Sitting the gamer in the driving britches of street racer Jack Rourke, The Run tasks the gamer with racing from New York to San Francisco, taking on opponents, natural disasters and mafia hitmen on the way. Jack, you see, has got himself in deep with the mob, and the only way he can buy his way out is to make The Run - and get away with the cash prize. And that's basically it for the plot.

The gameplay itself will be instantly familiar to anyone whose played any of the mainstream Assassin's Creed games. The basic formula is unchanged from the previous titles - shimmy across rooftops, free-running all over, assassinating people or engaging in massive, open swordfights against dozens of enemies.

Within the first 30 minutes of Saints Row 3, I'd skydived through an exploding jet airliner, thrown an old woman off a skyscraper, punched 15 or so pedestrians in the crotch, clothes-lined a hooker and beaten off a crowd of sword-armed gang members... with a giant dildo. Yeah, if you were looking for realism, forget it.

The formula is incredibly simple - space and freedom. The space to go where you want, approach targets how you want - or fly a jet headfirst into a building full of enemies. The freedom to play how you want, be alone or with friends, to sneak or charge - it's up to you. It's a formula that DICE and EA have perfected in Battlefield 3 - this is the sort of game that you can lose hours to - and never get bored.

Building upon the venerable roots of the series, TM2 offers another plentiful helping of time trial madness, tasking the player with running the gauntlet down a huge number of gravity-defying, thrill-a-minute tracks, always chasing that elusive half-second that divides you from your friends. And although you're not directly racing said friend (which is a shame, admittedly) the constant challenge presented by the persistent leader-board and constantly evolving track selection will keep hardened racers going for hours.