January 2009

  • Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds – The Best Cartoon-Styled Golf Game Ever!

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    Let me be perfectly clear here. This game is not trying to be, nor will it ever be a Tiger Woods golf game. The entire point of the Hot Shots Golf is to be the exact opposite. A more cartooned styled golf game that offers comedy and golf merged into one. The controls are really easy to master, and you are able to select from plenty of different people, all with their own special abilities and handicaps, in order to fight your way tooth and nail through many different courses to become the new champion. Again, I reiterate, this is no Tiger Woods game. It does not even touch near as close, and it’s not trying to. What it is trying to be is a funny golf game that offers a good time for all players wrapped up nicely together. And as that, it wins my solid stamp of approval. So if you are a fan of the total package, realistic simulator game, then go buy Tiger Woods. Read more

  • Lair – As Broken as a PS3 Game Comes

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    I will admit: that the premise for Lair, a Factor 5 and Sony Computer Entertainment production is genuine. But that does not necessarily mean that this game is anything worthwhile, especially worth spending any of your hard earned dollars on. While in theory this seems like a great idea for a video game: ride on around on a cool looking dragon and breathe fire upon your foes while hacking and slashing from atop your reptilian steed, this game is plagued by so many flaws and faults that it greatly deteriorates what otherwise would be a great video game with an awesome and original premise that offers much to gamers. Unfortunately, this game is riddled with glitches and common oversights that went untouched and overlooked during the production process. The end results make playing this game so annoying that many gamers will become easily frustrated early on in the game.

    The controls are really choppy, which is equivalent to the choppy graphics and long level load times. Read more

  • Heavenly Sword - Nothing Heavenly About it!

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    In light of the smash hit for the Xbox 360 gaming consoles. Dynasty Warriors, I think that Sony Computer Entertainment wanted to offer their own version of a battle ridden game where enemies swarm upon your character from all sides and you have to fend them off with brandishing a trademark weapon and flailing your arms wildly. This I get. But what I don’t understand is what they were thinking when it comes to Heavenly Sword, which at best, is a lackluster rip off of Dynasty Warriors. And similarly, Dynasty Warriors was created by Microsoft Studios, whereas Heavenly Sword was created by Sony Computer Entertainment, so it makes sense that each game is signature to the corresponding console. Read more

  • Formula One Championship Edition – Great Graphics, Boring Game Play

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    Toot your horns and get ready to go on a high octane racing adventure with the latest foray of tire burning, suffocating and blinding racing for the Sony Playstation. A creation of Sony Computer Entertainment and SCE Studios in Liverpool does bring to the world of avid racing game fans everywhere, Formula One Championship Edition. This time around you can expect amazing graphics, a kick butt managerial mode and plenty of awesome cars and highly detailed, intense racing tracks to destroy your million dollar racing machines on. However, like the many Formula One games that have preceded this one, get ready to drive your car in endless left circles, sometimes right, until your eyes bleed. But then again, that is the how Formula One racing games work – so I can’t be to biased against them for making this game true to its real life format. And now on to the goodies and bad parts about this racing adventure from Sony.

    Sony made sure to pull out all of the stops when they created Formula One Championship Edition for the Sony Play Station Three console. Read more

  • Folklore – Awesome Role Playing Game with a Dungeon Builder

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    To be one hundred percent honest, I was not expecting very much at all when I removed Folklore for the PS3 from the rental case that it came and popped it into my console to see what I could do with it. But then again, you never know about certain games, which is why, mind you, I rented it before buying it. And now I happily own a copy. And especially considering that there are some enormously successfully games out there for the PS3 like Elder Scrolls the Oblivion, or Final Fantasy, amongst others, I found it hard to believe that this game would really be able to offer gamers much more than had already been done prior. But boy was I freaking wrong! Game Republic (JP) and Sony Computer Entertainment did a simply put, fantastic job of rendering this game to be fierce competitor with other rival role playing games.

    The game offers a totally different take on the world of fantasy role playing video games. It merges two different worlds in the game, the world of the living and the world of the dead. Read more

  • Most Anticipated Games of 2009

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    Every year brings a host of new releases, some good, some bad and this year looks set to be a good one with a number of exciting titles on the way. Let’s have a look at the pick of the bunch due for release in 2009.

