SORE THUMBS: WHAT’S NEW IN VIDEO GAMING

LOST: VIA DOMUS    (T)

 

Rating: ***1/2

Ubisoft

Xbox 360

 

Never before have I seen such a faithful video game adaptation of a TV show. The atmosphere of the mysterious island has been perfectly re-created. Even the level structure mimics the show, complete with flashbacks and “previously on Lost” refresher segments. And just like the show, the game gives you little to do other than sit there and watch.

Via Domus is less like a video game than an interactive virtual tour of Lost island. Normally, this would be a damning criticism, but for Lost fanatics like myself, this “game” is a geek-pleasing guilty pleasure of Hurley proportions. Detail-oriented secret-seekers will relish the opportunity to over-analyze the island’s minutiae, all of which has been rendered in extraordinary detail. Want to see the famous numbers on the hatch? They’re there. Want to see Desmond’s Swan Station mural? It’s there too. You can even scrutinize Jack’s tattoo. However, if you don’t have the number sequence committed to memory, you don’t know what a Swan Station is and you don’t know that Jack got his tattoo from Bai Ling in Phuket, then you’ll probably find this game excruciatingly dull. It’s for hardcore fans only.

DESTORY ALL HUMANS!: BIG WILLY UNLEASHED    (M)

 

Rating: **1/2

THQ

Wii

It’s the attack of Bob’s Big Boy…kind of. On his latest misanthropic mission to Earth, anal-prober and Jack Nicholson sound-alike Crypto takes control of a destructive mech in the form of a hulking fast food restaurant mascot. And aside from that small addition, there’s little to distinguish this alien invasion yarn from the last two. Crypto still levitates livestock and reads people’s dirty little minds. It’s the ‘70s now, rather than the ‘50s, and after twenty in-game years, Crypto’s act is starting to get stale.

 

AGATHA CHRISTIE: AND THEN THERE WERE NONE    (T)

Rating: **

Dreamcatcher Interactive/The Adventure Company

Wii

 

Agatha Christie’s famous 1939 mystery novel gets the point-and-click adventure treatment in this port of a PC game from a few years back. So to crunch those numbers real fast—this is a 70 year-old story done in a ten year-old gameplay style with three year-old graphics. The only thing that holds up is the story, so unless you keep a nostalgic candle burning in your heart for old-fashioned, slow-paced, point-and-click adventures, you’re better off reading the novel.

THE CLUB    (M)

 

Rating: ****

Sega

Xbox 360

If you’re the kind of gamer who likes to take his time in third-person shooters, using cover and methodically clearing rooms of bad guys, then The Club will give you a heart attack. See, the idea behind this game is that your avatar has lots of tiny explosives planted under his skin, and if he doesn’t reach the end of each level in a set amount of time, he becomes a walking fireworks display. The result is an adrenaline rush that’s half shooter and half racing game. The pace doesn’t leave much room for story, but who needs story when you’re a walking time bomb?

 

When Las Vegas Weekly contributor Matthew Scott Hunter realized his career as a lab technician was seriously interfering with his gaming, he pink-slipped himself into a successful career as a freelance writer. Bug the hell out of him at [email protected]

  • Get More Stories from Thu, Mar 6, 2008
Top of Story