GamesRadar - PC Reviews

Tabula Rasa (Review)

12/11/2007

Nov 12, 2007 History lesson time: "Tabula rasa" is a Latin phrase popularized by John Locke in the 17th century. Translated to English it reads as "clean slate" and describes Locke's notion of human nature. In terms of Richard Garriott's new MMORPG, intellectually titled Tabula Rasa, the concept works on several levels. In the game's story, it refers to humanity starting over on a new planet after an alien invasion. For gameplay it hints at the cloning system that allows you to take a single ...

Taito Legends (Review)

22/06/2007

How do you see it? Old skool nostalgia or long-forgotten crap? Are you a rabid retro-head or a sneering next-gen obsessive? Either way, its a mini-war that neednt be, especially when were talking about over thirty games for less than twenty clams. Perhaps its time that both sides of the dispute kissed and made up, and we can all get in the warm and have a great game of New Zealand Story. Er, ...

Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 1: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal (Review)

16/07/2009

Nostalgia? Please. As great as the original Secret of Monkey Island is, it’s a new adventure we’ve all been craving. Even though Tales is the first of the series not made by LucasArts (although Telltale have no shortage of people who worked on them, such as Dave Grossman and Mike Stemmle), make no mistake: it’s officially the fifth game in the series, not some farmed-out spin-off. ...

Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 2: Siege of Spinner Cay (Review)

14/09/2009

Thank goodness, the first one wasn’t a fluke. Telltale’s episodic Monkey Island revamp kicked off on a splendid high, and this second episode is easily up to the first’s satisfying standard. Strong puzzles, funny writing and a fantastic new villain in the form of Morgan Le Flay, a sexy pirate hunter who’s simultaneously Guybrush Threepwood’s biggest fan and greatest threat in ages. ...

Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 3: Lair of the Leviathan (Review)

8/10/2009

Previously, on Monkey Island: Voodoo pox! Human LeChuck! Magical sea-sponges! At this point in the series, it’s almost like reviewing a TV show rather than a game. The basic structure, the characters, the overall plot – you’re not going to jump into Guybrush’s world at this point. So the question is more how well this episode continues the series, than how it might stand alone. In short... it’s strange. ...

Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 4: The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood (Review)

11/11/2009

And so, on to the fourth episode of Tales do we go, with the series progressing nicely. The end is nearing though and Telltale should now, surely, have begun to move on from merely being good to reminding us why we all loved the Monkey Island games in the first place. Whether they manage this is open to debate, sadly. ...

Tank Universal (Review)

6/10/2008

Though you wouldn’t guess it from the title, screenshots or, indeed, actual game, in Tank Universal you play a wrinkled old man with failing health called George. George has been to the ‘doctors’ and been advised that the best cure for his illness is a strict course of tanks, missiles and explosions, taken through a VR headset. George totters home, sticks the helmet on, and that’s the premise of the game. ...

Team Fortress 2 (Review)

9/10/2007

Oct 9, 2007 Let's not dwell too much on the original mod for Quake and Half-Life - that was ten years ago, not everyone played it, and TF2 is very obviously aimed at new players as much as old. Worth mentioning, quickly, is that it's got the same nine classes but fewer weapons for each, grenades have been removed entirely (thank God) and, well... look at it. Look what they did to it. The changes might sound like simplification, but like the art style it's more about exaggeration. The Spy used ...

Terminator Salvation - The Videogame (Review)

29/06/2009

The most evocative, stirring part of Terminator: Salvation is the loading screen, a burning red eye glaring out at you from the monitor. After that, it just degenerates into a mindless grind through tediously textured levels, fighting dull enemies and listening to dull characters say “Connor, do this” or “Wasps!” for the thousandth time. ...

Terrorist Takedown 2: US Navy Seals (Review)

12/06/2008

Popular opinion suggests that the Poles are coming over here, taking our jobs and undercutting our builders. However, at least some of them are still in Poland churning out substandard PC games for less then a tenner. Terrorist Takedown 2 is allegedly based on the same engine as F.E.A.R., but the end result is something that we would have balked at five years ago.

As for the story, it’s a confusing affair that largely ...

