Preview: Frozen Endzone (PC)

Preview by Mike B.

Frozen Synapse is a title that is heavily regarded among the Digitally Downloaded staff. It's such a simple concept, but executed to a level of precision that we rarely see at any level. The player plans the movements and actions of a small unit of troops which after finalised play out against the actions of enemy forces within a five-second period. When that time interval is over, the player can reevaluate their plan of attack and change their soldiers' movements and actions to fit the current situation. The game system actively encourages a metagame reiteration of strategy, making tactical planning as exciting as when that strategy is executed successfully.

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Review: NBA 2K14 (PS4)

Review by Nick H. 

Without a doubt in my mind, NBA 2K14 is the best sports game I have played this year. Of course, everyone's mileage with sports titles generally boils down to what they think of the sport in question, and while 2K has a great engine in place here, they did miss a handful of marks when advancing its series to the next generation consoles as well.

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Review: FIFA 14 (PS4)

Review by Nick H. 

I am a big fan of sports games. Madden is a yearly acquisition. NBA games as well. Hockey, golf and baseball are a slightly slower cycle, but I generally follow the sports in real life and enjoy their video game counterparts. Outside of playing soccer as a little kid however, I do not have much experience with the sport (Americans... :-P - Ed)

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Review: Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics (Wii U)

Review by Matt S.

With each new release, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic (or Winter Olympic) Games takes one more step towards becoming a generic and soulless minigame compilation. There's still fun to be had from these games, but it's easy to tell that budgets are getting smaller and ideas are running thin.

I still remember the Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games on the DS from the last Games. That one was a lot of fun with minigames that had a measure of depth to them. But then the last Summer Olympics game on the 3DS featured very few games that were worth playing more than once. Having not played one of these games on the home console before I'm happy to say the Wii U game is better than the 3DS Summer Olympics release, but can't match that DS game that I enjoyed so much as a single player experience.

But that being said the great difference between the handheld versions of these games, and the console versions, is that the console versions are that much better for multiplayer, and that makes all the difference.

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Review: Skydive: Proximity Flight (PS3)

Review by Chris I. 

Do you remember that your PlayStation 3 controller features Sixaxis motion controls? I thought about as much; thoughts of Lair still send shivers down my spine to this very day and I'm glad that most developers ignored the Sixaxis controls thereafter.

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Review: Pool Nation (PC)

Review by Nick H. 

The game's title is fairly simple, and in essence so is the game of pool. However, Cherry Pop Games deserves some serious credit for coming up with a game of pool that does not just 'work', but is a lot of fun to play as well.

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Review: Reel Fishing Paradise 3D (3DS)

Review by Harvard L. 

Most fishing games fall into one of two categories. On one side there are sport fishing games, which take liberties from reality to ramp up the excitement of fishing by adding time limits and high scores to chase. On the other side of the spectrum are recreational fishing games, which forgo any arcade-inspired bells and whistles to deliver an authentic fishing experience which is more relaxing than stressful. If you'd assume Natsume, developer of the Harvest Moon series, to be more interested in a recreational fishing title, you'd be right - Reel Fishing Paradise 3D clearly aims to have its players feeling comfortable, although it doesn't quite seize your attention either.

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Aussies still can't release awesome cricket games, but they're making Lacrosse games now?

Big Ant Studios, the developer behind many sporting adaptations on consoles, including AFL Live and Rugby League Live, is working with Crosse Studios to release a lacrosse game.

Let's just start by pointing out how insane it is for an Australian developer to be working on lacrosse. You're lucky if you even meet a person in the country that has watched a lacrosse game, let alone played one. I'm sure it's a very fine sport, but Australian developers could be better spending their time working on sports Australians care about, methinks.

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Review: NBA 2K14 (PS3)

Review by Sam M.

Basketball is completely foreign to me. I know that there are five players on two teams, and both teams try to get as many points by shooting a ball into the basket as they can. That’s where my knowledge ends. That's where most Australians' knowledge ends.

Even though I don’t know much about basketball, you can tell that a lot of effort has been put into NBA 2K14. Just spending time watching the demo play on the title screen, you can tell how much work has been put into the game's AI. The way each player moves, attacks and defends all make it look like you’re watching an actual basketball game. Actually, compared to the Australian basketball championship, what you see in this game looks far more realistic than the real thing.

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Review: Rugby League Live 2 Gold Edition (iPad)

Review by Andrew M.

As a sport lover and rugby league tragic, I am so pleased that there is a developer that is interested in making rugby league games. With sports that are purely Australian or – hell, I’ll say it – just not American, there doesn’t seem to be all that much interest in developing games around them. The Playstation 2 saw Rugby League and Rugby League 2, probably the best two rugby league games ever released. Recent consoles have seen the Rugby League Live games that have not reached same heights as the previous ones or anything close to something that will appease league fans. If anything, each new game about Rugby is getting weaker and weaker.

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Comparative review: FIFA 14 Vs. PES 2014 (PS3)

Article by Matt S. 

If you're a soccer (football, futbol, etc etc) fan like I am, then this is a great time of year. For whatever reason, both EA and Konami release their respective instalments into their soccer franchises right next to one another, and as these two are the only soccer games worth playing it means the fans are really spoiled for choice.

Both FIFA and PES are genuinely different games with different "feels" and quirks, and rather than review them individually I thought a side-by-side comparative review of both together would be a more interesting way to do things.

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Review: FIFA 14 (iPad)

Review by Matt S. 

Thank goodness EA got this one right. After the free-to-play travesty otherwise known as Madden 25 on the iPad I was so very concerned that FIFA 14 would be similarly depressing when it was announced to be a free-to-play game.

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Review: Real Boxing (Vita)

Real Boxing is another one of those indie games that was originally a mobile game and then remade for a handheld console. The thing is, I can't imagine playing this on touch screens now, having played the incredible dual-stick setup of this Vita version.

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Review: Smash Bowling 3D (3DS)

I had a chance recently to review a fishing title from Big John Games recently, and with both titles being of the sports variety, it makes you wonder if this is the direction they will continue to go. Bowling is one of those games that is fairly simple in premise, but can be a challenge to create replay value for on almost any system. I think to date that Wii Bowling is probably my favourite video game iteration of the sport, but Smash Bowling 3D does a good, but not great, job of giving you the game on the go.

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Review: Undead Bowling (3DS)

The title is explanation enough. Undead Bowling is a bowling game that features zombies as pins with a gritty, post-apocalypse setting. It's not original and it's definitely not engrossing, to be quite honest. With the 3DS limitations, it's a choppy, blocky mess with a laughably small amount of content considering its asking price.

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Trailer: What's this? Another cricket game from Australia? Blimey!

Hot on the heels of the upcoming Ashes Cricket game from Aussie developer, Trickstar Games (and the publisher really should hurry up and release this game), another Australian developer is stepping in to attempt to provider the cricket nations around the world a FIFA-beater.

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