So, I can't be the only person loving Crackdown 2 right now, can I?

On Metacritic the highly anticipated sequel scored 71 and a user score of just 5.8! I've just wasted a day storming through Pacific City, leaping from building to building, beating freaks with lampposts, throwing cars at unsuspecting gang members, gunning down wave after wave of enemy and I still want more.

I understand the complaints that it all feels far too familiar (it does) and that what changes there are don't really warrant a standalone title from the first game (they don't) but the one thing Crackdown 2 excels is fun. Who in the world doesn't want to be able to leap 50 feet into the air, withstand a barrage of machine gun fire, lauch two or three grenades, pick off some headshots and blow up a car before slamming down into a squad of enemy soldiers sending them flying while you pick up the nearest bus shelter and start battering everything in sight?

Whats great about Crackdown 2 is that pacific city is a fantastic playground made better from its predecessor through the inclusion of more enemies, mounted turrets, better roof to roof navigation and intense gameplay objectives. Co-op is great as well I've been allowing anyone to join my game since I started and I have no complaints, some guys stick to there own thing or a couple might pair off to collect online orbs while another two focus on completing mission objectives but the most fun is had bombing around in a group of four terrorizing (er, I mean 'pacifying') the city. Occasionally you might accidentally blow each other up or kick a teammate in he face but in many ways this just adds to the hilarity and a fresh re-spawn is never far away.

The missions are a bit disappointing, they're basically a mix horde-type minigames where you defend an area from waves of enemy or capture the uplink where you have to navigate through heavy resistance to a satellite uplink and stand on a button. The Freak nests are a pleasing reward for completing the uplink challenges, its another defend the area but these are often frantic scrambles that take a bit of quick thinking and a lot of slaying as you beat, blow up and blast your way through countless freaks to get to specific threats in an effort to hold your ground.

One major gripe is the tutorial that kicks off the game. Can someone please explain to my why Ruffian fealt it necessary to include an extensive tutorial in Crackdown 2 when the first game just let you get to it? The controls aren't that hard y'know? And why is it so long? The beauty of Crackdown lies in free roaming and stumbling across objectives why lock me away from what I want to do for the first half hour of the game. I don't want you to hold my hands Ruffian games, I want you to reward me for blowing stuff up. I'm sure almost everybody else who has played through the tutorial will agree that its inclusion a pointless mis-step and doesn't give a good first impression.

Crackdown 2 may not be the superior in every way sequel we were hoping for from what was a very promising first game but it is better in a lot of ways and you will have more fun with Crackdown 2 than with the original. If the launch of second game re-ignites the multiplayer fan base and brings Ruffian to launch some inspired DLC then thats no bad thing. If you had a blast with the original then you'll have a blast with 2 as well. 7/10? It's at least an 8!

After a quiet few months in gaming I am delighted to report that Red Dead Redemption arrived this morning! It's a day early but I'm not complaining, once again big thanks go to amazon.co.uk for making this all possible.

So, after work today there was only one thing on my mind, friends wanted to meet for a drink, I said no, parents wanted to go out for chinese, I said no, my evening has been devoted to one thing only - being a cowboy! I must admit that me and RDR didn't get off to the best of starts. Within seconds I was gunned down in the middle of town all because I shot a boy off his horse! In my defence it was a damn nice horse and I wanted it, then again perhaps poaching horses right outside the sheriffs place isn't the greatest idea. It didn't take long to get used to the controls, they're almost identical to gta 4, a few minor tweaks makes the snap-aim slightly more challenging and obviously you can't handbrake a horse but anyone who's played gta 4 will feel at home with these controls.

So far I have shot bandits, saved a whore, rescued horses, rescued a rancher, rescued a ranch! and broken in several horses and I have to say that I am completely lost. Lost, yes, but not in a bad way. I like the feeling when you're a few hours into a game and have no idea what to do next, it adds to the immersion. Do I go hunting? Do I brake in a few more horses? Should I go collecting bounties or should I continue to try and get into the female leads knickers? The possibilities are endless.

RDR has impressed me. Travelling from place to place can be a bit tedious but every now and then a side mission will pop up. I've already helped a woman get a caravan back, saved a devout christian from being killed by faith and shot a guy in the back of the head who tried to steal my horse. This is a nice touch from Rockstar who clearly realised that travelling back on forth risked the gamer becoming bored so found a way to keep every journey interesting. I feel I am only on the cusp of what this game has to offer but so far all signs are pointing to this being a stellar addition to Rockstars impressive catalogue and if the game continues to impress as I get more fame, more honor and undoubtdly more bad-ass then its undoubtedly a canditidate for game of the year right alongside ME2.

This weekends game is Dragon Age: Awakening. It seems that the visual masterpiece Final Fantasy is on the back burner for now. it's not that I don't like it, its more that its such a slow burn and I can't bear any more CP grinding at the moment. So into my 360 pops the Dragon Age expansion.

