GamesRadar - Reviews

1701 A.D. (Review)

Nov 1, 2006

Do you remember the first time you played Sim City or Civilization? The joys of constructing buildings, improving your city (or civilization) and helping it prosper are sometimes hard to remember. Instead, we recall the frustrating gameplay, convoluted menus and poorly designed battle systems that have plagued the second-rate imitations that have flooded the market in recent years. Luckily, 1701 A.D. manages to breathe life back into this crowded-but-listless genre. You won't see any far out ...

1701 A.D.: Dawn of Discovery (Review)

Mar 17, 2008

Efforts to bring the PC's brand of Civilization style strategy games to the Nintendo DS haven't always yielded positive results. Age of Empires was decent, but they made it turn-based. Sim City had features cut. So did The Settlers, and it was a buggy mess on top of that. For once, wouldn't it be nice if one of those wonderfully engrossing empire sims survived the transition from the PC to DS without losing anything in translation? If you ...

18 Wheels of Steel: American Long Haul (Review)

Apr 9, 2008

Before now something had kept us unaware of the macho-romanticism of the long-distance truck driver. Now, suddenly, the appeal of the open road strikes us: We’ve got a big blue truck and a delivery that needs to be in Las Vegas, like, yesterday. There’s a whiff of management, but really this is a driving simulator. Not a driving game, in that Grand Theft Auto style, no: a simulator. You pick up your load, you head out on the ...

187: Ride or Die (Review)

Jun 22, 2007

GTA: San Andreas may have led to a lot of moral outrage and criticism of the game industry, but its worst effect might actually be 187: Ride or Die. Apparently, someone thought that the secret to success was to throw young black men into cars, give them guns, and let them run wild. Instant videogame hit, right? No. You're Buck, an up-and-coming gangsta running for a Southern California OG named Dupree. When Dupree says jump, you jump - and when he says "grab a semi-automatic weapon, jump into ...

187: Ride or Die (Review)

Jun 22, 2007

1942: Joint Strike - PS3 Network (Review)

Jul 29, 2008

Joint Strike works. The gameplay hasn’t changed since 1984 and this is a good thing, if you’re making a 1942 game. This is a classic vertical shooter, waves of planes swirl and spin from all areas of the screen, red planes offer powerups, bombs and health; standard planes offer points, lots of points. ...

1942: Joint Strike - Xbox Live Arcade (Review)

Jul 29, 2008

2006 FIFA World Cup (Review)

Jun 6, 2006

The two main "simulation" franchises in the soccer video game genre - FIFA and Winning Eleven - have been engaged in a death struggle for years now. 2006 FIFA World Cup adds a little more of Winning Eleven-style flair to its familiar gameplay formula this time around, but not much. FIFA remains more pick-up-and-play for the mainstream sports gamer, but offers some depth and subtleties that will enable more experienced players to do their best Beckham impersonation. Experienced FIFA gamers will ...

2006 FIFA World Cup (Review)

Jun 6, 2006

2006 FIFA World Cup (Review)

May 31, 2006

Wednesday 3 May 2006 Remember Baddiel and Skinner singing about "Thirty years of hurt" during their classic England anthem Three Lions? That's how we feel about EA's FIFA series - it feels as if it's been that long since we played a semi-decent version of the series. EA has obviously taken note of all the criticism directed at FIFA 06: Road to FIFA World Cup 2006, and the result is the best soccer game (that isn't Pro Evolution Soccer) we've played in ages. Thank goodness for that. Lots of ...

2006 FIFA World Cup (Review)

Apr 25, 2006

Ah, the World Cup. Every four years, soccer fans from around the world gather to celebrate the planet's most popular sport while beating the living snot out of each other. Electronic Arts commemorates the event with 2006 FIFA World Cup, the official game of the tournament with all of the teams and players that will be kicking the rock around Germany this summer (riots and hooligans not included). The two main "simulation" franchises in the soccer video game genre - FIFA and Winning Eleven - ...

