Games
This is a summation of every game review on the site arranged by year. Reviews are arranged in star order, highest first. Thumbnail review links are provided for all nine and ten star games. To find a specific game you’re looking for it is easiest to use the find functionality of Firefox or Opera.
2009 Games:
★★★★★ ★★★★★
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3, 10/10) is simply one of the best action games of all time.
★★★★★ ★★★
SimBin arrived on consoles with the 360-exclusive Race Pro (360, 8/10) and, in what is destined to be a big year for racing games, threw down a brilliant driving experience as a gauntlet to the big boys of Forza Motorsport 3, Gran Turismo 5 and Need for Speed: Shift. Sly Raccoon developer Sucker Punch delivered PS3-exclusive inFamous (PS3, 8/10) and while the choice to be a super-hero or super-villain doesn’t quite convince, the ambition is welcome and the experience is incredibly fun and easy-to-play. With Supercar Challenge (PS3, 8/10), Eutechnyx improved on every area of Ferrari Challenge: Trofeo Pirelli while not breaking the rewarding driving experience (take note Motorstorm: Pacific Rift).
★★★★★ ★★
Fuel (360, 7/10) boasts the largest environment in a racing game ever (over five times the size of Oahu in Test Drive Unlimited) and, while it doesn’t quite fulfil it’s promise thanks to interface design choices, it remains an impressive achievement with a lot of racing in it. Forza Motorsport (360, 7/10) was a disappointment for me thanks to uninvolving handling (though every other contemporary reviewer gushed over it).
★★★★★ ★
Grin produced a short (you’d be upset if you paid full price) but playable, fun-with-a-friend, non-spoilery and easy gamerscore movie tie-in Terminator: Salvation (360, 6/10).
2008 Games:
★★★★★ ★★★★
Burnout Paradise (PS3, 9/10) continued Criterion Games run of entertaining, high quality and technically outstanding experiences and remains (at June 2008) just about the only third-party game where the PS3 provides on par or better visuals than the 360. Remarkably, they would update the game with staggering new content for free for the remainder of the year, content so good that they could have reasonably charged money for it. Outstanding! TreyArch surprised everyone by delivering a quality follow-up to lauded sister developer Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in the shape of the ticks-all-the-boxes Call of Duty: World at War (9/10). Capcom delivered the cool, fun and thrilling Devil May Cry 4 (PS3, 9/10). Despite a significant number of game-breaking bugs (still present after patches), Fable II (360, 9/10) proved a largely remarkable game and I look forward to revisiting Albion via downloadable content.
★★★★★ ★★★
Hideo Kojima managed the near-impossible by not disappointing anyone with Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3, 8/10). Confusing, maybe, but not disappointing. The PS3 also boasted another nice exclusive, though much more low-key, in the rewarding Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli (PS3, 8/10). Insomniac delivered a quarter-size follow-up to Tools of Destruction in the welcome shape of Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty (PS3, 8/10).
★★★★★ ★★
Codemasters followed by the expansive and fun Colin McRae: Dirt with the very well-received Race Driver: Grid (PS3, 7/10) but while the damage modeling was spectacular, the driving model was not. Ubisoft delivered an unexpectedly and applaudably atmospheric Lost video game (360, 7/10) though, due to a game length of a few hours, you probably wouldn’t be happy paying full price for it. Pick it up on budget; I paid £6.99 and was delighted. Lucasarts delivered the nearly very good Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (PS3, 7/10) but it featured just too many little frustrations including a weedy lightsaber that hardly damages most enemies in the game and an annoying and non-sensical level where you pull a Star Destroyer out of the sky using the Force. Rockstar provided an open-world game where, thankfully, you couldn’t run pedestrians over or be nasty to anyone with Midnight Club: Los Angeles (360, 7/10). Dreamworks really surprised us by backing up a surprisingly good animated movie with a surprisingly fun movie game in the rotund shape of Kung Fu Panda (360, 7/10). Mirror’s Edge (PS3, 7/10) was a laudable attempt even if it could be infuriating. Activision made a decent shooter for Quantum of Solace (360, 7/10) but, like the parent movie, it didn’t feel Bondian.
