Forza Motorsport 3 (2009, Driving Simulator) – 7/10 360 exclusive game review

Game Designer: Dan Greenawalt

Forza Motorsport 3 (2009) Race online or offline against up to seven opponents in most of the world’s most desirable cars from dozens of car manufacturers on scores of tracks set in twenty-one international locations (including new to the series Amalfi Coast, Benchmark High Speed Ring, Camino Viejo de Montserrat, Sedona Raceway Park, and returning favourite Fujimi Kaido). Customise them mechanically and visually and buy, share or sell tuning setups and designs on the new Forza Storefront. 7/10 Despite suspiciously glowing contemporary reviews and brazenly making eyes at casual gamers (you can complete the game and get a lot of the achievements almost without driving a single lap), FM3 is more hardcore than ever because only they will be able to extract any satisfaction from it. The casual gamer will give up before even a single lap is through thanks to AI that clearly doesn’t obey the same laws of physics you do, the fact that you can’t touch anything other than tarmac, wheels still seem to spin or lock with traction control and anti-lock brakes turned on, and an extremely uninvolving, if fluid, default driving experience. It is instantly dull and even more so in the uncommunicative cockpit view (no head movement at all). However, if you learn to drive with your assists off and spend time tuning your cars and avoid the cockpit view, you will be rewarded with a very good driving model and reasonable driving experience and you will appreciate the wealth of cars and superb original tracks presented with beautiful, crisp graphics at a marvellous sixty frames-per-second. Once here, it is, as before, bafflingly addictive but, even with that, you’re unlikely to play the game through to it’s 125-hour conclusion. Told you it was hardcore. Classified 3+ by PEGI. The game is only suitable for persons who have reached the age of 3 or over. Links Previous game: Forza Motorsport 2

Xbox 360 vs PS3 Head-to-Head Face Off: Assassin’s Creed II

Every so often, Eurogamer run a series of technical comparison reviews for games released on both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

This is the latest update to the full list.

•   Assassin’s Creed II

Xbox 360 vs PS3 vs PC Head-to-Head Face Off: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Every so often, Eurogamer run a series of technical comparison reviews for games released on both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

This is the latest update to the full list.

•   Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation – Hard Evidence (2007, Point-and-Click Mystery Game, 360) – 4/10 review

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Hard Evidence (2007) 4/10 This should be a fascinating, informative, wonderfully polished game but a clunky interface (for example, you cannot select menu items using the left stick), genre limitations (you are sometimes expected to see something you need a flashlight to see before you are allowed to use a flashlight) and ugly presentation (no CSI theme, either) make playing this without a walkthrough a chore. Oddly, character’s eyes are surprisingly well animated (as nothing else is), the stories are pretty nifty with some agreeably salacious motives and twists and there is definite potential for this licence in this genre. This CSI: Crime Scene Investigation game contains adult dialogue and themes, mild swear words and strong violence, extremely unpleasant scenes and sex scene. Classified 15 by BBFC. Suitable only for persons of 15 years and over.

Prince of Persia (2008, Third-Person Platform Game, 360) – 6/10 review

Senior Producer: Bertrand Helias Producer: Ben Mattes Creative Director: Jean-Christophe Guyot Art Director: Mickael Labat Lead Programmer: Charles Jacob Lead Programmer Gameplay: Cyril Meynier Director Narrative: Andrew Walsh Lead Game Designer: Thomas Delbuguet Lead Game Designer: Kevin Guillemette Level Design Director: Francois Emery Nolan North: The Prince Kari Wahlgren: Elika Music: Stuart Chatwood Music: Inon Zur

