The sections on foot take up the vast majority of the gameplay – you control Mr Bond from a third-person, over-the-shoulder camera angle as you move around each level taking cover behind objects to shield yourself from enemy fire, or to sneak up on them and silently take them down. These grappling moves are more satisfying than simply running into a room and shooting randomly at people, and are executed well.

Of course, being an international super agent, you also have a tasty line in gadgets at your disposal, although rather incredulously these are all connected to your mobile phone. Nokia must be doing really well these days in international espionage, as you can employ your smartphone to call up a Heads-Up Display helping you locate enemies, figure out where you have to go next and scan evidence with. Impressive hey? Now why can’t my crummy phone do the same?!

The action doesn’t just take place on the ground, as there are a number of different vehicles to drive and pilot as you progress. These include Bonds own Aston Martin sports cars, powerboats and even at one point an underground train. Being designed by Bizarre Creations (of Project Gotham fame) they are surprisingly good fun to play.

In-between all the action there are some terrific cut-scenes to watch, and they look fantastic with the likes of Daniel Craig and Judo Dench contributing to them for that ultimate Bond experience. It’s just like watching a film. Well, almost. With a fast-paced, well-thought out storyline to keep you gripped, and a soundtrack featuring Josh Stone as the icing on the cake, the developers must be praised for trying to replicate the feel of a real Bond movie.

In fact when it comes to Bond movies, I really do not understand why this game isn’t based upon a film. It is that good! Bond fan or not, you could do worse than grab yourself a copy of this game, and whilst it is a short game, the experience is one that you will be hard pressed to find elsewhere this side of Christmas.

It is supposed to be a comedy zombie flick, but rather than being funny to watch, it relies far too much on over-the-top gross-out humour and jokes that make you wonder of the script was written by a teenager. Brainless in every sense of the word.

The title of this film really does say it all – Zombies of Mass Destruction. It sounds crass and it is. It is so stupid it is offensive. The ‘jokes’ are just flat and make no sense in the majority of occasions.

The acting is awful, and there is an over-reliance on throwing as much blood as possible over the screen to disguise the fact that the film as a whole is so terrible. It attempts to deal with issues such as terrorism, religion, racism and violence, but each of these subjects is handled clumsily and it is obvious that whilst trying attempt a Romeo-esque take on society’s issues, it just doesn’t work.

Granted, if you loved Zombie Strippers (another lame film that attempted to blend comedy with the undead) you may well like this as well. But everyone else would avoid this like the plague. You will only end up disappointed otherwise…

Wanzer is apparently short for ‘wandering panzer’, so that’s all right then. Set in the far future, you play the role of a badly-dubbed civilian who manages to get his hands on a giant mechanical robot to test out. As luck would have it, just as you are getting to grips with the controls, a legion of enemy mechs starts to attack the city you are in. Now if that isn’t good timing I don’t know what is…

Forgetting the corny storyline, the game itself is good fun to play. Sure the cut-scenes in between the action are probably enthralling stuff if you are into Japanese manga, but I gave up taking it all in after the first three scenes had played out.

Controlling your wanzer is simple enough, and after a bit of practise you’ll soon be trundling and jumping around destroying all and sundry with your machine gun and rocket launcher. As you progress through the game you will be given to chance to purchase upgrade using the money you gained by killing enemy mechs. There is a good variety of different weapons to get your teeth into, and fans of the genre will appreciate the high level of customisation on offer here.

On the downside, graphically there is not much here that will impress you. It all feels a little bit dated, and I must admit that I was expecting more from this game visually. The levels themselves are a tad on the repetitive side too, and you will encounter the same old enemies hundreds of times during play.

Taken as a whole, Front Mission Evolved not a bad game. It is certainly different from the current crop of shooters on the market, and if you don’t mind a mildly Japanese flavour to your gaming, then this is an enjoyable romp that is worthy of your time.

Practically everything has been improved upon, most notably the in-game physics and player AI. Thanks to the revamped game engine, controlling your players now feels more natural and responsive than previously. The frustrations of the older releases are now a thing of the past, and you will be able to weave around defenders with all the grace of a ballerina with a ball stuck to her foot. Well… you will depending upon the player you happen to be controlling, of course – you can forget about that previous sentence if you happen to be playing as a lower league team against Premier League opposition. Player realism is the key here, after all, and FIFA well and truly delivers in that area.

