GamesRadar - PS2 Reviews

Gallop Racer 2006 (Review)

May 23, 2006

The basics of racing a car are simple enough: hit the gas and go. But racing horses? Far more complex than any machine. Handling a horse demands skill, finesse and even intimate knowledge of its personality quirks. This and many other previously unconsidered realties become apparent upon sampling Gallop Racer 2006, the latest in Tecmo's long-running series of horse-racing simulations. Gallop Racer's attention to detail is meticulous, so much so that it becomes difficult for an outsider to crack ...

George of the Jungle and the Search for the Secret (Review)

Mar 28, 2008

You know how when you’re going through a traumatic experience, time seems to slow down as you take in the full horror of what’s happening? For the first five minutes, we sort of thought that was happening with George of the Jungle. It’s a side-scrolling platform game, but George bounces along (feet not touching the ground, of course) at such a slow-ass pace it’s almost like he’s deliberately trying to upset Sir Isaac Newton. ...

Get On Da Mic (Review)

Nov 23, 2004

Off the heezay! After SingStar copping big chart success, clones were as inevitable as Eminem upsetting your Gran. This is the rap one, and it's got the best track line-up we've seen yet, ranging right from the roots of hippity-hop (Rapper's Delight), through the gangsta era (Dre and Snoop tunes) right up to the modern era (Dizzee Rascal and Kanye West).But think about it. At the risk of getting all over-analytical on yo' ass, rap's all about words, rather than tunes. Because of this, Get On Da ...

The Getaway: Black Monday (Review)

Nov 17, 2004

Sony must have been delighted that The Getaway was given a (cough) mixed critical reception. Why? Since the faults were: (a) obvious and (b) easy to fix. Result? Black Monday took just two years to develop (the original took six). The misleading PR guff about 'When is a movie more than a movie?' is history. And the developers have addressed the glaring flaws - poor targeting, maddening stealth and crappy camera. In short, the approach couldn't be more different, and the results... couldn't be ...

Ghost Rider (Review)

Feb 14, 2007

As if the back-catalog of shoddy comic book adaptations on PS2 wasnt shameful enough, heres another uninspired and under-developed calamity for the pile. You play Johnny Blaze, a motorcycle stunt rider who sells his immortal soul to Mephisto (a sort of Marvel Universe version of the Devil) in order to save his terminally ill father from cancer. Bit of a short-sighted deal, really, especially when Mephisto turns round and offs his dad after hes cured him. As youd expect, Johnnys a tad peeved by ...

Ghostbusters The Video Game (Review)

Jun 23, 2009

The dreams of thousands, nay, millions of twentysomethings came true recently. Despite delays, a publisher change and a few holdout actors, the Ghostbusters are back, two decades after their last film. ...

God Hand (Review)

Oct 10, 2006

You can send God Hand's very first enemy flying 30 yards into the distance, smashing him through a support that sends a whole roof crashing down. If you're not cackling with glee at this point, you might be after running up and mashing buttons to stomp the rest of the life out of him. This is God Hand, the most frenetic and over-the-top beat 'em-up on PS2. It's a game about the sheer, idiotic joy of beating the crap out of things, and the best homage to '80s arcade ideals this side of 360's ...

God of War (Review)

Feb 28, 2006

Kratos is in a bad mood. No, wait, that's an understatement. He's in the worst mood imaginable, and he's ready to take out his anger on the entire Greek pantheon if it means getting revenge on the god who drove him mad. A mythological epic, God of War casts players as Kratos, a rage-fueled maniac with a pair of nasty-looking swords chained to his arms. His life destroyed by Ares, the god of war, Kratos wants to find Pandora's Box and use its power to kill his divine nemesis. Standing between ...

God of War Betrayal [mobile] (Review)

Aug 24, 2007

Aug 15, 2007 To hold kill-thirsty, classical civilization enthusiasts over until the PSP'sGod of War Chains of Olympus drops later this year, Sony has been kind enough to give cell phone gamers a chance to revel in the dismemberment with the exclusive God of War: Betrayal. Chronologically, Betrayal bridges the gap between the first two God of War games - but don't go expecting a rousing narrative addition to those tales. However, many of the things you know and love from the PS2 versions do ...

God of War II (Review)

Mar 12, 2007

Playing as an antihero in a videogame is nothing new, but 2005's God of War was, for many, the first time they'd been asked to play an outright villain. Protagonist Kratos never made the “right” decisions, always disposing of his enemies in the cruelest ways imaginable and murdering anyone who wasn't of immediate use to him. Still, he turned out to be one of the most compelling characters we'd ever played as, so we couldn't help rooting for him as he went from being a tormented ...

