Behind the bar stand a couple of squirrels. One of them is female with large breasts, naturally looking at her nails; the other is a big buy polishing the bottles and making sure everything is shipshape. Looking around the bar, everybody is getting completely hammered. Both Tediz and Squirrels are drinking like there's no tomorrow. Death himself is sitting at a table, tapping his bony fingers to the sound the Weasels - who are actually a very good band and keep both the ambience and the peace in the bar. Looking further around, I see a teddy in a black coat; I don't trust him. I also see plenty of Rare memorabilia, pictures and… what the hell is that? Is that Banjo's head above the fireplace, stuffed and mounted? It better not be; I want Banjo 3 on Xbox 360 for Pete's sake!

Jump behind the bar, down to the basement and you've entered the second part of the game and the second part of this Conker: Live & Reloaded review; the Xbox Live part. If you missed the first part, simply click here for the single player review. While the single player part is a platforming game, the multiplayer section is more of a third person shooter, like Battlefield 1942 with Tediz and Squirrels battling it out. Expect guns, vehicles, and a whole lot of gore in this surprisingly deep multiplayer section of Conker: Live & Reloaded!

I must admit that I felt a little out of place when I first played the multiplayer section of Conker with a friend on split screen. I didn't know what the hell was going on, the split screen was made even smaller due to a black border to give it a funny widescreen feel and the whole thing was a mess. It wasn't the best first impression, let me tell you! But once I got the game to myself, I realised that it's either to play on your own with bots, or better still, over Xbox Live or System Link. You're not getting an unfair deal if you don't plan on taking the game online, as you obviously get the perfect-scoring Bad Fur Day and the ability to play with dumbots and the Challenge X mode, which I'll cover later on. However, if you have Xbox Live, then you're getting more than your money's worth - even getting this game purely for online multiplayer wouldn't be a bad investment. Then again, if you're expecting Halo 2, you're going to be disappointed.

If you can see past Halo 2 and look at Live & Reloaded in a different light, then you're going to love this. It could actually be mistaken for Fur Fighters on first glance and I know how much our Editor liked that game. [Loved it, just as I know Conker is destined to become a firm online and offline fave! Excit-Ed]. So imagine that online, with plenty more depth, vehicles and plenty of Xbox Live laughs, which is what Xbox Live is really all about; having a good time with good friends.

There are only two modes and both of them have to be played in teams. This is the first thing that could put off people who just liked Deathmatches on Halo 2, because Live & Reloaded forces teamwork. Still, I like being part of a team, especially when I know the entire team. Unfortunately, the Acegamez staff are yet to invest in this game [Give us a chance, it's only been out a week and we do have lives you know. Oh, who am I kidding… Ed], so I had to team up with people I didn't know. {Ahhh, poor Dexy! Ed]. I was dubious at first but once I got into the swing of things, it all worked extremely well - the one who shouts the loudest is normally the leader.

Live & Reloaded revolves around two wars; the Future War and the Past War. The only thing that changes between the two wars is the look and feel of the weapons, vehicles and the Special Ordnance that we'll come to later. Some levels are based in the past, while others are based in the future. This is much welcomed variety and I like it! Here comes the best part though. Are you ready? You can pick what type of player you want to be. This is why I say it's like Battlefield 1942. Regardless of faction, the classes you can pick consist of Grunt, Thermophile, Sneaker, Demolisher, Long Ranger and Sky Jockey.

Each class has their advantages and disadvantages, their easy prey and their ultimate nemesis - it's all perfectly balanced. The Grunt is the jack-of-all-trades, with a decent gun, good running speed, jumping abilities; he's a good all-round soldier, especially with his special ability to self heal. The Thermophile is the crazy one that loves to burn things with his massive flamethrower and is extremely effective against crowds. With a self heal as well, this character is really useful if used clverely - just be careful you don't burn yourself! Burn baby burn.

