GamesRadar - PC Previews

American McGee's Bad Day L.A. hands-on (Bad Day LA)

8/08/2006

True fact: one in 1,368 readers will be struck and killed by a falling meteor while reading this. That type of absurd humor jams the subversive, satirical action-title Bad Day LA way past chock-full. Rock star game designer American McGee pokes fun at our national pastimes of racism and classism during our Bush-Era culture war of fear. Our hands-on look at Bad Day LA's demo began with a bang - a jumbo-jet filled with a cache of bioterrorist weapons crashes into the Santa Monica freeway during ...

Bad Day L.A. (Bad Day LA)

24/02/2006

The checkered history of Los Angeles suggests that on occasion it can help, ahem … redefine the concept of the human love/hate relationship. Even so, the city's seen nothing like this. In the third-person action game Bad Day L.A. you'll face missions involving plane crashes, zombie hordes, meteor showers, riots, a tsunami, an earthquake, and more. Crips vs. Bloods this is not. At the center is misanthrope and reluctant hero Anthony Williams. He's a former Hollywood agent so disenchanted ...

Bad Day LA (Bad Day LA)

15/02/2006

We're used to gradual evolutions in gaming, be they in technical, graphical, even artistic fields. And you might have expected the same as gaming explores other new horizons, such as politics, current affairs, satire. But with Bad Day LA, American McGee has taken a tradition that had long since become dormant (in mainstream games at least), and has pushed it from a standing start to a racing finish. Taking on fistfuls of current taboos - terrorist attacks, immigration, obesity, tsunamis - it ...

Bang! Howdy (Bang! Howdy)

26/05/2006

If you think that a massively multiplayer online game needs to be backed by a giant software company to be successful, millions of Puzzle Pirates players would tell you differently (and likely precede it with "yar!"). Now, the decidedly not giant group of puppet masters behind that innovative and instantly fun game have concocted a new strategy MMO: Bang! Howdy - this time set in the Wild West. Like its predecessor, Bang! Howdy is a breeze to run on nearly any PC and is as addictive as any ...

Batman: Arkham Asylum - hands-on (Batman: Arkham Asylum)

31/07/2009

Think of a great superhero game. No, not a good one — there are plenty of those around — but one as essential as, say, Grand Theft Auto IV or BioShock. You’re struggling, right? That’s because there aren’t any. Or rather there weren’t any until Batman: Arkham Asylum came along. ...

E3 09: Batman: Arkham Asylum - Interview (Batman: Arkham Asylum)

8/06/2009

Paul Crocker, Lead Narrative Designer at Rocksteady Studios, donned one of our magical interview headsets at E3 last week to give us his thoughts on Batman: Arkham Asylum, which may turn out to be the best Batman game we've ever played. Crocker discusses the reason for the game's short delay, its inspiration, story, gameplay, and more. Have a listen below! ...

Why Batman: Arkham Asylum is better than Splinter Cell, Metal Gear and Devil May Cry (Batman: Arkham Asylum)

27/03/2009

Stealth, stalking, and all-out brutality. How Batman is taking back the mantle from the games that stole his schtick. ...

Batman: Arkham Asylum - updated impressions (Batman: Arkham Asylum)

30/01/2009

We're about to commit what some geek groups would consider heresy: Maybe the world was better off not having a game based on The Dark Knight, Batman's wildly successful and delightfully dismal summer movie outing from last year. Yes, we saw the movie (four times, thanks, and that's not counting IMAX viewings); yes, we loved it. But what are the chances a rushed-through-development movie tie-in would have actually been good? ...

Batman: Arkham Asylum – first-look (Batman: Arkham Asylum)

26/09/2008

The Caped Crusader has had something of a dodgy past both on the silver screen and in games. From the ace 1989 Tim Burton gothic epic that grossed over a quarter of a billion dollars domestically to the franchise-murdering Joel Schumacher colour-saturated camp-fest Batman & Robin that barely limped past the $100 million marker, Bruce Wayne and his crime-fighting alter-ego haven’t had it easy. ...

Battle of Atlantis (Battle for Atlantis)

1/12/2008

Hold on: Another attempt to uncover the mysteries of Atlantis? And we thought Indy put that riddle to bed years ago. No, there’s very little mystery with this one – it’s a Command & Conquer-baiting RTS title with shades of Fracture thrown in for good measure. ...

