This Week’s Games, in 2D
There was a time when Pandemic could do no wrong, churning out Full Spectrum Warrior, Destroy All Humans and Mercenaries in quick succession. That was before being taken over by EA, where their output suddenly dropped – their Dark Knight game was canned, Mercenaries 2 wasn’t as good as the first and LoTR: Conquest was an insult to the license. EA has now closed the studio down and their final release – The Saboteur – is out today. There’s been next to no marketing and reviews have been barely above average. What a sad way for a once talented developer to go.
Reviews of James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game have been appearing on the ‘net this week, including a mediocre 5 from Eurogamer and a more positive 7 from GamesRadar. A quote from the Eurogamer review: “Did it really take him 10 years to come up with a blue horse?” The Wii version is different from the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions and received a not too bad 67% from NGamer Magazine. The PSP version isn’t out until next week, according to online retailers.
The multiformat Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen! seems to be the only other game worth mentioning. The previous games in the series, which were Xbox 360 exclusives, were pretty good and because it’s less than full price (£24.99 at Play) I’d say it would make a nice Christmas present for any movie buffs you may know. Sure, it’s a bit more expensive than a handful of cheap DVDs from Tesco, but nobody likes a cheapskate.
Next week: Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (ho ho!) and Tekken 6 on PSP.