This Week’s Games

After a few dull weeks, some games of note have finally surfaced. Too Human is the first of Microsoft’s big push of first party titles, with the next being Fable II. Reviews haven’t been amazing, despite a solid four years in development (plus another four before that), and general opinion appears to be that it’s a fun but slightly repetitive hack and slasher.

Also out on 360 this week is Smash Court Tennis 3, while PGA Tour 09 is out on all formats. Ubisoft have slipped out Soul Calibur Legends on Wii, which received very poor import reviews, whereas Bangai’O Spirits on DS got the opposite including a perfect 10 from Eurogamer. It’s only £17 on Amazon too.

The Sims 2: Apartment Pets on DS will no doubt do well in the charts and I wouldn’t be surprised if Driving Theory Training gets into the top 40 either. Whatever next? A DS game that teaches you how to stop smoking? Ah, no, wait – Ubisoft have Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking on the way. Christ on a moped!

UK Chart

There isn’t much in the way of action and excitement in the chart this week, with the top five games staying put. That means that Mario Kart Wii is still #1, followed by Wii Fit, Beijing 2008, Mario & Sonic and Wii Play. Carnival Games has risen from #13 to #6 thanks to being released on DS last week, while budget racer Off-Road goes in at #28.

Hellboy still hasn’t managed to make his mark in the top 40, but it does go in at #9 in the PSP chart. Has else anybody noticed that retailers have massively reduced the amount of PSP shelf space over the past couple of months?

Although the Games Convention was going on in Germany at the weekend, I chose to keep an eye on the world of video games from the less obvious surrounds of the Reading Festival. But amongst the teenagers who’d written on themselves and students with glowsticks, there was a reasonable amount to keep an eye on.

With Metallica headlining the Sunday night, Activision didn’t miss the opportunity to expose potentially interested parties to Guitar Hero, sticking a stand dedicated to the game just outside the main arena. It looked busy whenever I passed by, which is why I didn’t go any closer. That, and I’m bloody awful at the game. There was also at least one Guitar Hero flag around the festival, blocking everyone’s view of the stage. Flags at festivals need to be banned.

Ubisoft was there too, with some games or other, inevitably less busy than Guitar Hero. The branded goods continued – oh-so-classy Soulcalibur IV t-shirts in Ubisoft’s case. Were they being worn ironically? At a festival where trilby hats were in abudance, it’s impossible to say.

There was supposed to be an EA stand somewhere too, but I didn’t notice it. Hopefully they paid less for their plot than Ubisoft.

Video games were in evidence on stage too. Most obviously in the form of Hadouken! on the NME Radio 1 Stage, but there were less obvious occurances.

On the Alternative Stage, Chris Hicks and Ross Sutherland performed a piece (poetry, spoken word, rap – call it what you will) about dying in Time Crisis II. In fact, it looks like they have a whole show based around video games.

Finally, there was Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke’s Bowser t-shirt on the Main Stage. Which I noticed after I’d finished being squashed out of the way to make room for a circle pit. I hate people.

It’s a shame Slipknot had to cancel, otherwise I’m sure they would have used their set as an opportunity to give out Animal Crossing: Wild World friend codes, to encourage some new visitors. It seems like the sort of thing they’d do.

It’s questionable whether this is meant to be for public viewing, but the company Build has uploaded images of the custom presentation piece Sony gave to Phil Harrison when he left the company to join Atari.

If you can’t be bothered to click on the link, six layers of plexi-glass have been used to give the impression of ‘15’ spelled out in various PlayStation parts. Very stylish, and bound to be worth a fortune if it ever turned up on eBay. But for that to happen, you would have of course had to break into Phil Harrison’s office first…

This Week’s Games

There are five games out this week, but you’d probably have more fun tying some milk bottle tops to a piece of string and jingling it up and down.

Funnily enough, all five are for DS – AMF Bowling, Carnival: Funfair Games, Ducati Moto, Mary King’s Riding School and Road to Vegas. Actually Asterix and the Olympic Games on Xbox 360 might be out too. The PlayStation 2 version didn’t get awful reviews, but it’s doubtful that you bought an Xbox 360 to play Asterix games anyway.

Things fare better in the world of downloads – Super Mario RPG has found its way to Virtual Console, Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty do it again for PlayStation 3, and Galaga Legions swarms onto Xbox 360. All three are well worth a punt.

