Xbox 360 Game Reviews #-A-B
2006 FIFA World Cup Review (X360)
The 2006 FIFA World Cup edition of EA’s soccer franchise is a solid effort that washes away some of the bad taste of the Road to the World Cup game that launched with the Xbox 360, but it is still far from perfect. The gameplay still falls well behind Winning Eleven and there just isn’t enough stuff here to justify the $60 price tag. It definitely succeeds in the excitement and atmosphere department, but that isn’t enough to warrant picking it up over other soccer titles.
2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Review (X360)
The world's greatest sporting event is approaching fast, and EA is ready to help you live out your own World Cup fantasies in 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa. Last Fall's FIFA Soccer 10 was already pretty close to perfection, but EA Canada has tweaked and tuned the gameplay and presentation to make this entry even better. 2010 FIFA World Cup might just be the best soccer game on Xbox 360.
Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation Review (X360)
Ace Combat appears on the Xbox 360 with the exclusive Ace Combat 6. It matches solid gameplay and nice presentation with a deep feature list that makes this an easy game to recommend. Our full review gives all the details.
Afro Samurai Review (X360)
Afro Samurai is an great example of using a movie/TV license to its fullest. It looks and sounds fantastic - just like the show - but actually tells the story a little better. There are some gameplay hiccups here and there, but it is darn fun and worth a look.
Alan Wake Review (X360)
It has been a long, long time coming, but Alan Wake is finally ready to make its debut on the Xbox 360. The five plus years of development have been filled with delays and direction changes (notably a shift from open world to a more linear adventure), but the result of that lengthy development process is one of the more polished game...
Aliens vs. Predator Review (X360)
Aliens vs. Predator is a game that is greater than the sum of its parts. There are definite flaws here and there, but you really can’t beat the creepy atmosphere and distinct Aliens vs. Predator-ness of it all. With three distinct play styles, nice presentation, and solid multiplayer, there is a lot to like here even if it doesn’t rank in at...
All-Pro Football 2K8 Review (X360)
One of the most beloved sports games of all time, NFL 2k5, finally gets a sequel in All-Pro Football 2k8. It doesn't have the NFL license anymore, but the core gameplay should be very familiar to series fans. Does it still hold up after all these years? Find out in our full review.
Alpha Protocol Review (X360)
Alpha Protocol is a game that gets the little details right, but struggles with the big, obvious, important stuff. It is a spy game about information gathering and conversation choices and interactions with other characters that determine how the rest of the story plays out. Unfortunately, it plays incredibly poorly and looks downright ugly. ...
Armored Core 4 Review (X360)
Armored Core 4 attempts to be more accessible for newcomers while also retaining the depth and complexity that mech fans love. The result is surprisingly solid. We have all of the details here.
Army of Two Review (X360)
Army of Two is a game built with co-op in mind. We love co-op, so it sounds like a good plan. Except the gameplay is bland, the story is offensive, and is just isn't all that fun. There are better co-op titles out there.
Army of Two: The 40th Day Review (X360)
The original Army of Two was an interesting experiment in building a co-op experience from the ground up that ultimately suffered from a few key problems – offensive story and setting, clunky gameplay, and way too much bromance. The sequel, Army of Two: The 40th Day, fixes most of these issues to produce a greatly improved experience. If you...
Assassin's Creed II Review (X360)
Assassin’s Creed II is a better game than the original in just about every way. It is more varied, more open, tells a better story, and fixes just almost all of the other complaints gamers had with the original. In all honesty, we really, really liked the first Assassin’s Creed, but Assassin’s Creed II completely blows it away. This is not...
Assassin's Creed Review (X360)
Assassin’s Creed is a fantastic exploration of concepts - stealth, parkour, sword combat - wrapped in a neat story and awesome presentation. We loved it. Read our full review here.
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Review (X360)
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is another great entry in the Assassin's Creed series. The gameplay just keeps getting better and better and deeper, and Brotherhood is very fun and very satisfying. Find out all of the details here in our full review.
Band Hero Review (X360)
Band Hero is Guitar Hero 5 with pop songs. That is all you really need to know. All of the improvements to the modes and gameplay and presentation that were introduced in GH5 are present in Band Hero, which means it is a pretty darn good game as long as you like the song list. This Top 40 rock and pop, mainstream-friendly song list is going...
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts Review (X360)
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts Bolts represents a pretty significant risk for Rare and Microsoft. It is a bright, cute, cartoony game on a system full of dark grisly shooters. And it is a very different game than what fans of the previous Banjo-Kazooie games might be expecting. But, just like the studio’s Viva Piñata before it, this risk paid off in...
