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
	Killing Floor review (PC) Reviewed on August 15, 2009 Killing Floor's amateur origins are uncomfortably clear, and there's no doubting that a little more polish would have gone a long way. Still, when you find yourself scurrying between cover in an open field at night, carefully aiming for the heads of a stream of mutated foes, before someone chimes in on the radio and makes a gag about liking "the big ones" the best, you'll understand. For all its quirks, inconsistencies and annoyances, you'll likely find something to love.
	G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra review (PS3) Reviewed on August 15, 2009 Instead of copying something like Halo or even a third-person shooter along the lines of Gears of War, two options that surely must have been appealing and may have led to something interesting, the developers went a different route. The result is a shooter viewed primarily from far overhead. Its not-quite-isometric viewpoint allows for expansive environments, large battles and lots of run 'n gun action, a bit like classic Contra if it were turned 90 degrees.
	The King of Fighters XII review (X360) Reviewed on August 14, 2009 The King of the Fighters XII may have a new sheen, but it's missing a lot of what made some of those early titles so entertaining. At times it just feels incomplete. Some characters have regressed to their move sets from much earlier games, while others have been cut altogether.
	G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra review (X360) Reviewed on August 12, 2009 Finishing a mission on "Casual" level won't award you as many tokens as the more challenging choices and effectively prevents you from ever recruiting a full team of mercenaries. That's disappointing since one of the game's coolest features is the ability to recruit four special Cobra characters. You'll either need to man up and repeat stages on the higher difficulty setting (or do so right from the start), or you'll need to play through the whole adventure as Duke and Scarlet so that you have points left once the coolest characters become available.
	'Splosion Man review (X360) Reviewed on August 09, 2009 In possibly the most massive scientific lab ever imagined, the scientist you control made an awesome discovery allowing him to detonate his own body regularly with no physical harm. Unfortunately, there was a minor side effect, as the chap is now pretty frickin' insane; causing the other scientists to lock him away in solitary confinement.
	Ghostbusters: The Video Game review (PS3) Reviewed on August 08, 2009 The plot begins by ambitiously introducing two new central characters—a strange young woman and a rookie member of the ghostbusters team—but after that it almost immediately turns into a retread of familiar adventures. Many of the same faces and places make new appearances, to the point that although the story is technically all-new (and penned by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, who drafted the original), it often feels like a rerun. This time, though, someone stripped out most of the good parts. There's nowhere near enough of the memorable dialog that made the film so good and even the most interesting bits wear out their welcome because you're playing the thing, not watching it.
	Naruto: Clash of Ninja 2 review (GCN) Reviewed on August 08, 2009 Naruto: Clash of Ninja 2 pretends it doesn't have that little number at the end of its title. It uses the same cel-shaded graphics, features the same fighting engine, and even recycles combos for reappearing characters. The game goes so far as to completely subsume the story of its predecessor, starting over to tell Naruto's tale from the very beginning. Clash of Ninja 2 is superior, though, because of one profound improvement: four-way multiplayer.
	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-shelled review (X360) Reviewed on August 06, 2009 Something a lot of fans will appreciate is the ability to chase Krang and Shredder through time as a united team. On consoles, no more than two friends have ever been able to team up for the cause, but now you can gather three other buddies and really raise some shell! Both local and online play are allowed, with plenty of enthusiastic strangers just waiting to team up against evil at all times of the day, night and early morning.
	Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures: The Bogey Man review (PC) Reviewed on August 06, 2009 It's never overtly bad. It's just grossly unambitious, lacking in any real flair, and growing stale at an alarming rate. So while Grand Adventures has been a fun ride, it's for the best that it's reached its conclusion. It just could have done to finish last month instead.
	Icarus: Alien Vanguard review (PC) Reviewed on August 05, 2009 Shuttlecraft, the first level, is arguably the best introduction to a Doom game I've experienced. It's longer than most and there are a few sneaky little tricks to ensure it's a good bit tougher than expected for the first map. It has this tiny chapel that seems non-threatening and actually is uninhabited when you enter, but things go Silent Hill and it transforms into the sort of nightmarish place you'd expect black mass sacrifices to be held. Not to mention all those imps that appear to ensure you're that sacrifice. Pure gold.