Xbox Live Arcade is brilliant. Ikugara, Rez, Worms and Uno have sucked up hours of my time, even though I’m unable to reach level three of Ikugara. However, what the Live Arcade has missed so far is quality original games, instead relying on old classics to prop up the service. Braid has come along in a gallant attempt to buck that trend.

UK Chart

Stamina. Strength. Speed. Determination. What better way to recreate the feats required to enter the Olympics than by sitting at home with a piece of plastic in your hand? Beijing 2008 is up from #13 to #3, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games up from #8 to #4, and Summer Athletics from Eidos goes in at #25. But who’s #1 in the chart? That’ll be Mario Kart Wii.

Madden 09 arrives #17, while Soul Calibur IV has dropped from #2 to #8. Hellboy: The Science of Evil fails to get into the top 40, but goes in at #26 in the Xbox 360 chart.

Ubisoft’s Puzzler Collection looks like its proving popular despite no promotion. It’s currently at #34 in the all formats and #9 in the DS chart. People must be really desperate to do crosswords and word searches while waiting for the bus.

I expect we’re all guilty of picking out breakfast cereal as a child just for the free toy inside. Even on the wrong side of my 20s, I’d be tempted by one of the LCD Guitar Hero toys being packed inside Kellogg’s cereal. I bet the music’s a bit rubbish though.

They’re North America only – indeed possibly Canada only – at the moment from the looks of things. Any idea if Europe ever got the excellent sounding Indiana Jones Adventure Spoons?

Madden 09 is out, so it’s not going to be hard to guess what the best selling game this month in the US will be. If memory serves, last year’s iteration managed to get quite high in the UK chart, but I’d be surprised if it gets into the top ten. The Wii version is sub-titled ‘All Play’ and has been designed for new comers in mind, something that has angered a few of the ‘hardcore’ fans. You can’t please everybody.

Also on Wii this week there’s Table Football – which I’m going to assume is appalling – and the unofficial Summer Athletics (also out on PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360). And yes, there is indeed another movie license out this week – Hellboy: The Science of Evil. Eurogamer didn’t like it much, awarding it 5 out of 10.

In the world of downloads, Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People is now available on WiiWare while Xbox 360 gets Fable II: Pub Games.

Codemasters’ Overlord was one of last year’s hidden gems and recently found a new lease of life on PlayStation 3. Sale figures must have pleased Codemasters, as not only is there going to be a sequel, but versions for Wii and DS too.

The Wii is getting Overlord Dark Legend. It’s a brand new game, not a port of the original, and from the sound of things the controller is going to be fully embraced. According to the interview on IGN, you’ll be able to pick up a single minion, shake and then lob him into the distance like a missile.

Climax are doing the DS version, entitled Overlord Minions, which focuses on just four controllable minions rather than a whole hoard – Giblet, Blaze, Stench and Zap. It looks brighter-coloured than the rest, and possibly might be aimed at the younger market.

The proper sequel – Overlord II – is on its way to PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. This time round the minions can ride mounts such as wild wolves, sail across seas and use war machines. The Overlord you control is a new fellow out to battle a Roman-inspired army in new environments such as an icy wasteland with Yetis and evil seals. More of the same? Probably. I just hope they do something about the dull dungeon sections that dragged the first game down.

Most Played

Since its release early last year, Shadowrun has been on the receiving end of a lot of flack, and to be honest, it’s mostly deserved. The single player mode is almost non-existent – you can only play against bots with less intelligence than a ’80s calculator – and there are no options to speak of. You can’t even fiddle with weapon sets to get a ‘swords only’ match going. It doesn’t look much prettier than an original Xbox game, and the art style is laughable. I promise the first time you lay eyes on a dwarf kitted out in full riot gear you’ll, well, laugh.

The Wii version of this turn-based strategy game was canned, as the developers thought they wouldn’t be able to get a decent version of the game running on the system. So why they thought that the DS could is a bit of a mystery.

The DS isn’t renowned for being a 3D powerhouse, but it can still produce some nice 2D graphics – take a look at the recent Soul Bubbles for proof. Visuals must have been the last thing on the agenda here though – it looks like an ugly Game Boy Advance game, with dull maps and no flair to speak of. There isn’t any music in game either, which hardly helps the atmosphere side of things. The controls work well though; so much so that there isn’t even the need for a tutorial at the beginning.