GamesRadar - Xbox 360 Reviews

Pac-Man Championship Edition - Xbox Live Arcade (Review)

7/06/2007

Pac-Man Championship Edition needed to be released for 400 points, not the 800 Namco's asking us for. In fact, better yet - Pac-Man Championship Edition needed to be released as some kind of expansion pack for the original Pac-Man or Ms. Pac-Man, both of which have been on the Xbox Live Arcade service for months ...

Pac-Man - Xbox Live Arcade (Review)

9/08/2006

A true coin-op classic, Pac-Man ushered in the wave of non-shooting "cute" games in 1980 and gets credit as gaming's first pop-culture phenomenon. That's great, he's historically important - but do you still want to hang out with him? Maybe not. Pac-Man is groundbreaking but ultimately pretty boring. As you race around gobbling dots, the maze never changes; only the speed of the monsters, the length of their vulnerability and the routes they take deviate between stages. The game also suffers ...

Paperboy - Xbox Live Arcade (Review)

15/02/2007

The hits just keep on coming on Xbox Live Arcade. The latest coin-op classic to hit the service is a touching tale of a boy, his bicycle, and an unrelenting urge to smash all things breakable with tightly-rolled wads of tree byproducts. Paperboy was - and still is - an awesome game. At least, if youre looking for a short diversion... say, something you might spend $0.25 a pop for. Paperboy on the 360 is an authentic recreation of the mid-80s arcade machine, save for the absence of the ...

PDC World Championship Darts 2008 (Review)

6/10/2008

Before we tear into this dull, dull game like a coyote mauls a young lamb, we’ll include this disclaimer: we are actually massive darts fans. ...

Peggle (Review)

8/04/2009

It’s rubbish on paper, of course – you just aim the ball at the pegs and fire, trying to clear all the orange ones – but on iPod, DS, PC, and now Xbox 360, it’s by far one of the best games on the platform that we do love so. Slot machines make their money by creating desire - the desire to pour your hard-earned dole money into the slot in exchange for occasional reward. ...

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One (Review)

18/06/2008

Loosely based on the popular web comic Penny Arcade, this new episodic series kicks off with a six-hour game, cheekily subtitled On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. The action follows your custom-built avatar (and his disappointingly limited wardrobe selection) and early-20th-century versions of heroes Gabe and Tycho as they investigate paranormal goings-on in the city of New Arcadia. It’s a bizarre tale that’s completely ...

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode Two (Review)

19/11/2008

Picking up where the first episode concluded, the second episode of the Penny Arcade Adventures begins with your still-homeless character (you can either import your old character or start a new one at the same advanced level) brandishing a new gardening implement and teaming up once again with 1922-era Gabe and Tycho to track down the giant robot that crushed your house. ...

Perfect Dark Zero (Review)

27/02/2006

Lets just say, for the sake of argument, that its five years ago: Perfect Dark is released to rave reviews, thanks to a combination of maximum ultraviolence and stealthy super-spy ninjaness. The frantic, nerve-jangling action and engaging story made you feel like a stealthy pimp every time a punk went down without knowing what hit him. Unfortunately, that was then. Perfect Dark Zero attempts to recapture some of that sneaky mystique found in the original, but rarely succeeds. Only on a very ...

PES 2009 (Review)

16/10/2008

After last year’s good, yet disappointing PES 2008, Konami have it all to do to win over the mass market and hardcore fans with their latest edition. EA’s stranglehold on team/player/stadium licenses immediately puts pressure on PES 2009 to placate those who refuse to play with Man Red at the St Bristol Mary stadium. Thankfully, the edit mode is back, which means you can create badges, kits and players from scratch. ...

Phantasy Star Universe (Review)

31/10/2006

The universe of Phantasy Star has always been a unique one. Its refreshing sci-fi style breaks the swords 'n' sorcery RPG mold. Phantasy Star Online's networked approach was highly addictive and gave fans a reason to fall in love with the series all over again. But, no matter how stunning Phantasy Star Online was, gamers love single-player, story-driven RPGs. The intended solution was Phantasy Star Universe, which promised to contain both fully-realized story and online modes, to give fans ...

