Well my baptism to computers started many years ago when my father gave me a ZX81 with a whopping 1k memory. It came with a huge 16k memory ram pack which naturally pushed it to super computer status. I remember getting a game with it whose evocative description painted this wonderful vision of how you had to steer your ship through the cold void of space, passing the craggy dangers of tumbling asteroids into the safe haven of the mother ship. In reality is was steering with left and right keys a beautifully rendered   .   past three other randomly placed    .'s, which were supposed to be the asteroids and into what was basically an upturned U which was the mother ship. Pure crap and about as exciting as actually switching on the computer. It was packed away and forgotten.

The Spectrum 48k then came along.  Loads of friends had them at school or indeed the Commodore 64 which was it's main competition.  My allegiance was with the Spectrum and I read the accompanying magazine even though I didn't actually have one.  I entered one of the competitions within the magazine, it was a war quiz about Arnhem, and actually won a prize in it which was a copy of the game.  I now had a game but no computer and in an act of kindness, which still warms me now, my mum said well we might as well get you the Spectrum. We weren't loaded and this was quite an investment. Computer, the requisite tape recorder to load up the game and a joystick.  I loved it and would play it at night when I should have been asleep and run the risk of detection. Trouble was that it's loading would be a 10 minute period of high pitched whines and whistles that would make the dog bark, further endangering my chances of being rumbled.  I would start the loading process and then cram my duvet, blankets, sleeping bag and pillows on top in an attempt to deaden the sound.

Games that I used to play would be Way of the Exploding fist, a very good side scrolling beat 'em up and Airwolf which was a side scrolling helicopter game that was just ridiculously difficult.  You had to shoot away these brick walls and fly through but they would regenerate after a few seconds.  This would be impossibly hard and the most I ever made was two. The frustration at this tapped into some primordial, uncontrollable rage that resulted in me smashing the joystick to pieces and kicking the front of two drawers in for good measure. Once I got another joystick, Quickfire II if I remember, then I played other games like Uridium, some knight style RPG game that I enjoyed, Green Beret, Rambo, Spyhunter and Ghostbusters.

Things evolve and times change and I progressed onto the Sony Playstation.  I didn't buy it straight away as I never do so probably bought it after a year or so if it being out.  Thinking back there were many games on this format that I really enjoyed and I bought more for this console than any other before or since. I'll just run through a few favourites. An indication of a games lasting appeal was whether I completed it and I'll denote where I did.

Playstation

Resident Evil

I remember sitting down to play resident evil with my bro, which was irresponsible considering he's 14 years younger, and watching the opening sequence.  It was cliched and hammed up and looks trash compared to todays standard but I was genuinely spooked after watching it. The moment near the beginning where you character is walking down the corridor and the two dogs come crashing through the windows behind was a jump off the bed moment and for putting my nerves on edge and sheer involvement, nothing so far had matched this.  Whenever you got to a safe room there was a certain piece of piano music that physically did make me relax and breathe easily and there was a palpable sense of tension when I would load up on ammo and go back out into the corridors.  The nature of the fixed camera angles, eerie music and disturbing zombie moans was very scary and many a time as I waited to enter another room and was greeted by the creaking door loading screen would find myself saying aloud that 'I was gonna kill and fill with holes any zombie mother that was waiting for me'.  I'd play it at night with headphones on and lights off to increase the experience and became a dab hand at mixing herbs, combining shots and moving from room to room. It also had a twisting, turning story that kept me enthralled. I'd say this game was my first ever taste of how utterly sucked in and captivated I could become by a game and probably because of this was one of the most powerful. Completed

