Just Cause 2

Rather than a mission-ending disaster, however, it was the making of the game - a chance to see just how flexible Just Cause 2 can be when it comes to approaching its objectives. With nothing to do but make up the distance in whatever manner I could, I ended up improvising, and it turns out that allowing for improvisation - particularly stupid improvisation - is something Avalanche's game does rather well.

Going off-road to catch up with the convoy provided an opportunity to enjoy the game's driving model, as I grappled from one car to the next, dividing my time (by means of a single button press) from titting around on various bonnets and bumpers, shooting at things, to sliding behind the wheel and driving at unlikely gradients, only to find I could just about scale them.

When enemies in jeeps joined the fray, the game shifted to make way for a little car-to-car combat. While you can't fire weapons while driving - except on bikes, which are a bit too explodey for my skill level anyway - there's a generous aftertouch which allows you to get off more than a few shots while messing about on the roof, while the driverless vehicle pretty much takes care of itself for a few minutes.

Grappling onto an enemy truck and picking off the inhabitants before grabbing the wheel yourself is equally entertaining: scampering around the outside of the car turns each vehicle into an island of action, and with the parachute to get you out of trouble at the last minute, even the most cautious player will start to take real risks.

In the heat of the action, Just Cause 2's gameplay breaks down into series of delightful propositions. Can I take an irritating Hummer out of the running by just tethering it to a passing bridge strut? Yes. Can I hit that sniper with a palm tree I've uprooted via a C4 blast? Yes. Can I ride the car off this ravine, parachute out the back, and still have time to tether onto that distant helicopter before I hit the ground? No, but good thinking!

In the end, it barely matters that I reached my target eventually. It was all lost in a mass of unlikely plans executed in unlikely fashions, it was all lost beneath Just Cause 2's explosive excess.

This is a game that genuinely understands the simple rules that lurk behind the best action movie: always look moodily into the distance while triggering explosions behind you, shoot at a car long enough and it will corkscrew up into the air before descending in lazy pirouettes, and - most important of all - standing on top of a speeding vehicle is totally cool as long as you've got a sexy outfit on.

Breathlessly paced and genuinely deranged, Just Cause 2 remains an exciting and convincing prospect. Avalanche has put a lot of effort into a laudably simple aim, by the looks of it: creating a game where the closest you come to a moral choice is deciding which petrol station to blow up first, and the closest you come to meaningful dialogue is the plaintive scream from the guard you've just heaved over a balcony.

Finally getting a chance to play in the sandbox only reinforces the wisdom of the team's decisions, reminding you that this kind of thing doesn't need plot twists, characters, or complicated back-stories to provide players with their motivation. All it needs, in fact, is a Did-You-See-What-I-Just-Did? button.