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Why is it that past life therapists will almost always tell you that you were once a member of the aristocracy or a famous explorer? The reason is simple: we're more inclined to believe something that appeals to our ego. If someone tells us we used to be a 16th-century toilet cleaner, then we might start asking questions.

Assassin's Creed, is a game based entirely on the idea that we carry our ancestors' memories in our DNA. It's a hugely thoughtful piece of entertainment that throws up some pretty challenging ideas for a videogame. Like BioShock, it's another subtle sign that this entertainment medium is growing up.

Playing as Altair, a member of the Hashshashin sect of assassins, you might not expect what type of game Assassin's Creed  is. Despite coming from the maker of Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia, this is neither a stealth game nor a platformer. In fact it's a parkour (or "ninja acrobatic") adventure in medieval robes. The vast majority of the game is spent climbing walls and jumping between towers and rooftops - and the whole experience is immensely fun to do. The dynamism of Altair's movement is unlike anything we've seen before, as is the intelligent way he climbs up each structure differently.

Combat is a little more involving, requiring some efficient timing to pull off the extremely visceral finishing moves. With a bit of practice, it's possible to cut down ten men without taking a hit. Overall, the game has a fantastic cinematic quality, and this stands out the most during combat.

Hardcore gamers and critics universally agree that Assassin's Creed is a must-play for its intriguing story and truly groundbreaking graphics - and we add our affirmation to that list. It's also one of the most mature, thoughtful games of recent years, confronting you with moral decisions that are far from clear cut. Check it out.

Full review of Assassin's Creed on Gameplayer.com.au

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The game features large scale battles that offer a balance of vehicular and infantry fighting; similar to the all-out-action witnessed in Battlefield 2.

The basic hook for Frontlines is based on the idea that far too much time is wasted running from a re-spawn point to wherever the action happens to be at any given moment. The result of this is that the action is kept focused on one of a number of goals at the frontlines of the battle (hence the name - tricky, eh?).

Once all points at the frontline are captured (in the standard manner - standing still within an uncomfortably open area, blowing something up... etc.), the frontline of the battle moves forward. Go through it all again until you get to the final point, whereupon you presumably celebrate by raiding your opponent's pantry and using up their bandwidth cap.

So far, this is fairly standard online FPS fare. However, once you combine this "frontline" approach to point capturing with the fact that you can choose where you re-spawn (from any one of the points previously captured), the action on the frontline becomes a frantic scramble to attack and defend before the opposing team can move the frontline that little bit closer to the drinks cabinet back at your HQ. Kaos is aiming to have support for 32 players for the PS3 and Xbox 360 releases and a respectable 64-player limit for PC games; having such a large number of players all clashing at the frontline is the kind of experience these games should be aiming for by default.

Adding to the newness, Kaos has added a swath of funky classes and roles for you to choose from. Your class determines your basic weapons load-out - shotguns for close combat, sniper rifles for long range, rocket launchers for anti-vehicle, etc - and these are distinct enough from each other to be genuinely useful as specialist roles within the game.

In addition, you choose a role that determines your "special abilities". These will vary slightly according to which side you've chosen, but will be nominally identical. Western ground support will be able to repair vehicles and build fixed, operable mortar launchers and railguns, while their Red Star equivalents swap the mortar for a mini-gun and the rail gun for an automated sentry gun. A great deal of thought has been put into all of these roles, and they are all very fun to play. Remote drones, air strikes and vehicle-disabling EMP-bursts mean that even when your team is losing, you'll never go down without a fight.

Frontlines is due to hit in February, and while it will include a single-player component this is still clearly a game aimed very squarely at the multiplayer gamer. With a dev team that clearly knows what its doing, a few energetic new features, and lush Unreal Engine 3-powered graphics, this game is definitely one to watch out for.

Full review of Frontlines: Fuel of War on Gameplayer.com.au

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In Bully: Scholarship Edition, you play as troubled kid Jimmy Hopkins who's been kicked out of more schools than his mother would care to remember. On her way to a year long honeymoon cruise with her fifth husband, Jimmy's mother leaves him at the only institution left that would take him: Bullworth Academy. And you raise hell.

