Previews

A grand storyline, intriguing characters and thrilling fighting, all set in an epic fantasy world? Sounds like the ingredients for the perfect videogame to us. Enter then the TV & book Goliath that is Game of Thrones, now available on your Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC...

Take a series of best-selling books in the epic form of A Song of Ice and Fire. Then create a hit TV show from it in the shape of HBO's Game of Thrones. So where next? Blockbuster videogames of course! And now the epic and bloody tale of seven families doing all manner of nasties to each other in the name of power is unleashed in this third-person RPG.

Fans will find themselves choosing to fill the boots of either Mors, Sworn Brother of the Night's Watch, or Alester, a redemption-seeking Red Priest. If you're scratching your head wondering when these two ever turned up in the books, there's no need; they are brand-spanking new characters whose stories run parallel with the original violent, political, sexual (and potty-mouthed) plot that we all know and love from the books and TV series - plus the video game's story was written in conjunction with author George R.R. Martin himself, so it's the real deal, folks.

Best of all, you'll find yourself coming face to face with such stalwarts as Queen Cersei and Varys the Spider, and traversing familiar locations like King's Landing and The Wall; but now you're the one swinging the sword thanks to an in-depth combat system that allows gamers to slow down the action and queue up devastating attacks. For the more Machiavellian among you, there's also a dialogue system that lets you talk your way out of trouble instead, and form alliances and betray friendships; the ramifications of which can impact on the game's story.

Technically, Game Of Thrones might not be the sharpest sword in the blacksmith's, but as an RPG that brings the books and series alive on your console or PC, it's in a world of its own. Ice and Fire fanboys unite!