RAGE

18 cert, Bethesda/id PS3 (also Xbox, PC) ****

"From the makers of Doomand Quake" the ads boast, and they boast legitimately! It's hard to underestimate the impact the boffins at Bethesday have had on the first-person shooter game. Their latest opus, RAGE(dig those audacious capital letters) has moments of genius – and its share of flaws.

Some time in the future, the earth has been destroyed by an asteroid; flash forward another century and the world has become a lawless mix of frontier towns, violence, dust, bones and rust. Your character, having been frozen for most of this time, has to learn fast: you have to barter for everything from bandages to cars to weapons. They don’t come cheap, so you work for every scrap you get. This can involve bounty-hunting, gambling on card games, off-road racing, and even killing for sport.

I loved how the gameplay varies. The racing sequences are lively, rough-and-tumble affairs, while the shooter tasks are tense and sinister, like a waking nightmare. There's a hint of Halohere, particularly in those off-road vehicles.

RAGEis a dense game for better and for worse; you'll get your share of walking around looking for work and having overly long conversations with non-playable characters while your trigger fingers get itchy. Once you get started on your missions, they're more than worth the wait, but patience is required.

On the other hand, the attention to detail is impeccable, with a huge variety of weapons and vehicle customisations. The graphics are fabulously detailed, from the beautifully realised world to the lively character animation in the shoot-outs (see how they stumble for cover after being shot).

Apart from the pacing, some other minor flaws niggle. Why, for example, can’t you pick up weapons from your fallen enemies? And some more variety in the multiplayer game would’ve been welcome.

Still, when it comes alive, RAGEis a joy; a varied, smooth and visceral shooter- cum-racer that, with a few changes, might have been a modern classic.