Hardcore Gamer

• PS3
• 4 / 5
• États-Unis

Rainbow Moon has an astonishing amount of content packed in for a $15 game. It will take hours upon hours to get through and the constantly evolving combat keeps it relevant. It’s a mix of what we love in strategy role playing games with a hint of dungeon crawling to top it off. It’s a shame that the story is pretty much invisible and the controls can be a bit wonky at times, but that can be mostly overlooked with the solid gameplay mechanics. If you’re a fan of old school RPGs and have a couple bucks (and hours) to spare, Rainbow Moon is an investment that should be sought out.

• X360
• 4.5 / 5
• États-Unis

Trials Evolution is an absolutely shining addition to the franchise, if not the best. The biggest and most prominent “evolution” is the environments offering a much wider focus than just industrial work locations. While the gameplay has largely stayed the same, there was nothing wrong with it in the first place. It was, and still is, an addicting sense of enjoyment that is hard to describe. With nearly 70 different race events, many whacky challenges and a time consuming online mode, Trials Evolution will leave you more than satisfied for a long time. If there is one game someone could play for years on end, Trials Evolution is it.

• WII
• 4 / 5
• États-Unis

Still, despite being overly-casual, Trauma Team is an incredibly enjoyable game. I’ll admit that setting it in a ridiculously fictionalized version of my hometown of Portland, Maine (which the instruction manual incorrectly labels as Maryland) may influence my views on the story a bit, but it’s still a fun group of characters engaging in a large variety of very playable missions. There’s always something different to do, and it all fits seamlessly together in an epic whole. Trauma Team is completely engaging from beginning to end, and a fun ride the entire way.

• PS3
• X360
• 4.25 / 5
• États-Unis

In short, Assassin’s Creed 2 is the game that the original should have been. Some parts of it such as the lock-on system or when one character introduces himself with “It’s a-me, Mario!” are certainly groan worthy and slam into the fourth wall like a wrecking ball, but the gameplay as a whole is much more refined than it was in the first game. You basically are a super agile Italian ninja adept at scaling walls, stabbing people in the face, and then disappearing without a trace; only this time the game is about as fun as the premise sounds.

• PS3
• X360
• 4 / 5
• États-Unis

That being said, DJ Hero is a quite fresh approach to the rhythm genre despite the areas where it obviously falters. It’s certainly an expensive game to grab, but its unique style of play and well-done mashups do a good job towards warranting it. Whether or not the game fully covers that ground depends on how much you enjoy DJ-styled music, but even if you only have a passive liking of the style, DJ Hero shows that it is still entirely possible to have a rhythm game come out that manages to be completely different than any that have came before.

• PS3
• X360
• 3.5 / 5
• États-Unis

Fairytale Fights is not a game that’s going to revolutionize the genre. It is, however, a very fun, unique, and beefy (15-20 hours of gameplay) game that’s fun to tear through. Any XBLA addicts looking for a bigger slice of combat should definitely check out Fairytale Fights. Just don’t let your kids play it.

• X360
• 3.5 / 5
• États-Unis

Number One Hits has a few things going for it and is worth picking up if you own the original Lips, but ultimately falls short at being the must have karaoke game. If you have a PS3, then definitely go with SingStar instead. If you are absolutely dying to get your karaoke fix on 360 however and do not mind missing out on a few Lips-exclusive features, then sticking with only singing in the Rock Band games should tide you over just fine.

• WII
• 1.5 / 5
• États-Unis

Marvelous has had a hand in some great RPGs in the past – the excellent Rune Factory: Frontier comes to mind – so how Eldar Saga became such a mess is a complete mystery. Everything about it is frustrating: the awkward balancing, the cliche story, the awful sounds, and especially the dreadful controls. If you are considering Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga at all, chances are you simply want a Wii-exclusive online RPG, and if that’s the case then do yourself a favor and wait for Monster Hunter 3.

• PS2
• WII
• 4 / 5
• États-Unis

In essence, though nothing beats being in front of the actual machines and feeding in a quarter to square off with it, Pinball Hall of Fame – The Williams Collection is about as close as the video game medium allows for. The level of detail that each table has in the game is commendable, to the point that not only do they look as they should but more importantly how they play is also faithfully recreated. Pinball games may be hard to find now, but Pinball Hall of Fame – The Williams Collection is a great way for old pinball wizards to brush up on their favorites and budding ones to see what pinball was all about.

• WII
• 3 / 5
• États-Unis

The whole experience is fun, challenging, and engaging. Virtual Toys has managed to develop a puzzle game with the ideal combination of ever-increasing difficulty, intriguing gameplay, and pickup-and-playability. Spaceball Revolution is one of those games where you’ll keep telling yourself “Just one more round”, and with the promise of downloadable content in the future, it looks like that “one more round” will last a long, long time.

• PS3
• X360
• 4.5 / 5
• États-Unis

The Beatles: Rock Band is very much so geared towards fans of the band. Some aspects might not mean much to you if you don’t know the band very well, but you will still have fun playing through the songs themselves. Though the flaws of a purely Beatles track list and star power obscuring notes drag things down a bit, the game is really an example of a band-themed game done right. It puts the band up on display while at the same time delivering an experience styled accurately around the band without sacrificing any gameplay in doing so.

• X360
• 4.5 / 5
• États-Unis

Shadow Complex is an incredibly solid game that could fetch $30-40 as a retail copy. While it isn’t the longest game out there (you should be able to complete the game in under 8 hours), the fact that it’s a mere $15 makes the game a must-buy for any 360 owner. With titles like Shadow Complex and Braid, XBLA has been quickly shifting from a place for retro ports to a showcase for some of the best indie and labor-of-love projects in the gaming industry.

• PS3
• X360
• 4.25 / 5
• États-Unis

For boxing fans, there is not a better simulation experience on the market. With easy-to-pick-up controls and stunning graphics, Fight Night Round 4 is a fantastic experience with plenty of replay value and tons of unlockable content to keep any boxing fan busy for months.

• DS
• 4 / 5
• États-Unis

• WII
• 4.5 / 5
• États-Unis

In the past Nintendo’s reluctance to embrace new intellectual properties for release on the Wii has failed to produce new classics. However, their dedication to their established franchises has always seemed to result in fun games and Punch-Out!! for the Wii is no exception.

• PC
• X360
• 3.25 / 5
• États-Unis

In the end, Velvet Assassin is definitely worth a playthrough. The grim view of war and entertaining stealth mechanics make it so it will certainly be entertaining, but the stodgy AI and useless gunplay keep this from being a must-have title. It really is a shame, because I am hard-pressed to think of many games that capture the atrocities of war in such a realistic light.

• DS
• 1.5 / 5
• États-Unis

• WII
• 1.5 / 5
• États-Unis