GamesRadar - Xbox 360 Previews

Give JRPGs a chance (Tales of Vesperia)

Jun 25, 2008

Back in March, Associate Editor Paul Ryan took a few shots at the Japanese role-playing game genre in his article Why JRPGs suck. While Paul raises some valid points in his piece (like, two), some of us at GamesRadar could write a graduate dissertation on why JRPGs are awesome.

Instead of coughing up a master’s thesis right now, though, we’re going to take one of the most awesome upcoming JRPGs for the Xbox 360 and use ...

Tales of Vesperia - hands-on (Tales of Vesperia)

Apr 16, 2008

Tales of Vesperia is the first major RPG to be presented in HD, Producer Gouda Tsutomu boasted at last night’s Bandai Namco press event. “[We] have finally realized the ideal RPG that Tales has always tried to be.”

After drooling over the trailer, we heartily agree - Tales of Vesperia is quite possibly the most gorgeous game we’ve ever seen on the Xbox 360, more beautiful even than ...

Tales of Vesperia - details emerge (Tales of Vesperia)

Feb 27, 2008

Forget that silly sequel on the Wii - Tales of Vesperia on the Xbox 360 is the real continuation of the Tales series. Just in time for the 10th anniversary of the series, Vesperia is set in a world where an evil Empire is trying to control all of the ancient technology called "blastia," the story follows two friends out on different paths to save their world… or destroy it. Stunning HD and an all-new graphics engine promised immersive, ...

Team Fortress 2 - hands-on (Team Fortress 2)

May 18, 2007

The first surprise, playing Team Fortress 2, is how incredibly bloody it is. Its fantastically good fun, too, but you can pretty much see that just from looking at it. The explosive gore, bony hunks of shredded men and severed heads are more of a shock among these beaming cartoon smiles, but you soon realize theyre entirely necessary. In TF2, things do what they look like they should do. A direct hit from a smoke-belching rocket looks like it ought to rip someone apart, so it does. But ...

Team Fortress 2 - hands-on (Team Fortress 2)

Apr 6, 2007

For fans of the original game there's an eerie sense of déjà vu when playing the 2Fort map in Team Fortress 2. Even if you'd already been told it was a remade version of the popular Team Fortress Classic map, or realized simply by looking at the map's name, its layout already exists as a semi-familiar strategy map in the back of your mind. There's that central bridge across the moat, treacherous to cross and half-concealing the alternate entrance to the enemy base. There are the ...

Tenchu Z - hands-on (Tenchu Z)

May 1, 2007

Once upon a time, the Tenchu series was cool. It was also unique. Back when the original PlayStation titles were coming out, the idea of a "stealth" genre - videogames in which you actually go out of your way to avoid action - was novel. But now that even non-ninja characters like Sam Fisher and Solid Snake have made sneaking around seem passé, how can Tenchu stay relevant? By simply piling on the quantity of methods in which you can creep around unnoticed. The options in Tenchu Z, the ...

Test Drive Unlimited - updated hands-on (Test Drive Unlimited )

Aug 25, 2006

Flashy sports cars, thousands of miles of beautiful roadway, seamless online play - the preview version of Test Drive Unlimited seems to have everything we'd want in a racing game, with one exception: Where's the excitement? Maybe it comes when you meet up with other people online. That's TDU 's true purpose - using the Internet to create car clubs and a dynamic racing environment where anybody can race anybody else at any given time. But with only about 60% of Xbox 360 owners jacked in to ...

Test Drive Unlimited (Test Drive Unlimited )

Jun 12, 2006

Friday 9 June 2006 We've all heard of MMORPG's, surely, but Test Drive Unlimited is a new breed of hugely multiplayer game - the MOOR, or Massively Open Online Racing game. It spans over 1,000 miles of road on the real-world Hawaiian island of Oahu, meticulously replicated in-game, and enables thousands of players to tear around the gorgeous environment at the same time. Test Drive Unlimited is massively ambitious, although the actual business of a structured race is limited to eight players. ...

E3 06: Test Drive Unlimited (Test Drive Unlimited )

May 12, 2006

Well, you certainly have to give Atari, Eden Studios and probably also Microsoft some props for ambition. Test Drive Unlimited is aiming to create and grow an entire online community. Put simply, Test Drive Unlimited is meant to be played with Xbox Live, as you compete more or less constantly against hundreds and thousands of players online, all of them living and racing on the same island as you, where a simple flash of the headlights is all it takes to flag another player into a race. Atari ...

