Review Archives (Staff Reviews)

You are currently looking through staff reviews for PC games. Below, you will find reviews written by all eligible authors and sorted according to date of submission, with the oldest 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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	Two Worlds: Epic Edition review (PC) Reviewed on September 22, 2008 If Two Worlds is modelled as closely on Oblivion as it looks to be, then Reality Pump have missed the point entirely. The open world remains in full force and the art design is plagiaristically similar, but Two Worlds' judgement of what makes a high-quality digital RPG is way off. Bethesda mustn't know whether to laugh or cry.
	Mass Effect review (PC) Reviewed on September 29, 2008 I don't think I've played a game with this much all-round polish since Half-Life 2. Mass Effect simply sparkles, overflowing with cinematic sci-fi design, brimming with utter, undebatable confidence in its approach. It's about as close to an interactive movie as the medium has come, but it's absolutely a videogame, and makes no bones about it. It’s full of cut-scenes, boss battles and, at heart, complete linearity, but it's so much more than that. Mass Effect, despite on the surface being an impressive rehash of Star Wars, is one of the most atmospheric and involving games I've ever played...
	Thief: Deadly Shadows review (PC) Reviewed on October 05, 2008 Does a game lose worth for providing too much of a challenge? Forcing the player into a routine of patience in order to beat its difficulty is the very crux of the Thief franchise, so it seems a little unfair to berate an admittedly well-crafted videogame for this reason.
	Galactic Civilizations II: Endless Universe review (PC) Reviewed on October 06, 2008 his means that anyone who has touched anything resembling a turn-based strategy before will easily pick it up but the simple setting change doesn't make the game good. Its kind of like how many people say that Firefly was just a Western for Star Trek fans. Except Firefly had Nathan Fillion. And was entertaining.
	The Political Machine 2008 review (PC) Reviewed on October 13, 2008 The presidential race is split into forty one weeks. This gives you forty one turns to play out in the same time as your opponent to fly all over America and convince as many states as you can to vote for you. By any means necessary..
	Geo-political Simulator review (PC) Reviewed on October 14, 2008 Getting things back into the green through changing the budget is like playing Operation with shaky hands – doable, but difficult and pointless. All this makes for an experience that is essentially unfriendly to the causal player or warmonger, as you have to be really secure in your power (usually only possible after investing a considerable amount of time into balancing your affairs) before even thinking about launching a mission to 'blow shit up'. Its accurate to real life, but will really deter people who simply don't have the opportunity to play a game for that long in order to get to the juicy part.
	The Witcher review (PC) Reviewed on October 16, 2008 There's a lovely quality to The Witcher's atmosphere, stemming from a combination of lush art design and the gripping plot on offer. It suffers from occasional pacing issues -- chapter one in particular requires a horrific amount of to-ing and fro-ing before it gets to the point -- but it's delivered in a generally satisfying, urgent and compelling way, driving the player to press on with the journey through Temeria. It certainly feels a lot more focused than some of its next-gen peers, which will relieve those who found themselves wandering around Oblivion's vastness with little clue of what was unfolding around them.
	World of Goo review (PC) Reviewed on October 24, 2008 If World of Goo were developed and published by Nintendo -- which it absolutely could be, given the phenomenal fusion of style and substance on display here -- not one person would have a problem with its being released as a full-price title. At this super-budget rate, it's simply incredible.
	Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People Episode 2: Strong Badia the Free review (PC) Reviewed on October 26, 2008 In essence, this game makes the entire first game feel like a lengthy tutorial, familiarizing you with the characters and the locations and the flow of gameplay. It was as much a learning experience for the developers as it was for the player. The game is a step in the right direction, a big one. It's full of hope for the future, bright with the knowledge that Telltale can actually handle the task of creating a compelling episodic series.
	Spooky Spirits review (PC) Reviewed on October 31, 2008 I feel a little cheap not saying more about Spooky Spirits, but there isn't a whole lot more to say. And that's good; it adheres to the basics of its genre and provides challenging, logical puzzles and intuitive controls to solve them with, with nothing frilly or gimickey that tries to add depth.
