Reviews Archives - Page 100 of 124

Review: Power Gig Rise of the SixString

Power Gig: Rise of the SixString strives to bridge the gap between pretending to play guitar and playing guitar with a game backed by a instrument manufacturer and an impressive list of previously reticent artists. Power Gig’s biggest selling point is the real electric guitar it ships with. But just behind that is the notion…

By Brian Crecente Published November 1, 2010

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Review: MSI GE600 Laptop

Unveiled at this year’s CES, MSI’s GE600 gaming notebook has about as uninspired a design as you can imagine. Line it up with ten other laptops and it will be the last one to stand out. So what happens when you boot it up? Gaming laptops are a great option for people always on the…

By Brian Crecente Published October 29, 2010

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Review: Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare

Rockstar Games’ Old West tour de force Red Dead Redemption catches zombie fever—as video games now tend to do—with the Undead Nightmare add-on, a meaty, mystical expansion to the comparatively sober original adventure. Zombies have invaded West Elizabeth, with the infection landing at Red Dead Redemption protagonist John Marston’s doorstep. Marston sets off on an…

By Michael McWhertor Published October 29, 2010

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Review: Super Meat Boy

Super Meat Boy is described as “tough as nails” by its developers. And boy, they aren’t kidding. Ready to be put through the grinder? Super Meat Boy is a 2D platformer in the vein of hard retro games like Namco’s Quest of Ki. The plot is simple: Dr. Fetus kidnapped Bandage Girl, and it’s up…

By Brian Ashcraft Published October 28, 2010

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Review: Costume Quest

Costume Quest is a short, easy game that plays like Final Fantasy on training wheels. And it’s the best game Double Fine has ever made. Costume Quest is a role-playing game in which you take control of a group of kids out on a Halloween rescue mission. They may be small, but the game’s hook…

By Luke Plunkett Published October 27, 2010

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Review: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II drops us back in control of Darth Vader’s disobedient apprentice Starkiller as he searches for his love, the rebellion and himself. This time around developers LucasArts promise us a game that’s more about controlling a super-powered Jedi and less about finicky controls and an environment that was at times…

By Brian Crecente Published October 26, 2010

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Review: Fable III

We want to be king, do we not? We want, at least, to try it, to reign wise and strong, loved, perhaps, or feared. Fable III is the video game that could let you learn which kind of ruler you might be. At least, that was the plan. Fable III is the third game in…

By Stephen Totilo Published October 26, 2010

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Review: God of War: Ghost of Sparta

To the people on buses and benches, necks bent and eyes locked on their Angry Birds, make way for one of the best 2010 portable games that you need buttons to play, the one starring an angry Greek god who rips wings from birds. God of War: Ghost of Sparta is a palm-sized epic video…

By Stephen Totilo Published October 25, 2010

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Review: EA Sports MMA

“Fastest-growing sport” is often faint praise applied to niche competitions, but with mixed martial arts, it’s no joke. Relentless violence and blink-of-an-eye knockout potential make MMA fight night for the video game generation. Can a video game do that justice? EA Sports MMA is the first mixed martial arts offering from EA Sports, which faces…

By Owen Good Published October 24, 2010

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Review: Rock Band 3

The people who made music games great have delivered their best game yet. Harmonix, the developers behind Guitar Hero and Rock Band, have tweaked, polished, and re-engineered the Rock Band presentation, while also adding all-new ways to play. Rock Band 3 introduces two major innovations to the multiplayer music game: the option to play keyboards…

By Michael McWhertor Published October 23, 2010

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Review: DJ Hero 2

Mix and mash-up your way to global DJ domination in DJ Hero 2, the extended dance remix of FreeStyle Game’s original turntable title. DJ Hero was an entertaining alternative to standard rhythm games. Rather than a full set of band instruments, players took control of a plastic turntable, mixing, tweaking, and scratching their way through…

By Mike Fahey Published October 22, 2010

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Review: Fallout: New Vegas

Fallout: New Vegas will ask each and every one of you a very simple question: If a game breaks every 10 minutes, can you still enjoy it? And it’s a tough one. Because when Fallout: New Vegas — a sequel of sorts to 2008’s Fallout 3, only this time you play as a courier shot…

By Luke Plunkett Published October 22, 2010

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Review: Rock of the Dead

Kill zombies. Do it with a guitar controller. The concept behind Rock of the Dead sure sounds like a brilliant idea, but the horrible reality of this tedious “strum or die” game quickly sets in. Rock of the Dead feels like an intentional riff on Sega’s The Typing of the Dead, a game that transformed…

By Michael McWhertor Published October 21, 2010

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Review: Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode I

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I is a sequel 16 years in the making. Pitched as the direct descendant of 1994’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Sega’s taking the series back to a simpler time. Does Sonic 4 deliver? Sonic The Hedgehog 4 is a simple, straightforward 2D side-scrolling platformer, the kind Sega and Sonic Team…

By Brian Ashcraft Published October 21, 2010

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Review: Time Crisis: Razing Storm

Time Crisis: Razing Storm isn’t just a chance to play a fantastic light gun game on your PS3; it’s a chance to play three of them—and, if you want, you can even use the PlayStation Move controller to do so. This compilation includes the destructible environments of Time Crisis: Razing Storm, a re-release of Time…

By Brian Crecente Published October 20, 2010

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Review: Vanquish

It’s hard to know whether the makers of Vanquish take their game, a brash, testosterone-gushing space fight against hundreds of mindless Russian robots, seriously. Straight-faced or not, Platinum Games’ Vanquish is seriously entertaining. Players step into the jet-powered Augmented Reaction Suit worn by chain-smoking hero Sam Gideon to take down a Russian terrorist group. The…

By Michael McWhertor Published October 20, 2010

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Review: The Shoot

The Playstation 3’s drop into motion gaming had a surprising side effect: More on-rails light gun games. The Shoot is one of two PlayStation Move games hitting just this week. Instead of going for realism, The Shoot blends the aesthetics of old carnival shooting galleries with the addictive nature of arcade classics like Hogan’s Alley.…

By Brian Crecente Published October 19, 2010

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Review: Invizimals

People compare Invizimals to Pokémon. People may also compare it to the sadly-still-fictional Star Wars chess, last played by Chewbacca and R2D2. Try one more comparison: This game is like a flying contraption made prior to the Wright Brothers’. Invizimals is an augmented reality video game, one of the few games you can buy that…

By Stephen Totilo Published October 18, 2010

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Review: Super Scribblenauts

Think it, write it, see it. That was the premise of 2009’s Scribblenauts, which turned a 20,000-word dictionary into a puzzle-solving toolkit. This year it returns with adjectives to prove the pen is a mighty, giant, flaming magic sword. Super Scribblenauts is the sequel to 2009’s Scribblenauts, which won wide acclaim and peals of delight…

By Owen Good Published October 17, 2010

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Review: Kirby’s Epic Yarn

In recent years, top people at Nintendo have vowed, despite scorn and eye-rolls, to make games that keep people smiling. Ignoring the grumps, the company brings us Kirby’s Epic Yarn, a Wii testament to the potency of joy. Kirby’s Epic Yarn is a side-scrolling adventure in the vein of Super Mario Bros. and previous adventures…

By Stephen Totilo Published October 15, 2010