, though the High Speed Ring's expanses of water look flat and motionless, and the mountains of Eiger Nordwand look less convincing than the vistas on other tracks. Occasional motion judder and noticeable aliasing also tarnish the impressive visuals somewhat. That said, these issues are rather minor, and the game holds up well in two-player split-screen, which lets you race head-to-head without any AI drivers.

Unlike arcade racers, Gran Turismo games reward technical proficiency and have no margin for error when it comes to sloppy driving. Thankfully, the controls are accurate without being oversensitive, with support for racing wheels and plenty of adjustable options for the driving model. These include transmission choice, driver-assisted steering, traction control, tire selection, and a driving line, which has been included in a GT game for the first time here. The button layout is logical and can be tweaked to suit your personal taste. Unfortunately, damage modelling is still a notable omission, so hitting a wall at 180mph and bouncing off unscathed pretty much shatters the otherwise convincing illusion of reality.

There are four views available during races: normal (bumper height), bonnet, above-car chase view, and a new in-car driver's-eye view. The last of these makes the visibility of the track somewhat restricted, given that part of the screen is taken up with a detailed view of your car's frame, dashboard, steering wheel (complete with manufacturer logos), rear-view mirrors, and even working gauges. Resting on the wheel are your driver's hands, clad in Sparco racing gloves that move realistically at your whim. It's a nice addition to be able to appreciate your new ride from the inside (you can also look out of the back window when you press the rear-view button), but it's not very practical. Though the inclusion of this feature is in keeping with the authentic replication of the vehicles, you'll likely end up opting for a less-restricted view of the racetrack once the novelty wears off.

Although the vehicle lineup is respectable at 70-plus cars, it's still only one-tenth of the 700-plus cars seen in GT4. Annoyingly, there are no Lamborghinis, Porsches, or race-bred touring cars, and the 1995 Toyota Celica rally car from the GT HD demo has disappeared completely. Much has been made of Ferrari's debut in the game, especially because there are several models, including the 599, 430, and F40, as well as its 2007 Formula 1 racer. Nevertheless, the popular Enzo is nowhere to be found. Other brands synonymous with racing, such as Mercedes Benz, Audi, and Honda, boast only one or two cars in their showrooms. These misgivings aside, the lineup is broad and even has space for such curiosities as the Suzuki Cappuccino.

Each model's characteristics are reflected in its price tag, with the cheapest cars being rather sluggish and unresponsive compared to the exotic supercars on offer. Despite this, high-powered cars won't necessarily have the best handling available. With so much juice on tap at the press of a pedal, you'll need to give just as much attention to braking and steering if you want to beat the rest of the pack.

The game's AI is quite competitive, and working your way through the game's events will be a challenge for all but the most dedicated racing fans. AI competitors race with seemingly effortless skill and very rarely deviate from the optimal driving line, but they're not bulletproof; on occasion they'll slip up, as evidenced by clouds of dust emerging from gravel beds alongside the track. They'll use your slipstream to their advantage, just like you can with theirs, but they will generally drive defensively. Taking advantage of this by nudging your competitors off of the track can be satisfying, but it's hardly in keeping with the game's sense of realism. On occasion, AI drivers will force you off of the track as well, though this feels more like the act of a driver unaware of your existence than of a fiercely competitive rival. True to the series' past form, your opponents in GT5 Prologue exhibit no personality or distinct behaviour, and as a result you'll never get the feeling that you're racing real drivers.

It will take a reasonable amount of time to unlock all of the cars in the game, but the same can't be said for the tracks, given that there are only six and they're all available from the start. Each track does feature an alternate version, but most of them are simply the primary track in reverse. Thankfully, there's some variation to the racing styles, with four race circuits (High Speed Ring, Daytona Speedway, Fuji Speedway, and Suzuka), one rally course (Eiger Nordwand), and a street course in the city of London that takes in such landmarks as Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus.

Prologue's menu system is logical and well-presented, offering all of the various game modes along the bottom of the home screen. These include news, GTTV, online, online rankings, arcade, split-screen, single-player events, your garage, dealerships, replay options, general options, and a decent digital manual for those of you opting for the downloadable version of the game rather than the Blu-ray Disc. The My Page feature dominates the screen's real estate, showing your current car in a range of stunning locations, including Ahrweiler and Nurburg in Germany, as well as several locales in Japan.

The series has earned a strong reputation for its soundtracks, and Prologue's selection of music doesn't disappoint, with rock numbers during races and relaxed chillout, electro, and jazz music when you're navigating the menus. The in-game sound effects are also as realistic as you'd expect from a game that prides itself on being a simulator. Those of you who are using a decent speaker system will be able to rely on the soundtrack for audio clues of screeching tires, asphalt surfaces, rumble strips, or nearby competitors. The sound effects are spot-on, and really help to enforce the game's realism.

You'll need to download an update to access Prologue's online features, which can be a lengthy and occasionally unreliable process. Once you have it up and running, the online mode is quite disappointing. Intermittent lag causes cars to jump around the track, which makes it hard to predict where they'll land. It's still fun to battle it out online against real opponents, but the faceless nature of the matchmaking system means that the experience lacks the social nature of some other online racers out there. However, racing online isn't completely without its merits as the prize money you win carries over to your Career mode. As Prologue focuses more on simulation than on gameplay there's no auto catch-up for those of you bringing up the rear. Your skill behind the wheel won't always make a difference if the driver in front has a significantly more powerful car, either.

Although the online mode feels rather tacked on, the GTTV feature has plenty of potential to grow in the future. Only four videos are accessible at launch, one of which is the game's opening cutscene. The three other videos are short documentaries on the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X and the 2007 Nissan GT-R, featuring Polyphony's Kazunori Yamauchi, as well as members of the cars' development teams. The videos are a nice addition to the package and should become more numerous as updates are released over time. Worthy of a mention if you're a big fan of the Gran Turismo series is the 20-minute-long Beyond the Apex documentary, which is presented in full HD, though available only with North American Blu-ray versions of Prologue.

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is a good simulation for PlayStation 3 driving enthusiasts who have a penchant for exotic cars. It doesn't veer from the course set by its predecessors and still features top-notch driving, accurately recreated vehicles and tracks, and a good learning curve that forces you to step up your game as you progress. However, the lack of vehicle damage, the relatively small number of vehicles and tracks on offer, and the shallow online mode conspire to make this a tough sell when pitted against some of the competition.

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue's price tag goes some way toward addressing the fact that this isn't nearly as comprehensive an offering as a full Gran Turismo release, but paying 25 pounds (or US$40) for what is essentially an extended demo of an upcoming game still doesn't represent good value for the money. If you're willing to overlook the dearth of content, the lack of damage modelling, and the problems with online play then by all means get behind the wheel. Otherwise, you're probably better off waiting for Gran Turismo 5 proper.

This accessible but realistic driving simulation is both sublime and subpar.

The Good

Accessible and rewarding for newcomers and veterans alike
Uncompromisingly realistic handling
Loads of great cars to drive and varied courses to drive them on
License tests are no longer mandatory
Premium cars are incredibly detailed.

The Bad

Quality of visuals is wildly inconsistent
Outdated and impractical online lobby system
Too easy to win early races simply by entering in a powerful car.

Like a classic car that has been lovingly but only partially restored, parts of Gran Turismo 5 look as good as new, while others are showing their age. Developer Polyphony Digital's latest "real driving simulator" introduces plenty of great new features to the long-running series, but it also recycles a lot of content. This is undoubtedly the biggest and best Gran Turismo yet, and despite its impressive level of realism it's also the most accessible, but aspects of both the gameplay and the visuals evoke deja vu, while the all-new online play uses a lobby system with about as many modern conveniences as a Ford Model T. If you love to drive, Gran Turismo 5 is a game that you're sure to enjoy; just don't expect it to have that new-car smell.

Though things improve later on, Gran Turismo 5 doesn't make a good first impression. Lengthy load and install times, unwieldy menus, and music that should be swapped out for a custom soundtrack as soon as possible are early disappointments, and sadly things don't get much better when you enter the GT Life career mode. You're told to buy your first car on a budget that more or less forces you to check out the used-car lot, rather than one of the game's many dealerships, only to find that most of the rides there look incredibly rough. That's not because GT5 features faded paintwork, rust spots, or bumpers that look like they've seen some action, but rather because the vast majority of the game's 1,000-plus cars don't look significantly different than they did when they appeared on the PlayStation 2. These poorly textured, jaggy-edged "standard" cars also lack the interiors of the vastly superior "premium" models, so when you drive them there's no option to do so using GT5's new cockpit view. Climb into a premium car, on the other hand, and the attention to detail both inside and out is staggering. The cockpit view is ruined somewhat by nasty-looking shadows that move across the dashboard as you drive, but they're not overly distracting, and the exteriors on these cars are so stunning that you need to take them into Photo mode to truly appreciate them.

