A year or so ago I recall that of our review categories, Sports was the smallest in size. Since then tho Rik has churned out several reviews from the realms of football, golf, tennis and cricket. I don’t have a lot to offer in this section myself, but you never know. I have this odd urge to attempt a US sports game and write a hopelessly ill-informed review.

For now however, it’s the RPG section that’s looking rather meagre. I think there is a fair reason for this – RPGs are simply a bigger commitment. And I have to admit, old ones can be both very punishing on newbies, and look pretty clunky, which is offputting; that’s pretty much the reason why my attempts to play the early Elder Scrolls games have as yet come to nothing. A clunky old shooter is one thing – you’ll see all you need to in a few days. A clunky RPG however is something you could have to wrestle with for weeks to make real progress. On that kind of timescale, even oldies fans like myself can be forgiven for preferring something a little more modern.

Still it’s about time I made a renewed effort, and have finally started Baldur’s Gate. Whiich is fairly old-skool, but at least has some attractive artwork and a decently slick interface. Also it’s actually more forgiving in the early stages than I recal from my last (aborted) attempt. Rather than getting murderd by Level 1 Wimpy Rats, my team seems able to handle the starting enemies well enough. Maybe I’ll still get my ass kicked once I venture further afield – we’ll see!

Shame about the plastic-looking pre-rendered CG intro tho – looking back these were a regular curse on late-90s games. Simple old-fashioned 2D art would have set the scene a lot better IMO.