Awakening, it has to be said, does nothing wrong. Anybody who enjoyed the first game will enjoy Awakening as well. The combat's still the same and levelling up and inventory management is as bizarly enjoyable as ever. In fact there's even a quest in this expansion where inventory management plays a vital role in your fight for survival.

The new characters have recieved a bit of a bad wrap. True, the likes of Lilliana and Morrigan are missed but can anybody really argue that the likes of Alistair, Wynne and Zevran are more intersting character than Anders, Valanna and Sigrun? The new characters have their charms just as much as the old ones did and while it's a shame to lose the sexy sister and wicked witch after a while you forget all about them.

The only major gripe I've got is glitches. We're talking some seriously schoolboy errors from Bioware, a company we've come to respect for the quality of games they produce. Occasionally one charcter will be talking and a completely different ones lips will be moving, I had an entire conversation with an egg before I realised I was meant to be talking with Valanna but for whatever reason she had disappeared. The most notable bug however came right from the off - I still can't quite work out what happened but for the entire opening cutscene my character was walking around in her underwear. In her defence she can pull it off but it just doesn't seem like appropriate Dark Spawn slaying dress, not to mention everybody in the opening scenes is very, very serious and for some reason standing around in your pants seems to detract from this. When I got to check my inventory it turned out half my items from Origins had disappeared. Fair enough, the ungrateful lackies from Origins had done a runner with whatever I had kitted them out with but that still doesn't explain what happened to my stuff. Maybe Lilliana took off with it as a cruel practical joke? First she breaks my heart then she nicks my clothes? Probably noy but I like to think that explanation makes a lot more sense than them just disappearing because someone a Bioware had a heavy evening the night before and accidently pressed delete button when they meant to press enter.

Don't you just love that new game feeling? When you break the plastic wrap-around, crack open the box and get hit by that new game smell? I experienced this recently with final fantasy 13 which was waiting for me when I got home from work on Tuesday (thank you for speedy delivery again amazon).

Incredibly this is going to be the first FF13 game I play for myself - I remeber playing FF7 on a friends playstation years ago, and my brother had FF10 so I kind of played with him for a little while but this is the first final fantasy that is my game and mine alone. I didn't expect the game to surprise me, I've played through lost odyssey, blue dragon and Eternal Sonata so had a decent idea what to expect from a JRPG and so far FF isn't much different.

So what is it that makes final fantasy stand out? Is it the gameplay? - No, its pretty much standard JRPG fare, repetitive but rewarding. Is it the groudbreaking programming? No. Is it the epic storyline? Maybe. Is it the visual expertise? - Definately. Like the latest pixar release the one thing you are guarenteed is visual excellence and square don't disappoint.

So far I'd say the games very enjoyable although the constant switching between characters and hopping back and forth storyline is a bit irritating. And can anyone tell me what's wrong with autosave? Seriously, is there anybody who doesn't save their game at every single save point? Why make it so the player has to stop, select the control panel thing, say they want to save and then choose a save slot? I thought we'd grown past this monotony and auto-save was now the norm - like any game that uses the right stick for anything other than moving the camera, its just wrong.

Enough ranting though. Final Fantasy is a game I'd recommend. Its by no means the greatest gaming experience you'll ever have but its definately a good one. Characters are intreging, if slightly irritating like the chirpy Vanille or grumpy little sod Hope, and the story is certainly ambitious.

So I dusted off the old master system and started playing a few games I remember from childhood. A lot of them have dated badly, I'd forgotten how difficult some of these games were. Take California Games for example, while bringing back all sorts of nostalgic memories it really sucks that I can't catch a damn frisbee to save my life! I don't think I've ever caught the frisbee but when I was a kid it somehow didn't matter. Perhaps modern games have ruined this classic with easy to pull off wall runs and spinning kicks? Perhaps we're spoilt by easy to control games? Perhaps California is and always has been rubbish but its only by comparison to far superior developments games like this are revealed to be the turds they really are. Reminds me of when I bought International Track & Field from xbox marketplace now that I think about it...

Still its not all disappointment. The old sega system had some brilliant early RPG games and these are still as good and as enjoyable as ever. Miracle Warriors still feels like an epic quest with an awe inspiring selection of 8-bit rendered enemies even if the battle options do pale in comparison to the rpgs we play now. Phantasy Star still has all the charm and challenge that made it great even if it does suffer from rubbish spellling, not just in the title either. The final retro RPG I want to mention is Golvellius. Anybody who's stumbled across one of my posts about retro games will probably have already realised this is a faveourite of mine. It could have been massive - it was better than Zelda - really, it was, but disappeared as suddenly as it had lit up the sega master system, but its wonderful landscapes, enemies, magical items, faeries and blue guys will never be forgotten by this gamer at least.