The Reviews Column

Want to give your honest review of a game but don't want to write pages of text? This be the place for you, Lords and Ladies of GRcade!
This thread is simple: write a few lines about the game and give a score at the end if you wish (feel free to go the old Press Start route and give a separate score for Head and Heart).

For Example:
Halo Wars (360)
A great idea for a console RTS, bringing the already massive Halo franchise into a new genre. Visually it is nicely done, but nothing astonishing, and it throws a few surprises in with certain units that will delight any fan of the original games.
The problem is that it doesn't seem to fully understand whether it's a full-scale RTS or something smaller along the lines of Commandos, not really succeeding in either territory to a great extent, and the story and characters (especially the characters) are weak at best.

I think you need to be a proper Halophile to get the most out of this one - 6/10

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars - Nintendo DS

Bet you thought GTA would never work on the DS. You thought it would be toned down for the so-called "expanded audience", right, especially seeing as it was announced by that bint at E3 who kept baning on about her kids and puppies.

Well, you were wrong. Very wrong. This is GTA as we all know and love, and instead of trying to cram a game onto the DS, Rockstar have instead designed it from the ground up around the console. As a result we end up with a game that owe a lot to both the classic top-down GTA games, and the 3D GTA games. We all know that the DS does cel-shading very well, and Rockstar have decided to pursue that route with the graphics, resulting in a comic-book look that is backed up by the cutscenes.

There are all the features you have gotten used to, including a few that were missed in GTA4, such as the ability to actually spend all that money you make on houses. Only now you can also gamble it away on scratchcards and you can buy cars (a first for the series).

Anyway, long story short, this is strawberry floating awesome. Buy it.

10/10

Killzone 2 - PS3

On the surface is a tired, boring story with an ensemble cast of utter idiots crashing their way from vista to vista destroying and berating everything in sight. Underneath are brilliantly crafted FPS mechanics creating an intense and brutal shooter. It’s closer to the latest Call of Duty games than its main adversary Halo 3 and is overall a more realistic game. There’s a weight to the controls aided by some wonderful animation that makes combat a frantic experience. It‘s also the game’s undoing however.

It’s one of those games that become a chore when things aren’t going the player’s way. It works perfectly fine when things go to plan but when it doesn’t it’s very easy to blame the game itself. The slow movement, the lengthy reloads, the environments looking like a blended dog turd thrown on an artists impression of 1970s council estates. All easy to blame but just as easy to forget about when the game is at its best. And Killzone 2 is at its best a lot. It’s not perfect but it’s still a very tightly honed and enjoyable game that solidifies itself as Sony’s top first party franchise.

8 out of 10