The all-new game engine is every armchair footy fans dream. The pace of the whole game is faster than before, and you can pass the ball around quickly and accurately, before launching a strike past the goalkeeper, whereas in the past you would be mashing buttons on the keyboard hoping in vain for some kind of response before the other team ran the ball past you. And then score. Again.

If you have ever played a FIFA game before you will know all about the graphics and sound – the Premier League licence is used to good effect here and if you allow yourself to get drawn in, you feel like you are controlling a real life game at times. It’s that good.

You can harp on all you like about Pro Evo, but for me, I am a FIFA man through and through. Granted you may struggle to justify paying out £40-odd quid if you already own one of the recent releases of a year or so ago. But for the rest of you looking for the ultimate football simulation, then this is as close to being on the pitch many of us lazy souls will get…

The art direction here is top[ notch – with the authentic shaky camera wobbling around left right and centre as you play through the various levels, making it seem closer to an interactive movie than anything else. Blood splatters, light distortion and mesmerising explosions all combine to make it a feast that your eyes never become bored of seeing. The games developers have obviously seen one Paul Greengrass film too many, but if you do start to feel a bit dizzy with the Cloverfield-esque shaky camera work, you can turn this off in the options menu.

Playing one half of the title’s psychopathic duo, Lynch (i.e. you’re the one with the really bad haircut); you end up being caught in an intense gang war in downtown Shanghai. Blood splatters everywhere as you run amok, shooting at anyone unlucky enough to get in the way of your much abused gun. The action here is really R-rated stuff, and there are plenty of innocent civilians who end up with their heads blown off for getting in the way of your ongoing street battle. This certainly isn’t a game for the weak hearted, but it says a lot for the human mind (or maybe just mine!) that you do become somewhat desensitised to all the wanton violence after a while.

The very basic mechanics behind the game are a cover-based shooter, in much the same way Gears of War was. The survive, you have to make use of walls and pillars on each level, bidding your time hiding behind them before sticking your head around the corner and picking your enemies off one by one when you get the chance. The problem is, that is pretty much all the game has to offer you. Wanton violence aside, the action does become ever so slightly repetitive after a while. Yes, there really is only so much gratuitous violence you can play witness to before it all starts to become the same. Oh what is hat? Another head being blown off? Yawn!

The dark sense of humour does help proceedings along, and as already mentioned the art direction throughout is some of the best you will see on a game, but this does not help raise it above the realms of just being another gun-heavy shooter. Entertaining for a while, but ultimately an unsatisfactory one.

The art direction here is top[ notch – with the authentic shaky camera wobbling around left right and centre as you play through the various levels, making it seem closer to an interactive movie than anything else. Blood splatters, light distortion and mesmerising explosions all combine to make it a feast that your eyes never become bored of seeing. The games developers have obviously seen one Paul Greengrass film too many, but if you do start to feel a bit dizzy with the Cloverfield-esque shaky camera work, you can turn this off in the options menu.

Playing one half of the title’s psychopathic duo, Lynch (i.e. you’re the one with the really bad haircut); you end up being caught in an intense gang war in downtown Shanghai. Blood splatters everywhere as you run amok, shooting at anyone unlucky enough to get in the way of your much abused gun. The action here is really R-rated stuff, and there are plenty of innocent civilians who end up with their heads blown off for getting in the way of your ongoing street battle. This certainly isn’t a game for the weak hearted, but it says a lot for the human mind (or maybe just mine!) that you do become somewhat desensitised to all the wanton violence after a while.

The very basic mechanics behind the game are a cover-based shooter, in much the same way Gears of War was. The survive, you have to make use of walls and pillars on each level, bidding your time hiding behind them before sticking your head around the corner and picking your enemies off one by one when you get the chance. The problem is, that is pretty much all the game has to offer you. Wanton violence aside, the action does become ever so slightly repetitive after a while. Yes, there really is only so much gratuitous violence you can play witness to before it all starts to become the same. Oh what is hat? Another head being blown off? Yawn!

