Game Reviews

It’s time to dust off that Kinect sensor with the release of Kinect Sports: Season 2, the sequel to what could arguably be the best Kinect game to date. While it brings us a decent collection of solid mini-games, a sense of deja vu cannot be avoided. Let’s take a look at what it has to offer.

Accurate controls – Kinect has been known to be less than accurate at times, but things feel just right with Kinect Sports: Season 2. Each sport feels responsive, and rarely misses a beat. Darts can feel troublesome at times, but as a general rule things behave just as they should. The ability to perform a victory dance at the end of a successful round is sure to get some fires started next time you have the family over for some games.

Great soundtrack – Surprisingly Kinect Sports: Season 2 has a bang...

Halo: Combat Evolved blasted onto the scene in early 2002 (late 2001 in North America), setting a benchmark for console shooters and competitive gaming. While this remake of a decade-old classic offers a fascinating look at the evolution of graphics over the past decade, Anniversary presents a rather aged first-person shooter. While its added multiplayer maps are certainly a bonus, this remake is nothing more than a visual treat for diehard fans of the original. That said, Anniversary’s ode to a genre-defining classic propels it past many other HD remakes, and co-developer Saber Interactive has added a shot of life to a surprisingly dry and dire 2001 world...

The Ace Combat series has always been defined as the definitive arcade dogfight series, not that it had much in the genre to go up against anyway. Sure, the series has evolved from being you super-accessible air-bound fighter to a cliché narrative-driven air combat series, but it’s maintained its eye for plane detail and accessible controls, all the while offering an experience that should appeal to plane enthusiasts and casual gamers alike.

The latest game in the series – Ace Combat: Assault Horizon – continues the corny storytelling, but whatever the game lacks in coherent narrative it makes up for in sheer explosiveness, complimented by an impressive level of battle realism that is perfectly blended with intuitive arcade controls.
Great Variety – Putting gamers into the shoes of ...

Saints Row: The Third continues to develop the series, as fate would have it weeks after Grand Theft Auto V was announced. It’s not GTA. It’s nothing like GTA and The Third is out to prove that there’s room in your collection for a totally different open-world adventure, even in comparison to its predecessor. Only one thing matters in Saints Row: The Third: explosive fun.

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That’s outrageous – Saints Row 2 broke the shackles and distanced the series from the unwanted tag of yet another GTA clone. The Third increases the heat by making the crazy, outrageous open-world game we’ve always wanted to play. Saints Row: The Third is like every GTA clone on crack.

The ludicrous adventure that knows no bounds of political correctness is summarised shortly after its opening mission...

The Lord of the Rings has generally been well represented on the videogame front. The movie-games were solid, breaking away from the generalisation that games based on movies just can’t be any good. Once Peter Jackson’s film trilogy ended the series’s games went on a bit of a downfall, moving from action to real-time strategy and never really finding much footing. Enter Snowblind Studios, a developer that has successfully reignited the beloved franchise with the solid War in the North. While the game’s story is dull and the characters lifeless, the combat posses quite the challenge alongside some truly epic boss battles. While it might suffer from repetitiveness and a shallow inventory system, The Lord of the Rings: War in the North is an admirable return to form for the classic series.

Fu...

Id Software’s new first person shooter ‘Rage’ brought with it a major hype in its time of release back in 2011. There were a lot of things we believed would make Rage the perfect game after three years in production, and this was by no means accidental. If there is one thing worth shouting out, then it is the sincere beauty of the game. Id’s software’s id tech 5 engine makes Rage look ridiculously good on the home consoles, sharp, brilliant and yet fluid it was something that definitely made my pupils widen. Exclusively, with milestone games ‘Quake’ and ‘Doom’, id software is a classic master in the shooting genre; again with Rage they prove themselves worthy of the title. But this said, Rage meant a pronounced disappointment for many players...

Who’d have thought that such an old, out-dated shooter would still have a place among contemporary beasts in the genre? ‘GoldenEye 007’ found a new following when it was released on Wii last year, bringing with it an enhanced presentation and new multiplayer features. Now it comes to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, but is this Bond adventure worth risking your life all over again for?

Gameplay Variety – Reloaded has a surprising mix of great stealth elements, explosive action and memorable gun battles. These are molded together to make for a fun, if a little shallow first-person shooter experience. Pacing is done well for the most part, with the game rewarding patient stealth kills with moments of insane bullet flying that will stick with you for a while...

RAAM’s Shadow is the first campaign downloadable content (DLC) for Gears of War 3, and it’s probably the best yet. This great addition to the series takes players to shortly after Emergence Day — and slightly before Gears 1 — as the merciless Locust Horde looks to take control of Ilima. The addition of new characters and missions expand the series, allowing players to look back at the events that drive the narrative of Epic’s Xbox 360 staple.

Playing as RAAM – RAAM’s Shadow certainly doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it does mix things up slightly when you play as General RAAM, a near-invincible beast that is a hell of a lot of fun to play as...

Gran Turismo 5 had its chance, but with such high anticipation over too many years, it was never going to deliver. By comparison, Forza 4 has arrived without the expectations and aims to offer the racing simulator PS3 fans expected to call their own last year. With better Top Gear support, a new career mode and improved physics, while still offering accessibility to all players, Forza 4 has a strong support to reach that goal.

A driving simulator – The Forza 4 demo raised more questions than answers when it was released earlier this week, with many fans suspecting it might be more of an arcade racer than a driving simulator. While it certainly has arcade elements, if you choose them, Forza 4 is a comprehensive driving simulator. However, it all depends how you want to play the game...

Inviting tutorials – Dance Central 2 is not an easy game by any means, and is certainly molded around an experience suited to experienced dances. However, the game’s tutorials do a fantastic job of introducing the more complex moves to a wider audience, allowing the game to be considerably more accessible than it seems. The great thing here is that it’s complex enough for the experienced, but detailed enough for newcomers, making it a fantastic family and/or party title leading into the holiday season.

Great competitive edge – The new Crew Challenge mode introduces a story to Dance Central 2, having you work up the ranks in a career mode molded around a silly, but fitting, narrative...