Review Archives (Staff Reviews)

You are currently looking through staff 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.

Available Reviews
	Halo: Combat Evolved - Anniversary review (X360) Reviewed on November 20, 2011 When the rocket launcher and shotgun appear later in the game, they appear for specific situations and not because your arsenal has been lacking up to this point. And from the early appearance of grunts on the Pillar of Autumn all the way to the grand reveal of the Flood and the Sentinels, Halo is a textbook example of how to gradually unfold enemies in a meaningful way. Are you prepared to fear a cloaked elite with an energy sword for the very first time, all over again?
	Lost Odyssey review (X360) Reviewed on November 18, 2011 In over 1,000 years, he's seen people and kingdoms come and go and has had to find his own way to cope with being seemingly the only constant in a life where everything else is temporary. For much of his existence on this world, Kaim has alternated between traveling and serving as a mercenary — his life a nomadic existence where war is the only constant. No wonder he comes off as cold and antisocial.
	The Silver Lining Episode 4: 'Tis In My Memory Locked, And You Yourself Shall Keep The Key Of It review (PC) Reviewed on November 16, 2011 It fails on just about every imaginable level. The only thing even approaching a saving grace is the price: it's free. But even that's irritating because it means I can't even have the pleasure of angrily demanding my money back.
	Dreamfall: The Longest Journey review (PC) Reviewed on November 14, 2011 The central narrative arc is beautiful: this is a game which expands on its predecessor’s coming of age story, and presents something altogether more grown-up. If The Longest Journey demonstrated the progression from the naivety of youth to the responsibility of adulthood, Dreamfall is a game about taking that newfound maturity and giving it back to those in need.
	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 review (X360) Reviewed on November 11, 2011 This final chapter in the trilogy provides what is unquestionably the purest adrenaline rush that the series has yet seen. I’m left imagining someone on the development team turning a giant crank until it rests at ‘11’ and then just leaving it there. Explosions are huge. Planes crash. Buildings collapse. There are moments that feel like they were torn out of the previous games, except here the ante has been upped.
	The Cursed Crusade review (X360) Reviewed on November 11, 2011 This game finds a way to turn exciting-sounding historical events, such as the siege of the Croatian city Zara, into linear marches through static environments cluttered with a bunch of melee battles that all play out the same. This might not be the appropriate game for the quote "WHAT A HORRIBLE NIGHT TO HAVE A CURSE", but it fits.
	Saints Row: The Third review (X360) Reviewed on November 10, 2011 It is immaculately paced because it loves you. Most games can be insensitive clods with occasional rough patches. You get stuck for a while, or it's slow to start, or you cruise through some filler, or certain design choices are clunky, or the characters are flat and you don't care about them, or you know exactly what's going to happen next and therefore when it happens you don't care. None of this happens in Saints Row 3, which is a textbook example of how to keep me into a game from beginning to open-ended end.
	Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light review (DS) Reviewed on November 10, 2011 Customizing your characters has seldom been simpler in an RPG. Any hero in your merry band can be anything you like. It all comes down to the crowns with which you equip everyone. As you progress through the game and defeat powerful monsters, a magical crystal will bestow upon your party the gift of a new crown or two. A character who starts with the ability to just barely wield a sword can eventually grow into a battle-hardened Fighter, or perhaps a Black Mage or even something as frivolous as a Bard.
	Super Mario 3D Land review (3DS) Reviewed on November 09, 2011 Super Mario 3D Land is clearly ready to have a love affair with your nostalgic side. You can make a game out of recognizing musical compositions, enemies and even platform types that you recall from elsewhere. Given the raccoon tail, the airships, the mushroom houses and a variety of other returning elements, it’s clear from the start that Super Mario Bros. 3 was the development team’s primary source of inspiration.