The dark sense of humour does help proceedings along, and as already mentioned the art direction throughout is some of the best you will see on a game, but this does not help raise it above the realms of just being another gun-heavy shooter. Entertaining for a while, but ultimately an unsatisfactory one.

MP: How did The Porn Diaries come about? How did you get involved with the project?

JH: As a filmmaker I try to choose subject matters, which kind of have a natural attraction for me personally, since I have to invest a lot of time with this. Love, sex and death are the most popular themes of movies anyway, and it is safe to say there was this natural interest which I assume at least every male human being has.

Of course there was an incident which sparked the flame – a friend of a friend (as always when comes to porn) came by my editing booth to screen his tapes. He produced porn and it turned out that he was nothing like the stereotype porn person that I expected. He was studying theology, looked something like me – in-between a rockabilly and a nerd – and told me about his poverty and his miserable life in Prague. So no pimp-style, cokehead, big-dick porn star attitude. We started an interesting conversation and he asked me to visit him in Prague, which I eventually did. Once there, I saw nothing of the porn glamour we all expected.

After researching more and finding loads of documentaries, reportages and films about it I could not find anything which I thought reflected reality. Most of the stuff was covered porn for TV – a ’making of’ porn. I was interested in the people and started to write a script with hypothetical characters. Later on, when we researched more, we kind of met all these people in reality. It is important for me that a documentary is as emotional and entertaining as fiction, and reality delivers all these stories. You just have to take the craft of fiction film making over to the doc side: no narration, no telling the viewer what to think. Be aware of a smart audience and let them make up their own mind. Try to deliver all sides and make them think on their own.

MP: How did you gain contact with all the directors and actors in the documentary? Was it hard to gain their trust?

JH: Well as mentioned we did quite a lot of research before filming. The entire production took almost 5 years. Within the time of research we did some pre-shoots, made trailers and introduced the concept to the potential protagonists. It was clear from the beginning that from the moment one would agree to be part of the project we were able to film and record everything and would never ask again if we could use this or not. Of course, this requested a very high level of trust from both sides. My ethics lead me to the point that I never exploit people. We filmed a lot of personal stuff which we did not use, even though it would have been strong content. But this is how filmmakers are supposed to deal with this trust and not abuse it like done in many examples. This was actually one of the biggest barriers to overcome: many of the ‘porn people’ have been screwed by TV & filmcrews before – ask Belladonna – but it seems that they liked and believed our approach.

A crucial point was when Mark Spiegler offered his support and introduced us to many people. He is very respected in the scene and can be a big time door opener. He definitely took us under his wing and gave us his full support.

A second step was when Belladonna offered her appearance. When we met her first, she was OK with us filming on her set, but did not really be part of the project because of her very bad experience. But after she has been observing us, seeing what and how we did things, she actually offered form her side not just to be part of but also with helping us out on many occasion including accommodation, which led to a very personal relationship. Since she is such a well respected role figure in the industry, I guess from that point on nobody ever doubted our approach again.

MP: Do you keep in contact with any of the people featured in the documentary?

JH: As much as possible. I mean it is like it is. You start a new project and all of the sudden it is kind of hard to keep in touch permanently. I personally have personal contact to Sasha (Grey), who I keep meeting or talking to on a personal level.

We did have contact with everybody involved, after the movie was finished, and everybody was ok with it. Nobody felt mistreated or shown in a wrong way, and this is how it should be. The people trust you, and you should pay this respect back. I am very happy that we managed it like this, which is always hard, when you enter somebody’s private space on this level.

MP: Sasha Grey was only 18 when she was featured on the documentary. How do you feel about people that young being involved in porn?

JH: If you do not go to University, I guess 18 is about the age you start your professional career. At the end it all comes down to the individual’s personality and if it fits to the profession chosen. I am not saying that porn is a normal career, but also it is not a devils thing. It is a flat statement and would need a lot of discussion, but when I see how many people get depressed on their jobs in insurance or maybe become amoral gangsters in banking – how ready were they when they started their careers? You are able to go to war and shoot people by the time you are aged 18. In our days, kids do have sex before marriage. Of course, it is a different thing to have sex on camera, but this has nothing to do with real sex. This is a performance, a circus act, a fantasy. There are some people who do have an exhibitionist fetish and do get turned on by a camera.

