"Recently I was playing against someone and he was fighting like Stone Cold Steve Austin," says Taku Chihaya, director of the new SmackDown!, "Not because of the character, but just because he never stopped. He was going crazy." This is what SmackDown's all about. It's not about the wrestlers just looking like the real thing - although they do, right down to the Sandman's grimace and Lashley's terrifying biceps - it's about them feeling like the real thing. It's about Rey Mysterio bouncing ...
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3 Jul 2007

Thrillville: Off the Rails - EXCLUSIVE first look

PSP Preview | Thrillville: Off the Rails

Chances are pretty good that you didn't play the original Thrillville last year... but a whole bunch of kids sure did. So many went for the ride, in fact, that the amusement park simulator is getting a sequel this October. Thrillville: Off the Rails embraces its youth appeal by pushing everything to be bigger, wilder, sillier, friendlier and, of course, barfier. As theme park tycoon Mortimer's trusted niece or nephew, you still hold the dream job of building, designing and test riding every ...
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29 Jun 2007

God of War: Chains of Olympus

PSP Preview | God of War: Chains of Olympus

When it was revealed that God of War was heading to PSP, fans went into an excited, cold sweat. This, after all, is the action game on PlayStation 2 right now. Better news was to come when Sony revealed that its new star developer Ready At Dawn was coding the game - Daxter is still one of the best platform games on any console. After such promise, the biggest compliment we can pay Chains of Olympus is that it plays exactly like the two God of War games on PS2. Granted, not the most memorable ...
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26 Jun 2007

Dragoneer's Aria

PSP Preview | Dragoneer's Aria

Oh, to be young again. How we long for the days when we were training for graduation from Dragon School, sporting a mullet the size of Oklahoma, and still getting some of Grandmas home cooking. Such is the life of Valen Kessler, the hero of NIS latest role-player Dragoneers Aria. Its heading for your PSP sometime later this year, and we got our swashbuckling hands on a preview copy of the game and took it out for a ...
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26 Jun 2007

Jackass

PSP Preview | Jackass

Listen, we thought we were just gonna kick some people in the balls. We didnt realize there were going to be financial considerations to worry over in Jackass. But thats the burden youre forced to bear when you take over as the shows producer after Jeff Tremaine (the regular producer) gets taken out of commission with what Johnny Knoxville calls “a sprained vagina.” But dont be too scared. All youre really worried about is completing enough goals per episode so that MTV will dip ...
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26 Jun 2007

Dead Head Fred - hands-on

PSP Preview | Dead Head Fred

Even by the bizarre standards of videogames, Fred Neuman is an unconventional hero. An undead, amnesiac private eye, Fred's out to solve the mystery of why someone murdered him and replaced his head with a brain floating in a jar. His hometown can best be described as a 1950s-era toxic-dump nightmare, which might explain his ability to rip zombies apart with his bare hands. He raises radioactive worms as a hobby, and then feeds them to mutant chickens that he enters in cockfights. Weirdest of ...
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22 Jun 2007

Manhunt 2 - hands-on with the game you might never...

PSP Preview | Manhunt 2

If you spend much time looking at the internet, you already know that Manhunt 2 has been the subject of a lot of controversy of late, getting slapped with an ultra-prohibitive Adults Only rating stateside and being banned outright in most of Europe. As of this writing, it's unknown whether you'll ever get a chance to play through the blood-drenched saga of Dr. Daniel Lamb yourself, and you'll almost certainly never see it in its original, gloriously violent form. But we have, and the things ...
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15 Jun 2007

Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology

PSP Preview | Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology

While it may not be as well known as Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, the Tales series has been going strong for more than 10 years. Its biggest claim to fame has always been its super-exciting battle system that actually lets you move your character around and attack the enemy from any side. The encounters are still sort of random, but there's much less menu surfing and a lot more spell casting. From what we've seen of Radiant Mythology, the first PSP Tales game to hit the US, it should ...
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15 Jun 2007

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes

PSP Preview | Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes

What's cooler than a ninja-on-ninja arcade-style beatdown - the kind that the PS2 series Naruto Ultimate Ninja has now sauced up and chop-kicked out for two well-received games? Jessica Alba wearing only an ice-cream bikini and a "come hither" look comes to mind, but in the interest of not having our website blocked by NetNanny, let's go with this: a three-on-three ninja punch-up that you can take with you wherever you go, via your trusty PSP. Now, before you get too worked up, don't worry - ...
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14 Jun 2007

Previews Blowout

PSP Preview | PSP

For all you gaming addicts looking for a fix, check out these treats: Opoona - Wii A very unusual little game for the Wii that combines community and relationship-building elements with a traditional RPG - a bit like, say, Animal Crossing but with a proper adventure to work through. Even better is the way it uses the Wiis Remote and Nunchuck, allowing you to move with the analog stick and battle by swinging the remote. Crazi Taxi: Fare Wars - PSP We reckon this is just about old enough now ...
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