GamesRadar - PC Reviews

The Early Years of Flight (Review)

25/07/2008

They might be hilarious when sped up and accompanied by the Benny Hill tune, but the early days of flight were dull. At least they are now, as we have fighter jets. ...

East India Company (Review)

17/08/2009

Imagine a world dominated by multinational corporations. A planet subjugated by profit margins, where global trade routes are fiercely battled over and lone pirates raid cargo-ship behemoths. That’s right: East India Company’s focus is on the years 1600 to 1750. ...

El Matador (Review)

25/09/2006

Although El Matador may look and sound like a new action title, it plays, acts and even smells like a familiar old game that didn't age very well. You're Victor Corbet, a US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) special mission agent tasked to take down Columbian drug thugs. Said crime lords evade the law by hiding behind behind thin yet impenetrable wood tables. Computer-controlled buddies who should have your back constantly get in your way, shoving you aside and standing directly in front ...

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Review)

21/12/2006

Remember that episode of The Simpsons where Homer goes to hell and is sentenced to eat donuts for eternity, only to find that all of the Krispy Kremes in the fiery abyss cannot quell his unending hankering for the fried doughy treats? Well it won't be long after you start playing The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion before you're just like the animated éclair-scarfer, except you'll be in hell fighting monsters and it'll be your penchant for adventuring and treasure hunting that'll be ...

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Knights of the Nine (Review)

18/01/2007

Weve put over 60 hours of our lives into Oblivion. Weve cured ourselves of vampirism, cleaned the world of the Daedra, and pranced around on the equine equivalent of a Ferrari. Now, after the near-extortion that was the Horse Armor mod (a whopping 200 Gamer Points!) and more reasonable additions like Mehrunes Razor and the Wizards Tower, here comes Knights – the first genuine expansion (if PC owners are wondering about that $19.99 price tag, its because their version also includes all ...

The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles (Review)

2/04/2007

There are more than 160 missions in the original Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, but the one everyone remembers is the errand you ran for the Daedric prince Sheogorath, also known as the “Mad God”. Why? Because it starts with a bunch of people in the woods wearing only their underwear, moves on to the planet's stinkiest cheese, and ends with – SPOILER ALERT – a hailstorm of flaming German Shepherds. There were other great missions, but this was the one that everyone talked ...

The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind (Review)

30/03/2006

The third installment in the long-running and extremely popular Elder Scrolls series, Morrowind establishes a new standard in role-playing games. It's astonishing in its depth and detail, and also sets a new benchmark in graphics. Morrowind's extreme open-endedness sets it apart. Despite the linear story, the way the other characters in the world interact with you changes based upon your actions. There are various guilds within the game, like the Assassins Guild, and whether or not they see ...

Elven Legacy (Review)

5/05/2009

Visually striking battles, intricate maps and an intuitive interface make this a cerebrally satisfying and accessible fantasy strategy. Pleasantly non-linear, it offers hours of fun as you quest to retrieve a stolen spell. There’s some party micro-management here, but Legacy is mainly about turn-based combat. ...

Empire Earth 2 (Review)

15/02/2006

Blasting the bulwarks off a medieval galleon using modern guided missiles seems strange at first, not to mention hideously one-sided. But if you've ever enjoyed pitting ants against a kettle, then you'll soon come to embrace the amusing inequalities of Empire Earth II. From sticks and stones, to phalanx and arrows, to tactical lasers and the dreaded nuke, this game will take you on a crushing march through the history of warfare. Taking the thematic thrust of Civilization, and wrapping it in ...

Empire Earth II: The Art of Supremacy (Review)

13/03/2006

You can have too much of a good thing? What nonsense. Money, cake, sex, houses, cars: you find us someone who has too many of these things, and we'll show you a happy guy. But here's something you can have too much of: generic real-time strategy games. Since Age of Empires, new games and sequels alike have hopped on that bandwagon, waging their myriad wars in a way that makes you realize that history really is just deja vu all over again. Empire Earth II was a hidden gem. Playing like the ...

Empire Earth III (Review)

14/11/2007

Nov 14, 2007 There comes a time in just about every video game series' life when the producers have to cut their losses. For Sierras Empire Earth series of RTS games, that time was... a game ago. The original Empire Earth was an entertaining (if highly derivative) RTS. Empire Earth II was ambitious, but ultimately disappointing. By rights, things shouldve ended there. But like some degenerate gambler, Sierra threw yet more money at this moribund series. And with Empire Earth III, Sierra has ...