Prince of Persia (2008) Some dude wandering the desert thanks to a sand storm and a wayward donkey carrying his treasure runs into Elika, a princess. He’s just in time to see her father release Ahriman, a dark god, who plummets the land into corruption and only Elika, who has mysterious light powers, can stop him. With the dude’s help, of course. Sorry, nearly forgot that; I’m sure he’s vital. 6/10 Unusually and impressively looking like incredible concept art rendered directly onto your screen, this Prince of Persia has the odd feeling of a project completely redesigned late into it’s life. While tiny heads on all our characters, super-human feats performed by our human hero (who appears to be not needed by the story though a spectacular climax does interestingly justify his presence SPOILER because he is needed to resurrect Elika; he takes exactly the same course of action as the father, for the same reason and note how both Gods keep saying the same thing; the gameplay didn’t need him but the climax of the story did), an inconsistent tone that doesn’t fit the genre or seriousness of each situation and a making-tosh-up-as-we-see-fit story can be overlooked, the game completely misses the mark with unresponsive and uncertain controls that never quite consistently coalescence into fluent awesomeness. This problem becomes critical during the occasional combat sequences as the controls become even more unresponsive and unpredictable. Music’s good, though. This game contains mild adult dialogue and blade violence, fantasy violence, unpleasant fantasy scenes. Links Lens of Truth Head-to-Head: PS3 Eurogamer Head-to-Head: 360 / PS3 IGN Head-to-Head: 360 / PS3

Xbox 360 vs PS3 vs PC Head-to-Head Face Off: Borderlands

Every so often, Eurogamer run a series of technical comparison reviews for games released on both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

This is the latest update to the full list.

•   Borderlands

Xbox 360 vs PS3 Head-to-Head Face Off: Round 22

Every so often, Eurogamer run a series of technical comparison reviews for games released on both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

This is the latest update to the full list.

•   Bayonetta
•   Borderlands
•   Brutal Legend
•   Colin McRae: Dirt 2
•   IL2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey
•   Need for Speed: Shift
•   Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising
•   Tekken 6

Superman Returns (2006, Third-Person Action Movie Game) – 5/10 review

Brandon Routh: Clark Kent / Superman Kevin Spacey: Lex Luthor Writer (Screenplay): Flint Dille Writer (Story): Marv Wolfman Composer: Colin O’Malley

Superman Returns (2006) Returning to Metropolis after a five year journey to Krypton and back (confirming that it, indeed, had been destroyed), Superman settles back into his day job of protecting the people of Earth from nefarious super-villains and super-henchmen. Well, one city on Earth anyway. 5/10 There is a remarkably nice feeling about flying above the city with the wind adding its own chorus to Colin O’Malley’s rather lovely music. The feeling of flying is really well nailed. Sadly, it’s the only gameplay element that is good. The remainder of the game is spent attacking and it’s mushy and imprecise and Supes regularly doesn’t do as he’s told. You don’t feel like Superman in the action segments. You don’t fell invulnerable or super-strong. Five for the flying, nothing for everything else. Classified 12+ by PEGI. The game is only suitable for persons who have reached the age of 12 or over. Classified Violence by PEGI. Game contains depictions of violence.

Iron Man (2008, Third-Person Action Movie Game, 360) – 3/10 review

Iron Man Iron Man (2008) Weapons-inventing genius Tony Stark has a change of heart and decides to rid the world of weapons he believes are in the wrong hands by not telling anyone he’s invented a perfect AI, building the most brilliant and destructive battle suit (i.e., weapon) of all time and going on a genocidal rampage across the world. No, hang on, that didn’t come out right. 3/10 Well, at least it’s easy to determine what’s wrong with this movie game: the flying controls are near unusable. Remarkably, the camera, aiming and movement controls are different when doing just about anything. Therefore, the only people who will ever play this game and get something out of it are those after a big lump of gamerscore. Add to that the unspeakable ugliness of the game and "movies," and the lazy difficulty and you have a legitimately worthless entertainment product. That sold nearly three million copies worldwide. This Iron Man game contains violence. Classified 16+ by PEGI. The game is only suitable for persons who have reached the age of 16 or over.. Classified Violence by PEGI. Game contains depictions of violence.

Xbox 360 vs PS3 Head-to-Head Face Off: Ninja Gaiden 2 vs Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2

Every so often, Eurogamer run a series of technical comparison reviews for games released on both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

This is the latest update to the full list.

•   Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2

Surf’s Up (2007, Surfing Game, 360) – 7/10 review

Surf’s Up (2007) 7/10 This is a legitimately good game; a simple but playable surfing game with just about none of the usual problems associated with movie games. It provides single-minded gameplay, lots of achievable goals, straight-forward controls and clean graphics. I had trouble performing tricks inside a wave tube (I was pressing the buttons simultaneously or too quickly!) but, aside from that, everything was clear and highly playable. This game contains mild aggression. Classified 3+ by PEGI. The game is only suitable for persons who have reached the age of 3 or over.