Tomb Raider

It took me some time to jump on the Tomb Raider bandwagon.  I know I didn't get it straight away as I'm not always drawn to something because it's popular but when I did eventually get it, it was very impressive.  Compared to the claustrophobia of resident evil this was the first game to expose me to vast open areas and there were many sequences where I was simply open mouthed in awe.  The mixture of puzzle solving and combat was breath taking as was the surrounding scenery. It gave me the first taste in an almost surreal moment that the playstation contained a bigger world.  I think on the second level there was a scene where Lara could run along this tunnel and come out at the top of a waterfall.  From here you looked down the waterfall and see some wolves pacing round the lake below.  You could run down the side or by running and jumping perform this wicked swallow dive into the lake.  Now what really impressed me was that you could clamber out of the lake and after killing the wolves look back up to where it was that you had just jumped from.  In todays games that doesn't sound that impressive but having that much freedom after playing somewhat more linear or constrictive games that movement, to me at least, was amazing. I remember another scene where after clambering up a series of ledges etc you would come on top of (or was it in between the legs) a sphinx.  The camera would suddenly pan back as this ethereal music would sweep in and you'd be awed by the size of area that you were within.  A hugely immersive game and again one that I thoroughly enjoyed. Completed

Tekken 3

I did enjoy this game.  I had one of those big joystick controllers that was big enough to go on your lap with a microswitch stick and big, bashable buttons.  It was perfect for this game and I think my favourite character was Eddie Gordo. It was his style of brazilian sweeps and acrobatics that I really liked.

Syphon Filter 1 & 2

Another game that I really enjoyed. Third person perspective with lots of cool guns, effects and a good story to boot.  One of the first games to employ really cool night / heat vision and it also had a great tazer weapon that allowed you to electrocute enemies enough until they actually caught fire, wicked!  I got so used to the sound of the guns etc in this that both my brother and I managed to identify the film from which at least the UZI was sampled from.  Grade A geeks eh! Completed

Crash Bandicoot & Crash Bash

I always liked these games. They added a fun element to the whole platform genre with some great graphics and cool sense of humour to boot. The whole running towards the camera or away from it was new for me and I revelled in it. Crash Bash is the best party game I'v ever played and I wish they would release a newer version of it.  The games were so simple but with four controllers and alcohol it was so much fun.  Whether pogo-ing around a chess like board, trying to stay atop a tipping, sliding ice sheet or firing off ball bearings around an arena it was just so much fun.  There would be so much laughter when playing and I'd have to say it was up with Halo (although obviously a different style of game) for multiplayer merriment.

Metal Gear Solid

Now this game grabbed hold of me and didn't let go.  I really got into, hooked with all the characters, even felt a little tearful when I had to sniper the woman in the snow, loved the idea of moving around hidden under the cardboard box and thought the whole invisible ninja at the beginning just Grade A class.  What a top game and up their with Resident Evil for player involvement. Completed ( I even penned a letter to the maker to thank him for a great game and suggest some improvements but I never sent it)

Medal of Honour

This was probably the first really decent FPS that I played and I loved it.  I like World War II films and this played on all of those.  Cracking rousing music, enemy AI that would actually show some intelligence. I'll never forget in one of the early sections chucking a grenade in a room and a Jerry attempting to kick it back to me as it exploded wiping out him, a comrade and some boxes. Pure quality.  There were so many good features about this.  The whole medal reward system, the way each new section was prefaced with a cool intro using stock footage and had you so pumped that you were ready to be parachuted into a war zone immediately.  There was another great section where you had to go undercover and when approached by a german who would say 'can I see your papers please' your hand would rise up and your papers flop down.  This won't mean anything to those that haven't played it but to me it was another brilliantly clever sequence. Completed and was disappointed that it was over when I did.

Twisted Metal

My brother and I really got into these two games, I mean big time.  The carnage you could dish out was fantastic and the ability to play co-op was even better.  Some of the battles we'd have with sweet-tooth would be awesome.  You couldn't beat hurtling down a road and letting off a couple of heat seeking missiles as you handbraked it round a corner and then dumped a bomb to catch the bastard who was following.  The Paris level has particularly fond memories.  I wasn't a huge fan of the French so being able to hammer it round the city and basically blow up the Eiffel tower and then drive on the roofs when the tower split open to create bridges onto the roofs was just wonderful, crazy anarchic madness. Even writing about it now is getting me pumped.  The bike if I remember was virtually impossible to control particularly at speed and the end battles with Sweet tooth followed by Dark Tooth were tough but oh so rewarding. Completed

