The A40 Audio System is comprised of Astro’s A40 Headset and A40 MixAmp. Released last year, it’s a petite but powerful package that supports gaming on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, offering 5.1 Dolby Surround and combined voice audio. But you certainly don’t need to be a “professional” to partake in the sweet sounds of the A40.

Here’s what we thought of our month-long ears on time with Astro’s audio system.

Loved
The Headphones: These things sound glorious. It wasn’t until I was forced to take them off so that other people in the room could participate in the listening experience via my antiquated receiver and surround sound set up that I realised how meaty the A40 Audio System was. The A40 headphones deliver sharp, crisp and powerful audio, which I credit with helping to improve my performance in some recent Left 4 Dead 2 and Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer gaming. And while aural advantage is great, it was while playing Dead Space with these things on that really sold me.

The Mixamp: The compact, densely constructed A40 MixAmp packs plenty of connections and power into a tiny package. It’s simply and beautifully designed, with one large dial for controlling volume, a smaller dial for controlling the mix of game audio and voice chat audio. Popping cables in and out and storing the MixAmp out of site makes the wee amplifier an easily portable option.

USB Powered: I like things that are USB powered, as each of my currently hooked up consoles and the PC on which I play games come equipped with USB ports. The device can also be powered by a quartet of AA batteries, an option I haven’t found a need for yet.

Comfortable, But Hefty: I’m not used to wearing headphones, so my initial experience wearing the A40 headset was not an altogether comfortable one. But my head adjusted, eventually feeling comfortable with the light pressure the A40 put on my skull. It’s a solid set of headphones—324 grams/11.4 ounces—so some adjustment doesn’t seem out of the ordinary, but at this point, I use these things for nearly every solo gaming session.

Hookups Aplenty: Astro doesn’t skimp on the cables, including just about everything you’d need in the package from a connection standpoint, way more than I needed for my own personal use.

Hated
Boy, That’s Kind Of Expensive: Purchased together, the A40 Audio System, will set you back $US249.99. And that’s not cheap. The package is much more expensive if the headset and MixAmp are purchased separately, so don’t do that. But they’re a great, well-built option for late night gaming or for those who move their gaming sessions around the house.

One Cord Too Short: The one cable that’s lacking is the Xbox 360 controller communicator cable, which plugs into the MixAmp and at the bottom of the pad. My own set up has just a little too much distance from couch to console and your mileage may vary. But the shorter cable, much shorter than the headphone cable, means I’m forced to play leaning forward. And to suffer this minor discomfort is the kind of thing wimps like me prefer to nitpick.

At $US249, the A40 is an investment, but perhaps a sound one. I’ve mostly made the switch from my home audio set up to the A40, and not just because the other residents in my household have become annoyed with the constant din of zombies, terrorists and space aliens being aerated and liquefied by heavy gunfire. It’s not without its shortcomings, but the warm, powerful audio experience more than makes up for the minor inconveniences it’s saddled with.

Would we suggest that everyone go out and grab an A40 and make it their primary audio option? Absolutely not. If you’re already good on sound, more power to you. But if you’re in the market for a new audio option, give the A40 an earful.

The A40 Audio System was developed and release by Astro Gaming. Retails for $US249.99 USD. A unit was provided at a video game review event. Played through through portions of Modern Warfare 2 on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Left 4 Dead 2 on the Xbox 360 and Dead Space on the Xbox 360 with the full A40 Audio System. Played through portions of Batman: Arkham Asylum on the PlayStation 3 using a dedicated receiver and A40 Headset.

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And if you’re going for a charging kit that charges a Wii remote without the need to remove the batteries from the controller there are plenty of options. And I’ve tried quite a few of them. My latest trial was of an Energizer branded charger that uses induction and a panel to power up your controllers. Fancy, yes. Worthwhile? Let’s see.

Loved
Design: This charging station uses induction to do its job. That means that the charger is a flat panel that rests on a counter or desk and takes up almost no room. I love that I could put this thing almost anywhere and not have to worry about how it looks when not in use.

Snap To: While the panel is decorated with remote silhouette to show you where to place a controller for charging, it is the magnets in the panel that ensure the remotes snap into place.

Induction: Because this system uses induction for charging, you don’t have to worry about whether you have a silicon sleeve on your remote or whether it has the MotionPlus accessory snapped on. Just plop the controller down on the panel and it instantly starts charging. A light changes from red to green to show when you’re ready to roll.

With consoles and controllers of all kinds filling up the cabinetry around my television, space is at a premium when it comes to chargers. This new flat panel induction design makes the best use of that space, ensuring that it also works quickly and easily.

Fifty dollars for four rechargeable battery packs and the panel seems like a good investment to me.

Wii Energizer 4X Charging Station was developed by PDP for the Wii. Retails for $US49.99 USD. A copy of the Wii Energizer 4X Charging Station was given to us by PDP for reviewing purposes. Used the charger over the course of a month.

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CBS’ iconic Road to the Final Four and March Madness presentation is paired with ESPN’s signature college basketball, and both announcing teams will call an offence of back cuts and ball reversals familiar to fired-up gyms in the dead of winter. But can NCAA Basketball 10 deliver a game just as compelling as the sport’s annual Cinderella stories?

