March2012
Review FIFA Street (PlayStation 3)
Quality street
A lot has changed in the football genre since EA released FIFA Street 3 back in 2008. The mainline FIFA franchise has enjoyed an impressive transformation over the past five years and, consequentially, has knocked former champion Pro Evolution Soccer from the top of the league. It’s telling, then, that the latest FIFA Street comes...
Slip slidin' away
During its prolonged tutorial — which sees players leaping out of a plane before plummeting towards terra firma until all of the required actions have been performed — SSX is picture perfect. A seemingly endless and expertly crafted snowy mountain expanse stretches off into the horizon, the lighting is stunning to behold and...
February2012
Review Syndicate (PlayStation 3)
Hostile takeover
Developers of first-person shooters are starting to realise that they can’t simply mimic Call of Duty in order to score a hit. While lessons can certainly be learned from Activision’s multi-billion dollar military series, there’s a growing sense that the industry understands it needs to differentiate too. The Darkness II is a...
Review Grand Slam Tennis 2 (PlayStation 3)
Serving up a winner?
Grand Slam Tennis 2 has the daunting task of following up last year’s brace of solid tennis titles. Both Virtua Tennis 4 and Top Spin 4 hold a racquet-like grip on the two opposing formats of the tennis genre: Virtua Tennis with its slick arcade action and Top Spin with its challenging simulation focus. It’s unsurprising,...
Review Need For Speed: The Run (PlayStation 3)
Run down
Need For Speed: The Run is a brilliant idea, but the game's bogged down by some iffy technical issues and frustrating AI. There's a lot to like about The Run — it's well presented and technically impressive — but its quirks will prevent you from returning despite its excellent Autolog implementation and decent track design. The last...
Review Battlefield 3 (PlayStation 3)
Field of dreams
Battlefield 3's single player campaign checks all the required boxes, but fails to better the offerings of its competitors. Multiplayer is where the game finds its purpose, offering a raw experience that's both technically outstanding and masterfully balanced. EA promised the world during the build-ip to Battlefield 3's release. It...
November2011
Review Family Game Night 4: The Game Show (PlayStation 3)
Mind Boggle-ing
For the fourth iteration of its Hasbro Family Game Night series, first popularised on Nintendo Wii, EA has become bored of board games. The latest entry instead focuses upon the real life game show, Family Game Night, which in itself is based on Hasbro’s best-selling games. Currently airing on American TV channel The Hub, Family...
October2011
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...
July2011
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...
April2011
Review Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters (PlayStation 3)
The second cut is the deepest
Last year's Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 saw Move support patched into the game post-release, and although the core game was solid, the Move controls were a letdown. Six months later, EA has brought the Tiger back out of the cage for Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters, but can it make up for last year's errors? Well, yes...
March2011
Review Crysis 2 (PlayStation 3)
We hated our first couple of hours with Crysis 2
Initially, the game assumes far too much from the player. It presents you with a catalogue of mechanics but never gives you a detailed explanation on how to use them. It also throws you in at the deep end from a narrative perspective, filling the screen with black-outs, explosions and plot-twists that...
February2011
Review Bulletstorm (PlayStation 3)
There's probably a rule written somewhere that states anyone named Grayson must act like a complete and utter dick
Bulletstorm's protagonist, Grayson Hunt, obliges with vigour by getting high off grog, selling out his friends, and chatting about the kind of nonsense you'd be embarrassed to hear in a school playground. Grayson's not the only...
Review Mass Effect 2 (PlayStation 3)
Ultimately Mass Effect 2's obsessive attention to detail is its greatest strength
At times the game's intricate references to obscure fiction can be overbearing, but those that take the time to engross themselves in the world will be richly rewarded. The problem with late ports such as Mass Effect 2 is that they can fall foul to hype. Bioshock left...
January2011
Review Dead Space 2 (PlayStation 3)
Years after the conclusion to the original Dead Space, protagonist Isaac Clarke finds himself locked on the Sprawl -- a metropolis built upon one of Saturn's moons, Titan
Unable to recall the past three years of his life, Clarke finds himself suffering from distorted visions of his deceased girlfriend, Nicole. As the Sprawl finds itself subject to a...
Review Dead Space: Extraction (PlayStation 3)
Extracting fear and limbs
Humanity is sacred. Human beings are characterised by the emotions that flow within them, but yet humans are fragile beings. The line between life and death can be broken in an instant, and extract fear from deep within. Dead Space: Extraction finds a group of humans walking the fine line between life and death in deep...
November2010
More play than Create
Play, Create and Share are words that PlayStation fans have become very fond of in the last two years. Games like LittleBigPlanet and ModNation Racers both have gamers not only playing the games, but creating and sharing their own levels online with others across the world. EA has decided to get in on this trend with Create,...
Review Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit (PlayStation 3)
Coming out of Criterion Games, our initial impressions of Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit were tempered by it not being Burnout
We expected to jump into the game, hit ridiculous speeds and twist in and out of traffic with Burnout's trademark controller response. Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit is a lot heavier and slower than Burnout, and it wasn't until...
October2010
Review Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 (PlayStation 3)
Tiger comes out swinging
Tiger Woods is a name that needs no introduction. Rising to fame back in 1996, he's since become one of the most successful golfers of all time, becoming the face of EA's PGA Tour Golf series for over a dozen titles. While it’s all too common to see yearly updates of sports titles from EA, the question is does the game...
Review MySims SkyHeroes (PlayStation 3)
Disregarding the nonsensical plot about evil sky corporations and obvious plot-twists, MySims: Sky Heroes is essentially a generic kart racing game set in the sky
The game mixes its powered-up racing with hectic dog-fights, but it fails to offer much beyond. The plot draws out the formula to extortionately repetitive lengths — but that's not a...
July2009
Review Rock Band Unplugged (PlayStation Portable)
Those of you around in the early days of the Playstation 2 may remember a classic that went by the name Amplitude
Rock Band Unplugged is that same game without the electronica. Running with the Rock Band franchise, Rock Band Unplugged provides a range of "hits" from the likes of Weezer, Lit, Bon Jovi and many other rock veterans. The game...
Review Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince (PlayStation 3)
Based on the film of the book of the same name, Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince is the penultimate Harry Potter story which builds into the crux of Harry's story
The plot essentially culminates in the search for Voldemort's soul via Horcruxes. If you're unfamiliar with the book's plot then you're going to find The Half-Blood Prince pretty...
