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Batman: Arkham Asylum Wonderful; lovely exploration around the main draw, and a surprisingly deep combat engine, that will quickly shed any appearance of "button mashing" if you give it the chance. More importantly, there's barely any sense of "here's the stealth bit, here's the fighting bit", even though that's roughly what's happening; rather, you just feel like Batman. All the time. (Also: the voicework is great). |
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Ikaruga In a mechanical, abstract sense, it's brilliant; it's a very beautiful, stylised game. But it's also ball-breakingly hard in a way that I don't think is fun. Much of the game turns into a memory test, which is just dull and unfair compared to the improvisation that shooters like Psyvariar and Dodonpachi offer. It's the pinnacle of a particular kind of game, and Treasure are brilliant, but it's OK not to like Ikaruga. And in the end, much as I tried, I didn't. |
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Forza Motorsport 3 It's an ultra-realistic racer once you turn all the assists off, but you can ease yourself into the realism slowly. There's a lot of scope for tuning and modification, but at the heart is a fantastic driving engine; solid 60fps, brilliant feedback. The early vehicles are not that exciting, but some upgrades, or a skittish RWD sportscar, will quickly reveal the fun in the handling engine. With friends, it's a hoot, if only for the competition it instills. I had a surprising amount of fun with it - far more than any Gran Turismo game, which I find interminably dull - but you might still find it dry if you don't like this sort of thing. (If you want a balls-to-the-floor Fun Racer, check out GRID, which is great in its own way). |
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Shadow Complex Wonderful stuff: old-school platforming/exploration, very pretty, nice soundtrack, and the exploration never gets tiresome. It is very, very, very Super Metroid. |
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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 The multiplayer is detailed, refined, wonderfully-balanced and crack-like in its addictiveness. The single-player is entertaining and big-budget, but it's also very short - about 6 hours - and total bobbins, narrative-wise; co-op and multiplayer are where it's at. If you're not interested in those, this isn't likely the best fit for you. |
