The Club

Platform: 360, also PS3 & PC.
Verdict: I'll not be joining.
Rating: 3½/5
Those that predicted a Running Man style direction for sport after seeing the lycra clad trash The Gladiators, may still be crying in disappointment into their giant foam hands. Luckily for society, blood sports are generally frowned upon, even if they involve opera singers covered in lightbulbs. So, it's up to the underworld to organise such nefarious activities, perhaps in the shape of The Club.
No, this isn't Paul's dream dance game about a nightclub, it's an illegal group that organises death matches between skilled gunmen seeking riches, while the rich enjoy the show. As one of these gunmen you're tasked with surviving a tournament of different battles while racking up a huge score to become top of the table.
Bringing to mind 2000AD's revered Button Man series, The Club is a shallower gunfest with little story and lots of action. With a character select screen and an emphasis on speed runs and high scores, The Club draws from racers and beat-em-ups to add spice to the genre. Created by the team behind Project Gotham Racing this comes as little surprise.
At first the action may not quite click – relying on a string of closely timed kills to keep a bleeding combo meter going means the pace can take a little getting used. Once you grasp that this time the term 'run and gun' literally applies, everything changes for the better. Running full pelt through each environment while pulling off a quick succession of skilled shots certainly gets the adrenaline pumping, If only it had the controls to handle such frenetic action.
Strangely, the shooter made by a company famed for racers is let down by handling. Sluggish aiming, clunky controls and a reload that locks you into an animation is cause for much frustration. The disappointments don't end there either – with ties to beat-em-ups watered down to a single melee attack and the loud announcement of 'Fight!' at the start of each round, The Club feels like a watered down sum of its parts.
Feeling slightly clubbed to death by the glut of shooters on the 360, it's certainly refreshing to see someone try something new. Attempting to fuse aspects of shooters, racers and beat-em-ups into a new whole is admirable, if only the end result met that potential. The Club promised much and delivers some – disappointing, yet still worth a blast for the score hungry adrenalin junkies out there, and fans of pugel sticks maybe.

Eye of Judgement

Platform: PS3
Verdict: Eye candy
Rating: 3½/5
Those ignorant enough to that think gaming is still the preserve of the geek need look no further than the DS and Wii's success at Christmas - our once niche hobby is now becoming the mainstream replacement for DVD and music sales. Worry not fellow gamers, Eye of Judgement is a relic from the past, come to abuse new technologies while spitting on casual gaming with the +2 sneer of a basilisk's caustic saliva.
Essentially a card game in the vein of the all-consuming nerdfest Magic: The Gathering, Eye of Judgement uses the PS3's updated eye toy technology to create a mixed reality game where your cards come alive on the screen.
Split into a 3x3 grid, the playing board sits under the gaze of the eye (toy) while you take turns with your opponent to place a warrior card, cast spells and compete to be the first with five cards in play (or be last man standing). When you place a card on the board, the camera reads it and transforms it on-screen into an animated version.
With each move reliant on mana (which regenerates slowly every turn), cards can't just be placed down at any time – big nasty monsters cost a lot to use. Once down, a card is locked to its location and may only be rotated (to face a different adversary) and used once per turn when the mana allows it. Starting off slowly, each game eventually becomes a tense tussle for space on the board with the constant threat of a big hitter being played by your opponent.
Provided you're playing in good light the technology works well, with speedy computation and a charming mix of virtual and reality. The 3x3 board is a regrettably small area in terms of strategy but elemental based mechanics, spells and different attack ranges manage to keep things deep enough to be satisfying.
Online play is also included for those without geek minded mates but ultimately highlights how unnecessary the physical nature of the cards really is. Eye of Judgement is a fun idea, executed well but stands more as a tech demo than a necessary evolution of gaming.

Rez: HD

Platform: Xbox 360 Live Arcade
Verdict: Welcome home Eden
Rating: 5/5
Ever wondered what it would be like to fly and fight through a super computer's network to the hypnotic pulse of syncopated techno while gorging on beat-matched visuals too pure for human eyes? No? Well, welcome to Rez: HD, where hacking can achieve heights of Zen and an AI doubts reality.
For those with a Tron fetish, Rez is a synesthetic wet-dream, inspired by Wassily Kandinsky and cooked up from the crystallised post-club sweat of Tetsuya Mizuguchi, famed creator of other music embracing games like Space Channel 5, Lumines and Every Extend Extra.
Originally experienced on the under appreciated Dreamcast, Rez was one of those games of legend that lit up the DC's line-up alongside more traditional titles. Also ported to the PS2, Rez has finally found a home worthy of its audio/visual prowess on the Hi-Def and surround sound capable, Xbox 360 via the Live Arcade.
Applying crisp, retro-style vector graphics to the traditional on-rails shooter template, Rez sees you hurtling through abstracted virtual landscapes, attempting to breach firewalls and eradicate viruses to get to Eden, an AI that needs rebooting before its soul searching has catastrophic consequences.
Synced to pulsating music (written by masters such as Ken Ishi, Cold Cut and Oval) every shot fired in Rez triggers a timely snare or bleep and each progression in the level kicks out a harder, faster beat.
With a lock on system that removes the traditional need for button bashing, Rez's sublime fusion of audio/visuals and gameplay allows for zoned out, meditative gaming, despite the fact that a giant humanoid made of squares may be chasing you. The inclusion of a chill-out mode that removes the need for shooting is further proof of its wide eyed intention.
For many, Rez's gameplay may be a little too old-school – point and shoot ideals from yesteryear, but they'd be missing the point if they disapproved. Rez is an experiment in fusing stimuli into one indistinct whole and in that it succeeds in spades, even if the trance isn't to your taste.
Finally seeing it in Hi-definition is a dream come true, and for a paltry 800ms points (£6.80!), it can turn your home into a kaleidoscopic collision of colours and sound. Trance vibrator support may even peak your girlfriend's interest too.