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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Castlevania: Harmony of Despair review (X360)Reviewed on August 02, 2010This game wouldn't defeat me, I told myself, not with its very first stage. For once I was even right. Two hours later, I finally had my victory. Along the way I had memorized attack patterns, grown better at my double jumps and I had found the shortest and safest route from the stage entrance to the boss chamber. With better equipment and an actual plan, I won my first round and progressed to the second stage... where steel traps impaled me, men erupted in plumes of poison and walls of flame threatened to burn me to a crisp. Remember what it used to feel like to play a Castlevania game? The people at Konami clearly do. |
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Sam & Max: Beyond the Alley of the Dolls review (PC)Reviewed on July 31, 2010Its grounding doesn’t lend it the ambition of the first two chapters, but the tight writing and dedication to shovelling hilarity and mindless violence into gaping plotholes makes up for many of its shortcomings. |
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Star Wars: Dark Forces review (MAC)Reviewed on July 31, 2010If Mohc's plans come to fruition, the rebels are screwed. Instead of facing unending hordes of bumbling white-armored goofs seemingly incapable of hitting ANYTHING with their lasers, they'll be butchered ruthlessly by unending hordes of lethal killing machines. As the game's title suggests, dark forces are indeed threatening those opposing the tyrannical empire. |
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LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 review (PS3)Reviewed on July 30, 2010Exploring every nook and cranny is oddly addictive, perhaps because there's usually something new to see or hear. Whether you're climbing the owlery tower to listen to compositions on an old phonograph or playing around in a room full of muggle artifacts and watching a car fly out the window, the incentives that the game offers the true fan seldom disappoint. They're almost enough to make a fellow sigh when he finally finds everything. Almost. |
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Crackdown 2 review (X360)Reviewed on July 26, 2010When it comes down to it, Crackdown 2 just doesn't do anything well enough to warrant the attention of any but the most die-hard of fans. |
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Arma II: Combined Operations review (PC)Reviewed on July 26, 2010When taken together, the campaign and single-player scenario missions offer a lot of variety. At their best, they show Bohemia Interactive's flair for the dramatic. During a commando raid to rescue hostages held in a factory, you come down a hill overlooking a local village. Friendly forces are launching an assault on the village, which ends up sending a swarm of enemy troops in your direction. What could have been a simple shootout is situated in a larger context. You get front row seats, as it were. Bohemia manages this like no one else. |
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Alien Swarm review (PC)Reviewed on July 25, 2010Alien Swarm has drawn numerous comparisons to Left 4 Dead, and not without reason. They’re both products of Valve, and they both place four players in the situation of having to fend off waves of very ugly (and very mindless) enemies, often to satisfyingly gory results. But whereas L4D’s team dynamics were its selling point, there really isn’t much more to Alien Swarm than what’s on the surface, and that’s not a bad thing at all. Sometimes it’s fun to just arm yourself with a giant minigun and pretend you’re a marine from Aliens. Sometimes it’s fun to go on a simple bug hunt. |
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Breath of Death VII: The Beginning review (X360)Reviewed on July 24, 2010Breath of Death VII is one of those rare parody games that recognises and mocks the pitfalls of its genre, but then sidesteps them in its own design, equipping itself with a veneer of smug satisfaction that transfers to the gamer. |
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Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon review (PC)Reviewed on July 24, 2010Recently, a Director’s Cut of the first game has been released on both the iPhone and the Wii. Both versions prove what a remarkable title that still is, despite feeling somewhat aged now. But for me, The Sleeping Dragon will always mark the pinnacle of the series: despite some shaky mechanics, it’s the one I’d be least willing to let slip from memory. |
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Enchanted Arms review (X360)Reviewed on July 23, 2010The emperor of one of the game's regions is a morbidly obese, incompetent, cowardly moron who spends his time sleeping, eating and cavorting with his personal harem of golem girls (who appear "Chris Hanson is watching" young) while delegating minor things like the enforcement of his rule to an unscrupulous ninja who only cares about the fate of his clan. It's obvious things probably won't end well for Tokimune, but it's still near-impossible to not laugh out loud during every one of his scenes. |
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Young Thor review (PSP)Reviewed on July 23, 2010Though it's easy to steamroll through many of the early fights in the game by simply pounding the ground a lot or frying adversaries from a distance, later battles require more finesse and some of them (like the banshees) will force you to develop actual strategies if you want to consistently win. After all, ground pounds don't work well on teleporting ghosts. Those later encounters keep things interesting by practically forcing you to utilize dodges, since you'll eventually run out of magical energy if you don't string together your most powerful attacks with some weaker ones. |
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Limbo review (X360)Reviewed on July 23, 2010The first thing that you're sure to notice is the monochrome visual design. There's not a drop of color to be seen. You might suppose that Limbo would be an ugly game as a result, or that things would quickly blur together into a thoroughly forgettable mess. Nothing could be further from the truth, however. The lush forests and the imposing industrial areas that you'll explore over the course of your adventure are presented with exemplary attention to detail. Insects fill the air, mist rolls through the trees and clods of dirt fly into the air as the hero scrambles along ledges or wades through knee-high grass. Yet even with the signs of life all around, there's a striking sense of isolation. Something is wrong with the world and, for the right sort of gamer, that will feel very right. |
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Singularity review (X360)Reviewed on July 21, 2010Singularity doesn’t merely look and sound like BioShock. It doesn’t merely copy a few of its most popular features. This is a game that actually feels like 2K’s famed shooter. Even the more creative weapons (such as the Time Manipulation Device) feel like they belong in the BioShock universe. |
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Trinity Universe review (PS3)Reviewed on July 20, 2010Trinity Universe is a hodgepodge of that same brand of silliness and rambunctious dialog that has successfully transformed NIS America's past efforts into such memorable affairs. |
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Transformers: War for Cybertron review (X360)Reviewed on July 19, 2010If subsequent Transformers titles use War for Cybertron as a baseline, the future could be great for both new and old fans of this beloved series. |
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Shining Wisdom review (SAT)Reviewed on July 19, 2010“Continuity?”, asked a puzzled Working Designs translator. “Not on my watch!” |
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Aphelion Episode One: Graves of Earth review (X360)Reviewed on July 19, 2010The episodic nature of the title goes some way to explaining the inconclusive ending to the game, but my exhaustive relationship with Sam & Max means I know it’s not really excuse. I suppose it claws creditability back by being a fantastic game suffering a “not quite there yet” by-line. |
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Naval Assault: The Killing Tide review (X360)Reviewed on July 17, 2010While cruising 40 or 50 feet below the surface, the game’s idea of acceleration mirrors that of a snail. It doesn’t matter if the submarine is traveling at top speed because the player will always feel like he’s riding a Rascal Scooter. |
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Tournament of Legends review (WII)Reviewed on July 15, 2010I don’t know what you imagine when you picture a snake woman fighting a robot, but I bet it isn’t the two of them standing next to each other, occasionally slapping one another with their arms. Yet that's about as legendary as things get at this tournament. |
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Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 review (PS3)Reviewed on July 12, 2010While any one of these new features could be the reason players come to Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, most will stay because of the impressive balance between fun and realism. |
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