GamesRadar - Xbox 360 Reviews

Hail to the Chimp (Review)

25/06/2008

Did you ever order lobster bisque in a fancy restaurant and then have bubble gum-flavored ice cream with gummi bears on top for dessert? Of course not; it's a mismatch. Hail to the Chimp seems to be making the same attempt to merge two worlds, combining kiddie-style, action-packed minigames with a plot and setting that spoofs the electoral process in a way only adults have a chance of appreciating.

In an election to select the ...

Half-Life 2 (Review)

18/12/2007

If Half-Life 2's nerdy protagonist Gordon Freeman is going to save the world, he's gonna need more than the crowbar he began the last game wielding. Thankfully, weapon upgrades in this first-person shooter come lightning quick. Gordon barely gets to take in any the sights and sounds of City 17 (a quarantined, run-down district ruled by gas-masked soldiers apparently called the "Combine") before he starts blasting, bashing, and exploding the living hell out of everything in sight. It's not his ...

Half-Life 2: Episode One (Review)

18/12/2007

Originally posted on June 1, 2006 Anyone who completed Half-Life 2 - one of the most accomplished games ever made - was left with more than a few niggling questions. Did you actually save City 17? Will hero Gordon Freeman escape from the G-Man? And did Alyx Vance, the game's leading lady, end up on the wrong end of a thermonuclear explosion? We needed answers and, finally, we've got them. Half-Life 2: Episode One is the first in a trilogy of games that continue the story of Half-Life 2 - ...

Half-Life 2: Episode Two (Review)

9/10/2007

Oct 9, 2007 It's surreal that Valve are still churning out more Half-Life 2, three years on. As beautifully crafted as Episode One was, it did tread on a lot of its parent's toes. Episode Two certainly doesn't do that. It turbos away from them at 90 miles an hour in a customised Dodge Charger, with Alyx riding shotgun. We won't spoil any details, but Ep2 is what happens after you and Alyx break free of City 17 once and for all. The setting for most of your previous adventures is nothing more ...

Halo 3 (Review)

23/09/2007

Halo 3 is here. The wait for the most anticipated game of all time is finally over. The fight is about to be finished. And right now, across the world, the hopes and happiness of millions hinge on the answer to one simple question: Is it good? Or perhaps, Is it as good as we want it to be? We won't leave you hanging a second longer. The answer to both is yes - a huge and resounding yes. Every type of Halo fan, from the hardcore to the casual to the brand new, will find something to satisfy ...

Halo 3: ODST (Review)

19/09/2009

ODST is all about mindset.

Are you hoping for more Halo 3? Are you looking forward to another adventure in that game’s grandly exaggerated yet comfortingly familiar universe? Are you excited to wield the same crazy weapons and vehicles in brand new battles, to encounter the same smart enemies in unexpected new situations and to witness the same epic war from an entirely new perspective? ...

Halo Wars (Review)

20/02/2009

A whole new genre for one of the most valuable properties in gaming, or a basic Command & Conquer-alike with the Halo name slapped on? Our early enthusiasm waned with the closure of Ensemble and a less-than-stellar preview version, and despite trying our best to see the positive side, Halo Wars remains a damned difficult game to warm to. ...

Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm (Review)

13/08/2008

Do not buy this game. We’ll explain why, but it’s important that we get that out of the way to begin with. Put your credit card back in its plastic sheath, so we can talk with less urgency. Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm is about $10 (including various taxes). For that, you get 30 levels, each taking between one or two minutes. ...

Hardwood Backgammon - Xbox Live Arcade (Review)

17/04/2006

It's not easy to improve on an age-old standard, so when we downloaded Hardwood Backgammon from the Xbox Live Arcade, our expectations were measured. To achieve greatness in its class, Hardwood Backgammon would have to not only play brilliantly on Xbox Live, but also dazzle us with some cool graphics, nifty animations and clever online innovations. And it did that. Sort ...