The Sneaker is my favourite class. She wields a blade and numerous special abilities that make her very appealing. She can go into stealth mode and even fake her own death! Imagine this. A couple of Sneakers are running around in stealth, picking on the Long Rangers who are hopeless when it comes to short ranged combat. And if anybody comes, fake your own death and hope that the player is too dumb to check you out! The Sneaker's trouble is that she cannot engage in any Long Ranged combat, which is where the Long Ranger excels. The Long Ranger wields a sniper rifle, which can only be used in zoomed mode. This means that if the Ranger becomes an annoyance, you can always go close to him and blow his head off. Careful though, because the Ranger's special ability is a pair of Infravision goggles - he may just be able to see you coming!

The Demolisher is another fantastic character. He is large in size and has quite a few tactics up his sleeves. First of all, he is equipped with a fantastic Bazooka - but with a weapon this powerful you can expect your Demolisher to move slowly and be unable to jump. However, his special Berserk ability allows your Demolisher to stretch himself, crack every bone in his body and charge around like a hungry dog. He can then move fast, jump high and attack by pounding the ground for a short period of time. The last character isn't anything special on foot. Sky Jockey is equipped with dual pistols and that's about it. What makes the Sky Jockey special is the fact that he is the only character that can control air vehicles and deploy air defence. A Sky Jockey is an essential part of any team for that much needed air support. He is able to control a Banshee-type jet and a plane that can only drop bombs. A well landed, correctly timed bomb can cause some devastating effects though!

All of the above characters come equipped with a spy can to graffiti the walls with their factions' emblem; pretty cool if you just want to say it with spy! Certain characters come equipped with different types of bombs too -the Themrophile has Molotov cocktail style bombs, while the the Sneaker has bombs to stun their enemies. Characters like the Sky Jockey and Demolisher can repair vehicles with their Arc Weld, while the Grunt can heal comrades with a Medgun. All characters have access to the Special Ordnance and Vehicle terminals, where certain characters can use class-specific ordnance and autos. Obviously this all depends on the host's mode setting, whether or not you can use these - but the Sky Jockey can access his flying machines from the vehicle terminal and air defence turrets to deploy anywhere to shoot down enemy airships from the Ordnance terminals.

Other classes can lay down Special Ordnance mines, transport gates and ground defence, while classes like the Thermophile can access a special flamethrower tank from the Vehicle terminal! The Gatemaker is a fantastic transportation device; get your character to lie down one of the two gates and then when you deploy the second one, a teleportation gateway between the two is created! In addition to all of this, you can pick up little yellow upgrade icons, which upgrade most characters' weapons. The Sneaker for example now has a Dagger as opposed to the standard Sabre once you have collected an upgrade.

As mentioned earlier, there are only two modes available; a Team mode and a Deathmatch mode. The latter is basically a team deathmatch between the Tediz and the Squirrels. This mode is more for the casual player and it's fantastic fun too. Going around as a pack of sneakers or a team of grunts - or even going solo and infiltrating their bases from all angles; it really is good fun! However, for the more hardcore player, each map has a set of objectives - this is Team mode.

Every map has a briefing associated with it - you can watch these comical briefings before you start. Then, the commander of your team comes on the intercom and tells you what to do. Some maps see you taking towers by storm, others have you capturing the flag and some see you moving towards the enemies in force - one team defending, the other attacking. If you've ever played TimeSplitters 3, the Assault mode with all the objectives, then you'll feel right at home. However, this mode can take some getting used to and if you're unlucky enough to get put on a map that you've never played, and you don't know the objectives, get ready to be called a noob by people that aren't supposed to own this game because they are four years younger than the age limit. Fortunately, because this is an adult game, you can call them a **** and leave!

If you find yourself wearing the objective based gameplay thin, then you can always report back to the Team Deathmatches, something that I will personally be playing for months and months to come. I love being able to change my character accordingly, having such a varied gameplay experience and kicking some ass. Another good thing about both modes is being able to select your spawn point; if all your team is way down the other end of the map, you can spawn near them - and it's the same with the Team mode too - if you've joint a game in progress, you can just get right into the action and defend or attack where the action is happing, right there and then.

