Katamari Amore is the second installment of the quirky Katamari series on the iOS platform and it will be an unforgettable experience if you have not played it before.

In this game, you control a weapon of mass destruction that rolls up everything in the entire world, one object at a time. By doing so, you increase the size of your Katamari the sphere to which everything magically adheres.

You start with small things, such as sweets and dice, and progress to huge targets such as clouds and islands.

There are now virtual joysticks that let you control the Katamari with either one hand or both. This is more difficult but also more precise than the original system, where you had to tilt your iPhone in all directions.

Katamari Amore
Two stage packs are already available for purchase.

Each pack offers six stages and a mini-game; the first has a version of the classic Pac-Man game, which has you rolling up pellets and dodging ghosts.

Each stage features four variations – story, time attack, exact size challenge and eternal mode – for variation and re-playability.

A caveat: the learning curve for Katamari Amore is steeper. Despite having played most of the games in the series, I found it tough to complete the stages at the first go.

The graphics are wonderfully colorful but the music is drab and repetitive, something which, hopefully, the developers will rectify for future stages, as the Katamari series is known for its catchy soundtracks.

Flaws aside, Katamari Amore is fantastic for satisfying the fun-loving world destroyer in you.

The game offers one free trial stage, but you will not regret spending US$3.99 (S$5.10) to enjoy the full Katamari experience.

Download now: Katamari Amore

If fans feel like the Assassin’s Creed: Revelations is a rehash of the previous game, it’s probably because it is.

With the success of Assassin’s Creed II, the concept of a master assassin running around Europe has been milked by developer Ubisoft to great effect, but that cow looks to be running dry.

To its credit, Ubisoft has tried to incorporate new elements to each sequel and each game brings new abilities for the lead character Ezio.

The previous game, Brotherhood, introduced a recruitment system as well as more weapons to play with.

I was not a fan of the recruitment option and obviously, someone on the development team must have felt the same way because Revelation does not have that feature.

In its place is some real-time strategy element where players get to place troops and obstacles to fortify a location.

Yet, while it adds a grander scope to the game, commanding an army just felt impersonal as I am someone who just wants to strike enemies up close and personal.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations
In the end, it seems as if Ubisoft ran out of ideas on how to improve a single-player action game as the new gameplay elements only embellish, and not enhance, the original premise.

For example, the skills that players are familiar with are still here.

In a mix of historical fantasy and some bizarre science fiction elements, Desmond, the hero, is trapped in the Animus, the machine that has allowed him to explore the genetic memories of his ancestors, Ezio and Altair.

Shuttling between both ancestors, players have to completely restore the genetic memories to free Desmond.

As the new gameplay elements seem more supplemental, the focus is still on sneaking around town, killing in the shadows and trying to uncover the conspiracy – and this plays out exactly like the previous outings.

A new weapon and ability to make bombs are nice additions to the core game, but after jumping over countless rooftops and slicing up renegade soldiers for the umpteenth time, the game gets a little tired.

Fans of the series would likely still embrace the game as the action is more intense in this edition – even if some of the storyline elements do not really make a lot of sense.

With talk that this is the last game based on the current premise and any sequel will introduce a new storyline, Assassin’s Creed: Revelation serves as a nice wrap even as it leaves gamers wanting more.

Click to download now: Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

In some ways, Max Payne 3 will be the first game of the series in which gamers can see the character in full.

While actor James McCaffrey voiced the title character in the first two games, Max Payne’s appearance was modelled after other people.

But in the upcoming first-person shooter, McCaffrey, through the use of motion-capture technology, slid into the shoes of the popular noir character he helped to create.

The first chapter saw the familiar black leather-clad Payne being given a new lease of life when he is offered a job in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

While he is still thinking it over, well-armed thugs come after him in his apartment building and the battle is lost in ‘bullet-time’ blur.

The term refers to a special effect where time is slowed down but the camera continues to move at normal speed. Gamers can make the game run in slow motion but control Payne in real time.

Max Payne 3
This allows Payne to perform feats such as diving by a window to take out a line of gun-toting thugs standing on the roof of the building across from him.

When bullet-time is activated, Payne’s movement is now more fluid and lasts longer as well. If Payne is surrounded, a swing of the controller stick can change his view up to a 360-degree angle, to help him to dispose of his enemies.

Because of the motion-capture technology, his movements are very realistic; each pause, turn and step shows up clearly on screen.

The second chapter is where the game throws up a fresh spin on the character. Gone are the black outfit and his hair.

Now, Max Payne wears a singlet and looks like an amalgam of Bruce Willis in the first Die Hard movie and the most recent instalment of the film franchise.

During one sequence, Payne triggers explosions by shooting at petrol stations. In another, he is riding a bus and shooting at thugs as the bus careens across town.

