Video Games Review
Johnny Minkley was in today to tell us about the latest Video Games....
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (PS3/Xbox 360) - Out September 19th
The big draw of The Force Unleashed is that it fills in the gap between Anakin Skywalker's transformation into Darth Vader and the rise of the Rebel Alliance against the Death Star in the original Star Wars movie. This is the final chapter of the gospel according to George Lucas.
The presentation is simply stunning and the story doesn't disappoint: the brilliant twist at the end will even change your understanding the original trilogy!
The game, perhaps inevitably, fails to live up to the huge expectations. Technically, it's amazing: it's all about "kicking ass with The Force", and, as Darth Vader's secret apprentice, that's precisely what you can do. You can hurl massive objects around with ease; fling enemies hundreds of yards; shoot lightning from your fingertips; even bring down enormous spacecraft from the sky!
Sadly, although there are countless moves to earn and learn, Force power to upgrade and creative ways to use your surroundings to destroy enemies, in many cases you simply don't need to use any of this - a couple of moves will suffice.
And uninspired level design means that in some areas you can just leg-it through to the end unscathed and without being followed by identikit waves of enemies. The game's also a bit on the short side - you can easily finish it in a couple of evenings - although there's extra stuff to unlock.
Despite the occasional moment of magic (the final stage is thrilling), it's not the great game it could have been, but the plot revelations alone may well be enough to sway Star Wars nuts.
Spore (PC/Mac) - Out Now
This is the long-awaited new project from Will Wright, the genius behind the most successful PC series of all time, The Sims. Spore is the most ambitious game ever created: split into five phases - Cell, Creature, Tribal, Civilisation and Space - it tracks the evolution of life from single-celled organism to galaxy-conquering mega-race!
Everyone's journey will be unique: you design your organism, creature, species, village, town, city and spacecraft every step of the way, and the Spore universe is randomly populated by other species created by players from around the world.
Individually, the first four stages lack the depth of hardcore strategy titles, but that misses the point. Spore is an videogame you can play however you want, whether it's creating bizarre lifeforms to share with the world, or exploring the far-flung reaches of the galaxy. A remarkable achievement that's charming, inspiring and loads of fun.
Samba De Amigo (Wii) - Out September 25th
Here's the latest wacky party experience for your Wii. This maracas-shaking game originally released in arcades in 1999 and turned up a year later on Sega's doomed-but-brilliant Dreamcast console.
In short, you hold the Wii remote and nunchuk like a pair of maracas, and shake them along to silly samba-flavoured tracks and cheesy pop covers, striking poses and waving your arms like a loon along the way.
It's stupid fun in the best sense, although I did experience problems with the Wii registering my moves, which can be very frustrating. There is an option to use two Wii remotes instead of the nunchuk, as the latter doesn't seem to work quite as well.
In the age of SingStar and Guitar Hero, the tracklist looks weak. But the emphasis is firmly on cheese: more Macarena than Madonna. It's also the first Wii game that will have downloadable content - new track packs will be released every month via Nintendo's online service, though storage on the hard drive-free Wii is a problem.
Nine years since the original, it's nowhere near as slick as rivals like Guitar Hero, and it's definitely not worth getting if you're a solo-player. But if you fancy dancing like an idiot with friends and family, and have enough controllers to go around, there are plenty of laughs to be had once you get into Samba's groove!
PlayTV (PS3) - Out September 19th, Β£69.99
This is a great little addition to PlayStation 3 that takes advantage of its non-gaming features. It's basically a Freeview box that also turns your console into a PvR (personal video recorder).
This means you can use PS3 to do record shows straight onto the hard drive to watch later, pause and rewind live TV, watch one channel while recording another and so on. It'll also keep recording TV while you're playing a game, and switch itself on to record if you're out and have left it on standby.
The menu system is incredibly slick and clear - more user-friendly than Sky +, for example - and the whole package takes just a few minutes to set up. Best of all, if you own a PSP, you can use the Remote Play feature to watch recorded programmes on the handheld over the Internet as long as you have a wireless connection set-up.
If you don't already own a PvR, this an impressive piece of kit that's certainly cheaper than dedicated products and a neat extra string in PS3's multimedia bow.
You can see how it all works in the following video:
PlayTV Guide: https://www.eurogamer.net/tv_video.php?playlist_id=6857&size=large
Braid (Xbox 360) - Out Now, 1200 Points (Roughly Β£10)
Wow. This beautiful game from indie game designer Jonathan Blow came out of nowhere, and is one of the best games I've played in a long while.
Braid is a platform puzzle game in which you control Tim, a young man in search of his princess, who we are told, in a smart nod to Super Mario Bros., is always "in another castle". In each of the game's worlds you have to collect a series of jigsaw pieces scattered around. Tim can run and jump like every platforming hero: the clever bit is the game's manipulation of time.
You can rewind the action at any point - this is essential to solve the many puzzles. And variations are added as you progress: in one world a shadow copy of you appears repeating previous actions; in another, moving right plays the action forwards, while walking left rewinds.
Trust me, you will need to use parts of your brain you had forgotten were there! But the sense of satisfaction when you finally solve a puzzle is immense. And the real beauty of the game is that the solution to every single puzzle is always right in front of you: there are no items to collect or skills to learn. You just need to figure it out.
Braid is the best downloadable Xbox 360 game by a mile, and already a surprise candidate for game of the year. Yes, it's relatively short, but you'll have such fun playing through that it's the best Β£10 you'll spend.
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