Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare III review by PETER HOSKIN

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare III (PlayStation, Xbox, PC, £69.99)

Verdict: Modern Morefare

Duty calls. Again. Merely a short year since the release of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare II, a game that was itself a redo of one that came out in 2009, we now have another sequel, Modern Warfare III. More special forces high jinks. More baddies with thick accents. More shooting, shooting, shooting.

As always, it’s extremely well made. The moment-to-moment gameplay in Modern Warfare III is a lot of militaristic fun. Its story mode offers a big, bombastic, globetrotting blockbuster in the vein of a Tom Clancy novel — complete with the return of one of the series’ ubervillains, Vladimir Makarov.

Yet there’s also something absent in this release. The story may be competently — even stylishly — put together, but it lacks those exhilarating moments that stick in the memory from previous Modern Warfares. Even last year’s II had its operation on the streets of Amsterdam and its slippy-slidey battle aboard a storm-wracked ship.

And it doesn’t help that many of the story levels feel more like showcases for the gameplay elsewhere in the Call Of Duty ecosphere — such as the free-roaming, survival-of-the-fittest Warzone mode.

And that truly is the word: ‘ecosphere’. Modern Warfare III comes with other modes, of course, including extensive multiplayer options and the now familiar zombie side-game. But all sit within a permanent, online, ever-evolving Call Of Duty-verse, making it increasingly hard to tell what’s truly new and what’s just this week’s update.

Which is a shame. There was a time when the release of a new Call Of Duty game was a huge thing in the gaming calendar. Now, with Modern Warfare III, it feels closer to being just more content.

Jusant (PlayStation, Xbox, PC, £19.99)

Verdict: High-climbing

Climbing is trendy. Or at least it is in games. Over the past half-decade or so, there’s been a glut of titles that really, really want their players to clamber up things for fun — from The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild to the VR extravaganza Horizon Call Of The Mountain.

Now, though, we have what might be the best climbing game. I’m not saying it’s as good as Breath Of The Wild overall — very few games are — but when it comes to the simple act of scaling heights, Jusant is hard to beat.

First, there’s how it looks. The world of Jusant is a beautiful, plaintive one, where the seas appear to have receded — or just plain evaporated — leaving parched sands, beached ships and crabby crustaceans in their wake.

The thrill of the view, of seeing further from higher land, is almost enough by itself to keep your character — a monkish chap with a blue froggy pet — heading on upwards. Perhaps you’ll see far enough to figure out what’s happened to this world and the people struggling to inhabit it?

Then there’s how it plays. Jusant is a wonderful compromise between the just-push-a-button simplicity of climbing in most games and the arm-waving physicality of the more strenuous VR games.

What it does is assign separate buttons to each of your climbing hands. Grab, let go, grab, let go. Once you get into the swing of it (literally) it’s at once a demanding and relaxing experience.

And after a handful of hours — not long by the bloated standards of modern gaming — that experience will reach its summit. It’s a tricky climb. But so, so worth it in the end.

Football Manager 2024 (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC, iOS, £44.99)

Verdict: Joy through spreadsheets

Ah, the beautiful game. Raking, cross-field passes falling at the feet of onrushing attackers. Great, sweeping tackles made at just the right second. The crowd roaring and convulsing. And lots of emails, spreadsheets, micromanagement and homework.

Hang on. Emails and homework? That doesn’t sound much like football; except it very much is the football of the Football Manager series. These games cast you in the role of a manager of a club, and that’s what you’ve got to do — manage. From communicating with the board to deciding on formations, you’re more planning than you are playing.

None of this will be news — much less off-putting — to those who have played Football Manager since it was called Championship Manager. This latest release is, in the fundamental respects, no different to the dozens of annual releases that have preceded it.

However, there are some things that stand out in Football Manager 2024. The first, for me (someone who hasn’t played one of these games seriously for quite a while) was its welcoming nature. The sheer weight of information on display is still pretty daunting, but it’s introduced more thoughtfully and understandably than ever before.

The second is the improved presentation of the matches that punctuate all the managing. This still ain’t a hyper-realistic, motion-captured game of footie, like the recent FC 24, but it is now easier to see how your decisions actually play out on the pitch. There’s a visible connection between the corner routine you carefully devised with your backroom staff and that goal João Palhinha just scored at the Hammersmith End.

And when those goals do go in, it’s genuinely hard to supress a self-satisfied cheer. You did that, really, you know? Not João. With all that time you spent sifting through spreadsheets.