GamesRadar - Xbox Reviews

Madden NFL 06 (Review)

Feb 15, 2006

This year's Madden has gone on the offensive, and not just with an even more accurate depiction of big, beefy guys (or tiny guys with body armour) in indescribably tight pants. After revamping the defensive options last year, it's the offense that has undertaken a serious overhaul. The hit stick now doubles as a truck stick to help you on the ground, enabling you to smash into oncoming would-be tacklers or pull up, sending them flying. And when you're airborne, a precision stick helps you ...

Madden NFL 07 (Review)

Aug 25, 2006

Last year's Madden 2006 felt like a photocopy of Madden 2005. While we were concerned this was just a case of EA completely shifting their focus from current-gen to next-gen systems, Madden 07 has done plenty to rebound from a gameplay perspective. Thing is, one of the game's greatest improvements spans all generations of consoles: updated rosters. Usually this wouldn't get a mention since it's a given, but what football fan doesn't want to take it to the defense with the once-in-a-generation ...

Madden NFL 08 (Review)

Oct 11, 2007

Oct 11, 2007 It's easy to forget about that big black machine that we've had stashed away for awhile now. Remember the original Xbox? EA sure does, as they've given owners of Microsoft's first game console a swan song worthy of its short but spectacular lifespan. As what is almost certainly the final game to be released for the system, Madden 08 is the best football game you'll ever play on a current-generation machine (including its PS2 ...

Major League Baseball 2K6 (Review)

Jun 14, 2006

Holding a semi-exclusive license for Major League Baseball and boasting a number of new innovations, youd expect 2K Sports' MLB 2K6 to be a grand slam, but an unpolished fielding engine and a bland presentation limit this years entry to an infield double. The strength of the game is its simulation engine - the depth of management options is simply staggering. You are responsible for everything from roster selection to keeping your players happy. On the field, you can even argue a call; just ...

Major League Baseball 2K7 (Review)

Mar 6, 2007

That strange sound youre hearing this spring is the release of an actual new game for the original Xbox. While Microsoft has wholly ignored their first console since the advent of the 360 and Electronic Arts has made its latest baseballer a PS2 exclusive, 2K Sports has bequeathed a shiny new disc to play unto the Xbox community in the form of MLB 2K7. With no other competition for the baseball dollar, it stands alone as a solid effort that is worth a look for any fans still counting the Xbox as ...

Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure (Review)

Mar 2, 2006

By all rights, Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure should be terrible. The latest in a long line of mostly dismal "urban" games, it's packed full of brand logos, but still aims for a guerilla image. It's been delayed for years. And if that weren't enough, it's the brainchild of a fashion designer. So it's a shocker that Getting Up not only does its "street" atmosphere up right, but actually puts together a competent beat-'em-up/graffiti experience. Playing like an inner-city Prince ...

Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure (Review)

Feb 22, 2006

Games have been around for so long that these days it's difficult to call anything truly original. But this is something that we definitely haven't seen before: an entire game based around graffiti. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and The Warriors both included graffiti tasks, but only in passing. In Getting Up, the only way to succeed is by putting up your pieces of art around the fictional city of New Radius. Standing in your way are rival artists and cops, who aren't keen to see you ...

Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects (Review)

Jun 22, 2007

At times like this, all we want to say is “we hate it” and leave it at that. Then at least wed be able to get on with the important business of sealing it in a bag and throwing it in the river. Well, we should probably explain why. Its a bog-standard brawler – actually, make that sub-standard. Enter story mode and youre plunged into the ‘thick of the action, with a woefully unexciting scrap against three robot alien things that you have to defeat through repeated stabs ...

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (Review)

Oct 26, 2006

Developer Raven Software and publisher 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 ...

The Matrix: Path of Neo (Review)

Jun 22, 2007

Matrix creators Andy and Larry Wachowski get credit for trying to use video games as an extension of their movie franchise instead of a mere retread - after all, why tell the same story if you can tell a new one? Trouble was, Enter the Matrix wasn't fun or satisfying, and The Matrix 's messiah mythos feels custom built for a traditional action/adventure game. You say you've got one guy with super powers who saves the world by shooting and kicking everything in sight? Step right this way! That ...

Mech Assault 2: Lone Wolf (Review)

Feb 11, 2005

When Xbox Live launched, it was lovely, but lonely. It had no friends - none of those initial online games were anywhere near as fun as we'd expected. Then along came MechAssault, with its slack single-player manbreasts but whistling a memorable multi-player tune, and they hit off like drunks in a jail cell. Has that bond been broken at all with this sequel? Kind of. But not really.Lone Wolf is an improvement, for sure, in all aspects. The single-player mode has been given more texture, as ...

