GamesRadar - PSP Previews

The Warriors - hands-on (The Warriors)

23/01/2007

If any developer has proven it can crank out a decent PSP game, it's Rockstar, creator of Grand Theft Auto. After the company squeezed two full-sized versions of its landmark car-crime series onto Sony's handheld, it's not really surprising that Rockstar's PSP port of The Warriors is nearly indistinguishable from the console game released in late 2005. "Nearly" means a small drop in visual quality, the absence of a second analog stick and the addition of ad-hoc wireless for co-op play, but ...

Winning Eleven Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 hands-on (Winning Eleven Pro Evolution Soccer 2007)

18/07/2006

The next gauntlet to be thrown in the international conflagration known as the Videogame Soccer Wars is Winning Eleven Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 (also termed Longest-Titled Sports Game Ever). Fans of the series can expect more of the sublime control and strategic options that they know and love, with some new additions sure to please the most demanding Beautiful Game enthusiasts. Many longtime Winning Eleven gamers will wonder what could be done to make a great footy game somehow better. A few ...

Wipeout Pulse (Wipeout Pulse)

3/01/2008

Jan 3, 2008 While you were opening gifts and drinking yourself into oblivion, we spent the holiday break burning through a recent build of Wipeout Pulse for PSP, which wraps a mighty single-player campaign around the core of 2005's brilliant Wipeout Pure and adds much-desired online play. And though Europe's been rocking the final game since before Christmas, we have some new impressions of what to expect from the North American release this ...

E3 06: World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions (World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions)

12/05/2006

Activision's World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions picks up where last year's game left off - namely, at the poker table. This year, the gambling sim features a story mode, where you become the card-playing protege of bearded card shark Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, slowly building up your reputation and winning record to the point where you get invited to the exclusive, titular tournament. You'll find yourself among some famous company, including professional players like ...

Worms Open Warfare (Worms Open Warfare )

16/03/2006

As Worms has slithered onto just about every format imaginable since its early '90s debut, it comes as no surprise that their unique take on turn-based strategy has found its way onto PSP. It's also a no-brainer of a decision for Team 17, as the mission-based action, with it's pedestrian pace, is perfect material for handheld gaming. Team 17 have sensibly reverted back to a 2D presentation (although the levels look almost 3D) after their latest two console versions were fully 3D, and the vivid ...

Worms: Open Warfare (Worms Open Warfare )

2/03/2006

There comes a time in everyone's life where you're so damn bored or burned out that you actually flop down onto your couch watch an entire TV show about bugs, spiders and the various other creatures that inhabit your yard. At some point, they have to defend their turf from an invading 70-eyed predator, and that's kinda what Worms: Open Warfare is all about. Except both factions are armed with the latest short and long range weapons the world has to ...

Worms: Open Warfare 2 (Worms: Open Warfare 2)

8/05/2007

If the impending sunny weather and free-time of another pitiless summer is getting you down, you'll be happy to know that there'll still be a way to fight it out on the go. THQ's second foray into invertebrate battle is hitting a portable system near you, in the form of Worms: Open Warfare 2, and it's very much the same classic game that has made engaging in strategic warfare cuddly and addictive for well over a decade. For those who haven't been drafted onto the squirmy battle field of Worms ...

WRC: FIA World Rally Championship (WRC: FIA World Rally Championship)

3/04/2006

Is sliding around on drab, dusty/rainy/gravelly rally courses your idea of a good time? Are you really into European indie music? Awesome! Then WRC: FIA World Rally Championship is for you. To be fair to the game, rally racing - where a lone driver battles the clock on a winding course - is a little drab by definition, and it doesn't help that the sport is especially popular on the mud-drenched backroads of rural Europe. So far, though, WRC does a bang-up job bringing rallies to the PSP, ...

WSC Real 08: World Snooker Championship (WSC Real 08: World Snooker Championship)

6/05/2008

All right, this might sound like an obvious idea, but WSC Real 08 is taking a first-person approach to snooker. As appealing as that sounds, it doesn’t mean taking the safety off a semi-automatic when a mobile goes off. No, you’ll be directly behind the cue when you take shots and you’ll be able to wander around the table to size up your next shot and take in your surroundings. ...

WTF work time fun hands-on (WTF work time fun)

15/08/2006

Nintendo may have the whacked-out-minigame market in its iron-fisted grasp, but few of the WarioWare micro-challenges are quite as mystifying as those in WTF. The idea here is that you're trapped in a sort of personal retail Hell, forced to take repetitive jobs that make no sense, all for a meager wage that you'll just use to buy more soul-sucking items. Whoa... that's actually kinda deep for a game with moose racing. The Drunken Mayor is a great example of WTF 's edgier minigames - you're a ...

