Retro Reviews
Review Wipeout 2 (PlayStation 3)
Wiped out
There’s just nothing quite like watching people getting bashed in the face, unintentionally flipped in the air or taking a hit where the sun doesn’t shine. Some folks claim that laughter is the cure for a broken heart, but witnessing these types of antics can actually make you laugh until you hurt instead. ABC has harnessed this...
Review The Sims 3: Pets (PlayStation 3)
The Sims 3: Pets does nothing to reinvent the social simulation series, but the inclusion of playable pets definitely adds a layer of complexity to the franchise's existing hallmarks
The Sims has always sort of stressed us out. In real-life, time management isn't a particularly challenging task. You can box your life into a series of coloured...
Review Batman: Arkham City (PlayStation 3)
Crisis city
A gluttony of content; Batman: Arkham City takes everything that made its predecessor brilliant and improves upon it. It's really not hard to recall the period before Batman: Arkham Asylum released. At the time, the video game media was embroiled in a discussion about how the promising looking licenced title couldn't possibly turn out...
Review 1000 Tiny Claws (PlayStation Minis)
1000 Tiny Claws doesn't quite live up to the expectations carved out by Mediatonic's previous releases, but it's still a worthy arena-combat title with a handsome visual style and some genuinely laugh-out-loud gags
Given Mediatonic's previous PlayStation Minis titles involved chasing colossal monsters to the precipice of a monumental structure and...
Review Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken (PlayStation 3)
Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken is an intriguing action platformer that -- despite being laugh-out-loud funny at times -- carries an unusual, sombre tone throughout much of its presentation, resulting in a unique experience intertwined with some clever puzzle design and satisfying combat
Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken has already won numerous...
Review FIFA 12 (PlayStation 3)
The beautiful game
Revamped mechanics enhance the authenticity of FIFA 12 and complement a range of new modes and features. It's a package that brims with care and attention, going the extra mile in almost every facet of its presentation. You only need to spend a few moments with FIFA 12 to understand just how much the developers love the sport it's...
Review WRC 2: FIA World Rally Championship (PlayStation 3)
A functional experience, but never a particularly exciting one; WRC 2 manages to replicate the feel of participating in a real rally with its driving model, but somehow manages to squander all of the excitement through drab presentation and a lack of personality
The thrill of slipping around corners at breakneck speed is hard to beat. But it's best...
Review Cabela's Big Game Hunter 2012 (PlayStation 3)
Mistaken identity
As the temperature starts to take its yearly dip and the vibrant colours of summer fade unto the pastels of the autumn, it can mean only one thing: it's hunting season. The time has finally arrived to polish up your rifle, unpack your camouflage and trek out into the wilderness to land that trophy buck. Coinciding with the opening...
Review Rochard (PlayStation 3)
Rochard is an engaging puzzle platformer consisting of some quality mechanics and concise puzzle design
The game's let down by an overemphasis on combat and cumbersome controls, but an endearing protagonist and charming visual style make up for its shortcomings. Mining engineer John Rochard doesn't have the best luck. Within the opening moments of...
Review SEGA Bass Fishing (PlayStation 3)
Dat bass!
Deriving from the old arcade classic, SEGA Bass Fishing isn’t a fishing simulator but SEGA’s arcade style, user-friendly take on bass fishing. There’s not a whole lot to this game other than trying to catch the biggest fish possible in a certain amount of time. In Arcade mode, the player will be sent to one of a few different...
Review NBA 2K12 (PlayStation 3)
The legend returns
Last year's NBA 2K11 was a sublime tribute to the league's greatest ever player, Michael Jordan, and one of the finest sports games ever created. This year's follow-up NBA 2K12 takes things a step further, bringing in 14 more legendary players and a host of new game modes. Whereas last year's effort was built around the famous...
Review Speedball 2 Evolution (PlayStation Minis)
Speedball 2 Evolution offers an alternative to the increasingly realistic sporting experiences available elsewhere on the various PlayStation platforms, delivering a futuristic competitive game with a complimentary throw-back core
It's just a shame that the actual gameplay itself is so over-complicated and unbalanced, even if it is impossibly...
Not even slight texture streaming issues can deter from RAGE's technical ambition
With stunning textures and a consistent 60 frames-per-second, id's latest release is one of the best looking titles available on the PlayStation 3. But for as good as the game looks, the experience is marred by a number of inconsistencies. An offensive save system and...
Review X-Men Destiny (PlayStation 3)
A bizarrely involving character customisation system makes X-Men Destiny suprisingly playable, even if it never comes close to reaching its full potential
Not every game needs to be a blockbuster. Developer Silicon Knights has taken that advice to heart with the functional but flawed X-Men Destiny. This is a game brimming with ambition, but it lacks...
Review Child of Eden (PlayStation 3)
Virtuosic viruses
Child of Eden's story involves the creation of a human personality, Lumi, for A.I. system Eden, but when it actually comes down to it the narrative is of no consequence. This is not a game that you play to follow a plot – it's a mesmeric feast, a perfect marriage of sound, visuals and movement designed to flood your brain with...