	The Conduit review (WII) Reviewed on August 05, 2009 The Conduit most often feels like a light gun shooter that’s been ripped off of its tracks, which is due as much to the arcade-like nature of the level design as it is to the control scheme itself. There’s a light, frenetic nature in the way The Conduit unravels, and High Voltage seems okay with that. The game’s pace is fierce and the action is constant.
	Bookworm Adventures Volume 2 review (PC) Reviewed on August 02, 2009 You might be wondering how the game could possibly be difficult. The answer is that you suddenly find yourself working with extreme limitations. Besides gaining life meters several times the length of your own, enemies gain the ability to lock half of your pieces so that they can't be used, or to devalue them so that playing the selected tiles gains you no particular advantage. Worse, they may even set things up so that playing your own pieces damages you! There are items that can be used to counter these effects, but they are gone for good once you make use of them... at least until you take the time to earn more. The process for that basically amounts to level grinding.
	Little League World Series Baseball 2009 review (WII) Reviewed on August 01, 2009 The general feel of a set of innings in Little League World Series Baseball 2009 doesn't seem to have changed much. You still control most of the important bits with the 'A' button and furious Wii Remote waggles. You still start a game out with mild swings—because that's all that is strictly necessary—and finish it up with wild convulsions that are enough to nearly put an arm out of socket because of their ferocity.
	Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2 - Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon review (PS2) Reviewed on August 01, 2009 In a sense, Devil Summoner 2 is one of the more accessible entries in Atlus's long-running Shin Megami Tensei franchise. The combat is straightforward and quick, the difficulty isn't too high, and the demon negotiations and fusion provide a bit of depth to grab players' interest. Unfortunately, with its lackluster characters, blunt storytelling, and fitting but simplistic visuals, this isn't a game that will sustain that interest.
	Dragonica review (PC) Reviewed on August 01, 2009 Dragonica is a 3D, fantasy, action-oriented, side-scrolling MMORPG developed by Barunson Interactive. Its published by Gpotato in the EU and THQ*ICE in the US. As with most other titles promoted through both of these sites, Dragonica is free to play. However, gamers can opt to buy extras for their character from a shop dealing in real money. Anyone who has played Lunia or MapleStory will feel right at home here. Conversely, Dragonica has a level of polish not yet to be found in its overpopulated peers.
	Vagrant Story review (PSX) Reviewed on July 29, 2009 Every combat action Ashley takes affects a risk meter. As it rises, both good and bad things happen. He can cause much more damage, but his accuracy and defense both suffer. If you gain high risk because you chained a 10-hit combo on some fool and immediately get assaulted by something else, you'll receive a severe dose of pain.
	Flower, Sun, and Rain review (DS) Reviewed on July 29, 2009 Sumio immediately finds the entire island is stuck in a time loop, though he perceives it as a sort of dream. Every morning he rises with his singular goal in mind, but he always gets sidetracked by an unrelated request. Hell, it takes him a week's worth of days just to make it outside the hotel grounds. Once his daily task is completed, the doomed airliner explodes overhead, right on schedule. Time for the next wakeup call.
	Madballs in... BABO: Invasion review (X360) Reviewed on July 28, 2009 Madballs in... BABO: Invasion isn't the deepest game, but it shouldn't be. Games like this are great because of their simplicity, not in spite of it. Gameplay revolves (get it?) around your chosen circular hero rolling from place to place and causing as much havoc as possible.
	The King of Fighters XII review (PS3) Reviewed on July 28, 2009 The first and most obvious stumble is the limited character roster, which perhaps wouldn't be a problem except that some of the very most important fighters are missing in action. In particular, there's little presence from the female side of the crowd. Mai, best known for her heaving bosom but also for her acrobatic and lethal attack style, is nowhere to be seen. Somehow The King of Fighters feels wrong without her, like a Street Fighter game with no Chun-Li or a Dead or Alive game with no Kasumi. Mary didn't make the cut, either, nor did plenty of beefcakes.
	Resident Evil 4 review (PC) Reviewed on July 27, 2009 Resident Evil 4 might be a carefully balanced, ingeniously designed and admirably self-assured game, but on the PC it's a woeful, miserable, inconceivable mess of code. It's very possibly, depending on your mindset, nestled within the highest echelon of videogame design - but it's an experience tailored only for the consoles. On a computer, it's often barely playable, which is more troubling than a village full of zombified religious extremists could ever be.

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