Gamerscore Addicts

Tue Feb 14, 2012 11:22 pm by habitualschizo

Five long years after the last instalment, comes the latest epic adventure in the Elder Scrolls series,Skyrim. Set 200 years after the Oblivion crisis from the previous title. A new problem has risen in Tamriel, Dragons have returned,while a civil war wages in the Nord province of Skyrim. You are the prophecised dragon born,Fabled to solve both crises. I wont directly mention the story, so to avoid spoilers.

The games sets up both of these major plots rather neatly with the opening sequence. Which sees your head quite literately on the block, as a supposed traitor to the Empire. That is until you get your first glimpse of your reptilian foes, when a dragon attacks just before you lose it(Your head,that is).He is Alduin, first son of Akatosh, fabled World-eater.


This is followed by a short sequence to let you get to grips with the mechanics. From there on in, the game allows total freedom to explore. You could follow your fellow escapee back to his family in Riverwood, or see what's over the horizon.You could if you chose just spend your entire time picking the pretty flowers, it's up to you.

Before you take your first real steps into the landscape, there's a few things you'll need to know first. First is the combat and character progression. Both are a little different this time around. Combat brings with it now,the ability to dual wield spells and weapons and to mix and match. Favourite spells and weapons can be …

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Comments: 8

Sun Feb 05, 2012 7:48 pm by Leigh36295

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty HD

With Metal Gear Solid 2 being one of my favourite games back on the original xbox, and with a bunch of playthroughs already under my belt, I was looking forward to revisiting this game and reliving the withering memories I had of it and seeing how it lived up amongst some of today's games.

Set a couple of years after the Shadow Moses incident of the original Metal Gear Solid, the game initially sees Solid Snake infiltrating an oil tanker with the help of computer specialist Otocon, as they attempt to investigate rumours of the development of a new Metal Gear Nuclear Weapon. Not wanting to go to deep into the story here, for want of not spoiling it for new players, lets just say that certain events take place as this chapter of the game comes to a close.

The second and larger part of the game, sees players take control of a new character called Raiden, as he infiltrates a oil plant called 'The Big Shell', to neutralise a terrorist threat known as the 'Sons of Liberty' who have taken lots of hostages including the US President and are demanding a random of $30 Billion and threaten a cataclysmic environmental disaster if their demands aren't met.

Gamplay wise this is classic Metal Gear at it's finest. Stealth and sneaking are the best way to progress, while avoiding all enemies, this was the first Metal Gear game to introduce the 1st person weapon view point, which helps …

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Comments: 10

Wed Feb 01, 2012 2:06 pm by niteowl1980

Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker is the third game in the HD collection, originally released for the PSP handheld system in 2010 to massive critical acclaim. It is set in 1974, ten years after the events of MGS3 Snake Eater and before the Metal Gear Solid and MGS2 Sons of Liberty games. The story picks up with Snake having founded the private armed organisation Militaires Sans Frontières (Soldiers without Borders or MSF). Cynical and world weary, Snake and his group are now guns for hire waiting for their next armed conflict to arise. After being approached by shadowy figures, Snake is informed that the CIA have established a military presence in Costa Rica and then MSF is hired to investigate the reason for this, and to stop any plans that the CIA may have.

The basic mission based story of this game plays in a very similar manner to other Metal Gear games. Using a variety of gadgets Snake must make his way through each area as he works towards a major boss fight at the end of each of the games’ five story chapters. The main story is quite long (10 – 15 hours) but does lack variety. Most of the main missions involve the same process of working through an area and either killing, stunning or avoiding the soldiers in that area. Every few missions you have to face an all out fight against a group of soldiers with some sort of armoured vehicle backing them up which cranks up the difficulty. The boss fights are also all very similar, seeing you taking on …

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Comments: 4

Tue Jan 31, 2012 10:57 pm by Colne Crusader

Developer: Rebellion
Publisher: Konami
Release: 31.1.2012

Neverdead is a brand new IP born of a surprising - East meets west -development fusion featuring Konami’s Shinta Nojiri and English game studio Rebellion. This kind of pairing interests me as I like the quirkiness and values of Japanese games. Nojiri san had previously worked closely with Hideo Kojima on some of the Metal Gear games, while Rebellion is known more recently for the terrible Shellshock 2: Blood Trails, so I was curious as to how the game might turn out.
Neverdead tells the story of Bryce Boltzmann, a demon hunter of some 500plus years of age and is a game that offers a unique gameplay twist. You see, five Centuries ago, our hero Bryce was defeated by Astaroth, the King of Hell and bizarrely, was rendered immortal as punishment for his defiance! He now plies his trade as a Demon Hunter for hire and here we see him working for NADA, (National Anti- Demon Agency) with his reluctant partner; a lovely Blonde named Arcadia.



So we find ourselves with a third person shooter come melee hack and slash game with a difference. The game focuses on Bryce’s immortality in new and unique ways never before seen in a video game. More often than not, while playing Neverdead, you’ll find yourself missing at least one limb, and frequently find yourself hacked into five pieces, with you controlling Bryce’s decapitated head as you frantically try and re-attach to your body. You may …

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Comments: 11

Tue Jan 31, 2012 7:43 pm by Leigh36295

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater HD

Originally released back in November 2004 for the Playstation 2, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater has been highly prasied as the greatest Metal Gear game in the series and one of the greatest PS2 games of all time. When this HD Collection was announced last year, I instantly became hyped about the game after wanting to play it for years but never owning a PS2.
So how does a HD port of a 7 year old game fair in todays high standards? Read on to find out...

Metal Gear Solid 3, serves as a prequel to the Metal Gear series, and follows Fox Operative 'Naked Snake' as he is sent on a one man stealth mission to destroy a experimental nuclear weapon while also tasked with rescuing the weapons technician being focred to make it. Set in the cold war era, players are stripped of some of the items they are used to from previous games and are instead forced to take advantage of camouflage, enemy weapons and the enviroment to ensure survival.

With roughly 80% of the game taking place in the outdoor jungle enviroment, camouflage plays a huge part in the game. Most areas you come across are littered with Guards on patrol and as stealth is the smartest option of making it through alive, you will have to constantly adapt to the current enviroment. In the top right corner of your screen, there is always a camouflage index showing your current visibility with a percentage meter. Everything from the speed your moving, whether you're standing or lying down …

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Comments: 8

Thu Jan 26, 2012 8:41 am by Tenlo

By

TikGames

Price: 800MSP

For many of you the name ScaryGirl will have no meaning whatsoever so its worth actually giving some background to her and her world first. The creation of Australian illustrator Nathan Jurevicius she began life as an online comic before being put in a Flash game which become hugely popular (and still available to play for free). Her tales are usually slightly off-kilter and are often reinterpretations of folklore, but are most famous for the psychedelic and dream-like artwork. So for some ScaryGirl will be a new way to explore her world, but for most of us it's a completely new franchise.

ScaryGirl herself is a bizarre orphan raised by an Octopus called Blister. She has a patch over one eye and a tentacle instead of an arm which is usually found holding a hook. The story itself is just as bizarre with it beginning with ScaryGirl being waken by Blister to investigate the fact that there are leaves floating about which seem to have fallen from the Tree of Knowledge. Confused yet? You probably will be as it seems the writers have assumed that players will have some previous knowledge of the characters. Throughout the game you meet new characters with little explanation about who they are or what they do, which means you get little connection with ScaryGirl and her world. In fact I found the story made a little bit more sense after doing some research into the characters and background though I assume actually reading some of the stories would help more.