Forza Motorsport 3 (2009, Racing Game, 360 exclusive) – demo review

Forza Motorsport 3 (2009) Quick thoughts on the Forza Motorsport 3 available for download today. Graphics are a big step up from the last instalment with no low-resolution liveries on the cars and pin-sharp backgrounds and textures scattered generously everywhere; it looks very nice. The sixty-frames-per-second refresh rate continues to make a huge difference to every other 360 racer. The front-end menus are attractive, airy and clear. Negative comments? The lighting model places it in a firm second place visually against Gran Turismo 5 Prologue both on the track and in the showroom. Gargantuan loading times for the circuit still exist. Perhaps most damningly of all, though, is that all five cars felt (and sounded) very very similar. They shouldn’t. They include four road cars (Mini, Evo, Ferrari California, Audi R8) and one racing car (Porsche) with massive differences in drive trains, weight and engine power and note. Yet moving from one to the other never felt like you were in a different car. Currently released 360 exclusive Race Pro and PS3 exclusive Supercar Challenge have FM3’s driving model trumped.

Xbox 360 vs PS3 vs PC Head-to-Head Face-Off: Batman Arkham Asylum update

Every so often, Eurogamer run a series of technical comparison reviews for games released on both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

This is the latest update while the full list is here.

•   Batman: Arkham Asylum
•   Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

Xbox 360 vs PS3 Head-to-Head Face-Off: Round 21

Every so often, Eurogamer run a series of technical comparison reviews for games released on both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

This is the latest update while the full list is here.

•   Battlefield 1943
•   Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood
•   Fight Night: Round 4
•   G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra
•   Overlord II
•   UFC 2009: Undisputed
•   Virtua Tennis 2009
•   Wolfenstein

Fuel (2009, Open-World Racing Game, 360) – 7/10 review

Studio Director: Sebastian Wloch Studio Director: David Dedeine Executive Producer: Brice Davin Designer Vehicles: Fabrice Chaland Designer Vehicles: Brice Davin Game Designer: David Dedeine Game Designer: Pascal ‘Pako’ Saingre Game Designer: Sylvain Billaud Game Designer: Frederic Oughdentz

Fuel (2009) 7/10 Dropping you in to events like Stunt Car Racer gets this open-world racer off to a great start but Asobo Studios immediately start running over their own toes. They seem to have overlooked principle benefits of open-world games: no menus and no loading. Fuel’s events are accessed using a menu and it spends a huge amount of time "generating" which detracts greatly from what should be allowed to be it’s staggeringly impressive open-world environment. The endless roads are a definite plus point with all 262 events boasting unique lengths and layouts and, surprisingly, the tracks are almost all interesting and spectacular and fun; especially the ones with tornadoes. No matter where you drive, you’ll almost certainly have never driven there before. The best thing about Fuel though, probably, is vehicle visual design. They are chunky and charismatic and cool and you are happy to unlock them. Even though Fuel doesn’t make the most of it’s technology, there’s enough game for anyone and a more imaginative sequel could be genuinely special. Classified 7+ by PEGI. The game is only suitable for persons who have reached the age of 7 or over. Classified Violence by PEGI. Game contains depictions of violence.

Turok (2008, First-Person Shooter Game, 360) – 1/10 review

Turok (2008) Turok crash lands on a planet and is, oddly, not surprised at all to find it full of dinosaurs. Not that it matters because he won’t survive. No, I mean that. He won’t survive; you will not see the end of the game. 1/10 Well. The dinosaurs look brilliant and some of the level design in the first half is superb with lots of variety in how you can attack the level. The main complaints are that all the weapons sound weedy and the aiming controls aren’t quite right but it’s not unplayable or anything. Then we get to the level ‘Killing Fields.’ This must be the worst designed level in the history of video games. It does absolutely everything wrong. Everywhere is a dead end and nowhere links to anywhere else even though it looks like it does. There is no shelter and no caves or ledges to give you any chance at strategy. There are no visual cues to help you orient yourself in the level (everything is grey – the floor, the rocks, the sky); indeed, the level maliciously delights in picking you up and changing your position and direction whenever it feels like it. A rocket launcher guy is spawned and you are transposed to a pre-defined place you couldn’t possibly be. The checkpoint placement is wrong. The boss can be accidentally spawned meaning certain death. When he is deliberately spawned, it also means near-certain death because he has endless insta-rockets with no reload time and which cannot be sheltered from or avoided. It is the exact opposite of fun and it’s a great shame as the game was shaping up fine up that game-ending, game-destroying vomit of ineptitude and player-hate. This game contains gory knife violence against dinosaurs, strong gun and knife violence. Classified 15 by BBFC. Suitable only for persons of 15 years and over.

