Bioshock (X360)
Not quite sure why. I was absolutely sold on the demo, apart from its one appalling moment of narrative idiocy. WoW more alluring, I suppose.
Endless Ocean (Wii)
I only got this the week before Christmas, so I am still playing it and I will finish it, I’m pretty sure, I’ve just not had the time. It’s rather wonderful, in a space somewhere between Animal Crossing and the chill-out early levels of Ecco the Dolphin that I’ve written about before—you can do tasks, see sights, collect sets and get better clothes, or you can prat around being a scuba diver without having to mix with any of those wankers from BSAC. I am loving this, though the above-water graphics are very last-gen, it’s got Enya on the intro, and the dive-discipline is distressingly lax.
Excite Truck (Wii)
Look, can we just say that “unlocked all the principal vehicles and/or tracks†counts as “finished� Or there’s going to be a bunch of race-games in here. I am not a platinum-medal completist.
Gears of War
I just lost enthusiasm after about an hour. I keep meaning to go back to it but I never do.
Halo 3 (X360)
I beg dispensation on this one. I didn’t buy it when it came out, I waited for my lovely wife to give it to me for my birthday a few weeks later, and then I’ve been waiting for Christmas so I could play through it on co-op with my brother-in-law. Now, either it’s me misunderstanding the controls or you can’t save your progress in co-op. So I will plod through it on solo, but I have to re-upholster my special gaming chair first. (That’s not a weird metaphor. It’s looking a bit threadbare, that’s all.)
Rayman: Raving Rabbids (Wii)
Some brilliant minigames in here, plus some not-brilliant minigames, and a good deal of unnecessary faffing about with cut-scenes and filler that quickly become annoying. Look, Wii developers, do not sell your products as party games and then make purchasers have to work through it in solo mode to unlock the multiplayer bits. Warioware Smooth Moves, Sonic and Mario at the Olympics, stop trying to skulk away while I’m bitching about the French.
Resident Evil 4 (Wii)
There came a point, fairly early on, where I stopped believing in the game. I was very conscious that I wasn’t killing zombies with a pistol, I was pointing a light-gun at collections of texture-wrapped polygons, and not really enjoying the experience. Plus I’ve hated Capcom’s movement systems since its early PS1 games: they all feel cumbersome and slow, as if my avatar is wading through entrails. I really wanted to like it, I paid full price for it and everything, but this has nothing new to offer and many old faults to lament.
ST.A.L.K.E.R. (PC)
I’m not a big PC gamer, and didn’t realise how lamentably under-specced my desktop machine was. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. looks great, the little of it I could see, and I am still enthused by the concept (it’s an FPS based on a very long, very slow Tarkovsky movie that’s half in black-and-white, you can see the immediate appeal… or at least the immediate appeal to someone like me), the reviews, the idea of playing it, and the tiny bit of the game I played before my PC wheezed to a stop and begged for mercy.
World of Warcraft (PC)
A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.