GamesRadar - PS2 Reviews

Taito Legends (Review)

Jun 22, 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, ...

Tak and the Guardians of Gross (Review)

Nov 3, 2008

Shadow of the Colossus is the unlikely inspiration for this, the fourth game starring generically tribal platforming star Tak. This time, the loinclothed bonehead has accidentally released four giant ‘Grosstrosities’ upon the world, and it’s up to him to bring these lumbering maniacs to heel. ...

Tales of the Abyss (Review)

Oct 6, 2006

If you're reading this article, we have a hunch you might be planning to pick up Final Fantasy XII. Let's face it: with such an epic coming out at the end of October, is it worth worrying about another RPG? We think so. Consider filling the three weeks from when Tales of the Abyss comes out and Final Fantasy XII's Halloween release with a saga of a completely different stripe. Tales' claims to fame aren't quite Final Fantasy's. The battles are action-packed. The characters are in-your-face ...

Teen Titans (Review)

Jun 13, 2006

Teen Titans is an interesting example of the constant tug-of-war between quantity and quality. On the one hand, this multiplayer brawler does a serviceable job of emulating the aesthetics of the canceled television program and comic - thin cartoon lines, high-contrast palette and vocal talent from the show's cast. On the other, it throws wave after wave of same-y, jerkily moving dunces in front of you, each of which is easily dispatched in one bloodless slap-fight after another. Which is not ...

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 Mutant Nightmare (Review)

Jun 22, 2007

At least there's some truth in advertising with the beat-'em-up Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare. This game is someone's nightmare, to be sure. Mutant Nightmare outdoes its predecessors Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus, but this is like saying when you buy the sneakers, they give you the shoelaces for free; the game could hardly be worse. It's also pointed and a bit sad to note Nightmare is outdone in almost every way by Teenage ...

Tekken 5 (Review)

Apr 19, 2005

Heihachi Mishima is dead. No, not really. Yes, it says that in the intro. Yes, it's true that the scrotal-necked megalomaniac starts Tekken 5 being cuddled by exploding-faced death-borgs. But nobody really thought that was enough to take him down, did they? He's crawling from the wreckage by the time the opening credits roll, he's stronger than ever - and he's even ditched that ridiculous nappy.The good news is, the Tekken series is just as resilient as leathery old pops Mishima - and even more ...

Test Drive Unlimited (Review)

Mar 20, 2007

Test Drive Unlimited is quite unlike any other driving game. How on Earth could anyone think it possible - or sane - to try and replicate a tropical paradise etched with some 1000 miles of roads, featuring no load times when roaming, accurately-rendered cars from over two-dozen manufacturers (including detailed dashboard views) and a sickening number of race-based challenges? We dont know. But Melbourne House, thankfully, hasnt even stopped to get snagged on such a question - its just knuckled ...

Thrillville (Review)

Nov 28, 2006

Simulation games are always a tricky proposition on consoles. The versatility of keyboard-and-mouse controls is hard to pull of on a gamepad, ergo some of the fun is often lost when the genre hits a console. But the developers at Frontier Developments, the makers of the renowned Rollercoaster Tycoon games, are up to the task of bringing the heady fun of theme-park simulation to consoles. For the most part, they succeed; the game mechanics in Thrillville work and there's a great deal of variety ...

Thrillville: Off the Rails (Review)

Oct 18, 2007

Oct 18, 2007 The sandbox (genre) is no place for kids. Between GTA, Saint's Row, and True Crime, lil' Ginny Gamer has smartly stayed the hell out, lest she shovel up murder weapon Uzis or carry home a pail full of sticky condoms. Enter concerned citizen Lucasarts, who with their new theme park grab-bag Thrillville: Off the Rails, has picked out all the used syringes and, sack o' toys in hand, reclaimed the sandbox for ...

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 (Review)

Jun 22, 2007

With Tiger Woods, the question is never “is it any good?” but just “how good is it?” The answer rests broadly on the tweakery in the swing and putting departments. Having the best swing in gaming golf is one thing theyve brought into play here. Youll now pick your fades and draws at the start of the swing by using the right thumb stick and it adjusts the length of putts - although the latter remains an optional exercise which, it must be said, makes things marginally ...

