Lovefilm sent me this yesterday, which was nice of them. I loved the demo, so I was very much looking forward to the full game. It doesn’t disappoint. Took ages to install and update it, then there’s a load of cut scenes and tutorial stuff, but once into the game I was having a grand old time.

Basically, although you get to drive around and shoot people, destruction is the key element. (Just as in Crackdown, thinking about it, where jumping was the thing that brought the open-world shooting and driving gameplay to life.) Not that the shooting and driving isn’t fun. The run and gun approach to killing enemies feels a bit wooly, but if you use cover and aim your shots it’s a lot better. (And sneaking up on people and walloping them with a sledgehammer is unlikely to ever get old.) The driving is great fun, with trucks that just love to go flying through the air.

But, yeah, it’s watching buildings fly apart and collapse that’s the real draw here. The game knows this and populates the first area with impressively tall smokestacks that are amazing to bring down – and which you’re rewarded for destroying with the game’s currency. Excellent.

I think I’m going to enjoy this.

I’m only a silver member of Live these days, so I won’t be able to try out the multiplayer, but I’ll try to finish the single player before sending the game back.