So that was 2008. My journal prediction (made approximately 12 months ago) that the year would, ahem, “rock” may have been slightly tongue-in-cheek but, buoyed by 2007’s comparatively healthy schedule of updates, I had thought we could at least achieve something similar in 2008.
For whatever reason, it didn’t happen. Still, we did manage an average of roughly two reviews per month (it would have been exactly two if I’d managed to get the PQII review done a day earlier) – which isn’t quite the barren update-free wasteland that I had sort-of convinced myself we were becoming.
The year started with a double-whammy of action, with Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza and Return to Castle Wolfenstein featuring in the first update. For some reason that theme continued, with new additions to the action section (in particular FPS games) outnumbering the others by quite some distance.
Standouts included the amnesiac cel-shaded shooter XIII and the continued adventures of one of our favourite gravelly-voiced heroes in Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne. Others, including the No One Lives Forever games, fell into the ‘not bad’ category, much like much of the rest of the year’s fare. There were a couple of slightly stinky games too, with the best thing to be said about TDR 2000 is that it completed our coverage of the Carmageddon series. Oh, and thanks to Jo we’ve now got all of the Monkey Island games covered too, which is perhaps more significant.
Speaking of adventures, I kept to my vow to cover at least one Sierra adventure this year when I reviewed the VGA remake of Space Quest I: The Sarien Encounter but that was my lot for the year. Stoo and Jo kept the adventure section going by covering Fate of Atlantis and Simon the Sorcerer II respectively.
My other promise – to avoid covering any more Need for Speed games in 2008 – was also fulfilled, although I failed to compensate by adding anything else of significance to the Racing section. Sport, Strategy and RPG (and, er, Simulation) were similarly neglected.
We could promise to rectify this in 2009, but it’s probably best to aim for something more easily achievable. Sadly, nothing immediately springs to mind. At least one Sierra adventure? Already done. Daikatana? Maybe. The Knight Rider game by Davilex? Almost certainly.
Suggestions and requests are, as usual, most welcome.
Posts
It does feel like most of my (few) contributions this yeah have been indifferent-to-moderately-enthusiastic shooter reviews.
Of our neglected sections, strategy can’t be too hard to fix. If nothing else, lots of RTS games out there. I could think of a few space-sims too for our simulation section.
I think I’ll just have to throw my hands up and admit, however, that the RPG list will always be a bit sparse.
January 4, 2009 @ 7:30 pm
You either have time for RPGs or you don’t. But I don’t think they’re conducive to regular updates…
January 5, 2009 @ 9:59 pm