Reviews - Page 6 - Xbox Gaming in South Africa

Xbox 360 Special Edition Silver Controller Review

Monday, 20 June 2011 Henry Dowling

Over the years the Xbox 360 controller has been through a number of facelifts. Besides changes to the standard issue controllers, moving from white to black, there have also been quite a few Limited or Special Editions doing the rounds - Halo has a few; Fable III has one; there’s a red one for Resident Evil - and most of these were only cosmetically different from the base model. It’s a pity then that there has always been something inherently troublesome about that base model: an imprecise d-pad. Now, to prove that Microsoft really does listen to its audience, albeit five years on, here we have the solution - the new Xbox 360 Special Edition Controller with transforming d-pad ...

L.A. Noire Review

Monday, 13 June 2011 Henry Dowling

The underbelly of 1940’s Los Angeles is sicker than it seems. Crime and corruption run rampant while sleazy drug pushers and filthy rich Hollywood executives take advantage of the poor and misguided on every turn. In the wake of World War II the American dream is being stretched thin as the man on the street tries to make his way in the world by whatever means necessary. These are dirty streets, and the city needs good men to clean up the mess, but good men are few and far between. And so it’s left to our hero, Detective Cole Phelps - a straight-laced decorated war veteran making a name for himself in the city - to carry the weight. This is the backdrop, the naked canvas that Team Bondi and Rockstar Games have used to as a playground to create what must be a milestone achievement in game design: L.A. Noire ...

Nail'd Review

Monday, 06 June 2011 Henry Dowling

If there was ever a direct polar opposite to the precise and refined motoring found in racing simulations like the Forza and Gran Turismo series, this is it. This is the motorsport game that spits on those fancy, upper-class sims. If Forza is the captain of the polo team with the posh accent and a degree in classical music, Nail’d is the game that dropped out of high school, drinks cheap whiskey and listens to Motley Crüe records in its basement. It may be uncouth, rough around the edges, but at the same time it’s brimming with unfocused energy and a sort of hillbilly charm, making for a blisteringly fast and enjoyable - but ultimately shallow - arcade racer ...

Portal 2 Review

Wednesday, 25 May 2011 Henry Dowling

The original Portal - bundled as part of Valve’s exceptional Orange Box, and later as a stand-alone title via Xbox LIVE - was a masterpiece of puzzle platform gaming. Perfectly structured, elegant in design and execution, it was a gleaming example of Valve’s creative capabilities. Critics bemoaned the bite sized campaign, but by making it so short, Valve avoided any chance of the core ideas being worn thin. The result was an exquisitely balanced puzzler which ended long before it outstayed its welcome. In contrast to the concise and focused nature of the original, Portal 2 is a grand exploration of the elements that made the original Portal great. Vast and riddled with new depth in both narrative and gameplay, this is the main event to the original’s supporting act ...

WWE All Stars Review

Thursday, 19 May 2011 Henry Dowling

After years of dealing with the subject matter, some might say that THQ and Yuke's recent WWE-licensed efforts have started to look a bit bloated and uncomfortable in their spandex tights. Constantly adding new things to the core game without really trimming off the fat has left us with a game that feels cluttered and clumsy. This comes at the worst time, as wrestling has been falling to the wayside as a "combat sport" in the wake of the rise of mixed martial arts and the UFC. No one seems to care about brilliantly outrageous acrobatic powerslams anymore - they'd rather watch sweaty lads in tight shorts, struggling in a warm embrace on the floor of the octagon. Mixed martial arts has invaded the gaming world in much the same way, and has made for some of the most technical combat sports gaming you're likely to find. WWE All Stars, on the other side of the ring, is the anti-UFC. Simplified, streamlined, bombastic and colourfully deranged, this is distilled sports entertainment at its vivacious best ...

Operation Flashpoint: Red River Review

Tuesday, 17 May 2011 Henry Dowling

The current trend of modern military shooters is to numb our souls with a constant barrage of magnificent scenery, narrative trickery and heroic stupidity. Gaudy and grandiose in equal measure, these Hollywood-infused attempts to capture the spirit of war can be quite convincing, but it's all just too perfectly structured, too glossy and sleek - and too far from what war really is. The Operation Flashpoint series is, and always has been, different. The series is renowned for its harsh and unforgiving take on the military combat genre, but lacking in style. With a few changes this time around for Operation Flashpoint: Red River, the hardcore attitude of its forbears is still mostly in tact, but is now accompanied by some much-needed charisma ...

LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars Review

Friday, 06 May 2011 Henry Dowling

The idea of a Star Wars game made entirely out of LEGO bits and pieces sounded quite dreadful to me at first. Being a severely passionate fan of the Star Wars films - and the expansive universe connected to it - I just couldn't see how a seemingly ill-fitting union of LEGO and George Lucas' creation could be anything but heresy. So imagine my surprise when Traveller's Tales managed to pull of a real Jedi mind trick by making the games not just enjoyable, but some of the more entertaining games to have carried the weighty Star Wars title. In theory, one would assume that these games are aimed at the younger audience, but since the first LEGO Star Wars there has been a free-spirited sense of humor and a charming atmosphere around the franchise which has pulled in gamers of all ages. LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars is more of the same exuberant action, stuffed to the rafters with things to do and places to see, and looking better than the series ever has before ...

Shift 2: Unleashed Review

Tuesday, 03 May 2011 Henry Dowling

The long-running Need for Speed series had been losing ground in recent years as gamers grew tired of the illegal street race culture which the Most Wanted, Carbon and Underground games peddled with varying levels of success. EA's attempt to move to more traditional motorsport gaming with ProStreet wasn't the roaring return to form it was meant to be either, and it seemed the franchise had lost its sense of direction. Intent on cracking the simulation side of the market, EA ploughed on, delivering the impressive Need for Speed: Shift, which was well received but ultimately fell short of the genre's flagship franchise Forza. Now, after having recently struck gold with the Hollywood-style cop chasing action of Hot Pursuit, the Need for Speed franchise seems to have found its mojo once again, leading us to this, another crack at the simulation market with Shift 2: Unleashed ...

Homefront Review

Wednesday, 20 April 2011 Henry Dowling

When I was a youth, ze Germans were the bad guys. Nothing personal, that's just how it was. If you needed foreigners to cause trouble in your game, film, TV show or book, Hans, Klaus and their friends were the guys to call. It was a terribly unfair stereotype - let's be honest, our Kraut brothers have been exemplary citizens of the world since their 1939 World Tour ended in tears - so it's good to see that things have changed over the years. Since then we've had the Russians, the unspecified Middle Eastern terrorists and all manner of Eastern Bloc nasties in our crosshairs to fill the gap, and now Kaos Studios has brought something new to the table: the ultimate in odd couple partnerships - a united Korea - here to take on the US on its own soil. That is the unlikely scenario painted by Homefront, a first person shooter set in a speculative future penned by Red Dawn writer John Milius ...

Crysis 2 Review

Monday, 18 April 2011 Henry Dowling

When Crytek first announced that Crysis 2 was to be released on consoles as well as PC, there were naturally a few concerned gamers. The original Crysis was universally regarded as a ravenous system hog unlike anything that had come before it, so the news that the sequel would be able to run on current generation console hardware came across as ambitious, to say the least. Now, after having thrashed through Crysis 2's relentless and captivating campaign, together with a surprisingly engrossing multiplayer component, it's clear that we needn't have worried: this sequel manages to fill the first games' gargantuan Nanosuit boots with style ...