I'm not usually in the practice of buying downloadable arcade games but something about Trenched had me intrigued. Reviews gave it a modest to good score with the emphasis squarely set on the fun side of gaming. Congratulations to the developers (doublefine I think?) for making what the gaming industry has been sorely lacking, games that are fun to play. Too much attention these days is directed towards realism and hardcore experiences at the expense of the "F" factor, cast your mind back to the N64 and most games had fun gameplay in spades. Nowdays every FPS has a hardcore mode with sharpshooter enemies and time limits to make the average gamer rip out his/her hair in frustration. Am I just a lazy or incompetant as a gamer? I completed WAW on the hardest difficulty and screamed and yelled all the way through it just to get the realative achievment, fun? NO.

Trenched on the other hand brings back fond memories of fun gaming, you and three of your greasy mates stomping around the battlefield blowing seven bells out of everything that moves and loving every minute of it. The co-operative nature of the game means it's best played with friends, some issues have been noted when joining random rooms with laggy gameplay and frequent drop-outs but with friends I found no problem. Mech shooters are rare these days and to find one with decent customization is a bonus, triple machine guns with an artillery gun? You bet. The levels are fabulous, starting off soft and accommodating and then brutal and nasty come the end, hopefully you have unlocked enough firepower by this stage to give the nasties some decent lead poisoning.

If you haven't checked out Trenched yet do yourself a favour and have a look. Congratulations to a studio for making a game that reminded me why I play games in the first place. FUN.

Cheers....Damsog.