Hot Fun in the Summertime

It’s officially summer 2005. Hence, it is officially Summer Games 2005. Time to post those lists and finish those games bitches!

On this two year anniversary of the original EMB Summer Games I’d like to take some time and reflect. A thought occurs as I look out at the beautiful blue sky from my apartment window: why the hell do we do this in the summer? Why do we force ourselves to game during these long sunny days instead of the short, dark and miserable days of winter ? Is it our fear of Melanoma or The Nile Virus or perhaps hot ladies in bikinis that forces us indoors? Or are we condemning ourselves simply because some so-and-so is still getting his degree and has the summer off? Hmmm… I think a mutiny is in order….

But first I need to finish some games!

My official list for 2005 is Hitman 2, Splinter Cell, X-men Legends, Feeble Files, The Last Express, Fallout, No One Lives Forever 2, and if I have time Jedi Academy. I have little hope of success in finishing all these by fall, but maybe I’ll break a leg or something. It should be noted that both Feeble Files and X-men Legends are being played co-op with Jess who more times than not is the one who suggests we play them!

BTW - Those of you who haven’t finished your Secret Satan titles yet, those should be first…

I’ve had the opportunity to crack open Hitman 2, X-men Legends, Feeble Files, and Jedi Academy this last week so I thought I’d give some first impressions.

Jedi Academy

The power of Christ compels you!!

I’m a huge fan of Jedi Knight and Jedi Outcast but heard mixed reviews of Jedi Academy and was waiting for the price to go down. I recently received free copies of both for PC and Xbox from relatives so I decided to give it a go. I played a few levels of the Xbox version and so far have been unimpressed. You can tell from the time you set up your character that this game was a rush job. The interface is clunky and cheap and your model automatically rotates while you are selecting a head and clothes so you have to wait for it to come back around in order to see the face. How hard would it have been to let you rotate the model with the right stick? Every other game I’ve played does it this way.

The graphics on the Xbox leave much to be desired. They seem jittery and poorly ported. I’ll probably fire up the PC version if I decide to finish this to make use of the (hopefully) better graphics. The game has done little to pull me in and make me want to play so I’ve put this one in my maybe pile.

The Feeble Files

I first heard about The Feeble Files at justadventure.com where it was listed as one of the top ten adventure games you’ve (probably) never played. Macplay has updated this game to work for OSX so now everybody can play it (if you own a Mac).

This is a point and click adventure in the classic sense and though the graphics and sound are definitely dated (especially the cut scene audio) they haven’t taken anything away from the fun yet. So far the dialog and voice acting are excellent. Feeble’s voice is performed by Robert Llewellyn who played the cyborg Kryten on the BBC’s hilarious sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf. Games like this are hard to come by these days. The adventure genre is pretty much in the toilet and the comic adventure genre is in even worse shape. Macplay’s got this for $5 right now so if you’ve got the adventure itch you should pick it up.

X-men Legends

Speaking of dialog and acting, let’s move on to a game that has some of the worst in recent memory, “X-men Legends”. With the exception of Patrick Stewart, the cast is as stiff and cheesy as a mouse with an erection. The cutsecenes play like some overdubbed Godzilla movie with such nuggets of dialog as “I am not cognizant of a word to describe just how horrible this is”. The main character sounds like an obnoxious valley girl and Wolverine is so over the top it’s laughable. Lucky for us, this isn’t a story driven adventure game, but rather a sci-fi dungeon crawler.

As dungeon crawlers go, this one is great so far. Unlike most hack n’ slashers where each player controls one character from start to finish, X-men lets you switch between a large selection of characters. The verdict is still out as to whether or not this is better. It can be overwhelming trying to balance everyone and figure out each mutant’s upgrade and power capabilities. There’s also no way they can develop each character as deep as with a single character game.

Something that is definitely better than most H/S games is the melee combat. You punch, kick, and throw your enemies in a variety of ways that are unique to each mutant (though there are some overlaps.) There are also button combos that result in more powerful melee moves. Add to that four power attacks per mutant and an almost entirely destructable environment and the result is lots and lots of bloody rubble.

The coolest feature so far is the Danger Room which can be visited any time for some one-off missions, single or co-op battle royales, or head to head fights. You can revisit any mission you’ve beaten plus bonus missions that can be found throughout the game. Some of the best so far are the flashback missions that revisit past X-men battles complete with 70’s outfits (remember Wolverine in yellow?)

Did I mention that the game allows co-op play up to 4 people at a time? Why haven’t we had an EMB throwdown yet?

Finally, Hitman 2

Screenshot courtesy of Erin Cole

I’ve barely scratched the surface but already I’m impressed by the unexpected depth of character development. This game could’ve gotten by without putting a face or a past to the cold steely assasin, but I find it interesting that they make you care about him. It also has one of the most difficult first levels I’ve ever encountered. Since this was one of Jeff’s 2003 Summer Games, you know the rest…

I want to see some lists people. Put on those spelunking helmets, find those unfinished games and let’s do this thing!