Dark Sector

The Main problem with today's gaming climate isn't that games aren't coming out on the PC, but that most of them are like Dark Sector. Released in March 2008 on consoles, this third-person actionadventure romp has been ported to PCs with less fanfare than the start of Jim Davidson's next world tour.

This is probably because it isn't good. It does all the basics well enough, but there's so little inspiration or innovation here it's tough to care about it at all. The game's gimmick, the Glaive, doesn't raise it above the mediocre, so all you're left with is a standard cover-based shooter with a shallow plot.

For your sins, you play a boyish hero called Hayden Tenno, who is apparently voiced by Smallville's Lex Luthor. Tenno is sent to the ruins of the fictional Eastern Bloc country of Lasria, to stop an evil man getting his hands on some evil things to do with infected mutant zombie people. Unfortunately for the youthful hero, he's deliberately infected and his right arm turns icky. For some reason, the infection also allows him to grow a three-pronged boomerang-style throwing blade - the Glaive - out of his limb (shades of Krul/ there). This, of course, makes no sense whatsoever, but hey, its a game, so we'll let it go.

Dark Sector's problems are that the whole game is creatively sterile and the Glaive is slow and ineffective, unless you can hit the sweet spot of the power throw. There's also some strange things that perplex rather than annoy - for example, you can upgrade your existing weapons and buy new ones at Black Market stores (manhole covers that conceal a shop). Why there would be a large network of weapon stores in a city solely populated by virus-infected zombies is beyond me. But it's a game, so we'll let it go. Again.

If you've played any of the hundreds of third-person action-adventures that have come out in the past year, there's no need to play Dark Sector. The main gimmick is a bit rubbish, the cover system doesn't really work, and it'll make those of you who have no fondness for console-led action games vomit in rage. It's a boring game, and we won't let that go.

This third-person shooter started out life as an outer-space sci-fi adventure, but it's now about a man from the near future who gets infected with otherworldly powers. For example, you can ooze a liquid metal out of your arm to form a throwing blade that you can attach to walls and pull back at will (picture the decapitation opportunities there). This blade is also a light source--stick it on the ceiling and stand under the glow to keep light-sensitive monsters at bay.