Bass Pro Shops: The Hunt Review (X360)
Hunting games tend to come in one of a couple of different flavors. They are either so realistic and accurate as a simulation that the game has to hold your hand and tell you what to do or you'll never shoot anything. Or they are so easy and arcadey that they lose any sense of realism and just become high score trials instead of real hunting. ...
Bass Pro Shops: The Strike Review (X360)
The fun of fishing is feeling the pull on the line and fighting the fish. Fishing videogames have mostly struggled to convey that feeling. Bass Pro Shops: The Strike looks to change that. It comes with an awesome fishing peripheral that feels awesome to use. But is the game any good? Find out right here.
Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition (X360) Info
Warner Bros. Interactive, Eidos, and developer Rocksteady Studios have released the definitive version of their smash hit, Batman: Arkham Asylum in the Batman: Arkham Asylum (Game of the Year) edition. We have all of the details on what is included in the GOTY release right here.
Batman: Arkham Asylum Review (X360)
Batman finally has a great videogame adaptations. Arkham Asylum pairs fantastic presentation with awesome "Metroid-vania" gameplay to really stand out as something special. Our full review has all of the details.
Battle Fantasia Review (X360)
Battle Fantasia is a 2D fighting game that seems to not really know who its audience is. On one hand, the gameplay has fairly easy to learn moves and flashy special attacks that make it fun and accessible for all gamers, but on the other hand the characters and presentation are aimed squarely at hardcore fighter and anime fans. The result is a game with a solid gameplay base, but characters that players might find hard to really get behind. Find out all of the details right here.
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat Review (X360)
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat makes the jump to Xbox 360 in pretty good shape, but if you are expecting something different from what you played on the Xbox last year you’re going to be disappointed. There are some improvements here and there, and the game definitely looks better, but the content is mostly the same. Of course, if you haven’t already played the Xbox version, the X360 version is definitely the one to get and offers some of the best Xbox Live multiplayer you’ll find on the 360.
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Review (X360)
There has been a lot of rhetoric and chest thumping coming from EA and DICE in the weeks leading up to Battlefield: Bad Company 2’s release about how it was going to be the game to knock Modern Warfare from its spot on top of the multiplayer shooter world. After spending some time with the final build, we can happily say they do come pretty...
Battlestations Midway Review (X360)
Tired of slowly trudging around Europe in the latest weepy WWII FPS? Yeah, so are we. That is why Battlestations Midway is such an interesting take on the WWII genre. It puts you in full control of naval battles in the Pacific theater with a unique mix of real-time-strategy and action oriented gameplay. You can control lots of different types of boats and submarines and airplanes and everything about the game is surprisingly solid. Battlestations Midway is well worth checking out.
Bayonetta Review (X360)
Action games of this sub-genre have always been about style and flash, but Bayonetta takes style and flash to a completely new, completely over the top level. Bayonetta is a witch with near limitless magical abilities and the developers made good use of this fact to concoct some of the most insane action sequences and boss fights ever. If...
Beautiful Katamari Review (X360)
The Katamari series is one of those unfortunate franchises that burned the brightest with its first release, and despite Namco Bandai’s attempts to recapture that magic in subsequent releases, it just hasn’t been the same. Beautiful Katamari continues that trend. It is a fun game, certainly, but we have literally seen and done all of this before. The $40 pricetag definitely works in the game’s favor, but Beautiful Katamari is only really a rental at best.
Beijing 2008 Review (X360)
The Official Videogame of the 2008 Beijing Olympics lives up to the standards set by every other Olympic videogame released so far. And that isnÂ’t a good thing. It is brutally difficult and features outdated button mashing controls to produce one of the most frustrating games we have seen in a long time. On top of all of that, long load times and clunky menus make restarting when you fail (and it will happen a lot) a chore. Find out all about it in our full Beijing 2008 review.
Bionic Commando Review (X360)
It took 20+ years, but Capcom’s beloved Bionic Commando finally has a sequel. The new game, also titled simply Bionic Commando, brings the trademark bionic arm swinging gameplay from the NES classic to a fully 3D world. For the most part, the results are good and when Bionic Commando is at its best it can be really fun. Unfortunately, it...
BioShock 2 Review (X360)
BioShock 2 is a game that moves sideways instead of forward. The original BioShock is still one of our favorite games on the Xbox 360, and BioShock 2 is literally more of the same (but in a good way) that made the original great. Find out all of the details here in our full review.
BioShock Review (X360)
BioShock is a great game. It is the best game that the Xbox brand, not just the Xbox 360, has ever seen, and will likely go down as one of the best games ever on any system. It is one of those rare games that combines not only amazingly polished graphics and sound, but very solid, deep, complex gameplay, a great story, and an overall feeling of immersion that sucks you in and keeps you playing that few other titles can match. BioShock is a must play game for Xbox 360 owners.
