199 public written reviews
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The Sly Cooper series made its début for us UK gamers back on the PlayStation 2 in early 2003. On release, it was met with enough positive feedback about its easy and responsive controls, gameplay variety and lovely looking graphics, thanks to the cel-shaded style, to spawn two sequels on the same platform. After the arrival of the PlayStation 3, it seemed creators Sucker Punch had left poor Sly behind to create a…
Runner games have become extremely popular on mobile platforms, normally going for free but incorporating some kind of in-app purchasing as a way to get money from people addicted to the game. Looking at the PC platform, runner games aren’t exactly a thriving genre, unless you want to count the flash games you can play through your browser. I’m talking about purchasable titles, though, such as the recently-released…
Read the full review BIT.TRIP Presents: Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien
There are two kinds of people in this world: those who like being a sniper and those who despise it. Okay, so it might not be quite like that, but for fans who like using such virtual weapons in military games, there isn’t exactly a wave of games dedicated to your love of zooming down that scope and picking off someone from a distance. Two titles aim for your money when it comes to such a sub-genre: last year’s…
Looking at recent news from Capcom it seems that the company is embracing its huge collection of historic IPs and bringing them back as downloadable releases. This is especially important to fighting game fans, as there is a lot of love for some of Capcom’s older fighting games. For me, it was Street Fighter III: Third Strike , which received an updated port to current consoles in August of 2011 as Street Fighter…
If you read my God of War: Ascension review, then you will know that I mentioned the strange spectacle that seems to be plaguing upcoming sequels, and the seeming lack of hype around them. If there was one title on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 , then it’s Gears of War: Judgement , the fourth instalment of the huge Gears of War franchise. The title suffers from the exact same problems as God of War: Ascension - it’s on…
When it comes to naming the greatest games, I am not at all afraid to say that the PlayStation 2 release of Persona 4 ended up as not only one of the best RPGs I had ever played, but one of my favourite games of all time. Persona 4 was the ultimate swan song for the PlayStation 2 – which had built itself up to be quite a system for fans of Japanese RPGs. Persona 4 came so late into the system’s life (we’re talking…
There is no doubt that this generation has been lengthy compared to what we have experienced in the past, but as the year moves on towards the release of the PS4 and whatever Microsoft are going to call their next Xbox , we still need games to tide us over until those arrive. This is where exclusives for consoles are coming into play, with Sony showing us that they aren’t afraid to bring us returning franchises and…
There is no doubt that this generation has been lengthy compared to what we have experienced in the past, but as the year moves on towards the release of the PS4 and whatever Microsoft are going to call their next Xbox , we still need games to tide us over until those arrive. This is where exclusives for consoles are coming into play, with Sony showing us that they aren’t afraid to bring us returning franchises and…
There is no doubt that the Monster Hunter games were the killer app for Sony’s PSP in Japan. It sold buckets upon buckets of copies, as the Japanese ate every version of the game. By the look of things the Monster Hunter series has now moved its home from Sony’s systems to Nintendo’s 3DS and Wii U consoles, so with no killer app for the Vita in Japan, what do companies do? The answer is obvious: fill in that missing…
In this day and age, nearly every zombie-based videogame slots into the “unoriginal” category. We’ve had these walking undead featured in first-person shooters, survival horror, tower defence, puzzlers, twin-stick shooters, and have even played as one in Stubbs the Zombie . So when Rebellion announced they were making a standalone title to Sniper Elite V2 but based on zombies, I was a little concerned over how it…
In this day and age, you can just about play any type of multiplayer, first-person shooter (FPS) on the PC , ranging from popular military shooters, such as Battlefield 3 and Call of Duty titles, to games like the sci-fi-themed Crysis 3 . Even the free-to-play market has brought a wave of FPS games on a grand scale. It’s a genre that is constantly flooding the market, so it’s nice to see that Zombie Studios, who…
Watching Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance move through its development process has been quite a ride since the game was first announcement back at E3 2009. Originally, the game began as Metal Gear Solid: Rising and was flaunted with this new mechanic of being able to cut in any direction you wanted. As time passed on from its E3 unveiling, Metal Gear Solid: Rising was absent from events and no one knew what was going…