When you get the perfect team up and running, this game can be a lot of fun. The Sneaker has a great gadget called the Hacking Device, which allows you and your team access to places such as the enemy base. I love the team based gameplay, I really do - but it's just when you get a team full of morons when the game isn't as fun as it's supposed to be. This is true of all games though, you just have to pick your team carefully, or better still, get all your buddies to buy the game alongside you (hint to Geoff and Chris there). [Patience, my young Paduan. Ed] It's just a shame that you can't frag these morons in an anything goes Deathmatch - but I can't complain when things go smoothly and I come off Xbox Live with a grin, reminiscing about how much fun I've just had.

Xbox Live has been done well here, it's always important for me to have a nice lobby and a decent Friends List and the game delivers in both aspects. You can meet up and talk with your team before going into the match. When you're ready, you just flag and the game starts when everybody is good to go! You can either wait in the lobby for people, or you can start the game with two players or more and let people join while the game is in progress. Joining people can talk from the character selection screen to the players that are actually playing . When they are ready, they can flag and get straight to the action. Games are easy to set up, navigation is simple, menus are clean and everything is self-explanatory! You can even set up your own private games so only friends can join but I never got to test this out - I have no friends. [Altogether now…. aahhhhh! Ed].

Playing offline on your own has a little bit to offer. You can play solo on team mode with Dumbots but you cannot play any Team Deathmatches, which is a shame for those people who don't have Xbox Live and wanted to blow people up without having to complete objectives. Still, the Team mode is quite effective offline, the AI is good and the offline experience can help you understand what to do, so you won't have to be the newbie when you get online. Last of all, there is a little mode called Chapter X, which is basically a rock hard mode for the elite few. It's basically more objectives, in the same style, with briefings at the start. If you're not good enough you shouldn't touch this mode. You have to rush against the clock and deal with the hardest bots known to man. Still, if you manage to complete all the levels, you will unlock something pretty neato.

The graphics vary from the single player Conker but they're still pretty spectacular if you ask me! We have a nice clean interface, which shows you your health, who has just killed who (and with what weapon), a radar, your objectives and your weapons and special abilities. The whole thing looks very war-orientated, with deserts, gritty bomb shelters and an array of other things coving different parts of the war. There's nothing wrong with them, they just look a tad different to the single player experience. There is still plenty of detail though, something that Rare obviously doesn't skimp on. Vehicles look either really dated or really futuristic depending on the setting and icons in the interface are very illustrative. The maps are huge, without any slowdown whatsoever! Weapon effects are really impressive too, especially the Demolisher's Bazooka!

The sound is great as well. Again, the sound is a lot different to what you'll hear in the single player. Now we have more war-type influenced music, marching onto war and all of that. If you listen closely, you can hear bombs dropping, gunfire in the distance and lots of deafening sounds that would frighten a human at war, but doesn't seem to bother a Teddy or a Squirrel! Your characters say things too - in their own unique voices. On most occasions your characters swear, but all of this is beeped out unless you unlock the Live Swear Filter! The voices sound a little bit too quiet to hear over the loud bombs and explosions; it would have been nice to hear your character in the headset. Speaking of which, communicating with people is loud and clear, as you'd expect!

The multiplayer side of Conker: Live & Reloaded has really impressed me. I didn't think that I could have been taken in with this type of third person action, but I'm hooked and addicted, just like I am to the single player - and if you've yet to read that part of the review, it can be found here! That's a real statement to make too; not only has the single player hooked me, but so has the cracking multiplayer. It's like two new games for me and although they are on the same disc, I find myself being torn between them! I simply cannot recommend this game enough - pick a side, pick a character and blow the stuffing out of the opposition! This game's got balls, kid! Get it now!

Reviewed by Dexter Pearson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).