GamesRadar - PC Reviews

Bad Day LA (Review)

19/09/2006

Within the first few minutes of playing Bad Day L.A., an old southern coot greets you with the expression "hot Jesus on toast." But this action/adventure/satire/disaster game is not creamy, buttery Jesus on a crisp slice of fresh sourdough. It's not even "I Can't Believe It's Not Jesus." No, Bad Day L.A. is more like rancid snack cakes baked by Satan himself, and it will make you want to vomit. And what a sneaky Devil Dog it is. Bad Day L.A. came to us disguised as a satire of America's ...

Bang! Howdy (Review)

21/05/2007

Bang! Howdy is a free online game about turn-based, cartoon cowboys, the second game from the developers who jollied up the concept of waterlogged thieves in Puzzle Pirates. Each level of Bang! Howdy starts with your little posse of units jogging onto the map, and your control over them is limited to telling them to move, or shoot or move then shoot when they get there. The twist is that in addition to having different movement ranges, shooting ranges, health and so on, Bang! Howdy plays in ...

Baseball Mogul 2009 (Review)

1/07/2008

Over 11 years, Baseball Mogul has evolved from daunting spreadsheet to a user-friendly General Manager sim. But in its effort to further improve, several important enhancements to the 2009 edition are tempered by obvious glitches under the hood. ...

Batman: Arkham Asylum (Review)

15/09/2009

As a rule of thumb, superhero games are, almost without exception, complete rubbish. We’re talking the officially licensed ones here, not stuff like Freedom Force or City of Heroes. You know, ones that have often have “The Game” tacked on as a subtitle. Would Batman: Arkham Asylum have been as good if it was riding the back of a big movie license? ...

Battlefield 2 (Review)

25/02/2006

Battlefield 2 is simple: a frantic race to capture check points without losing the ones you already have. You and your team have a full arsenal of military might to help you; tanks, fighter jets and helicopters (with really big guns). The rub? So will the other side. The teamwork that BF2 inspires is its own greatest reward and it achieves this with more than a virtual pat on the back. You'll get electronic carrots; points for doing what a good team should, like capturing flags and healing ...

Battlefield 2 (Review)

8/07/2005

Beyond providing umpteen tools and arenas for audacious gambits and eclectic destruction, it maintains a steady, if not perfect, set of rules that faithfully reflects the real-life balance of combat. For every device or tactic that threatens to turn the tide, an opposite number exists to turn it back - that's the fundament of any competitive event, but in massively multiplayer videogaming its importance is paramount. With this fervently anticipated sequel, Digital Illusions has a precarious ...

Battlefield 2: Armored Fury (Review)

30/06/2006

Battlefield 2 has long delivered a little bit of everything to the shooter aficionado - infantry combat for the grunt-friendly, helicopters for the whirly-birds, and even jets for the mildly schitzophrenic. But, true warriors know that armor is the best way to take and hold new territory. The latest booster pack for Battlefield 2, Armored Fury, proves that old adage once again. The three new Armored Fury maps are set in the American heartland, a very welcome change after too much time spent ...

Battlefield 2: Special Forces (Review)

25/02/2006

The Battlefield 2: Special Forces expansion takes EAs online multiplayer combat series into a new dimension: the vertical one. Grappling hooks allow soldiers to take rooftops and assault from above, or merely scout from the high ground. When you need to get down, you'll fly into the action on your zip line. In addition to upgraded weapons for nearly every class, the new flashbang grenades and teargas canisters come in handy when assaulting enemy strongholds or flushing out pesky squads. ...

Battlefield 2142 (Review)

1/12/2006

The fourth full chapter in the Battlefield online shooter franchise, Battlefield 2142 propels the multiplayer fight 200 years ahead from the first game in the series into a bleak, war-torn future. The Earth is ripped apart by a new ice age, forcing the entire population into a tiny crucible around the equator in a desperate fight over last inhabitable place on the planet. But honestly, we don't really care what the reasons are - we just want to get our war on. Battlefield is back. BF2142 ...

