This week sees a bounty of AAA titles released for our interactive consumption. Hurrah, the gaming season has begun!
There is fierce competition on the pitch between EA's FIFA 2005 and Codemasters' Club Football 2005, Atomic Planet releases its Jackie Chan title with EyeToy interactivity after the infamy of their Guy Game debacle, Nintendo encourages us to nurture our green thumbs for a second time in Pikmin 2 and Big Blue Box's Fable takes our breath away.
Keep reading for details…
Without a doubt, the winner of the week is the superb Fable. Don't take my word for it, listen to Greg. It is truly a spectacular game, regardless of Peter Molyneux's self-critical apologies for not reaching the state of the divine that he would have liked. For us mere mortals it will do just nicely.
If anything, Fable is the precursor to Massively Multiplayer Online Games on consoles. While it exists solely offline, somehow the collective creative genius of Big Blue Box studios has developed a title which keeps the social elements of human interaction alive in computerised AI. Take on the mantle of Hero and choose your destiny. As with all of Molyneux's titles, be good or evil. You decide. Great for us control freaks. XBox only.
Pikmin 2 gets my silver medal this week, primarily because it's booted Fable off the television screen since Tuesday (much to my chagrin). Little has changed in the formula of this macro-puzzle gardening-simulation from the creator of Mario and Zelda. You're still on a foreign planet, you still have to plant and grow little seed dudes called Pikmin. A couple of nice additions though: you can delegate many of the menial tasks to your trusty assistant and you can wander at will. Time is, erm, no object. Re-play value is still low, but Pikmin 2's great for brain exercise after a long day. GameCube only.
Jackie Chan Adventures is a pretty straightforward take on the hit kids' cartoon series. As an action adventure title, players are charged with solving puzzles, finding talismans and kicking comedy butt against the evil that stands in the way. Some of the EyeToy games are quite literally hilarious, and this is the first title for which smacking bad guys in the face with your booty is appropriate. It's only available on PS2.
And finally, the football games kick off the season (is it the season?!) on every console known to man and woman. First up is FIFA 2005, featuring the well-publicised contributions of DJ Paul Oakenfold. Trying to get a foot on the pitch in a very odd week to release is Club Football 2005. I'm afraid I'm going to have to leave these two to people who know football. I just don't. You can read the Online review of FIFA here, but otherwise, Greg? Keef?
Next week I will mostly be playing Donkey Konga to practice my cool rhythm action skillz.
