AWARDS SEASON: BEST GAME OF THE YEAR 2007

Overall winner

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Honourable mentions

Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction

Mass Effect

UNCHARTED: DRAKE'S FORTUNE (2007) REVIEW

More than just a pretty game.

PS3 exclusive.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is an action adventure game published by Sony and developed by Naughty Dog for the PS3.

GAMEPLAY
In a couple of later levels the game genuinely gets quite scary and the change of tone is pretty impressive. To some people's frustration though the game is a bit repetitive, largely just going between similar looking places and mostly, outside of that segment towards the end, just really being slightly varying platforming and shooting sections.

STORY


GRAPHICS

One of the best looking games at its time of release

SOUND


VALUE FOR MONEY

OVERALL
Along with Tools of Destruction, Uncharted is one of the PS3 best launch titles.

MASS EFFECT

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version reviewed.

GAMEPLAY
Dialogue tree is great, the paragon and renegade unlocks add some interesting depth to already potentially deep conversations.

Combat is pretty rough and could certainly use improvement

The Mako is pretty crazy sometimes but the real problem is usually the giant empty worlds you're thrown into simply to drive to one small location and leave again. Thankfully these things are only really the side quests, so you can ignore them.

STORY
Saren is a fantastic antagonist, the Sovereign reveal is a cool twist

I actually found myself having the most fun simply talking to the squad mates and getting to know them in between missions. The level of depth the characters you bring along have is really brilliant and I was happily surprised to find that I enjoyed learning about them more enjoyable than the rest of the game.

The world building is excellent and sets up a really strong foundation

GRAPHICS

Some of the characters look fantastic, such as Wrex

SOUND
A really solid soundtrack

VALUE FOR MONEY

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ASSASSIN'S CREED (2007) REVIEW

A fish out of water.

PS3 version reviewed.

Assassin's Creed is a game published and developed by Ubisoft for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

GAMEPLAY
The open-world is pretty detailed and cities look nice. Travelling around locations is pretty great too, being able to scramble up most walls and move across the city quickly is a nice idea, but the amount of times Altaïr jumped in the wrong direction or did something I didn't want him to do wasn't great.

Combat seems pretty well presented, but the moment you actually start fighting it feels a bit clunky and can be annoying, especially when facing numerous enemies.

Most missions pretty much follow a similar pattern and may begin to feel a bit repetitive.

While I appreciate that listening to some of the targets, or leads to them, seems somewhat realistic, but some of the exchanges go on too long and you're left sat there watching two people talking for five minutes, which will certainly leave some people twiddling thumbs.

Not being able to swim.

STORY
I didn't really find any of the characters engaging,

GRAPHICS
Looks pretty good.

SOUND
Altaïr's voice actor stands out for all the wrong reasons because he has an American accent when every other character has a Middle-Eastern one. You can perhaps imagine some marketer at Ubisoft demanding him having such a voice to make him more "relatable".

The soundtrack is pretty good.

VALUE FOR MONEY
Around 15 hours, possibly more to offer. Not so much replay-ability but the price of the game seems justified

OVERALL
Despite having some really great qualities, Assassin's Creed failed to really engage me, with some frustrating mechanics and lacklustre story. It feels a bit like a jack of all trades, as it gets a lot of basic and interesting ideas in but doesn't really master anything.

MARIO & SONIC AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES

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version reviewed.

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CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE

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version reviewed.

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PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN ONLINE

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version reviewed.

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THE SIMPSONS GAME

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version.

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THE WITCHER

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version.

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RATCHET & CLANK: TOOLS OF DESTRUCTION (2007) REVIEW

A successful leap between generations.

PS3 exclusive.

Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction is a platformer published by Sony and developed by Insomniac Games for the Playstation 3.

GAMEPLAY
Makes use of the PS3 and has a more cinematic vibe, as well as more spectacular set pieces

Space combat returns, although this time it's on rails

Weapon mods are pretty much a new feature as they've been overhauled from Deadlocked. The new options allow for more customisation and really help weapons feel more powerful

New gadgets such as Mr Zurkon, the Groovitron

Some people have had problems with certain games and the PS3's motion controls. I didn't have any problem with the motion controls in this game, I liked the glider making actual use of them too, rather than a gimmicky side thing, even if the decryptor felt more in that direction. If you do have any problems with the motion controls the game allows you to switch to manual controls, which I think deserves some appreciation

No hub world like Up Your Arsenal or Deadlocked had

The Clank sections are more like Going Commando than Up Your Arsenal

There a some bugs, enemies spawning underneath the ground and some rather frustrating ones such as with a specific boss where his health meter would disappear and he would become invulnerable to damage

STORY
Insomniac actually really started world building for the Ratchet & Clank universe in this game, which I thought was pretty cool. I think this really helped the story feel much more open, like it's taking place in a big universe, rather than the more constricted smaller scale of the original games.

