GamesRadar - Previews

Jackass (Jackass)

Jun 26, 2007

Listen, we thought we were just gonna kick some people in the balls. We didnt realize there were going to be financial considerations to worry over in Jackass. But thats the burden youre forced to bear when you take over as the shows producer after Jeff Tremaine (the regular producer) gets taken out of commission with what Johnny Knoxville calls “a sprained vagina.” But dont be too scared. All youre really worried about is completing enough goals per episode so that MTV will dip ...

Jade Empire (Jade Empire)

Jan 13, 2005

Jade Empire is very much a case of 'what's not to like?', this being the second Xbox title from the developers of KOTOR. For one it plays in very similar fashion to the Star Wars classic, but with real-time martial arts and magical combat replacing turn-based light sabre shenanigans. And for two, it's broadly inspired by some of the highlights of Oriental cinema, such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero. See, what's not to like?!Once you've selected your character and been introduced to ...

Jade Empire - hands-on (Jade Empire: Special Edition)

Feb 5, 2007

Hang on a minute. So were the last of an embattled group of mystical fighters, killed off by the forces of an evil empire, yet as a baby we were smuggled away and secreted far off to a rural community where our presence would not be felt? And weve been sent by our master into a ‘spirit cave where well learn about our true self, and later be spoken to by glittery blue/pale ghosts trapped between life and death? This rings a bell thats somewhat far away and relatively long ...

Jade Empire: Special Edition (Jade Empire: Special Edition)

Oct 27, 2006

One of the most popular and critically acclaimed RPGs for the Xbox is headed to the PC in Jade Empire. Set in a mystical version of China (but crafted by Canadians), the game offered a fantastic story populated by colorful characters speaking excellent dialogue and mixed it with deep gameplay full of magic, monsters, and martial arts. The PC version brings all these qualities as well, while managing to bring the kung-fu chaos to a whole new level. As you'd expect, the graphics are the most ...

Jak 3 (Jak III)

Nov 1, 2004

This is the end, my furry friend, the end. The end of Jak, the end of Daxter, the end of the Precursors, their legacy and all this pretty platform violence. For after this game the trilogy is over and just like Crash, J and D will be slung out of Naughty Dog and left for any rival developers going through their bins. (Sniff.)But what a way to go Jak 3 should be; big beyond belief, sumptuously detailed, far more anarchic and open than any previous PS2 platformer. If Renegade was like Blade ...

Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles - hands-on (Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles)

Apr 29, 2008

Text-y point-and-click adventure games are making a comeback on Nintendo's can-do handheld. With hits like Ace Attorney and Hotel Dusk along with lesser titles like Touch Detective, the time is right for solving mysteries on the DS, which makes room for some very obscure, if long running, titles to be localized for the first time. That brings us to Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles, the first US release of a Japanese detective series that is more than 20 years old. ...

James Bond 007 breaks radio silence (James Bond 007: Casino Royale)

Feb 21, 2007

Thanks to Daniel Craig's brutal, fists-first reappraisal of everyone's favorite MI6 agent in Casino Royale, 007 is back in a big way. Guys love him, critics love him, even rogue banker Le Chiffre seemed to like him... while torturing his nutsack with a leather mace. But, after forking out a rumored $70 million for the rights to the license (to kill), it's fair to say that Activision probably love him more than most. Well, at that price they have ...

Jeanne d'Arc (Jeanne d'Arc)

Apr 26, 2007

Fans of history will know Joan of Arc as the most famous figure to emerge from the Hundred Years War – take that, John of Lancaster, First Duke of Bedford! - a young girl who used what she called visions from God to help the French in battle against occupying English forces. But what do gamers know about the upcoming PSP title named after her? Well, Jeanne dArc follows squarely in the footsteps of heroes of the tactical RPG genre like Disgaea and Final Fantasy Tactics. Theres nothing here ...

Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising (Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising)

Apr 30, 2004

For more on Joint Ops, to head to the game's official website There's just one thing missing from Joint Ops: Wagner's The Ride of The Valkyries. Nothing else quite fits the bill as you and your team take a wing of troop-packed Blackhawks towards the LZ, crew-mounted weapons darkening the skies with a deluge of shell-cases. Joint Ops wants to draw your attention away from two major players: PlanetSide and Battlefield 1942. This massively multi-player online shooter combines the best aspects of ...

