All PS2 Previews

D1 Grand Prix (D1 Grand Prix)

Jun 9, 2006

The high-speed, high-precision sport of automotive drift racing is starting to catch on in the US, and D1 Grand Prix is ready to cash in. Due out in mid-July, the game realistically simulates the finer points of skidding sideways across racetracks and ruining your tires. It sounds simple, but after sitting down and playing the game for ourselves, we know better. The real-life sport of drifting takes incredible precision and skill, and D1 Grand Prix is no different, with its drifts requiring ...

The Da Vinci Code (The Da Vinci Code)

May 24, 2006

Friday 28 April 2006 The film is out next month. The multi-million selling book is still pounding the sales charts week after week. It's was about time we delve into The Da Vinci Code game and unravel the mystery of what it's actually like to play. Although it's based on the film, The Da Vinci Code fleshes out the action with a fresh line-up of cryptic puzzles and locations. For example, Langdon - the bookish hero - treads the stones in a church called Saint-Sulpice, while his cryptologist ...

The Da Vinci Code (The Da Vinci Code)

Apr 20, 2006

Think of your favorite novel. Now know this: The Da Vinci Code kicked its ass. Dan Brown's thriller about secret societies, hidden messages in famous paintings and some controversial theories about Jesus Christ is officially the best-selling novel ever, nearing almost 40 million copies in print. So what can the game provide that all those dead trees can't? More puzzles. Without giving too much away, you'll take up the role of Robert Langdon, an art expert who finds himself a key suspect in a ...

Dance Factory (Dance Factory)

Apr 20, 2006

Have you burned through Dance Dance Revolution's entire song catalog? Or have you always wanted to try a dancing game, but thought the music wasn't really your thing? Enter Dance Factory. Due out in August, it's the first game that'll actually let you stomp to tunes from your own CDs. At first blush, Dance Factory looks like your typical DDR clone, as a series of cascading arrows tell you which part of a dance mat to step on in time with music. The key difference is that Factory generates ...

Darkwatch (Darkwatch)

Sep 9, 2005

It's been a long development trail for High Moon's horror-western FPS, and that much is evident in a score of careful details, from the folksy jangle of gunslinger Jericho Cross' spurs to the sepia-and-brimstone haze that has settled on its warped west. But on lengthier play it's also evident in less complimentary aspects, such as the multiplayer levels - the first to be created - apparently possessing more character than the single-player game's barren, tunnelled haunts, and the storyline ...

Dawn of Mana - first look hands-on (Dawn of Mana)

Apr 11, 2007

Seven. That's how many years the fans of the long-running, but sparsely updated, Secret of Mana franchise have been waiting for a new entry. Oh, they've seen a couple of handheld adaptations here and there, but we're talking a full blown, console action-RPG sequel. Heck, if you go by the official numbering system and don't count 2000's Legend of Mana, the true wait since number three has been more like twelve years. And that was a Japan-only title... 2007 will finally see the release of Dawn ...

Destroy All Humans! 2 (Destroy All Humans! 2)

Oct 10, 2006

Tuesday 10 October 2006 Pitching a wise-cracking alien against the small-minded conformism of 1950s America, the original Destroy All Humans encouraged the widespread destruction and eventual invasion of the United States. This sequel is fundamentally more of the same, expanded over a global setting and with a far stronger emphasis on free-roaming. Leering, lecherous alien star Crypto remains the game's strongest focus, and rightly so. Although it's initially difficult to empathise with him, ...

Destroy All Humans! 2 (Destroy All Humans! 2)

Sep 28, 2006

It's not easy being green, but it's harder being grey. This was just one of the lessons we learned in the original Destroy All Humans!, Pandemic's fun, clever, slightly shallow parody of 1950s sci-fi flicks. Experiencing the action from the aliens' perspective, it was hard not to feel sympathy for the vicious little bastards even as they ran around sucking out innocent victims' ...

Destroy All Humans! 2 (Destroy All Humans! 2)

May 19, 2006

Friday 19 May 2006 Hide the cattle and cover your behind - the aliens are back. Apparently, Cryptosporidium 137's boss, Pox, has been captured by the Russians, so the Furon warrior has to conquer Earth all over again - this time during the free-love movement of the '60s. The biggest and best news about this spoofy actioner is that it has adopted a more free-form, open-world approach. The first game was actually very linear and required each mission to be solved in a certain way. Not so with ...

E3 06: Destroy All Humans 2 hands-on (Destroy All Humans! 2)

May 12, 2006

Hide the cattle and cover your behind - the aliens are back. Apparently, his boss Pox has been shot down and captured by the Russians, so now the Furon warrior Cryptosporidium 137 has to conquer the Earth all over again - but this time, amid the free-love movement of the 1960s. The biggest and best news about this spoofy, darkly comic actioner is that it has adopted a more free-form, open-world approach. The first game was actually very linear, and required you to solve each mission a certain ...

