Having spent over 70 hours on this game the first thing I can say about this game is that’s addictive. Actually the first thing I should say is that this game is multiplayer only, unless you enjoy flying solo around a map, as this game has no single-player mode at all. But having said that it contains a fully fletched multiplayer experience. This game comes in two formats, downloadable off the PSN, at about 800mb it has no problem fitting into either the 40 or 60gb models. Or there is a retail version available on a blu-ray disk, which comes with a Bluetooth headset.

The game contains a full four player split screen multiplayer mode, however the real joy comes from the online mode (which also allows four player split screen). Online matches allow up to 32 players and, apart from the very odd occurrence, I have experienced no lag, especially after the recent game patch.

At this point I should probably mention the gameplay. You fly, drive, fight and blow up in a wide variety of different ways across the five maps. You play from a 3rd person perspective, and you can play the game almost any way you like. Get board and adopt a different strategy just like that. You have 2-man tanks, 3-man jeeps, a range of different turrets and numerous weapons. Of course I’m missing out the star of the show, the Warhawk. Two manned, though the 2nd man is purely a passenger. The controls are very smooth, by default you use the analogue sticks, though there is an accomplished motion sensing option, in the heat of action the analogue sticks are often better. You will be picking up the controls very quickly, zooming around, performing tricks, looping the loop, locking on missiles and equipping your own countermeasures before you know it. In planes or on foot, equipping different weapons is very easy and generally they work and are well balanced. There are a few issues, for example Warhawks are a bit week. But the immense variety in gameplay makes up for it.

The graphics are solid, nothing spectacular, there are plenty of other graphically proficient games, however it does the job. What really does stand out though is the draw distances. The maps can be very large and its perfectly possible to snipe someone at the opposite end. Flying around you can see almost everything, and I have experienced no let up in the frame-rate, very smooth.

As I’ve mentioned there are only five maps, these are broken down into sizes for the numbers of people in the game. This gives the illusion of more variety, but at the end of the day there are only five maps. Having said that you quickly get your favourites and it hasn’t been much of an issue to me, though I can see how it would be for others. There is an expansion planned for release probably this year which will probably see an improvement on this.