It wouldn’t be far from the truth to say that I brought my PlayStation 3 just so that I could play Nathan Drake’s first adventure, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.

Despite being a day one PS2 owner, I’d held off buying a PlayStation 3 as a one-man protest against the way Sony treats the PAL territories (releasing their console late, removing the PS2 hardware emulation and charging us more for the pleasure). Also, I had an Xbox 360 and access to all the games that I wanted to play.

Except Uncharted. Continue reading Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception Explorer Edition unboxing →

I’ve been playing the Battlefield series since Battlefield 1942. BF:1942 was the game that really got me into multiplayer gaming. Unlike the Quakes and Unreal Tourneys, you could actually get to the top of the score table without firing a shot thanks to the use of a bit of stealth in conquest mode. This extra bit of depth, along with all those lovely vehicles to play with, served to elevate the series above id and Epic’s multiplayer offerings.

Battlefield 2 took things further, with Battlefield developer, DICE, further refining the gameplay (and increasing the accuracy of the weapons) into a modern combat experience that was, at the time, without peer. Even though I’m sci-fi nut, Battlefield 2042 with its futuristic setting took things a bit too far, if you ask me. I just didn’t get on with it. Continue reading Battlefield 3: PC Review →

After my  Assassin’s Creed 2 hands-on with Patrice Désilets over at Ubisoft’s Sydney headquarters, I later had the opportunity to review the game for NetGuide magazine.

Playing the game in the comfort of my own home, and not (badly) in front of the game’s creative director was a lot less nerve-racking. What’s amazing about the Assassin’s Creed series is just how much each game improves over the last. Whilst Assassin’s Creed was a very intelligetnly written game, it only really served as a prelude to the incredible gaming experiences that were to come.

Check out my review from the pages of Game Console, below. Continue reading Retrospective: Assassin’s Creed 2 Review Xbox 360 →

As a games reviewer you have to take the rough with the smooth. For every Call of Duty, there’s a Barbie game that wants reviewing. Sometimes reviewing a game that’s off the radar yields a surprisingly good gaming experience that may otherwise have been overlooked (I thought, to my shame, that Batman: Arkham Asylum was going to be a bit poo).

When I was asked to review Lips: Number One Hits, an eyebrow or two was raised. A karaoke game isn’t the usual fayre of a male gamer in his late thirties (as I was back then).

Continue reading Retrospective: Lips: Number One Hits Xbox 360 review →

I wasn’t asked to review Just Cause 2, I volunteered.  It was one of those games that fired me up with so much excitement that I really needed to write about it.

I’d really enjoyed the first Just Cause, even though it was a bit lacking. The demo for the sequel looked great on the Xbox 360 and it looked awesome on the PC. I picked it up on Steam before it was available in NZ at retail, enabling me to write a review whilst the game was still fresh.

Just Cause 2, for me, is a game that still keeps on giving. Not the most powerful in-game narrative, but it is massive and there is alway something to do (i.e. blow-up). I think the game provides a level of entertainment value-for-money far in excess for a lot of today’s games. I recommend that you give it a go if you haven’t already. It’s still available on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

I still return to it on a regular basis. In fact, I’m going to have a go now. Here’s  my review as originally published on the Game Console website in April 2010.

Continue reading Retrospective: Just Cause 2 PC Review →

Ninja Theory’s Enslaved: Journey to the West was an ambitious undertaking. A Sci-fi retelling of an old Chinese myth. Even the mouthful of a title alluded to the game’s  questionable marketability.

The game review below was written for the Game Console print magazine. Due to space constraints it was never published. Which was a shame, as it was a devil of a review to write.It’s not problem to write a “I hate this turd of a game” or an “I adore this game” review, but it’s another matter entirely when you are battling with your conscience over a game so close to being fantastic.

Continue reading Retrospective: Enslaved: Journey to the West Xbox 360 Review →