Die Hard Trilogy

What a great game this was.  Three games all packaged into one which now would be remarkable.  The first was a third person perspective game which had plenty of glorious, gory carnage in it but was excessively hard, the second a first person game where you moved a gun sight around the screen.  This was my first real taste of destroyable scenery and I would be breathless after playing it and laying waste to an airport foyer.  Water would piss out of ceilings when shot, cars would explode, enemies die in splatters of blood and it was just fantastic.  The third was an inside driving game that was again sensational with you hairing through streets to defuse bombs in time.  To me it was a forerunner to the likes of Driver and GTA.  You would go round corners with the use of hard turns with people bouncing off the bonnet in gushes of blood which your windscreen wipers would happily remove.  Oh god it was fun and I remember a friend spending an entire day round mine as we tried to do this level and upgrade to an even faster car.  Just one of the games on its own would have been great but to get three was amazing.  It was though very hard and I don't think I ever completed any of the three individual games.

NHL 98

What a great sports game.  I never really got into any of the sport games but I perservered with this and it paid dividends.  It helped get my brother and I into the actual sport of ice hockey and some of our vs games were legendary. It was also a great co-op game and I remember getting it for christmas.  My brother and I played co-op as Great Britain against some other national teams and well we must have played it until at least 4 in the morning.  At one point our fingers were hurting so much and becoming so sore that we even put plasters on our fingers to curb the pain and blisters. What a great game, I think my brother got even more into it and ended up playing an entire season with his favourite team, the Colorado Avalanches.  I even bought him an ice hockey jersey one christmas, though he never seemed to wear it much to my disappointment as it had cost a fortune.

Need for Speed 2 : Hot pursuit

I remember playing this round a friends for the first time and feeling my face just flush up at the notion of being chased by the cops round some wicked scenery in a hot and fast motor.  What a trip this was either playing the convict or the chasing copper but it fired up my adrenaline like you couldn't believe.  Deserves recognition just for introducing that concept.

Syndicate Wars

What a brilliantly original game this was.  The graphics weren't outstanding but it was just the missions and the permeations of what you could get up to that really separated it from others.  Jumping in and out of cars, converting members of the public and wandering round laying waste to everything was just so cool. I was fond of one particular weapon called satellite rain which as the name implys allowed you to drop a beacon and then stand back while missiles from an orbiting satellite rained down and destroyed the immediate area.  Brilliant game and despite it's hardness I did manage to complete it.

Time Crisis

Even now I'm always amazed how quickly the guncon controller worked when you were shooting things on screen.  The fact that you would shoot something, the guns beam to bounce off the TV, be read by the gun, passed through the PS and then the enemy fall over was amazing.  There was some great blasting with this and when I combined it with my big, joystick platform that I used for tekken I could operate the duck/reload mechanism with my foot whilst still being able to shoot the screen.  The gun sounded great and it was certainly capable of raising the heart rate.  I remember taking it to some relatives over christmas and walking back to the bedroom where we were playing it to see these moody gun flashes reflecting off the darkened rooms walls. The perfect yuletide game! 

Future Cop LAPD

This was a blinding little game that I feel never got the recognition that it deserved. The main game was good and the sequence when you changed from walker to hover bike was great.  The assortment of missiles, mines and guns were also great with explosions rendered very well. The real brilliance of the game though was the two player versus mode.  It was a completely different game, that was very simple but just soooo much fun.

You were in opposing camps from which you could launch tanks that had to enter the enemies camp. Using a points system you could also launch planes to provide air support, set up forward bases to launch attacks from or save up the points for the dreadnaught tanks or planes.  My brother and I would have endless hours playing these and some truly awesome battles were you would be attacking a distant post one minute before having to rocket back to your own base to defend it against an almost overwhelming attack of enemy tanks.  It was wonderful for combining blasting and destruction with some real strategy.  Such a simple idea but I really wish someone would do an updated version because every versus game was different.

