You remember Black, right? An Xbox first-person shooter with satisfying gunplay – both stealth and all-out-guns-blazing-near-genocide – and brilliantly designed levels and huge explosions and graphics so beautiful that they still look half-decent today.

It should, by rights, have been an absolute classic, but lengthy, incredibly, astoundingly dull, unskippable cut scenes and a save system that meant that there was no point playing the game unless you had a couple of hours to spare conspired against all the good things it did.

I played through the first two levels again on Sunday (with my iPhone in hand for the cut scenes) and nearly wept at the missed opportunity. It’s so, so close to being one of the very best FPS games that’s ever been made, but what I can only assume is some sort of bloody-minded “we’re going to make you appreciate our art whether you like it or not” attitude brings the whole thing crashing down.

The fact that I still put it on now and again, half a decade or so since it’s release, shows the quality. The fact that I’ve only ever seen the first few levels illustrates the problems.