Structured similarly to Rockstar's infamous Grand Theft Auto series, Bully focuses on a boarding school called the Bullworth Academy and the varied and vicious social microcosm found within its grounds. So Jimmy explores every nook and cranny of the school as he tries to complete the main story missions and avoids being caught by the teachers and prefects who prowl the grounds. Jimmy's ultimate aim is to rise up the ranks from hated new kid to a powerful force in Bullworth Academy in his own right. As can be expected of Rockstar games, the world featured in Bully is richly detailed, features a wealth of things to do and is a joy to explore. Even more so than the GTA series, Bully's main story is also well written and its characters cleverly ­ and often hilariously ­ scripted, making the game easy to recommend.

This version of Bully is essentially the same game as Canis Canem Edit (as it was known as when it was released on the PS2 back on the 27th of October in 2006 due to controversy; the original name of Bully was dropped in PAL territories) with a number of extra features befitting the gap in release on the current generation consoles. Mainly, there are eight new missions, four new classes to attend at school, and plenty of new unlockable items such as clothing. The script's also been slightly re-worked and is as entertaining as ever. The Xbox 360 version of Bully: Scholarship Edition features a new, higher resolution graphics engine offering better visuals than its PS2 and Wii counterparts, 2-player competitive mini-games to play and the required collection of Achievements to work through.

Full review of Bully Scholarship Edition on Gameplayer.com.au

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At last, the Call of Duty series has moved beyond World War II and into the present day. Infinity Ward has also most certainly put a lot of work into adding a healthy variety to CoD4's gameplay, something often thought lacking from military shooters in the past. Firefights range from claustrophobic shootouts in a surging container ship to ranged combat in the wide-open paddocks of Russian farmland. In short, you'll never feel like you're just doing the same-old-same-old missions ad nauseam - which, is obviously an awesome thing.

Call of Duty 4 looks simply amazing. In an era in which most developers are rushing to get their hands on Epic's renowned Unreal Engine 3, Infinity Ward has instead developed its own proprietary game engine that has resulted in arguably the best looking FPS in recent memory. It's very easy to break it down into bullet points - the state of the art true world-dynamic lighting, bloom effects, dynamic shadows and depth of field graphical tricks and tech - but all that needs to be said is that the game is just staggeringly realistic, particularly coupled with the incredible audio; the guns shake your surround sound setup down to the ground and the convincingly conversational chatter between the troops is in stark contrast to the deliberately silly one-liners of Halo 3's marines.

Here's the bottom line; when it comes to its single-player experience, Call of Duty 4 manages to blast away the Xbox 360's biggest gun, Halo 3. There, we said it. Blasphemous perhaps, but true. Couple that with a multiplayer component that increases exponentially in scope and enjoyment the more you play it, and you've got a shooting package that not only rivals Bungie's masterpiece, but it outdoes it in many ways as well.

Full review of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare on Gameplayer.com.au

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If there was ever a time when a glowing review of a gaming product was to be completely redundant - it's now. The Halo series is a juggernaut of a franchise that holds an almost mythical reputation for quality, so much so that each time a new Halo game gets released it effectively sets the benchmark for every rival first person shooter made for the next couple of years. The term "it's good, but it's no Halo" can often be heard when critics compare games of merit, and rightly so, because the Halo titles are the stuff of gaming legend - and Halo 3 is no exception.

Co-op is the new "black" here, and in many ways we have the Halo series to thank for popularizing the feature. If Halo 3 is good fun by yourself - and it most assuredly is - it is epic fun with a mate and fantastic with three, with difficulty (read enemy number) increasing accordingly. Four-player co-op is a breakthrough moment for the FPS genre certainly a selling point for anybody considering a purchase here. Although we are dumbfounded that four-player split-screen co-op isn't offered on the one machine (you'll need system link or online for anything more than two) since said option is prevalent throughout the rest of the offline multiplayer experience. Still, the fact that Bungie has remembered offline gamers shouldn't be undersold at all. It's a dying mode in the greater world, but still has a lot of sway in territories such as Australia where Internet penetration and speed is relatively lackluster.

And even as a single player or offline only experience, Halo 3 is impossible to ignore for anyone with an interest in arcade FPS games, or sprawling Sci-fi mythologies. Rest assured; Halo 3 is the big shiny popcorn blockbuster of the video game world and well worth your cash.

Full review of Halo 3 on Gameplayer.com.au

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The Burnout series is a racing series with a twist; it counts that you cross the finish line first, but it's equally important ­ if not more so ­ that you drive recklessly and cause as much mayhem as possible in the process.  While racing dangerously is a big part of the Burnout experience, it's the damage system that has won gamers' hearts worldwide.  The Crash Mode of the series, for example, has you driving into a preset scene to specifically cause the most specular crash possible, with points awarded for the amount of damage your car sustains as well as for the cars caught up in the resulting pile-up.