Loved
Men in Motion: This year’s big gameplay innovation involves implementing the motion offence, which is to college basketball what the option is to college football – versatile, team-oriented and not really used in the professional league. NCAA Basketball 10 offers what appears to be a head-spinning variety of motion sets, but it’s easy enough to implement them. You’ll bring the ball up in a base motion offence and then by touching the left bumper (or L1) initiate the play. Your teammates then start cutting across the half court, with passing indicators either grayed or lit depending on whether they’re open for the pass. Timing is a big key, and it takes a few games to learn how to hit your man right as his icon becomes lit; just waiting for a full colour indicator results in a lot of standing around. The responsiveness can be frustrating at times – direct pass control can often zip passes completely across the half-court no problem, while a skip pass inside in the motion offence suddenly becomes a turnover because the indicator goes grey when you don’t expect it. Still, getting the hang of the motion does deliver satisfying thrills unique to this style of game. Seeing your man curl off a screen to the top of the key, hitting him in stride and dropping the dagger three exemplifies the character of the college game, and indeed sets NCAA 10 apart from its pro sibling NBA Live.

Prime-Time Performer: Much has been made of this game’s use of both ESPN and CBS’s broadcast packages, and with slight quibbles they live up to the hype. The CBS “heartbeat” graphic opens that package over a black screen, followed by a cut to the network’s title graphics, iconic theme song, and Gus Johnson introducing the arena and the competitors. ESPN’s Brad Nessler, Dick Vitale and Erin Andrews return as voice talents but are accompanied by that network’s graphics and theme music too. It instantly took me to a sports bar on a Wednesday night in January. Nessler and Vitale, as veterans, have a deeper script and provide the truest broadcast. I straight up enjoy anything Nessler does and Vitale is tolerable because, frankly, he’s in a recording studio and doesn’t have a specific coach (or two) with an arse for him to kiss all game long, the worst aspect of his schtick. Johnson does a great job delivering his inflections and his excitement in the situations you’d expect to hear it. Unfortunately, he and Bill Raftery are rookies and as such, go into repetition earlier than Vitale and Nessler. The wipes and graphics are true to life for both networks, although they sometimes hang before going back to the action. Shooters go to the free-throw line with a biography box, complete with a major, again, just like on television. I love it that the announcers talk about going to a commercial, over highlight footage or a sideline cinematic, when you call a timeout. The CBS Selection Sunday show is minimal but an utterly necessary touch, and it’s always fun seeing another bracket and rating other teams’ shot at the Final Four in addition to your own. In all, these features deliver a verisimilitude that will definitely fire you up at least the first few times you see it, and is always enjoyable.

Hated
That’s All Folks?: The motion offence and the broadcast presentation, though both are substantial, are it, unfortunately, as far as gameplay and experience changes from NCAA Basketball 09. The dynasty mode is basically a carbon copy from the previous year and, disappointingly, its schedules out of the box are not authentic, and must wait for a patch on Tuesday to fix these. That will be when EA Sports rolls out the game’s first Dynamic Update, new to this year. It is similar in basis to NBA Live’s Dynamic DNA, in that it will provide the updated, current state of college basketball as a context for your singleplayer dynasty, with a real world Top 25 and RPI and announcer commentary responding to those numbers. There’s no superstar career mode, although I know how much effort this would take to create as it has no analogue in NBA Live. Online play has one head-to-head mode and no online dynasty, which is now integrated into every other major sports title. If anything needed at least an online tournament mode, it would have to be NCAA Basketball, but its multiplayer capabilities remain previous-gen.

AI Doesn’t Play Smart: NCAA 10 is still fundamentally the NBA Live engine, right down to the harebrained AI your players and the computer’s will exhibit. Too many passes go to a man standing with a foot out of bounds to be acceptable. The opposing offence will inexplicably dribble down its clock and get locked into passing back-and-forth rather than attacking the basket. I’ve seen both on display in NBA 10. There also isn’t much of a post-up offence to speak of, looking like a NBA Live 10 with its post mechanics stripped out before they were patched back in. In truth I didn’t notice it that much because I was lobbing into the high post mostly to distribute the ball to a cutter, occasionally going one-on-one with a baby hook. You’ll definitely want to bias the sliders toward more fouls at lower difficulties or shorter time lengths, as not enough are committed and when the CPU starts using them for clock management, it’ll often have five or more to give before you go to the line. I also had issues with the point guard coming back to take the inbounds pass after a made basket, sometimes taking off for the wing immediately but looking back, I could have had some bizarre three-guard offence put in at the time.

Mild Manners: For a game with such polish in its presentation, what it’s “broadcasting” comes off somewhat bland. There are too many generic looking players, and too many generic arenas for its mid-major teams and in tournament play. Over the course of a long season, the broadcast novelty will wear off and the games will start seeming to blur into one. For players, there are some 800 faces to choose from in create-a-player mode but the body types seem restricted to just a few templates. Until you build a familiarity with your roster it’s hard to pick out key players because height in the college game, with 6-9 centres and 6-4 forwards, is not as matched to a position as it is in the pros. While all schools in the major conferences have their home arenas represented, tournament sites are generic until you reach the Final Four, and even then, the dimensions seem a lot more cramped than what you’re used to seeing on the television. Also, I’m disappointed that the crowd and the commentary in tournament play seems to favour the designated home team as if it were a regular season game. College basketball has a rich tradition of tournament crowds kicking in for the underdog if they’re close, or leading, late in a game. And overall, rather than the sustained jet-engine intensity peculiar to college arenas, the crowd’s emotion rises and falls in waves, and cuts in inconsistently.

NCAA Basketball 10 is an odd duck to recommend. For a casual basketball fan with a lot of school pride, it’s very entertaining, very accessible, and even educational in how it teaches you the basic college offenses. It’s also a less complicated game to master than NCAA Football, so someone nostalgic for his campus days will be winning bragging rights faster here. Hardcore hoops junkies will at least want to see the motion offence and the CBS and ESPN packages, and will need more than a rental period to cut down the nets.