Although the used-car dealer invariably has dozens of cars in stock, your purchases are limited not only by your available funds, but also by your driver level, which starts out at zero. You earn experience points toward your next level every time you complete a challenge or race, and as you gain levels you unlock additional events as well as the option to buy more powerful cars. You might think that being prevented from buying the most powerful cars at the outset keeps those early events competitive, but as in previous games, it's all too easy to win most races simply by entering in a car that's significantly more powerful than the rest of the field. The 45 different race series that make up the A-Spec (drive yourself) and B-Spec (give instructions to an AI driver) portions of your career all place restrictions on the kinds of vehicles that can enter, but they're rarely stringent. The result is that you end up winning races easily, which, while rewarding financially, isn't particularly satisfying. Even race series that restrict you to using certain car models aren't competitive unless you go out of your way to make sure that they are, because there are no rules in place to prevent you from upgrading that car in the impressively comprehensive and easy-to-use tuning shop. On the flip side, it's also possible to unwittingly enter races in cars that are hopelessly underpowered, in which case you're likely to quit before you even finish the first lap.

It's unfortunate that the lax restrictions make competitive racing the exception rather than the rule in A-Spec and B-Spec events, because on those rare occasions that you find yourself driving in close proximity with AI opponents, it can be fun to jostle for position with them. AI drivers rarely stray far from the racing line, but they at least attempt to overtake each other in a somewhat believable fashion and occasionally get something wrong and end up spinning their car or driving off the track. It's good to see other drivers getting it wrong from time to time, not only because it's realistic, but also because it makes you feel a little better about the mistakes you inevitably make yourself.

Gran Turismo 5 is quick to punish you if you do something wrong, though you'll be dozens of hours into GT Life mode before the damage to your vehicles becomes anything more than superficial. A number of the game's driving aids (traction control and driving line, for example) are turned on by default, but while these certainly make staying on the track at speed much easier, they by no means guarantee that you're going to do well. These driving aids are nothing that hasn't been seen in racing games before, but what's especially great about Gran Turismo 5 is how scalable the assist options are. If you're a newcomer to simulation-style driving, you can augment the driving aids with a "skid recovery force" option that automatically gives your wheels extra grip anytime they start to slip. You still have to make some attempt to drive believably, because this option can cause understeer if you try to corner too quickly, but it's a huge help if you're finding the game too difficult, and there's no penalty for using it. If you're a veteran of simulation-style driving, on the other hand, you can turn all of GT5's aids off and enjoy a significantly more realistic and challenging drive with wholly believable vehicle handling and physics.

It's certainly very satisfying to win races in which you feel you've had to fight for every position without the benefit of any driving aids, but by the same token it can be incredibly frustrating to see your chances of winning dashed after a seemingly minor mistake sends you spinning off the track. You might occasionally get to blame such incidents on AI opponents that seem oblivious to your presence alongside them, but more often than not in GT5 your mistakes are your own. The game gives you more than enough information with which to make your decisions on the track, but if you choose to ignore the screeching of your tires, the rumbling of your DualShock controller, the resistance of your force feedback wheel, or the fact that you're racing in wet conditions that make the track surface much more slippery, you have only yourself to blame.

Regardless of your skill level, you'd do well to complete GT5's license tests, which, unlike those in previous games, are completely optional. These tests do a great job of familiarizing you with various cornering techniques and the like, and also afford you an opportunity to get a feel for how different types of cars handle. When you reach the final series of tests, you're challenged to overtake cars on a full lap of a circuit without ever straying from the track or making contact with the other vehicles. These tests are among the most satisfying that GT5 has to offer, along with some of those that fall into the special events area of the career mode.

Special events run the gamut, from races around the BBC's Top Gear test track and multistage rallies, to go-kart competitions and NASCAR challenges. Like the license tests, these challenges don't give you an opportunity to choose or customize your car, which makes them a far better test of your driving prowess than many events elsewhere in the game. Taking the twitchy controls of a kart makes for a welcome change of pace, though it's unfortunate that your AI opponents in this particular motorsport don't pose much of a challenge. Still, racing around in these diminutive open-wheelers is both a lot of fun and a great way to start honing your race craft on a level playing field. Similarly, the NASCAR challenges that are presented to you by an awkward-looking likeness of driver Jeff Gordon do a good job of preparing you for the oval races and NASCAR series of events that you unlock toward the end of your GT5 career. Other highlights in the special events include the AMG Driving Academy's wet weather time trials at the Nurburgring and Sebastien Loeb's fiendishly tricky rally challenges.

Outside of the GT Life mode, where you can participate only in events that both you and at least one of your cars are eligible for, you can set up custom events in Arcade mode that include both solo and two-player (with no AI opponents) split-screen races, time trials, and drift trials. There are more than 75 different tracks to choose from if you include those that can be raced at different times of day or in wet weather, though for some reason wet conditions are unavailable if you're playing split-screen. Regardless, it's a great selection, and after you've decided where you want to race, you're presented with an equally impressive array of vehicles to choose from. More than 50 premium cars spanning the game's entire garage are available for use in Arcade mode. In addition to those, you can nominate up to 100 of your GT Life cars as favorites so that they appear here, and you can import up to 50 cars from your Gran Turismo PSP garage as well. When racing in Arcade mode, you can set the difficulty level of your AI opponents to beginner, intermediate, or professional, though as in career events, tougher opponents don't necessarily equal smarter opponents; they're just faster.

To find smarter opponents, at least in theory, you need to head online. Gran Turismo 5 supports up to 16 players simultaneously without any noticeable lag, and it smartly deals with those who think it's hilarious to drive backward or to park their cars across the track by making them translucent and possible for others to pass through unscathed. Furthermore, as the host of an online session, you have numerous options with which to customize your races, including one that temporarily reduces power to the engines of anyone who collides with other racers or ends up riding rails around corners rather than slowing down for them. It's true that you might occasionally be penalized for minor and accidental collisions, but that's a small price to pay for encouraging everybody to race clean. As the host, you also get to decide which cars are permitted in races, and although you're free to let players use cars from their own garages, the more interesting option is to have everyone be allocated comparable cars at random, with an additional option to make sure that the winner of the previous race gets the slowest car.

It's a lot of fun to race online in Gran Turismo 5, and provided the host of the session you're playing in allows the use of driving aids, there's no reason you can't enjoy close contests with players of very different skill levels. You don't even need to race if you don't want to; in the online free run mode, a group of you can just drive laps of your chosen circuit as if you're at a track day, while the game keeps a note of who has recorded the fastest times. The only major weakness of GT5's online suite is that it's not nearly as easy as it should be to find sessions that you want to join.

There's no automatic matchmaking in GT5 whatsoever, so the only way to find a game assuming none of your friends are already playing is to pull up a list of lobbies that aren't already full, determine which of them offer the best connection speeds for you, and then hope that the lobby names typed in by the hosts give you a clear indication of what sorts of races they're running. Sadly, there's no good way to filter your search by, for example, the maximum power or level of the cars being used. The only search filters you get are the course being raced (which is likely to change after a race or two anyway), the region that the host is playing in (which defaults to your own), and whether the host has disallowed the use of the skid recovery force option (though not whether the host has chosen to allow it since your search options are "off" or "all"). Furthermore, there's no easy way to invite friends into sessions that you're playing in or even hosting. Friends can join the game you're playing in by visiting your in-game profile, but there's no quick way for you to send them an invite that they can simply choose to accept. Each room is also assigned a unique 20-digit code that you can distribute to anyone who isn't on your friends list via forums and such, which is a functional if inelegant way to get people into your room, and a necessary evil given the lack of matchmaking.

When you're not behind the wheel or looking for online races, you might find that you spend a lot of time checking the used-car lot for rare or favorite vehicles. Among the 1,000-plus vehicles on GT5's roster are some real gems: one-of-a-kind prototypes, classic racecars, modern supercars, and all manner of historically relevant models from mainstream manufacturers. There are also an awful lot of vehicles that bring very little of worth to the game; for every car you ever contemplated putting a poster of on your wall as a kid, there are several that look more like something you were probably dropped off at school in. There's something to be said for the novelty of racing in a station wagon, or for trying to score points drifting in an underpowered antique, but there are a large number of cars in GT5 that aren't useful for a single event. And even if you get a kick out of trying to collect as many of the game's cars as possible, do you really want more than 25 variants of either Honda's S2000 or Mazda's MX-5?

You can try to ignore cars that you have no interest in, of course, just as you can do your best to drive only premium vehicles, but less desirable and standard rides are everywhere. Even if you avoid buying them when there's nothing else at the used-car lot, you end up racing against them. It's not just the standard cars that disappoint visually; many of the tracks in the game are also recognizable from earlier games, and while they clearly look a lot better in GT5, they're still not up to the standards being set elsewhere in the genre. Taking advantage of GT5's 3D functionality doesn't help matters either; not only does it add little to the experience and occasionally cause noticeable drops in the frame rate, but it's tricky to calibrate correctly because you don't get to see what effect your changes are having as you mess with the parallax and convergence settings. Just as they don't look as impressive as premium cars, many of the standard cars don't sound great, and when the soundtrack jarringly switches between forgettable rock and forgettable jazz, it's hard not to wonder if so much attention was paid to the premium cars during development that other aspects of the game were neglected.