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 (Review)

Oct 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, and it's got more than its fair share of irritants, but familiarity doesn't necessarily equal stagnation. Certainly it's disappointing to see EA continue to spend time on needlessly detailed player creation and libraries of hats, shirts, sunglasses, ...

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 (Review)

Sep 5, 2007

Sept 5, 2007 It's got to be tough for the Tiger Woods developers on PS2 these days. After all, EA's focus is clearly on the next-generation games, even though everyone and their brother still owns Sony's current-gen console. The last few Tigers have been deservedly well received, and about the only complaint people have had is that they've been pretty easy to conquer. Obviously, EA has heard you loud and clear. This season's game is virtually the same as last year's, with one big exception - ...

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 (Review)

Sep 10, 2008

We sports gamers like to complain. A lot. It’s what we do. Sometimes, they’re legitimate gripes, while most of the time we just like to argue amongst ourselves about impossibly inane details of our favorite titles. A typical bullet point these days is that most new PS2 sports titles are simply (at best) roster updates from the previous year as the offending developer concentrates on the newer consoles. ...

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 (Review)

Aug 4, 2009

Tiger Woods (the man) has had quite a run in the past year – he won the U.S. Open on a broken leg, had a baby boy, and roared back to the top of the golf heap in record time. Tiger Woods (the PS2 game) can hardly claim that wild of a ride. In fact, this carbon copy of last year’s bare-bones title continues the desultory trajectory of the series on PS2 in recent seasons. ...

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 (Review)

Sep 28, 2004

It's not much of a secret to admit that when we do reviews of sequels the first thing we do is check out what we thought about last year's offering. Does the new game play any better? Does this year's version fix the faults we found last year? And how much new stuff is there? Last year the 'Woods disappointed us a little. There was a tiny amount of new features and what was actually new (lot's of daft comedy characters) was actually a bit pointless. We suggested that the game was actually ...

Time Splitters: Future Perfect (Review)

Mar 22, 2005

Can we ask you a personal question? How many friends do you have? Well, more to the point, how many friends do you have that also like to play videogames? This is the most pertinent thing to consider when deciding if TimeSplitters Future Perfect is for you. Because, put bluntly, if you're William Z. NoMates then you aren't going to enjoy this anywhere near as much as if you're Jeffrey T. Popular. Sure, you can go online and get stuck in with complete strangers, but the game's dynamic ...

TMNT (Review)

Mar 30, 2007

When we first heard that the same studio that makes the fluidly acrobatic, lushly visualized Prince of Persia series was going to make a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game, we were thrilled. In our minds, no other team on Earth was better suited to blend the four things that define the turtles: a dark personality (in the original comics at least), incredibly acrobatic ability to treat an entire city like a jungle gym, teamwork, and high-flying martial arts shell-kickery complete with different ...

TOCA Race Driver 2 (Review)

Sep 22, 2004

Every cloud, they say, has a silver lining. That might be because every cloud is frighteningly full of aeroplanes and 'they' are actually pilots screaming their last words in poetic surprise. "Aargh, every cloud has a silver lining!" Crackle crackle. And they're never heard from again. Anyway, the point: Formula One (bear with us) is in such a pathetic state they're altering the tracks for the cars, even though the tracks were there first, and they're travelling to rubbish circuits just because ...

Tokobot Plus: Mysteries of the Karakuri (Review)

Jan 22, 2007

Its a crazy world. We all expected the PSP to get its fair share of ports from the PS2. Recently, though weve seen a number of PSP to PS2 ports with Mercury Meltdown and Liberty City Stories all making their way over to the PS2. The choice of porting Tokobot to PS2 seems a strange ...

Tokyo Xtreme Racer Drift 2 (Review)

Jun 22, 2007

Do you love cars? Do you love to drift those cars around sharp corners, tune them up with top of the line parts, and then brag about your prowess behind the wheel to all your rivals? Are you both fast and also furious... and too broke to pay full price for a new game? Maybe you should give Tokyo Xtreme Racer Drift 2 a test ...