All PS3 Reviews

Madden NFL 07 (Review)

Nov 17, 2006

Is it even legal to launch a console without a new(ish) Ridge Racer and the latest Madden? Publisher Electronic Arts isn't taking chances, and takes the PS3 field on day one with Madden NFL 07... though 360 owners may feel they've played this ...

Madden NFL 08 (Review)

Aug 17, 2007

Aug 17, 2007 Despite our contempt for fake, commercialized "events," we can't help ourselves but look forward to Madden's release each summer. While we don't get caught up in the "Maddenoliday" hype, the release day remains circled on the calendar. Unfortunately for those of us with a PS3, this year's version leaves us trampled underfoot after three yards and a cloud of dust. We expected more than we got, and we're a little bummed ...

Madden NFL 09 (Review)

Aug 12, 2008

Like the career arcs of many promising first-round draft picks, Madden’s next-generation games have steadily improved from unwatchable embarrassment to veteran excellence. Perhaps, then, we were expecting too much - or (more likely) the short development cycle allotted to Madden 09’s crew didn’t allow enough time for all their ideas to get fully implemented. ...

Major League Baseball 2K7 (Review)

Mar 2, 2007

Fanboys may be waging a war of words over the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, but one thing is crystal clear this spring - Sony's next-generation hardware is the place to be for baseball fans. Unlike Microsoft's machine, it's got two baseball titles being served up on it this spring. Competition means victory for gamers, and if the superb MLB 2K7 is any indication, this battle is just getting ...

Major League Baseball 2K8 (Review)

Mar 7, 2008

It takes a lot of guts to open up the engine of a great annual sports game, rebuild its core mechanics, and toss a pile of new features on top of it all. Yet that’s exactly what the fellas at 2K Sports did with MLB 2K8. The result has all the makings of a classic baseball champion - but unfortunately makes a key error that has us all scratching our heads. This spring, it’s a case of one step forward, two steps back. On the ...

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (Review)

Nov 13, 2006

Raven Soft and Activision have teamed up for two of the best X-Men adventures in videogames (X-Men Legends and X-Men Legends II: Rise of the Apocalypse). Now, using some of the best, most powerful and most popular heroes in the Marvel universe, Marvel Ultimate Alliance is an enormous adventure filled with dozens of vile villains and multiple universe-shattering threats. The game features an ambitious story and an equally ambitious cast... that's wrapped up in the same old gameplay you've ...

Medal of Honor: Airborne (Review)

Nov 20, 2007

Nov 20, 2007 The main innovation in Airborne, and the one most obvious from the title, is that you play Boyd Travers, a paratrooper in the US Airborne Division. The tactic of dropping soldiers into enemy territory from planes was a new one for the 40s, and its one of those ideas that - once heard - youre surprised nobody has converted into a game before (well, not for a few years anyway). With this first innovation came a necessary second. Because you can drop in anywhere on the map, the AI ...

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (Review)

Aug 31, 2008

Whoa. This is a next-gen game? The first impressions of Mercenaries 2: World in Flames aren’t going to be dislocating anybody’s jaws in amazement. Do not adjust your sets and all that, but this looks like a buttered-up PS2 game on first booting up. But then a friendly airstrike kicks in, and that subtitle, World in Flames, comes alive. ...

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (Review)

Jun 2, 2008

Metal Gear Solid 4 is a masterpiece, arguably the best in the series and – though many will fiercely disagree – ever so slightly disappointing. About 40% through, our notepad was scarred with breathless superlatives like 'Genius', 'Amazing' and 'Wow!!!' but by the game's conclusion, they'd given way to considered criticism and stark cries of 'WTF?'. Will you enjoy it? ...

MLB 07: The Show (Review)

May 15, 2007

A major league scout would probably liken the debut edition of Sonys first-party hardball franchise to Randy Johnson: he sure is ugly, but man can he pitch. To break the bad news first, the inaugural PS3 version of MLB does not flex the consoles muscles. Disappointingly, it looks like a high-resolution version of the current-gen game, complete with woeful texture quality and poor player model detail that gives MLB 07: The Show a cartoony look, thus diminishing the impact of its smooth ...

MLB 08: The Show (Review)

Mar 7, 2008

Thanks to the “miracles” of modern chemistry, Major League Baseball has been getting beaten up pretty badly in the halls of Congress and the press these days - enough to make any fan of America’s Pastime more than a little bummed. Happily, fans have reason to cheer again, as MLB 08 The Show has lit up our PS3s and reminded us why we love the game so much.It’s no hyperbole to call The Show the best baseball game of ...

Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire (Review)

Nov 17, 2006

Without question, Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire is one of the PS3's best-looking launch games. Featuring meticulously detailed giant robots that look like weathered, imposing monsters covered in thick slabs of metal, it's possibly the closest any console game has ever come to photorealism. Unfortunately, all those big, beautiful steel titans just make it even sadder that Crossfire somehow manages to make giant robots with big guns and mammoth lightsabers dull. Adapting the events of the first ...

Monster Madness: Grave Danger (Review)

Aug 12, 2008

A hefty price tag for Monster Madness might just as well be a toe-tag in a morgue, because this top-down shooter is too basic by far. This certainly isn’t a title you’ll be showing off to your mates. ...

MotorStorm (Review)

Mar 5, 2007

What could possibly be enjoyable about a racing game which sees you gloriously thrash the field for 97 per cent of a race, only to be shoved straight into a tire barrier six agonizing yards from the finishing line? And not even by a malicious human competitor, but through the seemingly entirely random behavior of a computer-controlled one? Life is spectacularly unfair at times. Well, if it was just about any other game, the answer would be “to hell with it.” But this isnt just any ...

MotorStorm (Review)

Jan 16, 2007

Tuesday 16 January 2007 Had enough of predictable racing games? Of listlessly nudging hatchbacks around grey ovals? Of attaching stickers to the sides of Japanese sports cars? Us too, which is why we have the hots for MotorStorm. In every race you're running a chaotic gauntlet of erratic physics, hostile AI and dangerous muddy slop. And it demands intense concentration because no two races are ever the same; by the third lap the course will have been carved and smeared into a brown sludge, ...

MX vs ATV Untamed (Review)

Dec 17, 2007

Dec 17, 2007 Youll probably often hear MX compared to the PS3 launch game Motorstorm, with both offering a similarly comprehensive vehicle set and both flinging mud about the place like a pig in the poo pond. But where Motorstorm is among the most beautiful racers ever made, MX is as plain as a bowling shoe and - because of that, we fear - likely to get a bit of a thrashing sales-wise on store shelves. Theres no reason why a game with the pedigree of MX shouldnt be the prime competition for ...