GamesRadar - Xbox 360 Previews

First online with Katamari, Ace Combat (Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation)

Aug 23, 2007

Aug 23, 2007 Plenty's already been said about Ace Combat 6 and Beautiful Katamari, but until this week no one had seen a drop of full-on multiplayer action. Both games promised the feature, and had been explained through text, but now we've finally spent some quality time with two of Namco's biggest hitters. Oh, and we dabbled with Tekken 5's new online mode on the PlayStation Network, but more on that later. Being the insatiable Ace fans that we are, Fires of Liberation was our first stop. ...

Ace Combat 6 - updated impressions (Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation)

Jun 15, 2007

Being the ardent Ace Combat fans that we are, we've covered the living daylights out of this 360-exclusive, and did it months ago. Didn't catch our massive Week of War? Now's the time to get totally caught up with interviews, retrospectives, the first hands-on and plenty of eye-popping screens. But wait - there's even more today. Our latest hands-on revealed very little in the way of new info or features that we haven't already discussed, but it did run much, much smoother than before. In ...

Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation (Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation)

Apr 6, 2007

After spending the better part of a week describing bits of what makes Ace Combat 6 such an exciting prospect, we feel it's time to share our initial impressions of the almost-complete version Namco provided. This build was about 60% done and needed a little tweaking in the sound and framerate departments, but we're confident the Ace team will have these issues tucked away before the game ships - no other game in the series has gone to stores chuggy or choppy, so we don't expect that to start ...

Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation (Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation)

Apr 2, 2007

Day one in our weeklong look at Fires of Liberation begins with an all-encompassing overview of the game's new features. Everything you've come to expect from the series is intact - a huge roster of planes, a creepily huge flying fortress and mission after mission of intense dogfighting action. But this has been the case since the series' debut more than a decade ago. What's new for the 360 version? A whole hell of a lot, ...

Afro Samurai - first impressions (Afro Samurai)

Apr 16, 2008

After Afro’s father, the number one warrior in a futuristic, feudal Japan, is cut down by a ruthless gunman named Justice, you should expect vengeance to be had. And because Afro is voiced by Samuel L. Jackson, the biggest badass on stage and screen, eloquent swears will flow just as copiously as ninja blood. Based on the manga and anime of the same name, Afro Samurai tasks you with slicing through anyone unfortunate enough to stand in ...

Age of Booty – hands-on (Age of Booty - Xbox Live Arcade)

Aug 13, 2008

Online gaming has become a dark, slimy place where only the best of the best dare to enter. Well, maybe it’s not that bad, but with all of those preteen experts cursing like pirates, it sure is an annoying place. If you’re looking for a less soul-crushing multiplayer experience, then the newbie-friendly Age of Booty might be worth looking into. ...

Plunder - hands-on (Age of Booty - Xbox Live Arcade)

Mar 13, 2008

Plunder is a casual real-time strategy game in which you take control of a pirate ship and battle other players for towns and resources. Players navigate around a Settlers of Catan-style hexagonal board in their pirate galleons. Ships have three attributes: cannon, armor and speed, which can be upgraded as the game progresses. Following the rule of threes, there are three resources required for upgrades: gold, wood and rum. Resources are ...

Age of Conan - Hyborian strongholds (Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures)

May 16, 2008

Before there was Conan the Barbarian, there was Robert E. Howard. The prolific author practically invented the sword-and-sorcery genre of pulp fiction in the early 20th century, and Conan was his most famous creation. In 1932, inspired by the lush hill country of central Texas, Howard envisioned the ancient land of Cimmeria and its champion, a brave and headstrong warrior named Conan. ...

Age of Conan week, day 4 - monster mash (Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures)

May 15, 2008

Like a medieval NCAA tournament, raiding in Age of Conan is about gradually making your way to the big showdown. Dungeons raids will be handled by groups of 24 (though 16 highly skilled players may get the job done) in three stages; completing each tier gets you access to the skills and equipment you’ll need to tackle those that follow.

Above: Guilds need to divide and conquer if they're going to beat back multiple bosses per ...

Age of Conan - Tortage Island guide (Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures)

May 14, 2008

Tortage Island is "the jewel of the Barachan Isles," but it's a gem with some sharp edges. You'll spend all of Age of Conan's first 20 levels in, around, and in some cases under the island's many and varied environments, all of which are populated by flora, fauna, and folks who'd like to see you six feet under. As in any MMO, travel time is also a factor - expect to do a fair bit of running between points - so the better you know your ...