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Comments: 7

Sun Jan 01, 2012 1:24 pm by Tenlo

Comments: 6

Sat Dec 03, 2011 7:04 pm by GrahamOfTheDead

Back in 1998 a little TV show started which gave members of the public a chance to win up to £1,000,000. That show was 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?' and it is still on TV occasionally with new episodes on ITV and endless repeats on Challenge.

The format is deceptively simple.....answer 15 (or, later in the shows run, 12) questions of increasing difficulty to win increasing sums of money. Throwing in lifelines like Ask the Audience and Phone a Friend added a little bit of excitement now and again, but the simple suspense of contestants risking thousands of pounds on an answer kept audiences riveted.

There have been several video game versions of Millionaire over the years and it's already no stranger to Xbox Live having made a recent appearance on Windows Phone. Now though, we have a fully blown Xbox Live Arcade release.....how does it stack up?

Firstly, the presentation. It is well presented with it fitting in with the aesthetic of the TV show, with the only thing missing being Chris Tarrant. Instead we get a generic animated quiz show host who is relatively inoffensive even if he does tend to repeat himself regularly. There is no real point discussing the graphics in a game like this. The unreal engine has no doubt been worked harder, but it does a decent job. But are you really playing this for the breathtaking scenery? Skyrim would like a word with you if you are.

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Comments: 5

Mon Nov 28, 2011 12:51 am by sum1 superior

Time for a history lesson guys n gals!!! Once apon a time there was a little japanese games company called Nintendo, they made a grey box with a flap on which you stuck brick sized plastic cartridges into, pressed down then punched the 40" Power button, grabbed the hand punishing square controller with edges like razor blades and BOOM! Welcome to the miracle of Mario.
Years passed and Ninendo released another console called a Nintendo 64... (32bit graphics & 32bit sound) see what they did there?? Clever!
Nintendo in there gaming weird wisdom made a controller in the shape of an M or a 3 headed lady appliance if you will and a games developer called Rare decided to bash out a film based first person shooter for this new machine....... Goldeneye was born!!
Based on the film with the same name featuring Pierce Brosnan playing the Tuxedo'd assassin, it followed the plot to a gaming degree quiet well, if you watched the film, then played the N64 version... you would know what was going to happen.

The control setup was weird as the movement was done with 4 yellow buttons on the right side and the aiming was with an analogue stick in the centre of the pad. The D-Pad was kinda redundant! This (for some strange odd reason) worked for Goldeneye! VERY WELL!!!
Goldeneye played so well infact that it became a gaming icon and most if not all other First Person Shooters (which we'll shorten to FPS) was compared to this!
Goldeneye: Reloaded however was NOT based on …

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Comments: 16

Mon Nov 14, 2011 7:45 am by Tenlo

By
Starfire Studios

Maybe its my inner geek, but whenever there is a ship based shooter in space it grabs my attention. Maybe its the huge amount of different types of ships on offer, the feeling of dog fighting among the stars or the epic space opera type storylines they often use. I'm happy to say Fusion: Genesis has all this but also one major important ingredient – addictive gameplay.

Fusion: Genesis is the first release from Starfire Studios (formed by ex-members of the Rare development team) and is at heart a twin-stick shooter but it also has elements of social MMO's included as well. You play a lab assistant who is very early on entrusted with the protection of a unique sentient. The sentients are basically drones which float around your ship helping you out with gunfire and other abilities unique to the three types of sentient – Tank, Healer and DPS. For those not familiar with MMO terms, these equate to defense, healing and damage based drones.

The scenery is really amazing if you take the time to really study it

Once you've gone through the tutorial you'll be thrown out into the depths of space and pretty much left to your own devices. The first port of call is to decide which of the five different factions you will join. Keeping to traditional stereotypes, you have the trading Consortium, the law enforcing Praetoriates, the religious Revenant Order, the military based Dominion and the general scum …

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Comments: 13

Sun Nov 13, 2011 12:22 pm by GrahamOfTheDead

It's hard to imagine that 20 years ago, Sonic the Hedgehog was the new guy on the scene. The original games on the Sega Mega Drive (Genesis for our cousins on the other side of the Atlantic) were massive successes and still hold up today in terms of playability and challenge.

It's fair to say though that in recent years Sonic has not had the best of times. It seems ever since Sega pulled out of the console market Sonic hasn't been able to catch a break and his most successful appearances have probably been teaming up with one-time rival Mario in the Olympic titles from Nintendo. His solo outings getting a mixed reception at best.

So here we are now 20 years down the line and after several false dawns, could Sega have finally nailed a new Sonic title?

The answer is a not-entirely-resounding yes...kind of.

Sonic Generations is basically a 'greatest hits' collection of the last two decades. You name a Sonic game, chances are it's represented here.

The 'plot' finds modern Sonic celebrating his birthday when a monster appears and sucks Sonic and his friends through holes in time. While searching for his friends Sonic and Tails run into younger versions of themselves. With time being destroyed, both Sonics use their speed to restore time by racing through various points of their history.

Each of the zone has two acts, one for classic Sonic played entirely in 2D and one for modern Sonic which mixes 2D and 3D gameplay.

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Comments: 5

Thu Nov 10, 2011 1:53 pm by Ba5sett

Developed by From Software

Published by Namco Bandai Games

Review by Ba5sett

There is a part in Square’s seminal PS1 RPG Final Fantasy VII where shortly after leaving the starting city of Midgar and venturing into the open world for the first time you encounter a huge snake, way bigger and more powerful than your current team. You can fight him for a while but you are only delaying the inevitable, no matter what you do; the snake will eventually beat you and leave you limping off with your tail between your legs. Later on in the game you get the opportunity to face the snake again and avenge your earlier death, only this time you are a higher level, have better equipment and weapons, this time you have a chance. It can still be tough but with the odds evened the snake can now be defeated and if you manage it you will be rewarded with a great deal of satisfaction and some nice shiny loot. So what has this got to do with Dark Souls I hear you ask? Well this short gaming analogy sums up why despite being so difficult, hostile and sometimes downright evil Dark Souls is one of the most satisfying (and frustrating) games I have ever played on the Xbox 360.



Dark Souls is a dark fantasy RPG developed by From Software as a loose sequel to critically acclaimed PS3 exclusive Demon Souls, there isn’t much of a plot save for a brief prequel which explains why the world is filled with murderous beasts and that there are four great demons that need to be slain. After …

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Comments: 8

Mon Nov 07, 2011 9:13 am by Markav

EA DICE / Electronic Arts
Release: Oct 28, 2011 EU




Battlefield 3, one of the most hyped games of 2011 and touted as MW3's arch-rival. For a long time, the Battlefield games have been known as those large scale online FPS games exclusively for PC gamers. Although Battlefield finally came to light on consoles with the introduction of the Bad Company games, these games are distinct in their style from the original Battlefield games. Battlefield 3 continues the original Battlefield series while combining the best things from Bad Company 2.
I was a “late bloomer” to the Battlefield franchise having never played the PC games so this review can in no way be compared to the understandable superiority of the PC version, only compare it to my experience of the bad company games. Let's get on to the review.


Much has been said about the main new feature of this game. One of the new things brought along by Battlefield 3 is the new Frostbite engine. This allows for much more realistic physics and destruction, everything can be destroyed, EVERYTHING. The gameplay is also very smooth, you no longer feel sluggish when running around like you did in Bad Company 2. The fluid movement is perfect, you don't feel like a floating gun, you actually feel like a soldier in combat. DICE has also added vaulting animations and prone animations that are executed very nicely and look wonderful. While the game plays at 30FPS on consoles, it does not get into the way …

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Comments: 4

Tue Oct 25, 2011 1:03 pm by Tenlo

By
PopCap Games

This may come to a shock to many but I had never played Bejeweled before. Being a big RPG and action gamer I never really had time for simple puzzle games, so the idea of sitting matching 3 or more coloured gems never appealed to me. So don't expect any comparisons to previous Bejeweled titles here (though to be fair were you expecting an overhauled game play mechanic!!), just a frank review of this current incarnation.

