ReReview

Football Manager Live is a concept so different and re-imagined from the standard offline equivalent that many users probably won't be able to enjoy it in the same way. What this means though is that there is an entirely new game to love and you can quite easily lose hours, days, weeks and months of your life striving to bring through the youth that will turn your local pub team into one of the best in the gameworld. You play in parrallel with users from around the world, having real life time frames in which to complete a game although you can play them in any order as long as the user is online. You can set your club up in so many different combinations that there is always something new to try, whether you put all your eggs in one basket and build a solid team with one superstar or whether you decide to hedge your bets and take on a team of seasoned pro's with good starting ability in order to build your reputation steadily. There have been a great number of changes since I started playing in February 2009, but whether good or bad all have contributed to the dynamic online experience that has proved equally as addictive as its offline counterpart.

Fallout 3 is an adventurous re-think of the classic RPG game Fallout, rendered in fully-fledged 3D glory and containing one of the most vast and unrestricted landscapes ever committed to pixellated form. Despite a few minor **** and a wholly unfulfilling ending(/s), I found playing this game to be a real visceral treat. Moments of genuine terror and tension are aplenty, especially if trolling through abandoned subway stations while sitting in a darkened room, wondering where that scuttling sound is coming from and whether you have enough V.A.T.S points to stop it. One of the finest games of recent times.

Despite an amazing depth to the gameworld into which FIFA 11 invites you, you can't help but think there is a certain lack of intellegence to the gameplay. It is sometimes hard to truly control shots even with the "finesse" modifier and often the AI will score with one or two attacks in a game, rendering your efforts completely useless. This detracts from the great "career mode" play, which allows you to manage your club better than ever before, scouring the planet in search of the new Drogba (his name is Lukaku). The gloss is mostly enough to take your attention away from this, but not completely. Those who have played the World Cup edition will be familiar with many of the innovations, and penalties are extremely realistic, albeit often difficult. Having played PES11, I can safely say I will once again be returning to the Konami franchise for the long term but I will keep FIFA 11 for the occassional player vs player game with friends.

PES 2011 sees a return to form of the once great franchise. Improved animations, fluidity and gameplay make this a true contender to its more commercial counterpart, FIFA 11. True, it may play a little slower, but that takes nothing away from a realistic simulation of the beautiful game. Perhaps the only area in need of another overhaul now is the Master League system, which is becoming increasingly more complex but ultimately lacking in the 'pick up and play' department that was so beautifully achieved in the pre next-gen versions.