The Excite series has seen some great entries on the Wii. ExciteTruck, a close-to-launch title, was a great trick-racing game where stars collected while racing through drifting, tree-running, jumping, spinning and generally performing unrealistic stunts were almost more important than winning the race. ExciteBots took the idea and went even more crazy: racing mechanized insects was just the tip of the insanity-iceberg. If you’re looking for more of that then ExciteBike: World Challenge will disappoint. That’s because it returns to the simplicity of the original ExciteBike and re-imagines it. The result is a very simple game with good depth and a lot of fun.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of ExciteBike: World Challenge.

Buzz is a game show game. You get asked questions, and have to answer them for points. Score more points than your friends and you win. Place second and you are still first of the losers. Play on your own and you are just plain sad. But after playing Buzz, I am still a little bit puzzled.

See, most games have either an expansion pack to tide you over until the next major release, or they have a full blown sequel. Expansions should add more of the same, maybe a little bit extra and they should certainly cost less than the original game. They should also tie in nicely with the first game and obviously be able to access the originals content. Sequels should be all new content and even though they look and feel similar to the original, should not really contain much, if any, of the original game’s content. Buzz: Brain of the World, is neither.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Buzz: Brain of the World.

Everybody loves playing in dirt when they are small. The way mud oozes through your fingers, or the way you can secretly hide your dirty nappy by taking a mud bath. When you are bigger you design intricate road networks and tunnels for your toy cars. But somewhere along the course of our lives we develop this hatred for dirt. We claim that its, well, dirty. We even go as far as claiming cleanliness is next to Godliness. But deep inside, every time it rains, we get this longing feeling inside us to run out and jump into that puddle of mud. Every time we drive past road works, we feel the urge to jump on the heap of sand. So when a game is released that lets you get dirty, we should all sit up and take note. MX vs ATV Reflex is that game.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of MX vs ATV Reflex.

Heavy Rain is the much anticipated and talked about interactive psychological thriller from Sony and developer Quantic Dream. The genre of psychological thriller is intriguing in any videogame, but even more so in this case because of the unprecedented atmosphere created and the branching storylines. Every decision you make impacts on the story progression and bear in mind that some decisions are easier than others. You’ll be second guessing yourself the whole time playing the ‘what-if’ game in your mind, and the only way to silence the doubts is to play it again.

The story goes a little something like this. A city on the East Coast of the United States is being terrorised by a serial killer who has come to be known as the Origami Killer as a result of his modus operandi of leaving an Origami figure on each of the bodies of his victims. The public’s panic escalates after a potential new victim disappears and the police appear no closer to identifying the killer. Time is against them as the victims are typically discovered drowned four days after they go missing.

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As the name suggests, 100 Classic Book Collection is not a game so much as a library. Even so, we review these things because they’re on the DS which is, ostensibly a game-playing device, so if said device is used to run software it is automatically assumed to be fun.

It’s hard to figure out just what to rate here. The books chosen are magnificent. Most of Austen, lots of Dickens, Eliot, multiple Bronte’s, many Shakespeares. You couldn’t get a much better selection of 100 books anywhere. But while the books are the reason for the software, what should be discussed is the software used to read the books – and just why would you use this software instead of buying the real thing – ink on paper? Reading a book on your DS is never going to be better than reading a shiny new book smelling like books do. It is, however, cheaper and far more portable. Particularly if the book in question is Les Miserables.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of 100 Classic Book Collection.

Football has been described as the beautiful game, and I am convinced that they were not talking about the actual players. It is beautiful in its tactics. It is beautiful in its sophistication. It is beautiful in its technicality. And if you know when a player is offside in football then you already know more about the sport than most people. Football has also been described as soccer, mostly to please the Americans who already used the phrase “football” for their sport where the ball almost never touches any feet. There is nothing wrong with the word soccer; it’s just not as descriptive as the word football. The same goes for Konami’s attempt at a football game. There is nothing really wrong with it; it’s just that it’s soccer, and not football.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Pro Evolution Soccer 2010.

Did anyone else see this coming: another year, another FIFA game? If there is one thing we can rely on EA for, it’s to release the same game with a new digit at the end and a new hero on the cover. They do it year in and year out and still the punters buy it. They used this strategy to become a juggernaut in the industry, so no surprise that they did it again! And sure enough, this being a world cup year, they will find a way to squeeze the same game out with a “World Cup” in the title somewhere. Now imagine my surprise when I played FIFA 10 and found it to be the best sports title I have ever played, let alone the best football title! Soccer never stood a chance.

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Aliens. Ooh, scary! We read about mysterious aliens coming to earth, searching for intelligent life and failing to find it in the US. We read how they kidnap poor trailer trash hillbillies and do all sorts of nasty probes. We see movies of the little green men using ray guns to vaporise everything and everyone in their way. We listen to music that sometimes sounds like the artists are from another planet. And finally we play games about aliens coming to our planet and scaring babies. But in Planet 51, the whole concept has been turned on its head.

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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.

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Aliens VS Predator is the latest game from franchise veterans Rebellion that allows gamers, as well as fans of the Alien and Predator universes (not mutually exclusive), to jump into the skins of the Marine (weak but endowed with heavy weaponry), the Alien (quick and terrifying) and the Predator (powerful and technologically savvy), as each faction meets one another in dark corridors, open jungles, Alien infested hallways and ancient temples in a battle for survival, using their specific strengths to ensure they don’t meet their end in a gory, explosive death.

