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
	The Lost Cases of Sherlock Holmes review (PC) Reviewed on July 14, 2008 Aside from the first case, which is complete filler in my opinion, the sixteen mysteries presented here are genuinely interesting. Examples include a man who takes off in a hot air balloon and crash lands after a dagger somehow finds its way into his back, a man who collapses in botanical gardens after suffering from a potentially fatal bee sting, a jewel theft on a speeding train and so forth.
	Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy review (WII) Reviewed on July 13, 2008 The main hook in the campaign and arcade modes is the ability to attract debris to your ship and use it to your advantage. Anything you destroy within a stage (except for the boss) can be pulled to your ship and will stay with you until it has received too much damage and fallen away or until you clear a given mission. The whole process occurs automatically without any special button presses.
	Half-Life 2: Episode Two review (PC) Reviewed on July 12, 2008 Nearly every sequence takes you by surprise, and keeps you glued to the screen until the action is resolved. There is a helicopter chase. There is also a genuinely horrifying introduction to the Advisor, the only “true” Combine creature we’ve seen so far. Trusty robotic ally Dog has his moment in the sun, only before you finally reach White Forest and come to the realization that the game isn’t over yet – in fact, the most intense, exhilarating, large-scale battle the Half-Life series has ever seen is still just around the bend.
	Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit review (PS3) Reviewed on July 09, 2008 Burst Limit has come a long way from the early days of the series and is definitely one of the better installments to date.
	Space Invaders Extreme review (DS) Reviewed on July 09, 2008 Each boss battle is pretty clever, but one in particular is especially so: the boss will actually move back and forth along the bottom of the lower screen, while you take up a new position, along the bottom of the top screen. There, you will stand off against reflector aliens, and attempt to time your shots so that they get reflected back your way, slipping past you, hitting the boss below. All this while he shoots up at you as well. Brilliant stuff.
	Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 review (DS) Reviewed on July 07, 2008 There's still a learning curve for those new to the franchise, but returning veterans should be able to jump right into the action. Working too quickly is likely to lead to errors just as it should, but missed slices and injections feel like true blunders instead of something that can be blamed on faulty hit detection. As a result, tense operations feel challenging for all of the right reasons.
	Shadowgrounds: Survivor review (PC) Reviewed on July 07, 2008 I’ve no problems re-exploring claustrophobic corridors or rusting walkways infested with menaces not too happy to see you. I look forward to blowing them away in ridiculous numbers. Maybe it’s the sadist in me, or maybe Frozenbyte have simply gone ahead and made an addictive little game.
	Team Fortress 2 review (PC) Reviewed on July 06, 2008 Team Fortress 2 doesn’t have many maps, and of them, only about three or four are particularly popular. Yet they are so carefully designed, and inspire so many different approaches for both offense and defense, that in a way it doesn’t matter, because each game is completely different from the last, and all match each other in sheer intensity.
	Half-Life 2: Episode One review (PC) Reviewed on July 05, 2008 If one thing really makes Episode One worth playing, it’s the connection to Alyx that starts thin but grows progressively stronger before the game’s three hours are up. In Half-Life 2, she was little more than a forgettable supporting character. In this episode, she’s at your side for the entire game, and provides both a surprising amount of battle support (it’s virtually impossible for her to die, so keeping her alive isn’t a concern) and a pleasant boost in morale. The Half-Life series has you doing a lot of cool things, so it’s nice that someone is finally acknowledging your heroics.
	Half-Life 2 review (PC) Reviewed on July 04, 2008 Valve’s objective was to simply provide an FPS experience that surprises you around every turn and never stops entertaining. It works – every chapter in Half-Life 2 feels completely distinguishable from the last, and yet there isn’t a level in the game that I didn’t enjoy. Other developers should study Half-Life 2, because it’s a perfect example of how one game can so cleanly fit into a single genre, and at the same time constantly feel like something different.
	Capcom Classics Collection: Reloaded review (PSP) Reviewed on July 02, 2008 Amazingly, I remember finishing Ghouls ‘N Ghosts, and Super Ghouls ‘N Ghosts in their heydays. I would have two questions for my old self were able to ask him now, a good one, and an even better one: how, and why?
	Overlord: Raising Hell review (PS3) Reviewed on July 01, 2008 Because everything is so familiar, the few twists are completely memorable. In Overlord: Raising Hell, you don't play the halfling hero. You kill him. And when a noble paladin enters the picture—Sir William the Black, they call him—you aren't there to offer a wedding toast. Your goal instead is to slaughter him like a pig. Human and sea serpent, halfling and sheep... all fall to your blade, spear, ax and sorcery.
	Space Station Sim review (PC) Reviewed on June 29, 2008 It is not the most complex simulator ever, or the most rigorous, or the longest, but that is a good thing. It is a short and to-the-point opportunity to give some thought to one field of science that we don’t often think about.
	Arkanoid DS review (DS) Reviewed on June 28, 2008 Basically, the game is meant to be played with vertical orientation (like Tetris). To make full use of the space provided, this means that the developers had to split the playing area in two, with dead space at the center. If you were playing this at an arcade and someone set a yardstick across the middle of the screen, the effect would be roughly the same.
	Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX review (PSP) Reviewed on June 27, 2008 You’ll see the usual flaming uppercuts, 360 degree spinning pile drivers, and upside-down hurricane kicks – yup, the usual fare. But because this is a Street Fighter game of the SUPER COMBO (or ISM) era, you’ll also bear witness to the vacuum hurricane kick, which catches unsuspecting enemies in its unforgiving vortex; and my personal favourite, Ken’s Shippu Jinraikyaku, which may as well have been dubbed, “huge soccer kick turns into spinning kick which carries opponent to the top of the screen to die”. (That was probably too long.) Alpha 3 is full of such awe-inspiring maneuvers.
	Strike Gunner: S.T.G. review (SNES) Reviewed on June 26, 2008 The only question is: would a player want to go back through this one to tinker with the difficulty and experiment with each weapon in different levels to find the perfect combination? I didn't. While I really liked some of the concepts present in Strike Gunner, I found myself wishing they'd been placed in a better game.
	GRID review (PS3) Reviewed on June 25, 2008 Cars simply don't handle the way they ought to. Any slight bump, any slight deviation from the road, spells disaster. Let's say you're racing along an enclosed track and one of your tires strays over the line. The second you touch dirt, you're finished. Your car cannot steer correctly at even moderate speeds when you're not completely on asphalt. You'll snake wildly in all sorts of directions—often circles—that have little or nothing to do with any buttons that you might be pressing on your controller.
	Don King Presents: Prizefighter review (X360) Reviewed on June 25, 2008 After the initial documentary sequence, players are taken to an office setting where they can read/hear messages (greetings, praise for winning, offers to improve your media image, etc.), play training games, and enter the ring for fame and fortune. Don’t be fooled by the variety – most of these options are a hands-off experience. When given the chance to, say, train with a specialist, you won’t actually get to work with the best of the best. Instead, the game shows your boxer walking away from his usual gym, followed by the image of a newspaper being spun onto the screen. That’s it.
	Operation Thunderbolt review (ARC) Reviewed on June 24, 2008
	Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots review (PS3) Reviewed on June 23, 2008 Not to make excuses, but I somehow doubt that any of the issues I've mentioned—the sometimes less than brilliant story, the shift away from gameplay toward the end, the lack of challange—will be a surprise or an issue to any long-time fan. And those long-time fans were clearly Kojima Productions' target audience for this one.

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