It’s for the sports gamer or the basketball fan in the middle – not wed to a particular school or team, nor that fixated on offensive strategy – where NCAA 10 might fail to hold someone’s attention. Of course, you don’t have to run your offence through half-court motion sets. You can use a straight-up pick and roll, or drive and kick all by yourself. For those who prefer to play this way, it will feel very much like a reskinned NBA Live 10. And if there’s anything bemoaned in the college game, it’s the one-season mercenary who’s already thinking of the pro game. NCAA Basketball 10 is likewise a fine performer that uses up its eligibility too soon.

NCAA Basketball 10 was developed by EA Sports Vancouver and published by Electronic Arts for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on Nov. 17. Retails for $US59.99 USD. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played all game types in both single and multiplayer modes.

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After a several weeks of inactivity, the Art Style series has returned to North America’s DSiWare shop with Digidrive an abstract puzzle game about directing traffic that can sit alongside Art Style: Boxlife, a wonderful game about folding boxes in a factory, as a suggestion that Art Style games are downloadable because, were they sold in stores, the descriptions on the back of their boxes would scare people away.

This game is a remake of Bit Generations: Digidrive, a 2006 Japan-only Game Boy Advance game from Q Games, the studio known best these days for making the Pixel Junk series on the PS3 and less-well-known for programming the PS3’s background ribbon thing. And, yes, their take on directing traffic, virtually, is fantastic.

Loved
Terrific Traffic Trope: The gameplay in Digidrive is as solid and simple as it gets. Thank goodness, you know, that game designers consider waiting tables and taxi-driving and other often un-delightful real life activities as subjects for games. Here, being a one-man traffic light is a joy. What you’ve got is a gradually sped up relentless flow of colour-coded cars approaching the centre of a four-way intersection from four sides. With either the d-pad or the stylus players can direct the cars to one of the three lanes that branch from the road on which they are entering the playing field. Your directive is to park like-coloured cars behind each other, which banks fuel. Doing this well and then cashing in that fuel by letting a siren-blaring emergency vehicle drive into that section of parked cars, provides force to a puck on the bottom of the screen. That’s important, because you are hoping to push that puck away from a plunger that is creeping up on it.

Yes, that’s weird. And no, that’s not how directing traffic works in real life. But it’s fun, because of a few smart twists: Going into a high-speed Overdrive mode if you have at least five cars successfully parked in all four lanes helps you bank a lot of cars. Also, a clever but risky technique lets you double your reserves if you sacrifice one of the rows of parked cars. Timid players will never park many cars and keep cashing in to bump that puck forward nudge by nudge. Bold players will bank more and more cars, doubling and re-doubling their reserves, waiting until the last possible minute and than cashing in to ignite a major push of the puck. Hey, trust me, OK?

Abstract Art: The techno soundtrack is good. Better is the iconography of the graphics. A less interesting development team would have used numbers to represent the number of cars successfully being parked at the end of a lane. Q Games uses shapes. Park five cars and you get a triangle. Park a bunch more and that triangle fills up and becomes a square. Repeat until the square becomes a pentagon, then a hexagon (if you haven’t messed up by this point and had the puck hit by the plunger), and then the hexagon becomes a circle. I like ammo counters and flashing words too, but I’ll take a game that signals success with shapes.

Hated
Touch Options: Hated is a strong word, but I found no great advantage from playing the DS version’s new touch mode. It allows players not just to direct the game’s cars with a tap of the screen but to tap the shapes of banked cars to cash them in, rather than waiting for — or sending out into the roadway — an emergency vehicle. This seemed to make the game simpler without making it better. I preferred the d-pad controls which allow me to play this game even when I’m standing on the subway, holding onto a railing for support with my other hand. Many portable games require you to play while sitting, leaning or standing still. Praise Digidrive for allowing us portable gaming on unsteady platforms, but if you do, don’t try those touch controls.

It’s hard to express the quality of a puzzle game when just putting it in your hands would prove that the balance and flow here is good. Don’t be deterred by the traffic-directing subject matter. In fact, I hope that kind of oddity emboldens you to try this game. It was fantastic on the GBA and makes the transition to DSiWare well.

Art Style Digidrive was developed by Q Games and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DSiWare downloadable store on November 16. Retails for 500 Nintendo Points ($US5) Played three difficulty levels in single player, tried touch mode, tried two-player Vs mode against the computer and had trouble looking at the traffic in the intersections of Manhattan without wanting to get involved.

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LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues spends much of its time focused on the brickification of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but it also gives players a taste of Indy’s original adventures. Better still, it gives Indiana Jones fans a chance to build their own LEGO levels this time around.

Can a new, coop-friendly split-screen system and the ability to design your own levels make up for the fact that the game reanimates Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? Lets see.

Loved
Two Players, Two Screens: One of my big qualms with previous LEGO games was that when you started playing coop — and that’s always been the best way to play — the screen became a leash. If one player went too far in a direction it started pulling the other player around with them, sometimes to their death. This time around, once you hit the limits of the screen it splits, allowing the two players to go their separate ways. The way the screen splits also shows which direction the other player is in. It’s a neat design concept that typically works quite well.

Build Mode: While LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues spends most of its time focused on just about everybody’s least favourite Indy film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, it also introduces the ability to design and play through your own LEGO levels to the franchise. The system is fairly straight forward: You select and throw down LEGO bricks you’ve unlocked through gameplay to create sets based on what comes with the game. Not only does that include AI-programmable enemies and creatures, but traps that you can tie to different bricks. It’s a robust little system tied to a fun aesthetic. My only disappointment is that you apparently can’t share your creations with friends online. A pretty big bummer.