Review Mercury Hg (PlayStation 3)
Mercury Hg is an endearing little puzzle title with an attractive price-point and some striking presentation
The periodic table's never got us particularly excited. We distinctly remember it hanging on the wall in the science lab at school, surrounded by various drawings and exemplary pieces of work designed to make us feel guilty. We'd often try to...
Review Arkedo Series - 002 SWAP! (PlayStation 3)
Swap is an evocative name
The second title in the Arkedo Series — ported to PlayStation Network by Sanuk Games — is a simplistic puzzle title in which you — that's right! — swap blocks in order to create chains of four similarly coloured squares, and ultimately dismantle a growing tower of primary colours. Like the previous title in the...
Review F1 2011 (PlayStation 3)
While it doesn't quite pack the same punch as last year's entry, F1 2011 is still a tense and satisfying racing experience -- if you're willing to put in the hours required to master the game's merciless learning curve
When F1 2010 released on PS3 last year, it was a revelation. Codemasters breathed new life into the creaky racing genre — earning...
Review Max and the Magic Marker: Gold Edition (PlayStation 3)
Pencil it in
Occupied with a pad of paper and a stack of crayons, Max is minding his own business, making a colourful mess as only a child can. That is, until an unexpected letter drops onto the door mat addressed to him. Curious, Max tears open the envelope to find a brand new marker pen, and it doesn’t take him long to get creative with this...
Review Dance! It's Your Stage (PlayStation 3)
Step up or step off
PlayStation Move has seen six dancing games in its first year on sale, but none have hit the heights in the same way as Harmonix's Dance Central on Kinect, with Sony's SingStar Dance and Konami's DanceDanceRevolution the closest we've come to boogie bliss. The latest publisher to step up and try its luck is PQube with Dance! It's...
Review Champion Jockey (PlayStation 3)
Stable
While some of the world's biggest sports are absent from PlayStation Move — we're looking at you, FIFA and Madden NFL — the controller has proved an enticing prospect for developers keen to bring, shall we say, less widely-embraced sports to the masses. After PDC World Championship Darts: Pro Tour and WSC Real 11, Tecmo Koei has taken the...
Review Renegade Ops (PlayStation 3)
Renegade Ops is a bombastic and knowingly stupid co-operative shooter with some outstanding production values
Explosions are exciting things. They incite the most childish inhibitions in any man, harking back to those playground days spent pretending to be soldiers and watching Transformers cartoons (the originals, of course) on television. Renegade...
Review The Impossible Game (PlayStation Minis)
The Impossible Game is designed around one key principle: stress
This is one of the most tense, frustrating, devious and, bafflingly, moreish PlayStation Minis we've played to date. The concept is simple: jump over hazards to complete the level. How hard can it possibly be? The clue's in the name. Controlling a straight-forward orange square you...
Review SkyDrift (PlayStation 3)
SkyDrift is a polished aerial racer with a thoughtful risk/reward sub-mechanic
The game could benefit from a touch more content, but what's included is enough to channel a hearty does of nostalgia from a variety of late 90's arcade racers. The more we played SkyDrift, the more we came to the conclusion that its like Hyrdo Thunder in the sky. Hydro...
Review LittleBigPlanet 2 (PlayStation 3)
Move your Sackthing!
Sackboys and Sackgirls, lend us your ears! Craft World is in trouble! The Negativatron (basically an evil vacuum cleaner) is sucking up all the fun and dreams out of Craft World! It’s up to you to take control of your little Sackperson and save the planet from the Negativatron with help from your allies "The...
Review Resistance 3 (PlayStation 3)
How far would you go to save your family?
It’s been four long years since the dramatic events of Resistance 2 came to a close, and the war is over. Chimeran terraformers hover in the skies, transforming Earth into an icy wasteland reminiscent of the alien invaders' home world. Like enslaved prisoners, the few remaining survivors have taken refuge...
Review The Baconing (PlayStation 3)
The Baconing certainly represents value for money, but it lacks imagination in places
The tweaks to the combat make it a much more challenging affair, detracting from the franchise's strengths. But fans of the previous DeathSpank games will at least enjoy the game's writing and dialogue which, while not for everyone, is top-notch as usual. If...
Review 4 Elements HD (PlayStation 3)
Fire, Earth, Wind, Water and Heart
The first moments you spend with 4 Elements HD may have you thinking that the game is a little on the easy side, maybe even a bit simplistic. After you learn the basics of the tutorial and plow through some intro levels, you may even start to believe that you are really good at the game. Both of these assumptions...
Review Dead Island (PlayStation 3)
Holiday of the dead
Developer Techland is beginning to make a name for itself as a progressive, forward-thinking studio with some lofty ideas but not enough resources to realise them. Dead Island does not buck the developer's burgeoning trend. Part Borderlands, part Fallout, part Diablo, Dead Island is an inventive first person survival horror with...
Review Hysteria Project 2 (PlayStation Minis)
In many ways Hysteria Project 2 is a step-backwards
In trying to flesh out the ideas established in its predecessor, BulkyPix has crafted a game with more ambition and less polish, resulting in a frustrating mess of trial-and-error puzzles. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. It's an idiom we couldn't stop thinking during our...
