Latest Reviews
Review Foosball 2012 (PlayStation Vita)
Fun with the foos
It’s not often that we get to take the game of foosball seriously anymore. As many carefree teenagers do, we went through a two month love affair with the table-top sport during our heady college days. But our dreams of a glittering professional career were promptly quashed when we were informed by our haughty peers that we had...
Review Wizorb (PlayStation Minis)
Castin’ a spell on Arkanoid
It’s only been a few months since the internet was buzzing about the PS Mini service, because of the release of FuturLab’s fantastic title, Velocity. Well, Sony wants to keep the overlooked service on your mind with Tribute Games and Beatshapers’ latest release. Throwing the block-busting mechanics of old-school...
Review Puddle (PlayStation Vita)
Splash damage
You could never accuse Puddle of lacking ideas. The Vita version of Neko Entertainment’s award-winning fluid-based puzzler is brimming with variety, from a tense jaunt across the test tubes and pipettes of a functioning scientific laboratory, right through to an underground romp as a single droplet of deceased rat discharge...
The light fantastic
Imagine riding a high speed rollercoaster through a music visualiser. The colours zoom all around you, blending together until you can't tell what's going on or where you are. Everything swirls together in a rainbow mish-mash that makes little sense. It's confusing. It's mesmerising. It makes you dizzy. But it's extremely pretty,...
Review London 2012 - The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games (PlayStation 3)
Gold standard?
Like so many sports, London 2012 – The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games (phew) is a game of two halves. Boasting an impressive tally of 45 events, the official Olympic tie-in doesn't disappoint in the content department. But while a decent proportion of its offering strives for sporting glory, the remainder of the package...
Review Rainbow Moon (PlayStation 3)
A long, beautiful journey
Witnessing a rainbow is always an awe-inspiring experience, seeing how it’s a collage of the most brilliant and beautiful colours across the spectrum. Setting foot into the world of Rainbow Moon is just as impressive an experience, not just because of the vibrant colour palette SideQuest Studios used to bring the world to...
Review LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (PlayStation Vita)
Let’s talk LEGOs
If you’ve played one LEGO game, you’ve essentially played them all. It’s a phrase that’s been heard a time or two since Traveller’s Tales started recreating blockbuster movie hits into block-buster video games since LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game released back in 2005. Their ease of play and whimsical storylines are told...
Review Ratchet & Clank Collection (PlayStation 3)
Nuts and bolts
Few video game franchises have greater pedigree than PlayStation’s most dependable crime-fighters, Ratchet & Clank. Armed with a plethora of imaginative gadgetry and a never-ending inventory of wisecracks, the Insomniac's series has been a staple of any self-prophesised PlayStation enthusiast’s diet for the past decade. That...
Review LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (PlayStation 3)
Blockbusters
Even the Dark Knight needs a little help now and then. Bruce Wayne returns in blocky form after his critically acclaimed first outing, and this time he's brought along a huge gang of friends – and their enemies. LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes still hangs on Batman and Gotham City, but the scope has been expanded to give you the chance...
Review The Pinball Arcade (PlayStation Vita)
Balls of steel
Zen Studios’ Zen Pinball might be the current king of the pinball ring on PSN, but experienced pinball developer FarSight Studios wants to take a shot at the high score table with The Pinball Arcade. Instead of tackling Zen Studios's arcade-y stylings head-on, FarSight's steel balls have something special that sets their title apart...
Review Gravity Rush (PlayStation Vita)
Daze dreamer
Games such as Gravity Rush are getting rarer. The Japan Studio-developed handheld adventure eschews committee design and instead coalesces on a consistent creative vision. Driven by the surreal imagination of former Silent Hill director Keiichiro Toyama, the title is a thoughtful exploration of original gameplay mechanics and cultural...
Review Pure Chess (PlayStation 3)
Tainted move
Different people drift towards the world of video gaming for varying reasons. Some see it as an escape from the dreary nature of 'real life' and adore the opportunity to be someone or something else for a few hours. Others delight in uttering some 'smack talk' to anyone daft enough to be wearing a headset with the volume up a few...
Review Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock (PlayStation 3)
Doctor No
The world of Doctor Who has been just begging for a competent game. After all, aren't aliens, robots, destruction, time travel and awkward, often sarcastic, humour all great staples of the medium? It's exactly the sort of television show that could merrily hop over the gap without missing a beat. But despite a clear love of the series and...
Review Lollipop Chainsaw (PlayStation 3)
Goddammit, video games
It's generally a bad idea to judge anything by its title or cover, but one look at either pretty much spells out what to expect from Grasshopper Manufacture's latest fever dream, Lollipop Chainsaw: comic books, pop music, rainbows, titillating exploitation and lots and lots of violence. These are all the makings for perfect...
Review Metal Gear Solid HD Collection (PlayStation Vita)
A clone of a clone of a clone
Metal Gear Solid is one of the most iconic stealth/action games in the genre to date. The franchise has won a plethora of prestigious awards and is acknowledged by some gamers to be one of the best game series of all time. As it was made popular on the PlayStation and PlayStation 2, there's no surprise that the...
