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On the eighth day of Christmas Electronic Theatre
brings you the eighth instalment in our The Twelve Games of
Christmas feature series. The Twelve Games of
Christmas is a new feature series aimed to highlight the best
disc-based releases of 2008,
one month at a time. Today, we take a look at August 2008, and
finally see that summer drought take shape.
Too Human was the biggest release in August
2008 for many reasons, most of which are rather uncomplimentary.
A couple of adaptations of motion pictures, a well-accepted – though
far from groundbreaking – athletics game and an intriguing yet
flawed PC exclusive do not make for a release schedule that’ll
stand-up in memory. In-fact, the line-up was so incredibly poor this
month that each title included in the nominations has reached this
point simply by virtue of their release date.
Honourable Mentions:
Hellboy: The Science of Evil (Xbox360,
PLAYSTATION3)
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (PlayStation2,
NintendoDS)
Runners-Up:
Too Human (Xbox360)
Disappointing on many levels, Too Human was an
enjoyable game experience, if entirely formulaic and considerably
short. Hack-N’-Slash titles
are all about the Levelling and looting you may well say, but the
uncanny similarity between most armour types and lack of random
Level generation result in a game that inevitably become rather
tedious.
The vocal nature of the (self-?)appointed spokesperson
for developer Silicon Knights, Dennis Dyack, lead to a ridiculous
amount of criticism before the title had even arrived, and for those
gleeful in anticipation only sought to raise expectations. Years of
Press Releases and uneven public outings had created feature
experiences of every aspect of the game - from the game’s
environments, to the online Co-Operative play, to the weapon
customisation - in the mind’s eye, and the disjointed reality of
their inclusion was jarring in a way that only the most swollen
games can be.
Summer Athletics: The Ultimate Challenge
(Xbox360, PLAYSTATION3, PlayStation2)
Though neither as well presented as Mario & Sonic at
the Olympic Games nor as thorough as Beijing 2008,
Summer Athletics: The Ultimate Challenge is a reasonably
enjoyable budget release. Though not exceedingly cheap on initial
release, the twenty-six events and well paced Career Mode offer
enough value for money to satisfy most Casual Gamers, and the
Control Systems are mostly intuitive. The lack on any online
functionality whatsoever may be daunting to some, but Summer
Athletics: The Ultimate Challenge wasn’t the only title this
month to ignore such a wealth of opportunity.
Best of August 2008
Space Siege (PC)
A SEGA published Science-Fiction Hack-N’-Slash title
from the people that developed Dungeon Siege – Gas Powered
Games – Space Siege
was perhaps the most reliable title released in August. Even the
experienced developer couldn’t overcome certain significant
barriers, however, and Space Siege was yet another title
launching to a mixed reception. Promising similar morale dilemmas,
significant story, Role-Playing Game elements and exciting combat to
the aforementioned Too Human, in a title sat squarely in the
same genre, Space Siege at least managed to deliver on a few
points of intrigue, if heavily dousing them in a thick layer of
repetitiveness. Indeed, Space Siege may not exactly be a
title to write home about, but in a month where the biggest news was
that of a let down, there’s little more we could actually hope for. |
