Latest Reviews
Review Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z (Xbox 360)
Is this a Dragon Ball Zzzzzz?
Dragon Ball Z has always been known for it's spectacle of over the top fun, characters, design and action. Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z is no exception in this highly stylized spectacle fighter, which is easy to play, enjoyable to watch, but which can become repetitive before it gets fun. There isn't really any story to...
Review Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (Xbox 360)
Strike three. And you're out!
Final Fantasy XIII had a pretty convoluted plot, and Final Fantasy XIII-2 didn’t help clarify it much. Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning Returns adds even more confusion to the narrative, so much so that it’s very difficult to enjoy the tale it’s trying to weave. However, if you can look past the ridiculous, and...
Review Earth Defense Force 2025 (Xbox 360)
Buggin' Out
Earth Defense Force 2025 takes itself about as seriously a SyFy original film would. Tonally, it’s a little bit Starship Troopers and part Godzilla, offering up non-stop, mindless bug-killing action. Missions aren’t very complex; hundreds of giant enemies are about to drop into the environment…kill them all. And that’s about the...
Can it steal the gold?
Since the release of Thief: The Dark Project in 1998, the Thief franchise has been known as the grandfather of the stealth genre. It's mastery of simple, yet elegant stealth mechanics, sound design and environments have been a benchmark ever since. Now Eidos Montreal have taken the development reins for the fourth installment...
Review Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 (Xbox 360)
Second time round.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 isn't going to grab your attention as firmly as its predecessor did. The narrative fumbles along and the structure flutters between confusing and tedious. Indeed this denouement to MercurySteam’s take on this cherished franchise doesn't live up to their first foray. However, creative boss...
Review PAC-MAN and the Ghostly Adventures (Xbox 360)
Pac isn't back.
For this first time since the last time, everyone’s favourite spherical pill-muncher is back, apparently. Only this time he has an American “surfer dude” voice. But that isn’t the only change, oh no. He’s friends with some of the ghosts that he was looking to gobble up in the iconic original title for starters and on top of...
Review South Park: The Stick of Truth (Xbox 360)
Great or just m'kay?
Reviewing South Park: The Stick of Truth on a family-friendly site was always going to be a tough proposition. We may have to break a long-standing site rule or two here in order to describe the content and get our point across. After all, it doesn’t matter how much of an accomplished wordsmith you are, you can’t describe...
Review Max: The Curse of Brotherhood (Xbox One)
Artful or awful?
Let’s get this out of the way first: prepare to die a lot in Max: The Curse of Brotherhood. Press Play’s latest puzzle platformer will test your patience with its “trial-and-error” approach and finicky controls — which often led to Max plunging to his death more times than we could count. With that being said, Max’s...
Review Fighter Within (Xbox One)
Fighter Without.
In a world where Kinect for Xbox One is seen as nothing but a gimmick designed to ensure that you pay more for a console than you otherwise would, it was imperative that the first Kinect-only experience was compelling. A Wii Sports for the Xbox One, if you will. So who better to leave in charge of such a thing than Ubisoft, the...
Addiction, thy name is Peggle.
When PopCap’s John Vechey took the stage at E3 2013 to announce the company’s new titles, he expected the announcement of Peggle 2 to be something of a megaton. “Ladies and gentlemen, PEGGLE 2!” he bellowed, as the room went dark and a short video trailer took what seemed like aeons to kick in. During the...
Review Angry Birds: Star Wars (Xbox One)
Flies in the oink-ment.
Try and find somebody who’s never played an Angry Birds title, and you’ll find that it’s a tough ask. After launching on mobile devices a few years back, the game has gone from strength to strength, and is now – as we all know – available in a million different varieties, for a million different devices. There’s a...
Review Need for Speed: Rivals (Xbox One)
We fought the law.
Though it’s a far less technical and therefore more arcade feeling racer than Forza, Need for Speed: Rivals isn’t something you want to miss as part of the Xbox One launch offering. Its schizophrenic identity of law breaker versus law maker, provides a dual experience of fast cars, dangerous pursuits and intense road battles...
Review Powerstar Golf (Xbox One)
Swingin'!
If there’s one thing every console apparently needs, it’s a golf game. Whether you’re seeking realism in one of EA’s PGA-licenced affairs, or firing up the over-the-top action of the excellent Everybody’s Golf series, there always seems to be at least one available relatively early on in a console’s life-cycle. Powerstar Golf...
Review Dead Rising 3 (Xbox One)
Dead fun.
If you're a fan of the original title and the sequel, then Dead Rising 3 is going to impress and please you. The series' intriguing lore and storyline, over the top, ridiculous psycho boss battles, and oodles of extravagant combo weapons are all present and accounted for, enhanced further by the Xbox One's powerful hardware. Dead Rising 3...
Review Killer Instinct (Xbox One)
C-C-C-Combo Breaker!