Burnout Paradise, then, is the series' first current generation (Xbox 360 and PS3) iteration and as such features a whole bunch of innovations that would not have been possible on Xbox and PS2.

Gone is the old menu-driven, heavily structured racing system of old. Instead, you're welcomed to Paradise City, a vast metropolis featuring 250 miles of road to weave around, and the playground in which the game is set. See how you can drive around this virtual city and just lose yourself in the traffic that goes about its own business.

There are number of game modes featured in Burnout Paradise, including Race (the standard racing option), Road Rage (take down a specific number of cars within the time limit), Marked Man (avoid being taken down on your way to the finish line), Stunt Race (score points by performing stunts and Burning Route (a race against the clock which is rewarded with an upgraded car.

Given the free-roaming playground aspect of Paradise City, races are started by holding down both triggers as you pull up to any of the 120 traffic lights found in the city.
Needless to say, Burnout Paradise looks absolutely stunning and runs at a blisteringly fast and smooth 60 frames per second.

Sticking close to its roots while introducing some interesting new features, Burnout Paradise is a welcome and strong addition to the series.

Full review of Burnout Paradise on Gameplayer.com.au

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Joseph Turok is a dinosaur hunter - a hobby which comes in rather handy when he crash lands on a planet teeming with genetically-enhanced dinosaurs going through a state of rapid evolution. 

Except it's not just dinosaurs that prove to be a threat in this game; you see, Turok and the rest of his Whiskey Company team have been sent to capture former military big-wig Roland Kane, and it seems he and his army of special forces just aren't going to hand themselves in willingly. So Turok and Whiskey Company battle hordes of reptile and human-based opponents as they zero in on the troublesome Kane.

Turok continues in the tradition of the well-loved and established dinosaur-hunting series of games, offering fast paced shooter action from the first person perspective.

As such, there's a huge arsenal at Turok's disposal to ensure he survives the onslaught from dinosaurs and humans alike. Sniper rifles, machine guns, rocket launchers ­ even a flame thrower provide ample firepower for Turok.

But it's his trusty bow and lethal knife that prove themselves in combat time and time again. While a more direct approach is often desirable, more strategic and cautious players can skulk around the jungle-based planet and silently take down opponents, making skirmishes which are easier to handle.

And the dinosaurs can be employed as weapons too. Using flares and other tools in your arsenal, you can lure these giant creatures into the vicinity of your enemy (be it human or dinosaur) and let them do your dirty work for you ­ all while you sit and watch the ensuing chaos from a safe distance.

Multiplayer is also one of Turok's strengths thanks to a number of different game modes to be played online (with Deathmatch, Capture The Flag, Wargames and even co-op levels available, to name but a few).

Fans of bombastic action games will find plenty to like about Turok.

Full review of Turok on Gameplayer.com.au

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Gears of War tells the story of humanity's fight against the Locust Horde ­ a brutal subterranean (and particularly ugly) alien force who 14 years earlier invaded the planet Sera and forced its inhabitants into hiding.

You play as Marcus Fenix - ex-soldier, convict and current member of Delta Squad ­ who's out to clear Sera of the Locust Horde.

What follows is some of the most gripping and tense action spread out on the most beautifully designed and detailed maps seen on the Xbox 360 ­ no small feat considering this game is 18 months old and games like the stunning Halo 3 have since been released. If nothing else, Gears of War is a remarkable technical achievement.

Gameplay offers a slightly different pace to the traditional shooter, asking players to tackle the Locust Horde more strategically than rushing in all guns a blazing. As such, a robust cover system features, allowing Marcus to easily duck behind objects and let loose some protective cover fire.
If Marcus does find himself toe-to-toe with a brutish opponent, however, the highly effective chainsaw is usually his best bet.

Multiplayer play modes take pride of place in Epic-developed shooters (like Unreal Tournament) and Gears of War is no exception. There are a number of team-based modes to play through offering a style of play to suit your tastes. The multiplayer maps are expertly crafted and since its original release several new and free maps have been made added to the mix.

There's an even an online co-operative play mode of the singleplayer campaign which comes highly recommended. The online co-op mode allows a full screen of view per player instead of the split-screen co-op mode available on a single Xbox 360. And as the first in a planned trilogy of games, this budget-priced re-release is the perfect way to acquaint yourself with the story and mechanics of play in preparation for Gears of War 2, which is due this November.

Full review of Gears of War (Classics) on Gameplayer.com.au