Xbox 360 Reviews

In the first mission of Blood Stone you skydive onto a yacht, shoot a dozen or so enemies in their stupid little heads, and jump into a million-dollar boat for a high-speed chase. Not exactly what you’d call formulaic.

That is, until the second mission, when you fly onto a dock, shoot several dozen henchmen in their stupid little heads, and jump into a million-dollar car for a high-speed chase. Nice...

James Cameron’s Avatar certainly has all the ingredients for an action-packed videogame. The only trouble is, these ingredients are getting dangerously stale. The ‘space marine versus alien’ thing is well-travelled ground on the silver screen (particularly by Cameron); in the world of games, there’s barely a planet or extra terrestrial race left in the galaxy that we haven’t blasted our way through.

Jonah Lomu has left a wake of human destruction in his path. Bullying through a couple of tacklers and sprinting toward the goal line, he appears superhuman. Several opponents have tasted the dirt and grass of Eden Park, wondering exactly what hit them. Meanwhile, the rest of his team, a mix of rugby union greats, is trailing their superstar teammate as he puts the ball down to officially score a try.At this moment in time, the Lomu All Stars are destroying a solid, but in this case hapless, French side here in the heart of New Zealand. It’s pure fantasy, of course – Lomu doesn’t play anymore – but offers a glimpse into how brutal, fast, and decisive the game can be when played on a high level. Just don’t ask the French to come back anytime soon...

Jurassic Park: The Game is unlike anything we’ve ever played before. Calling it “Heavy Rain with dinosaurs” is a disservice to both it and Heavy Rain – despite relying on quick time events, it’s actually pretty far from Heavy Rain. A closer approximation would be “Heavy Rain and Dragon’s Lair with dinosaurs,” but even that is oversimplifying things. Instead, imagine this: you’re the director of a Jurassic Park film, and you’re in control of all of the actors and actresses. They’ll move when you tell them to and say what you want them to, but it’s never going to go too far off the script, and you’re never in complete control. You’re just directing whoever needs to be directed for that scene to move forward, even if it means jumping between three to four different characters at any given time.

Oh, and the dinosaurs? They’re also a part of the movie, but they’re not going to follow your orders, so you need to get your actors to act around them, or else, they’ll be eaten, crushed, dismembered, or disposed of in other brutal ways. Failure means you blew the scene – cut! Set it up again, start over. Everyone back in your places. Action.