Regardless, if you've ever fantasized about a Ferrari or dreamed of driving at Daytona, Gran Turismo 5 is a game that you're sure to get a lot out of. This is simultaneously the most accessible GT game yet and the most uncompromisingly realistic driving game on a console to date. It's unfortunate that much of what makes Gran Turismo 5 so great is under the hood rather than on display for everyone to see, but a powerful engine trumps a perfect paintjob every time.

Forza Horizon's untethered love for the open road makes it a terrific spinoff to this racing franchise.

The Good

Sprawling open world is a blast to explore
Stunning vistas highlighted by a full day-night cycle
Flexible difficulty welcomes a wide range of drivers
Plenty to do outside organized events
Terrific competitive multiplayer.

The Bad

Awkward storytelling
Disappointing online free-roaming.

There's something oddly romantic about Forza Horizon. Gone are the real-life circuits of Motorsport, replaced by a gorgeous stretch of the American West. Sweeping praries and looming peaks set a grand stage, and a persistent sense of competition keeps the vast expanse from feeling lonely. Add in Forza's famously stellar driving physics, and you have a game that makes it a joy to hit the asphalt and roam wherever the road takes you. The experience isn't as refined as its predecessors, but Horizon is an exciting and adventurous spinoff just the same.

Horizon's setting is a fictional interpretation of the Colorado countryside, with the Rockies on one end of the map and an imposing desert on the other. In between is a rolling mesh of highways, dirt roads, and small towns. It's a beautiful landscape, where varied geography and a full day-night cycle combine to create some impressive vistas. Moments like cresting a hill at 150mph just as the sun begins to rise are a frequent occurrence, leading you to throw your car around one corner after another in a fit of automotive wanderlust.

Of course, it's not all free-form exploration. Horizon's story--yes, this is a Forza game with a storyline--revolves around the titular Horizon Festival, an event that attracts 250 gearheads to compete in a slew of events spread throughout Horizon's version of Colorado. The story unfolds through cinematics depicting your rise through the ranks of the competition, hitting a few awkward notes along the way by focusing on a cast of desperately hip 20-something drivers and their penchant for forced trash-talking. Awkward though it is, the story never becomes invasive or obnoxious; it's merely forgettable fluff that serves to explain your place in Horizon's collection of events.

The structure of these events should feel familiar to anyone who has played a Forza game. Races largely fall into themed categories with performance caps that scale according to your progression. You might begin the game by facing off against C-class muscle cars before eventually moving on to a competition against S-class Italian sports cars. Horizon has inherited the smooth difficulty curve of previous games, so building up your skills from one tier to the next remains a nice, gradual process. It's unfortunate that so many of these cars are carryovers from previous games, and the overall selection isn't quite as expansive as Forza 4's, but the process of working your way up the performance index remains as enthralling as ever.

Where Horizon deviates from Forza's past is in its mixed-surface events and point-to-point races that take advantage of the expansive, sprawling terrain. This version of Colorado isn't all asphalt; you often find yourself tearing through winding dirt roads on your quest for victory. These surfaces don't feel as chunky and volatile as a rally racer in the vein of Dirt, but adjusting your driving style to handle varied terrain is a refreshing challenge. Events like these, as well as endurance runs that send you clear across the road map through constantly shifting geographical terrain, help to set Horizon apart from its circuit-based predecessors.

One of Horizon's great strengths is that, even outside of organized events, the sense of competition is all around you. At any point you can pull up behind other festival drivers (distinguishable from regular traffic by the name above their car) and challenge them to a race on the spot. Speed trap cameras are placed on just about every road, capturing your high speed as you pass through them, registering your pace on a leaderboard and, if you're good enough, sending a message straight to your Xbox Live friends that they've been outperformed.

Throughout all this is a real-time feedback system that functions as a natural extension of the one found in Forza 4. Only here it's not just stylish drifting that's rewarded, but also narrowly avoiding head-on collisions, knocking down stop signs, and catching the occasional bit of air. The rewards aren't massive--you're granted credits when you perform such-and-such number of dangerous maneuvers--but they function as a persistent form of positive feedback, letting you feel like you're never wasting your time by just driving around at your own leisure.

Despite Horizon's newfound focus on style and flash, sim enthusiasts need not be alarmed: this is no arcade racer. Like in previous entries in the franchise, vehicle handling is determined by a modular collection of driving assists, such as traction control, that let you fine-tune the experience to your liking. With all the assists enabled, Horizon is an accessible racer that doesn't command expert-level driving skills. But disable all those assists, and the cars are short of lively and demanding. You need to be wary of the Hennessy Viper's penchant for skidding around like mad when you've hit the throttle too hard in the low gears, just as you need to respect the Ford F-150's habit of flipping over on fast corners like a dog who wants its belly rubbed. But, as in previous Forzas, taming these beasts is a deeply rewarding endeavor.

You'll want to invest some time in your driving skills, too, because the AI competition has done its homework. Whereas Forza 4 suffered from an issue where opposing drivers would frequently overshoot sharp corners almost at random, there are very few of those mistakes in Horizon. The Forza AI's occasional aggressive streak remains intact--which you can have fun exploiting on the highway by luring anyone drafting you into oncoming traffic--but overall, the competition's intelligence feels somewhat improved.

Car customization is one area where Forza veterans may find themselves disappointed. You can still combine your own vinyl decals with new paint to create custom liveries, as well as upgrade your stock parts to become more competitive at higher racing tiers. But these systems are virtually identical to those found in the last few outings, and beyond that, Forza 4's advanced tuning system (where you could tweak tire pressure or brake bias, for instance) is a complete no-show in Horizon. On the plus side, the process of photographing your car and sharing your artwork is far more rewarding here than it has ever been thanks to the natural beauty and varied lighting of Horizon's virtual Colorado.

Those who invest time in designing their own vinyls and liveries will be happy to hear that the online storefront makes its return in Horizon (where you can import and sell your old vinyls), as do the vehicle-sharing car clubs introduced in Forza 4. Of course, Horizon's online offerings also extend to competitive multiplayer, where you can easily jump into a match using an intuitive and relatively effortless matchmaking lobby system.

At its best, Horizon's multiplayer is either incredibly intense (like gunning toward the finish line at night in a 20-mile point-to-point race) or ridiculously goofy (like eight cars careening around a golf course all trying to smash into one driver in the king-of-the-hill mode), but it's terrific fun throughout. And in a very nice touch, there's a slot machine system that rewards you with a random car or pile of credits every time you level up in multiplayer (which happens fast and often in the early goings).

While Horizon's competitive multiplayer is entertaining, its cooperative free-roam system feels like a missed opportunity. This is where you can get a bunch of players together in the same world and either wander around on your own or band together to complete co-op challenges such as combining for 100 near misses or having four players pass through the same speed trap at 200mph within five seconds of each other. Some of these challenges can be wonderfully entertaining, but the way they're communicated to players is clunky and obtuse. Only the host can select a challenge, and by default the game fails to tell you where a specific speed trap is located on the map. On top of that, you constantly have to pull up and scroll through a lengthy menu to remind yourself of the details of each challenge, sending your car coasting down the road without a driver to steer it.

It's a shame that outside of rivals mode challenges, which let you race your friends' ghosts after each festival event, single-player and multiplayer are kept at arm's length in Horizon. You have to exit out of the former to get to the latter, because there's no way for a friend to simply drop into your world for some free-roaming fun while you're taking part in festival events. With some tighter integration between single-player and multiplayer, and the sorts of customization opportunities found in car modification (there's no way to create your own race by selecting waypoints on the map, for instance), the free-roaming could have been an absolute blast. As it stands, though, it's fun for a little while, but that novelty wears out quickly.

Horizon may not be as socially capable as some open-world games, but it's still a terrific racer. It's hard to overstate just how beautiful the world is that Playground Games has created. From the foothills of the Rockies to the winding roads that scale desert cliffs, it's an absolute delight to put your car through its paces as you explore every last inch of asphalt. Horizon's occasional missteps may clash with the machinelike precision of the Motorsport games that preceded it, but its ambition and untethered road map more than make up for those faults. This is a game that understands the thrill of the open road, and in delivering that thrill it's an unqualified success.

Forza Motorsport 4 refines and improves upon its predecessor in a number of ways, but also feels just a little too familiar.

The Good

Caters to drivers of all skill levels
Rivals mode is a great addition
Cars and tracks look better than ever
New multi-class races are a lot of fun
Immediate feedback on your driving technique encourages you to improve.

The Bad

No variable weather conditions or night races
Only five new circuits.