As I've just mentioned the whole principle of Bejeweled is to match three or more coloured gems in either horizontal or vertical lines. Every time you complete a match more gems drop down to fill the space. The one catch is you can only swap two adjacent gems and then only if they create a match by doing so. A simple idea which as with all the best casual games is very addictive, I didn't realise quite how addictive until I'd spent an entire morning getting a score of almost 1.75 million!

Zen mode in Bejeweled - spot the life affirming message at the bottom to relax you more

Apart from the “Classic” version of the game, in which you keeping making matches until all possible matches are made, there are three other modes available at the start with other modes available after reaching certain requirements in the first set of modes. First up is Lightning mode in which you are given a time limit in which to make as many matches as possible with special gems giving extra …

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Comments: 8

Mon Oct 17, 2011 6:39 am by Markav

The Cursed Crusade is a medieval third-person action-adventure video game developed by Kylotonn Games and published by Atlus for North America and dtp entertainment AG for Europe.
Release date 7th October (EU)


The Cursed Crusade is a game which had the promise to become an epic medieval epic within the genre of hack'n'slashers. I among millions of others love the medievil period of history having read many novels by the likes of Bernard Cornwell amongst others so it seemed to have potential to grow into a title that managed to win a mass following. Not surprisingly, in this generation we have seen how some small productions have become the favourite of users over the larger AAA productions at times. However, this is not going to be the case with The Cursed Crusade.

Unless you like cutscenes, and this game does love cutscenes. It loves them so much that it can't let five minutes go by without another one popping up. The game opens with a lengthy cutscene, which leads into another cutscene which then leads into another. Finally, you get to attack and kill a handful of enemies. Then you get another cutscene!  This wouldn't be so bad if Cursed Crusade had a gripping story, compelling characters and satisfying gameplay. It doesn't. The story is a mix of medieval cliches, with a weird addition of supernatural guff. Our main character , Denz de Bayle, is “cursed” . This means that he's able to transform into a sort of 12th century demon, which fills the …

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Comments: 7

Wed Oct 12, 2011 11:18 pm by sum1 superior

Here we have the sequel to WRC: World Rally Championship... and the difference between the 1st and this newest installment is insane!
The developers Milestone have decided in there wisdom to concentrate on a story/plot style racer, with hiring and firing numerous mechanics, PR staff, Team Leaders, selecting different sponsors to gain more Rep and an R&D department for researching new upgrades which has no bearing on the WRC driving experience as in the real WRC the FIA have set rules and regulations on parts and running equipment!
Now.. you may have noticed i said the difference's between the 1st and this one is insane? Yes, due to the fact that they've ditched the whole driving physics and actual gameplay for bloody story!! I am a HUGE rally fan and so far Dirt 3 has been the most enjoyable on the xbox 360. The FIA licence was wasted here!
Quick run down....

Sound: Oh dear!! Imagine if you will a chainsaw and someone rustling a packet of crisps down your mic... thats ALL the engine sounds you get! Even my cat left the room when i stopped accelerating and the crisps sound kicked in, oh and the menu music you'd hear in an elevator if anyones stayed at the Hilton Hotel.. no in game music at all luckily as it would probably be something like country and western or classical!!!

Difficulty: Ive had it on Idiot settings for most and obviously its a walk in the park BUT i will say this... WRC 2 does have one of the biggest customizable option …

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Comments: 10

Sun Oct 09, 2011 4:24 pm by Stucowie

Ok, so it’s the silly season when it comes to games releases, with numerous AAA titles coming out and hoping to be amongst the “Champions League” elect is this year’s incarnation of PES. Does it manage to break into upper echelons of game franchises with the Call of Duty’s, Gears of War & Final Fantasy or does it stay just out of the limelight? Read on:

First of all, I’m going to add a new feature to my review for PES, and that is to include a section for what my impressions are after the first hour of playing, as that hour can often make or break peoples opinion on a game. The first thing I did was go straight into the Edit mode (Sad I know) and check out all the latest squads and I must admit, I was a bit disheartened at the fact that Joey Barton was still at Newcastle, Sergio Aguero was not at Man City, as well as a couple of other transfers. I will put it down to this being a review copy of the game and I hope retail versions have these included. Granted, I know you can do these transfers yourself, but that’s not the point. Bad Konami, bad! ***EDIT*** There is a transfer update for this coming on 11th October, so I’ll let you off, Konami!!

Next thing I did was sign up for the myPES app that is on Facebook, and linked it to my account (for reasons I will go into a bit later) and after that I decided to plump for a bit of “Football life” and jumped into the “Become a legend” mode and it is essentially the same as PES2011, which is no bad thing, however this time, you have an agent and …

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Comments: 6

Fri Sep 30, 2011 6:41 pm by stubbymite

Gears Of War 3
Epic Games
A review by StubbyMite

Gears of War 3 is a military science fiction third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios.

Overview

Story

The story for the new game was written by science fiction author Karen Traviss, who has authored four Gears novels and is working on the next one – Does this mean we will get a new game?

The game centres around Marcus Fenix and his gears compatriots of the old Delta Squad. It is hard to believe that it has been five years since the story of the cog soldiers and the locust horde started. The newest incarnation of the game is it’s best story to date and you get a real sense of what the characters are going through and the struggles that they are encountering. If like me you have not played through the full stories of all of the games, if you watch the previously on gears from the start menu this shows you what has happened in the previous stories.

Along the way in the story you get a real mixed bag of levels and enemies to encounter. With the loader suits and different ride on’s that you get to use you get a real variety to the game. With the locust horde and the glowie masses bearing down on you I found this game quite hard in some points and on the harder difficulties I can see some of the bosses being a lot harder to handle.

I don’t want to go into to much detail with the story as we all may not have fully played through the game as of yet, but in the story you really start to …

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Comments: 16

Thu Sep 29, 2011 8:13 am by Riled Assassin

After what feels like a very long break driver is back and now that it’s focused on what made the original game great it’s feeling better than ever. The “return to the series’ grass roots” idea behind the game has certainly helped put the fun back into the car handling. Of all the changes in the series the biggest gamble would have to be the new shift system allowing you to leave your body to look down on the city from above and pick another car to shift into.

At first shift sounds like a bad idea however after using it a couple of times you get to see the full potential of the ability and it truly is a stroke of genius. Shift helps keep the game play fast and fluid throughout in a way that no other driving game can and has certainly changed the way you approach missions and races. It’s so refreshing to see a developer take a chance when they could have just used the generic get out and steal another car mechanic used by every other game in the genre.



The story is very different and coming from such a unique angle is handled very well with quite a good sense of humour even the characters have a hard time grasping what's going on at times which adds to the fun and there's usually some decent banter between Tanner and passengers he Shifts next to when car hopping. While the main storyline seems relatively short there are plenty of other optional …

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Comments: 10

Thu Sep 22, 2011 9:19 am by Ba5sett

Rugby World Cup 2011 Review

Developed by HB Studios

Published by 505 Games

Review by Ba5sett

It’s been a while since we had a decent rugby game so I was looking forward to checking this year’s rugby world cup out. First impressions were good, the presentation is decent and all of the teams and stadiums from this years tournament are in place. Graphically too the game looks pretty good, things can look a bit ropey up close and the player likenesses aren’t great but zoomed out in the middle of the action things run smoothly and the game has the same kind of appearance and flow as an actual game of rugby.

