Take everything you know and love about the highly underrated Conflict series of games and deflate it into a bland FPS game, that is really all there is to say about Conflict Denied Ops. A game so bad that even me, someone who loves crappy FPS games, hates it. You are put in control of one of two characters, a sniper or a heavy machine gunner, and run through levels blasting stuff. They seem to be aiming for the same character design as Kane and Lynch, but gameplay wise it doesn't really matter which you choose and you can switch between the two whenever you like. The coop mode is a nice inclusion in this fairly short and bland campaign, but playing alone with the AI is extremely frustrating. It has some fairly bog standard N64 Goldeneye style missions, like protecting the scientist while he hacks the mainframe or survive waves of enemies for 3 minutes, which are alright but not enough to make it worth playing. It really is a fairly bland game. If anything stands out, it is the horrible controls. While not unresponsive, the button layout is quite unique and perhaps counterintuitive. Even worse, you can't change the aim sensitivity. The other thing that stood out was how terrible the enemy AI was. Either they will pop out of nowhere right next to you and kill you in seconds or they will be running from place to place like a headless chicken. It makes the game difficult and frustrating, especially with the sparse checkpoints and missions which require protecting NPCs. The Conflict series died for the sins of this game, and there are many many sins in it. At least the Japanese market had the decency to call it Double Clutch, which is much cooler. If you see a copy for sale, hide it behind other games so no one buys it.

CSI Hard Evidence is the first of 3 CSI games on the console and it is actually quite well known. Mostly known for how easy it is to get achievement points (if you care about that), CSI HE should probably should be know for its horrible acting, graphics and facial animations, which are comical and a real highlight. So how does a game like this work? Well, it's surprisingly quite interesting and a bit of a unique experience. You play through 5 episodes of point and click detective style gameplay. You investigate crime-scenes, find evidence, process it in the lab, and question suspects. This gameplay style is certainly different, but it's not that great in practice. It's nearly impossible to miss clues and you can't really fail a mission, so the game basically plays itself. That being said, if treated as an interactive TV show, it is quite nice. The episodes are detailed, with interesting stories which feel like they were real TV episodes. There is some fun to be had in the lab, where analysing evidence is turned into small fun mini games like matching pictures. It's nothing special but it works. I'm sure there's a lot of people who hate this game but for me it was moderately enjoyable. It's not too long and doesn't overstay its welcome. The bitesize chunks were a nice break from other epic games and campaigns on the console. Worth picking up just to experience and see if you like it.

From the people that brought you the Final Fantasy series, we have another JRPG on the console, and it's a fairly unheralded one at that. IU puts you in the shoes of Capell, working with a group of heroes tasked with destroying the chains attaching the moon to the earth. It's a bit of a weird story and very JRPG, but it lends itself to some nice visuals and cutscenes. The gameplay is one of the more unique elements of the game. If plays like a simple but quite decent hack and slash game, where you control Capell and can offer orders to the AI controlled party members. It's not the most complex combat, but works fine and I didn't get that bored with it. The game starts pretty slow, but the difficulty ramps up and the enemy variety and bosses keep the gameplay fairly interesting. The adventuring itself isn't particularly detailed. It is a small game so there aren't any huge maps or sprawling sub-quests. You follow a linear route to achieve your goals and that is totally fine. We don't all have 100 hours to stick into an RPG, particularly not one which doesn't really shine in any way. For my criticisms of the game, I don't really have a whole lot, but at the same time there not much that I loved about the game. The menu is a bit frustrating as you can't pause the game and I didn't enjoy messing around with items and equipment, but it wasn't any worse than any other RPG. With that in mind, it's a fine game, but only really worth it for huge JRPG fans. I also don't hate the name as much as everyone else.