And here is where bullet-time is fully utilised because you need it to slow down the action so that you can aim at the enemies.

Download now: Max Payne 3

How many ways can you make the bad guys go boom?

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (MW3) is proof that ideas are running out. Unleashing fire from the sky through surgical missile strikes may sound cool but this method was already available in the last installment of the game. The futuristic weapons in this edition is still fun. Assault rifles such as the M4A1 and AK-47 have variants with a sniper scope which give new meaning to all-in-one weaponry.

So, you can shoot from the hip while on the run or hit the right mouse button or left trigger to aim, using the scope for greater accuracy. You have two levels of zoom for the scope with some guns, one that offers greater accuracy while maintaining a wide-angle of vision and the other which zooms in for the shot to the enemy’s head.

Riding shotgun with a giant machine-gun, bursting into a room while the game goes slow-motion for you to take out five bad guys while keeping the hostage alive are great ways to have fun, but they are certainly not new.

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
So, if you are looking for new ways to get your shooting fix, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 does not offer much novelty.

But, if you are looking for a 10-hour adrenaline-packed interactive James Bond movie with plenty of explosions, high-speed chases and non-stop action – Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is one roller-coaster ride you won’t forget.

Blowing up a submarine and then storming it, fighting in Paris and seeing the Eiffel Tower go-a-crashing, speeding through a naval war-zone in a speed-boat and getting involved in messy firefights where I keep killing teammates accidentally are just a few of the highlights of the single-player campaign.

Sometimes, you need stealth but many missions also require quick action as I had to take out all the enemies before the timer ended.

After a while, it felt more like I was part of a movie rather than a chance to show off my shooting skills, of which I have virtually none.

This is because many missions do not require you to shoot anything. You just have to keep moving forward and go with the flow to move on to the next scene.

Graphics-wise, the game does not look like it has improved much since the last edition, although it does look significantly better on my 12kg desktop PC than on the Xbox. However, you have to change the default ‘image quality’ settings from Extra to Native to enjoy better graphics on the PC.

The 10-hour campaign continues the story where MW2 ended – Soap, Price and Yuri are on the run in Afghanistan after taking out the rogue General Shephard of the US Army. But now, they must go after the Russian madman Makarov, who is hell bent on blowing up Europe, nuclear-style. It is great fun but ends too soon.

The good news is that you can take your fight online in multiplayer death matches or try out the new survival mode where you can go solo or cooperative to see how long you can last with endless waves of enemies.

You will enjoy the game more if you treat it as an action adventure game with plenty of guns, rather than a shooter to test your gun skills with. Simply put, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is a great game for the holiday season.

Download now: Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

There is a bit of a nostalgic video-gamer dig in this title. Like Pac Man, the sequel decided to slap some lipstick on its main character, call it a girl, and offer more of the same to its hungry audience.

There is no real story in this game. Ms. Splosion Man, a being of pure explosive energy, has to escape the Big Science facility and find freedom, one blown-up enemy at a time.

She does so by utilising the main gimmick to, well, explode. Exploding does everything from allowing you to jump just that little bit further, kill enemies or set off traps. Players can explode up to three times before being forced to stop to recharge.

Levels are presented as puzzles, as Splosion Man jumps and blows herself up to the exits. Unfortunately, the game is quite unforgiving. For example, most jumps between platforms require one or two extra explosions to gain the required height. Miss a jump? Sorry, you lose a life.

Unforgiving games can be good if the level design inspires. But while the background may change, many of the tricks do not.

By the end of the game, players are still relying on that singular explosion gimmick to get to the end of a gruelling, deadly level. Most later levels boil down to memorising set paths, how fast your energy refills, and then repeating the formula till you succeed.

Worse, there are hints of misogynistic tendencies from developer Twisted Pixel. Collectible items are shoes and if you decide to cheat through a level, Splosion Man‘s backside becomes larger. Is that even socially acceptable?

Its only redeeming factor is its co-op mode, which requires some genuinely tough, timed combinations between players to explode each other to the appropriate heights.

The first title was interesting and well worth the money but the sequel was clearly made to cash in on its predecessor’s popularity.

Unless you crave such titles and are willing to laugh at the misogyny, give it a miss.

Download now: Splosion Man

PlayStation 3 (PS3) sniping fans can now finally get their hands on Sniper: Ghost Warrior, a year after its Xbox 360 and PC releases.

Exclusive PS3 content includes bonus single-player missions, additional sniper rifles, new multi-player maps and modes. In addition, the much-criticised running-and-gunning scenarios in the single-player campaign have been removed from the PS3 version.

In one of the new missions, you play a spotter identifying targets for the sniper. But most of the time, you are the sniper who is moving around stealthily to get within range of your target and eliminating it.

You are equipped with a silencer-pistol or throwing knife for close combat and, of course, your trusty sniper rifle.

