GamesRadar - PC Reviews

Puzzlegeddon (Review)

Jan 9, 2009

Don’t be fooled by the quirky graphics or the bright colors. This is war. It all sounds innocent enough. You get a six by six grid and have to move the blocks until you can match five of the same color in a connecting pattern. The twist is that you’re playing against opponents (real or AI), and the colors correspond to vital resources for your war effort. ...

The Hardy Boys: The Hidden Theft (Review)

Jan 9, 2009

You’re a tough police chief working the Bayport area. You’ve spent years on the force, honing your investigative skills and enforcing the law. Imagine your delight when a couple of motorbike riding, spoiled rich kids decide to ‘help out’ on your latest case. You’d probably wish they stuck to stuffing their noses with coke and running over hobos. ...

Rise of the Argonauts (Review)

Jan 8, 2009

Rise of the Argonauts tries its best to copy the “modern” Action RPG stereotype set forth by games like Mass Effect and Jade Empire. As King Jason, you travel from place to place in an attempt to find the golden fleece and use it to resurrect your freshly assassinated bride. You’re always be accompanied by two companions. You spend some time killing large volumes of men, monsters and even myths in real-time combat. ...

Saints Row 2 (Review)

Jan 6, 2009

From the setting to the gameplay, Saints Row 2 borrows quite a bit from Grand Theft Auto - but it’s not “just another” clone. In fact, on the Xbox, the Saints Row series is probably the best-received of the many open-world carjacking crime-spree games attempting to copy GTA’s successful formula, and Saints Row 2 maintains that reputation with its fast action and goofy humor. ...

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People: 8-Bit is Enough (Review)

Jan 6, 2009

The Strong Bad episodic series almost comes to a close with a bang. Well, most of a bang, and then a peculiar fizzling out. It begins with a scene following on from the end of Episode 4’s Dangeresque. Strong Bad falls into his Trogdor arcade machine and bangs his head, apparently causing the machine to come to life and start marauding around the neighborhood. ...

Shaun White Snowboarding (Review)

Jan 2, 2009

What Shaun White Snowboarding is aiming to achieve is that rare blend that should guarantee commercial success: a combination of something that videogames do well (racing across the side of a mountain at high speed) and something that very many people want to buy into (the contemporary gaming hip of extreme sports). This kind of fusion occasionally creates a masterpiece: see the Tony Hawk’s series or SSX Tricky. ...

Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir (Review)

Dec 22, 2008

Love it or hate it, you’ve got to give Storm of Zehir points for effort. Developers Obsidian could easily have banged out a generic adventure for this expansion pack. Instead, they’ve produced a radical overhaul, one that’s not afraid to take a few risks. ...

World War One (Review)

Dec 19, 2008

Once we found out this game was coming to us from the peeps at AGEOD, we knew it was going to be hardcore all the way. World War One is almost sadistically detailed, with over 50 pages of overview stats available when you start any scenario or Grand Campaign. ...

Rhiannon Curse of the Four Branches (Review)

Dec 19, 2008

There aren’t many games set in rural Wales, which is hard to understand given the area’s lore, but Arbeth Studios have decided this would be the best place to set their new supernatural adventure, Rhiannon: Curse of the Four Branches. Largely based in and around the farmhouse of Ty Pryderi, a lurking evil must be prevented from exacting a cruel and terrible revenge on those who have wronged it. Exciting stuff! ...

NBA 2K9 (Review)

Dec 17, 2008

Basketball-obsessed PC gamers (all four of them) haven’t gotten a lot of respect lately. But unlike EA’s recent crappy NBA Live PS2 ports, 2K Games’ NBA 2K9 is a full-blooded port from the current generation of consoles, with the kind of broadcast-quality presentational polish that EA used to be renowned for. ...

SAS: Secure Tomorrow (Review)

Dec 16, 2008

For those not familiar with the SAS, it’s the Brits’ equivalent of the U.S. Marine Corps. Or, if you believe SAS: Secure Tomorrow’s interpretation, it’s an army of unkillable yet dim-witted super-soldiers that mow down international terrorists by the dozen. ...

Mosby's Confederacy (Review)

Dec 16, 2008

Mosby’s Confederacy is inspired by the actions of John ‘The Gray Ghost’ Mosby, a Rebel cavalry leader who specialized in raiding Union lines and having a cool nickname. And it’s reviewed right now. Let’s start by doffing our caps to Tilted Mill. Instead of grinding out yet another game about Gettysburg, they’ve chosen to put players in control of a small band of hell-raising, Bourbon-swilling skirmishers. ...

Pure (Review)

Dec 16, 2008

If you’ve never jumped off an ATV while 100 feet in the air and run in place next to it before climbing back on (still in mid-air, mind you), you’re missing out on a serious rush. As a professional ATV racer, you perform a mix of realistic and gravity-defying tricks at blistering speeds across a variety of beautifully rendered exotic landscapes. ...

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith (Review)

Dec 16, 2008

Figuring out if Guitar Hero: Aerosmith - which, if not for character models and stage animations unique to the band, would amount to a pricey song pack for Guitar Hero III - is up your alley is a little like playing the game “Guess Who?” Ask yourself a list of general-to-specific questions that reduce an audience of buyers to a handful of candidates. Do you like Guitar Hero? Do you like Aerosmith? ...

A Vampyre Story (Review)

Dec 12, 2008

The concept of an opera-singing vampire, desperate to be a star on the Paris stage, is fantastic adventure game fodder, both for its originality and for the many puzzle-design possibilities in the traditional vampire weaknesses. Every room is a thing of beauty; a glorious mix of Tim Burton and Monkey Island that doesn’t need advanced technology to impress. The music is excellent. ...

Agatha Christie: Death on the Nile (Review)

Dec 12, 2008

Forget what you’ve seen on CSI. When it comes to solving a murder case, all that you really need is the ability to locate five peaches in a cluttered bedroom. In this mystery-themed puzzler it’s not powers of deduction that’ll help you play the role of Poirot, but I-Spy skills and 20/20 vision. ...

Bejeweled Twist (Review)

Dec 12, 2008

Bejeweled has completely taken over the world – even your Gran has it on her mobile phone. So it’s no surprise that its creators want to squeeze more money from their cash cow’s gem-studded udders. Sometimes a puzzle game needs a bit of an update in order to keep it fresh. In Twist they’ve taken a wrench to the basic mechanics. ...

MySims (Review)

Dec 11, 2008

Five minutes in, one thing was clear. Despite our best efforts to kill the trees and build a vale of torment that would leave its residents a quivering mess, “Animal Crossing” would have been a more appropriate name. ...

The Lost Cases of Sherlock Holmes (Review)

Dec 10, 2008

How would Holmes solve the Mystery of the Missing Choco cookies? According to this game, he’d first find one of the messiest rooms in Great Britain – not a problem – and use a magic time machine to turn it into a spot-the-difference puzzle. ...

Prince of Persia (next-gen) (Review)

Dec 9, 2008

There have been several attempts to reclaim the Prince of Persia’s past over the years – ranging from the great to the tolerable – of which this outing is nothing less than the very latest. Reverting to the original moniker (no Two Thrones or Warrior Within crap) it has already been described by an overpaid marketing skunk as “a re-imagining of the franchise”. ...