3. Vanquish
This is a terrific title that surprised me in spades. Vanquish is a relentless futuristic action game with enough guns, ammo and violence to put any 80s action film, or The Expendables, to shame. Vanquish is the creation of Shinji Mikami, the man who brought us the Resident Evil, Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe franchises, and he is once again on top form with this release. Vanquish was consistently praised by critics, but is another title the public unfortunately didn't open their wallets for. Despite having a few rewards under its belt, Vanquish fared better in Japan that it did in the west, and that is a disgrace I say! Set in the future, I'm noticing a theme here with my choices; Earth has become overpopulated, and the nations are fighting for the scarce remaining sources that are left. The USA have got into a tiff with Russia again, and the president Elizabeth Winters (a
woman!) has tasked a special unit to help win the war and, greedily, the battle of recapturing the space station the Russians have taken over. That's where our hero, Sam Gideon, knee-slides into action to help save everyone. Sam isn't just a soldier, he is a soldier equipped with a robotic suit that enables him to move at an incredible pace. This ability, coupled with the feature to scan any weapon and have it appear on his arm thanks to the BLADE system, provides Sam with the equipment for any battle. Sounds good, right? Well, it isn't. It's great. There is a story here that you're supposed to care about, but it won't tug at the heartstrings of any gamer with self-respect, yet the action comes in favourable tsunami-loads, and is a riot to play. The cover system is as good as any AAA title you will come across, with the diversity of the landscapes being easy on the eyes, which isn't all that bad to plough through. Vanquish is another short game you can get on the cheap, with a hugely enjoyable campaign, and for achievement/trophy hunters, there are a lot of easy points to be had.