Another Take: While more than a third of the game is devoted to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the game also includes abbreviated takes on the first three movies. Interestingly, instead of just porting over chunks of these LEGO adaptations from The Original Adventures the game seems to completely reinvent them. While Indy purists may lose sleep over these in-a-nutshell adaptations of the first three films, they’re clever, punchy and fun in a way that makes playing the story a second time worthwhile.

Wide Open Spaces: Every LEGO game has a sort of jumping off point, a hub from which gamers embark on the multiple stores and adventures of the particular game. In the original LEGO Indy game it was a university, this time it’s the storage warehouse from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Sort of. The top menu has you select one of the eight containers (some start boxed up and have to be unlocked) to decide where your adventure begins. There are crates for the first three movies and then three crates for Crystal Skull and finally a crate each for the build mode and another for “Super Bonus” levels, which are essentially time trials. But when you jump into a movie, the game drops you into a fairly expansive area that than has to be explored to find the storyline. While you wander around these large set pieces you also discover hidden items, challenges and fun little things to do. It’s a neat addition to the LEGO gaming experience.

Vehicles: Always a pleasure in LEGO games, this time around the world gives you access to cars, motorcycles, bikes, tree-cutters, horses, camels, rickshaws and, my favourite, planes. There’s nothing like flying over a LEGO land and jumping out to parachute to your favourite play area.

Completest: As with all previous LEGO games, LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues comes with quite a few reasons to play, replay and replay the game again. There are special LEGO pieces to collect, time trials to unlock, Easter eggs to discover. And it’s all a lot of fun to do.

Funny Story: Played in tandem with my eight-year-old, the game had Tristan in stitches. And it wasn’t just him. Sure, I’d still like to see a LEGO heart ripped from a mini-fig’s chest, but the alternative to all of that Indy violence can be quite funny at times.

Hated
Not So Invisible Walls: The worlds of LEGO Indiana Jones 2 are much, much bigger, but they’re not without their limits and unfortunately those limits aren’t disguised very well. Go too far and your mini-fig will just float back to the map.

The Camera Controls… Still: How can Traveller’s Tales, who have single-handedly reinvigorated, reinvented the LEGO gaming franchise, still not have the in-game camera worked out? I’m sick of dying simply because the perspective is throwing me off. Fix this already.

What Next: I love the huge explorable, hidden, area-filled worlds of LEGO, but I hate having to wander around in them for half an hour trying to figure out which path, which cave, which ladder will take me to the next step in the story. A map or maybe a better indicator would be much appreciated.

I wasn’t really looking forward to LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues. Of all of the LEGO games the first Indiana Jones was my least favourite, though I still quite liked it. And this time around, I wasn’t really anticipating playing through my least favourite movie in the series. But the game delivers on so many levels, adding a much needed split screen and a fantastic build mode, that I’ve been delighted with the experience.

If you didn’t pick up the first LEGO Indiana Jones game, I think it might even be worth skipping and instead going straight to this one.

LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues was developed by Traveller’s Tales and published by LucasArts for the DS, PC, Playstation 3, Playstation Portable, Wii and Xbox 360 on November 17. Retails for $US49.99/$AU89.95 (Xbox 360/PS3). A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played through all sets and campaigns both alone and with my son on Xbox 360. Built several levels alone and with my son.

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Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron follows the tale of two brothers, both Jedi clones, named X1 and X2. As the Dark Side’s power grows, the brother find themselves on opposite sides of the battle with X1 fighting for the Empire and X2 helping the Rebel Alliance. The game takes place over the course of the Star Wars films, with clips and characters from the older and newer films.

Compared with the previous entry in the Battlefront series, Elite Squadron offers “deeper” customisation than any of the previous Battlefront titles. But with customisation now standard on so many titles, a good game needs more than the option of character changes.

Loved
Variety Is The Spice of Space: Elite Squadron takes the fight into space, allowing players to fly X-Wings and board Star Destroyers. The inclusion of a galactic front in the series, opens up the title — makes it feel bigger. You go from blaster Stormtroppers on Tatooine to barrel rolling TIE Fighters in space. It really encapsulates the Star Wars experience.

So Epic: The great thing about Elite Sqaudron is the scope — players travel from Tatooine to Hoth to Endoor. The game is epic! Just like a Star Wars title should be. But at the same time, it does give players the feeling of experiencing the smaller side of a larger battle — just like a Battlefront title should

We Are Online: Elite Squadron has robust multiplayer, and The Heroes and Villains mode is a welcomed addition, giving players the chance to play as Stars Wars heroes or bad dudes. The other online modes, such as Galactic Conquest, offered replay value once the single player campaign is finished.

Hated
The Controls Are Outta Control: There’s no way around it, controlling the camera and the character by using the PSP’s analogue stick is a bad idea. Why not control the character with the directional pad? Oh right, because I’m using it for all sorts of input controls like getting into spaceships and whatnot. The controls could be and should be streamed lined — they feel dated. There is nothing wrong with complex controls when they add to the experience. Here, they don’t. They detract. It would make more sense to have the character controlled with the direction pad — not just for camera issues, but for control issues. The analogue numb on the PSP often lead my character all over the place, jumping too far, running too far, missing my landing spot. Unfortunately, the Alternative Controls are even less instinctive than the Default ones.

Been Here Before?: And as previously mentioned, the inclusion of space battles, provides a variety in gameplay, but some of that variety gets stale in the single player campaign. Missions seem to be either shoot guys on foot, use Ion Canon, then fly away or fly away, use Ion Canon and then shoot guys on foot. A pattern develops and becomes old.

