GamesRadar - Xbox 360 Reviews

Dance Dance Revolution Universe (Review)

Mar 2, 2007

Games under Konami's ever popular Dance Dance brand tend to fall into the "review-proof" category. Even if it's identical to the last twelve DDR games, it works. Thus, die hard fans are going to buy it regardless of what we say, and casual fans will probably pick it up out of curiosity or to have the first 360 version. And no matter what we score it - either you're going to love Dance Dance Revolution Universe, or you hate fun. After all, the simplistic and refined core gameplay, consisting of ...

Dance Dance Revolution Universe 2 (Review)

Dec 11, 2007

Dec 11, 2007 As a numbered sequel released within the same calendar year as its predecessor, any discussion of Dance Dance Revolution Universe 2 is bound to focus heavily on the word "still." As in, this is still essentially the same admittedly cool game we played earlier this year. And several years before that as well. Like the dozens of Dance Dance Revolution iterations released in the last decade, Universe 2 finds players stepping on a floor mat in time with the arrows displayed on ...

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements (Review)

Feb 12, 2008

What can Dark Messiah: Elements possibly offer us spoilt medieval fantasy gamers that we haven’t seen or done before? In all honesty: not much. At best, Elements is an enjoyable swords-‘n-spells scrapper, and at worst, it’s a dumbed-down Elder Scrolls, minus the constantly inventive free-roaming and incredible depth.Here, you play as a young acolyte called Sareth, who has recently completed his tutelage under the powerful ...

Dark Sector (Review)

Mar 25, 2008

Dark Sector has so many similarities to Resident Evil 4 that it could be seen as an expansion pack for Capcom’s classic. Firstly, the plot - it focuses around a city infected by a disease. The infection, like RE4’s Las Plagas, turns regular folk into murderous zombies. There’s a shadowy figure attempting to create an army with these creatures. Then there’s the female double agent - she’s like Ada Wong, minus the ...

The Darkness (Review)

Jun 25, 2007

Boxes are scattered around the apartment, evidence that your girlfriend Jenny has only just started moving in. She's surprised you with a birthday cake and - even though you've tried to warn her that you kill people for a living and your former boss is out for your blood - she shrugs it off as a bad joke. Motioning you over to the couch, she kisses you, leans her head on your shoulder and gradually falls asleep as the two of you watch TV. It's not what you'd expect from a hyperviolent shooter, ...

Dead or Alive 4 (Review)

Feb 25, 2006

Girls! Girls! Girls! When you pick up a Dead or Alive fighting game, you know what you're getting, and you can measure it in inches of bust, waist, and hips. Dead or Alive 4, now surgically enhanced for Xbox 360, is no exception. If only it could be a little more fun. Conceptually, there's certainly nothing wrong with the one-on-one battles. Combatants batter one another around using Lucha Libre, Jeet Kun Do, Ninjitsu, and several other styles of formalized hurt that are as tricky to master as ...

Dead or Alive: Xtreme 2 (Review)

Dec 11, 2006

Monday 11 December 2006 Two weeks on an island in the sun, surrounded by beautiful women in barely-there bikinis - sounds like heaven, right? Normally, it would be. Unfortunately, in the case of Dead or Alive Xtreme 2, it's just a dull and embarrassing romp around the tropics. We love beating the living hell out of people with the DOA ladies in the series' fighting games for sure, but dressing them up and exchanging presents? Count us out. The game's focus, naturally, is boobs. From the ...

Dead or Alive: Xtreme 2 (Review)

Nov 21, 2006

Two weeks on an island in the sun, surrounded by beautiful women in barely-there bikinis - sounds like heaven, right? Normally, it would be. Unfortunately, in the case of Dead or Alive Xtreme 2, it's just a dull and embarrassing romp around the tropics. We love beating the living hell out of people with the DOA ladies in the series' fighting games for sure, but dressing them up and exchanging presents? Count us out. The game's focus, naturally, is boobs. From the opening cutscenes to the ...

Dead Rising (Review)

Aug 8, 2006

Is Dead Rising a zombie game, or a GTA-esque, sandbox-style beat ‘em up with wall-to-wall undead, or a mash up of dozens of different gameplay styles that are more than the sum of their parts? You would do the game right to call it pretty much all of the above. But one thing that Dead Rising isn't is a mere open-world zombie-killing simulator. That's apparent in its highly structured storyline which remains wonderfully true to every single serious-toned zombie flick that George Romero ...

