Toy soldiers: cold war

16 cert, Signal Studios, Xbox Live

This welcome sequel to last year’s action strategy game swaps the first World War for the 1980s and imagines a full-scale communist invasion. Lock and load, people! As well as making strategic choices, you can pull the trigger yourself: place your various weapons and vehicles on the battlefield and alternate between the one you control (first-person style, staring right down the sight). It’s Toy Story meets Full Metal Jacket. On the ground you manage anti-tank cannons, anti-aircraft guns and machine-gun nests. The locations all seem designed by a kid playing war games; whether it’s a beachhead, battlefield or Washington DC, you’re always defending a toybox from invading forces. There’s also an online multiplayer option. Like any shiny new toy, lasting appeal might not be its strong point, but Toy Soldiers: Cold War is lively, chaotic good fun.