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.
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Blood Stone: 007 review (PS3)Reviewed on October 26, 2011Bond has landed in a cover-based shooter and he's smart about it. If you put him behind a crate and an enemy is approaching his location, it's easy to creep to the edge, then duck around the side of the crate without standing up and exposing himself. Or if there's cover nearby, it's easy to roll to that cover and keep moving from there. The difference is in how long you hold down the appropriate button once you press it. The whole process quickly becomes second nature and feels a lot more natural than it did in similar titles. |
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Batman: Arkham City review (X360)Reviewed on October 25, 2011Has a virtual place ever been such a canny combination of story backdrop, richly atmospheric graphics, and thrilling playground as this walled off section of Gotham City converted into a prison? Arkham City is densely packed with things to see, things to hear, and things to do. Gliding over the rooftops can be as rewarding as strolling along the streets. Rocksteady's city is a spectacle through and through, even more beautiful than Ubisoft's Assassin's Creeds for how it's so true to its fanciful Gothic tone. |
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Tricky Kick review (TG16)Reviewed on October 24, 2011Attention puzzle game gurus! Tired of taking apart videogame conundrums like so much Lego? IGS has your game. You won’t beat it any time soon. In fact, Tricky Kick’s box should wear a disclaimer: If you think you’re at all good at games, don’t play this. Your ego and sense of self worth may be smashed irreparably. |
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Spider-Man: Edge of Time review (X360)Reviewed on October 21, 2011Edge of Time cuts down on the variety and makes the story more of a focus. The modern day's Amazing Spider-Man teams up with the 2099 version to stop a futuristic scientist from achieving his time travel dreams — namely going back in time to start up the Alchemax corporation, so that it (and he) would be an unstoppable force of world domination by the future. |
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DeathSpank review (PS3)Reviewed on October 21, 2011The sound of cold steel slicing through a demon's rough hide... The jangle of cash as it materializes in the vicinity of your enemy's corpse... The glory of a well-placed post-battle quip... and who can forget Justice! They're equal parts of what make DeathSpank an exhilarating action-RPG, one that boasts a generous amount of humor, action, and side quests. |
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Dark Souls review (PS3)Reviewed on October 20, 2011Dark Souls is one of the finest Zelda games you'll ever play that isn't actually a Zelda game. Don't miss it! |
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BlazBlue: Continuum Shift review (X360)Reviewed on October 20, 2011I sank hours of my time into the game and nearly every precious moment was spent zoning out or wishing that I could play something else. I didn't care when the ninth consecutive opponent fell at my feet with barely a whimper. I didn't much care when the next one soundly thrashed me, either. Everything was pretty enough along the way to that thrashing that I very much wanted to care, to let myself fall in love with the whole experience, but somehow I couldn't because nothing had managed to hook me. |
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Frogger 3D review (3DS)Reviewed on October 19, 2011There are situations where you’ll find yourself playing through something fiendishly clever and you’ll realize that it’s a perfect extension of the classic gameplay. Of particular note are the stages that finish up each of the worlds. To complete the first world, you’ll have to flatten the tires of a huge truck (the same one that elsewhere has been squishing frogs, I like to think) by pushing a spike strip into its path. The second world concludes with a harrowing ride atop several trucks as you avoid low-hanging signs, eagles and holes. |
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Civilization V review (PC)Reviewed on October 18, 2011And here’s a major place in which Civilization V seems to fall down. Maybe it’s just too long since I last tackled a Civ game, and I’ve simply lost my ability to play make believe within its boundaries. More likely, there’s a problem. Because for the life of me, I just could not even fool myself into being convinced by the diplomacy system. |
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Bejeweled 2 review (PC)Reviewed on October 14, 2011Adding to the fun are the fruits of putting together four- and five-jewel combos. The former creates a magical sparkly jewel that, if placed into a line of three, will create an explosion to clear out ALL surrounding gems. The latter causes a weird amoeba-like shape to appear. If you find yourself stuck, you can click on it and any surrounding gem to make all of that color get eradicated. |
