PS3 Game Reviews
Review Phineas and Ferb: Across the Second Dimension (PlayStation 3)
Summer lackluster
Many licensed video games that release in the summer are based on big budget blockbusters complete with over-the-top action sequences, fully voiced dialogue and epic set pieces that strive to blur the line between movie and game. Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension is not such a game. Based on a made-for-TV Disney movie of...
Review UFC Personal Trainer: The Ultimate Fitness System (PlayStation 3)
Strapping
The PlayStation Move fitness game race got off to a slow start with just one title in the first six months, but it's just received its most high-profile title yet in the form of UFC Personal Trainer: The Ultimate Fitness System from THQ. Is this muscular title enough to steal the crown from budget alternative My Fitness Coach: Club?...
Review Section 8: Prejudice (PlayStation 3)
Section 8: Prejudice is potentially one of the most dense multiplayer experiences available on the PlayStation 3, which is staggering considering its budget price-point
If you're able to ignore the bland art direction and cliche sci-fi setting, there's a lot to get out of this downloadable first-person shooter. Over the past three-or-four years...
Review National Geographic Challenge! (PlayStation 3)
Around the world and back again
Imagine the possibilities of combining PlayStation Move and National Geographic magazine, exploring the rich expanses of the world with the super-accurate motion controller in your hand and so much more. The potential seems limitless, doesn't it? What a shame, then, that National Geographic Challenge! is a quiz game...
Review Fast Draw Showdown (PlayStation 3)
Shooting blanks
Ported from the 1994 light gun arcade machine, Fast Draw Showdown makes its debut on the PSN. The setting takes place in the old Western times when arguments often started with booze and ended with lead, and all you need to do is draw your gun from its holster faster than your opponent. Using often corny and scripted video clips...
Review Call of Juarez: The Cartel (PlayStation 3)
There are some great ideas in Call Of Juarez: The Cartel, but misdirection and sloppy execution let the package down
While the game's emphasis on mindless action can be thrilling at times, a slew of technical mishaps lessen the appeal of the title's more bombastic moments. Call Of Juarez: Bound In Blood was one of our favourite games of 2009...
Review Captain America: Super Soldier (PlayStation 3)
Captain America: Super Soldier might not bring many new ideas to the table, but it is an enjoyable third-person action game with an enjoyable emphasis exploration and satisfying combat
SEGA's clearly spent a lot of time playing Batman: Arkham Asylum. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Given the quality of SEGA's most recent Marvel movie...
Review Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II (PlayStation 3)
Could it be magic?
Last year EA made the horrendous mistake of bringing Kinect support to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I, ignoring PlayStation Move entirely. The result was a predictably sloppy affair – but with the sequel's Move support, surely there's still chance of redemption. Well, no, there isn't. Purge any thoughts of...
Review Cars 2: The Video Game (PlayStation 3)
Cars 2: The Video Game is not the most ambitious of releases, but it achieves much of what it sets out to do
The game's kart-racing fundamentals are fluid and enjoyable, especially when experienced in multiplayer. With an expansive and likable roster of characters, Cars 2: The Video Game is a decent alternative to Mario Kart, though the game's...
Review Let's Dance with Mel B (PlayStation 3)
Stop right now, thank you very much
While Dance Central on Kinect nailed the dance genre with its first step, many developers are still struggling to turn PlayStation Move into a fruitful dancing experience. Konami's venerable DanceDanceRevolution series had a first go, and Sony's own SingStar Dance had some things going for it, but there's still...
Review Alien Zombie Mega Death (PlayStation 3)
A simple but addictive arcade shooter, Alien Zombie Megadeath is the perfect antidote to what's medically referred to as "lazy weekend syndrome"
Alien Zombie Megadeath is the latest in a growing list of popular PlayStation Minis to get a full high-definition upgrade. Pom-Pom's obnoxiously titled two-dimensional arcade shooter released last year as...
Review Puzzle Dimension (PlayStation 3)
Puzzle Dimension is a devilishly moreish brain-bender with a fantastic sense of style
Puzzle games and balls go together like pineapple and cheese. There's something immensely satisfying about rolling spherical objects through non-descript floating environments. That premise is at the heart of Puzzle Dimension — a bare-bones brain-melting puzzler...
Review Air Conflicts: Secret Wars (PlayStation 3)
Fly by night
Move has helped gamers conquer the wastelands of Helghan, don the famous green jacket and even solve a murder or two, but it's about to achieve its biggest accolade yet: you can now use it to win World War II. Air Conflicts: Secret Wars puts you behind the controls of 16 planes from the first and second World War, with optional...
Review Shadows Of The Damned (PlayStation 3)
The initial announcement of Shadows Of The Damned left us disappointed
When we originally heard that some of Japan's most revered names — No More Heroes' Suda51, Resident Evil's Shinji Mikami, and Silent Hill's Akira Yamaoka — were collaborating on a brand new horror IP, our mind started to get ahead of itself with all the psychological horror...
Review Transformers: Dark Of The Moon (PlayStation 3)
Transformers: Dark Of The Moon is a surprisingly solid movie tie-in
The gameplay is knowingly straight-forward, but an abundance of decent set-piece encounters and a robust online multiplayer component make this spin-off an enjoyable, if entirely mindless affair. High Moon was onto something when it released War For Cybertron on PlayStation 3. The...
