Xbox 360 Game Reviews
Review Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (Xbox 360)
Sing hearty!
To say that there’s a world of difference between Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, and the original game in the series, would be the understatement of the year. We only raise the point in fact, as there seems to be a somewhat vocal group of folks who have decided that the series hasn’t progressed at all. It still features that...
Another lap.
In the history of Formula One racing, there have been only four Grands Prix that have ended with as many runners as have started. The 1961 Dutch GP, the 2005 Italian GP, the controversial 2005 US GP (which only had six starters) and the 2011 European GP. We were close this year, with only one failing to finish in the Belgian GP, but all...
Review Hot Wheels: World's Best Driver (Xbox 360)
Can't handle it
The Hot Wheels brand has been around for over 40 years now, and feels as synonymous with American culture as hot dogs, apple pie, and baseball. In fact, we’d be surprised to learn of any boy that didn’t have at least one of these classic die-cast cars in their toy-box at some point in their young life. To this day we harbor...
Psi-what?
You can safely bet from the cover art and screenshots to Girl Fight what sort of game you're getting yourself in to. Kung Fu Factory shows no shame in taking what gamers secretly wanted in Dead or Alive all along: remove all of the male fighters and put a strong emphasis on beautiful, digital vixens with odd fashion senses and a refusal to...
Top corner.
The football season is in full swing, and with the EA and Microsoft cosying up over the FIFA series this year, it looks like it’ll eventually be a big 2013 for the franchise on Xbox platforms. Sales aren’t what they were last year in the early going, but with the Xbox One version of FIFA 14 being bundled with preorders, some players...
Ice and simple.
The puck has dropped on the new NHL season and as sure as day follows night, that means that EA have been at work on their yearly update to the NHL game franchise. This year, the build-up to the game’s release seemed to focus more on who was going to be the athlete on the cover (it ended up being the Devils goalie Martin Brodeur)...
Review Grand Theft Auto V (Xbox 360)
It's the little things
It’s no easy feat to live up to expectations when everyone in the world of gaming is anticipating nothing short of perfection from your next game, before even catching a glimpse of it in action. These lofty expectations are surely attributed to Rockstar’s ability to continually redefine the open-world genre, release after...
Yellow card
With Xbox Live Arcade going through one of its quality spikes of late, it seems that every week, there’s another big-name title just waiting to separate you from your cash. In the past month or so, we’ve seen Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Charlie Murder, Disney Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse, DuckTales Remastered
Review World Series of Poker: Full House Pro (Xbox 360)
Fold 'em.
When Full House Poker hit Xbox Live Arcade back in 2011, it had one thing that other play-money poker games did not – Texas Heat. For those who never played it, Texas Heat was a gameshow-style poker tournament, presented on a schedule. Each half-hour “show” consisted of three levels of play, with better (or luckier) players being...
Review Disney Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (Xbox 360)
Mostly Magical
Castle of Illusion isn’t the straight remake of the 1990 Sega Genesis original that you may have expected it to be. While some levels are largely the same, others are completely retooled, with new illusions and tricks around every turn. But worry not, retro purists, the same wondrous environments and engulfing atmospheres remain...
Review Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of The Shadows (Xbox 360)
It's not a party, dude.
When Out of the Shadows was unveiled back in March of this year, fans were in an uproar about the new look of their beloved Turtles. Instead of going the cartoony route of the current TMNT series on Nickelodeon, developer Red Fly Studios was presenting something a bit more mature, with the Turtles faces actually resembling...
Review Saints Row IV (Xbox 360)
The Saints go marching in.
Saints Row IV is insanity itself. There's no other way of really opening proceedings, other than to say that. From the various “homages" to great video games that have passed before, to the off-the-wall comedy and the racier portions of the game, the whole thing feels like it's assaulting your brain from start to...
Review Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (Xbox 360)
Brotherly Love
The very definition of a “video game” has changed in recent years – evolved even – from the uprise and mass acceptance of indie development. We're seeing developers use video games as a new medium to tell evocative and intelligent narratives without normal, traditional gaming conventions. That exact sentiment can easily be...
Review Cloudberry Kingdom (Xbox 360)
Painfully Pleasing
Cloudberry Kingdom is platforming insanity, and it fully exposes itself for what it is before even allowing you to reach the main menu. Upon booting the game you’re welcomed to a video that shows the main character, Bob, traversing the most densely packed environments you’ll likely ever see in a side-scrolling platformer...
Review Rayman Legends (Xbox 360)
Not just a Teensie bit brilliant.
The story of Rayman Legends is a well-known one. Originally slated to be a Wii U exclusive, Ubisoft reviewed the sales figures for another one of their Wii U-only titles – ZombiiU – and decided to delay the game and make it multiplatform. Thank heavens that they did. You see, Rayman Legends is something of a...