The addition off space battles and the new multiplayer mode show that there is still innovation and room for the Battlefront franchise to grow. But for it to truly blossom, the basic control mechanics are in need of an overhaul. I fear the dark cloud of clunky controls shrouds all Elite Squadron.

Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron was developed by Rebellion Developments for the PSP and published by LucasArts on November 3. Retails for $US29.99/$AU59.95 for the PSP as well as for the Nintendo DS. A copy of the game was acquired via PSN digital code for reviewing purposes. Played through single-player campaign and tested multiplayer.

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To be honest, Torchlight hadn’t originally made it into our fall reviewing schedule, being a budget-priced game in a season filled with blockbuster PC and console titles. Our readers were adamant, however, and after an outpouring of support via our tips email, we decided to give this unapologetic Diablo clone a good hard look.

Set in the mining town of Torchlight, which serves as the player’s base of operations, the game sends the player into a twisted underground dungeon network in order to root out a source of corruption that could endanger the entire world. With our trusty pet at our side, we delve into the dark depths of Torchlight.

Loved
Diabloriffic Gameplay: If you are looking for a quick and dirty Diablo alternative, this is it right here. Torchlight is your basic click-to-move isometric dungeon crawler, with fast action, randomly generated dungeons, experience points, red healing and blue mana potions, random named boss monsters, and enough equipment dropping to have you clicking on your Town Portal scroll every 10 minutes or so just to unload and restock on Identify Scrolls. It’s so unabashedly a Diablo clone that I’d laugh — if the gameplay weren’t so enjoyable.

Customisation: Torchlight features a wealth of character customisation options, from talent points granted when your character gains an experience or reputation level, to socketed gems that add stats and elements to weapons and armour, to the random enchanter, who can power up your equipment beyond belief or strip it of your favourite features. Each of the three classes has multiple talent skill trees to delve into, meaning going back through the game with the same class could yield you a relatively unique experience. If you’re as big a fan of tweaking little details as I am, then there’s plenty here to sidetrack you from the main event.

Man’s Best Friend: Each character in Torchlight starts off with either a dog or a cat companion, a feature lifted directly from the Fate series of dungeon crawlers. Your pet follows you on your adventure, gaining power as you do, fighting by your side. By pausing in your adventure to do a little fishing, you can catch magical fish that transform your pet into another creature entirely, making an entirely new set of abilities available until the magic wears off. Torchlight may lack multiplayer options, but you’re never quite alone with your trusty kitty by your side.

And a Side of Questing: Torchlight allows you to take a break from the main story line to do a little questing on the side. Certain NPCs grant you side quests, which either involve finding objects in the main story dungeons or journeying into levels created specifically for the quest. You can also purchase dungeon maps from certain vendors, which will give you even more new areas to explore.

The Look, The Sound, of DiabloCraft: The presentation of Torchlight is definitely Diablo meets Warcraft, resulting in a world that’s definitely lighter than the dark realm of the former, with elements that seem lifted almost directly from the latter — the first time you run into a goblin riding a steampunk mech, you’ll feel as if you just ported in from Warcraft’s world of Azeroth. Aiding the similarities is a musical score by Diablo composer and sound designer Matt Uelmen, whose string arrangements bring you right back to the unfortunate town of Tristam.

The Random Item Vendor: I love the Random Item Vendor. He presents you with a list of statless weapons and armour, and only after you pay an exorbitant amount for them will you find out what you just bought. In one instance I walked away with an epic bow for my Vanquisher character (think rogue / ranger), which had me slaughtering smaller trash mobs with a single shot. It’s a gamble, but when it pays off it is definitely worth it.

Hated
Something Vaguely Evil This Way Comes: An evil force is corrupting the magical ember beneath the mining town of Torchlight, and it’s up to you to ignore any story points and go back to mindlessly slaughtering anything in your way. The story is simply a thin excuse to keep the player moving, and not much more than that.

The Random Item Vendor: I hate the Random Item Vendor. He presents you with a list of statless weapons and armour, and only after you pay an exorbitant amount for them will you find out what you just bought. In one instance I walked away with a set of armour that I could never hope to have my character wear without completely forgoing her main attribute to focus on one she had little need for. It’s a gamble, and when it doesn’t pay off it really bites.

To really enjoy Torchlight you have to accept it for what it is. It’s a Diablo clone with bits of Warcraft and Fate thrown in, sure, but when the development team consists of people directly responsible for those titles you pretty much have to give them a pass. Once you overcome the initial shock of seeing just how much familiar material the team has pulled from previous projects, you can begin to appreciate the high level of polish they’ve given that material, and the proficiency that comes with their experience.

While it would have benefited greatly from a deeper story and a multiplayer component, Torchlight is one of the best Diablo-style games you’re likely to find without the Blizzard logo displayed prominently on the front of it.

Torchlight was developed by Runic Games and published by Perfect World Entertainment, Inc. on October 27 for the PC. Retails for $US19.99 on Steam, with a retail version coming early next year. A copy of the game was acquired via Steam press pass for reviewing purposes. Played through the entire story as a Vanquisher, dabbling briefly with the Destroyer and Alchemist classes.

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By tweaking and tuning the formula that made last year’s entry such a rubber-burnin’ blast, Asphalt 5, despite hitting one major bump in the road, positions itself as the platform’s premier racer.