Quantum of Solace (2008, First- and Third-Person Shooter Game, 360) – 7/10 review

Daniel Craig: James Bond 007 Olga Kurylenko: Camille Mathieu Amalric: Dominic Greene Mads Mikkelsen: Le Chiffre Judi Dench: M Senior Producer: Garrett Young

Quantum of Solace Quantum of Solace (2008) Bond follows a lead into the organisation who were manipulating Vesper Lynd. Though when I say ‘follow a lead,’ I mean Bond kills hundreds of gun-toting henchmen. Which has got to help a bit, at least. 7/10 There is a complete absence of iconic action in the movie Quantum of Solace, a complete lack of Bondian swagger and attitude in both that movie and Casino Royale and a largely bland flow to the game’s levels but with these elements accepted, this remains a highly playable shooter with some agreeable cover-based action. It doesn’t fall into the typical Bond-game trap of trying to do too many things, nor does it supply ridiculously over-powered bosses (some are quick-time events, some take one or two judicious shots) or non-standard control layouts. Multiplayer offers a good selection of game modes which work well and are fun. So while, like parent movie Quantum of Solace, this simply doesn’t feel like Bond, it is a smooth, solid, easy-to-play shooter in its own right. This Quantum of Solace game contains mild swear words and extended gun violence, strong melee violence. Classified 16+ by PEGI. The game is only suitable for persons who have reached the age of 16 or over.. Classified Violence by PEGI. Game contains depictions of violence.

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary (2007, Third-Person Puzzle Platform Game, 360) – 9/10 review

Producer: Lulu LaMer Creative Director: Jason Botta Lead Designer: Jason Botta Art Director: Andrew Wood Keeley Hawes: Lara Croft Game Designer: Toby Gard

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary (2007) Lara Croft is on the trail of a Scion – a quest that cost her father his life – but quickly discovers that there are significant forces working against her both past and present. 9/10 As someone who never played the original Tomb Raider, I very much welcome this kind of project which sees an older game updated technologically but kept intact thematically and stylistically. What most surprised me is that this is essentially a non-violent game (the player kills one person but it’s horribly out-of-character and highly unnecessary for Lara; deliberately so, as it raises the question: can’t games be about more than killing dudes?). The joy comes from linear and straight-forward but satisfying traversal and logic puzzles. Every large room you enter is a moment of joy as you start scanning to find your exit and plan your route out. As a bonus, all the bosses are better and more interesting than shoot-’til-you-drop and all require a little strategy and guile to defeat (or, at least, to defeat quickly). Time trials mode from Legend makes a welcome return and, frankly, all games like this should have such a mode. Ultimately, and unusually, this game feels like a gift from the Eidos, Core and Crystal Dynamics and it’s a really nice feeling. This game contains wildlife self-defense gun violence, at-odds-with-the-game’s-tone gun violence and extreme knife violence. Classified 16+ by PEGI. The game is only suitable for persons who have reached the age of 16 or over.. Links Previous: Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend (2006)

Jumper: Griffin’s Story (2008, Third-Person Action Movie Game, 360) – 2/10 review

Jamie Bell: Voice of Griffin

Jumper Jumper: Griffin’s Story (2008) Griffin is a Jumper – capable to instantly teleporting himself to any other location he can think of – but his bid for vengeance for the death of his parents means he has to go up against the only people who have the technology to stop him: the Paladins. 2/10 Joyless, ugly and staggeringly short (one of the Achievements Is complete the game in less than forty-five minutes!) movie spin-off. Part of the reason is that the game consistently ignores your input making it unnecessarily difficult to, for example, run or roll away from enemies. Or hit them. Or turn around. Potential for some nice platform-hopping puzzles is never realised either despite the gameplay mechanics being present. It’s odd as the game designers have clearly thought about the concept of the spatial warrior and come up with an agreeably imaginative control scheme. They’ve also accurately translated Jamie Bell’s ‘two-broken-legs’ style of running. Critically, though, they never get around the fact that our ‘hero’ never needs to fight a single soul: his ability means he can escape any fight when not tethered and can defeat any foe by dropping them in a volcano. This Jumper game contains extended strong violence, some very unpleasant scenes. Classified 12+ by PEGI. The game is only suitable for persons who have reached the age of 12 or over.

