SHOTINATOR1243

'The Getaway' is an excellent title that captures the dirty underworld of British crime in the early 2000's. You play through the 24 mission story list as 2 characters, with 12 missions suited to each. The twist is that the game adds depth to its storyline by making you play from different perspectives of the story, through each character. Mark Hammond; an ex-gangster, is hunted down by an old rival gang boss who uses Mark's skills and techniques to help take down a lot of the crime underworld in London. You will then play as the police officer who sees the story as it unfolds, away from Marks eyes. The gameplay is fluid and new, with no HUD. You rely on your sense for magazine counts, sound and your own surroundings and awareness. This makes the combat a lot more interesting and different from other shooters of the time. The driving sequences are... Mediocre, they offer no real change from titles such as 'GTA' and 'DRIVER' . The AI is odd and jerky, but the driving is still interesting as you will see well known stores, such as Carphone Warehouse. And vans like Royal Mail and FedEx this just adds a sense of realism when you are driving around London. If you live in the UK, you will enjoy it even more as you will notice the look of everything, even police cars look very familiar. The absence of a HUD makes it difficilt to know where to go when you are driving, the use of the vehicle's indicators show you where to turn automatically, which is a very nice feature. This also means, no map or objective icon, you just simply pause the game and listen to the audio tape for the objective that is taken from the previous cutscene, genius. To heal, you simply stand next to a wall and rest as your character places his arm on there to catch his breath back. This is a handy feature as you will notice when to heal, by looking at your blood soaked clothing and the way your character moves, whether his arms hang down and flail, or his legs look like they will give in at any moment. This new system really makes the game more immersive and interesting. Overall, 'The Getaway' is definitely up there as being one of my favourite PS2 games of all time.

Splinter cell: Blacklist is a mediocre game in the franchise but by far was the most anticipated because it brings all the stuff that was new in Conviction, but builds it all into one full fluid gameplay experience. Sadly this made the game too different and it didn't feel like a splinter cell game at all, but just another action game that incorporated stealth in some areas to compete with the SC series. Many problems for the PC version made it annoying to play but I felt like I had to because I needed to continue through the SC franchise even though this one was a bit of a disappointment but not so bad that it was a bad game. It still is great just doesn't feel like a SC game which is why I think this game still deserves a positive score.

After 6 years without a new game in the series, Hitman fans were waiting for this and hoping it would be great. I was one of those as I got it day one and was disappointed at how much it changed in those years of development from good to bad. There is no link between the games in the story or any part of the game itself. It is hard to give this game a bad review because of its great predecessors but there is a major change from the series going backwards as this game had small maps, terrible AI, bad game mechanics (so that there is always a few ways to kill and complete the mission just they are all basically the same) and also the contracts mode which failed poorly because yes in the past players have challenged each other to become the better assassin. But this game was too bad that no one really tried to compete because it can all be done the same way. This was a bad turn in the series and I hope the new game will revive the great Hitman series.

It annoys me when people (GTA fans) say that this is a GTA rip off when clearly it isn't. There is no over the top violence and no meaningless plot of the campaign game. Watch Dogs brings that to the table. It has an interesting and deep story line that goes on for a good 4-hour game and then afterwards there is so much more to do such as exploration and the activities: races, crime, assassinations. You name it and it is a side mission in this game. The multiplayer brings new elements to the next-gen experience and really shows of what is possible in gaming. This game is not a copy of another series, those games should be copying this as it has fresh new ideas and the story is also the whole game world in which you play. Watch Dogs is one of the best titles out there for a new sandbox/free-roam experience.

Payday 2 is an excellent game that is better then the first but isn't too different that some would say it is a whole new game. It brings back the clever co-op from the first game and makes it more deep and interacting. There are many new features added such as the new weapons, armour and mask customization which makes it a more interesting game because it brings in elements of the community as people design their player the way they want. And there is a wide variety of heists to choose from but a lot of them are from download able game content. This is a great game and I would recommend it to new players in the co-op genre and to skilled players from games such as Left 4 Dead/2