Loved
Garage Full of Features:A gorgeous, full-featured title, Asphalt 5 nearly rivals even the best PSP racers. Three modes-quick race, career, local and online multi-player-33 cars, 12 tracks, vehicle customisation and unlockable stat-boosting babes — yes, you heard right! — combine for a robust arcade racing experience. Additionally, three intuitive control schemes complement gameplay that blends Burnout’s adrenaline-amping crashes and Ridge Racer’s wind-in-your-hair thrills. Matching the content-brimming package is a pop-off-the-screen presentation encompassing colourful environments and great details such as planes flying overhead, day/night races, and changing weather conditions.

Turn Up the Tunes:While racing to your own soundtrack is nothing new to the genre, it’s damn cool to be able to lap the competition while your iPod library blasts in the background; the slick little Alpine stereo interface is also a very nice touch. My only regret is that I didn’t have the Benny Hill Show theme loaded onto my play-list to accompany my more crash-tastic races. That said, listening to the Pixies’ Surfer Rosa while hurtling towards the finish line at mach speed is super satisfying.

Hated
The Short Arm of the Law:While most of Asphalt 5’s career challenges — Time Trial, Drift, Duel, Escape etc — yield a well-balanced blast, Cop Chase, where you play the boys and blue and “eliminate” opponents by crashing into them at top speed or forcing them off the track, is about as entertaining as a snipped brake line. The event gets easier — and is often skippable — later in your career, but the very first one tasks you with tackling seven eliminations in three laps. I reached “Where is my mind”, the last track on the aforementioned Pixie’s 30+ minute debut album, four times — yup, two hours — before reaching this frustrating goal. Any game, no matter how good it is otherwise, is docked a few points if its gameplay can actually make me dread hearing one of my favourite bands. Hopefully Gameloft will alleviate this headache in a future patch.

Tons of content, fun-as-hell gameplay, great visuals, and the ability to rock your own tunes make this one the iPhone’s top performer on the race circuit. That said, those who lack the patience to complete that very first, brutally difficult Cop Chase won’t get to experience much of what the title offers. If you can get past that hurdle, though, this one’s definitely worth buckling-up for.

Asphalt 5 was developed and published by Gameloft for iPhone on November 2nd. Retails for $US6.99/$AU8.99. A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Completed the game’s campaign and played online modes.

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Two years ago, the first Assassin’s Creed sold millions while evoking grumbles that its free-running, pickpocketing, killing and escaping routine was too, well, routine, repeating a formula with little variation from the first slice of hero Altair’s sword to the last. What some saw as a shallow game, I described as a short-session game masquerading as an epic, a game that discouraged lengthy play sessions but rewarded the occasional indulgence of its strong core gameplay loop. It was more of a Pac-Man than a Zelda.

Two years later, Assassin’s Creed 2 appears as a marvel, occurring mostly in 15th century Italy, starring the amateur assassin Ezio Auditore — he, like Altair, an ancestor of true series hero Desmond Miles — and embarrassing its predecessor as if it had been little more than a tech demo. What was tested and tamed in the first game is tweaked and topped in a new one that spans a playable cities, countryside and decade of the Italian Renaissance. Killing is done in new and interesting ways. Extraordinary buildings are climbed. Tactics are evolved. Mysteries upon mysteries are introduced and sometimes solved. And, by the end, the series earns as its peers not Pac-Man but Metal Gear, The Da Vinci Code and Lost, as Ubisoft and Ezio alike take their stab at greatness.

Loved
The Adventure Evolved: It may be an odd point to start on, before mentioning how this game looks or even how it plays, but the best achievement of Assassin’s Creed 2 may be how it flows. This is a game with a specific story to tell about Ezio, the son of Italian nobility. He is a man whose family and life is demolished before the player’s eyes as events force him to become an assassin who scours Italy for conspiracy clues and rightful victims of his vengeance. It’s an adventure that is told through a weave of exposition and gameplay that defies the usual frayed conventions of story taking turns with interactivity. In Assassin’s Creed 2 you are most definitely playing the story, the mechanics of the first game and those introduced in the new, propelling an adventure that is full of changes and surprises. For example: The game’s fifth chapter contains nine missions, which introduce Ezio and friend Leonardo Da Vinci to Venice in a walking tour, leading to a mission that involves rushing a wounded new character from corrupt guards, indoctrinating ones’ self into the wounded persons’ guild of thieves through a series of trials, learning new moves, and then returning to the scene of the wounding to assassinate a corrupt official. It’s all story. It’s almost all played.

History Made Virtually Real: For those of us who can’t recall when the Covenant first invaded, why Ganon keeps getting angry or any of gaming’s other major made-up narratives, Assassin’s Creed 2 offers the hooks of real historical places and people. I’ve been to Florence but not climbed the magnificent Duomo until in Assassin’s Creed. I’ve heard of Da Vinci and read about Lorenzo De’Medici but not met them until in Assassin’s Creed. The ability to both encounter historical figures and, for those of us who stayed awake in history class, predict who might appear next, adds both intrigue to the series and the excitement of being able to trace and guess where this adventure will wind up. Let World War II no longer being the beginning and end of gaming’s exploration of historical fiction.

The Killing And The Climbing: For those who don’t care about story flow, yawn at history or think that’s all nice but still demand that their game play well, AC2 thankfully satisfies. Ezio is a deadlier assassin than Altair, capable of killing two men at once with the retractable blades hidden in his wrist-guards, able to more nimbly and swiftly scale buildings and descend from them like a bird of prey. Combat on the ground, once the enemy is alerted, typically consists of Ezio surrounded by eight or so angry guards who politely take turns to attack while the player waits for counter-kill moments, or, better yet, opportunities to wrench a weapon away and turn it on its owner. Neither the climbing or killing is all that complex, but both are easily executed, fun and rendered beautifully.