Circuit-based racing games are repetitive by nature, but the deja vu you experience when playing Forza Motorsport 4 is especially pervasive--at least if you're familiar with its superb predecessor. You can't help noticing that the majority of the cars and tracks in Forza 4 also appeared in Forza 3. They look noticeably better now, which is no mean feat in itself, but early in your new racing career you could still be forgiven for wondering if developer Turn 10's latest offering might more appropriately have been titled Forza 3.5. Thankfully, that feeling dissipates as new features and improvements reveal themselves, and ultimately there's no doubt that this is a worthy sequel to one of the best racing games in recent memory.

If you're one of the many people who played and enjoyed Forza 3, or are still playing and enjoying Forza 3 two years after its release, you're rewarded for your efforts the first time you start up Forza 4. You don't get to keep your vast collection of cars or your multimillionaire bank balance, but you're awarded a good selection of cars and a modest sum of money based on factors such as your Forza 3 driver level, VIP status, and whether or not you owned any of the rare "unicorn" cars. It's great that after spending countless hours with Forza 3 you don't have to start from scratch in Forza 4, and you might be pleasantly surprised by some of the cars that you find in your garage once you start playing. Newcomers to Forza have to make do with a first car that wouldn't warrant a second look if you passed by one in real life, but as one of the Forza faithful you might have access to a Lamborghini Gallardo, a Ferrari 430, an Audi R8, and a Bugatti Veyron as soon as your career gets under way, to name but a few.

Forza 4's World Tour mode is structured quite differently from Forza 3's Career mode. Where the latter challenged you to complete numerous themed series and, as a result, often saw you driving the same car for hours at a time, the former gives you much more freedom to drive what you want, when you want. You don't have any say in where your world tour takes you, but every time you land at a new circuit you're given at least two or three different events to choose from. Normally, the choices available to you appear to be dictated by the car that you're currently using or at least by the cars in your garage, so you almost never need to buy a new car to progress. In fact, you might not feel the need to buy any cars at all; you're awarded a new car every time you earn enough experience points to gain a driver level, and where in Forza 3 you didn't get any say in which car you received, now you get to choose from two to five options. Thinking about saving up 9 million credits to buy a Ferrari '67 330 P4? Don't bother; you can get one for free once you reach level 30, assuming you choose it over the Ford '66 GT40 MkII and the Shelby '65 Cobra Daytona Coupe.

In another departure from the Forza 3 formula, the cars you drive no longer gain levels along with you. Rather, driving a car increases your affinity with its manufacturer, which then rewards you with cash bonuses and discounts on car upgrades. It's a great system in theory, but it's baffling that with an affinity level of just four--which might take you only a handful of races to achieve--you qualify for a 100 percent discount on all parts. That means you can take your E-class Toyota MR2 with 145 horsepower and turn it into an S-class car with over 350 horsepower without spending a single credit. This makes it a lot easier for you to make your favorite cars competitive online and leaves you with more money to spend on new vehicles, but--in conjunction with the new option to purchase cars using Microsoft points--it devalues the in-game currency.

Regardless of how you acquire them, Forza 4's cars are a joy to drive, and they feel even more responsive on the track than their Forza 3 counterparts. Whether using the in-car view or any of the several available external cameras, you're afforded plenty of audio and visual feedback with which to make split-second decisions on the track, not to mention the excellent rumble and force feedback effects you get from standard controllers and steering wheel setups respectively. That's just as well, because AI opponents are noticeably more aggressive this time out and aren't nearly as quick to back off when you get alongside them. They don't always drive intelligently, they occasionally seem oblivious to your existence on the track, and they're oddly prone to errors after you use the rewind feature to correct your own mistakes, but at least you feel like they're putting up a fight for the most part. It's unfortunate that making even slight, accidental contact with an opponent renders your current lap time worthless on the leaderboards, but this is a necessary evil because it's possible to use opposing cars as a quick way to brake for corners on occasion.

Like previous games, Forza 4 does an outstanding job of catering to drivers of all skill levels. Options like assisted braking and steering, traction control, and the suggested racing line make it easy to get behind the wheel and compete even if you've never played a racing game before. Using any of the driving aids, including the aforementioned rewind feature, means you earn less prize money at the end of every race, but unless you desperately want the achievement for owning every Ferrari in the game, this is hardly a cause for concern. The only real worry with Forza 4's driving aids is that once you get used to driving with them, it can be hard to wean yourself off them. If you make an effort to experiment with switching certain assists off when you find that you're winning races too easily, though, you're sure to find a setup that's both comfortable and challenging after a while. Race results aren't the only metric that you can use to judge whether you're racing with too many assists turned on; Forza 4 uses a small onscreen graphic to rate every corner you take and every pass you make, as well as any drifts and drafts. This inspired addition can be humbling, but it's a great feeling to string together three or four perfectly taken corners in a row.

Unsurprisingly, Forza 4's racing action is best enjoyed online where you can compete with up to 15 other drivers simultaneously. (Forza 3 supported only eight players online.) A robust lobby system makes it easy to find and get into sessions that include straightforward races, drift and drag events, and games of tag and the team-based cat and mouse. There's also an all-new option to participate in multi-class races that see two, three, or even four different races take place on a track at the same time. These events invariably pose an interesting challenge, because at the same time you're competing with cars in your own class, you need to steer clear of drivers from other classes whose cars are significantly faster or slower than yours. The potential for drama on the track increases in these situations, and while it's rarely much fun getting forced off the road, the silver lining is that collisions often make for great photos and replays, which can be shared via both your in-game storefront and forzamotorsport.net quickly and easily.

Another great new way to enjoy multiplayer competition is the new Rivals mode. Here, you pit your skills against other players' ghost car replays in events that include hot laps, track day overtaking challenges, drift contests, and slalom-style autocross events. Beat a rival's score, and if they're a friend or a member of your car club (the new Forza equivalent of a clan or guild), they receive a message letting them know that you beat them. If you don't have any friends or fellow club members to compete against, you have an opportunity to compete against the replays of randomly selected players. Rivals mode works in much the same way as the Autolog feature that developer Criterion introduced in Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (and which more recently appeared in Burnout Crash!), and it offers a compelling reason to revisit the same events over and over again.

You also have the option to revisit events from your world tour and to take part in events that you passed on at any time. There's little reason to rerun races that you've already won, but some of the new, score-based event types are definitely fun to play more than once. Track day challenges require you to overtake as many slow cars as possible while driving a fast one, for example, while one-vs.-one challenges are head-to-head races in which you much chase and overtake an opponent on a course filled with slow-moving traffic. These event types feel very different from regular races because with so many cars in front of you and around you, you rarely have an opportunity to stick with the racing line that you're normally trying hard not to stray too far from. Top Gear events are similar in that regard, but rather than challenging you to avoid other drivers, they involve knocking over bowling pins as you race around the popular BBC show's test track.

That track is one of only five that are new in Forza 4, along with Hockenheimring, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Infineon Raceway, and the fantasy circuit that runs through the Bernese Alps, all of which are great additions. Most of the Forza 3 tracks return, so there are plenty to choose from (26 circuits, most with two to five variants), but the absence of the New York street circuit is a little disappointing. All of the included tracks are superbly detailed and give the appearance that they've seen plenty of use in the two years since Forza 3 was released. They also benefit from improved lighting effects, which can have you admiring impressive shadows when racing at sunrise in one race, and reaching for a pair of sunglasses in the next, when the midday sun's glare hits you via another car's roof or a trackside mound of snow. What's conspicuously absent in Forza 4, though, given the existence of games like Gran Turismo 5, is an option to race at night or in different weather conditions. When you're racing outside of World Tour mode there are "track condition" settings available for some tracks, but the options only include things like "late afternoon," "sunset," and "overcast," the latter of which comes with no chance whatsoever of rain.

Of course, you might not be interested in driving in the rain, and it's even possible that driving isn't your primary reason for being interested in Forza 4 at all. Like in Forza 3 before it, Forza 4's community features are set up in such a way that those of you more interested in tuning or designing liveries for cars than in driving them can definitely find an audience of potential paying customers. As a tuner you can easily adjust settings like tire pressures, gear ratios, downforce, and wheel alignments to improve a car's performance. Some of the options can look a little intimidating if you're not mechanically minded, but the effects of any changes that you make are explained in enough detail that you don't feel like you're just fumbling around in the dark if you give tuning a try. Come up with a tuning setup that works well, and you might even be able to sell it from your personal online storefront along with any vinyl designs and car liveries that you've created by expertly manipulating geometric shapes and simple images. You have all of Forza 3's vinyl shapes plus 80 new ones to work with when creating your designs in Forza 4, and producing graphics that other players are willing to spend money on still takes a lot of work. The tools are powerful and easy to work with once you understand them, though, and it's a great feeling to be complimented on your car's appearance when you've designed it yourself. (It's also worth noting that you can import your vinyl designs from Forza 3, but not your completed car liveries.)

