Army of Two(EA)

Friendship is important, whether it's lending you mate a fiver so he can come on the lash with you or dragging him bleeding from a hail of hot lead. Ok so you're average mate may never need that sort of assistance but it's the element of team work that sets this game apart from other 3rd-person shooters.

Badass rangers Salem and Rios make up a covert special ops team, specialising in team combat and tactics. No one knows of their existence and they tread places the army fear. Using a neat cover system similar to Gears of War you have to battle the Taliban and other bad guys across arrange of graphically impressive terrains.

It is easy to find yourself pinned down by enemy turrets and the like, and a handy 'aggro' system caters for this. Ordering your partner to fire heavily on a turret will increase his aggro, meaning the enemies will focus on him, giving you time to sneak up behind the gunner and kill him. It starts off underused but some set pieces become intense as a result.

Throwing in some interesting gun battles while parachuting and over the top elements, such as walking into gunfire, EA makes good on its promises and this is the explosive kill-fest it set out to be at the start of development (the fact that you can even strap a shotgun to the underside of your AK-47 is just plain brutal!). Truly over the top, but definitely a two player only game. [Dave Cook]