Review Archives (Staff Reviews)

You are currently looking through staff reviews for games that are available on every platform the site currently covers. Below, you will find reviews written by all eligible authors and sorted according to date of submission, with the newest content displaying first. As many as 20 results will display per page. If you would like to try a search with different parameters, specify them below and submit a new search.

Available Reviews
	Bejeweled 2 review (PS3) Reviewed on June 04, 2009 PopCap Games first developed Bejeweled and released it in the Flash format back in 2001. Since then, the title has appeared on nearly every gaming platform known to man, ranging from the PC to mobile phones, the Xbox 360 and now the PlayStation Network store. Predictably, it plays the same on the PlayStation 3 as it did on Xbox Live Arcade, on the PC and—well, you get the idea.
	Stalin vs. Martians review (PC) Reviewed on June 04, 2009 But anyway, the game is an RTS in the same way that margarine is butter, which is to say it's not, but it looks similar! The overhead camera is old hat to the genre. The piles of units marching together toward their objective is familiar. The hud, with its point-and-click interface and minimap, leaves no doubt. Any given screenshot tells the RTS story, but it's only when you play the game that you realize that something has gone horribly wrong.
	Elite Forces: Unit 77 review (DS) Reviewed on June 03, 2009 Considering that the enemies pose no threat, basic ammunition is unlimited, and you virtually trip over medkits around every corner, you’d think Elite Forces is an easy game, right? But it isn’t, simply because things go wrong. Maybe Bill will die because he got caught in front of a gatling gun and the constant stream of bullets prevented him from using a medkit. Perhaps Kendra will decide on her own to move forward a couple of feet and detonate a mine that T.K. was disabling. Weird flukes in the design and AI contradict Deep Silver’s effort to keep the interface clean and intuitive, and above all else, Elite Forces strikes me as a very inconsistent game.
	Terminator Salvation review (PS3) Reviewed on June 03, 2009 At first, such encounters are thrilling because you don't know what's going on and it's easy to die. Any battle is epic. Then you learn how to utilize cover and you discover that you can basically just draw fire from behind a barrier while your allies shoot everyone from behind. That strategy works most of the time and when it doesn't, that only means that the roles have reversed. You're never required to do anything more mentally challenging than sneak and shoot.
	Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier review (DS) Reviewed on June 02, 2009 RPGs are stereotyped as one of the more intellectual game genres, all about story and plot and meaning. Endless Frontier bucks this stereotype pretty hard. It’s a self-consciously dopey, disposable sort of story that’s little more than an excuse to string dungeons and boss encounters together. Much of the plot’s appeal is meant to rest in its nature as a sly crossover that puts Namco x Capcom, Super Robot Taisen OG2, Super Robot Taisen alpha 3, Xenosaga, and many other games into a single “multiversal” setting.
	Sacred 2: Fallen Angel review (PS3) Reviewed on June 02, 2009 I have a rule called the FAQ rule. If I reach a point where I find myself checking FAQs to see how much longer a game goes on, then I know the game has outlived its welcome. In the case of Sacred 2: Fallen Angel, I hadn’t done anything interesting, met any interesting characters, or even managed to become interested in my own character in over twenty hours of gameplay and I was nowhere near being done with the main quest.
	Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge review (PC) Reviewed on June 01, 2009 I’ve nothing against games being hard, but before you survive the first few initial outings, loot a few corpses and watch your team’s stats rise to the point where it’s noticeable, you’ll be spending a lot of time reloading old saves that took place before complete slaughters and eagle-eyed head shot levelled against you.
	Professor Heinz Wolff's Gravity review (WII) Reviewed on May 31, 2009 The very existence of the sandbox levels leads me to believe that Deep Silver liked what they’d come up with and assumed players would be intrigued enough to want to explore the world of Gravity further. So why, then, is there no puzzle editor? With Gravity’s content as limited as it is, and with each of the challenges simple enough in basic design that anyone could make them given an appropriate tool kit, a true puzzle editor could have been this game’s saving grace. With online functionality, the possibilities could have been endless.
	Space War Commander review (PC) Reviewed on May 30, 2009 Space War Commander is simple enough that it can be picked up and learned very quickly, and won't eat up your time with long-winded matches like other RTS games. The only thing really missing is multiplayer support, but even so Space War Commander is a superb time-killer
