KEY POINTS:
Xbox 360 owners are drowning in a sea of choices this Christmas.
By now gamers are likely to have played Bungie's Halo 3 out a number of times and been spooked by the immersive Bioshock from development house Bioware. Well now, it's time to switch over to another big exclusive - Bioware's Mass Effect (rated R13.)
It was briefly banned in Singapore over an alien/human lesbian love scene, before the censors changed their minds. Game project director Casey Hudson also had a quick chat with nzherald.co.nz recently.
I'm the kind of guy who gets annoyed at the little things - like loading delays and having to update your 360 before playing the game (yet again) or not being able to turn off the absurd sound tracks. These are not an issue however - at least with the audio, video and gameplay settings there is no option amiss.
This is simply a great galactic role-playing game with a powerful story and fun battles that result in you being addictively engaged in the missions and absorbed in the auditory narrative with its unexpected twists and Babylon 5 level of detail on alien races.
It's a first person tactical shooter RPG and you go around in your squad of three planet, hopping with a cool turreted moon hopper with jet boosters to keep you out of lava pits. Your team discovers the fate of the universe whilst navigating between stars to the next port of call.
Part of the reason you get so immersed is the clever use of conversations - quite rare for a long RPG, enabling you to learn more about the characters, their history, the universe, their relationships and your prototype stealth enabled ship.
Another clever example is during loading times your squad can bicker, quip or compliment each other as you rise in an elevator or travel the fast transit system.
The storytelling could not be better in this game, as from the main menu you can access the codex anytime (audible journal, read like a tome of history) and the quest journal which records your progress in the tasks you need to complete.
I'm a big science fiction fan and always wished there had been a game version of TV's Babylon 5. This is the closest I have come to it yet.
If you like space operas and RPGs, get lost in this one for hours on end and soak up the great story, cunning audio bytes from NPCs and the exacting visuals - don't forget to play with the options to get it right for your play experience!
MadGamer's rating: 9.5 / 10
Also on 360
The Simpsons Game (EA: rated PG) is one of the festive season's big sellers. It's a laugh not just for the massive Simpsons community but gamers with its parodies of familiar games, like when Bart happens upon a manual for a game called The Simpsons Game, which can give out special powers or when he wants Grand Theft Scratchy, much to Marge's disapproval!)
Scene It? catches the Xbox up with the family party quiz-game craze. Lights, camera, action complete with wireless controllers(Microsoft, rated PG). With nearly 2000 movie trivia questions, there'll be enough to keep you wishing you had paid more attention to the credits at the end of each movie! Quizzes include "Credit Roll," where you guess the film based on the list of characters and actors, "Child's Play," where you guess the name of the film based on a child's drawing of a film scene, and "Quotables,where you are challenged to finish a famous line from a featured film.
Jericho (Codemasters: rated R16): Plenty of gore in horror legend Clive Barker's much - anticipated shooter which tells the story of a lost city which mysteriously re-appears in a remote desert of the Middle east, prompting the department of occult warfare to send in their special forces unit. It will have its fan base but may have been overhyped and meet up to expectations.
Lego Star Wars: the Complete Saga (Lucas Arts: rated PG). Here's one for the avid Star Wars collector. In this complete package incorporating the earlier games, you play through aspects of all six episodes of Star Wars with the customisation of Lego. It's mainly a 3D platform with puzzle solving based on character classes like Jedi.
NBA 2K8 and NHL 2K8 (2K Sports, both G), will give sports gaming fans something to get their teeth into over the holidays - both are rated by many as the top of their field in the fiercely-contested sports gaming genre.
PES2008 (rated G) shows why Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer series has carved out a special place amongst football fans - in a nutshell, because it tries to extend the game beyond just being a sports sim. PES2008 employs a new system called Teamvision, that adapts and reacts to players own gameplay styles to ensure that the computer controlled opponents are always challenging.
It also forces the player to think and re-change their playing style to avoid being out-thought by the game's smart AI opponent. It learns counter attacks that target your weaknesses and looks to exploit any repetitive tactics players use, as is often the case though, it's best to play with a mate.
