PS3 Reviews

Since Ratchet and Clank propelled Insomniac into the role of "Masters of Weaponry," they've done everything they could to hold onto the title. Fuse is the video game form of their attempts. From the very beginning, mad weaponry is not only a feature of the game but the game itself, embodying not just your actions and means of attack, but the plot and design as well. Unfortunately, this isn't enough.

The Smurfs probably shouldn't be the stars of one of the most traditional movie tie-ins I've seen in recent years, but they are. A platform game, made up of features from other, more successful platform games, with famous characters smacked into the lead spot just because. It's a little slice of all of our childhoods - it stunk then, and it stinks now.

Dynasty Warriors 8 isn't a huge improvement over Dynasty Warriors 7, but with its remained focus on a cinematic form of story telling, and with a far more technically sound gameplay, Dynasty Warriors 8 manages to be the best, most accessible game in the franchise so far.

Ride to Hell: Retribution is a gritty tale of revenge, set in a world where every woman will have sex with you if you beat up their partner (unless they're prostitutes); where police officers and miners carry vast amounts of drugs on their person; where cowboy hats protect your brain from bullets and in which walls, floors and doors are mere suggestions. That the credits contained almost ten minutes of names is perhaps the biggest surprise to be found in Ride to Hell: Retribution. The only other that even approaches it might be that it's actually possible ...

Painkiller: Hell and Damnation is an arena shooter not entirely unlike Unreal Tournament or Quake. It's a corner of the FPS genre that's been ignored in mainstream shooters for the vast majority of this generation, with the exception of Unreal Tournament 3, which VGChartz tells me only sold around a million units on consoles, and Serious Sam, a franchise which has evened out at around the 60-70 mark on Metacritic.

Naughty Dog, without question, is one of the most praised developers this generation, not so much for their gameplay, but for their smart, character-driven writing and breathtaking set pieces. This cinematic, directed design found in their Uncharted series has placed them at the forefront of narrative gaming, and The Last of Us continues this trend in emphatic fashion.

Solid Snake returns, although this time he's older, more world-weary. Years of fighting the patriots, of being lied to at every turn have had their toll, and his body's increased ageing have made him grey before his years. None of that matters though: he's about to embark on his hardest mission yet, a mission that will test the limits of his physical and mental strength and that will, hopefully, let the old soldier rest upon completion.

Catherine is an unusual game, to say the least. Whilst the bulk of it plays out either as a movie or as a watered-down RPG, the "main" gameplay is that of a block-pushing puzzle game that charges you with reaching the top of a tower whilst taking on various obstacles and difficulties. Mixed with a mature story and plenty of anime-style side boob, it's hard to really pin down the sort of person that would really love Catherine. It's totally unique, sometimes cheesy and well worth a look.

It's impossible to judge Deadly Premonition on any traditional scale. The graphics are laughable, the gameplay bland and repetitive, the basic mechanics borderline broken and the script filled with (hopefully intentional) cheesy lines. It is, by almost any measure, a terrible game. Except it isn't.

Introduction Zombies. Not only a plague on humanity but also a plague on the entertainment industry. They’ve become pretty popular in recent years. Why? Did it start with the addition of the Zombies mode in the COD games or do we have the Resident Evil films to thank for it? No matter the reason, it seems killing mindless zombies is going be around for a while yet.  As someone who has never seen the AMC TV series, nor read any…