http://www.hellbored.com/news/ Latest reviews from HellBored http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11202 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11202 Whether or not you got that giddy feeling like a mid-March burst of Christmas cheer, perhaps resulting in a resistance to sleep the night before this arrived, will probably depend on whether you rocked out with Battlefield 1942 and other subsequent releases on PC before getting on with [i]Bad... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11201 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11201 The RTS genre has been around for the best part of two decades, and for all the innovations in game play and graphics, it always seems like somebody hasn’t gotten the memo. Despite a few concessions to modernity, Supreme Commander 2 has sprung fully-formed from a portal to the late-nineties... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11200 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11200 When a developer like Quantic Dream comes along and tries to forge new ground in the search for success in the realm of gaming, you have to pay attention, and give credit where it’s due. In that respect, Heavy Rain is certainly an achievement, and often it’s an emotionally gripping exper... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11198 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11198 Twenty years ago Danny Glover, bloody and battered, wandered into a Predator trophy room and viewers glimpsed the Xenomorph skull hanging on the wall, kicking off the cult following that would pit two of Hollywood’s nastiest incarnations against each other. The Alien vs Predator phenomenon has spa... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11196 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11196 Anyone who has played any of the major FPS titles in recent years will have been looking forward to the release of MAG, the Massive Action Game. Zipper Interactive designed a title that promised to knock Modern Warfare 2 right off its lofty perch and redefine how couch-based sol... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11197 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11197 To save myself from rehashing at length the various perspectives of a BioShock sequel, let me try and cram it into a few words. Was BioShock a game that needed a sequel, or was it a release that should have been left alone for those of us who have experienced it to think fondly on tha... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11195 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11195 There must be something in the air. As they say with buses, you wait for ages and then three come along at once. Or two, although you get my point. Dante’s Inferno is the third button-mashing title to arrive in a little over a month, and it has some tough competition to do battle with. ... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11194 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11194 When did fighting games become a niche thing? When I was growing up everyone was playing Street Fighter II, but I guess the world moved on. The Western World moved on, anyway, or moved in, to be precise. Back In The Day it was ALL Japanese, but where there’s money there will be America. At ... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11193 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11193 As the second of a trilogy, Mass Effect 2 has some work to do. It must continue the saga of Commander Shepard and allow players who have completed Mass Effect to move seamlessly into the second portion of the story, while also remaining open enough to allow the people that compete [i]Mass Ef... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11192 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11192 There's something about co-op gameplay that I really enjoy, where you can try and employ specific tactics to achieve an objective rather than being called a lolfag every two minutes while half your team teleports across the map because of chronic lag issues. There is something about two or four peo... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11191 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11191 If recent trends in entertainment are anything to go by, exploring deep space is going to involve dealing with an awful lot of zombies, giant bugs, and strange combinations of the two. Greed: Black Border is the latest title to jump on this particular bandwagon, but unfortunately this science... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11190 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11190 It sounds like such fun – play as War, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, as he hunts down a range of demons that 100 years ago tricked him into causing a battle between Heaven and Hell, resulting in the destruction of all humanity. The world lies in ruin; the Charred Council - who contr... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11189 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11189 So Bayonetta has finally arrived, after months and months of anticipated groaning from the mainstream gaming press. Rarely has a game raised under-collar temperatures so much, and fans of skintight black suits and lollipops will be thrilled. The basic story is this: you play as Bayonetta,... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11188 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11188 I’ve always wondered why video game characters from Ireland are thin on the ground. That’s because I happen to be Irish, and I think the foul mouthed, drunken stereotype would suit gaming well, at least occasionally. It also happens that I’m right, because playing as protagonist Sean Devlin ... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11186 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11186 The world of Arthurian legends has long been fertile ground for fiction. While some have turned the story and setting into little more than a soap opera, other interpretations have used the tales of the “Once and Future King” as a means of exploring ancient Britain, in particular the morality, m... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11187 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11187 Note: This was written from a hands-off preview Rockstar walked us through, it is not a review of the final product. Gamestats.com has listed this in its reviews section - please be advised that it is a preview only. As a sequel to Red Dead Revolver, released in 2004, [i]Red Dead R... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11181 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11181 There is no denying that Lego games based on successful movies will have an audience. The problem with Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues is that it is essentially a clone of the other Lego games and while evidence exists that Traveller’s Tales made some attempts to enhance the g... