Gaming's favourite platters get another stir of the pot
Game Theory BioShock Infinite, Gears of War: Judgement, SimCity, Luigi’s Mansion 2 and more...
Another month goes by and, as ever, gaming isn’t short of its share of news and controversies. While recent reveals of Battlefield 4, Metal Gear Solid V, The Witcher 3 and Thief: Out of the Shadows show us what the future holds, there's no getting around the fact that we're currently entrenched in a present in which …
Trip the fight fantastic
Game Theory Tomb Raider, Aliens Colonial Marines, Crysis 3, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and more…
After a gap of five weeks or so since my last column the games industry has suddenly become a whole new animal. The next generation - well, Sony’s at least - has been revealed, and games publishers are finally able to talk about developing for a new breed of consoles without resorting to coded, barely voiced communications.
It’s …
SimCity 4
Antique Code Show Well, burgher me backwards
There’s a prevalent feeling throughout the whole of SimCity 4 that this is the game that Will Wright and Maxis would have liked to have made from day one. That is if graphics technology and PC hardware had been up to the task when the original SimCity was in development.
The 2003 release was expanded in both the macro and the …
SimCity 3000
Antique Code Show The massive first-person 3D city sim that never was
I don’t know if my gaming habits had started to become dominated by RTS and FPS games by the time SimCity 3000 made its delayed debut in 1999, but for some reason I don’t recall it registering on my radar.
Strange, for not only was SimCity 2000 one of my favourite games - as it remains to this day - but its sequel was also a …
SimCity 2000
Antique Code Show Spline of the times
The summer of 1995, I remember it well. I was but a slip of lad at the time, slightly console obsessed perhaps, but about to embark on a period of PC gaming that would put me at the forefront of cutting-edge videogame technology, nearly bankrupting my parents as I went.
It was my birthday and I’d just finished hooking up my …
SimCity Classic
Antique Code Show Micromanage your own mock metropolis
Doughnuts. Doughnuts are what I think of when someone mentions SimCity in my vicinity. Not because I used to cram them into my face, Homer Simpson-style, while I played, but rather because, back in my childhood, I was obsessed with arranging my own ‘simmed’ city in perfect concentric 'doughnuts'.
Squares in three-by-three …
Game Theory: Bioshock Infinite, Devil May Cry, SimCity
The latest videogame releases reviewed... and more
The first few months of the year are, as ever, a time for the public and publishers alike to draw breath after the Christmas frenzy. Only a handful of full-price games launch, giving gamers time to catch a breath and ponder what they’ll spend their money on in the year to come. That said, this period is already clocking up …
2012: A generation-spanning year for gaming
In with the new, but not yet out with the old
This year has been arguably the most important year for the videogames industry in a long time. Not only did we see Sony take a final punt at the handheld market with the PS Vita - a move it may well now be regretting - but 2012 also saw Nintendo usher in the next generation of gaming with the Wii U. Sure, the Wii U may not be a …
Six of the best Nintendo Wii U games
Half a dozen titles for your two-screen console
All new consoles need the right line-up of games to make them a success. The Wii U, however, finds itself in the unusual position of not only having brand new games built for it at launch, but also having numerous games ported over from Xbox 360 and PS3.
Batman: Arkham City, Darksiders 2, Assassin’s Creed 3, Mass Effect 3, FIFA …
Nintendo Wii U Review
'Asymmetric gameplay', anyone?
Six years ago Nintendo brought gaming to the masses with the Wii, now it’s hoping to repeat the trick. The Wii U signals not only Nintendo’s first foray into HD, but the arrival of a new peripheral for us to get to grips with in the shape of the Wii U GamePad and its ‘asymmetric’ gameplay.