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Gears of War 3 review (X360)Reviewed on October 08, 2011We’ve cared so little for these characters, their conflict or the world they inhabit that years from now, when the next big shooter craze arrives and Gears finally becomes obsolete, I can’t help wondering if we’ll look back on this trilogy with a collective shrug. Gears 3 is simply a great shooter, and for now, that’s enough. I love great shooters almost as much as I hate missed opportunities. |
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Tales of Vesperia review (X360)Reviewed on October 07, 2011Overall, I found the battle system in Tales of Vesperia to do about as good of a job in taking a lot of different components and making them simple and user-friendly as any game I've played. When you get more powerful, you'll be able to obtain a number of more powerful attacks which culminate in the godly Mystic Artes, which spell bad news for anything in their path. Or you, as bosses also start gaining them after you've gotten a ways into the game. |
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The Magic of Scheherazade review (NES)Reviewed on September 30, 2011I might not know everything about the gaming world, but I am pretty sure that an Arabian Nights tale concerning a time-traveling warrior collecting a wacky assortment of allies to save a bunch of princesses from evil sorcerers and misnamed demons (the Hindu Kali will never live down being mistaken for the Three Stooges' Curly) WHILE occasionally planting seeds to grow money trees in a world where solar eclipses happen every few minutes is RetroWeird. |
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Deus Ex: Human Revolution review (X360)Reviewed on September 24, 2011Deus Ex: Human Revolution so astutely recaptures the spirit of the 2000 original that I’m amazed an outside developer is responsible for it. Compare it to Invisible War, the slicked-up, dumbed-down sequel that still has fans reeling, and you could conclude that Eidos has a better understanding of what makes this series tick than the people who got it running in the first place. |
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Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island review (SNES)Reviewed on September 23, 2011And I do mean "tricky" — I found myself stumped for a good number of minutes in one boss level before figuring out I had to swallow a Koopa at the top left of one gigantic chamber, go to the bottom right of the room and spit it at a near-inaccessible power-up cloud in order to release a staircase leading to the door out of that place. Things can be a bit more cerebral than in past Mario games. |
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Kirby: Mass Attack review (DS)Reviewed on September 17, 2011The inability to consistently fling puffballs is the biggest problem that you’ll likely have with Kirby Mass Attack, because at times that particular activity can be vitally important. For example, in one stage you must repeatedly ram a block to slide it along a platform before a timer counts down and it explodes. There’s specific placement you’ll have in mind, but getting the explosive charge positioned in time can be difficult when every second or third swipe on the screen doesn’t register. |
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Breath of Fire II review (SNES)Reviewed on September 16, 2011Perhaps the poor NoA censors just couldn't comprehend what they were playing, shrugged their shoulders and let it all go through without chopping out minor details like how the villain is a demon using a Christianity-like religion as a front to absorb peoples' souls to increase its power. Or how, in spectacular fashion, the final boss utilizes the game's "anyone can die" mantra to such effect that I still look at the entirety of that confrontation as one of the most epic in J-RPG history. |
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Star Fox 64 3D review (3DS)Reviewed on September 13, 2011Unfortunately, Starfox 64 3D doesn’t benefit as much from that finally-genuine third dimension as you might suppose. Depth effects look terrific in the cutscenes that bookend the various stages, certainly, but the levels were never designed to actually utilize three dimensions in any meaningful way. This is essentially a cluttered rail shooter with vast expanses of empty space serving as the backdrop while in the foreground, floating debris from ruined space stations and asteroid fields serve as the points of interest. |
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Call of Duty 3 review (PS2)Reviewed on September 09, 2011Whether it be the Americans, Canadians, British or Polish, there will be arguments and in-fighting as the troops are faced with imminent death while pushing into occupied territory. Well, maybe not the Poles, as their main purpose seems to be to provide Treyarch an excuse to toss a touch of tank combat into the mix. |
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Kyotokei review (WII)Reviewed on September 09, 2011Kyotokei tries to be the horizontal Ikaruga and it does what it sets out to do in a perfunctory fashion, lacking distinction or panache. That being said, if you loved Ikaruga, you’ll like Kyotokei, because how many other colour based shoot-em-ups are there really? |
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