What's New?

"Christmas? I see no Christmas."

News by Tom Bramwell Former Editor-in-Chief

Published on 5 Sep 2003

Like a river ferry stuffed to bursting with anxious passengers, the silly season preceding Christmas is drifting unstoppably toward us, and the first gondola-full of interesting games has just spilt its load on the shore. Witness not one, not four but, well, four games we reckon we're keen on playing this week. Heading them up is the long overdue release of the second Battlefield 1942 expansion - Secret Weapons of World War II - and you can read more about that in our recent impressions piece before you run to the shop clutching three fivers (for it is that cheap!).

Perched alongside EA's mad German scientists on the rostrum is Sega's Otogi - Myth of Demons, a vagrant slash 'em up starring a demon-obsessed half-dead pointy-hatted fellow called Raikoh. We've written about that one too and will be reviewing it shortly. In fact we've been waiting for an excuse to get back on terms with it - if you like graceful sword-slinging and mythological demons then it will be right up your street. Sega may not have made it (FromSoft did that) but it certain has the right feel.

Slightly less exciting but no less saleable is Ghost Recon: Island Thunder on the Xbox - a standalone expansion to the game which sold because it had Xbox Live support. This one does too, so if you like being shot randomly in the back of the head by chuckling Germans then you could do worse than to pick it up. At 15 quid odd it's probably worth it for the single-player or multiplayer aspects alone, whichever you're interested in. Having just received our copies of that, EG's resident Clancy nut will be letting you in on its charms very soon.

Another title we've just received is Pirates of the Caribbean on Xbox, which has been getting... not altogether panned... but "mixed reviews", if you like, since its release in the US. It is allied to the summer's finest movie though, starring Johnny Depp doing his best Keith Richards impression and Orlando Bloom sleepwalking his way through the charmingly befuddled blacksmith role. Or something. You should see it anyway, even if you ignore the game.

The fourth game that tickled our interest-o-meter into life (discounting Pirates above) is Capcom's Chaos Legion, which Kristan is busy toiling over as we speak. Devil May Cry fans have not been impressed so far, but it's described by the developer as a "dark gothic opera" so we're sitting upright with our eyes open in anticipation. More on that one soon.

Scraping the bottom of the barrel this week, we have Cold Zero: The Last Stand (no relation to the phenomenal Project Zero as someone suggested), Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure (sorry Activision, but: shrug), Reel Fishing 3, a Cube port of Super Bust-A-Move 2 (harmless if also a little pointless) and the PS2 release of recently-swallowed TDK's WorldRacing. Oh, and a small mention also for Sega's The King of Route 66, which is a sluggish truck racer from AM2 that Martin will be attacking soon. Perhaps literally.

More next week of course as the silly season truly heats up. And for those of you expecting to see Dark Chronicle amongst this week's releases - tune in again next time, because it's slipped to September 12th.