Wii U Playing the field: Nintendo's …
Far Cry 3 game review
Jungle warfare
In a few simple beats Far Cry 3's accidental hero, Jason Brody, goes from being nervy, spoilt rich kid to John Rambo, as his extreme sports holiday takes a turn for the worse. It’s a forgivably quick process for plot development purposes, if an abrupt one, but made palatable by the use of subtle tricks skilfully employed to pull …
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 game review
Playing with fire
The knives have been sharpened, the vitriol pumped, the maps cleared of bodies and the zombies starved. It can only mean one thing: Call of Duty: Black Op 2 is upon us.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Flagging the issue
It's the series where reviewers can never win, and Activision's coffers never fail to be filled. Where one wrong …
Assassin's Creed 3 game review
Scales and tales
"His name is Desmond Miles and he has brought us to the end." So begins Assassin's Creed 3. Frankly, if you believe this really is the end then you'll believe anything. No, rather than an end, AC3 is a fresh beginning, a place for new hero Connor Kenway to "rise" as the game's tagline puts it – form an orderly queue behind …
In the loop: how Halo defined a new decade of first-person shooters
Feature From 'Pillar of Autumn' to genre foundation
The glint of alien sunlight on green body armour; the spark of purple crystal shards arcing their way across the battlefield; the roar of a Warthog’s engine as it bounces across uneven terrain; and the dull thud as the butt of Master Chief’s gun impacts Covenant skull… familiar enough occurrences these days given the impact Halo …
Resident Evil 6 game review
Review It's bite night tonight in a horrorfest sporting an impressive engine
What a dumbfounding series Resident Evil is. First, we have the innovations – popularising the survival horror genre for one. Then later, perfecting the third-person shooter camera, before taking environmental interaction to new heights. The game even led the way in cooperative campaign mechanics. But then there's the series' …
Dishonored game review
Review Steampunk rocks in this tour de force of adventure gaming
Remember those Fighting Fantasy "choose your own adventure" books penned by the likes of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone - now whatever happened to them... - in the mid-1980s? Well, Dishonored plays like the ultimate version of one of those, offering choice in terms of strategy and approach at every turn.
Dishonored Dolly …
Borderlands 2 review
Smash and grab
Loot and shoot, shoot and loot: Borderlands 2 in a proverbial nutshell. Thank goodness then that it’s looting and shooting of the highest order, as another intrepid gang of vault hunters get tooled up and head into the wastelands, with the lure of untold wealth at the forefront of their minds.
Borderlands 2 Crash and carry …
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Review Gang bang
Take a good close look at your favourite multiplayer first-person shooter and chances are it owes much of its weapon balancing, map structure and pacing to Counter-Strike. A tactical, team-based Half-Life mod which first saw light of day in 1999 – having itself been influenced by the brilliant but glitchier Action Quake 2 – …
Lollipop Chainsaw
Review Cheerleader gets chopper out
Its name alone could be enough to suggest the origins of Lollipop Chainsaw. It's a title that somehow immediately resonates with Suda51’s Grasshopper Manufacture Inc, whether you knew it was one of its titles or not.
Lollipop Chainsaw Bright squeeze
With his studio already responsible for the "out there" experiences that are …
Hands on with Nintendo's Wii U
First look Give it to Mii...
It's been widely discussed, dissected and generally accepted that E3 2011 was something of a misstep for Nintendo; last year's unveiling of Wii U was met by much scratching of heads as press and public alike tried to fathom what we might expect from the gaming firm's Mario Wii U console.
How were we meant to hold such cumbersome …
Prototype 2
Review Heller damnation
In my mind’s eye I see the original Prototype in murky black and white, not because the game was without colour per se, but more because everything about it, from the repetitive use of textures through to the monotonous mission structure was somehow muddied and just, well, uninspired.
