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The third day of Christmas is upon us! Now all those
festivities are out of the way, it’s time to burn off all those
extra calories with a bit of thumb twiddling! And that’s exactly
what The Twelve Games of Christmas aims to do; not only
highlight some of the
greatest achievements in videogames over the past twelve months, but
also to remind you of some of the games you may have missed – and
can be snapped-up for a few less pennies in those January Sales!
Today we run through March: a typically busy month for
videogame releases, in anticipation for Easter. March 2008 saw a
slew of fantastic releases, and some not so fantastic. March
included big names such as Army of Two and Condemned 2
on PLAYSTATION3 and Xbox360, and Assassin’s Creed finally
making it way onto the PC. The PlayStation Portable had an unusually
busy month, with God of War: Chains of Olympus and Fading
Shadows offering highlights in an increasingly sparse release
schedule.
Honourable Mention:
Fading Shadows (PlayStation Portable)
Condemned 2: Bloodshot (Xbox360, PLAYSTATION3)
Assassin’s Creed (PC)
Runners-Up:
Bully: Scholarship Edition (Wii, Xbox360, PC)
Wii and Xbox360 gamers got a taste of the
 PlayStation2’s
pastiche of school days at a school for the not-so-fortunate. The
distinctly ‘90s vibe through the game and high-brow humour running
throughout every activity resulted in a definite mid-twenties market
for Bully: Scholarship Edition, a market that has enough
disposable income to warrant a purchase despite the lack of
remodelling for more powerful consoles.
Renamed Canis Canem Edit for its PlayStation2 debut – the
motto of Bullworth Academy, in which the game is set - the proximity
of the name change to the game’s release undoubtedly harmed sales.
Managing to put the game on shop shelves with its original title on
the two dominating formats was simply a masterstroke of marketing,
and will hopefully allow this thoroughly enjoyable title to gain the
appreciation it deserves amongst the masses.
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue
The screams could be heard for miles: “It’s only a demo!”
While, in many respects, that may well be true, Gran Turismo 5
Prologue still contains a volume of content that would make many
of it’s peers writhe with envy. Featuring over seventy fully
modelled cars, six beautiful tracks and full online play, there’s
little to distinguish Gran Turismo 5 Prologue from many
“full” Racing games available on the PLAYSTATION3. The handling of
the vehicles is pitched perfectly and the visual and aural qualities
are second-to-none. With it’s wallet-friendly Recommended Retail
Price, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is the perfect taster of the
series on PLAYSTATION3; let’s just hope the final product doesn’t
end-up over-cooked.
Best of March 2008:
God of War: Chains of Olympus (PlayStation
Portable)
As mentioned above, European PlayStation Portable owners
saw what a month to remember in March this year. The highly
anticipated handheld adaptation of the PlayStation2’s fantastic
God of War series finally
launched, and brought with it almost all the charm of it’s big
screen brethren.
Quite easily the finest example of the modern Scrolling Beat-‘Em-Up
genre ever to grace a handheld console, God of War: Chains of
Olympus also redefined what a PlayStation Portable game could
be. It’s a shame then, than the title’s developer, Ready at Dawn,
have since announced the finalisation of all PlayStation Portable
development, stating on their official Blog in June; “With Chains
of Olympus going Gold in Japan, we're now officially done with
PSP development. So today we sent all our devkits back and seeing
all these boxes ready to be picked up definitely marks the end of an
era here at Ready At Dawn. Can't wait to show you guys what we have
in store….”
Whatever the future holds for Ready at Dawn, God of War: Chains
of Olympus is a release the team can be proud of, and will no
doubt go down in history as one of the PlayStation Portable’s best
videogame releases. |
