Category: Reviews

Who remembers the first Crysis? Sure… a lot of us do, but what comes to mind? For me, and a lot of others, it’s the fact that it was gorgeous but brought nearly every PC to its knees with its system requirements for the ‘high’ and ‘ultra’ settings. Underneath all the graphical splendor, the gameplay experience wasn’t quite as overwhelming despite being solid and very entertaining. I chalked it down to the storyline (or player experience) not being as immersive as, for instance, Half-Life 2’s was. Crysis often felt like completing a shootout in one location only to travel to another and repeat the process all over again, feeling removed from the experience in between. Continue reading “Crysis 2 Review (PC)”

When playing Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom, you can’t help but think this game is different. Not ‘good different’ or ‘bad different’, just different. Maybe ‘Ico different’, for those of us who remember that title for the PS2. Just like Ico, Majin was developed by a Japanese studio and delivers a digital fairytale that might not be ‘hardcore’ enough for some gamers but will enchant others. Continue reading “Majin and the Forbidden Kingdom review (X360)”

Some of the ‘older’ gamers among us no doubt remember the controversy surrounding the original Mortal Kombat and its fatalities. Deemed ‘not suitable’ by Nintendo, it was toned down for the home version. Years before that, however, Splatterhouse was released in arcades and not much later on console systems, where it was deemed so violent that parental advisory warnings had to be printed on the box. This year brings us a reboot of that title, which also contains its original predecessor as an unlockable feature. And much like the original, this is a game that is about gore, guts and blood. A lot of it. Within a minute of being handed over control of the main character, copious amounts of blood start shooting all over the area you start out in. Continue reading “Splatterhouse review (X360)”

Back in the first few months following the launch of Sony’s PS3, a game called Heavenly Sword caught my attention. Its combination of Hollywood talent, top-notch animation and the action adventure genre has kept it high on my “if I had a PS3”-list for about three years now. So when I found out that Heavenly Sword developer Ninja Theory was developing their next game for Xbox360 as well, I was immediately intrigued. At Gamescom in Cologne, I got a hands-on preview of Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, and came away thinking this could be a gem in the making. This past Friday saw the release of the game and this is my review of it, having played all the way through the game’s 14 chapters. Continue reading “Enslaved – Odyssey to the West Review (X360)”