Boomtown X

We've found the one man who thought Need for Speed: The Run isn't rubbish. James checks out the PlayStation 3 version of the EA racer.

Joe returns to two of his favourite PlayStation 2 games. But does Ico & Shadow of the Colussus HD Collection on PlayStation 3 retain the magic of the original releases?

In our first review for a while, James checks out the latest God of War collection for PlayStation 3.

Jack takes a look at Level 5's latest RPG for PlayStation 3 - White Knight Chronicles 2.

Cole returns for another taste of superpower heroism. Has Sucker Punch improved on the original game's interesting premise?

Joe Bennett finds out.

Graham returns to Mount & Blade, a franchise he's explored with delight and disdain in equal measure in the past.

I've been playing Dirt 3 on PC and Xbox 360 for the last couple of days and I have some mixed feelings about the game.

First the good.
The handling is great - a good blend of sim and arcade to make a playable and fun game. You'll believe you can drive a rally car, it's tricky without being overwhelming and just what you'd hope for in this sector of the market.

Graphics are very good on both formats I've tried. There's plenty of detail in the locations and cars and the action for the most part is very smooth. Replays look good, with the cars firmly planet on the road and the ability to upload short excerpts to YouTube is welcome.

A step back in time in more than just setting, LA Noire cunningly revives a lost genre for the GTA generation.

We remember a time when PSN used to work - last week, and Allan tries out the latest in the long running SOCOM series of military shooters.

Jakob delves into Paradox Interactive's Darkest Hour, the latest strategy game to make use of Hearts of Iron 2's Europe Engine.

Sly Racoon, Ratchet & Clank and Jak & Daxter all in the same game? What could possibly go wrong?

Slighty Mad Studios' Shift 2: Unleashed is one of the best racing sims released in recent times. Certainly in terms of excitement it tops the rather dry Gran Turismo 5. Dig deeper though and you also find that its not just the excitement of racing the game simulates very well - the underlying physics engine is very neat indeed.

The suspension and tyre modelling are much better than Gran Turismo, it's easy to see if you watch replays of both games concentrating on suspension movement. Bringing up the telemetry data in Shift 2 shows how much work the physics engine is doing behind the scenes to present a game that goes quite a long way to create a realistic experience even on consoles.

So you're wondering why so many folks on forums and some critics believe that (a) Shift 2 is merely an arcade game, or (b) the physics engine isn't very good at all? In the case of game critics that's pretty easy - most mainstream sites are terrible at reviewing racing games, or anything else that isn't a straight shooter. But what of user experience? Those gamers who love a good racing game but are baffled by the way Shift 2 handles out of the box? They have a point.