The Structure: Assassin’s Creed creative director Patrice Desilets has already admitted that the first game in his series was too conventional, that it introduced a gameplay formula that it never tweaked. He promised to play with it in AC2 and his team of over 200 developers has delivered. The main flow of the game consists of the aforementioned memory chapters, covering different years of Ezio’s life and divided into mandatory missions that are activated from within the game’s open environments and advance the story. They seldom follow formula, as one rooftop assault on archers feels nothing like the participation required in a carnival or the visiting of a prisoner that are the subjects of other objectives. Off the critical path, there is a bevy of diversions: Optional assassination missions, optional free-running races, hundreds of collectibles to gather, classic art to buy and more. Even those side-challenges that do repeat themselves do so with flair, such as the handful of “beat -up” missions that always wind up having the player punch a cheating husband. And best of all, are the tombs, mostly optional missions heavy on platforming and relevant to the series in a way I can’t bring myself to ruin here.

Tactical Variety: One of the game’s best attributes is its redundancy of options. Many games offer little more tactical choice than to kill with an axe, a fist or a fire spell. Assassin’s Creed 2 builds upon its predecessor by presenting a more interesting choice of approaches: Will you pursue your goal by free-running across rooftops and risking the attention of archers? Why not barrel through the pedestrian-clogged streets instead? Or walk through them, blending in with the crowd (and pickpocketing the crowd at the same time)? How about breaking off from the flow of the crowd and hiring a group of prostitutes to lure some guards away? Or maybe poison those guards? Or swim past everyone? Etc.

Mysteries And More Mysteries: Assassin’s Creed 2 appears to have been made by people who share The Da Vinci Code novelist Dan Brown’s fascination with secret societies and centuries-spanning conspiracies that involve dozens of historical figures. They also are probably fans of Lost, given how effectively they pepper their game with mysteries that, when solved, typically reveal even more tantalising mysteries. Through an unexpected puzzle-gameplay twist that I won’t spoil here, a player of Assassin’s Creed 2 can begin to discover some of the secrets of the series’ lore, injecting a nice amount of mystery and sleuthing to a game that already was doing action and adventuring so well.

The Teases: The finale of the first Assassin’s Creed has nothing on the entirety of Assassin’s Creed 2 in terms of hinting at possible subject matter for sequels and spin-offs. You may finish this game, like me, eager for Ubisoft to consider pulling an Activision and exploiting every possible future release. Because, given what’s discovered in various parts of the new game, it’s hard not to want the developers to bring to video game systems the adventures they hint at involving everyone from Marco Polo or Cleopatra to, well, some people from way back in the day.

Desmond Miles: Like the first game, this sequel takes place in the interactive, buried memories of Desmond Miles, a man living just a couple of years ahead of us and whose ancestors were the assassins Altair and Ezio. The first game interrupted Altair’s adventures several times to subject the player to locked-room barely-interactive Desmond sequences. First-game Desmond could do little but walk and talk. New-game Desmond is capable of more but is also playable less frequently. Perhaps he too could be an assassin, the game suggests. And perhaps Ubisoft could pull a Kojima Productions, as it seems set to turn its Raiden — its unpopular alternative to the action stars of its series — into a protagonist gamers want to be. Not quite there, but getting closer.

Hated
Touchy: There is little to complain about with Assassin’s Creed 2 other than the touchiness of its controls. The game often requests that the player climb and leap from windowsill to ledge to brick outcropping to wooden post with grace and speed. That happens best when players treat the free-running flow of the game as if it is a racing game, but all the steering and speeding up sometimes, strangely, sends Ezio leaping in the opposite direction you pushed, ruining everything. It’s hard to tell if the controls are too sensitive, too smart or if the player is in error, but the sophistication of so much of the rest of the game is sometimes undone when the great assassin clambers not to the roof but falls from a facade to plunk into the water below.

Assassin’s Creed 2 looks great, plays great and avoids all of the pitfalls of its predecessor, which might be enough praise for some. But its finest achievement is to present one of gaming’s most mature adventures, a game that can be played and tell a story at the same time, a game that assumes its players are educated and curious, and willing to be teased and willing to test its limits.

The level of craft and care evident in the creation of Assassin’s Creed 2 — to say nothing of the level of obsession with conspiracy — is on par with those of the creators of the Metal Gear Solid series. This is big budget with polish. This is technology put in the service of artistry. Climbing and killing might wear thin by the end of the next game if the current formula of Assassin’s Creed is maintained, but given the willingness of the series’ creators to think and execute boldly that is evident in this sequel, complacency and obviousness are two things for which Assassin’s Creed is little at risk.

Assassin’s Creed 2 was developed by Ubisoft Montreal (and affiliated studios) and published by Ubisoft for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on November 17. Retails for $US59.99/$AU109.95. A PS3 copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Completed the campaign, including one, freely downloaded bonus mission, in 24 hours, 14 minutes, for about an amusingly specific 82.4% completion rate, with about a third of the side-tasks left undone. Laughed at the game’s Super Mario reference.

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Left 4 Dead 2 follows the bloody struggle of four random strangers as they fend off new “Special Infected” super-zombies en route from Savannah, Georgia to New Orleans, Louisiana. They do so over the course of five campaigns, armed with new melee weapons, a larger selection of guns and grenades, and new personalities that make them distinct from the original’s fondly remembered quartet.

Left 4 Dead 2 is a bigger, more diverse, more comprehensive package than the original was, offering brand new game modes and a complete multiplayer campaign suite right out of the box. Is L4D2 too soon? Or is it everything Left 4 Dead fans were hoping for?