Turning Point: Fall of Liberty (2008, Alternative History WWII First-Person Shooter Game, 360) – 6/10 review

Turning Point: Fall of Liberty (2008) Without the charismatic leadership of Winston Churchill (who died in a car accident several years before), the German invasion of Europe has gone in favour of the Nazi’s and they’ve set their sights on America. A New York construction worker finds himself putting down his hammer and picking up sub-machine guns and putting the forces of evil back in their place. 6/10 Desperately unpolished and technically deficient first-person alternative history shooter. There’s no accuracy to the shooting, not because that is just the nature of the weapons, but because the game has wads of invisible scenery that you can’t shoot through surrounding every object in the game. It’s a big shame as the premise has potential (you see off a 1950’s Nazi invasion in New York, Washington D.C., and London; locations not available to traditional World War II games), the bomb-wiring mini-game works well and there’s something endlessly satisfying about putting down evil dictators who want to rule the world. It also has a certain old-school PC shooter charm and, being shorter than average but long enough, doesn’t outstay it’s welcome. A generous six, then. This game contains bloodless gun violence, melee violence, occasional strong melee violence. Classified 16+ by PEGI. The game is only suitable for persons who have reached the age of 16 or over.. Classified Violence by PEGI. Game contains depictions of violence.

Call of Duty: World at War (2008, WWII First-Person Shooter Game, 360) – 9/10 review

Creative Director: Corky Lehmkuhl Gary Oldman: Sgt. Reznov Kiefer Sutherland: Sgt. Roebuck

Call of Duty 5 Call of Duty: World at War (2008) World War II: Russian Pvt. Dimitri Petrenko is pushing back the Germans to Berlin and American Private Miller is pushing back the Japanese to Okinawa. 9/10 Beautifully polished World War II first-person shooter which is atmospheric, extremely playable, very smooth and controls, looks, animates and sounds brilliant. There’s only one real complaint (aside from a couple of dispiriting bugs which require level restarts) and it’s an old one: disagreeably obvious infinite spawning soldiers who direct 90% of their fire directly into any orifice they choose whether they are looking at you or not, whether they are holding a weapon or not, whether you knew you were going to pop out or not, whether they’re on fire or not, whether they’re dead or not, whether they’re being run over by a tank or not, whether they’re being riddled with your bullets or not, whether a grenade has just exploded in their face or not. Hardened is great fun as it is really tough and satisfying but, unlike Veteran, you don’t get punished for your lack of clairvoyance skills. What is always good about the Medal of Honor and Call of Duty World War II games is that you never forget that this was a real conflict in which real people died real horribly. The ease with which you die, even though it’s a game (you can take three or more bullets which is rather more generous than real-life) becomes, rightfully, a slightly sobering experience. This Call of Duty game contains sexual swear words and extremely graphic gun violence, graphic blade, fire and melee violence, extremely unpleasant scenes. Classified 15 by BBFC. Suitable only for persons of 15 years and over. Classified Violence by PEGI. Game contains depictions of violence. Classified Bad Language by PEGI. Game contains bad language. Classified 18+ by PEGI. The game is only suitable for adults who have reached the age of 18 or over.. Links Previous: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Lens of Truth Head-to-Head: 360 Eurogamer Head-to-Head: 360 IGN Head-to-Head: PC IGN Head-to-Head: 360

