Archive for Tobias Henry
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GamingDishonored quick play preview
24 August 2011Even when you’re a veteran games journalist, made grumpy and cynical by endless clones and hyped-up mediocrities, some games are still a case of love at first sight. You couldn’t take your first look at Uncharted, Gears of War or Bioshock without...
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Gaming 0 out of 5First Look: Rage review
23 August 2011Coming from a company often accused of recycling its unmatched heritage, Rage is a surprisingly ambitious game - arguably the most ambitious iD has produced since the glory days of Quake. From its open desert landscapes to its dingy, mutant-filled caverns,...
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GamingInversion quick play preview
22 August 2011Inversion is a game that doesn’t so much defy your expectations as - literally - turn them upside down. What looks like a straightforward third-person shooter in the Gears of War mould turns out to have a distinctive twist. Using advanced, alien technology...
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GamingResistance 3 quick play preview
19 August 2011Resistance is the perennial nearly man of the blockbuster sci-fi FPS crowd. The original suffered for being a disappointing PS3 launch title, and for looking and feeling rushed. The sequel was a vast improvement, but had its thunder stolen by the more...
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GamingThe Darkness II quick play preview
19 August 2011The Darkness is one of the most under-rated FPS games of this generation. Coming from StarBreeze, makers of the excellent Chronicles of Riddick games, the comic-book adaptation was a crazed mix of violent action, Mafia saga and dark fantasy, starring...
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Gaming 3 out of 5Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D review
6 July 2011Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D should have been a cause for jubilation. Finally we have a game that shows what the 3DS can do, proving that Nintendo's newest handheld can handle graphics of Resident Evil 4 calibre, if not quite Resident Evil 5. Sure,...
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Gaming 3.5 out of 5Shadows of the Damned review
29 June 2011Shadows of the Damned is - unquestionably - one of those “love it or hate it” experiences. Admittedly, the “hate it” side is holding most of the ammunition. The result of a collaboration between Shinji Mikami, creator of Resident Evil, and Suda51,...
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Gaming 4 out of 5FEAR 3 review
24 June 2011Let’s be honest: FEAR 3 isn’t exactly 2011’s most keenly anticipated sequel. The 2005 original was an excellent FPS and a deeply creepy game, but over the years it’s been largely forgotten while other franchises have stolen all the limelight....
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Gaming 4.5 out of 5The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D review
22 June 2011The problem with remastered classics is that they so rarely live up to their status, or indeed your own memories. What was once revolutionary now seems antiquated. Visuals that once evoked awe now evoke nothing more than pity. Developers face a choice...
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Gaming 4 out of 5Child of Eden review
20 June 2011Child of Eden is the sort of game that brings out the worst in reviewers. It's a stunning game - innovative, smart and genuinely beautiful, with dazzling abstract graphics and screen-filling blooms of neon light and colour. Both the visuals and the gameplay...
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Gaming 3 out of 5Duke Nukem Forever review
15 June 2011Duke Nukem Forever almost doesn’t need a review, just a flowchart. Fourteen years of development has resulted in a scruffy, scrappy mongrel of a game which, in a lot of ways, should have been put down permanently several years ago. The graphics and...
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Gaming 3 out of 5Red Faction: Armageddon review
10 June 2011Say what you will about Red Faction: Armageddon, but Volition's third-person shooter packs some truly fantastic toys. Sure, it has all the usual shotguns, assault rifles and rocket launchers, but alongside them you'll find mighty hammers that can smash...
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Gaming 4 out of 5inFamous 2 review
7 June 2011It might seem strange to complain that a game that sold over one million copies and has a Metacritic score of 85% never had the sales or the acclaim that it deserved, but when that game is inFamous, it’s a valid point. Why? Well, if you’d played it...
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Gaming 4 out of 5The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings review
27 May 2011By anyone’s standards, The Witcher 2 is the best fantasy RPG of the last few years. It is more polished than Dragon Age, more expansive than Dragon Age 2 and in a different league to Risen, Two Worlds II and Gothic 4. It has a strong story, a fascinating...
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Gaming 4 out of 5DiRT 3 review
24 May 2011In the two previous iterations of DiRT, there has always been a tension between the past values of the series and the direction Codemasters wanted to take it for the future. The first two DiRT games bore the name and legacy of the Colin McRae Rally series...
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Gaming 4 out of 5L.A. Noire review
19 May 2011For once, you can believe the hype. L.A. Noire is a revolution in interactive entertainment (or video games, as us less high-falutin’ types like to call it) and a major step forwards for games as a narrative artform. Both aesthetically and technically,...
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Gaming 3.5 out of 5Brink review
13 May 2011There’s a big weight on Brink’s shoulders, and it’s the burden of our collective expectation. From the previews, the trailers and all the pre-release hype, we’ve come to expect a revolutionary FPS full of graceful Mirror’s Edge-style free-running...
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Gaming 4.5 out of 5Lego Pirates of the Caribbean review
11 May 2011Ask your average hardcore gamer what their most anticipated game of the season might be, and its unlikely that Lego Pirates of the Cariibean would be on the tip of their tongue. LA Noire? Maybe. Duke Nukem Forever? Possibly. But a Lego game based on Disney’s...
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Gaming 2.5 out of 5Steel Diver review
6 May 2011Steel Diver is an oddity. Originally developed as a tech-demo for the 3DS, it’s been fleshed out as a full-priced retail game to fit inside Nintendo’s generous launch window, where it joins the trickle of titles emerging for the 3D handheld. Up to...
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Gaming 4 out of 5Virtua Tennis 4 review
4 May 2011“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” seems to be the guiding design principal for Sega’s classic Tennis series. While the graphics change and game modes come and go, Sega hasn’t really meddled much over the series four iterations (six if you...
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Gaming 2 out of 5Thor: God of Thunder review
29 April 2011Let’s just cut to the chase, and call this baby God of Thor. Sega’s PS3 and Xbox 360 adaptation of Kenneth Branagh’s Marvel superhero movie plays very much in the style of Sony’s epic Greek myth brawlers, with the son of Odinin the shoes of Kratos...
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Gaming 4 out of 5Mortal Kombat review
26 April 2011Inevitably, nostalgia has become as big a force in gaming as it is in music or the movies. Just as there’s a market for the bands of the 80s and early-90s, or for big screen reworkings of The A-Team, Arthur, Clash of the Titans, Tron and Robocop, so...
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GamingLego Pirates of the Caribbean hands-on
26 April 2011Having Lego-fied the worlds of Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Harry Potter, the team at Traveller’s Tales is primed to do the same for a new blockbuster franchise. Pirates of the Caribbean. At an event thoughtfully staged in a rum-soaked North London...
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Gaming 4.5 out of 5Portal 2 review
20 April 2011In less capable hands, Portal 2 could have been a disaster. As part of Valve’s mighty Orange Box, the original felt like the sort of brilliant support act you sometimes find on a stadium tour, threatening to blow the main band - Half Life 2: Episode...
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Gaming 3.5 out of 5Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars review
8 April 2011What do you think of when you think of the new 3DS? In your face 3D visuals? The kind of bright, colourful graphics you might expect from the Wii? Slick 3D updates of established favourites, with neat Wi-Fi features bundled in? Yep. Us too. So why is...