I wouldn't usually base a recommendation on my experience with a beta, however in this case I am fully justified in doing so. Ignoring a few minor bugs and the lack of multiplayer AI; European Escalation, or EE, is a pretty polished title.

All maps are well designed and are unmatched in sheer size. There are over 360 units which can be placed into "decks" which act as your unit selection pool. To capture territory and increase deployment currency, you must capture command zones which require a special command unit to be placed in their radius for however long you wish to hold the area. There are also a few extra features such as vehicles getting stuck in mud, extra cover from forests and unit states which effect their performance to name a few.

The logistics system stands out the most though; your units have a finite amount of fuel and ammunition, let alone health. You must build a supply chain with logistical units (aircraft, trucks) to keep your army moving in the midst of battle.

The developers behind PAYDAY like to think the game as an AAA title at half the price, and I'd agree with them to some extent.

PAYDAY is essentially a cross between Rainbow 6 Vegas and Goldeneye. The game was built to be a cooperative first person shooter from the get-go, and that is what it is; purely a coop shooter. Make no illusions; if you don't have people to play this with, don't buy it.

But if you do, get ready for some intense firefights which will rely on you effectively communicating with your other 3 teammates to take out a horde of police in a wide range of locations, each with very in-depth mission-specific tasks which have huge replayability. Alongwith this there is also an extensive levelling system which allows your profile to unlock new weapons and gadgets.

PAYDAY is a Steamworks game, so playing with others is on the most part a simple and intuitive process.

All in all, although it's not a ground-breaking coop shooter, it is a solid one; worth it's price.

Brink was hyped up a lot in the run up to it's launch, and the final product didn't deliver.

Although the story is interesting, the UI is delightful and the atmosphere in combat was exciting, Brink suffers from one major flaw that makes all it's good parts irrelevant; repetition. Specifically, Brink becomes very boring very quickly, as there is an extremely strong narrative that sits behind each and every map. The combat is shaped around this idea, and thus it is very hard to play the game without having the feeling that you are really doing the same thing all over again, without any difference at all.

Conversely, in a game like Battlefield: Bad Company 2, there are near endless methods of attack, and an equal amount of methods to counter-attack, which allows Bad Company 2 to be played essentially forever on a casual basis.

Because of this, Brink was a good game in theory, but in reality failed to impose itself as a lasting title.