The sniping mechanics are pretty authentic. Every shot takes into account wind strength and direction, your breathing and your heart rate.

A small red dot on your scope tells you where the bullet will hit. You can activate a focus mode to slow time and let you take more precise aim. If you want a more realistic sniping experience, go for the Challenge missions in which all assists are deactivated.

Sniper: Ghost Warrior
Nothing is more satisfying than hitting a headshot. The game rewards you with a nice cutscene that follows the path of your bullet to the target’s skull.

Unfortunately, the bullet cam is the only visual plus. The graphics look dated with jagged shadows and crude textures when compared with games like Modern Warfare and Call Of Duty.

The audio is mediocre, with music detracting from the sounds of the enemies’ footsteps and gunfire. Your handler or companion always seems to mumble mission objectives and you are left wondering what to do next.

In each mission, you spend too much time trying to avoid detection and it does get boring after a while. Plus, you have to stick to a certain route or the game punishes you by spawning enemies out of nowhere.

Auto-save points can be frustrating too. At times, you die only to be sent a long way back.

The enemy artificial intelligence ranges from stupid to superhuman. At times, they cannot see you when you are actually beside them (albeit in prone position). But once you are detected, they can somehow fire an accurate shot at you even when you have shifted out of their sights.

The multi-player portion can do with some creativity instead of just having the normal Capture The Flag or Deathmatch mode.

A cooperation mode of Spotter-Sniper or historical scenarios of Sniper-vs-Sniper (think Enemy At The Gates) would have been fabulous.

The sniping might be fun at first, but there are just too many bugs in Sniper: Ghost Warrior to make it a worthwhile investment of your time.

Click for more: Sniper: Ghost Warrior

Amid summer blockbusters such as Thor and Green Lantern, inFamous 2 is the only thing that will make you experience life as a super hero (famous) or villain (infamous).

The inFamous 2 franchise covers open-world action role-playing games in the same vein as Batman: Arkham Asylum and the Assassin’s Creed series. In this sequel to the 2009 PlayStation 3 (PS3) exclusive, you once again play Cole MacGrath, a former bike messenger turned parkour expert who possesses electricity-based powers after a package he was delivering exploded, destroying half of Empire City.

At the end of the first game, MacGrath finds out he has been chosen to save the world from The Beast, a stronger super-powered individual hell-bent on extinguishing life on the planet.

The sequel begins in a big way, with The Beast laying waste to Empire City. As the tutorial level plays out, MacGrath barely escapes to the city of New Marais, setting the stage for the quest to amplify his powers before The Beast catches up.

Each ‘chapter’ in the game is prefaced by the distance The Beast is from New Marais, instilling a sense of urgency on the player.

inFamous 2 for PS3
This is a good-looking game. The camera zooms in during action sequences, shakes and goes into slow motion. MacGrath looks better textured than he was in the first game and has also lost his gruff voice, making him less one dimensional.

New Marais is brighter, more colourful and livelier than Empire City. Modelled after a post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, it also presents a more treacherous terrain for MacGrath, as water is his Kryptonite.

Getting his feet wet might only weaken him, but if fully submerged, MacGrath ‘short-circuits’ and dies.

Not to worry. MacGrath’s old powers are back. You will be gliding from building to building, scaling every wall and grinding across power lines from the get go.

MacGrath unlocks stronger powers by absorbing seven Blast Cores, which you will come across when you play through the main storyline. You obtain these powers by earning experience through your actions.

Performing good deeds – healing citizens, for instance – will give you the experience to unlock good karma powers. Silence a street performer, for example, and you eventually unlock evil powers.

Karma is integral to the game. Every now and then, you are forced to pick a side and can experience the other choices only with a second play-through.

Some of MacGrath’s new powers often depend on his choice of teammate. Siding with the ice-powered Kuo or fire-wielding Nix will open options to acquiring one of the characters’ powers while closing off options to the other.

Enemies run the gamut from gun-toting militia to humanoid-insects and giant bugs. Developer Sucker Punch has cut down the amount of boss fights and factions for the sequel, creating a more focused and streamlined gaming experience.

If that is not enough, inFamous 2 lets you create your own missions for other gamers to play and rate.

Budding game designers will get a kick from how accessible, yet deep, the mission editors are. Casual gamers can remix existing missions or begin from a template mission.

Yes, inFamous 2 is more of the same. But this is not a bad thing when it has made a great game even better. Good graphics, a deep story, intense action and user-generated content give this game limitless replay value.

If you have a PS3, you owe it to yourself to step into MacGrath’s electrified shoes.

Now, can somebody just tell me how he takes a bath?

Click for more:
Infamous 2 for Playstation 3 Excellent Performance
Infamous 2 PS3 (Videogame Software)