As you run through these environments, it’s clear Rebellion has learned a thing or two, as far as presentation and spectacle is concerned, since the developer’s own Aliens VS Predator on the PC in 1999, and has moved with the times providing a game of undeniable visual quality and tense atmosphere, complete with classic sound effects (think Pulse Rifle fire and Alien squeals) to pull you straight into the experience, making a very good first impression that goes a long way to keeping you engaged.

As with all videogame first impressions, they may last, but if the underlying experience is too negatively intrusive, they fade fast which allows you to start focussing on this under par campaign structure and that poorly executed gameplay mechanic, which is exactly the case with Aliens VS Predator. As a singleplayer game, as detailed as the visuals may be, it feels half-finished and (to some degree) rushed, with sparkles of interest glittering here and there.

As a multiplayer game, however, the vision of Aliens VS Predator starts to shine through, and despite some flaws and connectivity issues, it’s the saving grace of the total package, becoming more than half of the reason you would consider picking the game up in the first place.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Aliens VS Predator.

There are some good things about Need for Speed Nitro. But any reasonable comparison between it and what else is available in its genre shows it to be a pale shadow of the state of the art, and on top of that, it’s short on fun.

What we’ve got here is failure to communicate. No online play for a fairly serious car-racing game in 2009? I guess it was considered not worth the effort to do. A lot of the game reeks of that attitude: very few tracks, a repetitive and simplistic career mode, limited car selection, long loading times and shockingly bad visuals combine to give an impression that the Wii version of Need for Speed is very much a poor cousin to the real deal on the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. Oh, and the racing is not all that interesting either.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Need for Speed: NITRO.

Richard Marcinko. Veteran Navy SEAL. A hero of the US Cold War. His friends call him Dick, “Demo Dick.” Yes, I too chuckled at his nickname, but if you met this hardcore open-fisted killing machine in real life, you’d be gurgling for breath out of the new hole in the side of your temple if he heard you so much as giggle at his nickname. He’s that kind of bad-ass.

Unfortunately, much like its main protagonist, Rogue Warrior also carries an equal degree of “bad,” only this time it’s not book-ended by some appropriately nefarious attitude or “kill-anything-that-looks-funny” outlook on life.Rogue Warrior is just bad. Really bad. And not bad in a good way like Dick’s bad, but bad like bad breath or bad news or bad day at the office bad.

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The biggest advantage of being a games reviewer is that I get to play games I would normally never have given a second glance. Sometimes this can backfire horribly and I get to play games nobody ever should play. But then I also discover some gems out there, games that not only deserve a second glance, but even a purchase. A game that you will tell your friends to buy. A game that no collection should be without. Sadly Tornado Outbreak is not one of these games. It comes pretty close though.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Tornado Outbreak.

I don’t think I expect too much from an expansion. At the very least it should give you more of the wholesome goodness that the original game provided. At best it will add more levels, more items and more gameplay, changing the way the game is played. An excellent example of this is the Burnout Paradise expansions. First of all they were all free. Secondly, they added more cars and even motorcycles to the world, which completely changed the way the game could be played.

But the day of the classic expansion seems to be numbered. No more will you see huge expansions with massive game changing additions. It has all been chopped into little micro transactions and downloadable content. You can now get a new outfit for your character for a few Rands, or maybe a new gun in your favourite shooter. On occasion you get a new level, or a new type of gameplay. All for a cost that when added together quickly becomes a huge expense. Sometimes these extras are even included on the original game and all you pay for is a code to unlock them. Some titles are designed from the ground up to be expanded with small additions. They make it very easy for you to part with your money for the smallest of virtual items.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of The Sims 3: High-End Loft Stuff.

The original Bioshock was largely hailed as a masterwork of videogame narrative and design - a title that set the bar for how stories in games should be told, how players should be allowed to experiment in play, and the kinds of worlds gamers should expect from developers in the future. It was a self-contained, almost perfect game that didn’t necessarily warrant any further additions in the form of sequels or spin-offs.

When it was announced that Bioshock was being primed for franchise material shortly after the game’s release (following the title’s impressive sales performance), warning bells began to sound amongst the game’s already rabid fanbase and questions began to be raised: How would a follow-up be handled? What stories from Bioshock were left to tell? Was the game’s publisher 2K Games simply going to wring the brand for cash?

The subsequent concrete announcement of a sequel in development, which was to include a multiplayer component of all things, had fans worried, while the revelation that a new studio, 2K Marin (seeded with developers from 2K Boston/Irrational), would handle development duties put serious doubts into the minds of those who had finally come around to the idea of a follow-up, and shortly before release, fans had resolved themselves to expect a game of lesser quality to the original, but still ‘good’ and possibly even ‘enjoyable.’

Post Bioshock 2’s release, however, and after soaking up the atmosphere of the singleplayer mode and following its highly intriguing story, and after competing online in the game’s extraordinarily fun and addictive multiplayer component, I can say that not only is Bioshock 2 ‘good’ and ‘enjoyable,’ it reaches the high bars set by the original title in the series, and is in my mind more than a worthy successor to that modern masterpiece.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Bioshock 2.