Reader Reviews
We asked, you delivered. Reviews of EyeToy, EVE, ISS3 and Rez. And one other...
Lazy sods that we invariably are, last week we decided upon yet another way to avoid working: Reader Reviews. Given the amount of people buzzing around our forums and comment threads on a daily basis peddling their own beliefs, we thought we'd turn over the podium once every so often and publish a few of your whimsical ramblings. These are they.
And as promised, we've got a prize! And also as promised, it's reasonable! We decided that as we're a bunch of poor little people who live in squalor, we'd hand out a piece of PR tat and/or a game each week, and in this case it's "or". This week's top reviewer walks away with a copy of F1 Career Challenge '99-'02 on PC, and the winner is...
Star Review: EyeToy Play (PS2)
by Peej
Video gaming has seen some pretty odd peripherals in its time. Guns that you point at the screen to blast away enemies, dance mats that slide around your living room carpet while you try and emulate an on-screen Britney Spears. Way back in the days of the rubber-keyed Spectrum you could even get a tiny Surfboard that fitted to the keyboard in order to control an awful "surfing simulator". All very well but up until now there hasn't been a peripheral that has actually put you, yes you, the ugly spud-faced child, right there in the game you are playing.
Now, after much anticipation, Sony has entered the fray with The Eyetoy.
12 mini-games and a mini-webcam for £39.99 sounds like too good a deal to be true, but that's the deal and although some of the included games are instantly throwaway, some are genuinely fun, even for the lone gamer sitting at home nursing a lukewarm pot-noodle staring wistfully at his collection of Jordan posters, let alone for a whole room full of "10) Party 20) Get Started 30) goto 10" types.
Standouts for me were Kung Foo (allowing me to relive my misspent Bruce-Lee-watching youth by making ridiculously overblown "Haiiii-YA" noises in a Miss Piggy-style whilst despatching all manner of ninjas) and Wishi Washi, deserving of massive amounts of street cred just for including George Formby's "When I'm cleaning windows" as its title track.
It's a quick fix mind you. There's precious little depth to keep the hardcore gamer entertained, but that's not what EyeToy is about - it's about getting a bunch of people together to play a slew of very simple games in a totally new and different way. Future possibilities for the use of this peripheral, which has sold well enough to garner at least some extra support, are what we now anticipate with bated breath.