Loved
Southern Charm: I had misgivings about the change in scenery in Left 4 Dead 2, particularly portions of the amusement park, as the environments felt less grounded in reality, less frighteningly claustrophobic than in the original. Fortunately, Left 4 Dead 2’s aesthetic, it’s southern charms, grew on me quickly. The atmosphere, which changes from dusk ’til dawn, from sun-blinding, hazy days to pitch black nights, adds to the feeling of variety, something that the original lacked. Similarly, the region-specific tunes, which at first I found almost silly, have grown on me. And my biggest fear, that the original Left 4 Dead was so well balanced with its smaller line up of infected and weapons, couldn’t be replicated with a longer list of zombies, guns and projectile weapons, was proven to have been misguided.

New Special Infected: For me, the highlight of the Left 4 Dead 2 experience is playing on the Special Infected side, wreaking havoc on a squad of Survivors with a synchronised plan of attack. The three new Specials, the acid-expectorating Spitter, the shoulder-smashing Charger and the pint-sized nuisance that is the Jockey, are all just as enjoyable to play as the originals. They add brand-new cluster-breaking strategies, effectively eliminating any possibility of corner camping, an annoying tactic that plagued Versus matches in Left 4 Dead. I have some concerns about the strength of the Spitter, considering the few times I’ve taken down entire teams of Survivors with one spit, but we’ll have to see how strategies adapt online to compensate.

Hard Rain: Each of Left 4 Dead 2’s five campaigns, which span four to five chapters, have their stand out moments. Dead Center’s opening level, for example, makes excellent use of fire effects for both visual punch and new tactical strategy when playing on the infected side. And Dark Carnival’s finale event is truly encore worthy. But it’s the Hard Rain campaign, the second to last in the sequence, that stands out as the game’s best. Instead of the standard linear progression, Hard Rain asks the player to venture into town for diesel fuel, then retrace their steps back to the escape vehicle. Along the way, day turns into night, the weather goes from bad to hellish, pounding the Survivors with thunder, lightning, wind and rain, all of which are presented with impressive, gameplay changing effect.

People Call Him Ellis, Or El: But he prefers Ellis, because El kinda sounds like a girl’s name. Yes, of the four new Survivors, it’s Ellis, the young, Georgian mechanic who’s the most endearing, the most full of personality. His monologues, delivered in the game’s saferooms are the source of most of the game’s humour. Nick and Coach have their moments — Rochelle not so much — but it’s Ellis who has become my favourite character of the crew.

Gettin’ Gas: The Scavenge multiplayer mode, which is about as close to Capture The Flag as Left 4 Dead 2 gets, adds a welcome short-session multiplayer option to the Versus mode mix. Survivors strive to grab gas cans scattered around a map, then dump the contents of those cans into a vehicle or generator. Infected try to prevent that from happening, stripping them of cans and hoping that a capable Spitter will destroy them with goo. It’s frantic and full of strategic opportunities, with a simple scoring system that works well in 4-versus-4 sessions.

Familiar Play, New Strategies: It’s not just the Infected that get new toys to play with in Left 4 Dead 2. Survivors now have access to adrenaline shots — which speed up healing, running, reviving incapacitated teammates — and defibrillator units which revive dead Survivors. These may seem like minor changes, but they have a big impact on multiplayer game strategy. The same is true for new weapons, like the grenade launcher, and the melee weapons, like my personal favourite, the axe. More weapons, more opportunities to grab new weapons, and options for upgrading them, all resulting in interesting trade-offs, make playing as the Survivors fun too.

Better Scoring: Versus game scoring lead to a lot of confusion in the first Left 4 Dead, something Valve appears to have tried to address in Left 4 Dead 2. The game no longer scores solely based on how many Survivors made it into the safe room, offering bonuses to Infected for incapping humans and balancing how Versus rounds are scored. There seem to be fewer big blowouts in the games that I’ve played, a minor but welcome change that will hopefully lead to better understanding of Versus play (and less rage-quitting).

Hated
Left 2 Die By The AI: Left 4 Dead 2’s single-player offerings are just as meagre as the first, my main complaint with that title. Players can blow through all five chapters with a group of bots in about 5-6 hours, depending on difficulty, but that’s about it. And unfortunately, while the AI Director that controls level layouts and infected spawns is improved, teammate AI seems dumber than before. They still don’t pick up grenade weapons, they’ll often leave you to die, and they don’t keep up well. Bots still have a uncanny aim, but that’s about the nicest thing I can say about them. The bottom line is, if you don’t plan on playing Left 4 Dead 2 multiplayer, don’t plan on playing it.

Bogged Down: Also performing slightly worse than the first is the game’s frame rate. It’s not problematic in most circumstances, but there are a few times during the campaign that the Xbox 360 version just can’t keep up with what’s happening on screen — the performance of the PC version is obviously dependent on your hardware and settings. It’s most noticeable during the bridge finale in The Parish campaign, but when zombies fill the screen and things get effect-heavy, the game can slow down.

Left 4 Dead 2 really feels like the game that the original should have been. Even though it was delivered with an astonishing (read: somewhat concerning) turnaround time, it doesn’t feel as rushed as the first, offering — with the exception of a capable single-player component — a solid multiplayer component that doesn’t skimp on modes, maps or options.

Left 4 Dead 2 was developed and published by Valve for the Xbox 360 and PC on November 17. Retails for $US49.99/$AU109.95 on PC, $US59.99/$AU109.95 on Xbox 360, and $US49.99 on Steam. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played through campaign in single and cooperative modes on Xbox 360. Played multiple online Versus and Scavenge matches via Xbox Live.

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