Reviews by Systems

Borderlands (PS3) review

Imagine a lootathon quest game like Diablo (or Titan Quest, or Dawn of War II). Make it a first person shooter with co-op online play. Set it in a Mad Max sort of world, with vehicles. That's Borderlands. There isn't really a story as such, just lots of different quests and exploring to do. As you explore you bump into enemies to fight and NPCs to get quests from. Loot is in chests or as drops or mission rewards. As you level up the loot becomes better and the enemies become tougher. It's extremely good fun once you're into the teen levels and even more so in co-op as vehicles optimally need more than one player. It's hard to stop playing, as once you progress a bit you want to progress a bit more.

Call of Duty: World at War (Xbox 360) review

Not particularly good. It's as if the previous CoD games never happened. Dull, utterly linear levels, no AI, frustrating checkpoints. Playing it was a chore and I only enjoyed one of the levels (Black Cats, where you're a gunner on a plane). All that's good about the game is the intro animations and the Nazi Zombies mode. Hardly worth the rental really but gamers with low standards will enjoy it.

Batman: Arkham Asylum (Xbox 360) review

An extremely enjoyable game, one which you'll play from beginning to end and then probably play a lot of the extra challenges as well. True, it's not especially difficult on normal level but that also means it's not especially frustrating either (and you can always play on hard mode of course - in fact, if you're an experienced beat 'em up player I would suggest starting on hard as normal will be too easy). What this game gets so right, other than the artwork and audio, is that you really feel powerful. You can take on a dozen thugs if you like, but if one of them pulls a gun on you you're dead which is how it should be. The gadgets are all great, and useful in all but a couple of cases, and the experience points are well paced so that you can get them all by the end of it if you keep your eyes open. Combat is extremely simple and it almost ends up becoming a rhythm game. You can button mash but you'd do better by striking and countering in time with batman's motions. In fact, I didn't learn how to fight properly until after the game when I was doing the challenges (button mashers get very low ratings!). Anyway, to cut a long story short, I can't see anyone not getting enjoyment out of this. It's not perfect, but it's the best superhero game there is and is fun even for non-fans like myself. Give it a go.

Wolfenstein (Xbox 360) review

It's an entirely typical FPS, offering nothing you haven't seen before. In fact, I wouldn't even say it was as good as Return to Castle Wolfenstein or even Escape From Butcher Bay which are years old and last-gen. The voice acting is awful, the AI is awful, the level design is utterly linear (full of doors which can't be opened, even though you've carrying a rocket launcher). I suppose it's worth a rental if you've exhausted your other FPS options, but the only interesting thing about this game is the weapon upgrade system.

[PROTOTYPE] (Xbox 360) review

Prototype is pretty much Crackdown but instead of being a super-cop you're a super-mutant. It starts well, with a large city to explore and plenty of powers to unlock, but it quickly becomes stale. The joy of climbing buildings is completely removed as you can climb the tallest skyscraper right from the start (and fall off it without dying), and all that it offers which is new is more varied ways to kill people. Of the three "sandbox superhero" games (Crackdown, Infamous, Prototype), I would say start with Crackdown as it's undoubtedly the best. If you complete that and need more then the next one to go for depends on whether you like exploring more (get Infamous) or combat more (get Prototype).

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood (Xbox 360) review

A game with lots of promise and lots of background material available, but ultimately it boils down to a game of Gears of War: Wild West Edition. If you though GoW was incredible then you'll really like this; personally I found both GoW games to be dull. The game's designed to be played co-op (you won't want the retarded AI "help") and each character has their own abilities. The fast brother can use bows and knives whereas the stocky brother can use dynamite and the gattling gun. Bound in Blood is different to most games in that whereas games normally start well and then slowly get worse, BiB starts badly and keeps getting better. There are a few annoying aspects to the game but the checkpoints are quite well spread. All in all it's a game everyone should rent as there's not that much wrong with it other than the publishers were over-cautious and played it safe. I wouldn't purchase it though unless you know a lot of people interested in multiplayer.

Overlord II (Xbox 360) review

I wasn't impressed with Overlord II at all. In fact, I found it rather boring as it was becoming a chore to play rather than something to look forward to. The graphics are fine but the audio mixing is diabolical. It's the only game I've had to adjust the sound settings on in order to be fully audible. A friend of mine has the PS3 version and it's the same in that. Bad sound mixing, often cutting out too if another sound plays over it. As for the game itself it's an almost utterly linear game of sending your minions into battle or solving trivial puzzles (I even hesitate to call them puzzles as the narrator tells you what to do, over and over and over, until you get it right). During the course of this you pick up gold and other loot which you can use in your lair to upgrade things. If you loved Overlord and want some more you'll like this, but otherwise I'd give it a miss until you've played everything else you want to. Personally I'd say the best in the series is the PS3 version of the original. Utterly average so 3* from me.

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel (Xbox 360) review

Good 3rd person fantasy RPG with drop in and out co-op where friends can help you with your quests. Absolutely massive map to explore (with an expansion pack on the way), guaranteed to keep you going for hours and hours. I'm on 20 hours played and have explored under 10% of the map, and this is just to unlock the harder game mode where it really takes off. It's pretty much the same as the PC version, but with a much better control system. It'll certainly keep you busy until Diablo 3 comes out.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (Xbox 360) review

The single player storyline isn't as good as Vegas, and it's 2-player co-op not 4-player. It really is ridiculous, and even has a boss battle at the end. Hardly in the spirit of things but it's still better than Lockdown. Where it shines is the multiplayer, especially with the free Gift Pack expansion which you can download. It tweaks the old Vegas experience with tighter controls and visuals, and adds a CoD4-style experience system with ranks and unlocks. So if you're torn between the two rent them both (or buy - they're only £9.99 a piece). Vegas for SP and Vegas 2 for MP.