One of the more obscure games on the console, Xedge dash or Cross edge dash is a Japanese only 360 JRPG. Now as it was only released in Japan, it is entirely in Japanese and while it isn't unplayable, I wouldn't recommend it on the console. In fact it did get a English release on the PS3 and I would suggest playing it that way. Now this is a traditional JRPG in every sense of the word. The gameplay features walking around a world map, random battle encounters and a turn based combat system. The turn based combat is quite complex as there are different types of attacks which can break an enemies defense in different ways. These can be combined with combos between characters (you can control up to 4 per battles) to create combo attacks, which it seems like you need to figure out yourself. The fighting mechanics seem fairly interesting in this regard and I did want to explore more but was unable to due to my limited Japanese. The graphics are also very traditional or dated, and it looks and feels a bit like a ps1 game. Yet, I say that as a compliment. I actually really like the way the game looks and feel it fits the style of gameplay. So even without knowledge of Japanese, I was having some fun with the game for it's old-school mechanics and nice turn based fights. What put me off though was how text heavy it is. I really have no idea what the story is about but there are a lot of cutscenes and talking. Now it is skippable, but I just felt I didn't know what was going on enough to keep playing. While it's not as charming as Far east of Eden, it still does seem like a nice little old-fashioned JRPG. If you know Japanese and like that style of game I would recommend grabbing this one.

With the mess of tennis games on the console, it's a little bit difficult for tennis fans to figure out what to play. To simplify things for this, Top Spin is your premium simulation series, and in my opinion the best option for fans of tennis on the console. There are 3 entries in the series, and I have picked 2 as my favourite as I think it is really quite impressive for a 2006 title. Top spin 3 makes some changes, but some of them not are good ones and over complicate things. Top Spin 4 goes on to make solid improvements and is arguably the best in the series. However, due to the similarity of the three, I decided to rank them together. I really think only the biggest tennis nerds need more than one of these. So what is so good about these games? Well, for a start its a great blend of easy to play but difficult to master. The career mode has an excellent tutorial, interjecting in the gameplay every now and again to teach you a new move. I really enjoyed this approach and found it a lot more fun than them teaching you everything in one boring block. The career starts you as a rookie created character, and each week you will work with your trainer on drills to improve your stats. This progression system is a lot fun and adds some connection with the created player. Most of the training activities are fun minigames that really help you understand the controls and different techniques for getting points. They are simple such as using power to hit a box out of the court, or hitting bowling balls to knock down pins, but quite effecitve and fun too. Once you have built up your stats and can take part in the competition you will find that it's quite hard. You can't just press A and direct the ball, you really need to master different shots and tactics. In this regard, it's quite different from the more arcade style gameplay from titles like virtua tennis. Yet, even as a non-tennis fan, I was willing to put time in to master it and had a lot of fun with it. Even if you are not putting time into the career mode, this style of gameplay is great for 1 on 1 or doubles couch play with your friends and really makes the game stand out. I can definitely reccomend this one to all 360 owners. If you are willing to put a bit of time in, you will get a lot out of this series. If you are picking one up in 2023, while there is some decent progression in the series and some improvements, I think top spin 2 holds up as the best of the bunch, and is definitely the most impressive for its age.

Very weird FPS and 3rd person brawler hybrid movie tie-in game. King Kong was one of the release titles for the console and as such probably got more playtime and accolades that it deserved. It's the type of game that looks decent in videos but is actually a chore to play. You play mostly as Jack (Adrian Brody in the movie) running around shooting stuff on an island full of giant bugs and dinosaurs. These parts of the game feel like they should be survival horror style. You have a very limited number of weapons and ammo and frequently rely on picking up sticks and bones to fend off the various creatures that attack you. The lack of a hud or aiming reticle gives the game quite a cool atmosphere and a unique feeling which make these sections somewhat interesting but still often a bit of a slog. The problems are numerous. Linear levels, dumb NPCs that follow you around, poor controls and repetitive puzzle sections which normally require setting bushes on fire. Worse still are the King Kong missions. Playing as King Kong, these missions feel like continuous quick time events mixed with some very basic brawling. The controls also are annoying, making the boss fights much more frustrating than they should be and I found myself dreading playing as Kong, which should really be the highlight of the game. If you stick the weapons and unlimited ammo cheats on, the game becomes much more playable. Still, it's no where near as much fun as it looks and even King Kong fans will struggle.

