Author: iain.mewPage 22 of 106

“Some great action in this game” – Pro Evolution Soccer 4

A little tweak here and there, some more evolution, and the best football sim around got better still. If there’s one detail to pick on to illustrate what…

“Reckon you’re about an 8 or a 9” – FIFA Football 2005

FIFA Football 2004 spent five weeks at the top of the UK charts, consolidating the position of the series after its early 2000s wobble. Particularly with a new…

“Take a legion” – Star Wars: Battlefront

Amidst the year of sequels, Star Wars: Battlefront still provides something of a first in the list of UK #1 games. Online multiplayer has been a prominent component…

“Live mode” – The Sims 2

The Sims 2 took the series forward in its simulation of life and death. The death part was straightforward and nothing new for games at all. Many of…

“Mirror. Signal. Mayhem.” – Burnout 3: Takedown

[It’s guest post time again, and I have someone new to introduce! For this post I am happy to hand over to Iain of Iain Plays, who you…

“Some distant conflict” – Conflict: Vietnam

Contemporary reviews of Conflict: Vietnam mention its position as part of a wave of games based on the Vietnam war, alongside Vietcong: Purple Haze and Shellshock: Nam ‘67,…

“Mediocre display” – Athens 2004

I’ve talked previously about 2004’s status as a year of sequels, when all the most successful games were built on established franchises. None were more established than this…

“The Devil is real” – Doom 3

One of my favourite musical tricks is the prominent absence, with my favourite demonstration in the song “One More Night” by Canadian indie band Stars. It starts with…

My home, my playground, my responsibility – Spider-Man 2

[For a guest post I am once again pleased to hand over to excellent writer and Spider-Man fan Shaun Musgrave, who last appeared here writing about Onimusha. Shaun…

“How many times you gotta shoot someone?” – Driv3r

By 2004, the scene for British developers making third-person driving/shooting gangster games in vastly detailed cities was increasingly crowded. Rockstar’s 3D Grand Theft Auto games took the original…