Empire: Total War (Review)

6/03/2009

This is the grandest, most spectacular work of strategy gaming on the PC. If you’ve not tackled a Total War game before, or assume that they’re not for you, we challenge you to play Empire and not be impressed, or even fundamentally changed by the experience. This is one of the most playable, and therefore important and accomplished strategy games ever created. ...

Enemy Engaged 2 (Review)

24/07/2007

Despite the glamorous depiction, life as a military pilot is quite dull. And this is a good thing, because when your days arent overshadowed by the tedium of strict routine, it means someone is trying to kill you. And being shot at isnt much fun - just like Enemy Engaged 2. In three near-future theatres of war- the Lebanon, Korea and Taiwan - Cold War rivalries have spilled over into all-out conflicts. You join in as the pilot of an American-built RAH-66 Comanche or a Russian Ka-52 Hokum B ...

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (Review)

27/09/2007

Sept 27, 2007 Despite appearances - specifically the vehicles, the character classes, and the open maps - this is not an attempt to make a sci-fi version of Battlefield. Nor is it, despite the name, much to do with the deathmatch tradition of Quake. It's therefore perfectly possible that fans of either of those series will be disappointed. This is, first and foremost, an Enemy Territory game. What this means is that ETQW is a class-based first-person shooter with asymmetric, objective-based ...

Eragon (Review)

21/12/2006

Even fans of Christopher Paolinis tale of a boy and his dragon will likely be disappointed with the mediocre action in Eragon. For those unfamiliar with the premise, Eragon is a young farm boy who comes across a dragon egg. When it hatches, he finds himself swept up in a quest for revenge against the evil king Galbatorix as he learns how to be a Dragon Rider. But the games brief and grainy cut scenes do little more than provide a general outline for the films plot and will not satisfy those ...

Escape from Paradise City (Review)

31/10/2007

Oct 31, 2007 Blending genres is always a tricky recipe. A pinch of RPG, a dash of FPS, and a hint of... some other acronym and, voila!: You've got the tastiest game on the market... or just plain alphabet soup? Unfortunately for Sirius Games, designers of action-RPG/RTS/GTA-clone Escape from Paradise City, their genre-blending plans never quite come together into a decent meal. Things start out fun, if a tad clichéd: you're a former criminal, given a last chance to redeem yourself. ...

Eufloria (Review)

5/11/2009

Imagine a game where you plant trees that grow on asteroids, produce seedlings that fly, and send these to new asteroids to grow new trees. What makes the resulting RTS so smart, beautiful and compelling is the neatness with which this astroscience fantasy is presented. Clear, logical relationships and a look halfway between Japanese inkbrush art and scientific insemination diagrams. ...

Europa Universalis: Rome (Review)

25/04/2008

Europa Universalis: Rome is so lean and tooltippy, you may not need to open the manual at all. Within an hour of completing the ten minutes-worth of tutorials we’d doubled the size of Macedonia, negotiated my first peace treaty, and purged my young empire of corruption. We were galloping along and loving it. For those new to the series, this is PCT (Pauseable Continuous Time) grand strategy. You pick a starting date (anywhere between ...

EVE Online Red Moon Rising (Review)

15/02/2006

While we'd like to be able to say that there's never been a better time to try EVE Online, we can't. The truth is that if you're going to try EVE Online, you should do so right now, because it's hard to say how long it's going to be this good. Red Moon Rising is the latest large, free expansion for starship MMO EVE. While other games provide new realms, new lands or new dungeons, EVE is becoming more detailed. Developer CCP claims it's growing 'inwards'. It created a galaxy and all the ...

EVE Online: Revelations (Review)

23/01/2007

This is a bit awkward. EVE Online Revelations, the expansion to EVE Online, is a constantly evolving MMO. Were reviewing Revelations but its actually an ongoing series of patches; for now we can only review the first installment in the sequence. Upsettingly, it hasnt brought with it the major graphical overhaul, or any of the snazzy DirectX 10 stuff that CCP have been talking about during 2006. Nor has it fixed really hardcore problems like the sovereignty system used to capture player-owned ...