The word hidden gem gets thrown around a lot, so much so that games which are heralded as hidden gems become popular well liked games. MXGP is a true hidden gem and due to its nature as a bit of a niche title I feel confident it will stay that way, especially considering how many good racers there are on the console. MXGP is the first official MX game on the console, but is fairly similar to the previously released MX vs ATV games. This is some fast action, dirt track racing and it is a lot of fun. The first thing I have to mention is the incredible track degradation/deformation, by this I mean the surface of the race track - the mud- being carved up by other racers, creating a totally different track each lap. Sega Rally Revo pioneered the track degradation/ deformation effects and MXGP takes it to another level. Lines and routes will get cut into the track, some of which are helpful and some of which deviate from the racing line. It's a really nice feature and it looks great and adds some variety to races. This is helped by the excellent physics. The cornering feels right and the ruble gives you some nice feedback each turn feeling very responsive. I'm sure fans of MX will dig this one, but even for none race fans it is a decent and polished package, with everything you would expect from a 2014 racing game. On the negative side there are a few issues. Perhaps this can be played with in the menus, but I found the game was a bit too forgiving of rule breaking and crashes. Even on the most difficult of handling settings I was able to maintain first even after a crash. This could also affect the longevity of the game as some may not find it challenging enough. For a fairly unheard of 360 title though these are minor flaws and it is a great game. If you are looking for more mud based fun after Sega Rally Revo, go for this one.

Sniper Elite 3 reminds me of Assassins creed in that the concept is much better than the gameplay. Playing as a sniper behind enemy lines in WW2 seems like a novel concept, but in practice there is just something lacking about the game. The basic concept of the game is that you are dropped into an open world map full of enemies and you need to assassinate a target - normally with your sniper. You sneak around the map, set traps for enemies, hide bodies and use noise to mask your shots. Of course, sometimes shit hits the fan and you mess up, alerting all the guards to your presence. In these cases you can pull out your SMG and go to town. In general, the game is pretty fun. The levels are fairly varied, some indoor and some outdoor, and they are designed to give you multiple ways to tackle a mission. There's some nice collectables to keep you occupied and attempting to complete a mission without getting spotted is fun. If you have played 2, then 3 is basically more of the same. It is a little less linear and they have added a relocation mechanic, but this doesn't change much. While it does hold it's own as a decent game, I can't help but feel like it could have been great. The open world nature of the game is nice, but in some ways detrimental to the gameplay. At no point in the game did I feel a real sense of pressure. If you get spotted, you just run away and the enemies will forget about you after a while. You can then come back a few minutes later to the same area and try again, often there are no consequences to your mistakes. Of course this can be solved in the difficulty options, but none of the difficulties really felt like the optimum balance of challenge and fun. Sniper Elite 3 is decent and I think maybe a slight improvement on 2. It's a nice game to have in your collection even though it feels like a lost opportunity.

Samurai Shodown Sen is the 360 generation's release of the beloved fighting game series. While I haven't spent much time with the previous games, Sen is seen as a departure from most of the previous games in terms of how it plays and this change has been attributed to making it more accessible to the general consumer. Sen attempts the transition to a modern 3D fighting game, but fails spectacularly. You have a fairly large roster of interesting characters with different fighting styles. The menus also have some nice music and decent artwork too giving a very feudal Japan feeling. In terms of positives that's about it. With it's lack of features, clunky controls, ugly graphics and total lack of a tutorial, Sen fails in some of the most basic aspects of game design. The most aggravating way however is the gameplay itself. Fights are slow and sluggish and the characters move extremely awkwardly. At no point in my time with the game was I able to feel any type of flow with the combat, I would either win with some cheap attacks or get totally dominated. The move list doesn't really help and the tutorial is even more useless. I'm not sure if this was a cash grab or they just absolutely botched the game but it's difficult to understand how such a poor entry in an otherwise highly regarded series could be released.

