16 cert, 505 Games, PC (also Xbox, PS3) ***

When it comes to historically based war games, my weapon of choice – where possible – is usually a sniper rifle. There’s a few reasons: the skill required to make the perfect headshot; the challenge of avoiding being discovered; and the rush you get when you manage to escape a revenge attack are just a few. So Sniper Elite V2 is a good choice.

A reboot of Rebellion’s 2005 title, the game is a third-person shooter set in the final days of World War II. As undercover agent Karl Fairburne, the single player campaign revolves around a German rocket programme, with a number of key targets for your sniper rifle.

If you are looking for a high-octane game, this isn’t it. Snipers need patience, tactics to succeed; it’s not about a high body count, but precision. When you make a kill, the “kill cam” shows you in graphic detail just what the end result is – even down to an X-ray that shows the bullet entering the body and doing its work. It’s fascinatingly gruesome.

The game is let down somewhat on a few fronts. One is the AI, which behaves in an inexplicably daft way at times. And while you’d expect the game to be slower than your average shoot-em-up, it really does drag at times. It is saved slightly by the multiplayer modes, but that may not be enough for some less patient players.