Game review Roundup: Red Faction Armageddon, Harry Potter and more

Red Faction: Armageddon ... lots of bad guy foreigners for slaughter

PS3Xbox360/; £ 49.99; cert 15 +; THQ
The game in previous Red Faction series had two main selling points: satisfyingly expendable nature of the landscape, and a "Socialist uprising against an evil corporate society" narrative, it had sold better, could have done the neo McCarthyites fear an army of teenage boys, raging against the machine. Armageddon keeping former and get rid of the latter – and ditches the sandbox experience for a more linear, generic third-person shooter game with lots of bad guy foreigners to slaughter without much thought for political affiliation or allegory. There are still some pluses: Martian future-world you smash can now also rebuilt via a special nanobot-rasen magic glove, and some of the weapons – such as the Harpoon-like magnetic cannon – is innovative and entertaining, if you are the kind of person who gets cheap thrills from pulling metal ramps on top of unsuspecting evil. As I am sure that is you. overall, however, Drag the dreary subterranean caves one navigates and repetitive nature of the operation of this firing games back to the pack. James walsh

Xbox PS3/360; £ 29.99; CERT 12 +; Namco
EDF is a classic arcade-style shooter with thousands of large insects, ants and huge massive robots invading the Earth. You take control of a marine named Lightning Alpha, whose mission is to negotiate with insects using an arsenal of heavy weapons. It is rather storyline. In EDF: IA, there are four different character classes to choose from, each with their own special abilities. The battle class is rather a tank, and has the largest and most powerful weapons. Tactical class have mines, towers and radar, but lacks good weapons. Clone warriors class is all-round Jenny and has the most variety in weapons. Class Jet is the one I used for most of the time; It has the ability to fly and is much faster than the other classes in order to circumvent the card, good for rooftop and air-to-air attracts. One problem is that it takes up energy and a lot of time to reload, so sometimes you get caught short. I have never played any of the other EDF titles before so I was very exited about playing this. A friend of mine spoke and said it was a good laugh. He was right, it was a good laugh, but not for long. Originally, I was really impressed with the design and sheer scale of insects; It was quite satisfactory, taking down huge beasties, but when that stopped being impressive I soon found myself utterly bored. The same emissions scenarios, the same error, same city environments and the same annoying character voices. Split-screen co-op/online co-op improve not life of it either, both of us got bored pretty quickly. Online survival mode with six players were interesting, endless waves of enemies and your goal is to survive as long as possible. Good for a quick game when you have a little free time. EDF: IA is fun for a while, but don't expect to keep your interest for more than a few hours. If this was £ 40 games I would not have paid for it, but for £ 20 is worth it to go with friends. Mark Mccormick

PS3/Xbox 360/Wii/DS/PC; £ 49.99; 12 +; Electronic Arts
If you've read all seven Harry Potter books, seen all eight movies, listened to all audiobooks, bought the Allegations scarf, written some Slytherin on Hufflepuff slash fiction, and still can't get enough of the Potterverse and then this game should keep you go a few more hours. But for those with less invested in the series is not a whole lot to get excited about. It is a little clunky third-person shooter, which manages to wring a few good items from its source material, but ultimately it is a little weak.  With a magic wand instead of a pistol and various spells, performing similar functions, say, a machine gun or sniper rifle, it takes a linear plot to through various places where Voldemorts Death Eaters waiting to battle with Harry and his allies. At different stages in the game you are playing one of the eight pre-set characters, including Harry (of course), Ron, Hermione, Neville and Professor McGonagall. While all levels looks very nice, is sustainability-wise design pretty mediocre and often annoying. The plot feel terrible rushed, with awkward cut-scenes and in-game dialogue give hammy skeleton of what is going on, and the gameplay is very repetitive – giant a samey flock opponents (mostly interchangeable death eaters) and then a boss battle, and then do the same again in another location. The various spells are fun to use on the plus side countering the very works well, and history, but also economic told, should keep you playing, and then finish. Adam boult

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