Hardwood Hearts - Xbox Live Arcade (Review)

20/04/2006

Poker may be getting all the good press lately, but there's another game with its own semi-secret support society, a game of deceit, power, cunning and blatant tricks. You wouldn't know it to look at it, but the candy-colored Hardwood Hearts is a strategy monster. A favorite for years, Hearts is a trump card game, meaning that all four players are racing to collect certain cards while avoiding others - namely, hearts. If you feel like a daredevil, you can intentionally try to take all the ...

Hardwood Spades - Xbox Live Arcade (Review)

19/04/2006

Spades is simple: bid for a certain amount of tricks, then take them with your partner while avoiding unwanted bags and feel free to pass when bidding nil. Yeah, we didn't get it either, but the tutorial built into Hardwood Spades tells you exactly how to play this classic trump card game in about 10 minutes. Guess what? It's ...

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Review)

1/07/2009

Seven months. That’s how much extra time EA Bright Light has had to tweak and polish Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince after its release date was pushed back thanks to the movie’s theatrical slippage. The time could have been spent perfecting one of the most valuable game licenses. ...

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Review)

28/06/2007

To be frank, if you dont know your Dumbledore from your Dementors, your Sirius Black from your Severus Snape, or your Hagrid from your Hermione then youre advised to run far, far away from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. In the fifth and most recent game tie-in, there are absolutely no concessions to Potter virgins. New characters are at a premium, so instead of getting bogged down introducing more eccentrics on top of an already bloated cast, youre immediately thrown into the ...

Heavy Weapon (Review)

19/01/2007

Game developer PopCap's works translate so well to Xbox Live Arcade, it's scary. Heavy Weapon is their latest in a series of 360 upgrades to their popular PC time-wasters. This arcade shooter - originally released in 2005 - is the sort of pick-up-and-play, highly addictive original content Microsoft's Live service needs much more ...

Hellboy (Review)

9/07/2008

Granted, Hellboy is not a terribly sophisticated comic book character. His super powers are basically just that he's remarkably durable, kinda strong and has a stone hand he uses to punch things. Thus, even though his comics tend to have interesting characters and storylines (not to mention fantastic noir art), we didn't expect his games to be about riddles or gadgets or sorcerous cults or anything else that says "brainy" instead of ...

Heroes Over Europe (Review)

16/09/2009

Heroes Over Europe takes an almost Michael Bay approach to World War II. While some of the missions, locations and aircraft manage an educated nod to the events of history, accuracies take a back seat for the benefit of gameplay. ...

Hexic 2 - Xbox Live Arcade (Review)

15/08/2007

Aug 15, 2007 You've played Hexic. It's that quirky little puzzle game that came with your Xbox 360 (assuming your 360 came with a hard drive). And chances are you either love it, or hate. And if you hated it... well, then there's no chance you're gonna like Hexic 2. To say it's just more of the same would be an understatement. An understatement, but not an entirely fair statement. Hexic 2 brings back the same three modes of the original Bejeweled-meets-Tetris gem-matching game. Play a ...

Hexic HD - Xbox Live Arcade (Review)

17/04/2006

When the man who created Tetris comes up with a new idea, it's worth hearing. When that idea turns out to be a puzzle game that rivals his claim to fame, well, that's worth even more. Ironic, then, that the incredibly valuable Hexic HD is yours ...

The History Channel: Battle for the Pacific (Review)

20/12/2007

Dec 20, 2007 Developer Cauldron may have all the expertise of the History Channel backing them up, but is it any use when they clearly don't understand the evolution of their own medium? Historical accuracy notwithstanding, Battle for the Pacific stands as a laughable attempt to clone the formula of successful first-person shooters like Call of Duty. The core problem with this game is that it betrays its own claim to realism. The History Channel moniker doesn't mean much when you're mowing ...

The History Channel Civil War: A Nation Divided (Review)

27/11/2006

It's become passe to gripe about the glut of WWII shooters out there today, but after playing Activision's latest military-based FPS, we immediately quit our bitching. It turns out that Nazi-era guns, tanks, and steel are a welcome relief when compared to slugging it out 19th century-style. Who knew? We're willing to give props to the folks willing to make a Civil War-era shooter (originality always counts for something), but A Nation Divided doesn't completely satisfy. History buffs will no ...