It never rains but it pours. While I'd like to say that being a full-time resident of the UK I'd get used to that fact, having a short-lived summer has really sucked. I suppose it could be worse, I could live on a flood plane and be constantly assaulted by overflowing rivers ruining my furniture. The other bright side is that there's a swath of games coming our way, and while that's in the near future I thought I'd catch up with a couple of titles we hadn't got around to. Crysis: Warhead, a standalone expansion for the original story was one of those few.

While theoretically there's not much more to write in the game dynamics department than what I'd said on the original Crysis game from Crytek, it's worth a mention as there are definitely some good additions. Mainly they've gone for improving the performance, the gameplay and the multiplayer which is great rather than just shrink wrapping it with another flavour of the original game. So what's new?

Well for a start it's an entirely new storyline from the perspective of the overly angry special ops team-mate Sgt. Sykes you met in the original. His story tells the tale of a special weapon the Koreans are trying to nab and take back to their laboratory for reverse engineering. Along the way this of course means that he'll have to face various encounters and go off the beaten track to complete several optional side missions at the players discretion. Seeing as single-player side of the game clocks in at around 8 hours gameplay, it's worth taking your time and doing all of those at any rate.

So the tweaks, right? They're pretty damn good. Most of my gripes with Crysis have been resolved or improved. Literally. The AI is now more intelligent, particularly noticeable when against human opponents, and there're more encounters that are against the army rather than the aliens. I mean sure, the aliens are certainly less annoying and more strategic now, including a couple of new varieties over the original Crysis, but there's nothing like sneaking up on an unsuspecting NKA soldier, grabbing him around the neck, swapping to maximum strength and throwing him at a wall... or his colleagues. Better still, they don't stand around gawking now or spin around instantly when you're creeping up behind them. Fantastic!

I really couldn't get enough of those scenarios, feeling like a more well-tuned modern day Predator, stalking the Koreans and taking out squads at a time while their mates stood around panic firing. The way the AI move around their environment provides that much more immersion over the predecessor that it actually makes me want to replay certain situations to do them another way. To top it off, even if backup is called in the helicopters are no longer immortal if using anything other than a missile launcher to take them out – I'm crying with relief. [no, literally, he is – Matt].

I also have to admit that while Crysis seems to offer up situations that can become mundane in other shooters, it does it in such a way that still gives you a sense of freedom within those set pieces. Providing mounted guns on a train and telling you to defend it would probably bore me to tears in most games, but because they allow you to jump off the train and take out enemies from different vantage points or perhaps ignore them altogether by hiding on the opposite side, you'll always feel like you have options. Hell, you can even jump onto another train at kick the crap out of the NKA at one point. Epic.

So the general point is that it offers up a lot of replayable situations that they've created with all the dynamics needed to stop the player from turning the game off and storming out in a huff. That combined with the easy to access abilities menu that lets you flick between enhancements on the fly, and a lush environment, which steers just enough away from linear to give the player all they need to have a great gaming experience.

Another point on the “you'd think it would be mundane” are the weapons. They've given us the usual arsenal of gear that not only did we find in the previous game, but that we'd probably find in most army based FPS titles. Ah, but then they let us customise those weapons with silencers, lights and scopes or even dual wield a pair of fully modded micro machine guns bound to alternate fire between the left and mouse buttons. A great way of getting your gun off at some random NKA soldier in the jungle. Loving that.

That jungle runs a lot better now they've had a play with the engine and the performance issues you had in the original. It's sometimes easy to forget sat in front of a gaming system that there are others out there who have just the basic set up and so couldn't run Crysis. Sure, if money wasn't an option it would be worth the upgrade just to see how pretty the environment is, but having a game that runs like a dog is just a tad off-putting when facing any meaty graphically demanding situations. Putting that to the test and running the game on a medium definition setting, it was good to see the game perform how you'd expect for your average Joe with last years gaming system, while looking good doing it - and that's what we expect.

Even the multiplayer's had some love with a new and improved version of Power Struggle and a Instant Action mode to get straight into the fray. Getting an organised group and donning your mics can be a very intense way to play Crysis: Warhead as your team tries to fulfil objectives and hunt down the enemy. I'd certainly say that while the single-player might be short, the multiplayer more than makes up for it to get your money's worth.

While Crysis: Warhead might be more of the same, it's done in such a way that allows the player to get re-immersed in the Crysis world with better gameplay and better performance. If you haven't played Crysis yet then go and get that, and Warhead will be proudly waiting for you on completion. It may not have the most involved storyline in gaming history, but it certainly doesn't get old from start to finish.

And remember - “I'm British you Muppet”.