	Disney Epic Mickey review (WII) Reviewed on November 08, 2011 The themes in Disney Epic Mickey are more complex than you might expect from a children’s game, but they’re handled in the best way possible: through gameplay. The developers didn’t simply give the player dialog choices and consider that sufficient. Instead, they presented Mickey with a more fundamental means of making his choices. As Mickey works his way through Wasteland, he’ll need to decide whether to rely on paint or thinner.
	Sonic Colors review (WII) Reviewed on November 07, 2011 Tails makes an appearance, but he’s a plot device and the role he plays is almost completely non-annoying. As you complete the various stages, you’ll rely on the franchise’s true star, not second-rate bit players who a part of you wishes would die horrible deaths. It feels almost like you're getting away with something that you shouldn't as you play through the game’s 36 main stages and don't hate the bulk of them.
	Battlefield 3 review (PC) Reviewed on November 06, 2011 More than any other graphics engine today, it's a complete package, featuring scale, scope, spectacle, on-foot detail and in-airplane elbow room, multiplayer, meaningful destruction, and absurdly good animation. Absurdly good. The animation is so good you probably won't even notice it. Of course the characters move this way because that's how real dudes move. What's the big deal? You almost have to go back to another game with the usual animation to appreciate what Battlefield 3 does.
	Tropico 4 review (X360) Reviewed on November 06, 2011 Remember how back when you first got your PC and you played Sim City for hours on end without really understanding why? Welcome to the 2011 version of that phenomenon. Say goodbye to large chunks of your time.
	GoldenEye 007: Reloaded review (X360) Reviewed on November 05, 2011 Stages may feel generic, but they now flow in a more natural fashion and enemy placement was more carefully considered to provide interesting challenges. It’s clear that you’re going through the same motions you always did, but now those motions are more enjoyable. Late in the game, I was delighted to find that I actually enjoyed protecting Natalya when the need arose.
	Front Mission Evolved review (X360) Reviewed on November 04, 2011 With Front Mission Evolved, Square-Enix and Double Helix take virtually all of the strategy out of the title and leave us with a clunky third-person shooter with an uninspired terrorism plot featuring shallow, one-dimensional characters.
	Daytona USA review (X360) Reviewed on November 04, 2011 Daytona USA was an experience. And it’s the sort of experience that can never be brought home. Sure, we can search online for seven like-minded old school players to have a go, but that doesn’t come close. What might have come close, would be local multiplayer, so that at least you could invite friends over and split-screen race to your hearts’ content. Guess what? Local multiplayer is not available. Oops.
	Serious Sam: The Random Encounter review (PC) Reviewed on November 03, 2011 The Random Encounter ends almost as fast as it begins, but your five bucks get you a punchy, colorful, and vivid throwback to the heyday of the RPG, mashed up with all the violent insanity of Serious Sam. Fans who need their next fix would do well to check out the previous indie offering Double D in addition to this quickie, simply to serve as a great palate cleanser before jumping right back into the hotbed of ravenous monsters that is the Serious Sam universe. The Random Encounter is short, sweet, and certainly a breath of fresh air for what is quickly becoming a stagnant genre.
	Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception review (PS3) Reviewed on November 01, 2011 Uncharted 3 is mostly filler without gameplay. It's the modern equivalent of those full motion video games folks made back in the 90s when new CD-ROMs afforded all that storage space. So developers shot video footage, grafted it onto various games (usually puzzle collections), and a genre was born. Who cares whether there was an actual game in there?
	Kirby's Return to Dream Land review (WII) Reviewed on November 01, 2011 Levels are built more like playgrounds than obstacles. You’ll hop along hills, dodge slow-moving arrow projectiles and knights who wield swords that could easily have been drawn with Crayons. Kirby’s Return to Dream Land is comfort food for gamers and you won’t want to stop eating anytime soon.
	Dragon Age II review (PC) Reviewed on October 31, 2011 There have been complaints, and will be many more, that Dragon Age II is appealing for a more mainstream audience by removing all the fiddling of its predecessor, but I don’t think this is a fair accusation. There is very little that you could do before which is no longer possible. The difference is that the extraneous elements have been stripped away, giving the action space to breathe.

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