BlackSite: Area 51 Review (X360)
Midway takes us back to the Nevada desert for more alien blasting and government cover ups in BlackSite: Area 51. So how does it stack up against 2005’s Xbox/PS2 Area 51? Not too good, unfortunately. BlackSite brings some nice looking graphics to the party, bur pretty much every other aspect of the game is entirely forgettable. Dumb AI, glitches galore, and framerate issues spoil the experience even more. Find out all about BlackSite: Area 51 right here.
Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions of WWII Review (X360)
While the WWII FPS genre is rapidly cooling down, the WWII flight combat genre is just as tepid as ever. At least with the flight combat games we only have one company taking on World War II instead of dozens. Just what has Ubisoft learned in the year and a half since the first Blazing Angels hit the Xbox 360? A lot, it seems. Blazing Angels 2 is a definite improvement over the first game in just about every area, but it is still too easy for its own good.
Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII Review (X360)
Blazing Angels is an arcade-style flight combat game that mixes intense dogfighting with easy to learn controls to create something that is at the same time better and worse than the other WWII flight games out there. Better because it is so easy to pick up and play, but worse because of bad AI and overpowered wingmen. It can be fun for a while, but we should expect more out of our $60 Xbox 360 games so Blazing Angels is a rental at best.
Blue Dragon Review (X360)
With the game design and scenario put together by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, character designs by Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama, and music from Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu, Blue Dragon had an all-star lineup behind its development. For whatever reason, however, this talented group only managed to put together a safe and very by-the-numbers RPG rather than the epic game fans had hoped for. Blue Dragon is a fun game, but it isn’t anything you haven’t seen before.
Blur Review (X360)
Blur takes the best of developer Bizarre Creation's Project Gotham Racing series and mashes it with Mario Kart. That means real cars and realistic tracks paired with power sliding and power-ups. And it works amazingly well. Blur is fast paced and fun, but also surprisingly accessible.. The single-player loses steam after a while, but take...
Bomberman: Act Zero Review (X360)
If ever there was a game that absolutely did not need a darker and more sinister re-imagining, it was Bomberman. Instead of cute and funny, we now have dark and serious and that isn’t cool. Of course, the graphical overhaul is the least of Act Zero’s problems. The gameplay is stripped down, some really obvious modes aren’t included, and the $50 pricetag is just too bitter of a pill to swallow to make Bomberman: Act Zero worth a purchase.
Brutal Legend Review (X360)
Jack Black. Heavy metal music. Developed by Double Fine. Brutal Legend has a lot going for it. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite live up to lofty expectations. We have all of the details here.
Bullet Witch Review (X360)
Bullet Witch is a third-person shooter that tries to rely on a shallow gimmick rather than focusing on things like, oh, solid gameplay and decent looking graphics. Instead, the main focus of the game is that you play as an attractive woman and you have a big gun. Now, that certainly isn’t a bad thing to have in a game, but when it is the only appealing aspect of the title, you have problems.
Bully: Scholarship Edition Review (X360)
Grand Theft Auto gets all of the hype, but our pick for the best game Rockstar has made so far is Bully. The Scholarship Edition of Bully adds some extras and beefs up the graphics quite a bit. It is a bit glitchy, but still incredibly fun and well put together. Our full review has more.
Burger King Xbox 360 Games Wrap-Up
Microsoft and Burger King’s little experiment in cross promotion has proven to be a surprising success. Big Bumpin’, PocketBike Racer, and Sneak King have each sold more than their fair number of copies, and for $3.99, how can you really go wrong? We cover the good, the bad, and the ugly right here.
Burnout Paradise Review (X360)
EA and Criterion have finally delivered the first true next-gen Burnout, and the results are pretty impressive for the most part. The game maintains the blazingly fast racing, slick visuals, and bone shattering crashes of the past, but adds in a few new bells and whistles to keep the series fresh. Not all of the changes were for the better, however, but even with a few lackluster race modes, Burnout Paradise is still an excellent racing game overall that is worth a look.
Burnout Revenge Review (Xbox 360)
At this point, there is little debate as to whether or not the Burnout series is among the best racing games ever. These games deliver a fast, easy to get into, and satisfying thrill that few games can match. Burnout Revenge continues that trend and stands as the best entry in the series. The Xbox 360 version of the game also stands as the best version you can buy. Gorgeous graphics, additional cars and events, and all of the fancy Xbox Live features make Revenge on the 360 oh so sweet.