Games I should probably review

For a variety of reasons (laziness, real life, not being bothered) I have quite a few games lying around that I should have reviewed by now. Some I spent a great deal of time playing a few months ago, but never got around to actually writing any words about (such as Assassin’s Creed and FIFA 08, both of which were surprisingly good, the latter of which I’m actually still playing and is my most played game currently).

It doesn’t help that a few of the games I should be reviewing this month, I played exhaustively more than six months ago thanks to slow European releases. Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds is a case in point, only out now in the UK, it was released nine months ago on this side of the world (Asia). It’s not exactly a text heavy Japanese RPG, so there’s no excuse for a long localisation. It is a very good game – simple and great fun, with a cute little online lobby mode and it genuinely works well as a social game with a group of non-gamers. But I stopped playing it in 2007, which is so last year.

Currently sitting beneath my PS3, collecting dust but quietly pleading to be reviewed, are too many games to mention, but Burnout Paradise and Army of Two are giving me the biggest guilty eyes. Sorry EA… they’re not bad games (well, Burnout Paradise at least), they’re just a little too predictable, and I’d rather be playing Fifa 08 instead, or better still, lying back watching a movie. It’s not like those games have had any lack of coverage in the media, both reviewed by practically every gaming magazine and website on the planet (except this one, of course). So no one, myself included, is too worried that we didn’t bother with our review. They’re both nice, polished, shiny games, but somehow I’d rather be playing something like Desktop Tower Defense.

That probably explains partly why this site is the way it is. But it is also worth blaming the entire games industry to a certain degree – they need to churn out less derivative crap. Not that their current derivative crap is bad, just that it’s… derivative. Games are better produced than ever, but it’s hard to be genuinely excited about any new games on the horizon. What am I looking forward to in the next few months? Grand Theft Auto IV, and perhaps Little Big Planet. That doesn’t bode too well for the state of things. The fact that a FIFA game is my most played though, might just be a sign that I’ve become mentally retarded. In its defense, it does play a very good game of football this year, and it’s not like there’s anything else worth playing at the moment.