Platform: Xbox 360

Review: Fallout 3

It’s always a worry when something that you love and are protective of is subjected to a change in management. No matter how good a job the new guys do it’s inevitable that a large majority of fans will shout “What have they done to my game!?” from the rooftops. This is especially true of the Fallout series, which boasts some of the most hardcore (and unforgiving) set of fans in gaming.

With the announcement that Bethesda Softworks (scribes of the Elder Scrolls) had acquired the Fallout IP and were developing a third title, messages of excitement and indignation poured onto forums across the globe. Being a fan of the series myself, and also of Morrowind and Oblivion, I found myself being pretty excited about the latest instalment. So is it worthy of the glorious Fallout name, or should it be locked up in a Vault and never spoken of again?

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Review: TMNT

Being a child of the 80’s, I was a fan of many of the big cartoon franchises around at the time. Ghostbusters, Thundercats, you name it, I probably loved it, joined the fan-club and owned the bedding for it. One of my other favourites was definitely the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (or Hero Turtles as it was known in the UK). There have been a whole wealth of Turtles games down the years, some brilliant, some awful. Consider my delight in the summer of 2007 when I discovered that the franchise was not only due a comeback to the big screen in an animated sequel to the live-action movies, but also to our consoles in the accompanying game. Did it buck the trend of awful movie tie-ins? In a word? No. In two words? Hell no. Although there is that little matter of an easy 1000 gamer points…

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Review: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

“We’re going deep and we’re going hard”. Since its creation in 2003, the Call of Duty franchise has been known for devotion to the World War II setting. The original was widely praised for its gritty, realistic and harsh portrayal of historic battles. The game allowed me to experience war up close and far away simultaneously. I especially gained satisfaction in learning a bit about the past whilst enjoying a video game. Due to the success of Call of Duty, two sequels have since been released. Now, after allowing others a chance at expanding the franchise, acclaimed developer, Infinity Ward, has returned to the helm and (finally) decided to update its calendar with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Very few titles deserve such lavish praise, but this game is a winner with a mountain-sized ‘W’.

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Review: Guitar Hero: Metallica

Music can be a funny thing. In a similar fashion to games being lost in translation or just plain massacred when adapted to the cinema, music fans do not like to see one of their favourite bands or songs being misused or mistreated in any kind of media. This is particularly true with Metal, and when it comes to Metal, you don’t get much bigger than Metallica, (apart from the clearly superior Megadeth, discuss!).

So when Activision made the decision to take on Metallica’s story and bring it to the popular Guitar Hero series, they may have not realised just how much of a responsibility they had taken on. There was always going to be a danger that it ended up just being a regular Guitar Hero game with Metallica licensing ungracefully shoehorned in, while it should be more of a celebration of the band themselves. I’ve always wondered what it would feel like to be on a massive stage playing some of the best thrash songs around, and now I have my chance! Fair enough, the stage is more of a bedroom but we all have to start somewhere.

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Review: Left 4 Dead

Developed by legendary giants Valve, of Half-Life fame, Left 4 Dead shambled onto our Xbox 360s in November 2008. A little late for a review, I hear you cry? Well, despite its relative age, Left 4 Dead still holds its own among the new breed of 2009, and with the sequel to this zombie epic infecting us all this November I thought I’d remind us all how Left 4 Dead changed the face of the zombie game forever.

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Review: Dead Space

What makes a horror movie? The gore? The suspense? The monsters? A combination of all three? Whatever it is, it’s safe to say that we love them, and have done for years. As long as it makes us cringe, jump and lose sleep, horror is universally popular in film, but not so much in games. While many have hit the nail on the head, just as many have failed to even startle us. Thankfully Dead Space, the latest survival horror offering from giants EA, is shockingly on the right side of scary.

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Review: Damnation

Alternate realities are great. In recent years we’ve had; a World War 1 that never ended, the Cold War that got hot and the Russians invading America and, my favourite; the Nazis conquering England and the US in huge, metal zeppelins. These changeable histories allow developers a degree more creativity and scope than those setting out to make a straight-up recreation. Usually, we the gamers are better off for it, sliding through a plethora of ‘what if’ scenarios like penguins on ice and enjoying the ride. Unfortunately, sometimes the concept just doesn’t work. Case in point; Damnation. Developed by fledgling studio Blue Omega, this odd shooter/platformer is set in the American Civil War; except a nefarious, totalitarian dictator is sweeping across the country and taking over. Oh, and there’s machine guns, motorbikes and modern trains. Confused? You ain’t heard the half of it…

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Review: Spider-man: Web of Shadows

I am a Spider-man fanboy. I don’t know quite how to put into words how much the sheer mention of the name sends me into a pretty wild geekgasm. Spidey’s had mixed fortunes in gaming over the years; there are some massive success stories, but in recent times the releases have been somewhat of a ‘copy and paste’ of the open world format that Treyarch brought in with Spider-man 2, and hasn’t really deviated from that since.

This time Shaba Games and Treyarch made a big deal about how they’d re-approached the combat system, aiming for an experience that not only allows you to swing like Spidey, but also fight like him. Did they succeed? Yes, but it’s just a shame that the rest of the game hadn’t seen the same level of treatment.

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Review: Timeshift

Timeshift had something of a prolonged development schedule, after many delays and presumed cancellations. When it eventually hit shelves it was drastically different to the original time-manipulating vision of developer Saber Interactive. Deciding that graphically and atmospherically in its then current state the game could not compete with the likes of Gears of War, Saber went back to the drawing board and made several notable changes. Gone was the archetypal and never-fazed protagonist Michael Swift, in his place an anonymous mute aimed at making the player feel more involved in the action. The story was also heavily modified, as the game took a far darker tone than that of its previous direction. History tells us that games that go through these troublesome development cycles and false starts don’t tend to perform well (although Resident Evil 4 managed it ok), but have Saber managed to rewrite history and put out something worth playing?

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