Crimson Alliance

15 cert, Microsoft/Certain Affinity, XBLA ***

In this medieval roleplayer, the alliance in question is between an aging wizard, a sexy female assassin and a swarthy warrior. The fallen empire of Byzan was once a nice place to live in. But that was before the eternally young, endlessly evil Soul Siren rose to power. Now it’s up to your scrappy band of misfits (hey, I didn’t say it was original) to cut through the Sirens swathes of minions and monsters and take her down. The co-op multiplayer works well in this combat-heavy game, and it can be local or online, which is all-too-rare and always welcome. There’s contrasting fighting styles – a healthy cocktail of sword- swinging and spell-spewing.

You also work together to solve puzzles. The only real problem is the familiarity: There are shades of many other action RPGs, such as the Dungeon Siegeseries and, especially, Torchlight.