Gaming News

Star Trek Online (Star Trek: Online)

Amidst the blaring siren of a new Star Wars MMO (The Old Republic), you could be forgiven for overlooking the emergence of the first details of Star Trek Online. Cryptic Studios, of City of Heroes fame, helm this highly anticipated stellar venture, which means that at the very least we’ll be able to fiddle with a Play-Doh Klingon’s face until it looks just the way we want it. ...

Mafia II (Mafia 2)

Released in 2002, the original Mafia was pretty much one of the standout games of that year. It offset its admittedly mediocre driving (1930s bangers + speed limits = major yawns) with top shooting and a plot that honestly wouldn’t have looked out of place alongside Oscar-winning underworld fare like Goodfellas. ...

Grand Theft Auto IV: Is the PC version the best? (Grand Theft Auto IV)

If you haven’t played Grand Theft Auto IV yet, you missed out on one of the best games that released this year. Don’t just take our word for it. Critics across the board lavished GTA IV with perfect scores and glowing compliments. So we’ll assume you haven’t been living under a rock and know the gist about what Rockstar’s latest entry in the Grand Theft Auto series is all about, and focus ...

Call Of Duty: World at War - every mode played and previewed (Call Of Duty: World at War)

Campaign, co-op and multiplayer, all given a thorough going over. ...

Otherland (Otherland)

We’re on Mars. An ancient, arid world. Red sands stretch to the horizon, dotted here and there with exotic alien buildings. Above, the evening sky is...whoa. An arc of something is sweeping across the vast dome of the sky, turning dusk instantaneously to star-studded night where it passes. ...

Cities XL (CITIES XL)

While city-building games tend to simply drill themselves deeper into obsessive detail with each iteration, Monte Cristo is veering off in a more ambitious direction with Cities XL by fusing resource trading and web integration with the traditional taxing, zoning, and constructing you’re accustomed to. ...

Prince of Persia: Still the king of the swingers? (Prince of Persia (next-gen))

Hands-on with the Prince's new direction. Does it measure up to its lineage? ...

Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising (Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising)

Imagine if you were playing a war game and you suddenly noticed that the weapon you were wielding was held together by eight-sided nuts instead of the statutory six-siders. You’d naturally be horrified, the integrity of the experience would be compromised, and you’d probably never touch it again. ...

Call of Duty: World at War - multiplayer hands-on (Call Of Duty: World at War)

Seriously, no offense to Call of Duty: World at War’s single player. Toiling through the Pacific and Eastern European theater, communicating with Keifer Sutherland and Gary Oldman, face melting flamethrowers that spits face-melting liquid death? We’re not complaining. You could argue that the immersive cinematic campaign helped Call of Duty 4 move 10 million copies, but it’s certainly not the reason why a healthy fraction ...

The infinite potential of Fallout 3 (Fallout 3)

You've probably read a lot about Fallout 3. Until you've actually played Fallout 3, however, you don't understand. You don't understand just how big the game feels, just how open the game seems and just how much freedom the game appears to offer.

We've only had four hours with the post-apocalyptic RPG and we're already overwhelmed. ...

Batman: Arkham Asylum – first-look (Batman: Arkham Asylum)

The Caped Crusader has had something of a dodgy past both on the silver screen and in games. From the ace 1989 Tim Burton gothic epic that grossed over a quarter of a billion dollars domestically to the franchise-murdering Joel Schumacher colour-saturated camp-fest Batman & Robin that barely limped past the $100 million marker, Bruce Wayne and his crime-fighting alter-ego haven’t had it easy. ...

Borderlands (Borderlands)

What makes Han Solo cool? Why does Mad Max excite us? What is it about Firefly that makes us want to sign up for the interplanetary mercenary lifestyle? It’s hard to say for sure, but the pull of a wild frontier, danger, excellent toys, and rich rewards make for irresistible TV, movies, and games. ...

Rage (Rage)

This is id Software’s first properly new game since 1996. Just think about that. Various versions of Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein have marched from id’s Texas offices over the past 12 years, yet the team’s creative muscles haven’t flexed on anything fresh for more than a decade. ...

Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria (The Lord of the Rings Online: The Mines of Moria)

There’s pressure on MMO developers to get their dungeons right, but imagine the crunch on Turbine to nail literature’s darkest, deepest, and most revered subterranean world (sorry, Batcave). As the first full retail expansion pack for LOTRO, Mines of Moria opens up the long-dormant Dwarven capital of Khazad-dum and its surrounding areas, drawing the player into the struggle to re-establish Dwarven supremacy. ...

Empire: Total War – hands-on (Empire: Total War)

Talk about a journalistic conflict of interest: We’re the British. Across a thin stretch of oceanic blue sits the American fleet. I’m a Brit, but I’m writing for an American magazine. There’s not even time to wonder about how the Americans got hold of a proper fleet of their own. With allegiances torn, how doesone proceed in such a situation? There’s only one answer: as swiftly as possible. ...

Tomb Raider: Underworld hands-on (Tomb Raider: Underworld)

Our favorite formidably endowed, morally questionable Indiana Jane is back. Underworld is an account of Ms. Croft’s search for the Hammer of Thor (“Mjölnir,” for the Marvel-inclined), a powerful artifact with a mysterious connection to Lara’s past. ...

Battlefield Heroes - hands-on (Battlefield Heroes)

When Battlefield Heroes opens to the public early next year, it might make action figures obsolete. Playing it, you’re reminded of all that time you spent lining up squads of G.I. Joes on your living room coffee table to do battle; but with Heroes, you’ll never have to worry about picking your toys up before dinner or losing any plastic accessories between the couch cushions. Oh, and it’s free. ...

FEAR 2: Project Origin (FEAR 2: Project Origin)

Monolith tells me that its pint-sized mascot of terror, Alma, is going to “touch me more” in FEAR 2, and that’s a bad thing. I’ve got a general policy of keeping 8-year-old girls who command psychic clone armies at arm’s length, and if you’re like me, you perfected your “backpedal-while-screaming-and-jamming-the-trigger” technique in the first FEAR. ...

Parabellum – hands-on (Parabellum)

Si vis pacem, para bellum - “If you want peace, prepare for war.” Parabellum’s slogan has a dramatic ring, but it doesn’t tell us much about its content. Anyone know the Latin for, “If you want a free, quick FPS that uses microtransactions, download our game?”

Gratis or not, Parabellum looks pretty. ...

Dragon Age: Origins (Dragon Age: Origins)

BioWare’s spun us some epic space operas of late, but the developer’s roots have always been firmly planted in the fantasy setting, à la Neverwinter Nights and Baldur’s Gate. The return to elves ‘n’ ogres territory was inevitable, and the pendulum now swings back with Dragon Age: Origins, a spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate (Interplay still owns the rights to BG). ...