New features and improvements are relatively thin on the ground for tuners and painters, but for those of you who simply love cars, Forza 4 has a treat for you in its new Autovista mode. Here, using the optional Kinect support to mimic the act of walking around a car and interacting with it if you choose, you get to explore some of the game's most desirable automobiles in stunning detail. You can open doors, trunks, and hoods; you can get into the driver and passenger seats; and you can even inspect wheels and engines. Interact with the right part of your chosen car, and you get an amusing overview of it voiced by Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson; interact with other areas of the car, and you get much drier but informative descriptions of various components. Only four cars are available at the outset, but you can unlock another 20 or so (including the Halo series' Warthog, which can't be driven) by completing specific race challenges.

Like even the very best new cars, Forza 4 doesn't reinvent the wheel, but rather it refines and improves upon what came before it. That's no small achievement given how truly special Forza 3 was, and if you're still playing that game, there's a good chance you'll still be enjoying this one two years from now.

Turn 10 Studios' latest racer is bigger and better than its superb predecessor in every way.

The Good

Hundreds of desirable cars to drive, paint, and tune
Great and varied selection of tracks to race on
Presentation is uniformly excellent
Superb online multiplayer options
New storefront features make it easier to buy and sell your creations.

The Bad

AI drivers occasionally fall asleep at the wheel
Career bug sometimes lets you use cars that far exceed event restrictions.

Do you like cars? If so, Forza Motorsport 3 is the game for you. In fact, provided you don't hate cars, Forza Motorsport 3 is the game for you. Turn 10 Studios' latest racer is an ambitious game that tries to be a lot of different things for a lot of different people, and the great news is that it succeeds at just about every turn. It doesn't matter how good you are behind the wheel; you can find a difficulty level and a handling model to suit you. And while there are plenty of options available for those of you who enjoy painting or tuning your rides as much as you enjoy driving them, you don't have to devote any time to those features to reap their rewards. Forza Motorsport 3 is a bigger and better game than its predecessor in every way imaginable, and while it's not flawless, it's certainly way ahead of the competition.

Your first race in Forza 3 is spent at the wheel of an Audi R8 loaner, and by default, there are several driving assists--including the series' familiar dynamic racing line--turned on that serve as your water wings as you're thrown in at the deep end. From there, you're free to take your career in whichever direction you choose, though with limited funds at your disposal your first car is more likely to be a Scion than a Shelby. Career mode is divided into seasons, and each season you compete in a world championship that spans several races. You don't get to choose which championships you're entered into, so you start with relatively slow showroom cars early on and must get some miles under your belt before competing in thoroughbred racecars later on. With that said, championship races are generally two or three weeks apart, and so after every race you're invited to choose another, shorter series of events to take part in. You can also ignore the calendar completely if you choose, and just compete in whichever events you want to at anytime. Either way, the options you're presented with are determined, at least in part, by the cars that you own, so if you manage to get your hands on an Enzo Ferrari or a Porsche Carrera GT early on, you don't have to wait around before putting them to work. You might even find that you can use one or two of your cars in events for which they far exceed the maximum performance restrictions, though this bug doesn't rear its competition-trivializing head very often.

Regardless of what you're driving, you're free to pick and choose which assists you want to use, and you have an opportunity to quickly alter your settings before every race. This is definitely a welcome feature, because while you might not feel the need for antilock brakes or stability control when you're driving something modest, you might not be nearly as confident climbing into a Bugatti Veyron supercar for the first time. It's tempting to make things easier by keeping all of the assists turned on, but there's a great incentive to turn them off, because every time you do so, your potential earnings increase. For example, turning off the autobrake (which you'll probably want to do right away) increases your winnings by 10 percent, and if you opt for "simulation" damage, fuel, and tire wear as opposed to "cosmetic" or "limited," you can add another 15 percent on top of that. This setup ensures that while anyone who picks up Forza 3 can spend their entire career feeling like a winner, better drivers will earn more money in the process, and rightly so. Similarly, you get to keep more of your winnings if you don't have to spend them paying for damage incurred during a race, so although it's possible to win some races by driving aggressively and using opponents or walls to slow you down for corners, you won't be doing yourself (or your opposition) any favors in the long run.

That's especially true if your opponents are other online players or a friend that you're playing split-screen with, because retaliation is likely to cross their minds at some point. Forza 3's AI is more focused on the finish line than on forcing you off the track, which makes it superior to some of the players you're likely to meet online, but it's not an intelligence that's going to pose a threat to its human counterparts anytime soon. At times, AI drivers are superb: they jostle for position, they look for openings when other drivers falter, and they know when to back off if their attempt at an overtake starts looking perilous. Occasionally, though, these otherwise believable opponents will make such silly mistakes that you'll swear they must have fallen asleep at the wheel. At Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya, for example, it's not nearly as uncommon as it should be to see opponents accelerate toward the Seat hairpin and fly off into the gravel without ever appearing to touch the brake pedal or the steering wheel, and it's not unheard of to see different opponents making the exact same error on consecutive laps. Race incidents like these aren't something you'll see often, especially if you're spending most of your time at the front of the pack, but if you're in a closely contested race, it's less satisfying to win as a result of an opponent's incompetence than it is to beat him out of a corner or slingshot past him on a straight.

It's also slightly less satisfying to cross the finish line first if you've felt the need to use Forza 3's new rewind feature during the race, but it's a great (if unoriginal) addition to the game regardless. If you consider yourself a purist, you might feel inclined to look down on this new feature and on anyone who uses it, and that's fine, because you don't have to use it if you don't want to, and nobody is ever going to have the option of using it while competing with you online. Furthermore, if you're from the no-rewind school of racing, your leaderboard times will always appear above those of drivers who have used the rewind to correct any number of their mistakes. The leaderboards also clearly display which assists drivers were using when they recorded their posted lap times, which might ultimately end up being a better incentive for you to turn them off than extra winnings are.

As in Forza 2, your winnings in Forza 3 can be used to buy new cars (more than 400 different models are available at launch), either direct from manufacturers or from other players via an auction house. However, it seems unlikely that Forza 3's auction house will be the hive of activity that Forza 2's was, not because it has changed for the worse, but because unless you're looking for a bargain or want to offload a car that you've been awarded, there are few reasons to go there. In Forza 2, one of the main reasons to buy a car from the auction house was that it had a great custom paint job and/or because it had already had money spent on upgrading and tuning it. You can still buy and sell cars this way if you choose to, but in Forza 3 you can also deal in tuning setups, paint jobs, and individual vinyl designs without having to attach them to cars. For example, if you re-create a favorite video game character on the hood of a car and you want to earn some credits selling it, you now have two options. You can either sell it as a vinyl that other players will be free to paste onto any car that they choose (safe in the knowledge that they won't be permitted to resell it subsequently) or incorporate it into a design for a specific model of car so that players who own one of those cars can apply it to their vehicle. It's a vastly superior system to that in the last game, and because potential buyers can search for designs either by typing in keywords or by using presets like "retro," "anime," and "realistic," there's a good chance that players who are interested in the kinds of things you create will find their way to your in-game storefront.

Forza 3's car models look fantastic in their showroom and real-world race liveries, but it's the designs being created by the community that are really making them pop. That's no mean feat, because the tools that designers have to work with, while clearly powerful, don't make life easy. If you're familiar with the design tools in Forza 2, then you might be disappointed or at least surprised to learn that they haven't changed much in Forza 3. You still work primarily with geometric shapes and generic-looking icons, you still group large numbers of them together to create race team logos or photo-realistic images of your favorite Brazilian supermodels, and it still takes a lot of work to create something worthwhile. It's time well spent, though, and because there's now an option to create designs on a perfectly flat surface before applying them to a car, you no longer have to use the roof of a Mini Cooper for a canvas. Would this aspect of the game be better if you could import images from Photoshop or just scan them in? Absolutely not. Sure, it would be easier, but it wouldn't be as rewarding, and more importantly it wouldn't be fair for players without access to the necessary hardware or software. It's also unlikely that the end results would look significantly better. Spend some time checking out the top designs, as rated by other players, and you'll realize that just about anything is possible with Forza 3's design tools; you just have to get good with them.

If you're more inclined to spend your time racing than playing with geometric shapes, there's still no reason you can't have great-looking cars. Just make sure you win enough credits to buy all of the designs you want. Whether you're racing in your single-player career or online with up to seven opponents, all of your winnings go into the same pot, and so do your experience points. Leveling up in Forza 3 doesn't benefit you in the way that you might expect it to in other genres, but every time you reach a new level, you're awarded a new car, so it can be a strong incentive to keep playing long after you've told yourself "just one more race." This is especially true later in your career, because the cars you're given are among the most desirable in the game--assuming you haven't rushed out and bought them already.

Just as you would in real life, it's not a bad idea to test-drive cars before you buy them. None of the cars in Forza 3 handle poorly, and all are delivered to your garage with perfect bodywork and spotlessly clean, accurately re-created interiors. Inevitably, there will be cars that suit your driving style better than others, though, and if you don't know much about tuning, it can be tough to tame a car that's proving problematic for you--even if you take advantage of the new quick upgrade option that optimizes your car for the class of competition that you want to use it in. In Career mode you're only able to use cars that you own, but every car in the game (as well as those in your garage) is available to you from the outset for use in single races, hot lap events, and multiplayer.

