Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance sees the return of Raiden who, thanks to Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, is now something of a fan favourite, but that wasn’t always the case. Raiden burst onto the scene as the main character in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and this annoyed many fans who wanted more Solid Snake while others couldn’t get their heads round the fact he looked a bit like Tilda Swinton. I didn’t share those concerns because I like Tilda Swinton and, let’s face it, Solid Snake deserved a rest. You don’t need to have played the previous titles in order to enjoy Revengeance, so don’t worry about that, but the game assumes players are familiar with Raiden and reveals almost nothing about the character so if you’re interested in his background you should pick up the brilliant Metal Gear Solid HD Collection and play Sons of Liberty.

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After excitedly tearing the wrapper off my copy of WWE 13 I did what I always do when I get my hands on a new wrestling game. I spent the best part of four hours creating a single wrestler. Am I proud of that fact? Not particularly. Do I regret spending so much time creating one wrestler? No, because it was the only way Sadako from the Ringu films – minus the cool hair-in-the-face thing because that’s not one of the hairstyle options – would be able to, in a triple threat match, all in a matter of seconds, hit Beth Phoenix with a spinebuster, knock Kelly Kelly out cold with a superkick, then return to Beth Phoenix and pin her for the 1-2-3 to become Divas Champion in WWE Universe mode.

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There was a time when me and the Call of Duty series had something pretty special between us. I enjoyed the first Call of Duty game and then Call of Duty 2 showed up and we really hit it off. The romance hit a rocky patch with Call of Duty 3 but Modern Warfare came along and showed me there was still good times to be had. Then things started to go stale. It was like we weren’t on the same page any more. Black Ops looked to be just what the series needed, something a little different. In reality it was more of the same but I do give the developers top marks for Zombies mode, I had a lot of fun with that, and on the strength of that mode I was prepared to give Black Ops II a chance to impress.

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I have a lot of time for Bethesda. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind was the first game I bought for the original Xbox, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was the first game I bought for the Xbox 360, and Fallout 3 is one of my favourite games of all time. In recent years, as far as I’m concerned, the name Bethesda is linked to quality. At least, that’s the case when they develop a game – but when it comes to games they publish it’s been a bit of a mixed bag. I didn’t think much of Star Trek: Legacy, but I really enjoyed WET. I didn’t think much of Brink, but I loved Fallout: New Vegas. I didn’t think much of Hunted: The Demon’s Forge, but RAGE exceeded my expectations and proved to be more than just a pretty face. It goes to show that you can’t predict the quality of a game just from the name of its publisher. Dishonored was developed by Arkane Studios who brought us Bioshock 2, a game which I found disappointing following the brilliance of its predecessor. This chunk of text was my thought process before I started playing Dishonored. In other words, especially as I managed to avoid all screenshots and videos in the build-up to its release, I had absolutely no idea what to expect.

My first impressions weren’t very good. I played for about an hour – did a bit of sneaking and a bit of killing – and it didn’t grab me, plus I had a few things to be getting on with, so I saved the game and switched it off. Three days came and went and I still didn’t feel like playing Dishonored. I couldn’t put my finger on why but, as I said, it just didn’t grab me. I decided to play it anyway, because I had to, and I’m really glad I did.

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This game shares the name of The Amazing Spider-Man film which, at least at the time of writing this review, I haven’t seen. Thankfully, that doesn’t matter as the game takes place after the film and, while a few of the characters are present, the events are entirely separate.

On one hand the story is quite basic – monsters are on the loose and Spidey must track them down, beat them up, and save the day – but there’s a little more to it than that. The company whose old regime were responsible for creating the monsters have unleashed high-powered robots programmed to destroy all mutants – and that means Spidey is fighting two groups at once. The escaped monsters carry a virus and are infecting the human population. The number of infected humans occasionally appears on the screen and this, although clearly scripted, adds a sense of urgency. Spidey realises he can’t deal with everything on his own so turns to his previous adversary, Doctor Connors, for some assistance.

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As a fan of the original Syndicate I was interested to see what Electronic Arts would do with the rights which they inherited when they purchased Bullfrog many years ago.

The original Syndicate was a strategy game which had action sections very similar to another classic title, Cannon Fodder. Most fans of that game would have been hoping for a direct remake which was true to the original. Electronic Arts had other ideas.

This particular incarnation of Syndicate is an FPS which, as we all know, is a very popular genre in 2012. Now, while I am one of those fans who would rather see a strategy game, I don’t have a problem a Syndicate FPS on paper. There was, after all, a lot of shooting going on in the original Syndicate. That being said, there was much more to the original, things which made it magical to many fans, and you’ll unfortunately find almost none of that stuff here.

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The Metal Gear Solid games are regarded as some of the best of all time and the series is notable for having huge success while managing to hold onto its cult status. This collection brings together Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Meta Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, and covers them in HD goodness.

Something you might expect from HD versions of most old games, which weren’t intended to be played in HD, is for the visuals to be a jarring mess. The truth is, and this owes a great deal to the talented artists who worked on the series, these three games look good. Don’t get me wrong, they’ll never compete with Battlefield 3 in a beauty competition, but they are far from being ugly ducklings.

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When you start up UFC Undisputed 3 the first image you’ll see is that of Middleweight champion Anderson Silva kicking Vitor Belfort in the face, a moment which will grace UFC highlight reels until the end of time. If that image doesn’t get UFC fans excited to play this game I don’t know what will. IT’S TIME!

I’ll begin with a (not so short) story about my experience with the career mode which will hopefully provide a good idea as to what the mode has to offer and, more importantly, give a taster of how exciting it can be.

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Microsoft have revealed the lineup of playable games that they are bringing to GAMEfest at the Birmingham NEC from September 16th – 18th.  Leading the charge the HD retelling of Master Chief’s first outing, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, with UK fans eager to restart the fight getting their first opportunity to get hands on with the games multiplayer mode.  Along with Halo: CEA, Microsoft will also be bringing Gears of War 3, Forza Motorsport 4, Dance Central 2, The Gunstringer & Kinect Sports Season 2 to the event, all making their UK debut in the process.  Games are not all MS have up their sleeves though, they will also be showcasing a range of new hardware at the event including the new Limited Edition Gears of War 3 Xbox 360 and Wireless Controller as well as the  Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 console, Wireless Controller and Wireless Headset.

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Somewhat hugely anticipated zombie slasher Dead Island launched on Steam in the US yesterday, and brought with it a monstrous problem that has been a great source of frustration for players – and I’m not talking about the undead antagonists.

You see, the release was chock-full-o-bugs, potentially breaking new records for launch day fiascos (sorry, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.). Although there has been no official word from developers Techland or publishers Deep Silver beyond the usual “there is an issue and we are looking into it”, it seems the release is actually an unfinished dev build, with messed up animations and sounds and, perhaps more worryingly, some dev code and files still included.

The most interesting of these being that, if players press “Y” during a game, noclip is activated, meaning that they can merrily fly about the map with gay abandon and even walk through walls. Not very professional, that.

Still, some of the game’s fans have decided to make the most of a bad situation by showcasing their bug-laden shenanigans on YouTube, as the hilarious video by Dopefish above ably demonstrates.

[Warning: video contains bad language, gore, and, er, "casual racism"]