WWE SmackDown! vs RAW 2007 - PSP hands-on (WWE SmackDown! vs Raw 2007)

8/09/2006

2007 is shaping up to be a vintage year for fans of wrestling, fighting games or just the sight of grown men hurting each other. The genre's flagship franchise, WWE SmackDown! vs RAW, is continuing to expand from its PS2 roots to explore both next-gen and handheld territory. And while we've smashed many a photo realistic face and produced many a beautifully rendered drop of sweat in our previews of the Xbox 360 edition, we've only recently gotten our hands on the PSP entry. How does it match ...

WWE SmackDown! vs RAW 2007 updated hands-on (WWE SmackDown! vs Raw 2007)

1/08/2006

First, let's cover the part of this preview that WWE fans really want to hear: the confirmed roster for WWE SmackDown! vs RAW 2007 so far includes Johnny Nitro, The Undertaker and Shelton Benjamin, along with the previously revealed John Cena, Triple H, Rey Mysterio, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit and Booker T. With that out of the way, we can continue. We've tangled with the Xbox 360 version of SmackDown! before, but this is the first chance we've had to really take our time with it. And while ...

WWE SmackDown! vs RAW 2007 (WWE SmackDown! vs Raw 2007)

28/06/2006

In the movies, a fighter on the rise usually gets a montage outlining his climb up the ladder to success and butt-kickery. If any game were worthy of such treatment, it would be WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007. Spanning five platforms and sporting a feature list almost as long as its title, this game has been putting some serious time in at the gym. The SmackDown series - adding "vs. Raw" to the moniker back in 2004 - has become the franchise leader in wrestling games, WWE or otherwise. Now that ...

WWE SmackDown! vs RAW 2007 - hands-on (WWE SmackDown! vs Raw 2007)

16/05/2006

The still-in-progress WWE SmackDown! vs RAW 2007 was on display behind closed doors at E3, and GamesRadar got a firsthand look at the shiny new Xbox 360 version on Friday. What's more, we had a chance to step into Kurt Angle's boots and trade a few backhand slaps with (another journalist playing as) John Cena, and the game looks to be filling out nicely so far. Admittedly, the 360's visuals didn't seem a huge improvement over the already-impressive PS2 SmackDown! vs RAW 2006, at least not at ...

WWE SmackDown! vs RAW 2008 - hands-on style showdown (WWE SmackDown! vs RAW 2008)

17/09/2007

Sep 17, 2007 In the real world, an ass-kicking is an ass-kicking. It doesn't matter if the other guy is a street brawling gang banger, your martial artist dorm buddy, the bully on the playground, or the girl scout from down the street - the fundamental problem is someone is pounding their knuckles into your face and stomping on your spleen. As such, any further details are ultimately inconsequential. In the world of professional wrestling, however, the fight is largely secondary to the show. ...

WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 08 - hands-on (WWE SmackDown! vs RAW 2008)

6/07/2007

"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 ...

WWE SmackDown! Vs. RAW 2008 (WWE SmackDown! vs RAW 2008)

11/05/2007

Gradually, the WWE games review scores have, like a greasy tortoise, been slipping slowly downhill - due mainly to the fact that theyve started to feel the same, year in, year out. We want this decline to be arrested and SmackDown! 2008, the series PS3 debut - following the cancellation of last years planned next-gen wrestler - might do just that. Weve already reported on this years new features, although well clarify some of them in greater ...

WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 (WWE SmackDown! vs RAW 2008)

9/04/2007

Though they probably won't feature Donald Trump shaving the head of WWE chairman Mr. McMahon like this year's WrestleMania, both the wrestling and gaming worlds are eagerly anticipating what the next round of WWE-licensed titles will hold. In much the way Vince McMahon will be more aerodynamic without his gray coiffure, the SmackDown vs. Raw series is streamlining to be even more intuitive to control while also offering more gameplay depth. As the former rogue promotion of Extreme ...

WWE SmackDown! vs RAW 2009 - first look (WWE SmackDown! vs Raw 2009)

28/03/2008

Straight from WrestleMania XXIV weekend in Orlando, Fla., comes the unveiling of wrasslin’ sim WWE SmackDown! vs RAW 2009. Set for release this fall on every system under the sun, the game promises more than just an increased polygon count and expanded roster. Oh no, this year’s version brings an incredible overhaul and revision of our favorite wrestling franchise, from wrestler AI to tag-team and online modes. We had a chance to ...

Smackdown vs Raw 2010 – hands-on (WWE SmackDown vs Raw 2010)

27/08/2009

As we sat down to see Smackdown vs Raw 2010 for the first time in L.A. during Summerslam weekend, we were skeptical. This had been the longest we could remember going without seeing a given year’s Smackdown before its release, which will be on Oct. 20. ...