Reviews by autorock

Half-Life review

The intro sequence is the part that endures, obviously; the commute into the creaking heart of the Black Mesa Research Facility will never quite lose its majesty. Once the soundscape oozes in and your eyes open, your tramcar winds its way…

autorock · August 27, 2006

Reader PC HG exclusive

Cave Story review

Cave Story is definitely the right game, but it's in the wrong place, at the wrong time. If you time-warped (again) back to 1990 and released it on the Mega Drive, the time you returned to wouldn't be the rubbish one we know. It'd be an…

autorock · January 20, 2006

Reader Game Boy Advance

WarioWare, Inc: Mega Microgame$! review

WarioWare Inc. is a drug. Don't mess with it, kids, or it'll mess with you. It might seem 'cool' or 'hip,' but you'll enjoy the pretty pictures and catchy sounds at the expense of your sanity, dignity, and smug sense of moral superiority…

autorock · October 11, 2005

Staff Genesis HG exclusive

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 review

Sonic's flashy revolution concerns an issue far more important than pace. It's the one critical to every platformer, the one that separates the triple-hopping superstars from the clumsy goons tripping off the bottom of the screen: control.

Daniel Forbes · July 30, 2005

Staff PC HG exclusive

Half-Life 2 review

Like Half-Life's Black Mesa, it's a place infused with an atmosphere and culture that you can only experience through microcosms. Even more so than VALVe's immortal debut FPS, Half-Life 2 is a single, seamless scripted journey that's not…

Daniel Forbes · July 9, 2005

Staff PC

Serious Sam: The First Encounter review

If a shooter's DNA is in its enemies, then The First Encounter is an impossible monstrosity, all bones and steel and slime, standing ten stories high. Dumb and furious, it hurls anything it can and charges, unconcerned for itself. Why…

Daniel Forbes · June 6, 2005

Staff GameCube

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures review

Nintendo's commitment to creative design is clear, but it can be difficult to enjoy when it comes in a form seemingly fathered by the same ruthless pimping that sees Mario crying himself to sleep at nights.

Daniel Forbes · June 1, 2005

Staff Game Boy Advance

Metal Slug Advance review

MSA's primary flaw is that it's conspicuously devoid of the heroic intensity that stirred fans of the original so. On a mechanical level, it's visibly Metal Slug; your pistol-packing grenade-lobbing hero storms through the side-scrolling…

Daniel Forbes · March 19, 2005

Staff PlayStation 2

Hitman: Contracts review

Only once you finally access your unwitting target is brutality essential. Be it a 7.62mm NATO round to the heart, a poison-loaded sip of vintage Springbank, or just a silk pillow held over the breathing passages, it's that moment of…

Daniel Forbes · February 19, 2005

Reader PlayStation 2 HG exclusive

ICO review

If ICO is one thing, it's underrated. To be fair, its concept did not exactly hit the heart of the mainstream. This was a simple throwback of an adventure game that, despite sending the media into spluttering rapture, soon faded into eBay…

autorock · January 28, 2005

Reader PC

Deus Ex review

Is Deus Ex set in the real world, or a fictional one? Certainly, there are similarities between our world and the futuristic dystopia in which this first-person RPG is set. The gap between the power and the populace is great in both…

autorock · January 8, 2005

Reader GameCube HG exclusive

Metroid Prime review

Prime. Interesting word choice. They could've called it Metroid 2.5, Metroid Gaiden, Neo Metroid, or even (God help us) Metroid 128. But no; they called the series' comeback Metroid Prime. A word that promises grandeur and excellence, in a…

autorock · December 27, 2004

Reader PC

Out of this World review

Arbitrary catch-all labels they may be, but style and substance are useful terms. I'd like to submit a theory regarding these famously independent elements of game design: style and substance are not only separate, but opposing. I submit…

autorock · December 16, 2004

Reader Arcade

Metal Slug 3 review

Metal Slug 3 marks the series' evolutionary peak in a number of areas. In terms of raw game quality, it is unmatched; not only in the series, but in the genre at large. The addictive, pulse-pounding action the series is renowned for is…

autorock · October 21, 2004

Reader GameCube

Viewtiful Joe review

Superheroes. They're fictional, of course. Only people pretending to be other people, smoke and mirrors and CGI, wrapped up in committee-approved drama, projected from printed celluloid upon glittering silver screen. It's nice, though, to…

autorock · September 25, 2004

Reader PlayStation 2

Kingdom Hearts review

Why does everyone like this game so much? I don't get it. I mean, I understand the concepts of taste and opinion, but saying 'I like Kingdom Hearts' is, to me, like saying 'I enjoy stabbing my skull with screwdrivers.' Is everyone just…

autorock · September 11, 2004

Reader PlayStation 2

Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven review

It's fun to kill people in games. Whether it's choking a mafia mook to a mouth-foaming death with piano wire in Hitman, or clamping a plastic bag over some miscreant's face and holding it there until his frenzied struggles are reduced to…

autorock · September 11, 2004

Reader Dreamcast

Resident Evil: Code Veronica review

You think they've dug as low as they can get, and then someone throws them a shovel. Resident Evil has always been a series easy to lampoon, with almost every aspect of it's digital makeup being ripe for parody. You would expect Capcom to…

autorock · August 14, 2004

Reader PlayStation 2

The Getaway review

It's crap living in Britain. Truly dire. We have finally gotten rid of the Black Death, but we're still plagued by the mind-numbing scenery, the vomit-inducing food, and the jaw-dropping idiocy of the vast majority of our population. Worst…

autorock · July 29, 2004

Reader PC

Call of Duty review

What would videogames be without international conflict? World peace is undeniably a noble goal, but a game about dancing in a circle with your brother man wouldn't be quite as entertaining as one about, say, fighting the Nazi menace…

autorock · July 15, 2004