Formats: 360, PC, PS3
Release: Autumn
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: Rebellion Developments

"This place is God-damned begging for party favours," grumbles Mickey Rourke, the man who'll be playing self-fuelled military legend Dick Marcinko in the game of his book. Dick's in cover at the moment, giving everyone a chance to admire the physics in his long pony tail. "Jesus fucking Christ," he notes as his cover is blown. The music signals a change from stealth mode to assault mode.

"Fuck," Dick notes wryly, as he's hit by a Korean bullet, and resumes cover until regeneration heals his wounds. Sensing an incomplete thought, he develops the notion. "Fuck me," he concludes, dashing to another cover node. As the last enemy is despatched, he solemnly states, "No problem".

That's Rogue Warrior pretty much summed up. It's a combination of stealthy infiltration and gung ho assault in which the stealth elements are completely optional. Every action is punctuated by Mickey Rourke swearing at you. Shoot out a light fitting and take out the luckless soldier who investigates, and he grumbles "April Fool, motherfucker".

Set across the Korean-Russian border, "Demo Dick" has been sent in to deal with a transport of illicit missiles. Deal with it he will, in the only language he understands. Demo Dick is going to blow it all up. The real-life Dick Marcinko is a hugely dangerous man, whose comic-book self-aggrandisement is, according to Bethesda, "maybe 80 per cent bullshit".  But he's still the covert ops expert who broke into Air Force One just to prove to the US government that it could be done. He's the nut-job Navy SEAL with a jovial disrespect for the life of anyone he deems his enemy.

And that blend of incredible language, covert nous and OTT violence is what any game based on Dick Marcinko has to reproduce. That's why Rogue Warrior's first appearance since late 2006 has focused on the theatricality of Dick's personality. Developer Rebellion, which has taken the project over from Zombie Studios, is self-deprecating: when asked what the game's unique selling point might be (a cruel question asked by someone who clearly thought it didn't have one) the response is awkwardly flippant. "The violent kills," a spokesman says, raising the suspicion that this might be a game that'll be most popular with people who fall somewhere beneath the legal age limit. And then, after a brief pause, he comes up with the other thing. "Oh, and Dick's personality."

It's interesting they thought of the violent kills first, though. The 25 animations that make up Demo Dick's repertoire of melee deaths are also available in multiplayer, and they're justified with the phrase, "There's nothing more fun than stabbing your best mate in the balls". Unless it's stabbing your mate in the eye, perhaps. All the death animations have been approved by Marcinko himself, who was walked into a room with 25 monitors and allowed to watch a younger version of himself (he's in his 60s) killing people on a loop. To any sane human, it's would be a purgatorial room of judgement. Dick loved it. "Yes, I would kill a man like that," was apparently the only compliment an animation needed.

You can't justify a game like Rogue Warrior in high-minded, worthy language. And it's probably true to say that Marcinko's exploits will add nothing to the sum total of human gaming experience. But if you can isolate and entertain the part of your brain that still knows farting in assembly is the funniest thing that can happen - and it is - then there's probably something for you here.