"Must get a good start, must get a good start", you repeat over and over like a mantra. The first corner is all important, get a good one and it opens you up nicely near the front of the pack, get a bad one and you are racing with the also-rans at the back. Your pulse is pounding as you wait for the lights to flash off and the race to start. Just how long can 1 second take...
The lights flash and you press down quickly on the accelerator. All the impatient racers are wheel spinning like ...

There will come a time in the future when there will be no point in developing a videogame of tennis; someone will have created the ultimate tennis game and that will be the end of that. Releasing any iteration after this will just be a waste of developer’s time - there is only so much you can do with the sport after all. The current genre leaders are getting close to the real thing and, with the release of Top Spin, it just got that bit closer.
This is the best replication of tennis on an...

It was back in June 1996 that a friend of mine on seeing the intro sequence for Mario 64, turned and asked with a sense of almost child-like wonder "Is the whole game like this?"
He meant in 3-D of course. At that time, nobody had dared to tackle the issue of bringing NCL's mascot into a three dimensional space. Six years on, and the landscape of interactive entertainment has changed almost beyond recognition. We are surrounded by 3-D releases including many by the aforementioned de...

It’s funny, the things that can be achieved when you’re standing still, faced with a brick wall, nothing to play with but a confined and ageing workspace. Consider GTA Vice City – a game with almost no forward momentum, instead expanding to fill those last vacant gaps within the limits of PS2 hardware. Behind every new interior, chainsaw and motorbike are the same building blocks, polished and rearranged with undeniable finesse.
The overwhelming presumption when approaching yet another GTA i...

No beard-stroking or contextual analysis is required when realising that Harmonix' "FreQuency" was one of the greatest video games ever made. A winning formula meticulously delivered, it pulsed to an eclectic fusion of tunes that made Wipeout look conservative, and provided the endless challenge of a game that refused to be mastered. Despite moderate reviews, six months after release, the game's unofficial net forum (www.freq.com) was a flurry of activity. Those who were there at the beginning were...

An interviewer once asked the film director, Akira Kurosawa, why he wanted to make films. The director was lost in thought for a brief moment as he considered the question. "I longed for a world of beauty beyond my reach", he finally answered. Watching Kurosawa talking passionately about his art, surrounded by beautiful actresses and actors, against a 'Floating World' backdrop, I felt I knew exactly what he meant.
That was many years ago. I've never re-visited that moment in memory until...

Tony Hawks on Snow. If you want a four word review of Amped as might be spoken by your local Electronics Boutique sales assistant, then you could do a lot worse. This being a website built around reviews of a thousand or more words, people have come to expect slightly more comment. Which is just as well as pigeonholing a game like Amped does it no service, not does it do justice to the excellent Tony Hawks’ series. Let’s get one thing straight though, if free roaming stunt based games aren’t...

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away a movie was released that changed the way people looked at science fiction. That movie was Star Wars and it has spawned countless console games on every format imaginable. A few of those countless games have been classics in their time, but the majority of them have been shoddy cash-ins. The last console 'classic' was released in 1998. Developed by Factor 5, it was called Rogue Squadron. Based on the novel and comic books of the same name it follows the...

Fans of previous Oddworld games have been nervously following this latest outing; Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath. It seemed to be abandoning the quirky, charming style the series has become so loved for, instead dumbing-down in search of the mass market and with it the monetary rewards that follow. And, at first glance, what has been delivered is the most conventional game that fans could possibly fear, the genre de jour: an action adventure.
But, from the first FMV introduction it’s clear...

Frequency is one of the finest games on the PS2.
To start off a review with such statement may be unusual, but it serves a purpose: to get your attention. This is a game which hides a fascinating and often inspiring interior with a functional and sloppy exterior. Because of this, Frequency has been disgracefully ignored. It deserves better.
Man picks up Frequency box. Man gets interested. We have a box, displaying a blurred background with a proud Frequency logo adorning the front. ...