GamesRadar - PC Previews

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

Aug 8, 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 L.A.)

Feb 24, 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 L.A.)

Feb 15, 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)

May 26, 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 – first-look (Batman: Arkham Asylum)

Sep 26, 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. ...

Battlefield 2 (Battlefield 2)

Dec 15, 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)

Sep 5, 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)

Jun 13, 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)

May 11, 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)

May 4, 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)

Feb 14, 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 Heroes - hands-on (Battlefield Heroes)

Sep 22, 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)

May 1, 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 ...

Battlefield Heroes - first look (Battlefield Heroes)

Feb 29, 2008

Fun and free. Everything you need to know about Battlefield Heroes can be summarized in those two short words. Fun and free. Everything that the developer behind Battlefield is attempting with this newest entry in the franchise can be traced back to those two guiding principles. Make it fun. Make it free. Emphasizing such adjectives might help lessen the shock for longtime fans. Heroes' surprising new direction will no doubt appear drastic and ...

BattleForge - hands-on (BattleForge)

May 13, 2008

BattleForge is a game made up of multiplayer online, real time strategy, and collectible card game genres that aims to change the way we think about all three. At first glance, the third person omniscient view and crisp 3D sprites look just like any other RTS on the market. And even when the card deck is introduced in a tray on the right side of the screen, it might still seem like just a bunch of clicking and waiting and clicking and ...

Battlestations: Midway - multiplayer hands-on (Battlestations: Midway)

Dec 20, 2006

Battlestations: Midway is a boot camp in extreme multi-tasking - as our earlier hands-on time with the game proved. The WWII simulator doesn't just offer epic helpings of both action and strategy, it expects you to master and execute the two styles of gameplay simultaneously. Apparently, those incapable of walking and chewing gum at the same time should not be put in command of history-altering global warfare. This holds true for multiplayer as well, which we quickly discovered when publisher ...

Battlestations: Midway (Battlestations: Midway)

Jul 7, 2006

Strategy game regulars may be used to orchestrating battles and simply letting their ever-loyal automaton armies deal with the messy end of their master plan, but Battlestations: Midway does things differently - to improve the chances of victory, players will have to jump into the fray themselves. After all, if you want a job done right... As we discovered during a recent hands-on with the single-player campaign, the ability to switch entirely at will between ships, planes and submarines gives ...

Battlestations: Midway (Battlestations: Midway)

Jun 1, 2006

Battlestations: Midway has been around for quite a while, starting life as a game for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox consoles. But now it's hitting the big time on the PC. Before you roll your eyes at the thought of another WWII game (the most played-out game setting on Earth, next to the mean gangsta-ridden streets of Big City, USA), know that Battlestations is a bit different. Rather than a simple first-person shooter or squad-based first-person shooter, Battlestations is a strategy/action ...

E3 06: The tide turns for BattleStations: Midway (Battlestations: Midway)

May 12, 2006

After leaving PS2, Gizmondo and Xbox versions in its wake, BattleStations: Midway has again surfaced as an Xbox 360- and PC-only mixture of strategy and shooting. After finding the safe harbor of Eidos from the scuttled SCi, BattleStations: Midway has returned to allow you to fight the epic aerial and naval World War II battles from the opening of the war in the Pacific at Pearl Harbor, through the Philippines and into the campaign's turning point at the island of ...

First details on Bayonetta, MadWorld, and Infinite Line (Bayonetta)

May 15, 2008

Publisher Sega just delivered the first scant details on MadWorld, Infinite Line, an unnamed game, and Bayonetta, the first four projects from new developer Platinum Games Inc. And yes, new games are announced almost every day, but this is special. Why? Because Platinum Games is made up of the men who invented cutting-edge classics like Resident Evil, Okami, Viewtiful Joe, Devil May Cry, and the mech-tacular Steel Battalion. Simply ...