Xbox 360 Reviews

The wait is over...

When Codemasters first unleashed Race Driver: Grid on an unsuspecting world back in 2008, they can’t possibly have expected it to be so well received. The almost arcade-style handling that allowed you to drive somewhat wrecklessly but that also rewarded skilful driving was the highlight, and the multitudes of race types,...

Missed step in a minefield?

Let's get this clear right off the bat. BioShock Infinite has been ingrained in the public psyche for the last few weeks. This game is not BioShock Infinite. Where BioShock was crafted for years, painstakingly disassembled, reassembled and revised in the hope that it will somehow transcend the usual video game tropes and...

A Fair Way To Go

It’s that time of year again. The smell of freshly-cut grass is in the air, the birds are singing, the sun is in the…well, it’s mostly rainy and windy here in the UK, but there you go. Whatever the weather, its Tiger Woods PGA Tour time. This year, EA have provided a mostly iterative update to the series, with a couple of big...

BioShockingly Brilliant...

After fours years in development and tens of millions of pounds in resources, the team at Irrational have finally shipped the highly-anticipated sequel to one of the most beloved video games of this generation. You play as Booker Dewitt, a man tasked with rescuing a girl from the floating city of Columbia in order to pay...

Hit and miss.

In the FPS market, the idea of stealth is very much overlooked. That sounds like a crazy thing to say given that every other game that involves gunplay also involves at least one mission where you have to navigate behind obvious cover points to avoid detection, taking out clueless enemies one by one. What we mean is that while hiding...

The Xbox 360's testosterone-fuelled swan song?

There isn’t much to say about Gears of War that hasn’t been written countless times before. It’s undoubtedly one of the most beloved video game series of this generation, and went from being a relative unknown to one of Microsoft’s most important trump cards. Gears of War shifts systems and has...

She's back...

When it comes to the social and political issues that surround the dawn of a new era for the game that helped make gaming somewhat more acceptable than it previously was, we’re not expertly placed to comment. Therefore, we won’t. We are expertly placed to talk about the game as a game though, so let’s do that. Tomb Raider is not...

Crysis averted?

With consoles dominated by simplified mass-market FPS titles - like Activision’s Call of Duty behemoth - the arrival of the Crysis franchise was a breath of fresh air. Initially a PC exclusive that garnered a reputation as a hardware-crushing FPS for the hardcore gamer, it would be easy to assume that the incredible graphics that...

Hack-tastic.

Let’s get it right out of the way. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance isn’t your standard Metal Gear title. With Platinum Games (Bayonetta, Vanquish) picking up the developmental reins, it was never going to be and as much as we love the stealth subgenre’s favourite son, it isn’t a bad thing. There are some cunning nods to previous...

Under Your Skin

42 seconds. That’s how long it will take the average gamer to start cursing, the first time they play Under Defeat. Not at all coincidentally, that's also around about the length of time it will take for them to lose their first life. Fear and panic doesn’t prepend the inevitable expiry, oh no. It just happens. And then it...

Somebody's poisoned the waterhole.

Seemingly since the beginning of time, there hasn’t been a festive season that’s gone by where at least one publisher hasn’t reached into their box of previously released titles and decided to port one to a new format just in time for the Christmas rush. And that – unfortunately – is exactly what’s...

Fast and furious.

Back in 2008, when Criterion released Burnout Paradise into the world, they changed people's perceptions about what an open-world racer could truly be. Sweeping vistas, recognizable streets and some truly revolutionary multiplayer gaming were the order of the day, and the gaming public responded well. 2010's Need for Speed: Hot...

Open your world.

When it comes to racing games, Turn 10 are undoubtedly the kings of the track on the Xbox 360. Their Forza Motorsport series has hit the nail on the head more often than not, with super-slick visuals and an unmatched attention to detail causing petrolheads to drool. This spin-off however, has been handled by Playground Games, a team...

The road less travelled?

Let’s get this sorted right away. Fable: The Journey isn’t an on-rails experience. Well, it is and it isn’t. Ok, it’s about half and half. But when you’re not being moved about automatically, you’re controlling a horse and cart that can only really go in one direction. So it kind of is. But you can choose which...

Big Bird's Big Let-Down

After seeing the potential of Kinect-based learning with Kinect Nat Geo TV earlier this week, we were looking forward to visiting our old friends down on Sesame Street. If older kids could be coaxed into mixing learning into their downtime, we were sure that the same could be said for an even younger crowd, especially given...

Lions, and tigers, and bears! Oh, my!

Did you know that the mountain lion is the largest member of the cat family that actually purrs? No? Neither did we, although thanks to Kinect Nat Geo TV, we do now. With some games, you feel a bit of apprehension when it comes to loading them up for review. It has the be said that the prospect of finding out...

Going for Gold

In an Olympic year, there’s always an official game release – such as London 2012: The Official Videogame of The Olympic Games – and then a bunch of pretenders to the throne with publishers who are looking to make a quick buck. On a few occasions, the unofficial titles have surpassed the official attempts in terms of quality...

Red Head Redemption?

Let’s dispense with pleasantries, shall we? We all know that games based on movies are usually average or downright awful, with THQ’s excellent Puss in Boots perhaps being the only notable exception of late. So, we won’t dwell on that. Or we wouldn’t dwell on that, were THQ’s latest Disney/Pixar crossover, Brave: The...

The ice is wearing thin

Games based on movies have a somewhat dodgy reputation. The publisher grabs the movie licence – generally as filming wraps up – and assigns a developer to get a game completed in time for the movie’s release. In rare cases, the development teams have struck gold. Generally though, the publisher ends up releasing a game...