After playing through the fantastic Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward on the 3DS, I had been looking to find more visual novel/adventure games to play. When I was told that I should check out Corpse Party on the PSP , I eagerly relented and played through its horror themed adventure. Despite not finding the experience with Corpse Party as polished as Virtue’s Last Reward , the game did manage to entertain me, while…
As soon as you start up The Cave and hear a deep voice speaking at you, only then to find out that it is the cave itself that is narrating, that is when you begin to realise you are in for a strange and amusing adventure within this bizarre entity. This game signals Ron Gilbert’s return to his adventure game roots after dabbling in the action-RPG genre with the DeathSpank series. While The Cave does not seem…
Strike Suit Zero is another successful Kickstarter project that was funded back in November of 2012. The developers used the Kickstarter platform to tap into a field that has somewhat been forgotten on the PC : the space combat genre. We are talking years here, with Freelancer being the last game I can remember playing that I fully enjoyed. Unlike Freelancer , though, Strike Suit Zero is purely about combat,…
There is a unique, characteristic art style with a Studio Ghibli animated film that shows it was produced by Hayao Miyazaki and his legendary motion picture studio. What is even more impressive is that this art style embraces and overpowers the viewer with beautiful and creative fantasy worlds that pull you into a wonderful adventure. Studio Ghibli is not known for jumping into the videogame world, due to Miyazaki’s…
From its initial reveal, DmC: Devil May Cry ( DmC ) was slapped in the face with a lot of negativity. Let’s be honest with each other: As gamers, we shout out for refreshing new ideas and mechanics, but some fans hate it when a different company touches “their” dear franchises and messes with the aesthetics or the formula. This was evident as soon as people saw Dante’s new redesign. Screw talking about the gameplay,…
Multiplayer online battle arena, or MOBA for short, have become a big thing for PC gaming. A few months ago, the developers for League of Legends threw out a picture with statistics that showed it was the most-played game in the world. It’s not only League of Legends that has become popular. If you check out Steam ’s stat page, then you will find that DOTA 2 – Valve’s own take on the genre – is always at the top…
The LEGO videogames are a collection of titles that I never thought would be as fun or as popular as they ended up being. After the success of blending the charmingly cute building blocks with the Star Wars franchise, the series has represented Indiana Jones , Harry Potter , Pirates of the Caribbean and even Batman and his DC Comic friends. Traveller’s Tales seems to be hitting a point where fans wonder what the…
Agent 47 has been on a hiatus for the past six years. During his break, the developers of the stealth franchise have brought us a couple of third-person shooters with the Kane & Lynch titles, and also brought us the surprisingly fun Mini Ninjas . It’s fair to say that fans were ready for a new Hitman game, especially since the last title was in-between the crossover into this generation of consoles. Fans had yet to…
From its first announcement, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale was always going to have an uphill struggle against the waves of gamers calling it out as a Super Smash Bros. clone. Even the official PlayStation YouTube channel had put the words “ Super Smash Brothers ” in its tags, which I guess would mean Sony’s PR team just assumed it was a replica of Nintendo’s smash-hit fighter. The industry is full of copycat…
When it comes to pushing the graphical capabilities on a Nintendo system, Shin’en has done wonders for the Wii and 3DS . Now with the Wii U released around the world, the German developer is looking to show off some of their technical qualities with its Nintendo eShop, twin-stick shooter launch title Nano Assault Neo , a sequel to the 3DS title Nano Assault . The question though, is this game the Super Stardust HD /…
A couple of years ago I was surprised by a relatively unknown DS game called 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors – a visual novel, adventure game that was developed by Chunsoft and published by Aksys Games. As a videogame, 999 did not do much in terms of gameplay. It was a visual novel, after all. So what little gameplay sections featured were the typical, point-and-click adventure, puzzle segments of finding…
