PC Previews

Nail’d is claiming to be “the fastest racing game ever,” which is difficult to prove, but there’s no doubt about one thing: it is damn fast. It’s so fast that it’s hard to appreciate the bright, colorful environments, although we did notice when we flew between the blades of a windmill while falling 500ft off a cliff (well, we drove off that cliff). If one were to just look at screenshots, one might be inclined to think Nail’d is the same thing as Pure, what with its ATVs racing off huge, huge jumps. Seeing it in action, or in our case, playing it, reveals the crucial differences...

Some people, after reading our review of Empire: Total War, wanted to string us up and splice our main brace. We can’t help it if the bugs other people experienced didn’t happen to us. Still, it’s safe to say that there were some problems that perhaps could and should have been sorted out before release – specifically the AI’s total lack of ability to perform invasions over a stretch of water.

Everyone knows all about the Total War series and its globe-spanning campaigns and battles, but one of the things lacking has been a real focus on the actual historical conflicts that took place. Often, a disappointing handful of token battles were cobbled together quickly to be played maybe once or twice and then discarded in favour of create-your-own scenarios

Who’d have thought that, just 200 years ago, it was fashionable to hate the French? It’s one of the great burdens of having an empire. Poor Napoleon: before declaring himself the Emperor of France, he probably thought back to the time when he was the plucky revolutionary underdog, and all the blokes said “way to go, Naps.”

“Whoa!” We’re pretty sure that’s exactly the response EA and Black Box were angling for when they recently showed off Need for Speed: SHIFT, ‘cause that’s sure as hell the one they got. Why else would they be going around demoing the game earlier than ever in the franchise’s history if they weren’t 100% certain of the wow factor therein?

After a strong, but not quite Codemasters-troubling debut, EA’s Need for Speed: Shift really means it this time around. Again diverging from the series’ traditional model of simple handling and all-out acceleration, in favour of a more considered circuit-racing sim along the lines of Codies’ Grid, the sequel is out for blood. Yours, that of your car, that of your opponents, and most categorically of all, that of its rivals.

Its developers you see, make no bones about going after Gran Turismo 5 and Forza 3 this time. And having gone hands-on recently, we are very much listening.