In yet another cautionary tale about how self-aware robots will one day turn on their human masters, Binary Domain casts you as Dan Marshall, a soldier leading an international covert-ops squad in what could most neatly be described as Gears of War meets The Terminator .

+ Fast-moving; robot-blasting action; + Several cool bosses and set-piece events

? Has any other game had a French-robot ally

Surprise Hit of the Year : I'm having an absolute blast playing this game! It is refreshing to see heart and soul in a video game again, pure Japanese glory. In short, blowing robots is fun and rewarding, shards and explosions abound.

Chris Watters explores an Earth that's infested with damn dirty robots in this review of Binary Domain.

Robot enemies break apart in diverse and gratifying ways; Characters and dialogue are appealing; Thoughtful environmental detail; Amusing command/dialogue mechanic; Robot enemies break apart in diverse and gratifying ways; Characters and dialogue are appealing; Thoughtful environmental detail,...

Mundane multiplayer suffers lag; Voice commands don't always register; Mundane multiplayer suffers lag; Voice commands don't always register

What if you lived in a world where robots were as prevalent as humans? You'd see them every day--in the street, at your workplace, in the coffee shop--made to mimic the human figure but easily identifiable as machines.

Robot enemies break apart in diverse and gratifying ways; Characters and dialogue are appealing; Thoughtful environmental detail; Amusing command/dialogue mechanic

Mundane multiplayer suffers lag; Voice commands don't always register

Stop reading if you've heard this one: A jock, Roadblock from G.I. Joe , a Chinese sniper, a British demolitions expert, and a French robot walk into a café in 2080 Tokyo on their way to kidnap a Japanese technician making perfectly humanoid androids.

I'm quite partial to Toshihiro Nagoshi's colourful game making history, so it was a rare and seemingly baseless moment of doubt that occurred when Binary Domain was first announced.

" Binary Domain " deserves to be a success. It's a solid game, that despite an occasional Japanese quirk, and some dull multiplayer, adds a lot to the genre. The voice commands, whilst occasionally shaky, and lacking Kinect support are at least an interesting proposition, whilst the story and...

Don't be a Scrap Head by: psychofox ©2012 Chris Fox Binary Domain is a third-person, cover-based cyborg shoot-em' up brought to us by the good people at SEGA CS1, the developers who helm the underrated Yakuza franchise.

Game reviewing is a process. I play through the game and then I wait. After hours or even days, what to write will suddenly occur to me - call it inspiration, I suppose. If for whatever reason this process fails, then it's time for me to quit writing.

Binary Domain , out now on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 , is a third-person shooter which puts players in the middle of a battle for humanity in robot-invaded Tokyo in the year 2080.

Refreshing; original features; Well realised sci-fi world and characters; Solid cover-based combat system

Voice recognition can be temperamental; It isn't the prettiest game in the genre; Multiplayer could add more to the package