WHAT IS IT? A pounding war shooter that sticks to the tried-and-tested World War 3 conflict formula. The setting is an oil-starved earth circa 2024, and the action pits the West's coalition alliance against the Reds (that's China and Russia, not Manchester United).

GAMEPLAY: You'll get a ton of objectives to complete in any order and any manner you wish, though the controlled sense of anarchy and spectacular free-roaming battlefields do feel a bit like the Call Of Duty games.

Where Frontlines excels is in its glorification of gadgetry. The battle scenes are bursting with hi-tech weapons. You'll scream 'Yaargh!' as you fly an exploding remote-control drone into a high-perched machine-gun post, or steer a mini buggy under a tank and hit detonate.

Alternatively, if you get your kicks prowling through crumbling towns, blowing up targets with a rocket launcher and then sneaking away, you'll get to do that too. Basically, there's a whole bunch of clever stuff to occupy you, and as war shooters go, Frontlines is mean, polished and thrilling.