There are a lot of games on the console which have beautiful worlds, good stories, nice graphics, interesting mechanics but ultimately are not fun to play. WET is basically the opposite of all those games. It's a fairly dumb game, with dumb enemies. One of the most unlikeable protagonists in gaming history. Horrible stereotype characters. A very poor representation of Hong Kong in it's bland an uninspired gameworld. A story which feels like it was written by a 12 year old tarantino fan. Some weirldy repetative and aggressive music, which actually is kinda good in parts. Yet, with all these flaws, it is fun to play and remains so throughout its 10 ish hour campaign. The makers of WET have basically taken what made stranglehold and Max Payne fun, flesh it out a bit, added in some scoring and score multipliers and made a game out of it. The 3rd person shooter/ brawler/ almost tony hawk's esq gameplay is really a joy to play. Slide along the floor with time slowed down while shooting enemies in the head. Wall run into an enemy and slice his head off. It really never gets boring. The best part of the game are the artistic blood levels where everything turns red as you enter a rage mode. In these levels you have extra carnage, shooting and slicing enemies at an even quicker rate, building up combos as you dance from enemy to enemy. It's really hard to say this is a good game, but it most certainly is a fun game and that's what matters. A worth addition for any action fan, but doesn't quite reach the heights of the similar stranglehold.

Console sequel to the absolute classic PC online multiplayer shooter, UT3 had big boots to fill and of course it couldn't really manage to fill them, at least in it's present state. As with the nature of these reviews, playing it in 2024 with the multiplayer totally dead can be really detrimental to some of the more online focused games. Know I don't know if the chaos of capture the flag on Facing Worlds was recreated with this release, but even as a single player game it's not a complete disaster. For a start, they have kept consistent with the original games, which is probably for the best. Playing the campaign, albeit against bots, is a similar feel to the multiplayer of the original games. It's a super fast paced FPS with the same fun weapons, great controls and fun maps. The guns are all useful in different situations, with second functions adding to the tactical diversity. The bots are fine, obviously not as good as real players, but they do the job. I was quite surprised that the campaign is just a selection of multiplayer styles fights against bots. This decision for the campaign to be basically the multiplayer is a good and a bad one. While it highlights the best aspects of the game, it doesn't really feel like a campaign. The same effect could have been achieved with an offline mode for multiplayer games with bots, and then a separate real campaign with a story would have been appreciated. With that in mind, UT3 is fun to play, but it's not really something I would recommend picking up nowadays and in it's current form is a very average game at best.

I've seen reviews of this game which highlight it's "massive" open world and it's "amazing" and "forward thinking" pawn system. Personally I was quite baffled when I played the game. I spent most of my time walking between the same two towns of a map which is hardly massive. The pawn system while fine is nothing to write home about, I would rather have companions that actually have something interesting to say. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the game. It has its charm, the combat system is good, you are able to grab onto enemies and team up with your pawns, the quests are fairly solid too. Unfortunately, its bogged down by walking over the same boring path with the same enemies who respawn in exactly the same places. On the other hand you can use a warp stone and skip most of the game. If you are a fan of action RPGs, especially difficult ones, then this is a semi- enjoyable romp. The side missions are quite detailed and normally have an interesting set up. The graphics are quite nice. However, it feels like it could have been better and in many ways seems a little over-hyped.

Looking back at this game in 2024, we will probably see it in a different light. Nowadays, the name Resident Evil has a different meaning. We have first person games in the mainline series, we have lame spin offs like raccoon city, even the remakes have changed the way the games play. I think people were perhaps too harsh on the game when it came out. The criticisms of it being too action orientated and not a real Resi game were never really thrown at Resi 4, so I was kinda surprised how angry people were about the action oriented approach of Resi 5. Plus the coop play and AI character was really not that bad. Yes Sheva was a greedy bitch and would use all the ammo and eat any egg as soon as she saw it, but she was pretty effective in combat. Don't get me started on the boulder scene. Cheesy dialogue and lame cute scenes are peak Resi, so the more the better for me, Jill Sandwich anyone? Resi 5 does have a different feel when we compare it to the original resident evil, but so do 3 and 4 and I have enjoyed them all. Now, I'm not going to run through what Resi 5 is, as most people probably know by now. I really would encourage you to play it. The issues with the game have been overblown and most importantly it's fun to play. Popping zombies with headshots. Hacking snakes with your dagger. Sheva going ape-shit on a group of enemies with her shotgun. I had so many memorable moments playing through this. A great game, particularly if you have a friend to play through it with. Stupid fun and one that should not be taken too seriously.