Destroy All Humans: Big Willy Unleashed (Destroy All Humans: Big Willy Unleashed)

Jul 18, 2007

Our biggest beef with Destroy All Humans 2 was that it felt like the usually coldhearted alien, Crypto was more concerned with saving the world than destroying humans. But it looks like this won't be a problem in Destroy All Humans: Big Willy Unleashed. In this mouth watering follow up - set after the events in Destroy All Humans 2 - Crypto decides to open his own restaurant which features human flesh as the secret ingredient. Although capturing and cooking people serves Crypto's antipathy ...

Devil May Cry 3 (Devil May Cry 3)

Dec 2, 2004

Dante is one cool guy. You might not have thought it while playing the slightly disappointing Devil May Cry 2, but this game will reaffirm everything you thought you knew about him.Like something out of The Matrix, Dante can shoot six monsters dead while spinning cartwheels. He can spin around a pole faster and faster, kicking anyone who gets in his way in the mush . He can even - get this - knock out an enemy then use them as a surfboard to plough down all the others. And it all looks as great ...

Devil May Cry 3 (Devil May Cry 3)

Nov 8, 2004

DMC3 is the kind of action game that would pause to preen itself in front of a mirror during a gunfight: in fact, it wouldn't be surprising to catch the game's young and hungry Dante doing just that as he whoops and pouts his way through his debut devil-hunting performance. There's a winning lack of self-consciousness to its style - or 'stylish crazy action', to use the proper invented term - careening as it does between camp, cheese and music-video cool with machinegun rapidity.An apparent ...

Devil May Cry 3 (Devil May Cry 3)

Jul 28, 2004

It's hard now to remember, back in the grainy, sepia-toned days of 2001 when our steam-powered PS2s were all shiny and new, just how amazing the first Devil May Cry game was. Sure, you fought dead things, but you didn't have to turn in a tight circle like you did in Resident Evil. You carried a sword, but you could destroy enemies in a hail of bullets as well. You explored a gigantic castle, but you didn't have to wait ages for each room to load. In short, it took the clichZs of survival ...

Devil May Cry 3 (Devil May Cry 3)

Jul 19, 2004

Refreshingly, the third game in the stellar Devil May Cry series is a true sequel rather than a fumbling re-hash. The shiny new graphics engine has been built from the ground up and the fact that it's a prequel means that a whole new plot is on offer. As well as the dazzling new graphics, a major gameplay overhaul has been initiated - you can now tailor Dante to suit your playing style by selecting one of several character classes. Firstly, the Gunslinger class lets Dante fire in all ...

Digimon Data Squad - hands-on (Digimon World Data Squad)

Jun 18, 2007

Most of the world is fixated upon Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. Does anyone remember Digimon these days? Seven or eight years ago they were pretty cool. Remember that one that looked like a dinosaur with a metal head? Yeah that was neat. What's that? There's a new RPG on the way? And on PS2? Wow that's a whole load of information that totally surprises and confounds all who hear it. So there's this new Digimon Data Squad. It's based on the upcoming Jetix cartoon that starts later this year and ...

Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII - hands on (Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII)

Jul 27, 2006

Our original preview for Dirge of Cerberus, based on the final Japanese version of the game, suggested - in the nicest possible way - that it might not be that hot. We admitted that it was "a fairly standard third-person run-and-gun adventure." We slid in the suggestion that "it could be argued that the gameplay is incidental to the characters and setting." The game's claim to fame is that it's a Final Fantasy VII spin-off, not that it's a top-shelf shooter, right? That much is obvious. After ...

E3 06: Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII (Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII)

May 16, 2006

Nobody expected Final Fantasy to become a shooter. And when it did, the lack of confidence seemed... justified. The Japanese version of the game showed that the developers, while great at transferring the brilliant world of Final Fantasy VII to the PS2 with its atmosphere intact, didn't quite understand how to make a tight and playable shooter. Well, somebody at Square Enix noticed the complaints. The English version of Dirge of Cerberus has been tweaked and modified for the tastes of US ...

Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII (Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII)

Mar 10, 2006

In the parable of the blind men and the elephant, several blind men are placed in a room with said proverbial pachyderm. Each touches a different part of the elephant and delivers a different report. The one who touches the trunk claims that the elephant is like a snake; the one who touches the tusk, like a spear; the tail, like a broom, and so on. Each was correct, at least in part. But if you bundle a snake, a spear, and a rope together, you sure as hell don't get an elephant. Which brings ...

Disgaea 2 - hands-on (Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories)

Jun 30, 2006

It's hard firing up a game that promises close to 200 hours of tactical-RPG gameplay. We cruised through the first six hours and couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by the ocean of options at our disposal; loads of character classes, countless, customizable items for sale, a demonic congress filled with surly, mischievous senators... yeah, there's a lot going on. Then why did six hours seem like six minutes of sword-n-sorcery magic? Because from the moment Adell, the last human in a world full ...