    Street Fighter IVFirst up is Street Fighter IV which looks visually stunning with stylized 3D environments and characters. Although the game-play will be the same 2D affair we’re used to there will be more movement in the camera for a better sense of depth and loads of new special moves to master. Old favourites like Ryu, Ken, Guile and Chun-Li, as well as villains Vega and M. Bison return for more fighting action and they’ll be joined by a host of entirely new characters. It’ll be released on PS3 and Xbox 360.

    F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin is next up and it picks up the story where the original left off, in fact it starts half an hour before the end of the last game and casts you in a new role as the psychic Michael Beckett. Read more

  • Little Big Planet Review

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    Little Big Planet Box UKLittle Big Planet is a fantastically cute game for the Playstation 3 which is suitable for the whole family. Released towards the end of 2008 it is a puzzle game featuring platform game-play and allows for a huge amount of user-generated content.

    Players control on screen avatars known as Sackboys or Sackgirls and they can run around, jump, hang onto objects to swing and fly and also drag or push objects in order to navigate their way through the diverse levels. Starting off in your own personal pod you can play through a story mode which features fifty pre-built levels ranging from small mini-games to large involved environments.

    Visually speaking the game is absolutely gorgeous and the Sackpeople are super cute with terrific animations and loads of personality. The imaginative backdrops are extremely creative and the graphics are fantastic with objects crafted from various materials each with their own unique physics properties. Read more

  • Grand Turismo 5: Prologue – Sony’s Best Racer Yet!

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    When it comes to racing games that are as realistic as possible, often times many video game production companies avidly fail to deliver a truly exceptional product. However, when you take one of the largest video game production companies in the world, that being the monster company Sony Computer Entertainment, and have them work hand in hand with Polyphony Digital, the ending results are the most fabulous and realistic racing game ever created for any of the next generation consoles, yet in this case, exclusive to the Sony Play Station 3 console.

    Released in the earlier part of 2008, ‘Grand Turismo 5: Prologue,’ is by far one of the most intense, realistic and vetted racing games of all time. And considering that Sony has authored four prior releases, they had a rather lofty already existing platform to improve upon. Read more

  • Hall of Classics: Actraiser

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    It's strange to think that console gaming has been going on for over 30 years. Video Gaming is a fast-moving industry with a fickle audience. Yesterday's stunning breakthrough is today's badly-aged bargain cart, as well as tomorrow's nostalgia trip. In Game Head's new feature, Hall of Classics, we'll be looking at games that went through all three stages. What made them great for their time, why were they replaced, why are they memorable now?

    The first entry in HoC is Enix's 1990 platformer/God-game, Actraiser. If there's one thing that made the Super Nintendo Entertainment System an excellent console, it was the role playing games. SNES's main competition, the Sega Genesis, never really caught up in that category. There were so many RPG's on the Super Nintendo that it became the foundation of many of the genre's modern-day cliches. Amid the mass of formulaic adventures with predictable characters and uninspired mechanics, a few really innovative titles came out. Actraiser was one of them. Read more

  • Time Crisis 4: Should Be Left in the Arcade

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    Contrary to all of the rumors and wilds speculation that must have been circulating the offices of Namco when they were getting ready to release the much anticipated fourth edition of their arcade smash hit endeavor, Time Crisis 4—they would have been much better just leaving this game to the quarter pumping neophytes at the local arcade, who would have made them more money than this traditional shooter flop did. And for those of you who are not familiar with the Time Crisis franchise, I will quickly bring you entirely up to speed, okay!

    If you ever find yourself in an arcade, where protagonist patrons waste ample amounts of silver quarters frying their brains in front of mostly old school games that offer a nostalgic notion – then you will most certainly happen upon Time Crisis, 1, 2, or even three and sometimes in rare cases, Four. This game made a solid name for itself as one of the most popular arcade shooters ever, and here is why. It features two player game play in front of huge wide screen TVs and it was filled with props. Read more