Another Friday, another pile of excellent games get released. The biggie is Call of Duty 4. I've been playing it for the last week and it's easily the best shooter around at the moment. Better than Halo 3? I think so. The single player is certainly more enjoyable than Halo's sci-fi hokum and has, in the Chernobyl level, one of the most movingly atmospheric gaming experiences yet coded. Halo 3 does win the AI battle - your opponents in COD4 occasionally suffer from the respawn-continuously-until-you-move tendency - while COD4 lacks Halo 3's superb online co-op. But while the multiplayer options generally may lack Halo's user generated embellishments the leveling/perks system in COD4 just keeps pulling me back.
But it's not just COD4. Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction is the first must-have for the PS3. While Lego Star Wars The Complete Saga has just enough additions - particularly online co-op - to make it worth revisiting. Less interesting are Smackdown 2008 - does anyone over the age of 16 really care? - and Gears of War on the PC. Actually what I've seen of the latter suggests it is probably worth a shot if you have a decent PC - and no access to a 360 - but Crysis remains the one to watch for PC gamers.