Fans have been asking for it for years and finally Killer Instinct has returned, albeit with a new developer - Double Helix - who have adopted a free-to-play model for the game's characters, which is also now sporting fancy new visuals. However, fans can relax their cynicism and rejoice, as Killer Instinct on Xbox One retains...
Review Ryse: Son of Rome (Xbox One)
Veni, vidi, vici, all in a day
Ryse: Son of Rome is an excellent showcase for the Xbox One hardware. The visually stunning, fast paced action title delivers intense combat, an intriguing story and a pleasantly surprisingly slice of cooperative multiplayer to introduce this new generation of gaming. It's far from flawless but it's undoubtedly...
Review Battlefield 4 (Xbox 360)
Children of the Levolution™
It's always somewhat difficult deciding on how to review such heavily multiplayer-centric games. There's no shortage of single-player affairs on the market that feature a tacked-on multiplayer component, seemingly put together at the final hour in order to tick one of the many boxes that developers - or rather,...
A point of view.
When it comes to ticking all the indie boxes, someone at intriguingly named developer Quantum Astrophysicists Guild seems to have had a long old list to run through when it comes to The Bridge. From furnishing the game with a black and white pencil sketch art style, via allowing you to fast-rewind time with a simple button press,...
Review Call of Duty: Ghosts (Xbox 360)
Do you know what time it is?!
With the "It's Call of Duty time" tagline that's plastered across advertisements far and wide, comes expectations; the expectation that we know what to expect. If you’re one of the people who think they know what kind of experience is to be found in Infinity Ward’s latest military shooter, chances are you’re...
Review Deadfall Adventures (Xbox 360)
Buried alive.
When we previewed Deadfall Adventures a couple of months ago, we were promised by the publisher that there was a lot of work to be done. Some graphical elements would be cleaned up, the gunplay would be tweaked, and framerate fixes would be put in place. In short, the normal last-minute polish and clean-up work would be done in order...
Knocked out.
When THQ went pop and Take 2 picked up the rights for the valuable WWE franchise, we envisioned that WWE 2k14 would be something of a transitional title. From the outset, it’s clear to see that the usual yearly changes have been made. A few new fighters are in place, and old ones have updated movesets, attire, entrance videos, and...
No flunking here
Before playing Final Exam, we’d heard it be described as a sidescrolling Left 4 Dead, and, in all honesty, that’s a fairly apt comparison; it’s a 4-player zombie slayer with online co-op, a level set in a subway, and a massive, hulking enemy called a Tank. Superficial, skin-deep comparisons aside, Mighty Rocket Studio’s...
Review Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Xbox 360)
Turtle-y dire.
Being fans of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series, we were looking forward to this year. A slick-looking reboot of the show was already in full swing, and Activision had not one, but TWO new games due to hit the Xbox 360 to celebrate. We already know what a massive let-down the digital title – Teenage Mutant...
Review Batman: Arkham Origins (Xbox 360)
This Batman may be less refined, but he still packs a solid punch.
For a man who successfully fights crime by being one with the shadows, we have a feeling not even Batman himself would be comfortable living in the looming overcast of the masterful Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. Those are not only two of the greatest superhero games in existence,...
Review Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (Xbox 360)
Sing hearty!
To say that there’s a world of difference between Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, and the original game in the series, would be the understatement of the year. We only raise the point in fact, as there seems to be a somewhat vocal group of folks who have decided that the series hasn’t progressed at all. It still features that...
Another lap.
In the history of Formula One racing, there have been only four Grands Prix that have ended with as many runners as have started. The 1961 Dutch GP, the 2005 Italian GP, the controversial 2005 US GP (which only had six starters) and the 2011 European GP. We were close this year, with only one failing to finish in the Belgian GP, but all...
Review Hot Wheels: World's Best Driver (Xbox 360)
Can't handle it
The Hot Wheels brand has been around for over 40 years now, and feels as synonymous with American culture as hot dogs, apple pie, and baseball. In fact, we’d be surprised to learn of any boy that didn’t have at least one of these classic die-cast cars in their toy-box at some point in their young life. To this day we harbor...
Psi-what?
You can safely bet from the cover art and screenshots to Girl Fight what sort of game you're getting yourself in to. Kung Fu Factory shows no shame in taking what gamers secretly wanted in Dead or Alive all along: remove all of the male fighters and put a strong emphasis on beautiful, digital vixens with odd fashion senses and a refusal to...
Top corner.
The football season is in full swing, and with the EA and Microsoft cosying up over the FIFA series this year, it looks like it’ll eventually be a big 2013 for the franchise on Xbox platforms. Sales aren’t what they were last year in the early going, but with the Xbox One version of FIFA 14 being bundled with preorders, some players...
Ice and simple.
The puck has dropped on the new NHL season and as sure as day follows night, that means that EA have been at work on their yearly update to the NHL game franchise. This year, the build-up to the game’s release seemed to focus more on who was going to be the athlete on the cover (it ended up being the Devils goalie Martin Brodeur)...