Battlefield 1943 – hands-on (Battlefield 1943)

31/03/2009

Megapublisher Electronic Arts held its GDC 2009 event last week filled with plenty of Battlefield goodness. With two Battlefield titles coming up, not only were we given a first look at their new sequel Battlefield: Bad Company 2, we were also given a little hands-on demo of developer DICE’s upcoming title Battlefield 1943, a strictly multiplayer downloadable FPS based on World War II. ...

Battlefield 2 (Battlefield 2)

15/12/2004

Arriving pretty much out of nowhere, the original Battlefield 1942 effectively established the multi-player war genre. While the single-player game was little more than a tutorial, the online mode saw dozens of gamers meeting up to shoot, bomb and stab each other. It's a measure of the game's lasting appeal that more than two years after its release, an average Sunday night finds more than 5000 players still going at it with a vengeance.The Vietnam-based follow-up proved less popular, but fans ...

Battlefield 2142 - Multiplayer hands-on (Battlefield 2142)

5/09/2006

The Battlefield development team does know how to shake things up. After an afternoon spent at an in-person skirmish with other press and some dedicated community members, we got some depth on what we can really expect to see in the battlefields of tomorrow. Before we got to see the good stuff, we got confirmation that yes: in-game ads will be there. Billboards hawking "appropriate" products (whatever that means) for the battlefields of 2142 will also be indestructible, so learn to love them. ...

Battlefield 2142 hands-on (Battlefield 2142)

13/06/2006

Wednesday 10 May 2006 To twist a few tired metaphors, in Battlefield 2142 war is hell on Earth frozen over. The latest title in the squad-centric online shooter series, 2142 finds Earth caught in the floes of a new ice age, as the creeping freeze squeezes two coalitions - the European Union and the Pan Asian army - into a fight for the last remaining pockets of habitable land. Battlefield 2142 might be futuristic, but it's not science fiction. There're no ray guns, lasers or teleporters in ...

E3 2006: Battlefield 2142 (Battlefield 2142)

11/05/2006

To twist a few tired metaphors, in Battlefield 2142 war is hell on Earth frozen over. The latest title in the squad-centric online shooter series, 2142 finds Earth caught in the floes of a new ice age, as the creeping freeze squeezes two coalitions - the European Union and the Pan Asian army - into a fight for the last remaining pockets of habitable land. Battlefield 2142 might be futuristic, but it's not science fiction. There're no ray guns, lasers or teleporters in this chilly dystopia, ...

Battlefield 2142 (Battlefield 2142)

4/05/2006

Look sharp: a tasty platoon of brand new Battlefield 2142 screens has just dropped into view. The fanatically followed, team-based military shooter franchise is taking the fight into the next century, where an ice age throws the world into a massive conflict over the last habitable land in the banana belt. Following the massive strategic upgrades that Battlefield 2's squad system introduced (where players benefited by sticking with their squad leader), BF2142 seems like a tactically-centric ...

Frozen assets (Battlefield 2142: Northern Strike)

14/02/2007

The Northern Strike pack announced for BF 2142 breaks with tradition, genuinely adding something interesting to the game. Several things, in fact: two new vehicles, three new maps and ten new bits of unlockables. The PAC are given a super-speedy two-seater hover-jeep, with anti-infantry guns, a rapid-fire grenade-launcher, an anti-vehicle rocket-launcher and all the hyphens you can eat. The EU forces get an enormous six-gunned APC that serves as a mobile spawn-point, re-supply depot and ...

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - first look (Battlefield: Bad Company 2)

31/03/2009

After publisher Electronic Arts wowed us with their military tank ice sculpture at their GDC 2009 event last week, we were given a sneak peek of exclusive single-player footage from developer DICE’s upcoming sequel, Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Building on the first game, Bad Company 2 promises more intense combat, more destruction, and more serious gameplay. ...

Battlefield Heroes - hands-on (Battlefield Heroes)

22/09/2008

When Battlefield Heroes opens to the public early next year, it might make action figures obsolete. Playing it, you’re reminded of all that time you spent lining up squads of G.I. Joes on your living room coffee table to do battle; but with Heroes, you’ll never have to worry about picking your toys up before dinner or losing any plastic accessories between the couch cushions. Oh, and it’s free. ...

Battlefield Heroes: Too free for consoles? (Battlefield Heroes)

1/05/2008

Think 'free games' and you think Java action, tower defence clickfests or browser-based timewasters. With Battlefield Heroes, though, what you get is a gorgeous slice of warzone blastery from the creator of superb multiplayer mashes Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield 2. For absolutely nothing. Which is why, it seems, Battlefield Heroes will only launch on PC ...