Resident Evil 2

It's hard to know where to start with how great this game is and was.  As you know from ready above (you were reading and not skimming I hope) the first game really impressed so this had a lot to live up to and it really delivered. The intro was excellent, setting things perfectly for a great game. I chose the character of Leon and in I jumped. If I remember I played it right through the night and into the next day. The action, scary moments, sound, score, graphics, puzzles were all top notch and held me utterly engrossed.

I know it was scripted but they introduced this mysterious female character, who like Leon, I was initially distrusting off but then began to warm to. I then began to hope that her and Leon would get together and when it looked like they might and she then died I seemed to feel the same pain as Leon.  MGS was cinematic but this was something else. I had invested so much into the characters and their situations more than any other game I've ever played (including Halo). There were so many scenes of tension, horror and action to remember but I think some standouts were when the giant crocodile came after you, scooped up an oxygen canister and then you shot that to blow his head apart a la the end of jaws or when the monster is on top of the cable car trying to get in and I was genuinely scared to go out and face it.  What an awesome game. Emotive, draining, exciting and entertaining. Completed

 

Playstation 2

Max Payne

Was an excellent game on the PS2. I remember reading a review when it came out and thinking that the whole slowing down time and related 'bullet time' concept would be tricky to master and intrusive to the story. How wrong was I again.

Starting off in the alleyway as you did gives you a great chance to practice your moves to the point where you can complete double pistol flying shots with ease.  The atmosphere of the game was thick and rich and the story hugely involving. The way it mixed comic book story telling and out and out action was fantastic. Plenty of cool effects, hot dames, great guns and lots of blood. It was also really eerie at points and I confess to being a little unnerved by some of Max's disturbing dreams, particularly where he is running down the corridor as it's getting longer and longer and you can hear his wife and baby crying in the background. I've many fond memories of steaming into a room full of gangsters, tapping bullet time and firing off double Uzi's at the bad guys as my body sailed across a table and my bullets stitched a line along the wall before connecting with my victims and punching them backwards into a bloody heap, outstanding. Completed

Wipeout 2097

I was never much into the first Wipeout on the PS1. It was almost too popular and I could never get the hang of the floating feel. Most of my laps seemed to be bouncing from one side of the track to the other with that frustrating 'you're an arsehole' thud everytime you clanked into the wall.

I really tried to get the hang of Wipeout 2097 and it paid dividends.  Marching up the classes and getting faster and faster was really wicked and when you were 'in the zone' skimming along at breakneck speed and taking out the enemy I would just feel so charged it was unreal.  The faster you went and the longer that you flowed round the course the more annoying it became when you made a mistake but if you could complete a faultless lap it was truly sweet.

Baldurs Gate : Dark Alliance

I was always looking for a decent two player co-operative game for my bro and I to complete.  Single players games are great but I enjoy sharing my experiences and there is no one better to do that with than my brother.  For the PS2 I'd say that this was that game.  Great graphics, good characters and plenty of cracking battles. After watching Fellowship of the Ring I had to be the archer but it really was a good game and we both enjoyed it a lot.

Grand Theft Auto 3

I might have abandoned the series when I crossed over to X-box I did really love this game.  How many times would I start a mission and then think sod this and just go for a cruise round or try to drive a ferrari through a shop window, see how far I could jump a bus off a multi storey car park or better still sniper numerous innocent citizens from a distant building.

It really was such a fun game with a previously unheard of level of freedom and creativity. I know many folk grumbled about the potentially damaging consequences on fragile minds but it allowed you to do all the things you wanted to do but obviously wouldn't.  Car jacking, drive by shootings and beating up old women.

It was very well made with good sound effects, graphics and some great music. Top game and one of the last I completed on the PS2 if I remember.

