Games Toaster

REVIEW:God of War II

Developer: SCEE  | Publisher: SCEE | Format: PS2

Reviewer: Craig Gallagher God of War was one of the most important events in gamin history. It took an otherwise tired genre and reinvented it, while at the same time showing that a five year old console could still hold its head up high with the new gen.

REVIEW: F.E.A.R.

Developer: Monolith | Publisher: Vivendi | Format: PS3

Reviewer: Craig Gallagher This reviewer was eagerly anticipating playing F.E.A.R. on the PS3. Sure he’d clocked it on the PC and 360 on a number of occasions, but there was just some appeal to finishing the game on yet another machine.

REVIEW: Metal Slug Anthology

Dev: SNK Playmore | Pub: Ignition Entertaiment | For: Wii

Reviewer: Brendan Tinnelly Even in 1996, the Metal Slug series was old-skool. For the enthusiast, they represented videogaming at its purist, polishing up a tried-and-testing gameplay mechanic until it shone. For the rest of us, in a time of bump mapping and physics engines, their broadly drawn 2D visuals and arcane gameplay just seemed dated. Even so, they've found a fan-base, and have graced a multitude of formats over the last decade. Metal Slug Anthology collects the 7 games released to date on one disc for the Wii.

€25,000 Xbox 360 game tournament launched in Dublin

Lisa Geiran, UCD; Barry Dolan, Shamrock Rovers FC, Karina Kelly, UCD.

- €25,000 in prizes
- Xbox gaming centers to be roll-out "across Ireland"

A computer games football tournament with a prize fund of over €25,000 was launched in Dublin today, it is one of the largest marketing spends on a games competition in Ireland to date.

Alan Wake - will the hype kill?

Normally we like to focus on gameplay first and shiny graphics second. But we were reminded recently that the graphics on the upcoming Alan Wake (above) are so much of a focus for the studio we’ll be disappointed if the shiny bits don’t live up to the hype.

Microsoft were smart enough to retain an exclusive with Remedy, developer of Max Payne, so the action adventure thriller game staring fictional novelist Wake will be appearing on Xbox 360 and PC, but not PS3. Let’s just hope the graphics on 360 will do, as our PC (or at least my PC) would burn into flames just trying to install the game.

A few impress videos are here, while there are screenshots here and more on a fan site at alanwake.co.uk. Now, all we need is a firm release date… maybe even a release year?