Test Drive Unlimited - Hands-on (Test Drive Unlimited )

Mar 16, 2006

Pulling out onto the roughly paved boulevard, the soft purr of the V8 engine thrums like a caged panther. Sunlight glints off the hood of the torch-red Ford Shelby Mustang igniting a corner of the windshield with a dazzling lens flare. Gunning the engine with a tap of the gas pedal, a canary yellow Lotus Exige surges into view - you hit him with the headlamps and the race is on. Test Drive Unlimited seeks to sweep car nuts into an entirely new realm of exotic automobile fantasy. This game ...

Test Drive Unlimited (Test Drive Unlimited )

Feb 15, 2006

Freedom can be a dirty word in modern games, not least because of its devilish alter ego: monotony. It's a cruel irony that while streaming technology progresses to the point where virtual worlds can wholly justify that description, the demands of supporting elements such as textures and models increase to complicate their creation. But a distracting world isn't necessarily the chief requisite of a game that touts freedom to roam as its prime commodity; the mode by which you roam can provide ...

They - hands-on (They)

Apr 28, 2008

There’s been a bit of buzz about Metropolis Software’s latest project in development, They. The first-person shooter places you in the heart of London in the near future and pits you against an army of invading robots. They’s canned premise sounds painfully generic at first, but the title has some interesting twists in store for those looking for a good reason to pick up a gun and fight.

Right off the bat, They breaks ...

Thrillville: Off the Rails (Thrillville: Off the Rails)

Oct 9, 2007

Oct 9, 2007 Thrillville: Off the Rails is not Halo 3. It's not Project Gotham Racing 4. It's certainly not Manhunt 2. It is a cutesy, sugary, brightly coloured romp where you build stomach-churning rollercoasters (Woahcoasters) in your own customised theme parks, taking time out to play a host of solid mini-games when the day job gets too much. Now doesn't that sound appealing? It's sort of like the gaming equivalent of a hot cup of tea and a chocolate biscuit after a two-mile hike across a ...

Thrillville: Off the Rails - EXCLUSIVE first look (Thrillville: Off the Rails)

Jul 3, 2007

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 ...

Tiberium (Tiberium)

Apr 2, 2008

Forget global warming - the greatest threat to planet Earth and the survival of mankind is a green radioactive extraterrestrial crystal that is spreading like a cancer across the entire surface of the globe. Or maybe Deal or No Deal.

“Tiberium is the catalyst for everything, it’s our One Ring, our Matrix, our Force, and that’s why it’s the name,” says executive producer Christopher Plum ...

Tiberium - first look (Tiberium)

Jan 29, 2008

Tiberium. In the Command & Conquer Tiberium universe its both a boon to mankind and an immediate threat to its very existence. Although the mysterious alien crystal helped advance technology and can provide enough energy to fuel an empire, it also infects everything it touches and threatens to engulf the entire planet in a layer of sickly green shards. But its difficult to really appreciate the irony of humanitys dependence on the very thing that could destroy it when youre poking a tiny ...

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 (Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07)

Jul 26, 2006

For many seasons, Tiger Woods PGA Tour has relied on an arcade-like feel that gave any player with functional thumbs a -15 handicap. Good news though - from what we saw at Electronic Arts' Summer Showcase, Tiger has shed his quirky strokes and come out swinging the hammer with a more simulation-based method of play. The control scheme has been simplified, taking what worked in the past and applying more realistic effects to make the whole experience come alive. In 07, the entire swing runs off ...

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 - hands-on (Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08)

Jul 27, 2007

Confidence. On Sundays, on the 18th green, staring down a birdie putt for the win, Tiger Woods has it. Sergio Garcia? Not so much. After Garcia missed a putt for the win at the 2007 British Open, he lost the ensuing playoff to Irishman Padraig Harrington, and left any confidence he had in a deep bunker somewhere on the back nine at Carnoustie. As confidence plays such an important role in the game of golf, it's about time EA included it in its upcoming Tiger Woods PGA Tour game. And so it ...

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 - First look (Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09)

May 12, 2008

The problem with Tiger Woods is that each new update ends up attempting to tweak a game that was pretty much perfect from the beginning. Fortunately, with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09, that's not the case. The finely-balanced and intuitive swing system is left untouched, and EA have focused on tinkering with something more interesting: You ...

TimeShift (TimeShift)

Oct 10, 2007

Oct 10, 2007 His head comes apart in a haze of red and gore, his knees crumple and hes dead. Then the voodoo happens: his collapsed legs unfold in an impossible fashion, his body straightens and the gobs of matter and the red mist reform into a head. Theres something disquieting about watching someones head reforming in front of you. TimeShift is a first-person shooter where the passage of time is under your control. From within your timesuit you can slow, stop and reverse the temporal flow, ...