★★★★★ ★
LEGO Indiana Jones (360, 6/10) proved that the ultra-violent Indiana Jones trilogy did not fit in with LEGO. Budget game Score International: Baja 1000 (360, 6/10) had the expected odd handling but much better than expected tracks and provided a decent amount of fun for the unbiased. The full-price series inspiration for Baja 1000, Motorstorm: Pacific Rift (PS3, 6/10) proved disappointing by tweaking and breaking the perfect handling of the first game. The Spiderwick Chronicles (360, 6/10) is an entirely acceptable movie game though it is unlikely the target audience (pre-teen children) would ever get to the end of it. Hellboy: The Science of Evil (360, 6/10) tries harder than most movie tie-in’s and is better than most, too. Turning Point: Fall of Liberty (6/10) had a certain charm despite, or perhaps because of, technical shortcomings. As a platform game, Prince of Persia (6/10, 360) was welcome but clunky controls undermined everything good it tried to do.
★★★★
Atari keeps putting out games that should be great but which haven’t been finished or are fundamentally broken in some way. Alone in the Dark (360, 4/10) fits perfectly in with that company policy and it is, again, a huge shame.
★★★
Iron Man (360, 3/10) is an ugly, lazy game only of value for those interested in a decent lump of gamerscore.
★★
Jumper: Griffin’s Story (360, 2/10) is ugly and joyless both in gameplay and story.
★
Turok (360, 1/10) is evil. It looks like it’s going to be fun, and it is for a while, then stabs you in the eye and nicks all your savings.
2007 Games:
★★★★★ ★★★★★
2007 was probably the best year ever for gaming with the likes of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3, 10/10) leading the way both critically and financially. Bioshock (360, 10/10) appealed to critics snobbery but also, surprisingly perhaps, to the masses with it’s wonderfully elaborate production design, interesting immersive gameplay and tangible atmosphere.
★★★★★ ★★★★
Codemasters gave the tragically killed Colin McRae a fine send-off in the shape of Colin McRae: DiRT (PS3, 9/10). Despite being a bit short on tracks, Forza Motorsport 2 (360, 9/10) delivered the 360’s finest driving experience. Meanwhile, the PS3 started delivering some impressive exclusives in the shape of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (PS3, 9/10); great looking and terrific fun to play. Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary (9/10, 360) felt like a gift from the developers and publishers of the franchise and thank you to them.
★★★★★ ★★★
PGR 4 (360, 8/10) would prove to be a fine swansong for Bizarre Creations city racer but it was generally, though a little unfairly, perceived as being a bit of a sales disappointment (it sold the least of the four Xbox Project Gotham Racing games). Mass Effect (360, 8/10) snatched gaming goodness from the jaws of technical incompetence and a large initial lack-of-fun hump. High quality PS3 exclusives included Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction (PS3, 8/10), Gran Turismo HD (PS3, 8/10) and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (8/10); the latter comfortably justifying your console purchase if you were a fan of the greatest driving franchise of them all. In the much-better-than-expected category we have Stranglehold (PS3, 8/10) which nailed the mood of a Hong Kong John Woo bullet extravaganza perfectly. Another better-than-expected game was the gleefully clunky Earth Defence Force 2017 (8/10) but many people are simply baffled by the genuine love fans like me have for it.
★★★★★ ★★
One of the biggest hits and most impressive games of the year was free-running action game Assassin’s Creed (360, 7/10). The ability of your main character to run across any part of the scenery was unendingly wonderful though not as satisfying as the destined-to-be-permanently-overlooked Crackdown. Though suffering a bit from too-frequent random battles (and had some ugly performance issues on PS3), Enchanted Arms (PS3, 7/10) was a charming JRPG with an entirely solid battle system. Sega Rally (360, 7/10) is probably the hardest racing game ever released. 
Simulador Turismo Carretera (PC, 7/10) distinguished itself among racing sims by using Argentinian national tracks that most of us worldwide have never heard of, let alone raced around before. LucasArts wrapped up the previous separately-released LEGO Star Wars games and added a few bits to provide a great value-for-money experience in LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (360, 7/10) (game complete time over fifty hours). Folklore (aka FolksSoul) (PS3, 7/10) proved to be one of the best visually designed games ever released (exclusive to PS3) and backed it up with a compelling story and good combat. While off-puttingly difficult for many, Climax’s final MotoGP game, MotoGP ‘07 (360, 7/10) did provide a huge amount of content and was rewarding if you put in the practice. PS3 exclusive Heavenly Sword (7/10) disappointed with too-complicated, boring swordplay sucking up half the gameplay but did have real quality in just about every other area. Surf’s Up (360, 7/10) proved a pleasant surprise: a focused and fun movie game.