Gameplay is pretty straightforward, you use the L and R bumper buttons to pass left or right and use the A button to punt or dive for a try. The plus side of such a simple control scheme is that pretty much anyone with a passing interest in the rules of the game can pick up a pad and have a game. So if you were having your friends round to watch the game you could quite happily put this game on afterwards and have a mini tournament of your own without worrying about people struggling to get their head around the game. The downside of it is that once you have mastered the basic control scheme (which takes about 2 minutes) you aren’t left with anything further to progress your game. The best sports games of this generation always fall under the category of easy to learn, difficult to master. Rugby World Cup 2011 definitely falls under the category of …

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Comments: 5

Thu Aug 04, 2011 2:14 pm by Colne Crusader

Developed by: Techland
Published by: Ubisoft
Release Date:July 22 2011 in Europe

The latest Call of Juarez game is a co-op focused FPS, and opts for a complete change of setting. Set in a modern day Los-Angeles and Mexico, the game opts for the type of plot which is often so intriguing in movies, in which an F.B.I. agent, a D.E.A. agent and a veteran LAPD detective (and Vietnam veteran), reluctantly work together to bring down the titular drugs cartel which is threatening to become the biggest evil on the streets.



As mentioned then, this is a First person shooter that, has a reasonable length single player campaign but only in co-op or competitive multiplayer will you experience all of it's features.

So, the setting and the game type are appealing. I'm sure the change of setting was a clever if annoying marketing decision to sell more units in this oh so one dimensional of games markets where this is the type of thing that is most popular, and will sell regardless of quality. Just as well too for Ubisoft, because this game, despite having a pretty solid shooting mechanic and some good multi-player ideas (More to follow), is very badly programmed. It stinks of being rushed. It really needed a longer development time.

Starting with the storyline then. The games characters are so stereotypical of their respective races, with all the bad language and street slang you would expect. But it's done to the …

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Comments: 14

Mon Aug 01, 2011 7:27 pm by Colne Crusader

Can be viewed in 3D on any TV with 3D glasses, or in Stereoscopic 3D for 3D televisions.
Developed by: Double Helix Games
Published by: Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment
Release: June 10 2011

It can't be easy for a fledgling superhero to be taken seriously with the names they are given. I mean, before they have proven themselves, why would any self-respecting evil baddie be scared of them. The baddies get all the good names. Doctor Doom!!! Juggernaut!!!!! The Green Goblin!! These names strike fear into all who hear them. What have the evil maniacs got to fear!? Spider-man?? "I'll just trap him in a giant bath-tub", says the Sand-Man. And I know Super-man is nails, but he doesn't sound it! He might as well be called Spiffing-man!! And here we have the latest Super-hero to be commited to celluloid and Polygon, the mighty Green Lantern!!!! A man named after a spinach coloured portable lighting appliance!!

This is a game based on the popular comic book series and also the recent movie release. The game however follows it's own storyline and does not follow the film, but does provide references to the backstory of the comic books for hardcore Lantern fans. The basic backstory of the Green Lantern is that the Guardians of the Universe once created a race of robots called "Manhunters" to keep the …

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Comments: 10

Tue Jun 28, 2011 8:37 am by Everton

Kung Fu Panda 2

A THQ Release


Here we have the second Kung Fu Panda game which has been released to coincide with the second Kung Fu Panda movie.

The first game and movie I thought were excellent. They had wit, they had charm and they had fantastic graphics. So when the sequels were released and Kent asked me to play and review the game I jumped at the chance.

I have made a schoolboy error!

For KFP2 the developers have decided to switch from the normal 360 controller to using Kinect. I enjoy Kinect and so for me this was supposed to be a bonus. Every Kinect release I have played so far has been fun, if in most cases a little bit limited and samey. However having now dragged myself through KFP2, those other releases look like 5 star mega games.

KFP2 has 2 distinct sections. I am not sure whether the developer thought the 2 meant 2 sections or not but anyway there are 2 none the less.

The first is the traditional Story Mode.

Here you learn about how to control Po the giant Panda of Kung Fu fame. For the first 30 minutes you get taken through a series of exercises in blocking and punching and jumping. All pretty normal for a tutorial except its spanned out over several levels which means you basically are standing there for half an hour doing very little apart from the odd arm movement.

Throught the story mode you go from one location to another and fight Dragons and Gorillas and in between you have a couple of side games of throwing things.



The …

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Comments: 11

Sun May 29, 2011 9:51 pm by Colne Crusader

Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sumo Digital
Price: 800 MSP
Release Date: May 18 2011

The early to mid nineties were a great time for arcade going racing fans! Thanks to new and greatly improved 3D technology, a series of now classic racing games began to emerge. Sega were at the forefront of this with 1992's Virtua Racer, which was a great leap forwards from previous attempts at realistic 3D by games such as Hard Drivin'. Then in the mid nineties games like Ridge Racer, and Daytona USA wowed gamers with their brightly coloured visuals! Sega Rally was amongst this classic group of games that could be found in amusement arcades and parks everywhere!

Sega Rally Online Arcade is based upon the recent Sega Rally 3 arcade machine. Here we have a pure arcade driving experience. Realism is thrown right out of the window in favour of high speed racing action. The big and colourful graphics draw you in instantly, and the game is so easy to pick up and play. This is the gaming equivalent of slipping into a warm bath after a five hour trek through a blustery winter downpour. You'll be blasting round the track in no time.



As i've mentioned, this is basically an arcade machine for your Xbox. The game's physics lean totally towards the arcade experience. You can slide round most of the game's corners with ease, you'll bounce off other cars and roadside obstacles and continue along your way. You can even adjust the car slightly in mid-air! It's really …

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Comments: 9

Wed May 25, 2011 7:28 pm by garymason72

Portal 2 A Valve Game
By Garymason72

In 2007 Valve released ‘The Orange Box’ a compilation disk featuring Half Life 2 episodes 1 and 2, Team Fortress, an online multiplayer game and The original Portal, a first person puzzle-platform game. Little did they know that Portal would become one of their most popular games, spawning its own independent release via the X-Box Live Arcade and PSN Networks respectively.

I for one loved the first game and when a direct sequel was announced in 2010 I was instantly excited. Did the sequel live up to my expectations or am I doomed to walk the halls of the Aperture Science labs alone forever?

For anyone who hasn’t played the first game, the aim of the game is to solve each of the puzzle rooms (known as Test Chambers) using the Portal Gun, A device invented by Aperture Science. The portal gun allows you to shoot out two portals, one blue and one orange. The portals can be shot onto any white wall, ceiling, floor or Platform. Enabling you to walk into one and come out of the other. The portals also work using momentum, to quote GLaDOS ‘Speedy thing goes in, Speedy thing comes out’, Falling in to a portal from height will propel you out of the other with the same momentum you went in.

At the end of Portal we see Chell pass out having just defeated GLaDOS and escaped from the Aperture Science Labs. The second game picks up some time after that, Chell awakes from stasis to find the Aperture Labs in a much neglected …

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Comments: 12

Wed May 25, 2011 1:16 pm by Leigh36295

Developer - Team Bondi - Rockstar Games

Publisher - Rockstar Games

LA Noire is the latest big budget title to be released by Rockstar Games, but it is alot different from their usual, crime spree laden games, instead of running around killing innocent civilians, you're actually tasked with stopping these murders and solving crimes.

You take on the role of LAPD Officer Cole Phelps, a 'war hero', who believes he doesn't deserve the title, he starts off as a Patrolman wanting to right the wrongs he made during WW2 and you are assigned cases which eventually lead to promotion if you solve them successfully.

