Upcoming Patch: Team17 has acknowledged the version of this game published on July 1 has problems severe enough to require a patch. If you have already bought this game and are having problems, they ask that you stop by their Facebook page to see if they have a workaround for your issue. If they don’t, please consider sharing with them steps on how to reproduce your problem, so their upcoming patch can fix it. Personally, I like most of this game but there are too many serious bugs to currently accept. Once the patch is released, this game will come strongly recommended for purchase; it’s a lot of fun! I would just hold off until that patch is available.

Back in the 90s, two artillery games were quite popular: Scorched Earth, and Worms. Their basic ideas were the same, involving flinging heavy weaponry around a 2D landscape that would get torn up by errant shots. But they differed in the details, with the tanks of Scorched Earth usually being less mobile and having to make more ’arcing artillery’ types of shots than the titular Worms and their cartoon-style antics. Now in 2009, the long-running Worms series has its next game on Xbox Live.

Those familiar with the series will be pleased to know that Worms 2: Armageddon plays mostly like the other 2D games that came before it. Each player takes turns moving a Worm around the stage and using a variety of weapons on each other. Accuracy and the ability to plan ahead are key, though sometimes even the best laid plans get disrupted by high explosives; the weapons and random stage hazards in this game really pack a punch that will send characters flying all over the place. Compared to the previous Worms game on Xbox Live, Armageddon has several new weapons and modes of play; rope races, battles in forts separated by water, and more are all possible. The new weapons tend to be of the highly powerful (and explosive) variety, ensuring that matches are very wild. So while skill is rewarded, a certain level of ’wacky antics’ do occur quite often.