Age of Conan - multiplayer (Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures)

May 13, 2008

Even the most solitary pre-level 20 young warrior will eventually have to dive into Age of Conan’s multiplayer mode in order to earn enough experience to progress in the main story line. Luckily, diehard soloists shouldn’t fear Age of Conan’s multiplayer side. Once you tell your trainer at the Thirsty Dog Inn that you’d like to adventure with others, the game will transition to daytime, bringing you together with all the other “day questers” on your server. ...

Age of Conan - single-player (Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures)

May 12, 2008

There’s been no shortage of confidence from the Age of Conan camp, perhaps befitting the game’s namesake: the last press release we received from developer Funcom heralds the game as “one of the most highly anticipated MMO games in history” - and announces that the PC version’s gone gold, despite much Internet buzz among beta testers that it needs more polish than the remaining weeks to launch can possibly ...

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures)

Feb 29, 2008

The good news is that Conan’s still different enough from every other MMO to be interesting. The better news is that it’s very easy to play. Perhaps even too easy. Every enemy in the Robert E. Howard-inspired game has three points where they can be attacked: left, right and above. These are shown by semi-circles floating about them when targeted. If you hit them on the left, they’ll defend that side, maybe leaving the right ...

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures - updated impressions (Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures)

Jan 24, 2008

Based on our latest look at Age of Conan, we can safely say its looking pretty damn great. The combat system has been changed in a number of very definite, deliberate ways, and it improves the feel of the game immensely. The number of directions in which you can attack has been reduced, combos must now be activated instead of memorised and hopelessly recited, and enemies now display shield icons on either their front, left or right sides - a seemingly trivial inclusion but one that gives ...

Age of Conan - hands-on (Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures)

Jun 15, 2007

As we played Age of Conan in a darkened room somewhere in developer Eidos HQ, lead designer Jason Allen Stone suggested the magnificently ugly face of our barbarian might be corrected by limiting the range of his facial customization. We do hope not: our frog-faced, beady-eyed, pseudo-Egyptian machete-wielding murderer was a glorious sight to behold. Few games allow you so much character in a single human face. You might only be able to play humans in Age of Conans online fantasy world, but ...

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures - hands on (Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures)

Mar 2, 2007

Funcom have been doubly blessed while working on what were calling the 360s first, proper MMORPG. Firstly, Warner Bros announced a brand new movie based on Robert E Howards mighty Cimmerian meathead, which would take away the taste of Governor Schwarzeneggers 1982 B-Movie, and make Conan a far cooler character. But even better than that, Microsoft has given them the go-ahead to adapt their PC game for the truly mighty Xbox 360, taking away the taste of being a PC-only niche title… and ...

Alan Wake (Alan Wake)

Jan 24, 2008

Alan Wake is the man who would be (Stephen) King: a horror writer living out nightmares in a sleepy white-picket-fence town. After the disappearance of his fiancé, Alan retires to Bright Falls hoping to get over his writers block. No such luck: his nightmares follow him there. So far, so Silent ...

Alan Wake (Alan Wake)

Feb 9, 2007

Its almost as if the Xbox 360 is showing off. Winking its little ring of light at you. Exploding some particle effect fireworks right in your face just because it can. Were talking about dynamic lighting and ambiance, and it would be nothing more than visual showboating if it werent for developers like Starbreeze, who see the huge possibilities in real-time changeable atmospheres and have utilized it in The Darkness, a title that would have been largely impossible on the previous generations ...

Alan Wake - impressions (Alan Wake)

Nov 27, 2006

You'll never be in control of Alan Wake's beautiful, expansive world. You won't bestride its mountains with a rocket launcher, knowing you can blow away its bad guys. In fact, you won't be seeking confrontation at all because you're not even sure how your enemies can be killed... Alan's a writer. His girlfriend disappeared, eerily reflecting the events of his bestseller. He develops insomnia. He goes to a private sleep clinic in remote Bright Falls, set in mountainous Washington State. Finding ...

Alan Wake (Alan Wake)

May 17, 2006

Alan Wake has lost everything. His fiance, his muse, his work ... and now, his sanity. Unfortunately ... you're Alan Wake. Remedy, the creators of Max Payne, get back to their old chops; exploring an embattled, anguished protagonist and the blurred line between reality and insanity in the upcoming action thriller, Alan Wake. They've traded in the dual machine guns for a flashlight and over-the-top melodrama for haunting surface tension. Taking cues from David Lynch movies, this psychological ...