 

Xbox

You know ever since I set up this gaming section I've only really wanted to talk about one game - Halo. It's my favourite all time game and I think I've been worried that my writing skills would not be good enough to articulate how much I like this game and how important it is to me. In the end though I thought getting something down is better than not. Ok this might make me sound a geek, as might this whole section, but my admiration for Halo doesn't extend to pyjamas or wanting to get married to the music. You know me and if I can get animated about a film that provides two hours of entertainment how chuffed will I be about something that has provided twenty times that. Anway I'll try to convey my thoughts on the game.

Halo

I first became aware of Halo when reading a PC magazine in WHSmiths years ago. I think it was Edge and they had talked about this company (Bungie) who were working on this incredible game that was going to come out on the PC. It talked of free roaming environments, great weapons, excellent AI etc. I locked it away in my mind helped by the memorable name and tried to drop it into conversation when the opportunity arose in case it went big time. I didn't have a PC or intend to get one and was happy with my playstation but had always looked at PC screenshots to see what the future held. Then in the computer magazines the news came out that Bungie had been bought by Microsoft and that the much anticipated but still unknown Halo would be coming to the Xbox.

I was sceptical of the Xbox. I'm quite a loyal customer and had been very happy with my Playstation and PS2. Microsoft was the big conglomerate giant forcing their way into the market and who were they trying to kid. I, like others, had seen other platforms come and go so why was this going to be any different. I did however remember this Halo game and my curiosity was aroused, especially by Microsofts determination to get Halo by simply buying out Bungie in a Victor Kiam way.

The Xbox came out and so did Halo to rave reviews. I remember trudging round Bluewater and looking in the computer shop, Game. They were running Halo on the screens and I looked on with admiration. An attentive sales assistant came up and asked if I was interested. Normally they can't give a damn or are really pushy but we got chatting and he said why didn't I try out the playable demo. It was the level where you have just crash landed on Halo and I took the controls and had a walk around. Everything seemed so smooth, so well drawn. I looked down at the grass which seemed all individually rendered in complete wonder. He then quickly showed me the beach landing which was just sensational. With the dropships swooping in on the beach and charging out the back with grenades and explosions going off was truly mental and a real delivery of pulse pounding, adrenaline fuelled excitement.

I had my own business at the time and funds were really tight so despite how much I loved what I'd seen I knew I couldn't get it. I remember enthusing to one of the guys who worked for me and doing my best to get him really excited about it. It worked and he decided to get an Xbox and the game. I love sharing things or moments of excitement with people and when he got it he took the day off work and then phoned me in the afternoon. I asked him wha it was like and he was finding it hard to express how good it was. He didn't want to give anything away but he talked about the guns, your fellow marines, the graphics and the sound, particularly the signature Halo tune that I'd come to love. He was obviously loving it and my desperation was reaching boiling point. I'd seen this game over three years and I was missing out.

I popped back into Game and chatted with them about exchanges etc. I was broke and couldn't justify buying a new console but with a price drop in the xbox, I managed to trade in my old stuff and get a brand new machine and game without any additional outlay. Ok the PS2 and all the games were gone but sometimes you've got to fully embrace the new and let the old go. Needless to say I was impressed with the Xbox. Here was a machine that I could play my DVD's on with an actual proper remote and it had a hard drive where I could burn some of my music onto to be played in other games. This was secondary though because all I wanted was Halo and it didn't disappoint.

Everything about it is just so classy. The Halo music was always so evocative and firing up the machine and then hearing the first melodic tunes of the gregorian chant always brought a smile to my face and just became synonymous with owning an Xbox. The story of Halo is so well realised. From having to make your way around the ship after coming out of deep freeze, it being boarded by the covenant enemy and trying to get to the shuttles to make it off to crash landing on Halo and trying to hook up with your fellow marines is just fantastic. It's just so cinematic and really generates atmosphere, putting you right in the middle of the action. The as promised all those years ago free roaming environments are great, and the scenery sometimes so breathtaking that you just stand still and follow the arc as it stretches up from the horizon and up over your head. The graphics and colours are amazing whether in detailing the ships, the covenant or the weapons, the music is just so wonderful and linked to the action to fire you up in the dramatic moments and calm you down in the quieter ones. The way the bullet casings rebound off a wall if standing next to one when firing and then litter the floor, the sexy voice of cortana who is your companion throughout the game, the way the AI works so well and how concerned you become about trying to protect your fellow marines. I tell you heading into battle in the warthog (jeep) while a marine lays down some fire with the chain gun on the back and another provides support from the passenger seat was just groundbreaking. It's amazing as well the amount of sound bites and conversational snippets that Bungie must have recorded because I never get bored of hearing them saying 'oh the burn', 'hey that was my kill' or the multitude of other sayings.