Prototype 2 High blood pressure
In a way …
Twisted Metal
Review Crash and burn
David Jaffe's vision for car-based deathmatching has always split gamers down the middle. Its love-it-or-hate-it mix of crass humour, barely there vehicle handling and everything but the kitchen sink approach to weaponry won't appeal to everyone. Nevertheless, Twisted Metal still garnered a sizeable following in its heyday. …
Final Fantasy XIII-2
Review Terminal illness
Is it just me who remembers Final Fantasy III – actually, that’s FF VI if you’re Japanese – the mercurial tale of the evil Kefka and heroes Sabin, Edgar, Terra, et al? I recall the brilliant use of magical espers, its line-up of amazingly distinct fighters – Sabin even channelling Street Fighter-style special moves in a clever …
Soul Calibur V
Review Blades of glory
Ah, Soul Calibur, a game where over-muscled beefcakes and scantily clad teen girls clash in violent, weaponised mortal combat. Then, having ripped each other a new one, said combatants dust themselves off ready to battle the next day. Maybe it's just me, but I'm having a little trouble with the believability factor here; mind …
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Review Gripping Link
Look who it is. Just when you thought that the dust-gathering ornament you used to call a Nintendo games console was in permanent retirement, back it bounds. Why? Because there’s a new Legend of Zelda in town - a game most will have played before in one guise or another, and one that Nintendo always finds a way to freshen up. …
Assassin's Creed: Revelations
Review Organised climb
It might just be me, but as Ezio Auditore effortlessly scales yet another tower, it’s hard to shake the feeling we've been here before. I know it's the continuation of a story arc, and I know that the game's engine – as already rolled out in last year's Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood – is already adequate enough in its animation …
Hands on with the Sony PlayStation Vita
First Look Touch me, play me
It seems fair to state that for a while now Sony's PSP handheld games console has been experiencing something of long and undignified death. Even the Japanese technology giant itself saw fit to limit PSP software releases to largely redundant updates of its EyePet and Invizimals franchises – a move hardly likely to cause a …
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Review Barrels of fun
Look who’s back. Despite well-documented development team difficulties after the release of Modern Warfare 2, a feeling of increasing apathy for a franchise already over milked and fierce competition from EA in the shape of Battlefield 3, it seems you just can’t keep a good - and immensely profitable - series down.
Modern …
Battlefield 3
Review Bangers and crash
Even the staunchest opponent of all things games would have been hard pushed to avoid the determined advertising campaign waged on us by EA of late. TV spots, billboards, websites, magazines, sides of buses, newspapers, even logos on tanks in one recent London stunt, all liberally displaying brand Battlefield.
To say the war …
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
Review Third time lucky
Naughty Dog has created a monster; I remember when I first snapped up the original Uncharted, back when Sony was still looking for its first killer PS3 title. Resistance: Fall of Man had been mooted as such a title but ultimately disappointed, Motorstorm wowed us with its graphics but was limited by its genre, Heavenly Sword …
Forza 4
Review Petrolheadonism
Driving simulators - you either get them or you don't. For those of you who can't tell your carburettors from your crankshafts, there's perhaps little chance that anything written here will convince you to invest. Shame, because Forza 4 is perhaps the most accessible driving sim yet designed. It has the depth demanded by the …
id Software's Rage
Review Apocalypse wow
Is it an RPG? Is it a first-person shooter? This is a question which reverberates around my mind while I wander through Rage’s wastes. Why the confusion? Because id’s latest shooter hovers somewhere in the middle of these genres, a chimera with, oddly enough, lashings of Motorstorm-esque racing thrown in for good measure.
Rage …
Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection
Review Bossin' in HD
Can games be ahead of their time? I’ve heard it said of musicians, film directors, even comedians but rarely attributed to any person, or any particular release, within the games industry. Perhaps it’s time we started? Take Ico, for example, originally released for PS2 in Europe in 2001 to critical praise but scant commercial …
F1 2011
Review Lap it up
It’s a funny old sport, F1: an ever changing maelstrom of rule adjustments and technology upgrades, ensuring any given season is entirely disparate from the next. Imagine if FIFA suddenly deemed that football’s throw-ins were to become kick-ins, before adjusting the rule once more the next.
That’s precisely the issue facing F1 …
Driver San Francisco
Review Speedy detective work
Defusing bombs, rounding up drug runners and saving damsels in distress, just a sample of the heroic acts possible while behind the wheel of a high performance vehicle – who knew? Driver San Francisco is a game that rather lacks any semblance of plausibility, yet holds such a penchant for the ridiculous that you'll be amused …
Bodycount
Review Esprit de corpse
In the ever deepening reservoir that is the FPS genre, most games ultimately fall into one of two categories. There are those which encourage thought, exploration, tactical nous, micro-management of resources and, of course, a good shot. We’re talking the likes of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Half-Life 2, BioShock and even Modern …
From Dust
Review Playing God
Microsoft’s Summer of Arcade has become something of an institution these last few years, ushering in the release of some of the best seen download-only games yet seen; the likes of Limbo, Braid, Shadow Complex and last week’s Bastion to name but a few. Up next is From Dust, a release with a pedigree all of its own in the gaming …
Captain America: Super Soldier
Review A tonic for the troops?