GRAPHICS

Certainly one of the first games to really show off how good the PS3 can look.

SOUND
Probably better than any of the PS2 games soundtrack

VALUE FOR MONEY

OVERALL
Insomniac did a great job bringing Ratchet & Clank to the PS3, despite a few hiccups here and there. I'd argue it's the best Ratchet & Clank game yet and that it's definitely worth your time.

AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER - THE BURNING EARTH (2007) REVIEW

PS2 version reviewed.

Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Burning Earth is an action advenutre game published and developed by THQ for the Playstation 2, Xbox 360, Wii, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS.

GAMEPLAY
My biggest issue with this game is that none of the elements feel different. Every characters has the same moves, just with different names really. Like the previous game, Aang is easily the best character as you'll be able to do all the elemental requirement parts. To put into perspective how silly this really is, Momo is as strong as all the other characters, throwing tomatoes does as much damage as bending fire, earth and water. There is no depth at all to any combat, and no real reason to do so, when you can actually just run past many encounters.

The game never really changes throughout, you'll use the same moves, fight mostly the same enemies and that's it really.

The boss battles are hilariously terrible once Aang's ranged attack gets powerful enough, as you can just stand there and blast the boss in question until the end of the fight. No strategy, tactics or anything, just standing and blasting with one button. The only boss battle that wasn't a fight had you running away from the boss, but ended up being annoying as you could get stuck on invisible walls that meant you'd have to redo the segment when you weren't at fault.

The camera can be a bit annoying too, you can't even move it either. Talking of camera work how about the cutscenes? None of the characters mouths move to their words and the game insists on zooming in when they talk, making it look really stupid. Before cutscenes starts characters are also often stuck in the combat pose when the scene was initiated making them look bizarre.

STORY
I wasn't expecting the game to be the longest but it ended so abruptly, somewhere about two thirds of the way through the second season of the TV show. It's pretty crazy and means not much really makes sense.

GRAPHICS

Looks alright I guess.

SOUND
It's actually from the show and appears more consistently than the first game, so in that regard this one wins.

VALUE FOR MONEY

The game is about 4 hours long and maybe pushing five for all the collectables and bonus content. That's certainly pretty poor for any price.

OVERALL
This game was on the right track but on the wrong train. They went in with that action adventure style where this franchise has so much potential, but that's where the similarities end really. It feels like so many other licensed games and the only reason it's really worth playing is if you're a big fan of the TV show.

PORTAL

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PC version.

Portal is a puzzle game published and developed by Valve for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

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TEAM FORTRESS 2

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version reviewed.

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THE LEGEND OF SPYRO: THE ETERNAL NIGHT (2007) REVIEW

The Eternal Night of anger and frustration.

PS2 version reviewed.

The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night is an action adventure game published by Sierra Entertainment and developed by Krome Studios for the Playstation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS.

Just as a side note, while I haven't played the Game Boy Advance version of this game I have heard it is a truly hidden gem and one of the best games on the system. I'm being serious! Go take a look on Metacritic.

GAMEPLAY
This game is simply way too hard and it really hurts the game, as well as the player. I mean, this franchise's target audience you'd assume would be kids and younger teenagers, but the game is probably too difficult for some, and then doesn't really do enough to interest older audiences, so it ends up pandering to no one. I'm not surprised to see this game fail to sell very well because of things like this.

When I mean the game is hard and frustrating I really mean it, I'd almost describe it as if you play as the NPC and the NPCs are the playable character because they've got stun moves, knock back moves and can often hit you before you hit them. It really feels as if Krome saw people complaining that the first one was too easy so stuck their middle finger up and made it way too frustrating instead. It isn't just the combat that's frustrating though, some platforming segments have you miss platforms you seemingly reach and at one point there are these really annoying crab things that scuttle around that you have to hit in slow motion - it takes far too long to do and the only thing it succeeds in is further agitating the player to the point that is feels like that's all Krome wanted to do.

Some bosses I can understand get used again in games, if you want to redo a boss once then I'll be alright with that, but this game is frighteningly lazy in the boss department. If you've played A New Beginning then you'll remember the Ice King boss who was recycled again later in the game as the Electric King. In the Eternal Night you have to fight the same boss with different names again, not once, not twice but five times. That means you'll have faced the same boss seven times in two games. That is just so awfully lazy. In fact all the bosses from the previous game are reused under different names in this game and only two of the bosses you fight are new.