Test Drive Unlimited (Review)

14/02/2007

Welcome to the worlds first obscene wealth simulator. Sure, one in every two driving games on the market involves collecting cash, but nothing else sees you lavish a sickeningly huge amount of money on yourself like this driving semi-MMO. Its a tale of amassing massive riches during a privileged, unemployed life on the beautiful Hawaiian island of Oahu, then spending all your said riches on cars. Endless numbers of super-expensive cars. By way of example, heres an average day in our characters ...

Theatre of War (Review)

29/05/2007

This game promised much. A link-up between Russian über-developer Oleg Maddox of IL-2 Sturmovik fames 1C Company, and hardcore US strategizers Battlefront. Years in development, it promised to be the greatest payoff from the end of the Cold War since Rocky beat Ivan Drago. Theatre of War - available now from www.battlefront.com for $45 - simulates small-scale WWII European ground combat, stretching from the invasion of Poland in 1939 to the fall of Berlin. Its dripping in WWII hardware ...

Theatre of War II: Africa 1943 (Review)

17/06/2009

Baptisms don’t come much fierier than the Battle of Sidi Bou Zid. On February 14, 1943, in the shadow of the Atlas Mountains, the US Army got its first taste of Blitzkrieg. The results weren’t pretty. Panzers + experience > Shermans + naivety. ...

Threadspace: Hyperbol (Review)

29/08/2007

Aug 29, 2007 The trouble with space is its all three-dimensional. You think youre doing pretty well in a scrap, and then it turns out theres an enemy Battlecruiser and 42 legions of their finest fighters descending on you from above. ThreadSpace: Hyperbol does away with such unpleasantness by limiting play to a two-dimensional plane. Yes, youre a spaceship, but you slide about like some sort of rocket-powered game of intergalactic curling. This all works tremendously well mind you, and to the ...

Thrillville: Off the Rails (Review)

29/11/2007

Nov 29, 2007 One day, some developers looked at Rollercoaster Tycoon and Theme Park and decided they just werent wacky enough. This sequel to the console title Thrillville is set upon force-feeding you proof of its craziness until you vomit. From the ‘whoa coasters to the Christopher Lloyd-style scientist nut to the ‘hilarious minigames, Off the Rails is plain out of this ...

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 (Review)

18/10/2006

When you consider just how simple the basic premise of golf is - knocking a ball into a hole with a stick - the degree of hidden complexity is pretty amazing. This perennial offering takes heat for not changing a hell of a lot from year to year, but familiarity doesn't necessarily equal stagnation. In fact, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 is the most enjoyable golf game available. This year's console and handheld versions might have their disappointing quirks, but the PC edition stands tall as king of ...

Time Gentlemen, Please! (Review)

22/07/2009

“I’ve always wanted someone else’s arm covered in Hitler’s feces and blood, so I’m considering this a wild success.” We can think of no more appropriate quote to encapsulate this indie adventure. ...

TimeShift (Review)

8/11/2007

Oct 30, 2007 It's been a tough year to be a first-person shooter. With the bar being set ludicrously high by games like Halo 3, BioShock, The Orange Box, and Call of Duty 4, we are in a golden age of action titles. It's a bit hard, then, to recommend the fourth-dimensional shooter TimeShift amongst such a crowded field. Don't be mistaken - this is a solid offering - but its paint-by-numbers design and undercooked story will have a tough time holding your attention, though its multiplayer mode ...

Titan Quest (Review)

27/06/2006

You've been waiting for Diablo 3? Well here it is, except it's called Titan Quest and set in classical Greece, China, and Egypt, and it's not by Blizzard. No, it doesn't have satanic minions or blood or big glowing pentagrams, but it does have demons, skeletons, and epic monsters like a screen-chomping Cyclops. Oh, and partial nudity, whatever that ...

Titan Quest: Immortal Throne (Review)

5/03/2007

Expansion packs are usually bland affairs, but this one kind of unsettles us. Titan Quest was a tragic game that was meant to be the next big thing but ended up a so-so Diablo clone after six years in development. And almost all of what Immortal Throne adds centers around two themes: dreams and death. If ever there was a game that would turn out to be haunted and end up electrocuting you through your mouse, this is it. For those of you who aint afraid of no ghost, Immortal Throne is a broad ...