Online play was one of Forza 2's greatest strengths, and the same is true of Forza 3. It doesn't matter if you're looking to enjoy a private session with friends or hop into a race with random opponents--getting your car onto the starting grid couldn't be easier, and it's hard to imagine how the subsequent races could be any better. Even in multiplayer, detailed environments from all over the world fly by at speeds in excess of 200 miles per hour without ever posing a threat to the frame rate, and the game is very smart about knowing when to "ghost" players who have tried to take shortcuts or are in the mischievous minority who think it's hilarious to drive the wrong way and try to crash into other racers. In addition to regular races, online options include Drag and Drift events, as well as three different Tag variants, Elimination races, and team-based Cat and Mouse competitions. As the host of a session, the options that you have to customize these game types number in the dozens, and you can even force players to turn off certain assists or use a specific camera angle.

Those camera options include all of the usual suspects: bumper, hood, cockpit, chase near, and chase far. Another great feature of Forza 3, which will be familiar if you played the previous game, is that at any point during a single-player race or during a replay of a multiplayer race, you can pause the action to take a photograph. The in-game camera has more settings for you to tinker with than the cameras that most of us use in real life, and if you're good at photography (or even if you're not) it's possible to create some impressive images. This is especially true at new tracks like Italy's Amalfi Coast, Japan's Fujimo Kaido, and the United States' Sedona Raceway, which are great additions to the sizeable roster not only because they offer very different and enjoyable driving experiences, but also because they're set in some quite beautiful locations. If you choose to share photos by uploading them to your storefront they'll also appear on the official Forza Website, from which you can download them for posting in forums and the like.

Other than some load screens that stick around long enough to outstay their welcome before each race, the quality of Forza 3's presentation is uniformly excellent across every aspect of the game. The menus are clean and intuitive, the in-game visuals never fail to impress, and the default audio options prioritize the satisfying roars of the cars' respective engines over the 30-plus licensed tunes playing in the background. Artists on the soundtrack include The Hives, The Fratellis, Fall From Grace, Alkaline Trio, The Qemists, DJ Drunken Master, Logistics, and many more. Regardless of whether or not they're to your liking, there's no denying that the vast majority of the songs on the playlist make good driving tunes.

There's also no denying that Forza Motorsport 3 is a truly special racing game. Not only does it make simulation-style racing accessible to anyone with the inclination to give it a try, but it looks and sounds superb doing it and manages to foster an unusually strong sense of community along the way. If you have any interest whatsoever in racing games, even if you've never played one before, you'd do well to pay a visit to your local video game showroom and become a member of the Forza Motorsport 3 owners' club at your earliest convenience.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 embraces the series' past to create a wonderfully technical and supremely satisfying game of football.

The Good

Slower pace gives you more control
Much improved ball physics
New defending system is more natural to use
Plays a great, classically scrappy game of football.

The Bad

New moves are tricky to master
Untouched single- and multiplayer modes beginning to show their age
Dreary and dated presentation
Terrible commentary.

At first glance the changes made to Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 might seem like a bunch of slight, almost superficial tweaks; you'd be hard pressed to find one standout feature from its long list of AI improvements, new tactical moves, or graphical revamps. And yet, on the pitch, it's one of the most rewarding football games out there. Where its predecessors struggled to find a place on the current generation of consoles--often simply playing catch-up with its competitors--PES 2013 embraces its past and plays a wonderfully technical and supremely satisfying game of football. No, it still doesn't come close to matching FIFA on features or graphical splendor, but when it comes to those unforgettable moments of edge-of-your-seat sporting drama, PES 2013 is sublime.

That's not to say PES 13 is without its challenges, though. Its learning curve is steeper than ever, thanks to an overhaul of its defense system, and the introduction of some highly technical moves. Like Tactical Defending in FIFA, the new defense system replaces the run-and-gun, automated tackles of old with thoughtful jockeying and tactical positioning. While it's simple to use--holding the opposition and ducking in for a sneaky, well-timed tackle are performed with the same button--nailing the correct timing for a tackle is very tricky, and takes a hefty amount of practice. The payoff is a defensive system that's more natural, more compelling, and far less frustrating in multiplayer matches than before.

Similarly compelling are PES 13's new player moves, which see a return to the technically challenging, well-timed commands of old. The improved dribbling system lets you hold the ball in front of players, teasing it with the left analogue stick to manoeuvre your way past defensive lines, while deft button presses let you volley the ball over the opposition's head in a gloriously cocky display of skill. Many moves make use of the triggers as a modifier, letting you turn regular passes into lofted passes and regular shots into controlled shots, and giving you manual control over the direction of your kicks, complete with a neat arrow beneath your player to point him in the right direction.

An overhauled training mode takes you through each of the new moves step-by-step, and includes a handy demonstration that shows which buttons to press and when to press them--not that you can just breeze through them all, mind. The timing is exacting, and there are moments of heated frustration as you battle against it. But when things click, it's satisfying to see those newfound skills spring to life--more so when you head out of training and onto the pitch for a match.

It's there that you can put those skills to use. There's no one feature that makes the game so entertaining, but rather PES 13's collection of refinements come together to create a sense of direction and purpose that has been sorely missing from recent entries in the series. Improved physics mean there's a weight and movement to the ball that just feels right, where it zips through the air the way you'd expect and smashes to the ground with a satisfyingly dull thud. Improved AI means players react better, making more intelligent runs for you to slip a cheeky through ball to, or jostling attackers as you sprint back to defense from an unfortunately timed shot.

The pace has been slowed down slightly, giving you more control over your players and the flow of the match. Indeed, that flow is what makes PES 13 so great, creating as it does some wonderfully scrappy football. There are moments where passes move effortlessly across the pitch, while strikers burst from midfield, hover outside the box, and wait for that expertly made cross to deliver a perfectly timed strike. The game is so responsive and captivating that it always feels like you're directly in control of the action, rather than forcing things forward with the slightly automated feel of FIFA.

While PES succeeds dramatically on the pitch, it's once again let down by a presentation that's woefully dated, even if there's a kind of sick, retro charm to it. Menus still have that pseudo-futuristic neon look to them, arranged as they are in the most illogical and frustrating of ways. There are some weird animation glitches too, as well as some frame rate issues during replays. And the less said about the awfully dull commentary from Jon Champion and Jim Beglin the better. PES lacks official licenses for the vast majority of teams too, so you're stuck with using the editor to create official teams or waiting for some enterprising individual to post a save file online.

PES 13's single-player modes are also in danger of becoming horribly outdated. You're treated to exactly the same modes as last year, including the officially licensed UEFA Champions League and South American Copa Libertadores tournaments, and unofficial tournaments such as League Cup and Community. The once genre-leading Become a Legend and Master League remain untouched too, and while it's still fun to guide a player through his career or perform the duties of a manager, the dreary visuals and outdated transfer system make them far less appealing than they used to be.

There's also little to celebrate online, with the same ranked and unranked matches available as in past years. The Master League returns, letting you compete against others for prize money, which you can use to buy new players for your squad. Modes remain largely untouched from previous versions. The only change here is that playing online now earns items that can be used in the offline Become a Legend and Master League modes, allowing you to modify your players' stats. It's a nice feature to have, and certainly makes online play a little more rewarding, but it's hardly the full makeover the online multiplayer sorely needs.

Still, while its presentation and game modes fall further behind the competition, PES 13 has made improvements where it really counts. There's a fabulously entertaining football game at its heart, one that finally lives up to the high standards of the PES games of old. Sure, it may have given up its pick-up-and-play accessibility to get there, but with such satisfying, thoughtful, and tactical gameplay on offer, it's well worth the effort.

Crysis 3's amazing visuals are a pleasure to behold, and the game is plenty of fun, though not up to the high standards of its forebears.

The Good

Fantastic visuals that present a unique mix of the natural and the industrial
Each weapon, including the new bow, is a pleasure to shoot
Open levels and nanosuit powers provide combat flexibility
Entertaining multiplayer modes.

The Bad

Remarkably easy, all the way to the end
Lacks the standout battles of earlier games in the series
AI is easily exploited.

There are aliens out there in the chin-high foliage. You hear the rustling and glimpse a black carapace between blades of grass, but you can't tell if you're being stalked by a single grotesque beast, or a horde of them. You sprint through the derelict trainyard, surrounded by lush overgrowth and rusted railroad cars, then vault to the top of a car to get a better view of your surroundings. A disgusting alien leaps upon the car as well--and you gun him down with your electricity-infused submachine gun. The creature erupts in goo, and you scan the yard, looking for more telltale signs of crazed attackers.