The cases you recieve range from Hit and Runs, Gambling Rings and Murders. At the beginning of each case you are given a brief backstory video of the crime taking place, and then travel to the crime scene, where you have to search the area for clues, check the wounds on bodys, follow blood trails etc. Once you have found enough of the clues, the main selling point of LA Noire really comes into play.

You are sent to talk to family members or suspects of the victims, and you get to see the true power of Rockstar's MotionScan technology. This is brand new tech created by Rockstar for this game, and I really can't think of a better place for it to fit in. Actors faces are copied perfectly into the game, you see every grimace, twich and nervous glance when questioning people, and you then have to work out wether they are lying or telling the truth. By the end of the game you'll feel like a body language expert. It …

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Comments: 17

Sun May 22, 2011 4:09 pm by Ba5sett

Tiger Wood's PGA Tour 12: The Master's Review

Developed by EA Tiburon

Published by EA Sports

Review by Ba5sett

I've always liked the idea of golf, it's one of those sports that I always fancy taking up; at the start of every summer I start to think about maybe buying a set of clubs and booking in for some lessons, maybe head down to the driving range and hit a few balls around, then the idea gets forgotten like many of my other hair brained schemes that never get off the ground.
This short annual period of golf obsession usually comes around the time of the Master's tournament in Augusta Georgia, the only golf event that I actually bother to watch, played at possibly the greatest and definitely the most exclusive golf course in the world. I'm not sure what it is about the Masters that elevates it so far above the other events in the golf calendar in so many peoples eyes but its difficult to argue with the excitement, drama and skill on display at the tournament each year.

So finally EA brings the Master's tournament to the Tiger Wood's series of games at a time in the golfer's career where phrases like 'Stroke Play' are likely to have entirely different connotations. EA insists that this is still very much a Tiger Wood's game but the presentation tells a different story, Tiger's name is demoted to a footnote on the game box and throughout the game he may as well just be another playable character along with all of the others. So the focus this …

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Comments: 3

Tue May 17, 2011 5:16 pm by Stucowie

Allow me to introduce Brink, a game set in a supposedly once utopian city called “The Ark” which was a self-sustaining urban dream, and all was going well until the earth flooded. A bit like Noah’s Ark, this city is based above the waters…. Brink is a battle between “Security” who want to save the ark, and “The Resistance” who want to seize control of the ark, escape and explore life outside the ark.
With a lot of hype that’s been thrown its way, is it sink or swim for Brink?

Let’s start with the graphics: They seem to me, to be a cross between Borderlands and Black ops, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but considering this game has been delayed for almost a year, the graphics are still a bit hit and miss and should perhaps be a bit better – On one hand, you have good looking and detailed character models, and good (and big) looking levels ranging from an airport terminal, to an aquarium, as well as a shipping container yard and a shipyard.. One minus point is that on numerous occasions during different cut scenes, I have had really bad screen tearing where some of the visuals seem to be failing to keep up with the camera panning and it kinda spoils it a bit for me. I know this is not a major problem but for a game that has had a year of extra development, it feels like the developers may have shot themselves in the foot. Overall though, the graphics are good but nothing awe inspiring.

One plus point about Brink is the sound effects: …

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Comments: 5

Mon May 09, 2011 4:59 pm by Stucowie

Now its probably not a good idea to mix my childhood enjoyment of Lego, and my adult enjoyment of Star Wars for a 3rd time, considering how much time I have lost to the previous Lego Star Wars games, but for the sake of you fellow gamers, I’m willing to make that sacrific! Read on to find out more….

For those who aren’t familiar with the Movie based Lego games (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Batman, Harry Potter and the soon to be released Pirates of the Caribbean) the premise of the game is to go through various levels based on scenes of the movie(s) and smash various objects to collect bits of lego studs whilst overcoming various obstacles. This particular Lego game is based on the “Clone Wars” animated series of Star Wars, and also the movie Episode II: Attack of the clones.

The graphics on LSW3 have been upgraded from the previous Lego games, and now can have up to 200 moving pieces on screen (I’ve seen this in action where on one level, there is a never ending stream of droids coming from the background) and all in all, the levels look like you are really in the Star Wars universe and it gives a sense that even as a lego character, you belong there and doesn’t look out of place. When you’re not in a level and you can roam around a starship doing various bits and pieces (Which I’ll come to further on in this review) the environment has more lego for you to smash. The cut scenes are also well done and I often found myself having a bit of a giggle! …

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Comments: 14

Mon Apr 25, 2011 8:34 pm by KENT HAMMER

DYNASTY WARRIORS 7
a KOEI game, Reviewed by Kent Hammer

In the words of the peerless Lu Bu- "I respect your courage for coming this far alone! However, you are still going to die!"

For those of you not aware who Lu Bu is, you should be ashamed of yourselves you pitiful worms!

But on a positive note you are very lucky humans as you get to play through an entire decade long back catalogue of the greatest gaming series ever produced on a console.

Dynasty Warriors 7 is the latest release in the series and is easily the best so far. Its far more polished and well designed than before. In fact its much easier for people new to the series to get into the swing of things, with a well designed and balanced training mode to hack and slash things off with and gain your first 10G on your epic journey to 1000G *-)

Fans of the series will also be pleased to hear that our masters at KOEI have seen finally fit to include an auto-save system in this version! So gone are those constant manual save sessions after every mission. Also the general speed of all loading screens has been vastly improved and even the manual in mission saves you might do yourselves are uber fast and don't slow up the action in anyway.

You can complete the whole game on the beginner difficulty setting if you so wish, but is much more fun to play on at least normal and enjoy the challenge. You even have the option of split screen co-op or online co-op in the epic conquest mode.
Playing online with a friend is a right laugh and can often become a …

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Comments: 15

Wed Apr 06, 2011 9:53 pm by Riled Assassin

Crysis 2
Publisher: EA
Developer: Crytec

Crysis 2 follows on from 2007’s PC only phenomenon Crysis which was limited to PC’s due to the massive amount of processing power the original game needed. So seeing as Crysis was best known for its unparalleled visuals it seems only fitting we should start by asking how does a game like Crysis 2 which has been specifically designed to run well on consoles compare with its power mad predecessor? The only answer is brilliantly, it is easily the best game visually on any console and isn’t shy in showing off, from the waterfront to the city streets of New York and even Central Park every vista has been given real depth and feels so immersive thanks to the stunning attention to detail which Crytec seem to specialize in. and witnessing New York crumble and fall around you as you progress through the career just looks amazing and helps to demonstrate just how vital it is you win this war and halt the spread of the alien threat before they wipe all traces of mankind from the earth.



Crysis 2 has one of the longest single player career’s of recent times spanning 19 missions and with an average play time of 10 – 12 hours on normal difficulty it will certainly have long enough to draw you into Crysis’s mad little universe by the time the end credits roll. The Nanosuit is what really makes this game stand out and somewhat steals the show. The basic abilities are there from the first game allowing you to switch into …

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Comments: 16

Wed Mar 23, 2011 12:52 am by Tenlo

Developer: Bioware
Publisher : Electronic Arts

2011 seems to be a year for Western RPG's. With Elder Scrolls 5, Mass Effect 3 and Dungeon Siege 3 all arriving this year, fan's of fantasy and adventure are spoilt for choice. Leading this charge of Western RPG's is Dragon Age 2, the sequel to the best selling Dragon Age: Origins. The question is how does it stand up to its predecessor.

