What's New?
Just because the whole industry has sodded off to E3 doesn't mean there aren't stacks of great games out this Friday. Because there are. There's even one that'll be fun to play outside in this glorious sunshine...
As you may have gathered, they've all (literally all of them) naffed off to the West Coast of the United States to go to E3, and left me on my own here in Blighty. It's not all bad, though - the sun is shining brightly outside, I'm not jetlagged, and unlike Tom, I don't have a restraining order imposed by a Californian court that prevents me from going within half a kilometre of Shigeru Miyamoto. Or a broken nose from shouting "oi, baldy!" at Vin Diesel (true story - well, apart from the broken nose bit).
Holding the Fort
Plus, there are plenty of really good games out today to cheer me up - and if anyone else is feeling bitter about not going to E3, it's probably worth consoling yourself with a trip down to your local friendly interactive entertainment product emporium. Particularly if you're an Xbox owner, since then you'll be able to buy Tecmo's latest opus, the rather spectacularly good Ninja Gaiden. Yes, the European version lacks decapitations, but our resident ninja experts tell us that chopping off heads is only a minor element of the whole ninja lifestyle anyway, and unless you're all equipped for importing, it's really not worth missing out on the game just because it's missing a few aerterial blood sprays. That stuff is damn hard to get out of the carpets anyway, frankly.
There are decapitations galore in Midway's surprisingly good action / horror title The Suffering, though - in fact, just about every bodily part possible gets detached in just about every way possible, as far as we can gather. It's full of good ideas but let down a little bit by the execution, apparently, but if gory horror is your thing (and you've already got a copy of Project Zero 2: Crimson Butterfly) then you know what to do.
Sun is shining...
On the other hand, if you fancy letting a little light into your life, maybe you should check out Hideo Kojima's bizarre GBA title, Boktai: The Sun Is In Your Hand. Konami delayed this one for ages - presumably on the grounds that it doesn't work very well in winter - but now you too can run around outside waving your GBA at the sky like a loony trying to kill vampires with the sunlight. You might even get a tan in the process. Or simply burn to a crisp on the spot, by the looks of some of you.
Also on the more sunny side of things is the other big Nintendo title for the week, Pokemon Colosseum, which is the first full-size console RPG in the Pokemon series and is actually (whisper it) meant to be pretty good, if you like that sort of thing. Which (whisper even more quietly) we do, actually.
Last but not least, out of the stuff we actually care about anyway, is Van Helsing on PS2, which is a remarkably competent Devil May Cry style affair in which you bounce around the place as Hugh Jackman's eponymous character, spitting wisecracks and masses of hot lead at your enemies with gay abandon. The movie was so-so, but the game is really rather good. In fact, it's got better dialogue than the film in some places...
Our friends across the pond
Disappointingly, there's pretty much sod all out in the United States this week that's worthy of consideration. I say "disappointingly" because, while it's nice to see Europe getting a great stash of games for a change, I was rather hoping to guilt trip the rest of the team into bringing me back some newly released stuff from Los Angeles - but with nothing new on shelves this week apart from the vaguely interesting Cube title Custom Robo, that's not really happening. Apparently they have some form of vinyl Metal Gear Solid 3 thing for me though, so I suppose that's cool.
I'm off to the shops...
- PAL Releases
- Ninja Gaiden (Xbox)
- Van Helsing (PS2, GBA)
- Pokemon Colosseum (Cube)
- Boktai: The Sun is in Your Hand (GBA)
- The Suffering (PS2, Xbox, PC)
- CSI: Crime Scene Investigation 2 (PC)
- Deadly Skies 3 (PS2)
- Key US Releases
- Custom Robo (Cube)