If all that wasn't enough then being able to play the whole game co-operatively is mind bendingly good fun. To be able to play with my brother and either do flanking movements or know that I've got him on the rear gun of the warthog is just outstanding. The production values of this game cannot be over emphasized. I know many will think I'm being a geek but seriously there is enough content, imagination and polish to shame many a hollywood film. I completely bought into the whole thing and ended up buying the soundtrack and accompanying novels, which were great and added real back story.

There are just so many standout moments in the game that almost every section has one whether the crazy battles around the grav lift in truth & reconcilliation or the dizzying anarchy in the maw . It offered such a complete experience, like watching an interactive 16 hour movie. You cared about your fellow soldiers, you felt the crazy bloodlust of going mad with your assault rifle and continuing to batter the covenant even when he was dead and lying on the floor and you shat yourself when you came face to face with a horde of flood steaming towards you. There really are so many good things within the game that I will still pick it up and play it now and it makes me smile. You can see it was created with love and dedication, with genius and flair, with imagination and enthusiasm and because of this has to sit head and shoulders above any other first person shooter if not any other game. I can't rate it highly enough and even now feel that I have barely scratched the surface of how special a game I think it is.

Halo 2

Well as you've gathered the first Halo blew me away so it was pretty obvious to expect that the second would have me wetting my pants in excitement. I remember re-watching the first Halo 2 trailer a million and one times and feeling the anticipation grow even though we were over a year away from the games release. In the interim I invested in the book Halo: The Fall of Reach by Eric Nylund. Eric had written the novelization of Robocop, a book I really enjoyed, and this was excellent. It gave fascinating insight into the Halo world, gave backstory to the Masterchief's character (John, Spartan 117) and how good Captain Keyes truly is. I called myself Masterchief on a dance music forum I regularly visited and hoped that my popularity or at least a connection to the media explosion when the second one came out would be favourable to my board persona. I kept my ear to the ground for any Halo 2 related news, though at the time I didn't have as free access to internet.

As the launch date got closer, so the increase in media exposure and so the first signs of teaser posters and campaign material. I also tried to do my part by stoking the flames whenever or wherever I was on the internet. One dilemma for me did begin to form. I wanted to share that whole launch experience with my brother. I wanted to see his face and discuss immediately with him what his first impressions of the game would be. I didn't want my first exposure to the game to be in a split screen, two player variant. How could we both experience the individual game yet share it. Simple enough I really. I bought him an xbox of his own. This way he could play his game on the machine in the living room and I could play mine on the xbox in my room.

The actual day arrived and I had booked a good few days off work to enjoy it. This could be sad but as you know I don't really take a great deal off so it was a welcome excuse to do so. Bro and I were at the time a little disappointed with Microsoft marketing of the game. We felt more could have been done to make it more impactful especially as the console was still a growing brand and this was a very important release. I think in our hearts we wanted it pushed almost to serve as a reminder, and demonstration to others, of why would had put our faith in the Microsoft machine.

The fridge had been filled with coke, the cupboards stocked with crisps and sweets and we were both ready to go. I remember looking down the pathway and waiting for the postman to arrive. It was like a grown up Christmas and the postman was Santa. Eventually he showed up and we greedily received them. I'd gone for the special,edition and my brother the normal one, which made sense as he could use mine if he wanted to see the special features on the bonus DVD. The SE case looked great. Kind of like a brushed aluminium effect stencilled with Halo artwork and a slide over plastic sleeve. Inside we had two discs of game and extra features plus a booklet that compiled from covenant perspective rather than a human one, which gave a little clue about where the game might be going.

