Review Archives (Reader Reviews)
You are currently looking through reader reviews for games that are available on every platform the site currently covers. Below, you will find reviews written by all eligible authors and sorted according to date of submission, with the newest content displaying first. As many as 20 results will display per page. If you would like to try a search with different parameters, specify them below and submit a new search.
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Uncharted: Drake's Fortune review (PS3)Reviewed on December 30, 2009The more games like Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune I play, the more convinced I am that cover-based gunplay is simply becoming the norm, and that I should stop labeling these games “Gears of War clones.” It’s not like Epic are cursing other development teams for profiting from their idea after their own franchise tanked – this obviously is not the case – so let’s just accept the duck-and-cover system as the natural next step in the long-running shooter genre. That kind of optimism will... |
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Jurassic Park: The Lost World review (ARC)Reviewed on December 30, 2009I had a pleasant experience a little while ago: I was exploring a mall I’d never been to before, found an arcade, and located a running Jurassic Park: The Lost World machine. I hadn’t seen the light gun shooter since they removed it from the arcade near my own home years ago, and ever the victim of nostalgia, I decided to spend what I thought would be “just a few quarters” on it. Not only did I invest more time in the game than I’d anticipated, but I actually played alarmingly well, espec... |
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The Orange Box review (PC)Reviewed on December 30, 2009A year or two ago, I wrote a review for the console version of The Orange Box. In it, I threw around a few colorful adjectives for the first four games in the package, before coming to a halt with Team Fortress 2. I didn’t have Xbox Live at the time (and still don’t), and as such, I could merely say, “I haven’t really played this one, but I’ve heard it’s awesome, so there you go.” I have since spent more time with the PC rendition of Team Fortress 2 than nearly any other gam... |
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Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar review (PC)Reviewed on December 30, 2009Man's quest for enlightenment and knowledge has lead him to explore the farthest reaches of the known universe. Now one man, and his companions, will venture forth to seek the knowledge that has eluded the people of Britania for so long: The Codex of Ultimate wisdom. |
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Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders review (PC)Reviewed on December 30, 2009Before Sam, Max and Guybrush, Zak McKracken saved the world from stupidity in LucasArts's first PC/SCUMM engine point-and-click farce. The rough edges are evident, but so are the laughs, and Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders (ZM) even manages to poke fun at mistakes a lot of point-and-click games make today. I laughed at the jokes even though a walkthrough tipped them off--a credit to ZM's bizarre graphics and polished absurdism. |
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The Saboteur review (PS3)Reviewed on December 30, 2009Tragedy makes simple people do strange things. |
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Uncharted 2: Among Thieves review (PS3)Reviewed on December 29, 2009Originally, “interactive movies” described games like Dragon’s Lair: literal movies where you pressed a button at the right time to keep watching the movie. In the late 90s, the concept of an “interactive movie” morphed into a hybrid consisting of segregated “movie” and “game” parts. You play for a minute, watch a really long cutscene, continue playing, long cutscene, etc. The story unfolds in the “movie” parts and all of the coolest scenes require no input from the player. The status quo has re... |
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Wrath of Denethenor review (APP2)Reviewed on December 29, 2009Wrath of Denethenor seems to be Sierra's attempt to do Ultima II right the second time. Dying's tougher, and instead of time periods, your lone character moves from one world to the next. Unforunately, the formula's apparent: talk to king, beat up monsters, get better armor and weapons, steal a boat in plain view, and move to the next world. The outside's too black-and-white, and the inside's too orange. The keyboard controls are bizarre alphabet soup even by 80s standards, and sim... |
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Vay review (SCD)Reviewed on December 28, 2009While you can only venture as far as the plot will allow, you never really feel restricted because of the ramped up difficulty in each new area. For example, you can’t pass through Danek-infested Fort Gilan without Pottle to reveal the secret passage. But once you enter it, the monsters within grow significantly in strength. You’ll likely die often just trying to raise levels, but, like any RPG, the path becomes manageable once your skills have improved. |