Review Ape Escape (PlayStation 3)
Gorilla warfare
Sony's Ape Escape series has been a PlayStation staple since 1999, when it wowed the world with its dual-analogue control scheme. Now over a decade later it's trying another control scheme in Ape Escape, (known as PlayStation Move Ape Escape in North America) but is it an evolutionary step or a knuckle-dragging disaster? The original...
Review Learning with the PooYoos: Episode I (PlayStation 3)
Who said gaming was just for big kids?
Children’s games and PlayStation 3 is a coupling that hasn’t really been explored. Well, that was the case until Lexis Numérique released Learning With the PooYoos: Episode 1 on PSN service. Designed for children between the ages of 3-6, this game sets out to captivate the minds of the youngest gamers, but...
Review Alice: Madness Returns (PlayStation 3)
The spiritual successor to American McGee's 2000 PC blockbuster, Alice, Madness Returns picks up shortly after the original game, with the protagonist installed in the orphanage of Doctor Angus Bumby
Alice is traumatised by memories of her parent's death, an act which she believes herself responsible for. As Alice battles with her memories, she's...
Review Greg Hastings Paintball 2 (PlayStation 3)
Wanna be a baller, shot-caller?
Paintball takes the online multiplayer fun found in videogames and brings it to a painful reality. Sadly, the sport has seen a rapid decline in recent years due to its high cost to play, expensive insurance cost and field/arena maintenance expenses. Fret not though fellow paintballers (i.e. ballers), because for less...
Review Duke Nukem Forever (PlayStation 3)
Duke Nukem Forever is a relic
The game feels caught between two opposing design sensibilities, never fully encompassing a throw-back feel because of its modern concessions. There's the glint of a good idea in some of Forever's periphery activities, and the whole campaign is punctuated by some pretty impressive set-pieces — but Duke Nukem Forever...
Review SEGA Rally Online Arcade (PlayStation 3)
Because we can't all afford a Subaru WRX Sti
Remember seeing those giant car-like arcade machines lined up at your local arcade? If so, you've likely already played or witnessed this game in action. Taken from the extremely popular SEGA Rally series of arcade machines, SEGA Rally Online Arcade brings the thrill and action of arcade style racing to...
Review Under Siege (PlayStation 3)
Much harder than Steven Seagal
During a generation in which First-Person Shooter (FPS) titles dominate the market, a genre like the Real-Time Strategy (RTS) game can become lost on PS3 amongst a barrage of FPS frags, melees and rat-a-tat-tat firefights. Despite this the system has received some standout RTS games: Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3...
Review Armageddon Riders (PlayStation 3)
Armageddon Riders is a couple of features away from "absolutely essential" status
Targem's supremely polished post-apocalyptic racer mixes goofy humour with solid handling mechanics, wrapping the whole affair in a stunning Burnout Paradise-esque open-world environment. The package could have been elevated with an online multiplayer mode, but there's...
Review Hunted: The Demon's Forge (PlayStation 3)
Protagonists E'lara and Caddoc are a metaphor for Hunted: The Demon's Forge
The duo are brash, goofy and amusing, personifying the theme of the game they are featured in. Hunted: The Demon's Forge is not a well devised title — the combat is scrappy, the visuals are hokey, and the voice acting is utterly reprehensible — but for all its faults...
Review No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise (PlayStation 3)
We could be heroes
No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise isn’t about saving the world. It follows Travis Touchdown, an over-sexed Otaku obsessed with violence, wrestling, anime and games (he has a Mega Drive/Mega CD/32X combo in his room). Travis gets drunk in a bar and meets the head of the United Assassins Association, Sylvia Christel. She offers him...
DiRT2 was one of our favourite PS3 games of 2009
We spent numerous hours with Codemasters' rally sequel, eventually earning the game's illusive Platinum trophy and still secretly longing for more. Codemasters' mix of arcade accessibility and simulation physics created a racing experience that not only felt unique, but also approachable without...
Take no notice of Brink's storyline
We didn't. As much as we adore the game's quirky art-direction, the plot is utter nonsense. You're situated on a water-based city known as the Ark, but there's chaos aboard the warring location as its inhabitants are divided by two factions: the Security and the Resistance. Cut-scenes try to tie the narrative...
Review We Dare (PlayStation 3)
We feel dirty now
We Dare raised more than just eyebrows with its original trailer: the thought of young gamers getting into an array of saucy situations was too much for some, who seized upon the game's PEGI 12+ rating to call it immoral, insulting and downright offensive. Well, they got two right. We Dare's whole reputation as a bawdy party game...
Review LEGO: Pirates Of The Caribbean (PlayStation 3)
It only takes one look at Captain Jack Sparrow sauntering into view to melt your heart
Traveller's Tales appears to have mastered the art of transforming popular properties into thoroughly enjoyable co-operative affairs, and the developer's whimsical take on Disney's somewhat convoluted Pirates Of The Caribbean tetralogy is no different. Set across...
Review SOCOM: Special Forces (PlayStation 3)
Tactics on the Move
SOCOM 2 wasn’t only just one of the best shooters for the PlayStation 2, but many would likely even call it the best on the system. These are big boots for SOCOM: Special Forces (aka SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs in North America) to fill, and now that the online war is back in action from the PlayStation Network outage, we’ve...