It's a tense sequence in a gorgeous first-person shooter. "Can it run Crysis?" was a criterion for the value of a gaming PC upon the release of the original, yet as wonderful as Crysis 2 looked, it never inspired the same system-crushing awe among PC enthusiasts. Crysis 3, however, seeks to annihilate modern PCs, many of which will suffer under the weight of its "high" setting, let alone "very high." And you can admire the fruits of developer Crytek's labors the moment you enter the first level as returning character Prophet. Your buddy Psycho gets up in your face so that you can see every pore and every facial tic. The pouring rain clouds your vision, sheets of water bending the light and prompting you to head to the game's menus and tweak the settings, seeking that sweet spot between beauty and performance.

There's no shame in lowering your settings even if your machine can handle most other games without trouble: Crysis 3 is undoubtedly a beauty even on medium settings. Crysis 2 left behind the original game's literal jungle for one of the urban type. Crysis 3 melds the two, returning you to a New York City where destruction and decay have been softened by overbearing greenery. The private military company known has CELL has erected a dome over the city, turning the crumbling metropolis into a gargantuan greenhouse in which trees take root in building foundations and rise through their stairwells towards the sky.

This mix of nature and destruction makes Crysis 3 look striking; you couldn't accuse its makers of sacrificing artistic creativity in favor of technology, though like its predecessors, this sequel aims for realism--or at least, as much realism as can be expected for a game featuring high-tech nanosuits and flame-spewing extraterrestrial walkers. The attention to detail is astounding, even in the character models, which is just as well, considering how often you get up close and personal with your co-stars. Only in a few select cases does the camera pull back and let you see Prophet from a third-person view. This means that you always see supporting characters express their anger, fear, and distrust from Prophet's point of view, which magnifies the tension of various personal exchanges.

Indeed, Crysis 3 tells a much more personal story than the previous games, focusing on three main characters: Prophet; former Raptor Team comrade Psycho; and Claire, Psycho's girlfriend and communications expert for a group of freedom fighters seeking to take down CELL once and for all. CELL has ripped Psycho's nanosuit from his body--a painful process that has only fueled his abhorrence of them, and leaves Prophet as the sole "post-human warrior" left to fight. Claire doesn't trust Prophet, who sees him more as hardware than human, and for good reason: his nanosuit makes him increasingly prone to visions apparently originating from the grandaddy of ceph aliens known as the Alpha Ceph.

Prophet's connection to this being fuels much of the story, as does Psycho's seething desire for revenge over those that forced him to be simply human. There are a number of touching moments that spawn from rising tensions--a newfound emotional heft that the series never before portrayed. The final level, unfortunately, is problematic, because it leaves behind the game's make-your-own-fun structure and requires only a little stick maneuvering and a button press. But you can at least come to Crysis 3 with the comfort of knowing that the game brings the series' continuing story to an apparent close.

Happily, several hours of entertaining action precede this moment, and it's the game's futuristic bow that sometimes drives that entertainment. With it, you zoom in, pull back, and unleash silent fury on the human or alien grunt of choice. Firing standard arrows has just the right feel: you sense the weight of the pull and release, and feel the impact when the arrow reaches its mark.

As before, you can activate your nanosuit's cloak to hide in plain sight, which amplifies the feeling of being a bow-wielding predator in the urban wilds of New York. Special explosive arrows and those that electrify liquid can also be a blast to play with, just for the kick of finding new ways to make CELL soldiers die horrible deaths. The bow's downside is that combined with cloaking, it makes the game too easy; you can annihilate a huge number of foes this way without breaking a sweat or fearing the consequences of being caught. It doesn't help matters that Crysis 3's soldiers and aliens are not the intelligent type. While they're not the dunderheads they could be in Crysis 2, enemies take no notice of arrows that land right next to them, run into obstacles and just keep trying to run, and sometimes ignore you even when you're in plain sight.

You can boost the level of challenge by choosing higher difficulties, and if you find that the cloak-and-arrow method is too exploitative, you can go in guns blazing. Even so, Crysis 3's battles lack the grandness of its predecessors'. Remember Crysis Warhead's raging exosuit battle? What about Crysis 2's Grand Central Station encounter with the pinger? Crysis 3's central battles are fun but not as thrilling, and its two primary boss battles are easily won, requiring little in the way of tactics. Certain stretches do a great job of drawing you into the world, flooding your vision with awe-inspiring collages juxtaposing nature's bucolic touch, the remnants of humanity's metal-and-stone triumphs, and fearsome alien technology. But the tension such exploration creates is not always relieved by explosive battle.

Yet even if Crysis 3's action doesn't usually burn with the intensity of the ceph's home galaxy, it's still good, in part because the series continues to hew its own path with regard to level design and structural openness. Crysis 3 is neither a pure linear shooter in the way popularized by Call of Duty, nor an open-world romp like Far Cry 3. Instead, its levels are sometimes large but always manageable, giving you freedom to put as much room between you and your foes as you like. The nanosuit encourages further experimentation, once again allowing you to activate the aforementioned cloak mode (which renders you invisible) and armor mode (which lets you soak up more damage). And once again, you can leap a good distance should you wish to reach higher ground in a hurry.

Stirring weapons into this mix makes for some rousing fun. The bow provides one way to approach battle, but it's not the only notable method of alien destruction. You can select various weapon attachments like scopes and silencers to suit your preferred approach. The basic guns feel just right: their power is properly communicated via plenty of muzzle flash and recoil animations that give the shooting a kick. A large battlefield patrolled by giant ceph allows you to pull out all the stops, firing rockets, manning rumbling battle tanks, and scanning the environment with your binoculars to mark enemies, ammo stashes, and available vehicles. But much of this action is optional: you can sprint right through Crysis 3's most intriguing battlefield, getting only a taste of what it has to offer.

Prophet isn't just limited to using human weaponry, though. The plasma-spewing pinch rifle is the most common alien weapon you stumble upon, but the incinerator is more gratifying to use, especially when you aim it at the meandering alien sentries that equip the same flame-spewing behemoth. Watching these ceph scorchers soak up all that fire before dramatically erupting is a mean-spirited delight. You equip alien cannons and mortars too, and they are enjoyable to shoot because they feel so powerful.

Stealth remains unchanged for the most part, though there are reasons to cloak yourself beyond the gruesome pleasure of a silent takedown. You can now hack into turrets, minefields, and other systems, which often means cloaking and sneaking close enough to your electronic target. Hacking requires you to perform a simple, easy minigame--and while it's enjoyable to watch a pinger walk into a hacked minefield, hacking isn't a game-changer. In fact, gaining the assistance of a ceph-murdering turret only makes the surreptitious route even easier.

Crysis 3's multiplayer modes don't encourage such exploitation, however, and are an improvement over Crysis 2's. The returning Crash Site mode provides plenty of entertainment, and is essentially a king-of-the-hill mode with a moving hill. Teams must capture and retain pods that are airdropped in, which keeps players moving around the map. Pods typically drop in open spaces, reducing the possibility of players finding hidey-holes to camp from--and allowing pingers to get in on the action. Indeed, a team lucky enough to nab a mech is sure to put it to good use, gunning down and stomping on their unlucky victims.

The addition of nanosuit powers keeps the flow fast-paced and unpredictable. One scenario: you rip a riot shield from a dropped pod so that you can defend yourself while retaining control of the area. An enemy combatant approached and cloaks, hoping to fill your backside with bullets. He uncloaks and begins to fire, and you rapidly turn and fling the shield at him, sending him flying and successfully defending your life--and the pod. The other modes--Team Deathmatch, Assault, and Capture the Relay among them--benefit from the same mechanics.

Standing apart is the new Hunter mode, which also features two teams in conflict, but with much different results. This round-based mode initially pits CELL operatives against a couple of fully-cloaked competitors armed only with bows. Your goal as a stealthed hunter is to eliminate as many operatives as possible; each operative you kill then joins you as a cloaked hunter. One by one, hunters stalk their fully armed enemies, whose main purpose is to stay alive long enough for the timer to run out. Sometimes, the mode results in CELL members camping out in a small room and running down the clock, which can feel anticlimactic for both teams. But the mode can also capture a unique sense of fear as your teammates are felled one by one, and your beeping monitor betrays the presence of a nearby hunter.

Crysis 3 is stunning to look at, successfully portraying an uneasy partnership of the natural and the artificial. As the story presses on, the conflict deepens and the visuals darken; it's as if you can feel the evil spreading throughout the city. As a piece of technology, Crysis 3 lives up to the series' legacy. As a game, it doesn't reach the same heights. The campaign is several hours shorter than Crysis 2's, and doesn't reproduce the thrills that lit up the previous games. Yet on its own terms, this is a full-featured sci-fi shooter that makes it a lot of fun to torture extraterrestrial abominations with the burning rage of their own weapons.

Prototype 2 on the PC is almost identical to its console counterparts, which makes for a brutal and exciting adventure.

The Good

Empowering movement mechanics
A huge variety of deadly attacks
Incentives for experimenting
Collectibles are fun to hunt down
Solid port.

