Game Shame: Mistakes Have Been Made...

Welcome to Game Shame, a place where we take look at the more murky side of gaming! Where we uncover the criminally bad, the irritating broken and the down right silly! But it's not just the games that shame us, oh no, sometimes it's developers, governments and even Joe public that cast a dark shadow over our beloved electronic worlds. So settle in, grab a snack and prepare to be forewarned of the Shameful side of games...

Welcome intrepid gamer. I see from the worried look in your eye that you are here to explore the world as it is when things go wrong? You wish to know of the folly of man and perhaps a little folly of your own? Well you've come to the right place for it is here that I shall record crimes against gaming and you..you will be my assistant. Listen well...

The first lesson to learn at Game Shame is that nobody is innocent. Not even you or I. "But Drew, how can that be? For myself, I know I am a sinner but you? Not you?" Your fear is understandable for Drew is indeed great but unfortunately even I have made mistakes in the pitiless world of games. It is these that I would like to address in this first issue of Game Shame.

My first mistake dear apprentice is the game Alien vs Predator the demo of which I reviewed for this very site not long ago. As you should recall, I insisted that this game would be worth the wait, anyone who has been following the game will know it was in development for ages and in many ways it was. However, it tricked me. It tricked me good.

You see much, if not all, of what I said about the game was true and held true. It is a lot of fun, the game play is solid enough with all three races well represented and the online will require several new pairs of pants (UK or U.S. pants -I don't mind which). So what's wrong? Well...I paid 50 Pound Sterling (around 75 Dollars) for it! That's bloody what. I thought "Hell, I loved the demo and I love the Alien franchise so how could this go wrong?

The problems arose when I found out how short the game is, a weekend is more then enough time to get through the single player and in all honesty, the single player is average at best. In a game with three very different races to play as you'd expect to encounter some innovation by really it's the same Jaguar/PC experience. My biggest let down was facing the alien queen as the marine which is essentially, kill the guards and shoot the large boxes marked "Bang!" I was quietly livid, I was expecting a massive ruck but it was all over in a minute. Shameful. I would confidently say that the queen encounters in Alien Trilogy are better then the one featured in AVP.

The kicker though was that after paying all that cash-money for the special edition of the game all I got was a shiny tin and a small map pack -a map pack that is now available for download and is cheaper when added to the cost of the standard game then buying the limited edition! That left me feeling more violated then a face-hugger victim.

So what can we learn from this? Learn this; it is sometimes better to wait. I jumped right in expecting the world and got, probably the southern part of England. It's nice enough but just lacks anything to make it great. AVP is polished but not really any better then the PC games that preceded it, it's certainly worth a look in just make sure you don't pay top dollar for it.

Now my apprentice, as Drew is far too great to punish himself I want to go and attack a polar bear to make up for this debacle.

-Drew-