Hellboy: The Science of Evil (2008, Third-Person Action Game, 360) – 6/10 review

Ron Perlman: Hellboy Jürgen Prochnow: Von Klempt Lead Game Designer: Chris Palu

Hellboy: Science of Evil, The (2008) Hellboy continues the fine tradition of punching evil Nazi’s until they stop trying to use the power of the occult for their own nefarious nastiness. 6/10 Though not a direct movie tie-in (it was released in the same year as Hellboy II: The Golden Army), this feels like one but, by and large, a good one. Though the boss battles are disagreeably protracted, the levels don’t flow as part of a worthless story badly told, animation takes precedence over slightly odd control (shoot is on the left trigger and your Y charge attack is frequently ignored), and poor collision detection means you can’t grab enemies or items unless you are exactly on the same level and where the game wants you to be, this game features good-looking enemies and environments, good length, decent voice work, good game animations and it’s all rather sensibly presented. Somewhat remarkably, however, Konami never released the whole game with two chapters and 160 gamerpoints missing from the retail disc and never made available as DLC. This is a shame as it’s clear that developer Krome Studios have put some love into this. This game contains mild bad language and extended extreme stylised fantasy violence. Classified 12 by BBFC. Suitable only for persons of 12 years and over.

Race Pro (2009, Racing Game, 360) – 8/10 review

Creative Director: Diego Sartori Game Designer: Diego Sartori Technical Director: Ola Olsson Lead Programmer: Michael Andersson

Race Pro (2009) 8/10 I hate AI that isn’t affected by grass and gravel and kerbs and camber and G-forces and momentum and variable grip and their line through corners and your car being in their way and you driving into the side of them at 100mph and, like most racing games, Race Pro is guilty of this. So why the high score? Communication. Race Pro communicates the relationship of the driver to the car and car to the track more successfully than just about any other console game. This means that every single time you crash, understeer, oversteer, slide or nail a corner oh-so-sweetly, you know exactly why. Every time. Forza Motorsport 2 and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue are more forgiving and far more polished and Ferrari Challenge: Trofeo Pirelli has more heart, but this is probably the best driving experience available on 360 or PS3 at this time. Classified 3+ by PEGI. The game is only suitable for persons who have reached the age of 3 or over.

Terminator: Salvation (2009, Third-Person Action Game, 360) – 6/10 review

Terminator: Salvation Terminator: Salvation (2009) John Connor, a resistance fighter in a future war against machines, hot-headedly goes to rescue a fellow fighter stranded inside a Skynet facility against the orders of his commanding officer and knowing it’s likely a death sentence. But he’s human, not a machine, and the odds don’t matter when a life is at stake. 6/10 For everything Terminator: Salvation does right, the teammate AI does something wrong, typically stand in a really unhelpful place and never move. Play the game in human co-op, and the mild tactical requirements of gameplay (one of you has to distract an enemy while the other shoots it in a weak point, usually the back, and you must make use of cover) shine through and it’s good fun. The game is well enough presented, doesn’t spoil the movie and is simple to play. The Achievements are easy and the game doesn’t outstay it’s welcome; that’s to say, it’s short – about half the length of similar games – and you would be miffed if you paid full price for it. So rent it. This Terminator: Salvation game contains mild gun violence. Classified 16+ by PEGI. The game is only suitable for persons who have reached the age of 16 or over..

N3: Ninety-Nine Nights (2006, Game, 360) – 6/10 review

Director: Sang Youn Lee Producer: Tetsuya Mizuguchi Creative Director: Henry Lee

N3: Ninety-Nine Nights (2006) Inphyy and Aspharr leads the Knights into battle against the Goblins to prevent them obtaining and combining the Orbs of Light and Dark and bringing an apocalyptic ninety-nine days of darkness before taking over rulership of the world. 6/10 This is a badly-designed game with good, fun, spectacular, button-mashing, combo-learning gameplay. The most obvious, though excusable, barrier is a lack of checkpointing; you have to slog through a level then get instantly splatted by a fresh boss (rinse and repeat). Inexcusable is that the game is so badly designed it isn’t even hinted that you have to play through all eight characters to unlock a secret mission (for Inphyy) to actually finish the story and complete the game. This is a shame as all the characters are fun and different to play and some of their Orb Spark attacks are some of the most spectacular ever seen in video games. Special mention for some frequently outstanding music. This game contains extended extreme but non-graphic and stylised violence. Classified 12+ by PEGI. The game is only suitable for persons who have reached the age of 12 or over.

Xbox 360 vs PS3 Head-to-Head Face-Off: Round 20

Every so often, Eurogamer run a series of technical comparison reviews for games released on both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

This is the latest update while the full list is here.