Review Charlie Murder (Xbox 360)
Hybrid Moments
Charlie Murder is unabashedly punk rock; it is what it wants to be, and doesn't care if you like it. That’s something we can commend, even if it doesn't always work out for the best. Charlie and his band of misfits are on a mission to stop a rival metal band, Gore Quaffer - and their army of minions - from being the most rockin'...
Review DuckTales Remastered (Xbox 360)
Rewriting History
Back in 1989, the original DuckTales was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System to great acclaim, and set a new standard for what could be expected of a licensed game. Even to this day, it's so highly regarded by many, that the retro-tastic people of WayForward and Capcom decided to give it a fresh coat of paint, and...
Space madness
Capsized is a 2D adventure-platformer with similarities to Super Metroid in its atmosphere and some of its mechanics, but at the same time retains a style and feel all of its own. Instead of a sprawling, interconnected world, you move from level to level completing various objectives; such as simply reaching an exit, destroying sacred...
Doom and gloom or a perfect storm?
Storm tries so desperately hard to be that soothing, relaxing gameplay experience. Something that can be picked up and played at someone's leisure after a stressful day at work. On paper, Storm has the makings of an indie hit and the folks at IndiePub do convey some rather interesting ideas. Unfortunately,...
Throw it into the flames.
Arcade racing games are tough to get right. For many years, they’ve been viewed as being something of a safe bet. Put some crazy characters in some even crazier vehicles, throw in some sort of apparently unique selling point, and the job is done. Or so you’d think, given the amount of titles that fit that description...
Review Fast and Furious: Showdown (Xbox 360)
Furious is right.
Movie tie-ins have had a long and storied history when it comes to the video game world. A few are superb. More are half-decent. Most are average. But when it comes down to it, an awful lot of them are appallingly rushed titles that tick some of the fanservice boxes and then go easy on the gameplay. Fast and Furious: Showdown is...
Review Crash Time 5: Undercover (Xbox 360)
Nasty.
The Crash Time series of games has been quietly bubbling under the radar around the world for the last few years. Generally, if you’ve bought one of the games, you know not to buy another one, as without exception, they’ve all been pretty dire affairs. The series is based on the German cop show Alarm für Cobra 11, which has been much...
Review Aqua Kitty - Milk Mine Defender (Xbox 360)
Nearly Purrfect
Aqua Kitty is a game about cats harvesting milk from the floor of the ocean. Turns out, it’s the only place left to obtain the delectable drink, and these kitties are so dependent on it that they’ll overcome their fear of something they despise even more than dogs – mass amounts of water. Mining operations are now fully...
The wait is over...
When Codemasters first unleashed Race Driver: Grid on an unsuspecting world back in 2008, they can’t possibly have expected it to be so well received. The almost arcade-style handling that allowed you to drive somewhat wrecklessly but that also rewarded skilful driving was the highlight, and the multitudes of race types,...
Review Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel (Xbox 360)
Missed step in a minefield?
Let's get this clear right off the bat. BioShock Infinite has been ingrained in the public psyche for the last few weeks. This game is not BioShock Infinite. Where BioShock was crafted for years, painstakingly disassembled, reassembled and revised in the hope that it will somehow transcend the usual video game tropes and...
Review Telltale Games' Poker Night 2 (Xbox 360)
Hold 'em or fold 'em?
If you’re making a game about poker, you should really focus on the getting the features of the actual cardplaying right – or at least up to speed with your competition – before throwing in characters from a bunch of franchises, and a witty script. That doesn’t seem to be what’s gone here, though. Poker Night 2...
By the beard of Zeus!
Sometimes, it can be good to settle in with a game that attempts to do away with the hours of cutscenes and hundreds of pages of story scripts that most modern titles come bundled with, and just get down to the core of things. That’s what God Mode attempts to do, throwing the player directly into a third-person shooting fest...
Review Sacred Citadel (Xbox 360)
Old-school meets new-school.
Back when the excellent Castle Crashers released in 2008, the gameplay contained within the adorably-designed package was something of a revelation. You could have a number of characters on the go at a time, playing through the game as each of them in turn as you tried to get them all levelled up to the point of being...
Review Motocross Madness (Xbox 360)
Back once again...
Back in the day, Motocross Madness was a technically impressive, addictive PC game that did away with the narrow borders of conventional racing games, providing a relatively open world for the player to barrel through. The last entry in the series – Motocross Madness 3 for the original Xbox – was a bit of a stinker when...
Review Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 (Xbox 360)
A Fair Way To Go
It’s that time of year again. The smell of freshly-cut grass is in the air, the birds are singing, the sun is in the…well, it’s mostly rainy and windy here in the UK, but there you go. Whatever the weather, its Tiger Woods PGA Tour time. This year, EA have provided a mostly iterative update to the series, with a couple of big...