The Bad

Almost no challenge
Contains little that hasn't been seen before
Keyboard and mouse controls are clunky.

A solid port is nothing to scoff at. Prototype 2 finally makes its way to the PC after debuting on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 back in April, and the transition has been kind to this brutal open-world adventure. The biggest difference between this version and its console brethren is the slightly improved visuals. Greater draw distance and a higher frame rate showcase your murderous rampage in a more impressive light. Because the technical aspects have been translated with nary a hitch, it's easy to lose yourself in the destructive glee of this unrepentant sequel. Prototype 2 isn't the least bit novel, but it's so utterly ridiculous that it's hard to wipe the smile from your face.

One thing you should keep in mind is that Prototype 2 is at its best with a controller. The fast-paced fighting and empowering exploration come together seamlessly when you have a couple of analog sticks and responsive buttons. If you're using a keyboard, you can still blow through the papier-mache enemies, but the actions don't play out as smoothly. Holding down three keys to glide through the city takes a bit of finger gymnastics, and zeroing in on one attacker in a crowd is even tougher with a mouse. It's easy enough to get used to these quirks with a little practice, but Prototype 2 doesn't feel as as natural with a keyboard and mouse.

In contrast to the devil-may-care attitude showcased in the majority of the adventure, the story does take itself seriously. A military force has quarantined a major metropolis under the guise of protecting citizens from a viral outbreak, but their occupancy is far from altruistic. In reality, they are conducting bioweapon research, and the people are just unlucky cattle being led to slaughter. It's a morbid situation that makes it satisfying to kill your opposition--defense contractor Blackwatch--as you hunt down the higher-ups who ordered this atrocity.

The initial rush you feel when the central plot comes into focus dissipates as you learn more about the conspiracy. Evil stereotypes permeate the cast of characters, but even though there's proper motivation to murder them all, you rarely feel as if you understand whom you're tracking down. Scenes of redemption toward the end of the story breathe life into some of these individuals, but by that point you won't even care what happens to the villains. While character development is lacking, the storytelling is interesting. Most of the dirty details surface when you consume certain people, and the flashes of memory piece together a terrifying puzzle about the inner machinations of power-obsessed heretics who rarely question their horrific actions.

Dialogue-rich sequences explain your objectives before each mission. Plentiful swearing and unrestrained anger highlight most of these conversations, and the vulgar cutscenes force the carefree action to take a backseat far too often. Furthermore, protagonist James Heller holds his hand to his ear and slowly walks around when a contact talks to him, contrasting wildly with the crazed sprinting and leaping that make up his normal locomotion. Problems with the story aside, the artistic style used in the many cutscenes is certainly eye-catching. High-contrast black and white with flashes of color (blue eyes, red flames) add a dramatic pitch to the proceedings. This style is also used when your health gets low in combat and does a great job of communicating your struggles without obscuring your view.

Prototype 2 takes place in an open-world environment where you can run wherever you wish without artificial barriers reining you in. From the moment you're set loose, you don't need any urging to sprint through this city gone to ruin. Movement is free-flowing and empowering. Running up the sides of buildings, bounding down blocks in a single leap, and gliding like a manic flying squirrel make for quicker transport than a tired vehicle ever could, and the unabashed joy of careening through this virus-plagued town is hard to deny. Things do become a little tricky when precision is necessary, though thankfully you rarely have to move with exactitude. Instead, you sprint pell-mell until you crave the sweet satiation of your bloodthirst, and in a snap you're beating a poor sucker so badly his mother wouldn't be able to recognize him.

The convergence of movement and combat makes for instances of unrepentant brutality. While gliding over occupied streets, you might spy a fear-mongering soldier down below. Lock on to him from your safe vantage in the sky, and with a tap of a button, grab his squirming body before he has a chance to scream for help. With one more tap of a button, you can pound him into the unforgiving cement, hurl him into his fellow troops, or infect him with a viral bomb that causes him to explode in a fountain of blood, and then flee from the scene as if you were never there.

There's little reason to perform such an act other than the delicious enjoyment you get from tormenting those weaker than you. As your opposition becomes better equipped and more plentiful, the door opens for even more ridiculous sequences of gleeful violence. Like an anthropomorphic arrow of hatred, you propel yourself from tormenting tanks on the ground to hellfire helicopters in the air, mashing them into a flaming ball or ripping off their imposing guns to lay waste to those stupid enough to tag along beside them. Eventually, you gain the ability to pilot these craft, and though moving is slow going compared to the chaotic sprinting you're used to, it's a fair trade-off considering the impressive firepower you're given access to. Destruction exists everywhere in Prototype 2; you just have to decide in what way you want those who challenge you to perish.

Hand-to-hand combat is just as effective as the murderous weapons. Your arms transform into a bevy of handy killing contraptions such as tendrils, blades, and hammers, and you map two of these to two buttons. Depending on a number of factors, such as whether you tap or hold the button, you perform different moves, and these all finish your enemies in spectacularly bloody ways. The most sadistic of these is a black hole you create with tendrils. Enemies and environmental debris explode at a central point, causing a geyser of blood to shoot from anyone unlucky enough to be at the center. The controls have been streamlined from the original Prototype, so you no longer have to contend with the finger gymnastics the more powerful moves demanded. Instead, your kills are varied and gruesome, and it's so easy to initiate the moves that you happily test out different combinations while dead bodies pile up at your feet.

There's a sadistic joy to brutally murdering your enemies in Prototype 2. You're blessed with such a powerful repertoire that you can cause excruciating pain with ease. Although much of the excitement exists because of this savagery, your enemies are such pushovers that you rarely feel the satisfaction of a hard-fought victory. In many ways, Prototype 2 encompasses the design philosophy normally associated with quick-time events (even though that control method doesn't often surface). In other games, frequent QTEs make you feel like a badass without much work, and that sense of unlimited power is Prototype 2 in a nutshell. Your overpowered enemies keel over after barely even scratching your durable skin, so you tear them to shreds without any fear of dying. Even when you start a New Game+ on the unlockable Insane difficulty, you progress through missions without any serious opposition.

Your biggest challenge comes from overcoming twitchy controls and a camera that falters under certain circumstances. Killing dozens of enemies is no problem in Prototype 2, but when you want to hurt just one attacker, things become a bit more complicated. You move so quickly that homing in on just one man is a crapshoot, and this means you might pick up a box or stray rocket launcher when you desperately need to grab on to a specific person instead. In tight spaces, the camera doesn't know how to properly showcase the actions. Characters become obscured behind obstacles because your view zooms in too tight, making it tricky to get your bearings. Neither of these issues is detrimental because even with hiccups you rarely confront death, but they do get in the way of the freewheeling action during the most intense moments.

These are small problems in a game that's overflowing with simple pleasures. Maybe the best of these flashes of joy come from the way you escape from the military. When you cause too much damage, troops are alerted to your presence and hunt you with extreme aggression. If you escape their line of sight and shape-shift into someone you previously consumed, they immediately call off their manhunt. In theory, this is a fine solution, but in practice, it's so delightfully illogical that it only adds to the ridiculous fun of the rest of the game. The military quits the chase abruptly and is too stupid to understand reality. So, if you transform into a scientist while running up the side of a building, no one will think twice that a medical professional is defying gravity. This leads to a number of hilarious situations in which your pursuers happily ignore gliding hobos and artillery-toting doctors while you giggle at their buffoonery.

The freedom in how you traverse the city and kill your foes is the main draw in Prototype 2, and though the missions give you the flexibility to complete them in unique ways, they lack the inventiveness that could have added variety to your objectives. Just about every mission boils down to exterminating a person of questionable morals, so you rarely have to exert much effort in planning your attacks. At least stealth elements do give you a new way to approach things. Picking off enemies (either by consuming them or planting a viral bomb in their skull) is deviously satisfying and gives some challenge to completing missions even though stealth is usually optional. Plus, secondary objectives give you bonuses for completing missions in specific ways, ensuring you can't just rely on the same technique if you want to excel.

Outside of missions, there are oodles of collectibles to nab. The map sends out a radar pulse in the approximate location of hidden black boxes and secret lairs, so you don't have to explore much to uncover them. But it's fun to traverse the city locating every spare part, and the upgrades you receive for doing so are worth your while. The pacing is handled well in Prototype 2. You learn new abilities every few hours, so you always have something new to play around with, and bumping your stats makes you stronger and faster as you get deeper into the journey. It's a shame the challenge doesn't scale with your newfound powers, but that doesn't detract from the excitement of learning new ways to tear your enemies to pieces.

Prototype 2 is a safe sequel. It doesn't add anything particularly new or inventive to the genre, but small tweaks make it more accessible than the original game. Most importantly, it's an unabashedly fun adventure that doesn't have any doubt about what it wants to be. This is a game about killing enemies in an open-world environment, and little stands in the way to hinder your enjoyment. Mindless violence is all the rage in Prototype 2, which makes for a stupid yet entertaining experience.