	Fallout 3 review (PC) Reviewed on November 02, 2008 Fallout 3 threw me completely off-balance. It took a while of playing to realise (not to mention a few "this is brilliant, right?" conversations), but the fact is inescapable: Bethesda's interpretation of this devastating nuclear wasteland is truly, monumentally astounding.
	Wow review (PC) Reviewed on November 02, 2008 At first glace, it’s just an empty room. After moving around for a while, it remains an empty room. You will decide it is an empty room and is the epitome of awful .wad construction. You will be proved wrong. Against all odds, it manages to get worse. Worse than an empty room.
	The Sims 2: Apartment Life review (PC) Reviewed on November 05, 2008 Once you're happily—or unhappily, if art imitates life—dwelling within your humble abode, the differences don't necessarily stop. If you've moved into someone's apartment, they're not going to look kindly on you knocking down walls or making major renovations, so put such thoughts out of your head. Instead, you can focus on the usual things that have for so long been a staple of the series: interior decorating.
	Lightning Warrior Raidy review (PC) Reviewed on November 06, 2008 But if you're expecting an amazing, old-school crawler experience like Wizardry or the more recent Etrian Odyssey like I was, well... This isn't it. Lightning Warrior Raidy is littered with a ton of flaws that make it a hard recommendation for all but the most desperate of dungeon crawler fans.
	Sacred 2: Fallen Angel review (PC) Reviewed on November 06, 2008 This prequel to 2004 Diablo-clone Sacred seems to be suffering from an identity crisis. In attempting to combine in-depth role-playing with hack-and-slash action and odd, self-depreciating humour, Sacred 2 manages to miss the mark in all the key areas, emerging as a horrendously dull and needlessly fiddly release.
	Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People Episode 3: Baddest of the Bands review (PC) Reviewed on November 08, 2008 It was somewhere around the middle of Baddest of the Bands that it became obvious the series was almost more sitcom than game. At the time, I was attempting to set a car on fire, so that I could take a picture of it for an album cover which I would use to win a contest to recruit celebrity judges. I needed celebrity judges to hold a benefit concert, raising money to repair my video game console. A worthy cause if ever there was one.
	Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy review (PC) Reviewed on November 11, 2008 Nancy Drew can do everything. This adventure, her 19th game outing, gives her an opportunity to work as a wedding planner, chemist, musician, bartender, astronomer, mathematician, and shepherd. But of course, her most important role is always that of super sleuth. To completely unravel The Haunting of Castle Malloy, Nancy must decipher an intriguing blend of old world folklore and modern scientific mysteries before her friend's wedding is canceled for good!
	Imperium Romanum: Emperor Expansion review (PC) Reviewed on November 16, 2008 Imperium Ronanum: Gold Edition is by no means a bad game. I believe it was built for newcomers to the genre, as everything from resource management to the interface is incredibly simplified. Regulars will still see some uncannily similarities to games they've played before, namely Glory of the Roman Empire. Make no mistake, though: This is not a typical strategy aimed at your average war-monger.
	Left 4 Dead review (PC) Reviewed on November 19, 2008 I can't quite believe that I find myself, just a few weeks on from Fallout 3, playing yet another game of such ferociously high quality. Left 4 Dead is astoundingly good fun, polished in all the right places, tense, atmospheric and relentlessly gruesome. As a single-player affair, it would have satisfied my old-school bloodlust just fine. In co-operative mode, the game's main selling point, it's to die for.
	FIFA Soccer 09 review (PC) Reviewed on November 23, 2008 Annually updated for pretty much as long as I can remember, it's always sat a little behind the Pro Evolution series in capturing what makes this most godlike of sports so magical. This year's – or, if you go by the date, next year's - update inches ever closer to realising its dream, but once again falls just short of the mark in a few areas.

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