Review Babel Rising (PlayStation 3)
Playing God
One of the video game medium’s greatest assets is its ability to convey power. Whether you’re taking control of a superhero or an everyman with regenerating health, the industry rarely fails in its pursuit to provide you with unreasonable strength. But while potent protagonists are nothing new – almost all would succumb to the...
Review Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown (PlayStation 3)
King of the ring
Virtua Fighter is the Beck of the gaming world. Adored by critics and shouted about by its fans, but virtually inaccessible to newcomers. It's never reached a wide audience like Street Fighter or Tekken, but now Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown has dropped the cost of entry to just £9.99/$14.99 there is no excuse for fight fans not...
Review Resistance: Burning Skies (PlayStation Vita)
Axed at the knee
Insomniac Games left a strong lasting mark when it stepped away from its Resistance series after the atmospheric and emotionally gripping Resistance 3. With Insomniac Games now hard at work exploring new avenues for us to enjoy, Nihilistic Software has stepped in to send us back into the Chimeran infested world once again, with the...
Review Mad Riders (PlayStation 3)
You drive me crazy
A title like Mad Riders conjures up all sorts of wild possibilities. Alas, you might be disappointed to discover that this game does not, in fact, involve racing rollerskate-wearing elephants down rainbow highways, nor does it include oversized hammers to swipe at foes. It's actually a rocket-powered ATV racer, the promised...
Review Sorcery (PlayStation 3)
A kind of magic
Sorcery is the game that PlayStation Move owners have been craving. The motion controlled title that captivated crowds at E3 2010 has been a constant source of conversation right the way through to its re-reveal late last year. But having spent almost 18 months shrouded in the secrecy of Sony’s invisibility cloak, the title finds...
Review Silent Hill HD Collection (PlayStation 3)
Broken locks and broken hearts
Everything is different in the dark. The play of light and shadow can lend any partially obscured object an ominous tone. If you've ever navigated your room late at night after waking from a deep sleep, half-aware of reality and half-aware you're no longer in your bed, you know this feeling – the feeling that dwells...
Review Trine 2 (PlayStation 3)
Enchanting
When the original Trine released back in 2009, it took us on a fun yet flawed 2D physics-based puzzling quest, inspired by the cult favourite SNES classic, The Lost Vikings. Even with its faults, nothing stopped the game from rapidly growing a large fan base. With Trine 2, developer Frozenbyte has pulled out every bit of magic it...
Review Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland (PlayStation 3)
Crafty
Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland is the 13th instalment of Gust’s storied Atelier series and the third part of the “Arland” trilogy. While at first glance the sheer amount of ground this series has covered makes for a high barrier of entry, skip this title based on intimidation and you'll miss a very enjoyable experience. The...
Review Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (PlayStation 3)
Ghost squad
If you're expecting to sneak about undetected for the entirety of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, prepare to be disappointed. While there are many clandestine moments throughout, Future Soldier plays closer to the rulebook established by the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare titles. Levels start out with stealth at the forefront but...
Review DiRT Showdown (PlayStation 3)
Fender bender
You get the feeling Codemasters has wanted to make DiRT Showdown for a while. Freed from the shackles of the mainline series, Showdown takes DiRT’s semi-reserved personality and steers into a head-on collision with Ken Block culture. With less subtlety than a shocking pink livery, this is a raucous, gnarly and, at times, downright...
Review PixelJunk 4am (PlayStation 3)
All night long
Making music is hard. Ask any budding music producer and they’ll tell you that learning the intricacies of Reason is more challenging than trying to platinum Dark Souls while blindfolded. PixelJunk 4am, the new downloadable title from PSN stalwarts Q-Games, attempts to erode that learning curve by transforming the PlayStation Move...
Review Battleship (PlayStation 3)
You sunk my battleship
You've got to feel sorry for Double Helix Games, the developer saddled with the challenge of transforming Battleship's big screen debut into an interesting video game. That sympathy comes partially from the realisation that the studio has done an adequate job of combining the tried-and-tested formula of Hasbro’s...
Review Max Payne 3 (PlayStation 3)
Payne: Killer
Max Payne is a man who can't catch a break. Haunted by the murders of his wife and baby girl, and the loss of the woman who managed to crack through his rock-solid shell, Max has become a washed-up, broken man with an addiction to alcohol and pain killers, waiting on the day for the planet to stop so he can step off. Left with no other...
Review Dragon's Dogma (PlayStation 3)
Hot stuff
You have to hand it to Capcom: it's releasing Dragon's Dogma at just the right time. Six months after The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and ahead of the traditional summer drought, it has the PS3 adventure landscape all to itself. Thankfully it's got quality as well as good timing. In development for three years with a supposedly enormous...
Review Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 (PlayStation 3)
Blue streak
The backlash against Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I must have hit SEGA hard. Here was a game everyone said they wanted — a high-definition return to Sonic's 2D roots, and while it was a decent game on its own merit it didn't feel like a true continuation of those classic 16-bit adventures. It was almost like an athlete coming out of...