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Avalon Code review (DS)Reviewed on December 28, 2009The world is doomed. That’s it. Done. Show’s over, folks. Nothing more to see here. Biblical stories predict how everything will be scoured by fire, and how it will be cleansed and purged in holy flames. They reveal how mankind will be judged, and what will be left behind in the wake that burning, final cataclysm. Not exactly the most peaceful way to end things, but hey, it’s not up to us. Now that whatever god in charge has made its decision - and it’s pretty clear there won’t be any last-minut... |
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Quattro Arcade review (NES)Reviewed on December 27, 2009Quattro Arcade, being a compilation, was one of those games nobody wanted to finish for the NES FAQ Completion Project. In attempting to give something of everything, compilation carts invariably serve up one game that just stinks. Too many NES multi-game carts feature games with too few levels or too little attention to graphics or, in Action 52's case, both. I'm not aware of any perfect cross-genre compilation, but QA is clearly above average. |
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Xyphus review (C64)Reviewed on December 27, 2009In Xyphus--part hexagonal board game, part RPG--four character tokens move across six lands in succession. Finally, they kill the demon Xyphus with his own heart, behind an invisible maze. Strategy rules: forget towns, separate combat screens, tenuous or reheated riddles, or experience mills. Supplies are limited. So are enemies and magic. Death kills. |
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221B Baker Street review (PC)Reviewed on December 27, 2009The problem with many text adventures is that you can only solve them once. Even the creative geniuses at Infocom could only fit in so many alternate solutions, in-jokes and Easter Eggs. 221B Baker Street offers thirty such adventures, each with fixed solutions. Memory constraints ensure they are neither worth remembering or replaying, or both. In this board game-slash-text adventure within a miniature London, even Inspector Lestrade could notice the too-evident formula, which culminates ... |
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Yo! Noid review (NES)Reviewed on December 27, 2009The Noid is surely the dorkiest hero I've controlled in a while. He's Matt Groening's Bongo the Rabbit in red with a goofy buck-toothed smile, flinging his yo-you at equally odd enemies. Unlike his commercial counterpart, he prefers eating pizzas to ruining them. And saving the city will get him a few! Well, it's a better reward than a burger for saving the President. |
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Final Fantasy IV review (DS)Reviewed on December 26, 2009So I was engaged in rare event: purchasing a new game that I might actually play. I looked upon the shelf, next to the sloppily produced Dragon Warrior Monsters (oh god, not another one of these) laid a lone copy of Final Fantasy IV (FF II on SNES). Filled with nostalgia from my childhood, I couldn’t let this opportunity to relive my past go. I had to buy it, no matter how bad it could possibly be. After all, gaming’s history is marred with inadequate remakes, taking one’s childhood memo... |
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Times of Lore review (NES)Reviewed on December 24, 2009Times of Lore for the NES is an example of addition by subtraction in a port. The PC/Apple versions took too long to get between towns, and monsters were too lethal and numerous. Futzing with the admittedly innovative interface was a handicap in fights. ToL for the NES tweaks the world map to create shortcuts and also makes townspeople harder to kill by mistake. The result is a satisfactory, if bland RPG. |
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Flappy review (NES)Reviewed on December 24, 2009At 200 levels, Flappy lasts far too long, but it's decent enough that I wound up playing in longer stretches than I'd planned. It's a simple enough puzzler: push squarish boulders in half-width increments, possibly balancing them on the edge of the boulder/platform below. Gravity affects them but not you, and each level has a shiny boulder you must push some way to a shiny platform to advance. |
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Sonic the Hedgehog review (GEN)Reviewed on December 22, 2009Playing the original Sonic the Hedgehog is a lot like revisiting your old elementary school: you know your way around, and you’ve got some good memories, but the place just isn’t as big as you remember it. Sonic 1 feels like a footnote in platformer history—it’s so slight that it’s hard to comprehend why it was such a big hit. It’s decent, but the gameplay feels unrefined, the level design is a mixed bag, and the game’s look is neither as fast nor as colorful as its sequels. Sonic 1 plays like e... |
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PixelJunk Shooter review (PS3)Reviewed on December 18, 2009 |
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Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty review (PS2)Reviewed on December 17, 2009Metal Gear Solid 2 is the point of the series where it it’s not just a game anymore. It was here that Hideo Kojima was convinced he was making History’s Next Great Epic. This was to be the Homer’s Odyssey of the video game era. The half hour codec conversations were to leave the viewer in a state of trance, convulsing with the uncontrollable aura of Truth. When Kojima tells us “Life isn't just about passing on your genes. We can leave behind much more than just DNA”, we are not listening ... |
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