In early 2010, Sega surprised me with the rather good Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing , a kart racer developed by Sumo Digital that was fast, great to play and full of quality fan service for Sega fans of any age. It’s also the only title that I can think of in this current console life cycle that came close to the behemoth of kart racing, Nintendo’s flagship Mario Kart series, and if you did not own the Wii, then…
The Dragon Ball Z franchise has been spawning out games every year for a while now. In fact, 2012 is the first time since 2002 that a brand-new Dragon Ball Z fighting game has not hit the market. I am not including Dragon Ball Z for Kinect , since that is not a proper fighting game by any stretch. While Namco Bandai are promoting Dragon Ball Z for Kinect as one for casual fans, Dragon Ball Z Budokai HD Collection ,…
I always found it strange that Sony did not brand Modnation Racers – a kart racer that was thrown into Sony’s “Play Create Share” group of games – with LittleBigPlanet . It essentially did the same thing for the kart racing genre that LittleBigPlanet did for platform games, which was enable a player to create their own content. In Modnation Racers ’ case, this was tracks, racers and funky karts to drive. It was a…
Silent Hill has been all over the place during the past five years. We have had titles ranging from the mediocre Silent Hill: Homecoming, through to the decent Silent Hill: Downpour, and the excellent Silent Hill: Shattered Memories . After the disastrous port of the HD versions of Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3 , Konami are aiming once again to surprise us with Silent Hill: Book of Memories , a Vita title…
A charming and bubbly racing game isn’t something you’d expect from Codemasters, who normally go for pushing gorgeous graphics and realistic visuals for the motorsport games they publish. F1 Race Stars is a new style of racer for the company, a game that aims to bring more people to the brand of F1 that don’t enjoy the realistic gameplay of F1 2012 . It’s a title that fits into the kart racing genre, bringing a…
Even though the Dreamcast was a failure for Sega, the system itself had its fair share of diehard fans in Japan where games were still being developed and released for the console long after the system had died off in other parts of the world. One of these games was the 2006 release of Under Defeat by G.rev, a vertical-scrolling shoot ‘em up that had players pilot a helicopter in an alternative reality based on…
Assassin’s Creed is a franchise that I have not got on well with. In fact, it is more to do with me not fully giving the games a chance. My first experience with the series was with Assassin’s Creed , which came out in 2007. I was fairly hyped for the game, mainly due to the free running aspect, where you could climb pretty much anything you wanted to in the game. I got to the 9or 10 assassination and just gave up.…
When you have a studio dedicated to creating the same type of digital entertainment every year, you expect them to become the masters of their creation. This is what Sports Interactive have done. Over the past 20 years, these developers have crafted the art of the football management game, to the point where a review means nothing to the millions of fans that love this franchise and buy it religiously. Each year,…
The idea of a James Bond game that celebrates 50 years of the iconic British spy by allowing players to participate in some of the older films, sounds like a great idea on paper. Sadly, implementing that into 007 Legends has not done justice for the historic franchise. From the get-go, things start on the wrong side, because rather than sticking to the authenticity for Bond’s golden anniversary, Eurocom (the studio…
After the brilliance of Super Monkey Ball and its fantastic sequel, it seems Sega cannot hit the right note with the series any more, especially on the handheld, where the franchise has yet to supply a good enough game worthy of the Super Monkey Ball label. The last release, which was on the 3DS, was an extremely dumbed-down version, with challenging levels completely out of the equation because of the inclusion of…
I always find myself getting a little giddy when a new first-person shooter (FPS) comes along that tries to re-sprout interest in the arcade, twitch-action genre. In the 90s and early 2000s, we had a collection of great first-person shooters that emphasised pure action. Doom , Quake , Duke Nukem and Serious Sam all required the player to have fast hand-eye coordination, sharp aiming, abuse bunny hopping, and strafe…
Read the full review Painkiller: Hell & Damnation is a fun blast to the past
I have always enjoyed seeing cars being thrashed around unconventional tracks in the world of rally. I find the sport to be exhilarating to watch, but I also relish videogames that are based on the motorsport. There is something appealing to me about driving a car 100MPH through dirt, rain and snow, over jumps, and sliding around corners on a track that is full of twists and turns. I have played many videogames that…
Read the full review WRC3 is a solid rallying experience that is entertaining.
