Reviews Round-up Part 3

Banjo-Kazooie (Xbox 360)

Banjo-Kazooie is a flawless port of the N64 original and my favourite game of all time. On the surface it looks like any other 3D platform game from the period. But the cute characters and squeaky voices mask superb level design, balanced difficulty, and sharp dialog. The conversion to the Xbox Live Arcade comes complete with generous achievements and new hidden secrets. A must buy.

(5/5)

A Kingdom for Keflings (Xbox 360)

A Kingdom for Keflings is a city building game in which your giant New Xbox Experience avatar has a very hands-on role. The highly addictive gameplay focuses on resource collection tasks that are assigned to the little Kefling residents; your the ultimate goal being to complete the construction of the city and its castle. Kingdom for Keflings is simple, yet original, rewarding, and fun.

(5/5)

SceneIt? BOS! (Xbox 360)

SceneIt? Box Office Smash is the second instalment of the Buzz (PS3) beating movie trivia quiz game. Box Office smash includes much better localisation than the previous game: with UK questions and British voice-over talent. The Big Button Controller is easy to use and mixture of questions and puzzles can be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in movies.

(Game 4/5, Peripheral 5/5)

Gears of War 2 (Xbox 360)

Marcus and Dom are back, and Gears is bigger and better than before. Gears of War helped define this generation of consoles, and the sequel improves on the original in almost every way. The action is grander, the 3rd person combat is refined, and the environments are varied and beautiful. The addition of the cooperative Horde mode, where you face waves of enemies, and excellent multiplayer maps, make Gears 2 the most complete shooter available.

(5/5)

Fallout 3 (Xbox 360)

Fallout 3 promised much but is held back by the dreariness of the game’s post-apocalyptic setting, and some questionable design choices. Essentially, Fallout 3 is a large open-world RPG where your actions have real consequence in the world. Key side-quest provide the opportunity to fundamentally change your character and the quests that you follow. A unique timed aiming system, called VATS, helps root the combat in solid RPG mechanics, but it is often overly constrained resulting in unnecessarily frantic encounters. Recycled side quests from Oblivion and a confusing mapping system further diminish the experience. Fallout 3 could have been great, but instead it is disappointingly mundane and difficult to enjoy.

(3/5)