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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AMY review (X360)Reviewed on January 18, 2012Tragically, though the poor presentation is the first thing you’ll notice, it’s not the worst. Not by a long shot. In fact, an argument could be made that the presentation is the best thing the game has going for it. |
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Star Wars: The Old Republic review (PC)Reviewed on January 17, 2012The Old Republic is fun, tells some interesting stories, and offers players a vast amount of things to do. But the game still suffers from the same things that hold back all MMOs despite the class storylines and voice acting. |
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Faery: Legends of Avalon review (X360)Reviewed on January 17, 2012The average enemy in this game seemed to come from generic lists of animals and undead. I found it somewhat annoying that the mythical Norse Yggdrasil's dungeons were loaded with hornets and termites instead of, you know, something suited for the game's theme. |
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Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure review (X360)Reviewed on January 08, 2012Levels feature lots of loot and they all contain special areas that are locked behind gates. To enter gates, you must have a character with the matching affinity. As long as you have such a character and he hasn’t been disabled for that stage, you can simply pull the current character off the pedestal and replace it with a new one. The whole process takes mere seconds and it lets you feel like you’re actively involved in the adventure. |
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Infinite Undiscovery review (X360)Reviewed on January 05, 2012You collect well over a dozen party members, many of whom have little relevance beyond, "Hey, uh, you're out to save the world, so let me help!". Many villains pop up, deliver a couple lines of dialogue, fight you and are killed. It kind of reminded me of the RPGs I played on the NES and SNES where characters would pop up and randomly join or fight you for no reason other than "I'm good; I like you!" or "I'm evil; I hate you!". |
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Trine 2 review (X360)Reviewed on January 04, 2012This multi-specialty adventure is surprisingly deep and challenging for its bargain price, and if you've got the friends and the time, it's well worth the admission. If you're looking for more twists on familiar tropes, Trine 2 is your the best candidate. Pick it up and save the princess. Just don't get too caught up in sightseeing on your way to the finish line. |
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Defense Grid: The Awakening review (PC)Reviewed on January 04, 2012Missions include special objectives that switch things up. Your options change depending on the scenario. In one case, you might be able to try a familiar stage with 99 waves instead of the usual 25 or 30. Elsewhere, you might be able to start with 20,000 resources but defeated enemies won’t drop any additional resources. |
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Sonic CD review (PS3)Reviewed on December 31, 2011Gameplay is another way in which Sonic CD doesn't meet the standard set by its more vanilla Genesis counterparts, though it doesn't fall nearly as short as it could have. Levels always have enough unique gimmicks to prevent them from blurring together in your memory. Each level effectively has four versions. By running past special posts, Sonic can travel through time and his actions in the past can change the future. This means that every level has a present version, past version, good future version, and bad future version (the good future is basically the bad future with fewer enemies). It's an interesting mechanic that can be used to keep things fresh for multiple playthroughs. |
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Unreal review (PC)Reviewed on December 30, 2011As a first-person shooter, it’s incredibly competent. Quake 2 might have had the tempo, and Half-Life the suspenseful pacing, but Unreal had the variety and the challenge. Its weapons drew criticism for feeling weak and weedy against the Skaarj oppressors, and it’s a fair comment. They often do. But I’m sure that’s partly because the buggers are so tough, right from the start. |
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Quake review (PC)Reviewed on December 30, 2011Quake still absolutely stands up today. Its visuals might be pixellated, the environments often rather monochrome, as became the running gag. Yet the design of the world is tremendous, the levels balanced, structured and elegantly paced. The variety on display, despite the vast swathes of brown, dwarfs that of most modern games as well. |
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Quake II review (PC)Reviewed on December 30, 2011Enemies dart and dodge, firing sprays of bullets in the final seconds of their lives, trying everything they can to bring you down, even if it means losing their own lives in the process. The range of enemies on display is perhaps the only area in which Quake II rivals the variety of its predecessor, too. |
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Planescape: Torment review (PC)Reviewed on December 30, 2011Planescape’s fiction is perfect: it takes two intrinsic human fears, turns one on its head, and allows the other so much room to breathe. In Planescape, you play as a man who has already lost his entire memory, including that of his own identity, yet he can never escape this dreadful state. |
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Omikron: The Nomad Soul review (PC)Reviewed on December 30, 2011In The Nomad Soul, you don’t play as any of the main characters. Instead, you play as all of them. Sort of. In fact, you play as a person playing a computer game, in which the player plays as a soul who can transfer between different bodies. Yes. And it’s all absolutely merrily acknowledged by the game. None of this is real, it tells you. It’s just a game. |
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Back to the Future: The Game review (PS3)Reviewed on December 26, 2011Back to the Future: The Game basically tries to be a fourth Back to the Future movie, and it tries hard. Everything about this game is a reference to the movies. Some of the music from the movies is used in the soundtrack, there are plenty of references to all three films scattered around the game world, and even the box art follows the template used by the posters for all three films. Christopher Lloyd reassumes the role of Doc Brown, and Marty McFly is played by a new actor (named A.J. LaCascio) who does an amazing job. Seriously, he sounds so much like a young Michael J. Fox, it’s kind of eerie, especially in Episode 5 when Fox himself makes a cameo as one of Marty’s ancestors and the two characters have a conversation. |
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Comic Jumper review (X360)Reviewed on December 22, 2011Each stage is preceded by banter between Captain Smiley, Star (the character on his chest) and assorted other guests that include a wad of paper masquerading as a hero and a tattooed concubine who wears lovely fur garments. The dialog in this game is genuinely funny most of the time, and voiced to perfection. A few of the jokes do seem the slightest bit forced, but even the worst of the humor is so bad it's good. |
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Tropico 3 review (X360)Reviewed on December 22, 2011Sometimes, the amount of control that you have over your island is overwhelming. Tropico 3 was released first as a PC game, where sorting all of the available options and information must have felt quite natural, but the Xbox 360 controller has fewer buttons at its disposal. Face buttons bring up menus, which you can then further navigate using the bumper buttons. |
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Super Scribblenauts review (DS)Reviewed on December 22, 2011If a puzzle gives you too much trouble, the game has a hint system in place. You can pay virtual currency to unlock new tips that supply varying degrees of assistance. Sometimes, the best hints will flat out give you the answer, which may disappoint some. It's not a big deal, though, because most stages can be repeated. The only way to get a gold crown for such stages is to play through it three consecutive times while using different phrases on every attempt. |
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Sports Champions review (PS3)Reviewed on December 22, 2011Sports Champions features six games: disc golf, beach volleyball, archery, table tennis, gladiator duel and bocce. Each included option offers depth and precision. You'll have to work harder to get everything out of these offerings than you would if you were playing Wii Sports, but each one is more substantial than Nintendo's entire package. None of the activities are particularly imposing, either. |
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Scott Pilgrim vs. The World review (X360)Reviewed on December 22, 2011Perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise, then, that the levels in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World often feel like they were borrowed from classic fare such as Final Fight, Double Dragon and River City Ransom. There is a gratuitous number of cracked sidewalks, fire hydrants that spray water when you punch them, trash cans, park benches and bus stops. The attention to detail here is delightful. |
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Rock Band 3 review (X360)Reviewed on December 22, 2011Rock Band 3 adopts a more complicated approach. You can start playing in a "Quick Play" mode, or you can go to a "Career" mode. Performance in one mode affects the options that you have in the other mode. Each song you play can earn you fans, and having enough fans allows you to increase the range of your tours, which eventually leads to more fame, more fans and more gear for your custom band. |
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