★★★★★ ★
Synetic delivered their first title for HD consoles in the form of Alarm for Cobra 11 (360, 6/10), released internationally as Crash Time and while it could be infuriating, it also had charm and character and perfectly weighted steering response.
★★★★★
Traveller’s Tale took a break from LEGO games (they were squishing LEGO Star Wars into Complete Saga form) to supply the almost fun Transformers: The Game (360, 5/10).
★★★★
Electronic Arts stumbled technically with Need for Speed: ProStreet (360, 4/10) and it wasn’t, er, funly either. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (360, 4/10) was nearly a decent movie game but, somehow, it wasn’t really fun. Though it ended up being tiresome, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (4/10) was nearly a decent movie game. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation – Hard Evidence (4/10, 360) wastes a licence behind ugly, clunky execution. TMNT (4/10, 360) isn’t anything like as good as the better-than-expected film.
★★
Even by the execrable standards of movie-related games, The Golden Compass (360, 2/10) is horrid. It would probably be more fun to have someone vomit in your eye. Though it still sold about 1.82 million copies across all formats.
★
That said, I played The Golden Compass (360, 2/10) before playing Beowulf The Game (360, 1/10) and that was an even more unpleasant experience. Like somebody vomiting in your mouth. And it still sold about half-a-million copies across all formats. Grief. Equally horrific was Shrek the Third (1/10) (well over one million copies sold).
2006 Games:
★★★★★ ★★★
Eden Games delivered a very pleasant surprise in the form of massive online open world racing game Test Drive Unlimited (360, 8/10). Atari surprised no-one by releasing it before it was finished and with, especially on PC, a host of game- and system-stopping bugs. Microsoft delivered a terrific freebie for 360 with Hexic HD (360, 8/10). PS3 owners got the last F1 game for four years in the largely outstanding shape of Formula One Championship Edition aka F1CE (PS3, 8/10) and a great off-road game in the shape of Motorstorm (PS3, 8/10).
★★★★★ ★★
Dumping the Tokyo Highway Challenge / Tokyo Highway Battle / Tokyo Xtreme Racer moniker, Ubisoft took Genki’s unique and agreeably positive Shutokou Battle X and released it in English-speaking territories as Import Tuner Challenge (360, 7/10). Crystal Dynamics took over the Tomb Raider franchise from Core Design and delivered an entertaining action adventure with Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend (360, 7/10) and helped mitigate memories of the universally lambasted Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness and the beautiful but rubbish films starring Angelina Jolie. Also fitting into the better-than-expected category was movie game Cars (360, 7/10) which was fun and appropriate. Prey (360, 7/10) took a long time to arrive but introduced the gaming world to portals and took an impressive look at gravity but it’s tone was a bit off, especially in the first level. EA’s Need for Speed Carbon (360, 7/10) was fine but technical shortcomings took the edge off the tweaks made since Most Wanted.
★★★★★ ★
Though hammered by contemporary critics, Eragon (360, 6/10) is an above-average movie game and miles better than the movie it was advertising. Ninety-Nine Nights (360, 6/10) is a badly-designed game harbouring decent, sometimes very spectacular gameplay. Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom (6/10) is a slightly disappointing action RPG so go in with lower expectations and you’ll probably enjoy most of it.
★★★★★
Superman Returns (360, 5/10) nailed the flying but absolutely nothing else made you feel super.
★★★★
I didn’t find Far Cry Instincts: Predator (360, 4/10) much fun but it does offer a lot for the first-person shooter fan including two single-player campaigns, full multiplayer options and even a map editor.
★★★
Despite utilising the exact same game design as the highly successful LEGO Star Wars, LEGO Bionicle Heroes (360, 3/10) was broken by its third-person camera and being no fun.