We said our goodbyes and entered our respective rooms. My hi-fi had let me down the previous day and I'd been forced to shoot out to buy a replacement hi-fi, which ended up being a full Yamaha home cinema amplifier. Nothing was going to disrupt my enjoyment of the game.

It was great. The graphics and cut scenes were excellent, there were opportunities to discover more about old characters and new ones were introduced. There was the contentious issue of double wielding which I never liked and the pointless recoil of the SMG, which did it's best to affect the gameplay, but I was still having a whale of a time. The first level Cairo Station, was set on an orbital gun platform desperately trying to hold off the covenant onslaught of Earth. There was some great level design in that a multitude of windows allowed views of the bombarded earth or sight of the huge gun blasting away and then recoiling. Other levels included finding yourself on another Halo, which was beautifully drawn and imagined with really intense action scenes.

You also got to play as a disgraced Covenant Elite. To begin with I wasn't too keen on this idea but the ability to be able to cloak for a few seconds and wield an energy sword, as the Elite's did in the first one were mucho cool. I actually found that I began to prefer playing as an Elite rather than as Masterchief. Some levels where you would be going into battle with some small grunts was amazing and seeing these little fellows perform these heroic acts, like covering you with a sentry gun, made your efforts in keeping them alive all the more important. Bro and I would break for regular consulations about what we thought and how it was going.

A game does need a good few hours to settle before you really 'feel it' but you know when that moment comes and with Halo 2 it came when I was playing as Masterchief and was in the one of the covenant huge vessels, High Charity. The level effectively involved you working round the rim running into contact with both Elites and Brutes. The story was becoming fairly engaging at this point with the Elites, who were normally at the top of the food chain in the eyes of the Covenant leaders (prophets) being forced aside by the Brutes and effective civil disorder breaking out. Anyway this piece of music that is on my melancholy mix, which I'll have to copy for you all one day, called High Charity came on just as I was looking in towards the centre of the city. The view was amazing and as this haunting music floated through me I realised that I was know truly hooked.

The final level has you playing back as an Elite and again the piece of music when this level starts is amazing. I was only a character in a computer game yet I really felt cheated and dishonoured just as I'm sure the programmers wanted me to feel, by these Brute usurpers and they were going to pay. This end level also had for me what was the single best moment of the entire game. In Halo the hardest covenant enemy were these huge 8ft tank like, armour plated creatures called Hunters.They were bastards to take down and fired a huge gun, which had a wicked sound. Anyway in this final level along with the grunts these guys are on your side and you get to charge into battle with them. Man it was just so damn cool. Running into battle with my own hunters was fantastic, especially as they opened up with their bad boys which allowed me to flank the enemy and gut them with my energy sword! (Ok that was nerd boy overload, let me calm down and take a few breaths).

The multiplayer levels in the game were truly excellent. Four player split screen with my bro and two of his mates were a complete riot, especially some of the king of the hill ones where you can use vehicles and aircraft. Also being able to run around with plasma swords was a real hoot. It was a great game and delivered on what I had hoped though it wasn't without fault.

As I said earlier I thought the gun recoil was frustrating and seemed to be put in for 'putting it in sake', I really, truly missed the assault rifle from the first gun. That used to do damage and was brilliant fun to use. The biggest killer though was the abruptness of the ending. All the trailers and advertising had talked about the game being the last stand on Earth. There is a huge tussle on Earth but most of the game is set off it. At the end of the game Masterchief is sent back to Earth and you think you are getting ready for the mother of all final levels but it simply stops. When it happened I was caught between being pleased and thankful for the cracking single player experience I had had yet a little despondant and frustrated at the lack of conclusion. Yes it's good that they get to continue the journey on the 360 but at the time the idea of waiting another three years for the story's denouement was not well received.