Joint Task Force hands-on (Joint Task Force)

Aug 30, 2006

There may be nothing new under the sun, but at least you can strive to do things very well. Joint Task Force is a squad-based, real-time strategy game that offers a small number of new wrinkles, and then folds them into making a really good first impression. Set sometime in the very near future, JTF puts you in command of the titular military organization, a kind of freelance peacekeeping group formed from the best and brightest around the globe. In the single-player game, you're sent to a ...

Juiced (Juiced)

Feb 5, 2004

Time and again Edge has seen the clinical precision with which current technology can render vehicles, yet so often the spirit is absent. The curves are there, but the sense of dangerous speed barely contained - and all that entails for the driver - is not.So the burgeoning trend towards personalised, customised cars racing in 'lifestyle' oriented events, rather than professionally governed championships, is perhaps unsurprising. Factor in phenomena such as Hollywood's 'The Fast and ...

Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights - hands-on (Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights)

Jun 25, 2007

At first glance, Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights, looks like another typical T&A affair. At times it felt like we were flipping through an issue of Maxim as dancers shimmied up and down poles in menu backgrounds while Juiced Girls popped up to attack us at every turn, firing off steamy stares towards the camera at every loading screen. With wet women touching themselves and looking about as perky as can be in nearly every screen not directly related to controlling a moving vehicle, Juiced 2 has ...

Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights (Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights)

Mar 2, 2007

Some games really dish out a kicking before you get any sort of pleasure from them, making you feel quite inadequate and full of self-loathing. (Thought you were good at games? Think again, you useless idiot.) So after countless hard nights of enduring your gamers ego getting beating after beating, it should be comforting to know that one driving game is on its way which will (metaphorically) wipe away the tears and haul you down the bar for a couple of pick-me-ups. Juiced 2 wants to make you ...

Juiced: Eliminator (Juiced: Eliminator)

May 24, 2006

Another racing game on the PSP is hardly newsworthy these days, seeing as a huge chunk of the handheld's library is already dedicated to going from point A to point B as fast as possible. Even so, Juiced: Eliminator actually brings enough new things to the table to make us sit up and take notice. While it shares its name with Juiced - the OK-ish console racer - Juiced: Eliminator actually bucks the PSP-port trend by offering up a new game instead of a watered-down translation. There's a lot ...

Jumper: Griffin's Story (Jumper: Griffin's Story)

Feb 8, 2008

Taking in a viewing of the BAMF-happy Jumper trailer, you might be bracing your self for the Deja-dizzies, foreseeing another game/movie tie-in starring Hayden Christensen and Sammy L. Jackson. But you'd be wrong, young Padawan. Jumper: Griffin's Story follows Jamie Bell's character (the immensely irritating Jimmy from King Kong), unfolding a different plot that intersects the events in the film.For those not in the know, “jumpers” ...

Jumpgate: Evolution (Jumpgate: Evolution)

May 14, 2008

Jumpgate: Evolution is NetDevil’s new MMO. The comparisons leap out at you - Stargate, Babylon 5 and even Star Wars all came to mind as we prepared to grapple with whatever crooked implementation of mouse-and-keyboard space flight they’d undoubtedly concocted. To our great surprise, on letting our stubby fingers maneuver our sprightly little fighter-jet into the infinite blackness of space, we were afforded the greatest of ...

Just Cause - hands-on (Just Cause)

Sep 7, 2006

Your mullet is muy thick, senor. And it streams gloriously in the wind as you throw yourself out the plane and plummet toward an island hundreds of miles below, where whores live in volcanoes, and roaming militias of bloodthirsty madmen slaughter each other for land and power. The ground approaches rapidly, and you can see a highway winding through the wilderness, so you pull the cord and the parachute flares out. You float down into oncoming traffic, land on the roof of a car, then leap ...

Just Cause - hands-on (Just Cause)

Sep 7, 2006

Just Cause - hands-on (Just Cause)

Sep 7, 2006

Just Cause - hands-on (Just Cause)

Sep 7, 2006