Games based around movies have a reputation (most would say justly deserved) of seldom living up to their silver screen counterparts, while those timed to debut simultaneously with their movie counterparts have an even worse success to failure ratio.
It might not come as a massive shock to anyone out there then, that Captain …
FEAR 3
Review Fright or flight?
If you've not followed developments in the FEAR franchise of late then you might be left somewhat puzzled by FEAR 3's initial goings-on – the game plunging the player into a set-up which is never particularly embellished or explained. Waking in a prison, series protagonist 'Point Man' must not only put up with his rather mundane …
Child of Eden
Review Ommmmm
"Save Eden. Save Lumi." The precluding order of an introduction which summarises Child of Eden’s essentially superfluous plot. I could tell you that the general gist is that we’re hundreds of years into the future, Lumi – the fist human born in space – is long dead, and the internet has evolved into something approaching The …
Dirt 3
Review Rally ho!
The fact that rally is a niche market, even among petrolheads, perhaps goes someway to explaining why Codemaster’s Dirt franchise strives to rein in the time challenge aspects of the sport – instead favouring racing, albeit in a way which retains the drifting and suicidal cornering of the motorsport. Codemasters: good decision …
Outland
Review Dark matters
A quick check of the map confirms the hero’s next objective – a mere two levels above him. What the map doesn’t reveal are the obstacles standing between him and that adventure-progressing goal.
Outland How Inca-pacitiating
Skilfully evading not one, but two spike traps with graceful fleetness of foot, the hero finds himself …
Brink
Review Edge of existence
“Save the Ark, or escape it?” The choice initially offered to players upon loading up Brink, Splash Damage’s latest first-person shooter. What’s the Ark you ask? A last bastion of humanity, following worldwide flooding caused by the rising of the oceans – darned global warming!
Brink Hit and miss
After a period of peace the …
Mortal Kombat
Review Goremongers
Like Frankenstein’s Monster, Mortal Kombat has ever been the lumbering chimera, an amalgamation of individual parts thrown together, somehow brought to life much to the despondency of nature’s will.
Mortal Kombat Two girls, one mug
Take the series’ visuals, for example: ever shifting from one trend to another, as the …
Dynasty Warriors 7
Review The art of score
Parkouring across the backs of galloping horses; fighting while cascading down a majestic waterfall; evading a ball-and-chain attack before using the weapon’s momentum to swing to safety. What do these things have in common? Simply that they’re all shown in Dynasty Warrior 7’s rather epic FMV intro and they’re all acts you’ll …
Yakuza 4
Review Gangster wrap
Yakuza 4 manages to pack so many disparate gaming elements into the one package that it’s hard to know where to start. Part soap opera, part noire, undoubtedly a kung-fu fighter, but with fleeting resource management and a reasonable-sized city to explore, this is the JRPG, at its most offbeat.
Yakuza 4 Too cool for an umbrella …
Homefront
Review Dog eat dog
THQ has made it abundantly clear that it intends to step it up as a publisher, marquee titles – the likes of De Blob 2, Red Faction: Armageddon and indeed Homefront are all part of that plan – as the publishing house looks to take on Activision and EA, specialists in the art of the cross-platform blockbuster.
Homefront Cop a …
Dragon Age II
Review Hit and myth
Dragon Age 2, sequel to 2009’s Dragon Age: Origins, plunges us once more into the realm of swords and sorcery – even adapting its history based on your Origins' saved game (if you have one). However, in terms of style and gameplay, there is perhaps more here that fans of Mass Effect will find familiar than series veterans. …
Bulletstorm
Review Is there a new Duke in town?
To say that Bulletstorm draws parallels with Duke Nukem 3D is to put it mildly. There’s that same cocksure attitude, same over-the-top one liners, the same penchant for violence, even a similar range of physics-defying weaponry on offer.
Bulletstorm No joke, splitting your insides
In fact, if it wasn’t for the fact that Duke …
Dead Space 2
Review The nightmare returns
If you’re of a nervous, sensitive disposition I advise you to look away now. For, you see, Dead Space 2 – Visceral’s space-based survival horror – is instantly, and without question, one of gaming’s most gruesome penny dreadfuls to date; eclipsing even its predecessor in the nausea-inducing stakes. Bodies will be mutilated, …