Medal of Honor: European Assault (Review)

Jun 23, 2005

Poor old Medal of Honor. The much-decorated series that kick-started our obsession with first-person shooter war games has recently seen the likes of Call of Duty and Brothers in Arms demote it from a celebrated Rommel to a lowly gameshow cheat Major Charles Ingram. After the well-received but underwhelming Rising Sun, EA's cheeks must have been burning with shame. Enter European Assault.The linear, scripted narrative of previous MOHs has vanished, replaced by massive open battlefields, a more ...

Men of Valor (Review)

Nov 12, 2004

You can pay Men of Valor a number of compliments, but the highest is undoubtedly that it managed, on more than one occasion, to really make us sweat. At its best, it genuinely conveys the eerie, tense and especially sticky atmosphere of jungle combat. You wouldn't think it from the game's opening, though. A thoroughly tedious training mission kicks off proceedings and immediately highlights a number of areas in which the game is less than impressive, mostly visual. Chief among these is an ...

Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction (Review)

Feb 7, 2005

OK, let's get it out of the way right now. Pandemic's war-fuelled action game is possibly the most blatant GTA clone we've ever seen. You can walk, fly or drive across a huge landscape and you can even commandeer (or, in GTA terminology, 'jack') every vehicle that you come across (except planes... damn). But if imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery, you may as well be buttering-up the greatest game out there and Mercenaries does a good job of doing just that.Unlike GTA, the action ...

Midnight Club III: DUB Edition Remix (Review)

Mar 15, 2006

What if somebody said they'd sell you a brand-new Ferrari at the price of a used Hyundai? Well, you'd probably think there was something pretty shady going on, but in the case of Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition Remix, that's essentially what you're getting. A top-notch arcade-style racing game for the cost of an also-ran. More than just a budget-priced, Greatest Hits release of the enormously entertaining Rockstar racer, Remix introduces more music, 20+ new cars - including exotics such as the ...

MLB SlugFest 2006 (Review)

Jun 21, 2006

SlugFest 2006 prides itself as an arcadey baseball game, but we have to ask: where's the lack of realism? This game features big-skulled players who are obscenely bulky that can effortlessly drill 500-foot homeruns over the cheap seats. The MLB's steroids fiasco is all over but the asterisks, but SlugFest is a knowing nod to the joys of baseball's HGH (Human Growth Hormone) ...

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (Review)

Oct 12, 2006

Did gaming ever really get better after you first took control of icy ninja Sub-Zero and ripped out Scorpion's spine? Yes, yes it did - and it seemed for a while there that Mortal Kombat didn't notice. The last few chapters in the sloppy fighting game saga piled on more and more stuff without actually making it noticeably more fun than the old days. But the ominously titled Armageddon - the last entry in the series until it reinvents itself on next-gen consoles, according to its creators - ...

Mortal Kombat: Deception (Review)

Feb 15, 2006

We've heard it said that the parry and thrust of a decent beat-'em-up is like a game of chess. You react to your opponent's moves, countering his attacks and disguising your own technique, until the superior mind emerges victorious. Of course, chess doesn't have a rule where you can score a victory via repeatedly kicking your rival in the shins. But anyway, in recognition of the connection, Mortal Kombat now includes a chess mode. In fact, this jack-of-all-games also includes a new ...

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks (Review)

May 4, 2006

Mortal Kombat fans are a loyal bunch. Whether it started with the visceral thrill of ripping out someone's spine or genuine affection for a soap opera set in the Outworld universe, there's a faithfulness among the MK fanbase that other franchises wish they had. Shaolin Monks feels very much like a reward for that devotion - it's got enough gore and lore to make even the most hardened ninja smile. Whereas most MK games have been one-on-one fighting affairs, Shaolin Monks branches out into the ...

MVP 06 NCAA Baseball (Review)

Jun 22, 2007

Baseball isn't Star Wars - when the bad guys win, no one walks away happy. And in a crappy twist of fate in this new exclusive-license world, the second-rate baseball game won the right to lock out its better competitor. That leaves EA Sports' MVP series trying to soldier on with the NCAA license for college baseball - in other words, praying fans will care about a flavor of their sport that no one watches. So the $30 question is "Does MVP 06 NCAA Baseball serve enough purely delicious baseball ...