Third-person shooters have been on mainstream backburner ever since the Gears of War trilogy concluded, but occasionally you'll still get another developer having a pop at the tried n' tested cover-based nature of the genre anyway. Platinum Games were such a developer - the guys behind Bayonetta and Metal Gear Rising - yet instead of another hack n' slasher, they melded their esoteric and ridiculous design ethos to one hell of an experience in the sci-fi-tinged blaster Vanquish; a title whose defining factor was a suit that let you blast across the battlefield at lightspeed, firing off all manner of awesome weapons as the camera occasionally cuts to uber slow-motion. In short it's incredible, but come the time for screen-sized boss battles there'll be thousands of bullets whizzing past you at once, gigantic special moves decimating your life bar and a few hundred foot soldiers looking to blast your eyelids off within seconds. Coming out the other side - or decapitating a giant droid with a Ryu-style flying uppercut - is immensely satisfying, but it's a sensation the game makes you earn every step of the way.
