GamesRadar - PS2 Reviews

Wall-E (Review)

Jul 2, 2008

Damn you Wall-E, and damn whoever decided to come up with that way our trash-compacting, lonely-hearts-surfing robo-friend constantly repeats his own name in gurgling, quasi-’endearing’ fashion. It’s not cute, it’s not appealing, it’s... oh, the movie’s set to rake in $250 million? Ah. Shows how much we know. Still, at least the blatantly nicked premise shows promise. Take sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf and ...

The Warriors (Review)

Jun 22, 2007

Resurrecting old and much-loved movies and turning them into games is always going to be a dangerous business. You've got to please a lot of different sets of people at the same time; fans of the original film, fans of the genre of game and gamers who've never heard of the movie that need to be won over. As you'd expect from Rockstar, The Warriors manages to pull it off, delivering both a worthy and worthwhile homage to the 1979 classic and also a worthy and worthwhile videogame. It's hard to ...

Warriors Orochi (Review)

Sep 27, 2007

Sept 27, 2007 Let's assume for a moment that you love McDonald's Big Macs - it's not tough, right? That is one delicious burger. Also, pretend that one Big Mac lasts forever. Finally, imagine that every time you walked into a McDonald's, they shouted at you "The Big Mac is new and improved and better than ever!" And so you get all excited and buy the latest one, only to discover that it's the same exact thing with only some teeny, tiny variation - like, the relish is chunkier or the buns have ...

Warriors Orochi 2 (Review)

Sep 24, 2008

The serpent king Orochi and the Dynasty Warriors series have one thing in common, they keep on coming back for more. It’s Japan’s equivalent of the FIFA moneymaking saga. Here you can expect at least one game a year, if not more. Twelve months isn’t much time to create an entirely new game, so it’s little wonder that Warriors Orochi 2 is more like a ‘greatest hits’. ...

Warship Gunner 2 (Review)

Mar 30, 2006

Back in the day, if you wanted some exciting naval warfare action, you'd have to play "Battleship," a game played with paper and pencils and a friend. If you didn't have a friend, your naval engagements were limited to toys in the bathtub. If you didn't even have a bathtub, we'll just assume you had other things to worry about. At any rate, we're all better off having Warship Gunner 2, an alternate-universe World War II naval-combat game. You'll dive into real-time shooting action, set in 60 ...

Wild Arms 4 (Review)

Mar 8, 2006

If you've played role-playing games in the past 10 years, chances are you've dabbled in Wild Arms. Most famous for being the game everyone bought during the agonizing wait for Final Fantasy VII, the first Wild Arms was popular, but uninventive. The series hasn't really amounted to a hell of a lot since. Aside from a sloppily-implemented Wild West theme, previous entries in the series haven't really offered much to grab your attention away from the huge variety of more original, interesting ...

Wild Arms 5 (Review)

Aug 31, 2007

Aug 31, 2007 Outside of the Wild Arms series, the only heroes with cowboy boots, hats and whole wardrobes of denim are country singers, and they aren't nearly as fun as Wild Arms 5. So we're happy to finally get to play the formerly Japan-only fifth game in the Western themed RPG. Underneath the unusual look, the game is a classically built RPG, with turn-based combat and villagers with single sentences of information to happily and repetitively dole out. The story is, well, very traditional, ...

Winback 2: Project Poseidon (Review)

Apr 27, 2006

An over-the-top action sequence introduces you to the three playable characters of Winback 2: Project Poseidon, but the gameplay in this third-person shooter is much more traditional. What immediately distinguishes it from the rest of the crowd is its compelling use of alternating viewpoints, but some fumbling with the basics limits its potential. Two officers take on each explosive situation simultaneously, though you'll play each in turn - meaning, you'll go through each level first as one ...

Winning Eleven Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 (Review)

Feb 9, 2007

First, the bad news. Winning Eleven Pro Evolution Soccer 2007's licensing has got worse. Chelsea (now London FC) have been replaced by Manchester United (formerly Man Red), the Welsh team is captained by Gils and, most incomprehensibly, the Bundesliga has been completely erased - with Bayern Munich the only survivors. Yet despite losing Germany, WEPES2007 retains the country's key attributes - from the mathematic efficiency of the gameplay, to the surging, unpredictable, passing movements ...