One of the new bosses has a move that drops explosives on the battlefield randomly which means you have to rely on luck to avoid them. The boss also gets in some other enemies to help fight against you, this is really annoying because the boss won't move onto the next cycle of attack until these enemies are dealt with and sometimes they back into the boss who you can't hurt outside of a small window that isn't triggered until the other enemies are dealt with - otherwise if you get to close to the boss he will hit you and potentially knock you out the arena and you have to start again.

That particular boss can also defeat you in one move with the help of the extra enemies if you get caught in an unlucky combo. Incredibly this isn't the only part filled with annoying rubbish like that, some enemies can also dispatch of you in one unlucky combo too in moments throughout the game, such as the hounds that can jump halfway across the universe to hit you, the scorpions that can block all your moves then stun and defeat you or the cavalry units that can take away half your health and stun you so the rest of the enemies around can finish you off.

It seems Krome ignored the problems people had with the first game and decided that all they needed to do was up the difficulty. There is still no level selector, hub world or anything. If you want to play a certain level your'll have to replay the whole game, they did add collectables, but they're an absolute pain to find because if you even miss one then that means a whole new play through. Not to mention that some of these things are health and mana upgrades, which you really need in this game, considering some enemies can defeat you in one combo. I really do mean this though, I played the game without the full upgrades and the final level was incredibly hard and frustrating, while when I played through again with the upgrades it was actually fairly easy. To some extent you have to wonder why such important things are so hard to find and hidden away.

In terms of gameplay though, this is pretty much the same as the last game really, you even have to relearn all the powers but this time you have different finishing moves, and that's it really. The only big addition is the ability to slow down time, but that's only really necessary during a few forced segments. Having to relearn all the abilities comes across as lazy, even if they are a little bit different from before, but when the story goes on to explain that there was another purple dragon who had more than these four abilities you can't help but feel even more so that this game missed the mark.

They move the order you gain the abilities around this time and electricity is last, rather than second. The thing about this is that unlike the last game where fire was the best element, electricity is by far the best in this one and you only really get to use it for one and a half levels. The game is so very frustrating before you get electricity and actually much more fun after you get it, it's almost like playing two different games. Perhaps if they'd given you electricity earlier then the game would have felt more balanced.

I also can't help but feel that Krome played Okami and wanted to do something similar, I mean there are some uncanny parallels for a game releasing within a year of the other, the celestial eclipse that will help power evil, the slowing time mechanic, the decision to force players to relearn all the abilities, the parts where you create your own platforms to progress on. I can understand trying to go the direction of such a great game, but Okami still does everything so much better and does so much more that the comparison just seems unfair on Okami quite frankly.

I actually enjoyed the pirate fleet level. The rest of the levels were either annoying, frustrating, boring or recycled stuff you'd done before. The little bonus trial segments to unlock a new feature for any future play through was nice, at least if you're willing to put yourself through it again. Really though, the feature you get probably makes the game quite easy, even if the game does get somewhat so if you've got the full upgrades for health and mana as well as electricity.

STORY
A very middle of the trilogy story, and while it does flesh out the world a bit, it doesn't really answer or even contribute as much as it could to a potentially really cool world.

GRAPHICS

Looks the same as the last, which is okay I guess. But with the PS3 and Xbox 360 out it's a bit odd that they didn't bother with the new consoles, perhaps that's what Krome's aim was though, to make people so angry and frustrated that they'd break their PS2's or Gamecubes and run away to the PS3 or Xbox 360 where this game couldn't hurt them anymore.

SOUND
Rebecca Kneubuhl and Gabriel Mann deserve so much praise for the score yet again, some of the pieces are amongst the best I've heard in any game before, Black Powers, Well of Souls and a few others really are spectacular. It almost makes it feel worthwhile having to slog through so many painfully annoying segments in the game just to hear the wonderful music.

VALUE FOR MONEY

Now the game would probably be around 6 hours long, but it will probably take longer because of some poor checkpoints and very annoying segments.

OVERALL
A New Beginning was an acceptable start for a franchise that looked like it had potential, but sadly, instead of being innovative and taking the franchise forward The Eternal Night only takes steps backwards with an almost identical formula just with far more annoying, frustrating sections in between. Not to mention you've got the Spyro license and the only thing taken from it is the purple dragon, why cast aside such a great licence with so much potential on such a poor effort?

HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX

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version.

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TRANSFORMERS: THE GAME (2007) REVIEW

Much like the movie, nothing too special.

PS2 version reviewed.

Transformers: The Game is an action game published by Activision and developed by Traveller's Tales for the Playstation 2, Playstation 3, PSP, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS and PC.

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STORY

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OVERALL
Most of the levels in the game are quite boring, but the game is saved by the ability you have to just roam about the open world and mess around, which is actually quite fun.

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END

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version.

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THE LORD OF THE RINGS ONLINE

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version reviewed.

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