Review: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

HP OotP has all the right elements to be a great game but is let down
by a lack of imagination.

Pros: Hogwarts is fantastic; licenced music; voiced by some of the cast; cool analog stick spell casting

Cons: Dull quests; excessive treking; limited shortcuts; weak story integration

The opening 10 minutes of HP OotP contains all the good and bad things in the game. Your introduction to Hogwarts is breathtaking and the analog stick spell casting makes immediate sense. However, unless you've seen the film or read the book, the cut scenes do not tell the
story successfully. Worse, the tasks and quests have little to do with the novel's plot.

The game design is clearly inspired by Bully, but toned down in scope and difficulty. Exploring Hogwarts is initially enjoyable, and finding all its secrets proves to be fun. However, many tasks resort to you treking from one side of the school to the other for nothing more than greeting a new character. Shortcuts are provided but they are of limited use and never really reduce the time taken to traipse across Hogwarts for the 100th time.

The game clearly has great potential and the core elements are there. If EA can integrate the story into the game and reduce the pointless school treking, the next installment could be a real winner. 

3/5

Review: Bladestorm

Bladestorm successfully blends Japanese hack and slash with real time strategy.

Pros: Plenty of strategic options; unit variety; a great sense of scale;

Cons: Lack of variety; repetitive mission structure; some AI path finding issues; more historical inaccuracies than Braveheart.

Set against the Hundred Years War between England and France, Bladestorm is a curious game that defies categorising. Visually it is a marriage between Japanese style and western theme. The character models are pure Japanese fantasy, whilst the environments and settings recreate the castles and fortified towns of northern France. It is a curious blend but one that does work.

The simplistic story is revealed by completing various mercenary missions for either the French or English forces. Essentially, you use your mercenary avatar to control entire battlefield units and capture control points. You are able to issue command instructions and special attacks to your unit by holding down controller face buttons. Missions can be completed with the provided units, or you can hire and summon your own. There is not a great deal of variety and it soon becomes a little repetitive.

Occasionally you are required to follow key NPC characters to capture mission objectives or locations. The AI is often not quite up to the job of finding the path for the units to get to the destination. This can lead to some comedy moments when the NPC characters get stuck on walls or in bushes.

Bladestorm offers a unique game experience on the Xbox 360 and should appeal to fans of real time strategy and action role-play games. The blend of European setting and Japanese character design may put some people off, but they would be missing an enjoyable game.

3/5

Review: Singstar

Singstar makes its way to the PS3 and introduces some revolutionary community features.

Pros: fun; excellent integrated community features; great online store; large selection of music DLC

Cons: limited initial play list; weaker rap mode; no online modes

Singstar has a long pedigree on the Playstation 2.  The PS3 version expands the features to include both iTunes and YouTube like functionality. Singstar is one of the first PS3 games to make full use of both the Playstation Store and Playstation Eye. You can capture movie, audio and photo snapshots of your performances, and then upload them to share with friends and other players.

The core game remains unchanged from the previous generation. You might feel silly the first time you play Singstar's virtual karaoke but with a partner or friends it can be a whole lot of fun.

Singstar's excellent community features and integrated store really do showcase the potential of the Playstation 3. The game should be a welcome addition to any party.

5/5

Review: Burnout Paradise

Burnout Paradise is the best game in the series, and possibly the best arcade driving experience on any console. 

Pros: Fantastic city environment; seamless online; online co-op challenges; well balanced cars 

Cons: Some bad EA Trax; EA servers; online racing is dull; single player can become repetitive; Sat Nav and map are hard to read.

No other game this year that has had me grinning from ear to ear so much. What Burnout Paradise's clever online experience exploits is the sheer fun to be found in completing silly challenges with a group of friends. Criterion have also managed to create the first seamless online system that allows players to drop in and out of a session without any disruption. 

Paradise's brilliantly designed open city allows the player to explore, play and race at their leisure. The driving mechanics are classic Burnout: fast, frantic and with lots of power sliding. The framerate never falls and the sense of speed is without equal. Only minor niggles over the map and sound-track tarnish an otherwise perfect game.

There is something for everyone in Burnout Paradise. Petrol heads will love the seat of the pants racing, whilst puzzle solvers will enjoy the stunt and online co-op challenges. 

5/5

 PS3 and X360 versions played.

Review: Blue Dragon

Blue Dragon is a quality role-play game that any fan of the genre will enjoy. 

Pros: Simple mechanics; no random battles; great music; 

Cons: Obsessive item hunting; difficulty spikes; tough bosses; unbalanced achievements; occasional framerate issues. 

Along with Mistwalker's other Xbox 360 game -Lost Odyssey-, Blue Dragon gives the role-play game fan another interesting and fun adventure to experience. Filled with the usual assortment of dysfunctional teenagers, Blue Dragon looks like a clichéd title. However, there are enough

innovations to make it accessible to everyone. 

One of Blue Dragon's best features is the inclusion of field enemies rather than random encounters. As your characters gain skills, you can actually avoid endless battles with weak enemies by beating them on touch - at the expense of some experience and energy. This saves a lot of time and tedious level grinding later in the game.

The presentation is consistently attractive with some sophisticated graphical effects and wonderful music. The colourful palette and cartoon characters help to make the game enjoyable for a western gamer. The robots enemies, in particular, are well designed and somewhat reminiscent of characters from Ratchet and Clank.

Blue Dragon is recommended for any role-play game fans. Gamers more orientated toward action games, may enjoy Blue Dragon because of the lack of random encounters too.

4/5 

Review: Lost Odyssey

Lost Odyssey is an exceptional title. It mixes a compelling story with a perfectly presented and balanced game.

Pros: Fantastic music and visuals; well defined characters; evenly paced; balanced battle system; novel ring system; level grinding is not necessary

Cons: Item hunting in scenery gets tiresome; one over dramatic scene; occasional long load times

I've never been a great fan of Japanese role-play games. However, Lost Odyssey hit every one of my gaming buttons. It features an engrossing story in an imaginative game world. The presentation is exceptional with a unique "Future-Medieval" art style and some wonderful music by Uemastu.

The usual JRPG teenage angst is replaced with more adult themes of death, love and loss. The characters are all interesting and appealing. And with the exception of one scene, the game deftly blends drama, tragedy and comedy. The writing is universally good and never descends into Eastenders like character changes.

If you have never played or enjoyed a JRPG in the past, then Lost Odyssey could be the gateway game for you. If you are a fan, then this is an essential purchase.

5/5

Xan's Gaming Electronica Selection

Music to play games to...