Without Warning (Review)

Mar 30, 2006

If you literally asked the third-person shooter Without Warning to justify itself, it might rave enthusiastically about its unique storyline, which follows six protagonists over twelve hours of terrorist-foiling shenanigans. It might continue by pointing out that its nothing at all like the TV series 24... but that would be a lie. In practice, the only real difference between this and 24 is that you dont necessarily play the scenes in chronological order. Time jumps back and forth, just like ...

World Championship Poker: Featuring Howard Lederer All-In (Review)

Sep 21, 2006

Poker is everywhere these days - in Vegas, on your TV and of course your game console. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that... unless the game in your console of choice is World Championship Poker Featuring Howard Lederer: All-In. Then you've got problems. Let's go right for the jugular, shall we? WCPFHL:AI (whew!) has a major flaw: the game repeats hands a lot. We personally beat one character's queens and twos with queens and sixes - twice in one hour! This wasn't just a one time ...

World Heroes Anthology (Review)

Apr 4, 2008

There was a time, around 15 years ago, when the slightly deranged fighting game fanatic had the option of leaving the arcade, and saving his quarters for a gigantic Neo Geo cartridge, and practicing one of SNK's many "homages" to Street Fighter II; all for the wallet-tightening price of around $200 a game.

A decade and a half later, and our PlayStation 2 (and 3) can display arcade-identical ports of the entire World Heroes series; from ...

WWE SmackDown! vs RAW (Review)

Nov 17, 2004

Last year's Smackdown! was all about refining the physicality of the pseudo-sport. Yukes succeeded in defining a more realistic version of the strength differences between wrestlers and also delivered a limb specific fatigue indicator. This meant that slight wrestlers like Rey Mysterio couldn't body slam heavyweights such as Big Show, but could concentrate on an area of his huge frame to wear down. This was a real step forward for the series and wrestling fans have been salivating over the ...

WWE SmackDown! vs RAW 2006 (Review)

Mar 1, 2006

Without a doubt, WWE SmackDown! Vs. RAW 2006 is easily the best-looking wrestling game to ever grace the PS2. These aren't, by our rather uninformed standards, the most attractive men on Earth, but their in-game models look nearly as realistic as their real-world counterparts. It doesnt hurt that it plays well, too, adding even more realism and interactivity to the series. Theres a new stamina meter, for instance, so you cant just endlessly body slam your opponent without remorse or worry that ...

WWE SmackDown! vs RAW 2006 (Review)

Nov 22, 2005

Evolution, not revolution. That seems to be the maxim of Yuke's. For, as Alan Partridge once said, "We evolve, but we don't... revolve." So while Smackdown vs Raw 2006 is better than last year's outing, the improvements are more tweaks, prods and licks of paint rather than huge changes to the game's foundations, in the same way as SvR 2005 was largely a spruced up version of the previous year's game. Whether that's a good or bad thing is kind of up to you.But first, what is new? There're the ...

WWE SmackDown! vs RAW 2007 (Review)

Jan 3, 2007

It was a sad day for all the PlayStation-faithful wrestling fans when, earlier this year, THQ announced that the PlayStation 3 version of WWE SmackDown vs RAW 2007 was being canned. On the bright side, however, while we wont see a next generation SmackDown this year, we at least have a great current-gen version - and it is, without a doubt, the best SmackDown yet. Of course, thats what folks said about last year's game, and it was true then. But what makes this years game even better is that ...

WWE SmackDown! vs RAW 2008 (Review)

Nov 13, 2007

Nov 13, 2007 It seems that when we previewed WWE SvR we overestimated the role that the new fighting styles would play. To recap, each wrestler specialises in two of eight grappling techniques - Brawler, Powerhouse, Technical, Showman, Submission Expert, Dirty and Hardcore - and the theory is that you use each style's strengths tactically against your opponent. So, for instance, Powerhouses like Batista can go on short-lived unstoppable rampages, Dirty fighters like Edge can jab their rivals ...

WWE SmackDown! vs Raw 2009 (Review)

Oct 31, 2008

Unless you’re intending to take SmackDown online, or get a bit hot and bothered at the prospect of unlocking achievements, you can buy the PS2 version with the confidence that you’re not missing out on anything. The drop in graphical fidelity is the only compromise – but even then it’s not as noticeable as it perhaps should be – the animation is quick and fluid throughout and clipping is kept to a minimum. ...