Reviews
Forza Motorsport Xbox Review: The Simulation That Started a Dynasty
Turn 10’s debut took the simulation crown seriously: real physics, real damage, a livery editor and the Drivatar, all on its first attempt.
Author: Sal Benedetto
From the Vault columnist. Grew up feeding quarters to the Ms. Pac-Man machine at his uncle's pizza place; still owns his childhood SNES and every Nintendo Power he ever begged his mother for. Writes the retrospectives and the hidden-gem hunts.
Reviews
Project Gotham Racing 2 Xbox Review: Winning, Beautifully
Bizarre Creations’ style-scored racer: eleven postcard cities, a museum garage and Kudos for the beautiful lap as well as the fast one.
Reviews
Ninja Gaiden Black Xbox Review: Hard, Fair and Utterly Brilliant
Team Ninja’s definitive edition of the generation’s finest action game: a combat system that teaches by killing you, fairly, until you deserve to win.
Reviews
Fable Xbox Review: The Fairytale That Wore Its Morals on Its Skin
Lionhead’s compact, funny action RPG judged on the game it is: visible morality, theatrical Albion and charm in industrial quantities.
Reviews
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Xbox Review: The Old Republic at Its Finest
BioWare’s 4,000-years-early epic: a great party, real moral choices and the most celebrated twist in RPG history, native and superb on Xbox.
Reviews
Halo 2 Xbox Review: The Sequel That Took Console Gaming Online
A bolder campaign with a famous cliffhanger, wrapped around the matchmaking multiplayer that rebuilt console gaming’s social life.
Reviews
Halo: Combat Evolved Xbox Review: The Shooter That Built a Console
Bungie’s ringworld shooter judged as a game in its own right: the combat loop, the AI and the split-screen magic that made an unproven console essential.
Features
Game Gear Hidden Gems: 10 Games That Deserved Better Than Dead Batteries
Popils, GG Aleste, Dragon Crystal and seven more: ten originals and oddities from the shelf history forgot, none of them ports of famous brothers.
Features
Colour vs Battery: How the Game Gear Fought the Game Boy
The Game Boy won the war; the Game Gear won the argument. How Sega’s colour handheld lost the nineties and designed the future anyway.
Features
A Master System in Your Pocket: The Game Gear’s Secret Second Library
One plastic slab, hundreds of extra games: how the Master Gear Converter cashed in the Game Gear’s console bloodline and doubled its library overnight.