Ubisoft Game Reviews
Review Rayman Origins (PlayStation 3)
Four limbs good, no limbs better
Rayman Origins is a delirious platformer packed with delicious visuals and scrumptious level design. The legless protagonist's latest adventure is the perfect antidote to the industry's frustrating obsession with gritty war games, prompting some of the most fun you'll find on PlayStation 3 this year. Games like...
Review Assassin's Creed: Revelations (PlayStation 3)
Not very revelatory
Considering its subtitle, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations is disappointingly light in this regard. While Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood managed to shatter our pre-conceptions last year, Revelations is the third series title in as many years, and it's starting to show. The mechanics that once felt new and interesting are...
Review Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (PlayStation 3)
Brothers to the end
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood picks up moments after the end of Assassin's Creed II. Remember that ending? Bizarre artifacts, weird mystical people and strange prophecies. Brotherhood begins as Ezio leaves the Colosseum with the Apple Of Eden — a bizarre, powerful relic — in hand. If Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is your...
Review Just Dance 3 (PlayStation 3)
Late to the party?
Now into its third main entry, Ubisoft’s Just Dance series has finally shimmied its way onto PlayStation 3 with Just Dance 3, albeit a couple of months later than Just Dance 3 on Wii and Just Dance 3 on Kinect. Does Ubisoft’s key title do enough to stand out amongst PlayStation Move’s already crowded dance game line-up?...
Review Just Dance Kids 2 (PlayStation 3)
Child's play
Why should adults should get all the fun? Ubisoft’s Just Dance franchise has been selling like the X-Factor winner’s single at Christmas since its first days on Wii, becoming one of the system’s biggest third party sellers in the process. The series has now spread across multiple formats, and with the French publisher’s musical...
Review MotionSports Adrenaline (PlayStation 3)
Better with Kinect?
It was bound to happen sooner or later; games designed for Kinect would eventually be ported over to PlayStation Move. MotionSports Adrenaline is exactly this: an extreme sports compilation that’s obviously initially designed for Kinect and has received a port over to PS3 with Move support for multisystem release. But does a...
Review The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn (PlayStation 3)
Worth investigating
Hergé’s iconic investigator Tintin, his faithful pup Snowy and a slew of the Belgian series’ most important characters have just made the leap into a CG Hollywood extravaganza courtesy of Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson. As is the natural order of the entertainment world these days, the young journalist with a nose for a...
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 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 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 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 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 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 Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes HD (PlayStation 3)
Might & Magic: Clash Of Heroes is a real pleasant surprise
The game's clever blend of puzzle and RPG action makes for a refreshing downloadable package that's wrapped up in a gloriously vivid visual style. Might & Magic: Clash Of Heroes is the video game equivalent of a warm day in England: you don't anticipate it, but when it comes it's...
Review Michael Jackson: The Experience (PlayStation 3)
Bad, and not in a good way!
Last year saw Ubisoft release Michael Jackson: The Experience on Wii, the first video game to feature the King of Pop since Sega's Space Channel 5: Part 2. Essentially a Jacko reskin of runaway chart-topper Just Dance 2, the game shifted 2 million copies and has now landed on PlayStation 3, but has Ubisoft harnessed...
Review My Fitness Coach Club (PlayStation 3)
Sweaty beauty
While PlayStation Move's motion-controlled rivals are swimming in fitness games, this is only the second such title to reach Sony's black beauty after Get Fit with Mel B. Ubisoft's effort My Fitness Coach Club (known as Fit In Six in North America) comes from a reasonably successful line of fitness titles on Wii, and now with the added...
Review Dance on Broadway (PlayStation 3)
Mamma mia
Dance on Broadway turned out to be quite a hit for Ubisoft when released on Wii a few years back: riding off the success of its insanely popular Just Dance series, the all-musical soundtrack had a niche all to itself that resulted in big sales for Ubisoft. Now the Move edition has entered stage left, but it barely passes the audition. The...
Review R.U.S.E. (PlayStation 3)
Real-time. Unit. Selection. Efficiency.
Whilst the September 2010 launch of PS Move has lacked an 'instant purchase' AAA title, its games line-up has still managed to successfully demonstrate the possibilities of the hardware, albeit in an understated manner. Most unique of all is Eugen System's R.U.S.E.; a cunning trickster of a World War II RTS...
Review Racket Sports (PlayStation 3)
Turn that racket off
Ubisoft’s Racket Sports ('Racquet Sports' in North America) started life on Wii as Racquet Sports Party, a multiplayer waggle-fest that was one of few games to employ Ubi’s Wii camera to allow controller-free gameplay. Since then it’s received an overhaul in the graphical and control departments, but it’s only a sheep in...
Review Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game (PlayStation 3)
Boy meets girl
Boy falls in love with girl. So far, so cliche? Not quite — see, there's a twist to Scott Pilgrim and Ramona Flowers' burgeoning relationship; Scott must defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends in order to go on a date with her. Thus ensues the perfect set-up for a seven-stage beat 'em up game moulded around classics such as Final...
Review Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines (PlayStation Portable)
Set in Cyprus shortly after the events of the first Assassin's Creed, Bloodlines attempts to bridge the gap between the first and second game, progressing anti-hero Altair's pursuit of the Templars, and tracking his relationship with kidnapped love-interest Maria
It's a decent tale that fans of the franchise will love, but some poor voice-acting can...
Review Assassin's Creed II (PlayStation 3)
It's quickly apparent playing Assassin's Creed II just how close the first game was to being exceptional
The core gameplay remains unchanged in ACII - you're still a parkour free-runner navigating an historical environment, assassinating historical figures that get in your way. That's the franchise's formula, and that's what was best about the first...
Review Call Of Juarez: Bound In Blood (PlayStation 3)
Call Of Juarez: Bound In Blood is the prequel to the similarly titled XBOX 360 release
It follows the early lives of brothers Ray and Thomas McCall, soldiers for the Confederacy in the American Civil War. The tale of the McCall's is told via Tarantino style time-leaps, an inviting technique which leaves the plot open to a lot of twists along the...
Review Vin Diesel Wheelman (PlayStation 3)
Wheelman puts you in the shoes of Hollywood super-star Vin Diesel, as he tears up the streets of Barcelona posing as Milo Burik
Finding his feet in the Spanish province, Vin Diesel starts to learn about Barcelona's criminal underground and builds up a relationship with numerous shady locals as a wheelman. Wheelman is an arcade style driving game...
