The Ball - PC

Tripwire Interactive's The Ball may have a name to inspire thoughts of dancing in Victorian England, but it is in fact a first-person action adventure game that majors on single-player action.

Using Epic's famed Unreal Engine 3, the game features an adventuresome archaeologist who is working on a dormant volcano in Mexico. Sadly for the main character – but not the gamer – they soon become lost in a cave, which is not a cave.

Buried deep inside what are in fact ancient ruins, the lead character discovers a mysterious orb: the eponymous 'Ball'. This object must be used to unlock dark secrets as the gamer solves puzzles and beats numerous challenges.

The Ball has been compared to Valve's amazingly popular PC title Portal in terms of the intricacies of its challenges. It comes with eight-hours of the single-player game over eight huge levels that hold 30 secrets to be unlocked. These can be played using four different modes ranging from the easy-to-get-into all the way up Survival mode.

Just because The Ball is set underground does not mean that it doesn't involve vehicles - not only is there a train, there is also the strange and challenging Ball Chariot.

All of this is tied, via Steamworks, to achievements and competitive leaderboards. more