The Godfather (Review)

Sep 19, 2006

If you ever need proof that video games are a powerful educational tool, look no further than The Godfather. After a week with this Grand Theft Auto-like gangster simulator, you'll know more about the movie than most film students. You'll know the name of the guy who gets shot in the "leave the gun, take the cannoli" scene. You'll know the order in which Michael Corleone's enemies get whacked during the climactic revenge montage. You'll know this, because you'll have done it all ...

Godzilla: Unleashed (Review)

Nov 30, 2007

Nov 29, 2007 Traditionally, a sequel is an improvement upon its predecessor - that's the whole point of making it, right? That's not the case with the PS2 version of Godzilla: Unleashed. This sequel is a stripped-down giant monster brawler that's the third game in its series, but which somehow manages to play far, far worse than its feature-rich predecessors. The big problem is that the whole thing stutters and chugs along like Paris Hilton learning to drive a stick shift. Sure, these are ...

The Golden Compass (Review)

Dec 7, 2007

Dec 7, 2007 The Golden Compass gives new meaning to the all-too-common phrase ‘disappointing movie tie-in. Perhaps if the film wasnt quite as epic, or the Philip Pullman book its based on quite so engaging, we wouldnt have been so crushed to find the game is such guff. The opening level is hugely disappointing, and that sets the tone for the rest of the game. Confusingly, the game starts at the end of the story, with heroine Lyra racing round the Arctic searching for her pal Roger on ...

Gran Turismo 4 (Review)

Feb 15, 2006

After feeling your heart flood with air guitar warmth during the opening sequence, going on to nail a couple of new tracks in Arcade mode and opening up the Gran Turismo Resort map, how does GT4 reward you for completing your first cup? With a 1.4 Volkswagen Lupo. Geez, not much has changed, then. Developers Polyphony Digital still want to make you drive your ass to breaking point before you can afford to take the fastest, most desirable motors in the game for a test drive. While some of the ...

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (Review)

Jul 24, 2006

Tuesday 6 June 2006 It's not often that handheld games come to consoles, it's usually the other way round, which makes Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories for PlayStation 2 such a tricky game to evaluate. When it appeared on PSP there was a lot that could be excused - the recycling of a previously used location, the lack of any aerial transport and the loss of the life-sim features that appeared in the last GTA. Handhelds have their limitations so compensations had to be made. But now it's ...

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (Review)

Jun 6, 2006

An hour into the latest entry in this revered line of open-ended, third-person crime actioners, we've got a problem. The Sindacco crime family is sending waves of enforcers to blow up a casino we've been charged with protecting. The trouble is, there are only three cars full of the pompous bastards, and we can't decide which way to ice them all. The first group was easy - we just let them drive up, then ran over them one by one with the semi truck we'd jacked. When the second carload turned ...

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Review)

Jan 3, 2007

Given the endlessly bad press it receives, you'd almost think Grand Theft Auto was the ruin of Western civilization. But while its hooker-beating and indiscriminate violence come up every time some culture critic wants to rag on digital entertainment, gamers have their own reasons for liking it. Reasons like limitless freedom, unfettered exploration and infinite possibilities for running over old ladies at high speeds. And with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, you'll get more of that stuff than ...

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Review)

Oct 6, 2004

The most controversial series in videogame history has spawned an unarguable truth - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is the best game on PS2. Fact. If not, one of the best console games - and we've thought long and hard about this - ever, matched only by such epochal titles such as Halo, Super Mario 64 and Final Fantasy VII. In some respects, Rockstar's achievement is all the more daunting because San Andreas delivers relentless, sublimely balanced and uniquely varied gameplay for at least 50 ...

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (Review)

Mar 9, 2007

Despite garnering a ton of interest from fans when it hit in late 2006, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories didn't sell quite as well as other GTA titles. It could be that gamers are getting sick of the same recycled gameplay, but what's more likely is that they were just waiting for the game to arrive on PS2, instead of the notoriously hard-to-control PSP. If you're in that latter camp, then here's your chance to pick up the best GTA since San Andreas. If you already caught it on the PSP, ...

Grandia III (Review)

Mar 10, 2006

The PS2 is home to more Japanese-developed role playing games than any obsessive fan, let alone a rational gamer with a reasonable budget, could ever dream of playing. Most of them have a quirk that sets them apart from the rest. With Grandia III, it's unquestionably the battle system. But from its spunky teen lead and his winsome female friend, to the land of mysteries and monsters they inhabit, the tale is almost tragically ...