In DA2 you take on the role of Hawke, a refugee from Ferelden, whose tale as he settles into his new home of Kirkwall and his adventures afterwards is the basic story. Interestingly enough, the story is told from the perspective of a dwarf called Varric who is forced to tell his story of how he met the champion of Kirkwall to his captors, a tale within a tale as such.

The first thing you'll notice is the huge graphic overhaul that DA2 has. The first game, while not ugly, was not the most stunning game graphically. This time around much more attention has been paid to the characters and enemies within the world. Whether this is because your playing from a much closer perspective than the first game is hard to say, but in the dialogue scenes you can really see the detail. You'll also notice the character design has been radically changed.

Darkspawn now look more like Locust than Orcs and the Qunari have grown an impressive set of horns giving them a much more intimidating appearance than the first. The main characters while still maintaining a realistic feel but are stylised somewhat, reminding me curiously of the art …

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Comments: 6

Tue Mar 22, 2011 10:12 am by Riled Assassin

Test Drive Unlimited 2
Developer – Eden Games
Publisher – Atari

I was trying to work out where to start with this review and thought it would be best to just get straight on with it and explain that the reason this review comes a staggering 5 weeks after the game was released is simple and as I’m sure you are all aware when TDU 2 was released it was a bit broken (alot broken if were honest). So at the time a decision was made to postpone the review until all elements of the game were working thus giving the game a fair review



The Broken things
When TDU 2 was released back in February it became instantly obvious something was not quite right with the game. It was very difficult to connect with people, if you did manage it at some point it would more than likely disconnect one or both of you from the server and speaking of servers the club servers were shut down on day one due to some exploit in the club system. And not forgetting the best of them all “the randomly corrupt save game data for no apparent reason” glitch needless to say the first month after the release of TDU 2 was not a pretty affair. Despite all these problems the game has now been fixed and I shall not be taking these problems into account for the rest of the review.

The single player parts
When you first start playing the game you will be immersed in a world of street racing this however lead on to one of the first new features to TDU 2 and that is the licence system and is a nice new …

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Comments: 10

Wed Mar 09, 2011 5:59 pm by Stucowie

There’s few things in life we can rely on – Football referee’s will always be hated, The UK will always be overpriced, and EA will release it’s a yearly deluge of sports games: Madden, Tiger Woods amongst others, and of course Fight Night gets released every couple of years. This latest version, labelled “Fight Night: Champion” promises to be much more gritty than its predecessors and I’m going to see whether it’s a champ or a chump.

The graphics on FNC are what you would expect from EA Spots: Crisp, atmospheric and totally beautiful and the above picture really shows how beautiful! Each of the "real" fighters are instantly recognisable and look like their real life counterparts. The animations during the fights look like you are watching a real bout on TV, and the replays during a knock down, make you feel each and every blow, with your opponents face rippling from the impact to the blood and sweat flying off as a result of the previous impact and you genuinely feel like you’ve hurt them. I really cannot fault EA for this and it is top notch work which you would expect from an EA sports title.

The sound is standard fare for a boxing game, the fights have running commentary and you can hear your trainer shouting at you at various points of the fight which all adds to the realism. The voice acting of the “story” characters is top notch, and is something we haven’t seen in an EA sports title before, full marks to the development …

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Comments: 4

Mon Mar 07, 2011 10:13 am by Tenlo

Do you remember the old action movies? Where the plot took second place to all out balls to the wall action and memorable one-liners by over the top characters? Well, Bulletstorm at face value is very much the gaming equivalent. But is this such a bad thing?

Essentially Bulletstorm is three different games in one. Firstly you have the campaign mode, and probably the best place to start when you begin. At heart it is an old-school shooter, with enemies charging towards you and your job being to blow them back to whatever hell-hole spawned them. However Epic have added a fantastic concept to this trusted formula. One that may well change your view on shooters.

The core element of this new system is the Skill shot concept. Basically put Bulletstorm wants you to kill in the most inventive way you can. Why shoot someone in the head when you can shoot their throat out? Bored of the enemy hiding behind cover? Slam them in the air, fire an explosive sniper bullet into one of them then steer that body into another and explode them together! And that's just two methods out of many in dispatching the enemies.

Apart from your guns, your also given the ability to kick your enemy when they're close, slide across the ground towards them at great speed and use your leash to either grab them from afar or power it up and slam them into the air. Each of these moves puts the enemy into slow motion giving you time to line up your shot for maximum points. Combining these moves with …

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Comments: 19

Sun Jan 30, 2011 10:26 am by DoctorMambo

Tron: Evolution
By Propaganda Games
Review by DoctorMambo

In 1982, cinema audiences around the world were introduced to Tron, a ground-breaking sci-fi film set inside a computer. Although the film was an initial failure, the arcade videogame based on it proved to be a tremendous hit and actually out-grossed the film (fact courtesy of imdb.com).

Now, almost 30 years later – an eternity for Hollywood, we have a sequel to the original film called Tron: Legacy and this game that bridges the gap between the films and introduces us to many of the new characters, including the lead female Quorra. This game is brought to you by the recently defunct studio Propaganda Games, whose only previous game was the 2008 reboot of Turok. Hardly the most impressive of CVs, I’m sure you’ll agree, dear Reader!

That’s enough of the background blah blah and now on with the game! I have to be careful when talking about the story, so as to not reveal any spoilers. The game has you take control of a character called Anon, a security program whose task is to clean up a virus inside the game world that is intent on destroying (artificial) life as we know it.

The game is divided into 3 distinct sections, on foot combat, light cycle sections and light tanks. Each kill you rack up or collectable you find gives you experience points that can be spent on weapon upgrades or bonuses for use in the multiplayer game.



You spend the majority of the game on foot and these are the parts that I …

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Comments: 5

Sat Dec 04, 2010 10:18 pm by Riled Assassin

Developed by: Gaijin Entertainment
Distributed by: Activision

Apache Air Assault is the first helicopter combat simulator to hit consoles in a long time and given it has been supported by the world’s biggest games publisher Activision and receiving official licensing and technical advice from the world’s biggest aircraft manufacturer Boeing you would be forgiven for thinking it should be near perfect. Now I’m not saying the game is bad as it’s not however there are a few elements that feel a little under-developed the main one being the environment details look dated and the ground textures are noticeably bad. You can forgive that though when you then notice they have focused most of the attention on the most important thing the helicopter.



The focus on making the helicopter as realistic as possible shows through when you take a look at the detail that has been put into both the inside and outside of the aircraft it is probably one of the best vehicle models of the year but in a game with only a couple of flyable helicopters they really should be. The sound effects are also very good the engine and rotor noises are spot on and the weapon noises are just as good but this is again contrasted by the fact that the voice acting is patchy and the score is terrible.



While the game doesn’t follow any real story as such the missions are put together well enough to keep you engaged and are structured in a …

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Comments: 9

Sun Nov 28, 2010 10:37 am by GrahamOfTheDead

Music games have come under a bit of stick of late. The genre ultimately peaked in around 2007 thanks to the massive success of Guitar Hero 3 and the introduction of Rock Band. Since then though, it would be fair to say that there's been a bit of oversaturation of the market. 8 Guitar Hero titles and a further 4 Rock Band games (not including the trackpack discs that were released) in less than 3 years.

Any music game that comes out these days has to do something different to stand out. Activision attempted this with the latest Guitar Hero title, Warriors of Rock, by tacking on a quest mode with a bizarre fantasy storyline. Now it's Rock Band's turn....and with Rock Band 3 Harmonix have gone in the completely opposite direction and have ramped up the realism. They've also knocked it right out of the park.



