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
	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.
	Space Invaders Extreme review (PSP) Reviewed on June 23, 2008 Special weapons add a lot of strategy to the game and are perhaps the most exciting change. Any time you slaughter four aliens of the same hue in succession, you'll receive a corresponding special shot. This is attached to a meter that quickly drains, but while you are supercharged you can unleash a triple-wide shot (green), explosive shells (red) or a devastating laser beam (blue).
	Sins of a Solar Empire review (PC) Reviewed on June 23, 2008 Sometimes it feels like the word massive was invented for this game, or if it wasn't, that until now you didn't really know what massive meant. Like maybe before you though elephants were massive, or whales, but then you play Ironclad's universe spanning RTS and you realise that elephants and whales are tiny, insignificant specks, smeared on the windscreen of a gigantic battlecruiser in the midst of a million, billion stars. It really is quite big.
	Gals Panic S Extra Edition review (ARC) Reviewed on June 22, 2008 One of the most striking differences actually won't impress a lot of folks: there are fewer bared breasts to see. The highlight of the original Gals Panic was that you could clear stages three times to finally uncover a drawing that portrayed the lovely lady of your choice with bosom exposed, smiling sweetly. Then the game would flash to a photograph of the girl that inspired the sketch—in the same pose—and that would stay on the screen long enough for adolescents to sigh adoringly before things progressed to the stage selection area. In Gals Panic S, that simply doesn't happen.
	Spellforce Universe review (PC) Reviewed on June 21, 2008 It's hard to dispute the value of Spellforce Universe. The world is nearly endless, with many MANY locations to see, and an amount of lore that would fill a mighty tome. Quests come in piles to rival those of bodies left in your wake. For every flaw, there's a strength to hold it up, and a reason to persevere. Whether your goal is to see the next story, or see the next character ability, the game has something for you. After all, there's an entire universe awaiting.
	Summon Night: Twin Age review (DS) Reviewed on June 21, 2008 Even the concern that she'll run out of magic is nullified by a skill that allows her to regenerate it on the fly—only a few seconds of charging are required, which is inconvenient but generally not lethal thanks to the invulnerability—meaning that once you progress to a certain point you won't even have to worry about purchasing restorative items. Comrades slain will revive themselves after a bit, as well, so if you're reduced to just Reiha you can play tag until the situation improves, or even stand next to the enemy repeatedly using skills so that it can't hurt you.
	SNK Arcade Classics: Vol. 1 review (PSP) Reviewed on June 20, 2008 Magician Lord is still gorgeous. Its backdrops are utterly otherworldly; its foregrounds brim with fantasy book life. Long-armed, bipedal beasts and gaggles of skeletons patrol the outer realms framed by unearthly mountain range and sky. Leap-deterring, hovering spheres; amorphous, wall-hugging gelatin; and spinning eyeballs actually seem alien -- not your garden variety projectile-spitters.

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