Darksiders was for me one of those titles that seemed to have flown under the radar, but kicked the year off to a flying start. It was so refreshing to not have to live through the hype cycle and be on constant spoiler alert. It was brilliant to be completely surprised by this epic game that came from nowhere and now all I can hope to do is encourage as many gamers as possible to get their hands on it, and look forward to the sequel of course!

Darksiders sees players stepping into the role of War, the first Horseman of the Apocalypse. This formidable foe is deceived into prematurely bringing about the end of the world. Thereafter, War stands accused of inciting a war between Heaven and Hell and is stripped of his powers but decides to return to Earth, which is now under the grips of demonic forces, to punish those responsible. However, the journey he faces across the decimated Earth is not easy as he is hunted by a band of vengeful angels as well as terrifying creatures from Hell, some of whom he must forge uneasy alliances with in order to continue his quest.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Darksiders.

Hype is a terrible thing that rarely brings true gems to the surface, but more often than not creates expectations that cannot be fulfilled. Having watched James Cameron’s Avatar “the movie” in 2D I was blown away by the experience and eager to revisit Pandora in the game. Sadly, whilst I found Pandora to be just as beautiful, the gameplay failed to deliver a captivating experience. Don’t despair though there is some good news…

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game Review

Thanks to the ongoing support of our sponsors we were once again able to bring you a slew of competitions this past month. We are thrilled to announce the winners in our most recent competitions and wish those who didn’t win better luck next time!

Taking the spoils in MotorStorm: Artic Edge (PSP) was Imraan Kadwa and Wade Kruger.

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Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune raised the bar when it was released back in 2007, showcasing not only the capabilities of the then new PlayStation 3 but heralding in a new form of cinematic gameplay. Not only was the game engaging and environment beautifully realized, but we got introduced to the ever charming Nathan Drake, the Indiana Jones of the video game industry. Given the overwhelming success of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, expectations were high to see what Naughty Dog could come up with for a sequel. Could they raise the bar yet again and delight gamers with a similar yet fresh experience? Absolutely, they have exceeded all expectations and once again given the rest of the industry something to aspire to.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

Real Time Strategy (RTS) games have typically struggled on the consoles due to the challenges of micro-managing ones units without the benefit of a mouse. When you can’t quickly control your units your strategy goes to pot and all sense of enjoyment is destroyed. Thankfully Mushroom Wars suffers from none of these blunders whatsoever and it is super easy to unleash your armies with precision control.

When you think of mushrooms you might conjure up images of cute little peace loving fungi – not so with Mushroom Wars, these guys take no prisoners! First things first and you need to take care of the campaign business. There are homelands to be defended and wars to be won. Now the campaign consists of 25 levels set against meadows, forests and the foothills of mushroom land. Albeit I was eagerly anticipating this game since I first caught a glimpse of the art style, but once I started I couldn’t stop until I was victorious. So consider yourselves forewarned people, set aside a good 6-8 hours depending on your skills and let yourself be carried away from your daily concerns. I played it through in this time on easy and you’ll probably need longer if you crank up the difficulty to the medium or hard options.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Mushroom Wars.

Trine offers pure escapism transporting you into a beautifully realised environment filled with undead armies to vanquish and treasures to seek out. The vibrant colours alone are so captivating it is easy to get lost in the beauty were it not for the undead who are hell bent on destroying you.

We gamers seldom care for a story and really just want to get on with the action, and whilst the Trine story is not epic by any means the narration is so engaging you’ll be drawn in right from the start. The soothing narrator’s voice tells of a wondrous tale that begins at the Astral Academy, the details of which I’ll leave for your enjoyment, which gels so perfectly with the enchanting medieval mood created through the use of colour and artwork you are literally transported to another world. In truth you never really want the game to end but all do things do come to an end…and fortunately there is sufficient replayability to entice another run through.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Trine.

rAge 2009 got off to a thumping start thanks to EA’s launch of the highly anticipated FIFA 10 videogame. The atmosphere was already electric with the public and media packing into the Coca-Cola Dome in Johannesburg to get their fix of the latest technology. EA cranked this up a notch, sending the crowd into a frenzy with the appearance of Dr Khumalo and Gary Bailey. These two giants of the soccer world certainly added to the authenticity of the launch and are truly fantastic ambassadors for the game.

Festivities got underway swiftly with Gary and the Doc selecting their teams of ten from the swarming contingent of press. Each team member got the opportunity to kick one soccer ball into the goals which measured the velocity of the strike. Scoring was a minor significance with the focus being on the theme of “celebration.” Gary’s team took the spoils with an outstanding display of celebration antics ranging from dropping to ones knees with a shirt pulled over ones head to hoisting players onto shoulders World Cup winning style. Whilst Gary’s team won, Dr Khumalo certainly had the better looking bunch with his carefully chosen selection of mostly ladies.

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It has been a while since I have played a Splinter Cell title and having not enjoyed prior experiences in this stealth genre I was not expecting much. Nevertheless I donned my “professional” game reviewer hat and popped by the impressive Megarom showcase at rAge 2009 to see if Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction on the Xbox 360 could impress.

