Daily Sports

The Medal of Honor series is back with a new first person shooter, set –again- during Second World War. Don’t get me wrong here: the lack of originality in the game's historical background must not be taken as a negative point. On the contrary, many other similar games have demonstrated that this conflict makes the perfect scenario for some frantic war action.

Medal of Honor: Airborne tests your abilities as a soldier from the very beginning, with an impressive parachute jump in the middle of a fierce battle. You'll have to steer your way until landing, always looking for a safe spot. If you survive this first test, then you're ready to grab your weapon and carry out the missions you've been entrusted with.

The first few minutes are just crazy. There are soldiers shouting everywhere, whistling bullets flying all around, far away explosions and fire-spitting machine guns. The incredible realism of graphics and sound effects plunges you right into the conflict, achieving a degree of immersion that makes you feel like you were really there.

Put simply, Medal of Honor: Airborne is a must-have for all FPS lovers that enables you to write your own page in recent history.

There was a time when point & click games were really popular, but now it seems that they're not that trendy anymore. However there are companies like Frogwares that still believe in this genre, and keep on publishing conversational adventures.

This is the case of Dracula: Origin, a vampire game that follows the traditional point & click pattern and presents you with a truly Gothic adventure full of mystery, romance and terror, in a gloomy environment.

Though I personally don't enjoy this kind of games that much, I must admit Dracula: Origin looks pretty impressive. The game stands out for its highly detailed graphics in the design of characters and especially in the recreation of environments. The sense of realism makes the game experience even more pleasant and rewarding.

The story is also quite an interesting one. You play the role of Van Helsing, the famous scientific whose main aim in life is to destroy the so called Prince of Darkness. Your objectives will then be exploring all the locations you visit, talk to other characters, gather different objects and try to get hints from them all that could take you to Dracula. Like in similar adventures, gameplay is basically reduced to using your mouse to move your character, use objects in your inventory, talk to other people and other actions.

Dracula: Origin will surely please fans of this genre. However it also requires a lot of patience, so if you're not really into conversational adventures maybe you should look elsewhere.

Quantum of Solace is the new James Bond game which accompanies the forthcoming movie of the same title, along with its prequel, Casino Royale. You play the tough, uncompromising new iteration of the Bond character, brought to life in the movies by Daniel Craig.

Based on the same engine used to produce Call Of Duty 4 (a game we loved), Quantum of Solace adds third-person shooter (3PS) elements. So, for example, when you take cover, you're switched into 3PS mode, watching the realistic-looking British spy blast enemies away. This aspect of the game has been emphasized by the development studio, Treyarch, as something they wanted to add to the gameplay in order to remind gamers that they're not simply playing Call Of Duty 4 "with new maps". Unfortunately, the 3PS elements feel somewhat tacked-on and we suspect that they're more the result of the movie franchise's insistence than anything else.

The demo itself leaves a lot to be desired. Despite testing the game on a high-spec machine, we found that using the top-end graphics settings resulted in low framerates and a generally jumpy, unplayable experience. Setting the graphics to mid-range resulted in unacceptably low-resolution textures. We noticed that some great elements of Call Of Duty 4's gameplay were missing too, like the ability to shoot through various lighter forms of cover.

Ever since Goldeneye 007, we've loved games featuring Ian Fleming's classic creation. Based on the demo alone, we have to say that Quantum of Solace just doesn't match up, either when it comes to gameplay or up-to-date graphics. That said, the demo only consists of one very short mission (about 2-5 minutes of gameplay), so it is perhaps unfair to judge the entire game on such a short taster. Hopefully, the final game will be more fun.

In closing, this is an unconvincing demo from a franchise we'd come to love - and a disappointing showing for a title we'd been looking forward to intently.

Along with Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat is one of the all-time great fighting games. It was also probably the first 2D title to that succeeded in simulating a 3D experience. In the late 80s, the game seemed so realistic that people thought it was unsuitable for younger players. Looking at it now, surely you wouldn’t say it is ‘realistic’, but you can still say it’s really violent. The final attacks, called ‘fatality’ or ‘brutality,’ definitely fit into this back this up.

In the third version of Mortal Kombat, the 'Ultimate' one, you can choose between 24 characters, each with their own special moves. To configure the keys you’d like to use, go to the Options > Set Config > Controllers menu; at this point, choose '6btn Pad' in the Port1 line and click Define. Now press the keys you would like to use to jump, move right, left, punch and kick by following the directions you see at the bottom of the frame.

If you are brave enough to face the bloody characters of Ultimate MK3, give this faithful reproduction of the game a try and see how close you get to the cliff’s edge.