On the face of it, Rock Band 3 is simply more of the same with a fresh coat of paint. You have your choice of instruments.....guitar, bass, drums and vocals as before. However the big addition this time is the keyboard. Adding a whole other instrument to the game gives you a whole other way to play. The keys feel different enough to the other intruments to justify the addition of another piece of kit and the fact that it can be used as a real midi keyboard means it has a life beyond being a simple game controller.

Vocals are also expanded on over Rock Band 2, however those who have played either the Beatles or Green Day Rock Band games will be …

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Comments: 6

Wed Nov 24, 2010 11:14 am by Riled Assassin

Assassins Creed: Brotherhood
Produced by Ubisoft Montreal

There seem be a lot of people who still haven't got the message that Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is a FULL single player game based in a whole new city which is the same size as the 3 main cities in AC 2 Combined. The game has also been given an all new multiplayer element as well making this the largest Assassin’s Creed game to date so if you are scepticle about getting it as you think it sould only be an add-on for Assassins Creed 2 think again. AC: Brotherhood’s single player continues on from exactly where AC 2 ended. While in AC 2 you might have thought Ezio’s work was done it turns out he still has a way to go before Desmond can access the memory he needs to find one of the lost pieces of Eden.

The majority of AC: Brotherhood will see you running, climbing and jumping across the massive city of Rome however you do get to spend a bit more time playing as Desmond in this game where you will go to 2 Key locations with him and this is where you can see the bleeding affect has really taught him the tricks of his ancestors.



When you now play as Ezio you will notice very early in the game that the combat mechanic has been overhauled giving it a much more balanced feeling between offensive and defensive attacks as the previously invaluable counter has been weakened. To put an emphasis on making Ezio attack after a few parries Ezio will go into …

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Comments: 14

Mon Nov 22, 2010 8:56 pm by Ba5sett

Divinity II The Dragon Knight Saga Review

Developed by Larian Studios

Published by DTP Entertainment

Review by Ba5sett

The original iteration of Larian Studio’s RPG Divinity II was released last November as Divinity II: Ego Draconis. It was a solid enough game but was held back from being a truly great RPG by a number of bugs and flaws. It probably didn’t help that it was released within a few weeks of Bioware’s own dragon themed epic Dragon Age: Origins (Which I reviewed back in November 2009).
Divinity II: Dragon Knight Saga consists of the original Ego Draconis game and an all new adventure entitled ‘Flames of Vengeance’ both wrapped up in a new game engine and together promising over 100 hours of play. I will review both games as a whole package as Flames of Vengeance does not add any new gameplay elements it simply furthers the story of the original game.



Players take the role of a Slayer, an ancient order of warriors who exist to rid the world of the half human dragon knights. The game begins as you are just about to complete your training and become a fully fledged dragon slayer. In a well thought out first act things quickly get complicated and you end up becoming a dragon knight rather than a dragon slayer and tasked with ridding the land of its true enemies.
And a good twist this turns out to be as not only are the dragon knights rather cool, they also have the ability to turn into dragons, it takes quite a while to get to the stage where this …

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Comments: 11

Thu Nov 18, 2010 7:38 pm by stubbymite

Fist of the north star kens rage produced by tecmo koei Europe
Review By StubbyMite



Fist of the north star is a Manga comic book that was published during the 1980’s. The story is set in a post apocalyptic world that has been destroyed by a nuclear war, the story centres around a warrior called kenshiro, the master of a deadly martial art known as Hokuto Shinken, this gives him the ability to destroy his adversaries through the use of the human bodies vital points, often resulting in his enemies dyeing a gory death.

The story of the game is similar to that of the comic book in which we use the character kenshiro across the post apocalyptic wasteland finding fights and trouble along the way. If you have never heard of the comic book before or are familiar with the story it can be hard to follow the game.

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The game starts at the end and you are then transported back to the start to work your way back through. During gameplay you will encounter different characters along the way, these characters are both heroes and villains. When these characters are encountered during gameplay there story will then become available in one of the two modes of play.

The game has two main play-through modes in the game. The first mode is legend mode this is where the bulk of the game has been made around. In this mode you will follow each character through there story in the game. The main story is that of kenshiro and him trying to find his loved one (for a change), each …

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Comments: 8

Sat Nov 13, 2010 10:28 am by Stucowie

Every year come October you can guarantee 2 things… Shops will start putting out all their Christmas stock, including some of them breaking out all the Christmas CD’s that end up driving everyone insane, and the latest war of attrition between Fifa and Pro Evolution Soccer will start up again, reviving the age old debate of which is better… In this review, I will talk about the usual (graphics, sound, game modes etc.) and I will wax lyrical about my likes/dislikes… So where to begin…. Let’s start with the graphics



You get the sense of feeling that you are looking at Fifa 2010 as there doesn’t seem to be much of a difference, so although it looks all nice and shiny, there haven’t been any REAL innovations graphically for the last couple of years. This doesn’t mean it doesn’t look good because boy it does, and it gives you what you know and expect from an EA sports game. You can instantly recognise a lot of your favourites, like Rooney, Drogba & Ronaldo. My dad even thought he was watching a live game on TV he thought they looked that realistic which is high praise indeed from someone who has no interest in gaming so it just goes to show that EA have the graphics bang on but I wish there was something…. more… but I can’t quite put my finger on what.



Again like the graphics the sound could well have been lifted straight from Fifa 2010 but having said that, there isn’t really much …

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Comments: 3

Fri Nov 12, 2010 8:06 pm by Riled Assassin

The Introduction
I would like to point out that before I got this game I read some other reviews for the game which left me rather annoyed not because they said the game was bad because they didn’t but simply they appeared to be written with some sort of agenda. One example of this was a reviewer criticising Black ops for being unimaginative claiming you will end up playing through “the usual linear procession of compact, well-signposted and highly-scripted levels” and that it was “relentless in its pursuit of giving players one highly charged action sequence after another”. Now I can’t help but think that what he is complaining about is comparable to criticising Ferrari for making another high end sports car when that’s what they're all about.

The point I’m trying to make is that Call of Duty: Black Ops does exactly what you would expect from any Call of Duty it has intense fast paced battles on linear maps that follow a linear and cinematic story and is broken up by elements that involve stealth and taking control of vehicles. And that is exactly the experience I want from any Call of Duty game.

The Usual Stuff
The game is set around the cold war and the story see’s you mainly playing as Alex Mason a member of the “SOG” and your first mission is to infiltrate Cuba prior to the Bay of Pigs invasion. The other character you play is CIA operative Jason Hudson and is Alex Mason’s handler throughout most of the game. The main story is quite engaging although the main plot twist that builds …

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Comments: 7

Thu Nov 11, 2010 10:02 pm by GrahamOfTheDead

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.....

Star Wars fans haven't really had that much to shout about with this generation of consoles. Lego games aside, all we've really had is the terrible spin-off of the Clone Wars animated series last year and, back in 2008, the game whose sequel we're here to talk about....The Force Unleashed.

The Force Unleashed introduced us to a largely unexplored part of the Star Wars saga. Here we took in the foundation of the Rebel Alliance and the events that took place between Episodes III and IV. We also got to know Darth Vader's secret apprentice....or Starkiller to his friends.

While the story was engrossing and felt appropriately epic and in keeping with the transitional tone between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, the game itself was deeply flawed. Plagued by glitches and repetetive gameplay, there are moments in The Force Unleashed where the game is totally broken. Whole levels disappear and you're left exploring an bland expansive wasteland, or all of a sudden you'll find yourself falling for eternity. Most people overlooked this as the story itself was extremely rewarding.

So here we are two years later and the sequel is upon us.