Whilst I didn’t get the opportunity to personally put Sam Fischer through his paces the Megarom staff delivered a more than competent display of the game’s new features. The demo we were shown was hot off the press running on a debug unit and it is looking very promising.

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The Wireless Keypad is easily attached to the Sixaxis or DualShock controller by means of a simple spring loaded latch that fits around the center of the controller. The mechanism is effective and makes it just as easy to unhook the keypad from the controller.

I struggled with the size of the keys given they are quite small, but hey I have big fingers and face similar challenges with sending sms’s on cellphones so this is really a minor annoyance. Having a fully functionality QWERTY keypad on the PS3 is terrific and removes the frustration of trying to communicate by navigating around the onscreen keypad!

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of the Wireless Keypad.

I have fond memories of Castle Wolfenstein from my PC days and I was looking forward to seeing how it made the transition to the console. Breathe easy gentlemen…they have done us proud and delivered a gem of a game. The science fiction storyline is terrific, the gameplay mechanic is slick and as a result I couldn’t stop playing. Then again I am a sucker for blowing stuff up so this was a perfect match for me.

The action in Wolfenstein kicks off immediately after the events from Return to Castle Wolfenstein. You got it right, the world needs saving again and this time you get to play the role of Officer of Secret Actions (OSA) agent BJ Blazkowicz. Set during World War II in the German town of Isenstadt, your mission is to hook-up with the local Resistance faction and uncover what the Nazis are up to. Rumour has it they are experimenting with a dimension that contains supernatural powers called The Veil. Your job is to get in, blow stuff up and put the Third Reich’s evil aspirations to an end before they can use The Veil to gain the upper hand in the war.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Wolfenstein.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 is everything golfing fans could have hoped for and more. As a casual gamer you will need to have a love for golf itself as whilst the games saves you from hiking around a real golf course searching for your ball in the rough, it is just as frustrating as the real deal. With the incorporation of the Wii MotionPlus you now get to take all your “real-world” golfing inadequacies into the game. This in itself is a blessing and a curse in that you can no longer mask your problems and have to face up to investing the time to rectify them. So choosing to look at it positively, from the blissful comfort of your home you can experiment with different stances, grips and clubs to work through your technical problems. I am going to have to spend a lot of time doing this.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10.

Every now and again I am pleasantly surprised by unassuming titles that come to life and draw you into their world. Whilst reflecting on the creativity and effort that goes into making these moments possible, I feel a great sense of responsibility reviewing games given the blood, sweat and tears that the developers put into their art. This sense of responsibility to accurately reflect the games essence is even more prevalent in the “smaller” downloadable titles like MadBalls in Babo: Invasion. They are not the epic games with amazingly rendered cut scenes yet, through sheer determination and ingenuity, they manage to deliver compelling gaming experiences.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Madballs in Babo: Invasion.

It felt like Christmas morning as I opened my Wii MotionPlus and attached it to the Wii Remote. After first seeing the Wii MotionPlus demonstrated at E3 2008 with Wii Sports Resort, I was intrigued if this tiny addition could really enhance the gaming experience offered by the Wii. I would have preferred my first encounter with the Wii MotionPlus to be with a Nintendo title to ensure the hardware was being put to best use but for better or worse EA’s Grand Slam Tennis was going to have to do.

To get started quickly you can use any of the existing players of which Grand Slam boasts an impressive line-up of names that young and old can certainly recognise. Even if you aren’t a tennis follower you’ll be surprised as to how familiar the names of these tennis legends are.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Grand Slam Tennis.

The DS Lite is a versatile portable gaming device and is complemented with the addition of the TekCase. The TekCase is a lightweight and durable polycarbonate shell which the DS Lite fits inside. It is a snug fit and you can be assured that it does a decent job of protecting the unit. So as not to clash with the glossy finish of the DS Lite, the TekCase features the same finish and attracts just as many fingerprint smudges.

The shell contains a built in battery which boosts the already impressive battery life by 2.5 times. Every bit helps when you are out and about without access to a power point. Your charging options are further increased by the use of a standard USB interface to charge the battery in the shell. The TekCase comes with a convenient USB wall charger with a detachable USB carge cable. So at any point you can charge the unit from any USB device and also can reuse the TekCase USB charger to charge other devices. Once you have fitted the DS Lite into the TekCase and connected a charger it charges both the shell battery and the DS Lite battery simultaneously.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of the TeknoCreations DS Lite Tekcase.

It would seem that the world is always in need of saving and never more was this true than in Disaster: Day of Crisis. The storyline is your typical B-grade cheesy movie type stuff, but actually suits the plot rather well. The United States is having an all around bad day, in addition to a wave of natural disasters (volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, earthquakes, floods and hurricanes) sweeping across the land, a rogue special forces unit known as SURGE has seized a nuclear weapon amidst the chaos. Enter Ray, a former member of an elite International Rescue Team, who steps forward to stop the spreading bedlam and save the day.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Disaster: Day of Crisis.