I was disappointed when Nintendo announced Pokémon Black Version 2 and White version 2 for the original DS. I understand why they did it. Most Pokémon fans have not migrated to the 3DS yet, so why spoil the chance for huge sales by limiting it to 3DS owners. Even so, it does not soften the blow. I wanted to use my new 3DS to play a new exclusive Pokémon game, and I cannot do that yet. I guess Nintendo felt like they…
The Vita has struggled to grasp consumers. The sales have been lacking and the games have not exactly been steamrolling towards the system. Sony have picked up their pace with support for the handheld – after the awful E3 showing, where gamers were not impressed with the lack of information for the Vita – and, finally, some interesting games are due in the future. Until those arrive, we have Sony bringing…
The realm of great real-time strategy games (RTS) seems to be limited to the PC; the use of keyboard and mouse is the perfect method to control your army, and trying to capture that on a console just does not work. Recently, there have not been many RTS games to shout about, with StarCraft II stealing most of the limelight for the genre. The future is looking interesting after the recent announcements of the…
There is no doubt that if you want a wacky RPG experience, then the Japanese are the masters at delivering such bizarre concepts and stories for the genre. Compile Heart, who are teaming up with Nippon Ichi Software again, are no strangers to adding weirdness to the genre. Gamers might have heard of Hyperdimensional Neptunia or its sequel Hyperdimensional Neptunia MK2, which had the plot revolve around characters…
I am fairly new to the world of One Piece, as I only started watching the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and his diverse group of companions called the Straw Hats a few months back. Story-wise, I am well behind where the anime currently sits with its 500+ episodes. That said, I can appreciate Omega Force’s attempt to blend the Dynasty Warriors formula with the extremely popular series, and you know what? It could…
For the past two years Codemasters have done a great job bringing back the exhilarating feeling of F1 to the videogame world. Let’s be honest here: Is there really anyone else you would want handling the F1 licence right now? Codemasters have proven to be the company that can make exciting and compelling racing games that manage to blend together a mixture of realism, simulation, and arcade, for both novice and pro…
The last of the Resident Evil games to hit in 2012 is finally upon us, and no doubt this new entry in the main line of games is going to cause quite a stir with diehard fans of the franchise as they wonder what the hell Capcom is doing with their beloved, once-almighty horror series. Resident Evil is no longer the scary, continuous suspense game that it used to be. It has evolved into something more in line with an…
The first Torchlight was a surprise hit for Runic Games back in 2009. This was helped by the generous price of the game and the fact that two of the designers were co-designers for Blizzard’s Diablo and the fanatically praised sequel, Diablo II . These guys knew how to make a desirable loot-based game. Even with the success, the game itself was limited to single player and featured one massive dungeon that took…
You know football season has started when it is raining outside, kids are back at school, and the press is full of news about the stars and fans of the beautiful game causing uproar one way or another. During the start of the season, two giant videogame franchises are trying to prove why you should part with your hard-earned cash. In the past, there has been one clear winner between the – what seems eternal –…
I am all behind old games being updated for current systems, especially fighting games. I never got to play JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure back when the game released on the PS1 and Dreamcast , so this is the perfect time for me to test it out. That said, it seems this HD release has not been given the same amount of love that Street Fighter III: Third Strike: Online Edition or the upcoming Marvel vs. Capcom Origins…
I am surprised it took Sega this long to release an HD port of the critically acclaimed Jet Set Radio . Then again, the company has made some disappointing decisions in my opinion, such as the stupid March 2013 delay for Anarchy Reigns (the game is fully translated already!) and HD ports for games that people most likely did not ask for. Who would take Sega Bass Fishing over ChuChu Rocket or Skies of Arcadia ?…
It has been almost three years since gamers received a new Tekken game. The last title, Tekken 6 , released just after the rebirth of fighting games (due to the fantastic Street Fighter IV) back in 2009. The original Tekken Tag Tournament was a PAL launch title for the PlayStation 2 and regarded by some as the most fun of the series, attributed to the inclusion of the tag mechanics and the feeling that it was built…
It can be hard being a Japanese RPG fan and living in the UK. There have been times when I wanted to play a new JRPG, but region locking or lack of translation often stopped me or delayed my chance to play the game for months, even years. Releases have become better during this generation, but there are still improvements to be made. Take the Tales series for example. The last release that was not a port was the…
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