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11184 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11184 When it comes to making a sequel, there’s a list of things that need to be looked at, but perhaps that one word scribbled across the top of the white board in thick black marker is the most important word of all – Improvements. By and large, a sequel that doesn’t improve on some of the predec... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11182 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11182 When Left 4 Dead was released just about a year ago, we at HellBored praised the AI programming, and relished the simplicity of the game’s premise. We appreciated the tension created by effective lighting and sound effects. We said that there were some issues regarding graphics and variety.... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11185 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11185 NOTE: This review contains lots of foul language. Most of it is in quotes from the game so we don’t mind that, but it poisoned our minds and we ended up doing it too. This holiday season, things are progressing rather differently than in any year previous. The arrival of [i]Mode... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11183 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11183 So there’s a new New Mario. The old New Mario was pretty damn sweet, I reckon, and another new Mario is always a good thing. A lot of people don’t reckon, however, they reckon it’s too cutesy, too the-same-as-the-last-one, too old school. I think we’re about to learn that we’re both right,... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11180 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11180 The pressure of expectation can so often lead to disappointment, when the relentless hype machine sets a bar that reality has a hard time reaching. You could take Too Human, or the Star Wars prequels, as a case in point. As many reviewers tore through Modern Warfare 2 in a bid... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11179 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11179 I’ve got a history, one that comes complete with beards, Dungeons & Dragons and cheap cider. I’ve spent the better part of a decade pretending those years didn’t happen, but when the lights go down and I sit in the dull glow of my TV, I’m rather partial to skulking through a dungeon with my... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11176 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11176 Fighting games have evolved in increments over the years, and while each instalment has brought minor improvements on the competition and its predecessors, the mechanics and gameplay have always been more or less the same. Tekken has always opted for a slightly different approach to its control syst... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11178 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11178 Admittedly the series of Ratchet & Clank games were new to me so when I started playing the latest one from Insomniac Games I knew very little about the concept. At first the game seemed to me like a cartoony - almost childish - title but after a little exposure to the two characters the game... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11177 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11177 If you had told me 10 years ago that people in the millions would spend their time clutching miniature guitars and playing along to all kinds of music - from Slayer to Willie Nelson - then I would have laughed right in your face and called you an idiot. I would also have been very wrong, because as... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11175 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11175 Those of us who review games for a living tend to fall into the same predictable cycle – you play games a lot, most of which you’re glad to leave behind for the next big thing, but occasionally one comes along that keeps you up late at night and occupies your mind more than others. This becomes... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11174 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11174 Episodes from Liberty City is - technically- a standalone game, of that there can be no doubt. Available over the counter in your local retailer, it has a box, maps and achievements. It doesn't need the original GTAIV to play. Except really it's not a standalone game, my reasoning b... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11173 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11173 This is not a game. It’s not a game at all. It’s a remarkably deep, feature-packed portable music creation tool of truly surprising power. Which must lead one to wonder, finally, why is it on (arguably) the wimpiest of all consoles, the PSP? Rockstar Leeds ([i]GTA: Chinatown Wars, Rockstar G... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11171 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11171 The formula for a Diablo-style action RPG seems so simple you wonder how anybody could mess it up. All you need are some monsters with self-preservation skills equal to the terrorists from ‘80s action movies, some ludicrously overpowered weapons, a few procedurally generated dungeons to run... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11172 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11172 Gliding over the crest of a hill in a Lamborghini Murcielago, barely clinging to the tarmac as momentum lifts the car for a moment, and then the vista comes into view, a marvellously recreated piece of the Japanese countryside, with a mountain lake on the left and a forested valley on the right, is ... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11170 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11170 Liberty City is one hell of a detailed place, although recreating that on a handheld has been no problem for Rockstar Leeds. The Nintendo DS version of the game has been a dream for reviewers, combining a wide array of elements to make it one of the most engaging experiences you can have on a porta... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11169 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11169 For all the virtual bullets people have fired while playing video games, not a lot of them have come with any sort of sensation of realism attached. Don’t get me wrong, games like Modern Warfare were closer to the mark than some, but features like regenerating health and being able to take... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11166 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11166 The original Uncharted was one of the early sleeper hits for the PlayStation 3, partly because it came out of nowhere and developed its own creative form of gameplay and plot, similar to the various adventures of Lara Croft but different enough to grant it well-deserved individuality. [i]Unch... http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11168 http://www.hellbored.com/games/review/11168 Brutal Legend is one of those games that come out, perhaps once or twice a generation, which has the power to mesmerise with its construction, composition and execution. Blending a plethora of genres together with an absolutely crunching soundtrack and some of the sharpest, wittiest dialogue seen i...