Anyway, we asked the same question and that is why we included two 18 year old girls who just started out in their porn careers. Sasha has obviously proved, that she was ready for it and that she had a strategy for her life, in which porn is an important part. But for sure, she is not the typical 18 year old. Her life-experience and her awareness, knowledge and intelligence are way above average.

Mia – the other 18 year old in the movie rather represents the average. Not that she got hurt or abused by the industry, but not all her dreams came as easy as she first thought and some might never come true. But at the end it is not a question of physical age, it is much more the question of personality, mental stability and intelligence.

Of course I am speaking about the world of porn as we know it from the USA and Western Europe. The more east you go, the more different the whole scene gets. I am talking about the relation to sex-business, prostitution and human trade. This separation gets thinner and disappears in places east of our homes, and then this is whole different story which we would discuss…

MP: How would you say porn has changed in the recent years? Is there a trend for more extreme stuff now?

JH: The first big change in porn was the introduction of video, when it became affordable and technically possible for small crews and amateurs to make movies, and for people to watch them at home on their TV in privacy. Another step in all this was the digital technology, with Mini-DV cams, Internet, etc. Now a full beginner could grab a camera and make a POV-movie, even edit it on his laptop and distribute it through the net. The consumer can access it without leaving his house. So it becomes more intimate and your ‘worse’ fantasies can be fulfilled without getting a bad look from a person behind a counter.

I mean – nothing is produced which is not sold. The consumer leads the production in terms if content. No freak stuff is produced without the request. Since it is much easier to produce stuff, more specialties are available, and this is the extreme stuff, you can find now and has not been there before.

Besides that, I guess there are a lot of national trends. Americans love the deep throat gagging stuff, ass to mouth stuff. Germans I guess, are more straight to the ass and pussy, and they do love the very dirty talking. In France, more pubic hair is seen, and so on…

I am not so sure about the Brits. I guess they are still quite new in the game and do not have such a big porn-tradition, since it has been kept under the counter.

MP: What was the highlight of making this documentary?

JH: The highlight was definitely the outcome. Against all odds the movie was so well received, went big on festivals and drew a lot of interest, even in the cinemas. When we made it we expected it to be way more controversial, making people leaving the cinema. But it turned out almost nobody left and the female audience actually was less irritated than the male viewers.

Another highlight was the support of artists like the musicians. Big names like Brant Bjork (Ex-Queens the Stoneage, Fu Manchu), Martina Topley Bird, The Dwarves – all of them offered their support after learning about the project. In normal terms we would have never been able to afford this kind of soundtrack. It was great to experience all this loyalty. Another highlight was when Sasha came to the world premiere in Montreal even though she was already a star on the cover of Rolling Stone.

MP: And what was the worst thing?

JH: The limited horizons of the industry people who refused any support, the way we had to defend the project and the way we had to discuss it. You mention the word porn and the eyebrow goes up. I am sure that these people I am talking about, the ones who see porn as a shady part of society, are the ones with the big download accounts on the ’spermwar websites.

Of course we had miserable moments, like the one when all our camera gear got stolen in Prague, unreliable people who make you drive crossways through the San Fernando Valley three time a day. The producer with the attitude. The so cool avant-garde electronic music producer from Berlin who refused his tracks by saying he does not want to be involved with porn because it is bad for his image. And the insolvency of our world distribution after cashing all advance payments, but never forwarding the money to us. It has been a rollercoaster for sure!

MP: You must have been involved in some pretty strange situations whilst filming. Which times stick out for you?

JH: Obviously you want to hear the crazy sex stuff. But sex becomes part of the work in this industry and also for our work very fast. Of course there were situations which you never experience out of the industry, like the fuck-machine scene, which is shot in front of the office desk between phone calls. A real bad situation happened in Prague, when we were on a porn shoot in a house, with 6 year old kids were playing around and in the house, hand guns with ammunition were laying around on the kitchen table, the set in the room was barely covered to anybody around. But this was the only occasion like this.

Another funny one – actually after the movie was out – happened last winter, when I met up with Sasha. We were entering a metro station and standing next to a family with 3 boys around the age of 10. The kids were starring at Sasha with their mouths opened and obviously recognized her. Of course, they did not tell their parents. Sasha was also not sure how she should feel about it. I thought it was very funny and tells a story about our kids and the internet.

