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Blood Bowl
The Beatles Rock Band

Prankster 101 Productions Ltd

Radiant Silvergun

Radiant Silvergun

FORMAT: Saturn
RELEASE: 1998
PUBLISHER: ESP
DEVELOPER: Treasure

Treasure Co. Ltd debuted in 1992 with the formidable 16bit adventure Gunstar Heroes. It would be six years before they would produce what is now considered their defining work, Radiant Silvergun. The title would mark Treasure’s first foray into the shooting game genre, and the only time they would self-publish for the arcade scene. Running on Sega’s ST-V hardware, the game didn’t find an audience until the Sega Saturn port in 1998.

Making it their business to boycott sensible business practices, Treasure’s volatile mixture of non-conformity and allegiance to dying consoles was a risky strategy – but one that has seen them evolve into one of Japan’s most revered developers.

For non-Japanese speakers, Radiant Silvergun’s fairly derivative philosophical plot is near incomprehensible. Spanning decades, it leaps into the future and flashbacks into the past, recounting a tale of confrontation with Earth’s guardian, misunderstood for its attempts to rid the planet of a warring human race.

The Beatles Rock Band

The Beatles Sceenshot

FORMAT: PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 (Version Reviewed)
RELEASE: Out Now
PUBLISHER: MTV Games
DEVELOPER: Harmonix Music Systems

From the moment the blissed out intro sequence starts you know that Harmonix have pulled out all the stops and have done their research – this game’s going to take you on a Magical Mystery Tour of the Beatles, so grab your instrument and get ready for a great psychedelic journey.

The main element of the game is Story mode, this is set out in a similar way to Rock Band’s solo player mode. However, this time the songs aren’t in order of difficulty but instead are in chronological order, taking you through key moments in the Beatles career from the Cavern right through to their final gig on Apple Corps rooftop. This works really well if you’ve played Rock Band before but could be off-putting for newcomers as some of the early songs are as difficult as the final track! But do not fear, there is Quick Play mode which has all the tracks available from the start so you can practice on easier tracks before going into Story mode. Talking of difficulty, even on Expert you’re never truly pushed to the limits – not surprising considering that the Beatles weren’t exactly known for their finger blistering guitar solos. This is up for debate however, as the game does present some taxing and complex rhythms requiring plenty of practice to hit those high scores. You also get the chance to sing the harmonies, giving you three vocal lines to sing, and allowing yourself to be immersed in delivering the full band experience and the challenge of singing and playing at the same time.

Blood Bowl

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FORMAT: PSP, DS, Xbox 360, PC (Version Reviewed)
RELEASE: Out Now
PUBLISHER: Focus Home Interactive
DEVELOPER: Cyanide

It seems most boys encounter Warhammer at some point in their life. Whether they embrace it, ridicule it or hide in the darkness of their bedroom for hours painting it depends on the individual. But it seems Warhammer has now been brought to the real world and it might have been made even more geekier…

Bloodbowl is a simple concept. Take American Football, add a lot of spikes, more injuries and significantly more deaths and there you have it. Originally it was played on a board marked out by squares using dice and actually resulted in a game that involved a fair bit of thought and a lot more luck. But now the video game version is out and to be honest, it has barely deviated from the original concept.

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