For Tony Hawk’s tenth skateboarding iteration, after being dethroned by EA’s Skate and swapping developers from Neversoft to Robomodo, controllers are out and a bulky plastic skateboard peripheral is in.
Obviously you’re not going to be launching the board up in the air or kicking it into a spinning pirouette, so it’s more a series of [...]
Xbox 360
Tony Hawk RIDE
Also posted in Playstation 3, Reviews, Wii 3 Comments
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Plagued with trashy film tie-ins and shallow brawlers, Batman’s gaming credentials have been a constant embarrassment to the Dark Knight. Finally, though, Rocksteady Studios has crafted an experience fit for the Batman name.
Batman isn’t like other superheroes; he prowls where others saunter, he pounces where others fly and hides in the shadow while others [...]
Virtua Tennis 2009 (Xbox 360, Playstation 3)
Stop me if any of this sounds familiar. You create a personalised tennis player using a number of customisation sliders and then choose a home location from a 3D world map. From here the game has a schedule where each week the player can enter a tennis tournament, train at the academy or play a [...]
Review – Outrun Online Arcade (XBLA, PSN)
Most people, we can safely assume, do not own a Ferrari F40 or would like to drive it at 300km/h through the crowded San Francisco bay area amidst buses, sedans and other high-performance Ferrari automobiles driven be people that happen to be as suicidal as you are. Thankfully, then, has the Outrun series put gamers [...]
Also posted in Playstation 3, Reviews 2 Comments
Review – Peggle (XBLA)
Bam, bam, bam! A series of nail bitingly close collisions: and then the action slows down as the camera zooms in to the sound of a dramatic drumroll building up the tension. Almost reaching the final target, the ball gets closer, closer… and whammy! The TV explodes in a mass of joy, rainbows and fireworks [...]
Beneath the Ashes – Short but Sweet
If my house was built atop a gigantic maze of torture devices, enormous tarantulas and skeleton warriors of King Arthur’s army, I’d probably move. But for Lara, it’s a treasure trove of goodies, artefacts, and an ancient relic left behind by Mr Croft.
Beneath the Ashes, the first piece of downloadable content for Tomb Raider: [...]
Review – Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned
The Lost and Damned continues Rockstar’s love affair with morally ambiguous felons, murderous anti-heroes who are struggling to cement their place in a city that doesn’t want them.
Grand Theft Auto IV’s immigrant story of hunting the illusive American Dream runs concurrently with the story of Johnny Klebitz, the Vice President of Liberty City’s [...]
Review – The Maw (Xbox Live Arcade)
When it comes to dynamic duos, from Ratchet and Clank to Jak and Daxter, they don’t get much more improbable than Frank and Maw; one, a friendly little alien desperately struggling to escape his extra-terrestrial captors, and the other an unstoppable, gluttonous blob of monstrous, purple goo.
Their relationship is relatively symbiotic; Frank guides Maw [...]
Review – Prince of Persia
Prince of Persia has been a polarising game between fans and critics, not a shocking revelation when both Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry 2 ran the gamut from idolising evangelists to scornful detractors.
Ubisoft’s latest game demos well; free flowing acrobatics, rhythmic combat and incredible faux-graphic-novel visuals. But, like a tantalising movie trailer, it shows its [...]
Review – Rock Band 2 (Xbox 360)
After a ridiculous wait, band simulator Rock Band was finally released at a ridiculous price earlier this year – but really, the most ridiculous thing was just how fun this music title was. Taking the note-hitting concept popularised through Guitar Hero, combining it with drums and vocals to create a title that struck the perfect [...]
Review – Sonic Unleashed (Xbox 360 / PS3)
Sonic Unleashed, Sega’s latest attempt to reanimate their mascots’ mangled corpse in three dimensions, is split into two very different sections.
One is relentlessly fast and almost impossible to follow, a blur of colour against blue skies and bluer oceans, littered with rings and springs and things than end with ings. Bouncy and fast, Sonic is [...]
Review – Tomb Raider: Underworld
Lara Croft, the audacious game-girl pinup of the 90s, continues her Crystal Dynamics redux with Underworld – a superficially more sinister and ominous experience than her grave gallivanting prequels Legend (2006) and Anniversary (2007).
Still, despite her now yearly tradition of excavating Tombs and nonchalantly proving Norse mythology real, Lara remains fresh and enjoyable: a [...]
Review – Far Cry 2 (Single Player)
I’m driving through a thick jungle, narrowly avoiding branches and trunks as I attempt to stay on a dirt path. Its pitch black and the dusty headlamps of this old jeep are hardly throwing light five foot in front of me. This isn’t exactly the dusty, sun-drenched Savannah from the game’s box.
At any time [...]
Review – Golden Axe: Beast Rider (Xbox 360, Playstation 3)
Who even asked for a blood spewing, breast bouncing, beast riding upgrade to Arcade classic, Golden Axe anyway?
Relegating series mascot Gilius Thunderhead and Ax “Conan” Battler to non-playable characters, the player controls Tyris “the other one” Flare. She’s dyed her hair pumpkin red, smeared white goo across her face and her voluptuous bosoms are bulging [...]
Review – Saints Row 2 (360, PS3)
It’s lewd, it’s crass and it’s gratuitously violent; Saints Row 2 is a whirlwind tour of brutality and comic book violence. After Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto IV left predecessor San Andreas’ absurdity and theatrical story in search of meaningful narrative, realism and grit, Saints Row 2 picks up the game’s slack with Olympic Relay finesse, [...]