2006 FIFA World Cup (Review)

Apr 24, 2006

Ah, the World Cup. Every four years, soccer fans from around the world gather to celebrate the planets most popular sport while beating the living snot out of each other. Electronic Arts commemorates the event with 2006 FIFA World Cup, the official game of the tournament with all of the teams and players that will be kicking the rock around Germany this summer (riots and hooligans not included). The two main "simulation" franchises in the soccer video game genre - FIFA and Winning Eleven - ...

24: The Game (Review)

Mar 2, 2006

Fans of 24 can breathe a sigh of relief. 24: The Game is no quick cash-in. Rather, it accomplishes what most games based on popular TV shows or movies can't - it's legitimately enjoyable to play. It's not exactly a masterpiece, and fans of the series will enjoy it scads more than folks who don't know Jack Bauer from Jack Black, but it's a solid effort that deserves a look. The gameplay won't win any originality awards, but the sheer variety of tasks you have to accomplish mesh together nicely ...

300: March To Glory (Review)

Mar 5, 2007

Based upon a sandals-and-swords movie and comic, 300: March to Glory casts you as a bearded, bare-chested gladiator type named King Leonidas. You're trying to stave off the vast army of the Persian king, Xerxes with a small force of only 300 Spartan warriors. At least, we're told there are 300 of you and zillions of them. In practice, it's typically you and one to three companions hacking maybe six or eight other dudes at a time into hamburger, tops. Combat is all about chaining heavy, light ...

32nd America's Cup - The Game (Review)

Jun 19, 2007

Youve got a yacht, right? Because the extreme wealth weve acquired from typing stuff about video games has allowed us to purchase the fourth official GamesRadar Boat. So join us for our annual race: the first one to sail the circumference of Gangsta Party Island (thats the new ditty in the Philippines we also just bought) wins a bottle of Hennessy, and a Wii. But you wont win. Weve been practicing on Virtual Skipper 5, and this game taught us the way of the dinghy. We are true navigators. Next ...

3D Ultra MiniGolf Adventures - Xbox Live Arcade (Review)

Apr 23, 2007

3D Ultra is, as youd expect, a mini golf game. So precise putting is what its all about. And as far as the nuts and bolts, the game does a good job. Particularly the fact that it gives you three different ways to control the action – an analog swing, a power bar setup in which you hold the button, then release when the meter hits a certain point, and the classic, three-click swing meter old-schoolers know and love. Its weird, though, that two of the three require an extra step at the end ...

50 Cent Bulletproof (Review)

Jun 22, 2007

Conventional wisdom says that first you crawl before you walk. 50 Cent Bulletproof shoots this theory in the face, and decides to try to outrun a freight train before doing either. As you can imagine, it ends up falling a little flat. When working to get 50 Cent, his crew, Dre and Em, and 50's music and his videos into the game, the developers forgot one minor detail: the ...

50 Cent Bulletproof (Review)

Jun 22, 2007

50 Cent: Bulletproof G-Unit Edition (Review)

Oct 9, 2006

While a compacted version of Fiddy's gangster-style shooter may sound even scarier, we have some good news: 50 Cent: Bulletproof G-Unit Edition for PSP is vastly superior compared to the PS2 and Xbox versions. The bad news is, that isnt saying much of anything. The main problem with 50 Cent is that it just has no idea what the hell it wants to do. Its new groove for PSP is a top-down camera, which gives the game an Action RPG feel, similar to hack-n-slash RPGs like (Dungeon Siege, Baldurs ...

7 Wonders of the Ancient World (Review)

Jun 22, 2007

Ever play Bejeweled? Want to risk prolonged eye strain? If the answer to both of those questions is yes, then you may want to seriously consider the new budget-puzzler 7 Wonders of the Ancient World. Playing like a bizarre cross between the famous free PC title and falling asleep in Ancient History class, 7 Wonders might be the ho-hum puzzler fix you need before something better comes along for your PSP. The gameplay is simple: match three or more of any rune (color/gem) to rack up points and ...