Ryse has to be the goriest game available this holiday season. It's gritty, good looking and a good bit of fun with a few blemishes. The length of the campaign hurts the overall experience and unfortunately the online feels like a grind instead of fun.

As buildings crumble, soldiers fall and arrows fly, we were reminded of the action-orientated set-pieces that feature in the popular shooter franchises and the latest Hollywood blockbusters.

I've played a fair few next-gen titles now and while Killzone: Shadowfall and Forza 5 are impressive, there's something about the facial and body animations in Ryse that consistently thrill me. That they're applied to such a cool game is jolly good luck, too.

Demonstrating a positively Emmerichian grasp of history, Ryse: Son of Rome dares to ask the question 'what if all of Rome's Imperial age took place over the course of a simple three-act revenge story?

Nailing a double execution and watching Marius flit back and forth; gutting two men simultaneously

Killing the exact same guy five times in the same fight

, the launch games lineup is a key factor deciding whether the games machine will sink or swim in the increasingly competitive market. For this reason exclusive IP is worth its weight in gold for game console makers.

RYSE is a third person blood bath that's focused on finesse, rewarding the player for perfect timing and precision. If you perfect your timing you will see glorious results with executions getting more brutal and bloodier with each perfect strike that you land.