GamesRadar - Xbox 360 Reviews

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

Jun 7, 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)

Aug 9, 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)

Feb 15, 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 ...

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

Jun 18, 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 ...

Perfect Dark Zero (Review)

Feb 27, 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 ...

Phantasy Star Universe (Review)

Oct 31, 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)

May 1, 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 ...

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

Jun 1, 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)

Feb 7, 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)

Oct 9, 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 ...

Prey (Review)

Jul 10, 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)

Jun 13, 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 ...

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (Review)

Nov 8, 2007

Nov 8, 2007 Anticlimactic. That's how it felt when, having craved next-gen PES since the dawn of PS3, we finally got to play a finished (or supposedly finished, but more on that in a minute) copy. PES 2008 just doesn't feel like a bold step into the future. At first, it feels like little more than a shinier version of PES6. But the clue, as ever, is in the word 'evolution'. PES 2008, like each new addition to the series, has evolved - it's just that this year's evolution isn't as obvious as ...

Project Gotham Racing 3 (Review)

Feb 15, 2006

Sleek, powerful examples of superior engineering, capable of immense speeds and rendered in a seductive form, offering an exhilarating experience that symbolises passion, attention to detail and, of course, the chance to just plain show off. Words used to describe the supercars that appear in Project Gotham Racing 3 can be just as apt to describe the PGR games themselves. At its optimum fidelity, however, PGR3 is a revelation. The impression of speed and detail packed inside PGR3 is ...

Project Gotham Racing 4 (Review)

Oct 1, 2007

Oct 1, 2007 Massive disappointment, the feeling of being cheated, and a nagging sensation that a series is well past its prime: were pleased to report that we never once felt any of these emotions whilst merrily plowing through PGR4. This is a sensational racing game, so make yourself comfy and read all about ...

Project Sylpheed (Review)

Jul 19, 2007

Japanese games love their dull, heroic cutscenes. Its not enough to be fighting on the frontline of an interstellar war, defending the united peoples of Earth against an irrepressible enemy. Oh no. You have to find your long-lost brother, or discover your true self through the death of a teammate, or learn that your Dad is the leader of the baddies and your Mom was a robot made from car parts. Well chalk this one up to the quirks of Japanese narrative - the insistence upon personalizing every ...

Pure (Review)

Sep 16, 2008

Riding ATVs is something we don’t get around to doing that often. As a result, Pure is a wonderful exercise in escapism, taking you away from the daily grind and into a high-octane environment in which you’re able to zoom around beautiful countryside without a care in the world. ...

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords - Xbox Live Arcade (Review)

Oct 24, 2007

Oct 24, 2007 Could you imagine trying to pitch the concept for this game? It's Bejeweled meets Final Fantasy! Yeah. It does sound ridiculous. But as PSP and DS gamers learned earlier this year, the combo actually works quite well. It's the RPG puzzle gamers never knew they wanted! Or is that the puzzle game role-players never thought they'd play? Anyway… moving on. Yes, it's another PSP port for Xbox Live. And boy is this worth the paltry sum of Microsoft Points being requested. Choose ...