MP: What is your own personal opinion on the porn industry? Has it changed since making this documentary?

JH: My opinion comes from a very liberal background. I was raised by very cool and liberal parents. Not that they watched porn all day, but sex was not an issue to avoid. Germany has always been pretty open towards this subject, at least in my lifetime, so I think it is and will always be around. There is bad porn, ok porn, bad people, good people – it is an industry like many others.

The industry is constantly changing, especially of the internet and its distribution facilities. It is very interesting how all the private porn stuff is affecting the industry, which people put on the web, without being asked and paid. The industry is now more ruled by the companies with the best web-distribution set up. The old-school film production companies will disappear if they don’t adapt.

MP: What projects do you have lined up for the future?

JH: I am recently writing on a script for a feature film, rather on the darker and hidden side of society and it is to do with drugs. Also, another documentary is in the horizon, this time it is to revolve around football, one of my biggest passions. You see where my interests are based.

The Porn Diaries out now on DVD.

You play the role of an Italian who ends up on the wrong side of the law as he grows up in the ghettos of a tough neighbourhood. Soon he is arrested but instead of simply going to jail, he is enlisted to help the United States war effort. When his tour of duty is cut short by a bullet wound, he returns home to discover his new-found skills can be put to good use in the criminal underworld.

The game engine looks very similar to titles such as Grand Theft Auto. It is third-person action/adventure game where you have to complete various missions in order to progress. There are 15 missions all in all, and they range from gunfights to carjacking and contract killing – everything you would expect an aspiring member of the mafia to be doing really.

The games level of presentation really is stunning, with some truly jaw-dropping attention to detail on offer here. The voice acting is spot on, the American accents sound great and you really feel that you are immersed in a story that could be taken from a Robert De Niro film. The in-game music as well deserves a special mention, all of the songs featured are true to the time, and are the icing on the already rich cake.

Everything about Mafia II works so perfectly; be it shooting, driving or interacting with various objects, it is very hard to find fault with this game. I guess if you really wanted to be picky, you could say that the game world isn’t the free-flowing open world you may at first think – in fact the game is structured and you are not granted any freedom in terms of which missions you carry out. But then again it never promised to be a GTA-clone, and stands up on its own right as a modern day classic.

I simply cannot praise this game enough – if you are a fan of the gangster genre or not, you are sure to be mightily impressed by Mafia II. Gather the boys up and head to your nearest games shop today for a copy…

The story doesn’t help matters. What we have here is a coming of age movie about a small town girl who, unhappy with her current lot, discovers her true passion for life by taking part in a roller derby competition. Yes, that’s a roller derby, as in roller skating. Sounds riveting, right? Well before watching this film, I would have completely agreed with your lack of enthusiasm, especially with this seemingly ridiculous plotline, but all I can say is to give it a chance, it does grow on you.

Sure it has plenty of clichéd moments, and even now I still struggle that it features the little known sport of roller derby as its main angle, but all together it makes for a quirky mix. It has a very unique feel to it, and if you have ever seen the rather excellent Juno, then you will know exactly where I am coming from when I say it shares the same style of dry, weird humour.

The similarities to Juno don’t end there either, as both films feature the same lead actress, Canadian Ellen Page. Ellen is a star in the making, and for such a young actress to be commanding the performances she does in this film, you feel that she has a very bright future ahead of her. The rest of the cast are good too, with some memorable performances from Juliette Lewis, Andrew Wilson (brother of Owen) and Drew Barrymore herself, albeit with a small minor role.
Whilst I first feared that the story would be a big turn off, and it would quickly descend into chick flick territory, to Barrymore’s credit, the humour and intelligent handling of everyone’s roles make this more than watchable. This is a coming of age film with balls, and not the usual mushy romantic angle that you would have expected. The editing is quick and the film has a fast enough pace that allows you to get into the characters without boring you with meaningless dialogue.

This really is a stunning debut for Miss Barrymore in her first outing on the director’s seat, and whether you are a fan of her acting or not, you should really give this one some serious consideration. I still think the roller derby plot sounds ridiculous, mind you…