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
	Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation review (X360) Reviewed on November 08, 2007 When a game that is a part of a series as long running as Ace Combat, there's always that nagging concern that the formula will become stale, or the ball will be otherwise dropped with new changes. A very fine line must be walked between adding to the game, and wrecking it. Ace Combat 6 walks that line very well.
	Conan review (PS3) Reviewed on November 07, 2007 You'll realize that early on, as you're ascending a crumbling tower in your quest to destroy a rampaging dragon. Along the way, you'll face his fire-breathing muzzle at several turns. Each time, the strategy is the same: dodge his attacks, then retaliate with some sword strokes. After several such instances, the developers threw in a little variety, and in the end it's not your sword that spells the dragon's doom but rather the available architecture. It's one of the game's highlights (along with a similar battle with a mammoth and later one with a giant squid), but somehow it doesn't feel like quite enough.
	Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 review (X360) Reviewed on November 06, 2007 It’s comparable to the thirty-something footballer in the twilight of his career; once a magician on the field, but now a fallen star who is content to sit on the bench for his massive pay cheque. PES needs to be the teenage upstart who’s making his way in the game; eager to learn, determined to succeed, and playing with passion.
	Honeycomb Beat review (DS) Reviewed on November 06, 2007 The only real problem with Honeycomb Beat (aside from its insistence that I share anything in common with aquatic invertebrates) is that it's not a game that will be played in long stretches; it's a half-an-hour-before-closing-the-DS one.
	Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness review (PSP) Reviewed on November 04, 2007 Accessed once you complete the original adventure (or with a code from the title screen), Etna Mode is a retelling of the classic story that begins with Etna trying to wake Laharl from his slumber... then accidentally shooting him in the head. As the late Overlord's son crumples into his casket, the red-headed heroine realizes she has a problem. The nearly 40 hours of gameplay that follow answer the question of what the Netherworld would do without its self-absorbed prince.
	European Street Racing review (PC) Reviewed on November 04, 2007 And that's the game's chief flaw. When you break it down, though, the standard gameplay of ESR is typical. Perhaps overly so. Now, being run of the mill isn't always bad. Indeed, ESR isn't bad either. But when the game is basically an exercise in listing all the cliches of the genre without trying to depart at all from the formula...it's a little unsatisfying.
	Tony Hawk's Proving Ground review (X360) Reviewed on November 02, 2007 Tony Hawk's Proving Ground definitely could have used more enhancements like 'nail the grab' and less of the other crap. Nowhere is that clearer than when it comes to the various missions you are expected to complete. Now you have not just one plot, but several. You progress through each of them in roughly the order you like. If you get tired of bowling for hoodlums, perhaps you can head to the park for a skate competition instead.
	Duke Nukem 3D review (PC) Reviewed on November 02, 2007 In the first two levels of this game’s first scenario, Duke takes refuge from the alien-infested streets in such wholesome places as an adult movie theater and strip club — where he can get tit shows from the pole dancers while making leering comments that make me think “drunken, seedy uncle” more than “savior of Earth”. God, Duke’s great!
	Brunswick Pro Bowling review (PS2) Reviewed on November 02, 2007 Unfortunately, Brunswick Pro Bowling is hard to recommend to anyone, even the most hardcore bowling fan. Although the bowling mechanics are decent and there is a wealth of licensed Brunswick gear, they in no way balance the negatives. The lack of game modes and uninspired audiovisual design is a disaster; you’d be better of spending your money elsewhere.
	Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords review (X360) Reviewed on November 01, 2007 Though at some level the creatures you fight in Puzzle Quest are just there as window dressing, they actually do bring a lot to the table. When you are traveling from one city to another and a sand worm attacks, you'll react differently than you might if battling a wyvern in the mountains. The result is that even though you're for the most part playing the same puzzle game for hours on end, it doesn't get as redundant as you might imagine.
	Maniac Mansion review (PC) Reviewed on October 31, 2007 Dave has it rough. As if the pressures of putting off those pesky term papers and sleeping through exams weren’t enough, his cheerleader girlfriend Sandy has been abducted by a mad scientist who wants to suck out her pretty brains. She probably wouldn’t miss them all that much, but there’s more than just Sandy’s cerebellum at stake; it seems that her captor, the retired physician Dr. Fred Edison, is planning a bit of good old-fashioned world domination just as soon as he perfects his patented Zom-B-Matic™ machine.
	Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions review (PSP) Reviewed on October 30, 2007 Those of you familiar with the original Tactics will recognize the name of that story. The War of the Lions is no sequel to it, but rather an enhanced port of its original PlayStation counterpart, and from the very instant you select "New Game," those enhancements become apparent in the form of its completely new translation.
	Coded Arms: Contagion review (PSP) Reviewed on October 30, 2007 Perhaps in an attempt to further the futuristic setting, the gameplay has fallen out of a time warp. From 1996.
	Victorious Boxers: Revolution review (WII) Reviewed on October 29, 2007 After 23 years of technological and gameplay advancements, it seems like we finally got a three-dimensional version of Punch-Out! Then again, you can always charge in like a schoolyard runt trying to fend off the bully with a torrent of girlish slaps. That seems to work half of the time.
	NBA 08 review (PSP) Reviewed on October 26, 2007 For all that initial negativity and bias, NBA08 surprised me in a number of ways. To be fair, it is the first sports title I have played on the PSP. Most of this can be attributed to the fact that it seemed rather pointless given how far sports gaming has come on the home consoles since the SNES days. I'd just play my sports on one of the bigger consoles. However, this PSP game was still remarkably playable, even compared to titles for the big guys.
	Urban Dead review (PC) Reviewed on October 26, 2007 The frantic plight of new characters trying desperately to scrape up enough experience to buy those all-important skills is easily the most thrilling chapter of Urban Dead.
	Valhalla Knights review (PSP) Reviewed on October 24, 2007 Valhalla Knights makes a lot of assumptions. It assumes you already know that the character you're hired to escort through evil-heavy lands is automatically in your group, despite the game never telling you so and the character only ever showing up once said quest is completed.
	Blitzkreig 2: Liberation review (PC) Reviewed on October 22, 2007 The latest addition to the Blitzkrieg series of no-nonsense WWII RTSs is aimed at hardcore fans. The rest of us? We kinda have to step aside and watch.
	Spider-Man: Friend or Foe review (WII) Reviewed on October 22, 2007 The mysterious villain of Friend or Foe is harvesting symbiote-tainted meteors, the same type of alien symbiote that created Venom, and housing them inside an army of holographic enemies. Laws of physics be damned, you get to fight holograms.
	Dewy's Adventure review (WII) Reviewed on October 20, 2007 The Wii Remote controller is held sideways, like a classic NES controller, and your motions theoretically determine where the hero—a drop of water—rolls. I say 'theoretically' because a slight flick of the wrist could be enough to make him edge along a precipice, or it could have no apparent impact at all, or it could send him careening forward and to his doom. The sense that you're in full control never really hits home because the minute you start to feel confident, an unexpected fumble comes along that craps all over the notion.

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