Pinball FX - Xbox Live Arcade (Review)

1/05/2007

Pinball might have made a blind/deaf mute named Tommy a legendary wizard back in 1969, but it has trouble competing with the GTAs and Gears of Wars of our modern world. But this decreased appeal hasn't stopped Zen Interactive from cranking out one of this year's most worthwhile downloads to date in the form of Pinball FX. The content isn't exactly surprising - this is pinball, plain and simple. But its quality is refreshing in a field often ruled by lame bargain games. For ten US bucks (800 MS ...

Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection (Review)

12/10/2009

When pinball enthusiasts talk about the way a shot "feels," they're actually talking about tiny variables within the game, like how far the plunger can be drawn back, or how lanes line up with the flippers, or the size of the ball gutters. For short, they refer to this as "kinetics," and that's reason the original Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection caught everyone's attention. ...

Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End (Review)

1/06/2007

It's very rare that the videogame off-shoot of a blockbuster movie lets you feel like you're in the movie. This is one of those times. Never before has a game looked so much like its source material. But don't go firing a ten cannon salute just yet - it's got plenty of issues that threaten to spoil the party. The game is primarily a fighting game with free movement. You walk into an area, get pounced on by a bunch of bad guys and then see them off with a variety of attacks. You unlock ...

Poker Smash - Xbox Live Arcade (Review)

7/02/2008

Let’s face it - great puzzle games don’t come along every day. And melding a classic like Tetris Attack (or Pokemon Puzzle League, or Panel de Pon, or whatever you want to call it) with poker could have had disaster written all over it. But through some brilliant design decisions and some pretty graphics, Void Star Creations has managed to put together something special in Poker Smash.The premise is pretty basic. Cards from 10 ...

Portal (Review)

9/10/2007

Oct 9, 2007 You're probably here to read about Portal, Valve's first-person puzzle game about opening rifts in space to cross uncrossable obstacle courses. It's designed around one simple but mind-expanding idea: you can shoot a hole in any wall, and then another one somewhere else, and if you walk into one you'll come out of the other. Fire them side by side and you'll walk straight back into the room you just left. Fire them on the floor and ceiling and you'll fall through the same room at ...

Portal: Still Alive - Xbox Live Arcade (Review)

18/11/2008

Portal: Still Alive breaks every rule. It’s the first Live Arcade game to clock in at a weighty 629Mb - well over Microsoft’s miserly 250Mb limit. It’s also the first Live Arcade game to be a re-release of an existing retail game. Most importantly, even one year after its initial release, Portal is a game unlike any other, and once again one of the games of the year. ...

PowerUp Forever - Xbox Live Arcade (Review)

8/01/2009

It’s not even remotely difficult to imagine how the idea for PowerUp Forever came about. Somebody played the hypnotic, 2D game flOw (try the demo here and buy it on PSN) and said, “Hey! Wouldn’t this be fun if your onscreen avatar had a gun?” ...

Prey (Review)

10/07/2006

You might want to hold onto something for this one: Prey turns fast-paced first-person shooter action on its head quite literally with some dizzying gravity effects that would have Sir Isaac Newton spinning in his grave. In multiple directions. As Tommy, a Native American on a quest to rescue his girlfriend Jen from being pureed in an alien Cuisinart, you'll battle your way through a massive cybernetic alien spaceship that scoffs in the face of the laws of physics. At the flip of a switch the ...

Prince of Persia Classic - Xbox Live Arcade (Review)

13/06/2007

The Live Arcade service returns to its winning ways this week with the release of a true classic, complete with a modern-day overhaul… but in a good way. Prince of Persia Classic is exactly what the title implies – Jordan Mechners groundbreaking 1989 classic. This 2D platformer is one of the best games youll ever play, and one of the best values to be found on Xbox Live Arcade. The update to Prince of Persia is two-fold. For one thing, the graphics are all 3D now, although the ...

Prince of Persia (next-gen) (Review)

3/12/2008

The first time publisher Ubisoft spoke to us about the new Prince of Persia game, we’ll admit we feared it was going to stink so badly we’d staple week-old roadkill to our faces to try to mask its smell. The super-macho Prince, always the center of this platform adventure series, is being hobbled with a new sidekick character whose help you require for basically everything? ...