Def Jam: Icon (Review)

Mar 6, 2007

Using music as a weapon is nothing new. Westlife songs regularly cause us agonizing pain, while Radiohead makes us want to slit our wrists in despair. But never have we seen music used to such brilliant effect in a fighting game, and after the series' more typical PS2 entries, we really didnt expect the latest Def Jam title to be so amazingly inventive. When you select your character, you also choose a song to represent them and play over the top of fights. Environments now contain plenty of ...

Defender - Xbox Live Arcade (Review)

Dec 21, 2006

Defender is one of those masterpieces of gaming's golden age that 5% of the population could play well while the other 95% played something that didn't crush their soul. None of the multi-fingered challenge of Defender has disappeared since 1982, but playing it again makes us simply realize how much we suck. The goal of the game's complex control scheme was to make you feel like you're piloting a ship...at least for the 15 to 20 seconds youll be alive to do it. A two-way joystick plus buttons ...

Devil May Cry 4 (Review)

Feb 7, 2008

Devil May Cry might have redefined action gaming when it first stomped onto the PS2 in 2001, but since then the slashy-shooty series has fallen into semi-obscurity. ...

Discs of Tron - Xbox Live Arcade (Review)

Feb 15, 2008

This is the second of the two classic Tron arcade game to make their way to Microsoft’s downloadable service (the first being the arcade game simply titled Tron). It holds up a lot better than its predecessor. That's not to say Discs of Tron is technically worth your money - both games are a couple decades old at this point - but it’s aged better than its counterpart. Discs of Tron is based on the gladiatorial combat scene from the ...

Don King Presents: Prizefighter (Review)

Jun 16, 2008

Legendary boxing promoter Don King has a long history of using invented words and flashy outfits to sell his products, so it's really no surprise that we had a strong first impression of his debut video game. But the more we played Don King Presents Prizefighter, the more that opinion was worn down by gameplay aspects that weren't quite as solid (or fresh) as expected.

Indeed, our first take on the game was very positive, as the ...

Doom - Xbox Live Arcade (Review)

Oct 12, 2006

Believe us - you already know whether or not you're going to like Doom on Xbox Live Arcade. Did you waste much of the early '90s strafing through demon-infested hallways, searching for the organ-vaporizing BFG 9000... or, better yet, a chainsaw? If not, are you now willing to forgo modern graphics, sound and even controls just for the simple pleasure of experiencing a moment in gaming history? Is the scenario "I'm a Marine and I'm trapped on Mars" sufficient story motivation for you to spend ...

Double Dragon - Xbox Live Arcade (Review)

May 14, 2007

The streak is officially over. The Xbox Live Arcade has enjoyed at least one awesome new game each week for the previous months, turning what had been a rather hit or miss service into something special; especially considering the relatively new competition from the likes of Nintendos Virtual Console and Sonys PlayStation Network downloadable games services. Enter the ultimate Live Arcade buzzkill – Double Dragon. Taken on its own merits, an arcade-perfect version of Double Dragon ...

Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit (Review)

Jun 10, 2008

Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit is completely out of control. To anyone who knows the animated series, that’s no bad thing. What starts out looking like a standard 3D fighting game soon gets turned on its head when the big-eyed brawlers start flying and shooting insanely damaging energy beams from their fingertips.

It’s still a one-on-one beat ‘-em-up, that somehow carves a new niche into the well trodden way of ...

Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires (Review)

Mar 31, 2006

The "empire" side of Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires is actually pretty cool. Before even entering one of the trademark series battles - you know, where you plow through a sea of enemy soldiers for 20 minutes at a time - you actually have to do a bit of strategizing. Empires requires you to take over every area of the map, building your empire and erasing other warlords from the pages of history altogether. To do so, you'll have to upgrade your weapons, allocate funds to different types of ...

Dynasty Warriors 6 (Review)

Feb 21, 2008

We're now knee deep in the next generation - which is now actually the current and soon to be old generation - but some series are just catching up. We've seen versions of Dynasty Warriors on current systems, sure, but Dynasty Warriors 6 is the first one built specifically for the 360 and PS3. The title might be a bit confusing as there have obviously been more than six Dynasty Warriors games; this has got to be at least the sixteenth release, ...

Dynasty Warriors: GUNDAM (Review)

Aug 27, 2007

It seems inevitable. Gundam games breed like rabbits; the PS3 launched with one, terrible as it was. And, if anything, the Dynasty Warriors games have managed to multiply even faster. But, at the same time, do they go together? The answer is: yes, they go together well. But as you've no doubt heard in other recent Dynasty Warriors reviews, precious little has changed over the last 7 years since the series' debut. Whether or not you've played several of the game's sequels or simply never ...