2005 Games:
Electronic Arts delivered an outstanding game to kick off their Need for Speed franchise on 360 with Need for Speed: Most Wanted (360, 9/10) which was great despite eye-bulging live-action cut-scenes and a low frame-rate. Polyphony Digital’s Gran Turismo 4 (PS2, 9/10) delivered everything expected (tons of cars, amazing graphics, sound and sensation of car handling) and more (tons of tracks, the revolutionary photo mode and an AI driver management mode).
One of the best movie video-game adaptations came from the man, Michel Ancel, behind the under-bought Beyond Good and Evil to tie with Peter Jackson’s indulgent King Kong (Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie (360, PC, 8/10)). Project Gotham Racing 3 (360, 8/10) was probably the best-looking of all the launch titles for Microsoft’s new Xbox 360.
Sega have been busy destroying their once-great reputation but Phantasy Star Universe (360, 7/10) proved a welcome and entertaining lifeboat in the sea of horrific Sonic games. Despite a broken final level Medal of Honor: European Assault (Xbox, 7/10) is an otherwise excellent World War II console shooter.
2004 Games:
One of the PlayStation 2’s best looking and produced games ever was released in the form of Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (PS2, 7/10) but despite all the amazing things it got right, it got the camera and controls on the wrong side of the challenging / unusable balance that the previous two games had just about managed to hit. Killzone (PS2, 7/10) is a good first-person shooter that got slightly and unfairly over-shadowed by the Halo-beater hype generated around it.
2003 Games:
With many dissatisfied with the official Devil May Cry sequel, Capcom delivered, with Chaos Legion (PS2, 7/10), this better-than-it-appears button masher that is considered by some to be the game Devil May Cry 2 should have been.
Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb (Xbox, 6/10) hit the pitfalls of the third-person action game (misbehaving camera and inaccurate controls) but swung over them with an uncanny Harrison Ford impersonation and plenty to see and do.
Speed Kings (Xbox, 5/10) aimed for Burnout on two wheels but fell off with a ridiculous number of things to make life difficult for the player. The Burnout franchise would eventually supply awesome two-wheel action itself five years later in a free (!) add-on for the mighty Burnout Paradise.
2002 Games:
Ico (PS2, 10/10) delivered one of the greatest gaming experiences of all time as you led a princess by the hand through an evocative game world with brilliantly animated enemies.
2001 Games:
2001 was a sad year for gaming when the Dreamcast finally succumbed to pressure on Sega’s wallet despite having, at the time, a significantly more impressive game library than Sony’s PlayStation 2 (Xbox and GameCube weren’t even available though, perhaps significantly, Xbox marketing was).
However, 2001 saw the PS2 remove that quality gap completely with total classics like Ace Combat: Distant Thunder (PS2, 9/10), Devil May Cry (PS2, 9/10), Gran Turismo: The Real Driving Simulator 3: A-spec (PS2, 9/10) and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (PS2, 9/10) all being released.
2000 Games:
The Dreamcast’s ever-impressive software library got a headline racing game with the release of the extremely ambitious Metropolis Street Racer (Dreamcast, 9/10). It spawned Xbox-exclusive series Project Gotham Racing.
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Gran Turismo (1998, PS1)
10/10 Genre-defining racing game classic. I’ve taken another look at it almost ten years on now and the driving is as good as ever. Using a PC emulator, I had it set up with a high resolution display and analogue steering and analogue brake and accelerate on the Xbox 360 Controller shoulder triggers. Worked like a charm (aside from an humungous ePSXe-introduced dead-zone in the steering which has be got used to). Ridiculously, a lot of sim-slanted driving games since do not match this great game for that feel of being in control of a vehicle and knowing what it is doing from the vibration and screen feedback. |
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Gran Turismo: The Real Driving Simulator 2 (1999, PS1)
1 player GT mode offline, 1 or 2 player Arcade mode offline. Starting with lowly production cars, win races of all classes and disciplines to earn money to enhance your car and expand your garage, ultimately getting your hands on limited edition, ultra-rare full-on sportscars with outrageous performance. 10/10 The most comprehensive driving simulator by far at the time, Gran Turismo 2 has astounding breadth and is instantly brilliant in nearly every department. It’s one and only weakness – it is too easy, a fact concealed only by its length – is not enough to prevent it getting the full ten. Polyphony Digital once again provide a wonderful showcase of brilliantly designed and rendered environments for their exemplary driving experience that is convincing, challenging and, crucially, fun. |