•   Bionic Commando
•   Fuel
•   Ghostbusters: The Video Game 
•   Prototype
•   Red Faction: Guerilla
•   X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007, Game, 360) – 4/10 review

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007) 4/10 This is a real shame. For a good while, this game works well. It’s simple to play (though, typically for movie games, the controls feel more complicated than they are), looks quite nice and progress is tangible and smooth. As we reach the At World’s End portion of the game, though, the developers decide to drag out the game by making the combat sequences and duels go on for far too long. As both elements are extremely simple or uninvolving, the earlier, shorter bursts (defeating half-a-dozen dudes, for example) are okay while later battles drag on wearily. Oh, and, bizarrely, Jack can’t swim. In the end, the game is tiresome but it was nearly a very decent movie tie-in. This game contains mild abusive language and extended, occasionally strong, sword violence, extended melee violence. Classified 16+ by PEGI. The game is only suitable for persons who have reached the age of 16 or over.. Classified Violence by PEGI. Game contains depictions of violence.

Earth Defence Force 2017 (2007, Game, 360) – 8/10 review

Earth Defence Force 2017 (2007) 8/10 Though this was slammed for poor graphics, that doesn’t tell the whole story of this game that engenders insane loyalty for its fans, including me, and vitriolic disbelief from everyone else. There are, however, outrageously beautiful explosions, especially from the spectacular giant walking robots, there are hundreds of giant insects all over the shop and you can destroy every building you can see. For real. In short bursts, it’s simply delirious. There’s a super-ginormous playtime to get all achievements (over ninety for me to get to 900) and it would be easy to become jaded but play it for less than half-an-hour at a time and you will have great fun, especially with a friend. This game contains mild swear words and extreme gun violence against giant extra-terrestrial bugs and robots.

Alone in the Dark (2008, Game, 360) – 4/10 review

Director: David Nadal Lead Game Designer: Hervé Sliwa

Alone in the Dark (2008) A man comes to in an apartment building in New York City but has not idea who he is and why the building appears to be eating people and crumbling to pieces around him. 4/10 How come no-one at any point during development pointed out that the game (on 360) was virtually uncontrollable and wilfully ignores what the user does? It’s a gigantic shame as the game, with normal human controls, would be nearly very good. As it is, this is something of a glorious failure that fits in perfectly with Atari’s company policy of releasing broken games. Just to make sure there is absolutely no good will toward the legion of should-be-great moments, brilliant puzzling and super ideas, Eden Games inserted a soul-sucking sequence of horribly elongated gameplay (burning roots) which goes against the pace of the rest of the game. The finalé is largely cool, though, involving terrific simple-but-satisfying light puzzles, a satisfying baddie despatch but then, again, undermines itself with a where-do-I-go driving sequence and a world-ending decision to make without any information to base that decision upon. As it turns out, SPOILER out your decision is meaningless. Great. This game contains frequent sexual swear words and strong melee violence, strong blade violence, strong gun violence, graphic fire violence, strong horror violence, gory and unpleasant scenes, single instance of extreme and extremely graphic gun violence in cut-scene and sensuality. Classified 15 by BBFC. Suitable only for persons of 15 years and over.

MotoGP ‘07 (2007, Game, 360) – 7/10 review

Game Director: Nick Baynes Manager Production: Andy Wilson Manager Programming: David Jefferies Manager Art: Jason Green Manager Design: Serkan Hassan

Moto GP MotoGP ‘07 (2007) 7/10 While almost impenetrably challenging, barrenly presented and featuring embarrassing, misleading animation (this demands ragdolls) and unrecognisable handling, MotoGP ‘07 rewards persistent practice thanks to rapid tangible improvements in lap time and provides genuine satisfaction (if not fun, exactly) upon successful completion of a race weekend. Add to this the staggering amount of places to race (35, not including reverse tracks), including some real world locations not present in any, or many, other games (Losail, Jerez, Assen, Sachsenring, Brno, Misano, Estoril), and multiple fully-featured game modes and MotoGP ‘07, while not always fun, is definitely good value for the (dedicated) racing game connoisseur. Classified 3+ by PEGI. The game is only suitable for persons who have reached the age of 3 or over.