Sony Reviews

Since the introduction of the first PlayStation, the Twisted Metal series has brought countless hours of fun and excitement to gamers all over the world. Twisted Metal: Head On first appeared on the PSP as the true sequel to Twisted Metal 2. The game was very well received and fans of the franchise were thrilled to play it on a portable system. However, the longing for another console version of Twisted Metal soon began and Sony enlisted David Jaffe and Developer Eat Sleep Play to bring the magic to the PlayStation 2. While the end result isn't perfect, fans will be very pleased.

In the world of co-op gaming, few games have truly felt... cooperative. Many let you play through the story with another player--but few give you a unique role and require you to work with your partner. Army of two does this brilliantly--even if it fails on many other levels.

It's obvious from the outset that Army of Two was built to play with a friend, not with AI. The Partner AI (the computer controlled player, if you play solo) is inconsistent at best. The AI is not so bad that it detracts from the fun, but it most certainly is not good enough to add to it. On the flip side fire the game up with a friend and the fun of twenty-four hour Goldeneye marathons is alive again.

After a lukewarm reception for the original game in the PixelJunk series--PixelJunk Racers, Sony has released the second title in the series called PixelJunk Monsters. Despite both titles including the PixelJunk name, the two games share relatively nothing in common in terms of gameplay. As the name suggests, PixelJunk Racers is a racing game--while PixelJunk Monsters is a spin on the very popular web browser game known as Desktop Tower Defense. After spending many hours with PixelJunk Monsters, I can honestly say I am pleasantly surprised by the end result.

Once again the time has come to drive like you have never driven before! Criterion Games has been wowing us with the Burnout franchise for years and the time has come to bring it to the new generation of gaming consoles with Burnout Paradise. Criterion has constantly tweaked each iteration of the franchise but none as much as this installment. Some say change is bad but in this case it is a very good thing.

2007 was a great year for the shooter. Halo 3, BioShock, The Orange Box, and Call of Duty 4 gave shooter fans everything they could ask for. Well, almost everything... Sure they gave us aliens, mutants, and terrorists aplenty--but the latest entry in the fabled Turok series brings something else to the table: dinosaurs. Not that we haven't seen this before; afterall, it is what makes a Turok game a Turok game. This time around though the developers have utilized the power of current gen hardware to bring these monstrosities to life like never before. The results make Turok a fun and suspenseful addition to the shooter family.

It has been a long time since the original Unreal came out. Back then, games that pushed the limits of technology were only found on the PC and the 3D card was just beginning to be installed by a few. The original Unreal didn't even require a 3D card and the graphics looked so good at the time that players couldn't really tell the difference with and without the extra hardware. But as the series matured, Epic turned the franchise into an online shooter and kept the emphasis on multiplayer gameplay. Now in the third installment of the Unreal Tournament franchise, the long-awaited shooter, powered by the Unreal III Engine, has finally arrived on both the PlayStation 3 and PC. But does it live up to the hype?

Despite dominating the RPG genre for the past two generations of hardware, Sony has found themselves in a very unfamiliar position with the PlayStation 3. With sales of the Xbox 360 still far ahead of Sony's ultra-powerful PS3, Japanese developers have reluctantly embraced the 360 over the PS3, and the underpowered Wii, to become the console of choice for practically every single next-generation Role Playing Game that has appeared on consoles. Trying to fill the void in the PS3's library, Sony has given players Folklore. And while it isn't perfect, Folklore is a fun and enjoyable adventure that fans of the genre will want to play through.

Buzz! is a game that has been extremely popular for Sony in Europe. Despite all of the success, it has taken them quite a while to bring the game over to the US. However, this holiday season Buzz!: The Mega Quiz was finally released--packaged with four Buzzers. Surprisingly this is one trivia game that is just a blast to play whether on your PlayStation 2 or on a backwards compatible PlayStation 3.

When Infinity Ward was enlisted by Activision to slay the mighty EA and their Medal of Honor Series with the original Call of Duty, I don't recall anyone in the industry thinking it could be done. Who could top the already established First Person Shooter in the crowded WWII sub-genre? It wasn't until the release of Call of Duty 2 that most began to see how great a developer Infinity Ward was and witnessed Call of Duty 2 not only be a great game but the best title available on the Xbox 360 in the first several months of its life.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is a title that took me by surprise. This game came out of nowhere earlier this year and despite a very buggy early build, I could see an excellent adventure brewing as one of the only PlayStation 3 exclusives I would consider buying the system for. Unfortunately the marketing for Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and the still low, but growing, PlayStation 3 install base has caused Drake's Fortune to be released with little mention. In reality, this adventure should be mentioned up there with the best games of 2007.