Battlefield 2142: Northern Strike (Review)

9/03/2007

Even though we all know this expansion pack was probably a point on a marketing manager's graph of "projections" and "profit yields" before Battlefield 2142 was even released, we have to admit that the quality of the content on hand is above cynical expectation - in fact, we'll come right out and say it: Northern Strike is a good expansion pack. It's not great (let's not get carried away), and we hate seeing an excellent online shooter receive only these meager content boosts (whatever ...

Battlefield Heroes (Review)

11/08/2009

Initially we really didn’t know what to make of this Disney meets Day of Defeat oddity. ...

Battlefield Vietnam (Review)

9/03/2004

A well-known problem of game development, characterised by professional experts as 'The Sequential Success Conundrum', can be summed up thus: how much do you make your sequel like your previous, successful game? And how much do you change it in the name of progress? Difficult decisions must be made in long, sweaty meetings. For the developers of this sequel to Battlefield 1942 the answer was something along the lines of: "It has to be exactly the same, only different too, please." To their ...

BattleForge (Review)

20/03/2009

Last summer I sold a load of old Topps cards on eBay. What was striking was (a) the prices people were willing to pay for cards of shaggy-haired Belgian soccer players, and (b) how many decade-old unopened packets are up for sale. How could anyone resist tearing them open to see what’s inside? That’s the whole joy of it! ...

Battleground Europe WWII Online (Review)

15/02/2006

Fiddly, obscure and as ugly as mashed offal. But look closer and Battleground Europe is deep, wide, complex and an overlooked attempt to create a massively multiplayer World War II game. Pulling together soldier sim, tank sim and flight sim in a grand conflict, its played over weeks and months in a single, authentic theatre of war. And you might say that its only as pretty as it needs to be. But does it deserve your money? Thats hard to answer, since the reality of this game is far from what ...

Battlestar Galactica [2007] (Review)

14/12/2007

Dec 14, 2007 How do you go about creating a game for one of the most important science-fiction TV shows since Star Trek: The Next Generation? Why, you resurrect the ghost of Wing Commander of course - hiring the voice talent of the series before casting the player as a new recruit under the stern tuition of Starbuck - then having the player dogfight their way through the space-bullet-ridden battles seen in the first seasons of the updated Battlestar Galactica. Then you have FPS sections for ...

Battlestations Midway (Review)

2/02/2007

Calling it “the Pacific theater” always seems somewhat disrespectful. Yet for Battlestations: Midway, the name is all too appropriate. Here, the Second World War really is the greatest show on earth. At its best, the game offers a string of unique sensations, and manages to convey the sheer scale of war. Seeing a good couple of dozen planes flying in formation towards a naval base - literally filling the sky - and then scattering as you swoop in to engage them in your fighter, is ...

Battlestations: Pacific (Review)

13/05/2009

Due to the arcade nature of its combat and presentation, Battlestations: Pacific screams “average!” at you from the off. While it’s tempting to dismiss it as a bland arcade fly-fly bang-bang game, this would be doing it a great disservice. It falls between that particular stool and the one marked “Incomprehensible simulation”. ...

Beijing 2008 (Review)

8/07/2008

First, a cautionary note. Beijing 2008 requires some form of protection for your hands. Our right hand is cut to shreds; this despite using various aids, including cartoon plasters, a thick promotional T-shirt lying around the office, and a comedy sponge hand. None of those prevented a seeping welt from appearing on our palm, soon to be joined by a pair of blisters and, most irritatingly, cuts on the skin at the base of our ...

Bejeweled Twist (Review)

12/12/2008

Bejeweled has completely taken over the world – even your Gran has it on her mobile phone. So it’s no surprise that its creators want to squeeze more money from their cash cow’s gem-studded udders. Sometimes a puzzle game needs a bit of an update in order to keep it fresh. In Twist they’ve taken a wrench to the basic mechanics. ...

Belief & Betrayal (Review)

28/07/2008

Imagine if Ron Howard had cast Rob Schneider instead of Tom Hanks as the lead in The Da Vinci Code (and then let him write his own lines) and you’ll understand one of the biggest problems with Belief & Betrayal, a new adventure game from Italian developer Artemica Entertainment. ...