In hindsight it's still a fabulous game, wonderfully continuing the story and setting up the third one nicely. Because of this disappointment, and the absence of the Assault Rifle, I do have to say that I will always prefer the first game.

Full Spectrum Warrior

A really original and involving game this. Apparently the initial model was used as a training tool to teach American soldiers leadership and that certainly comes through. You don't do any firing or shooting yourself but rather control two 4 man teams (Alpha and Bravo) as they work through a middle eastern war scenario. You can give instructions to advance, take cover, provide supporting fire, assign individual fields of fire and most importantly co-ordinate your two teams to flank and out manouvre your enemy.

The graphics in this game are excellent, as is the music and also the different characters within your squad. When they are taking fire you find yourself ducking and if they get shot you feel a genuine panic as you struggle to retrieve your man and team to get them back to the first aid point.

It was a little frustrating at first not being able to shoot a bad guy as soon as you saw him but slowly the process of covering fire and moving worked really well and added a deeper strategic thinking to the gameplay. One highlight was one level where these two Delta boys are seconded to you as a third (Charlie) unit. They are equipped with laser sights and putting them in positions to give you covering fire was wicked as they were excellent shots and their sweeping laser targeting beams would sweep over the terrain. It got very tough towards the end but I completed it and there was genuine satisfaction at doing so.

Fable

This was an excellent game but one that took me a long time to embrace. I'd heard that there was a lot of talk about it but always seemed to have been put off by the front cover. It showed a kid looking into a drinking fountain and the reflection of a man looking back (or it might have been the other way). It looked very Japanese RPG style and the notion of this put me off. It was before I had the kind of access to ign.com and the internet that I do here and hence I couldn't really do any research on it. All I knew was that it had a dodgy looking cover and was some kind of RPG (role playing game). I used to love the fighting fantasy style books when I was younger. You know the ones where if you want to turn left you turn to page 264 and if you want to turn right then you turn to page 137. I must have bought about 20 or so of these books and you think that would mean that I'd love RPG's, but I was always wary.

A friend of my brothers had it and used to go on about how good it was so I decided to borrow it and give it a go. It's a very clever premise and starts you off as a kid in a medieval / fantasy setting to show you the basic controls and layout etc before killing off your parents and thrusting you into the story. You go to a Heroes Guild where you basically grow older and learn the tasks that you will need to carry you through the game. I have to say that is very well done and as well as providing a tutorial does make you bond with your character a lot more. When completed you are free to leave and can accept challenges and tasks to increase your income etc. The level of freedom is truly huge and even though you have an engaging story running through the game you can go 'off piste' to do certain things.

You can use your money to buy houses which you can then tart up and rent out, you can give gifts to women and then get married to them, you can even go down to the local pub, get drunk by consuming too much ale which causes the screen to blur and then chunder. You can also play it good, bad or a mixture of both. The more good deeds you do, your hair becomes blonder and you get a halo around your head, the more bad deeds you do, you get horns beginning to grow and your eyes becoming red. You can also personalise your clothing, hairstyle and even get tattoos.

I always try to do the right thing when playing games. In Halo I would fight to the death to prevent a fellow marine biting the bullet but I decided in Fable I would have some fun and try being truly evil. Hence any travellers that I came across on the road I would kill and steal their possessions, I would take jobs, get paid and then kill the person who gave me the job. I'd have no regrets of killing kids or even knocking around my wife. At the end of the game I even killed my own blind sister so I could have her sword! All of this evil action resulted in the finest set of horns, deep red eyes and an ever present circle of flies around my head. I've never got into the personalisation thing but I added to the effect by shaving my head, having a tattoo coming halfway up my face and neck and a wicked all black assasin's outfit. It's a real shame that you couldn't print out images of your character because he looked awesome.

Anyway it's a great game that's hugely involving with great music and graphics, an entertaining story and some kick arse personalisation. They are working on a sequel for the 360 that I'm really looking forward to.