Summer’s traditionally a busy time for a lot of things; festivals, films, sports etc., but it’s also a very quiet time for other things, most notably news but also games.
Games traditionally have a very barren spell over the summer months, except for the titles held for ‘seasonal’ releases, which usually means tennis games. I can’t tell you how much seasonal releases annoy me, and the worst culprit in my eyes was Nintendo. Back in the N64 days there were a few games I was desperate for, and one of those was 1080 Snowboarding. Australia had it released in June or July (their winter), but Nintendo of Europe had the genius idea of holding the release here until Christmas time, as it was summer here and nobody wants snowboarding games in the summer, right? Well I did, and a lot of other people did, hence my first – and only – Australian import from a local shop.
Anyway, I’m getting away from the point in hand here, and that’s the lack of decent new games to pick up once summer gets here. I’ve got a couple of games on the go, but nothing I can really get my teeth stuck into, and I’m not the only one feeling the itch, friends have said the same thing to me. I got so desperate for something new, half-decent and involving to play that I trawled the games shops at lunchtime and still came up blank. Eventually I found one, and despite the ‘not bad, but not brilliant either’ reviews I picked up a cheap copy of Dungeon Siege III.
So far I think I must have put in about ten hours, and I’m really enjoying it. It’s a nice mix of RPG and third-person action adventure, with a heavy emphasis on loot and character development. Thankfully it’s all been given a nice easy interface which lets you get on with the important stuff – like actually playing the game – rather than spending hours agonising over stats and figures. I love a good dungeon crawl, and that’s exactly what the game provides, powering up and getting stuck into a good fight. It reminds me of playing Neverwinter Nights on the PC, but with a bit less depth, making it far more living room friendly in my eyes. The story is pretty good too, and that’s high praise indeed from someone who finds it hard to get drawn into yet another fantasy back story. Oh and there are save points every five minutes too, whoever saw fit to put them in the game that frequently is a saint and deserves a pat on the back from someone who hates being forced to play for another hour just so he doesn’t lose his progress.
I have no idea how far into the game I am, but I think there’s still a good way to go yet. I’d thoroughly recommend it for anyone looking to fill the summer gap, and when you can pick it up for about 13 or 16 quid at Zavvi and Tesco respectively, you can’t really go wrong.
Now bring on Batman: Arkham City!