Starkiller returns (or does he?) to wreak more havoc on the Empire and pretty much anyone and anything else who happens to get in the way.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II is just more of the same. Sadly this …

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Comments: 8

Sun Oct 31, 2010 10:48 pm by BRANNO 4292

Developed by:- Platinum games inc
Published by:- Sega
Genre:- Third person shooter
Review by:- Branno 4292

Vanquish is set in the near future on a space colony built by the US in a bid to use the sun’s energy as an answer to the depleting resources on Earth.
However Russian forces manage to capture the colony and transform it into a weapon of mass destruction.
With the colony transformed the Russians fire the weapon on an unsuspecting San Francisco the Russians then demand the unconditional surrender of the US within 10 hours or the next city to be targeted will be New York.

You are Sam Gideon a government agent who works for the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency known as D.A.R.P.A throughout the game.
You wear the A.R.S battle suit (Augmented Reaction Suit) which is stronger than steel but weighs next to nothing.
This is why you have been chosen to stop the Russians at all costs before its too late.

As a D.A.R.P.A operative you have a selection of weapons available throughout the game a total of 8 weapons and 2 types of grenades H.E (High Explosive) and E.M.P (Electro Magnetic Pulse).
You can carry any 3 weapons and both grenade types at any one time.
All the weapons and grenades can be upgraded by picking up the green upgrade boxes that some enemy units drop, upgrading weapons will do anything from increased damage, larger magazine capacity and reduced lock times etc.

Your A.R.S battle suit gives you the ability to boost dash and to manually trigger a mode called AR, which once activated slows …

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Comments: 15

Sun Oct 31, 2010 6:23 pm by Riled Assassin

I wasn’t exactly sure what I should expect from Saw 2 flesh and blood partly because it’s the first game I have played based on a film series, and the other reason was I was uncertain as to how the game would play so I will have to admit that my expectations of the game were quite low. I was however pleasantly surprised when I started playing the game, the first thing to strike me was that both the graphics and visual effects are to a very good standard and the levels do feel and look as run down, grimy and most of the time as gory as you would expect.

In Saw 2 flesh and blood you spend your time playing as the victims trapped inside franchise bad guy Jigsaw’s mazes of torture and most of your time will be spent trying to complete puzzles and challenges set by Jigsaw. While the level design is good they do start to feel and look the same after the first level and that feeling continues throughout the majority of the game. There are a good range of puzzle types varying from finding clues hidden around a room to complete a code, pushing switches, linking up circuits on electric panels and even moving objects around to activate switches. These are generally quite simple once you have done them once however you do come across the odd one that will be a bit more difficult than normal. While the puzzles are good you will come across them very regularly and even thought they are slightly different every time you will start to tire of them after a while.



The challenges …

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Comments: 12

Sun Oct 31, 2010 12:31 pm by niteowl1980

FALLOUT NEW VEGAS - A BETHESDA SOFTWORKS / OBSIDIAN GAME

When Fallout New Vegas was first announced there was a lot of confusion as to the direction that original Fallout developers, now working at Obsidian, were going to take the series after the massive success of Fallout 3. Not a direct sequel to Fallout 3 and not just the equivalent of a massive amount of DLC for said title it seems that between them, and publishers Bethesda they had decided that there was still a massive amount of storytelling left in the fallout universe. So we ended up with Fallout New Vegas the “follow up 2008’s game of the year” as the tagline reads. A game with a story set on the West coast of the USA compared to Fallout 3’s Washington D.C setting.

The story starts with you as a courier transporting the mysterious Platinum 38 poker chip, attacked and left for dead in the desert. Once you have been rescued and nursed back to health the game begins and your quest to find out why you were attacked and your desire to gain revenge on your attackers forms the beginning of the story of Fallout New Vegas.

As soon as you start this game, if you have played Fallout 3 before, you will instantly feel like you are back in that game. The game guides you through character creation with the allocation of skill and ability points and with the minimal in way of items and equipment, sets you on your way into the Fallout world. Navigate the menus and you will find everything is pretty much identical to Fallout 3 in terms of menu navigation and even …

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Comments: 8

Mon Oct 25, 2010 11:25 pm by Jameseire85

WRC 2010 is the long awaited rally game from Milestone, which looks to revive a racing series just like Codemasters recently did with F1 2010. The World Rally Championship hasn't been represented in video game form for quite some time now.

First impressions of the game are quite unimpressionable to be honest. The game is not a visual work of art by any means, car models look excellent but everything else is sub standard. For a game that takes the player across every corner of the world, the environmental graphics are shamefully sub standard and quite boring. Milestone will never get a better chance to show off what they can do in terms of in game graphics and it is frustrating but true to say that they simply did not put in the effort. Dull grays and browns dominate here and it can really be tedious to play in. Menus are functional but unremarkable and verge on being downright drab.

All this could possibly be overlooked when it comes to load times. The time it takes from when you select a race to when the race actually starts is long enough that you could go off and brew a pot of tea and come back without missing anything. Well maybe that’s an exaggeration, however it does take 30 seconds to load a race, yes I actually timed it!! It really is highly highly frustrating and would make you not want to play the game.

In WRC 2010 the primary goal is a tried and tested one, start off as a rookie and work your way up until finally you can compete with the big boys. The game handles the steep …

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Comments: 9

Fri Oct 22, 2010 12:01 pm by Leigh36295

Developer - Danger Close (singleplayer)

DICE (multiplayer)

Publisher - Electronic Arts

Now this review is a tricky one to start off. I wasn't really sure how I could comment on the graphics and sound etc, because this game feels more like 2 seperate ones. The single player side of it is developed by Danger Close, and uses the Unreal Engine 3 throughout, whereas the Multiplayer is Developed by Dice and uses the Frostbite Engine previously seen in Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Both have there plus sides and there negatives, so rather than just give the game one over all score, I am going to review both the Single Player and The Multiplayer aspects and score them individually.


Single Player

This latest iteration of Medal of Honor acts as a reboot to the series and is set in the ongoing conflict in Aghanistan. For most of the game you play the roll of 'Rabbit' as you fight your way through the usual get to Point A, Defend Point A style missions.

The campiagn sees you fighting in the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan. You play as multiple characters, each with their own style of missions. Levels range from long distance sniping, hostage rescue and even a brief stint as a Helicopter Pilot.

I prefered playing the sniper missions over the others. I don't know what it is, but I really enjoy this style of gameplay. The Chernobyl level in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, is what really set the standard for this game style. Playing as a sniper you are …

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Comments: 10

Tue Oct 19, 2010 11:15 am by Jameseire85

Pro Ev or Fifa, Pro Ev or Fifa; It’s the age old question that is posed to gamers around this time every year. There will never be a unanimous answer, with gamers more likely to agree on which came first, the chicken or the egg. The battle of the football simulations shows no sign of slowing down, neither Pro Ev nor Fifa willing to concede defeat in this battle. It’s certainly true to say that for the past number of years Fifa has been basking in the media acclaim that was once reserved for Pro Ev, who in its heyday was regarded as the ultimate football game this side of the Atlantic. This review will examine whether Pro Ev has made a triumphant return to the top and can claim the title of ultimate football simulation.

As a true fan of the Pro Ev series, no I’m not afraid to admit it, I can safely say that this is by far the best version of the game to appear on the 360 since PES6. The game is highly immersive and is one of the most authentic Pro Evolution games in the series to date. Missed tackles, questionable offsides, delightful through balls, great saves and unbelievable goals are part and parcel of the game and will leave you anticipating your next match as if it were a top of the table clash or relegation 6 pointer!

The gameplay has received a complete and much needed overhaul. If you have played previous versions of the PES series you will immediately feel that the game has been rebuilt from the ground up. No longer does the game have a totally …

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Comments: 7