	Star Trek D-A-C review (X360) Reviewed on May 30, 2009 At its very best, D-A-C is a good online game with the potential to offer up some epic six-on-six space wars. But when Xbox Live is slow and you can’t find a full game, all that’s left is an empty and lazy solo experience.
	Rolling Thunder review (NES) Reviewed on May 27, 2009 By the time I'd gotten to about the third or fourth of the game's 10 levels, I was tempted to check my Nintendo to see if a slot for me to dump quarters into had magically appeared. By the time I'd gotten through a bit more than half the game, I was so frustrated and emotionally spent that for a minute I thought I still was married. And I wasn't even earning the admiration of other gamers like I would have been by putting myself through this anguish in an arcade — I was alone, sitting at home and feeling about as opposite from however awesome "platinum awesome" might be as humanly possible.
	Bionic Commando review (X360) Reviewed on May 26, 2009 Development team GRIN, also responsible for Bionic Commando Rearmed, have created an immensely playable game. Unfortunately, it's not the fount of creative goodness that its predecessor was. Although the game is speckled with phenomenal moments, too much of Bionic Commando is spent casually running through empty cities.
	Sword of the Stars: Ultimate Collection review (PC) Reviewed on May 25, 2009 Sword of the Stars: Ultimate Collection brings in some wonderfully fresh ideas, but stays true to the 4X formula. This is a game with a lot of depth and a lot to learn, and you aren't likely to master it in a weekend.
	Punch-Out!! review (WII) Reviewed on May 24, 2009 I always enjoyed the portraits and the clever little sayings that opponents offered in the NES installment, but such elements could only go so far. Movements in the actual ring were likewise limited by hardware. This time around, things are much more convincing throughout. King Hippo laughs arrogantly as he faces you, as if insulted that such a puny challenger would dare to face him. Upon finding himself lying on the mat, Soda Popinski will resort to swigging liquid from a bottle before rising to his feet in a rage.
	ZEN Pinball review (PS3) Reviewed on May 24, 2009 The problem I encountered is that the "quick" matches are often too intimidating for inexperienced players. They amount to a score race, with every competitor playing simultaneously and trying to hit 5,000,000 (or some much higher number) before his worthy opponents. However, there are often penalties in place that take away as much as half of any score amassed. It's easy to quickly fall into a pattern where you have somewhere around 3,000,000 total points, gain around 300,000 on a new attempt, then lose 10% of your total and fall right back to where you were... again and again and again. Unless you're joined by someone more proficient, matches can last an eternity.
	The Dark Spire review (DS) Reviewed on May 23, 2009 Contrary to word-of-mouth, this isn't a Wizardry-style journey. It certainly pays homage to its legendary predecessor, but its wicked sense of humor and creepy atmosphere lend the adventure a personality all its own. The Dark Spire is an artistic, engrossing RPG that achieves immersion via intense exploration, puzzle-solving, and surprisingly addictive level-grinding. It's an experience, but more importantly, it is game.
	Deus Ex review (PC) Reviewed on May 20, 2009 Deus Ex knows what it is. It's a computer game, through and through. There's a reason why the new big-name releases boast about multiple routes and character-shaping; in-depth, branching stories; moral and practical dilemmas. This is that reason. And, in acknowledging how games work and confidently playing to such potential, it shines.
	Star Trek D-A-C review (X360) Reviewed on May 20, 2009 A lot of downloadable Xbox Live Arcade titles live off of simplicity and a good solid gimmick. Star Trek: D-A-C, however, is too simplistic and its gimmick is to bait in unknowing consumers with the Trek license; and that’s quite possibly its largest offense.
	Dokapon Journey review (DS) Reviewed on May 19, 2009 Perhaps the most disappointing difference this time around is that winning against your rivals is no longer an opportunity to serve a huge dish of delicious humiliation. One of the best things about Dokapon Kingdom was the number of ways in which you could poke fun at a rival after besting him in battle. Here, things seem more straight-forward. You can still rob a liberated town or steal a purse full of gold, but that's not as exciting as—and you'll pardon me, I hope, if this sounds juvenile—giving someone a poo-shaped hairstyle.
	Velvet Assassin review (X360) Reviewed on May 15, 2009 Few players will get through Velvet Assassin without grumbling about the camera issues or the many untimely deaths. But those who stick with it will have the privilege of viewing the game’s gorgeous graphics and color enhancements. They will be forced to overcome obnoxiously difficult scenarios that will test their true skills as virtual spies. Most importantly, they will have the joy of executing enemy soldiers with unwavering brutality.

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