Feature Type: Digging For Gold

DFG: BMX XXX

BMX games have always come behind skateboarding games in sales, popularity and quality. While the boarders have got constant updates, reinvention and innovations, the riders have been left in the lurch, so much so that the best BMX simulator we have is actually a feature in a Tony Hawk game. Maybe it’s the money skating has had thrown at it in the real world, maybe it’s because it’s cheaper and looks cooler that riding a bike. Whatever the reason, it has ramifications in the gaming world, with very few decent BMX titles available and none on the current generation of consoles.

I remember reading about BMX XXX when it came out for PS2 and Xbox in 2002. I remember the controversy and the innate craving to play this game that had topless characters and unlockable stripper videos. Consequently, I didn’t get to play it when I was 14 years old, but now I’ve had the opportunity I can safely say that I missed out on absolutely nothing. Let me explain.

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DFG: Namco Museum 50th Anniversary Edition

We’ve visited Pac-man here at DFG once before, with mixed results. His 3D incarnation didn’t really match up to his humble arcade roots and most certainly didn’t inspire as much legend, praise and copycatting. Pac-man games are hard to come by these days; most of the machines are defective, destroyed or gathering dust in some über-geeks mothers’ basement. It seems any hope of playing the original legend has all but faded.

Never fear gamers of yesteryear, for Namco have the solution. The Namco Museum! This little disk crams lots of old Namco arcade games into a pretty digital interface and lets you play them all day long, for free! How exciting! This version is the 50th Anniversary Edition, so expect to have twice the nostalgia pouring out of every orifice within seconds of turning it on. Let’s go!

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DFG: Pariah

I think I’m going to cry. Not only because this is likely the most deprived retail game I’ve ever played, but also because I reckon this will be the shortest DFG ever. For the first time, I only spent about five minutes with this game. I wasn’t even going to bother adding it to the DFG annals but I figured I’d better put something up just to warn you guys off even thinking about picking it up, playing it or giving it a second look when you spy it lingering in the bargain bin. Pariah was made in 2005 by Digital Extremes, who went on to make Dark Sector and handle the PS3 version of Bioshock, as well as the multiplayer component of its sequel. It’s hard to believe but it’s true. Here goes…

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DFG: Justice League Heroes

I am a lifelong Superman fan. Since I first saw Christopher Reeve don the red cape when I was very small, the hero has always had a special place in my heart. So imagine my misery every time a new Superman game is released. I try it out, excited that they may have finally managed to capture the magic of being the Caped Crusader and NOT built a shit awful game around it. As you may know, I’ve been disappointed every time.

Either Superman has become a weakened husk of his glorious self or the game built around him has been so bad it made the next TV excretion from Katie Price look good. So imagine my surprise when I found the Superman game of my dreams, buried under a different title; Justice League Heroes. Developed by Snowblind Studios, this RPG-cross-multiplayer beat ’em up came out in 2007; a full two years after the launch of the Xbox 360. With no next-gen version, it was overlooked by many, the public’s focus firmly switched to the future. Did they miss out on a gem or make the right choice? I’m here to find out…

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DFG: Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows

I was only born 21 years ago, so I never experienced the original Gauntlet when it came out. I have played it on NES though, and I have to say I wasn’t amazed. The concept is very simple; pick a character, walk around increasingly tough little dungeons killing legions of monsters and stuff. It’s fun and easy to play, but requires skill and cunning to master. I didn’t spend more than a few minutes with it (I get bored quickly) but I enjoyed it. So when Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows, I believe the final update to Midway’s series on Xbox, came through I was curious and just a little excited. For good reason? Let’s see…

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DFG: Pac-man World 3

Pac-man is innately simple. Guide the little melon around a blue maze, eating dots and avoiding colourful ghosts until you find a power pellet and get to eat the little bastards. Only they don’t die, they simply go back to base for about two seconds and then revive, still intent to have their way with the Pac one. It’s the biggest kick in the teeth ever and makes the game intense and fraught with stress. Great in its day, Pac-man is now about as old as video games get and doesn’t really cut the mustard with today’s HD-ready, COD generation.

So, how to reboot the ancient legend for the new kids? Make him a platform star, it seems. Pac-man World 3 is the third in the series of Pac-platformers, taking the jolly yellow ball into the 21st century with 3D-ness, enemies you can actually kill and fantasy worlds of bizarre kinds. Not being a massive Pac-man fan and only having played a demo of World 2, I wasn’t exactly brimming with glee when I got this one through the post, but I was in for a surprise. Just not the one I expected…

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DFG: Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of The Earth

Have you ever played a game for about half an hour and thought ‘hell yeh, this is brilliant’? Have you ever continued playing and watched the apparently fantastic game crumble and descend into a miserable slog of epic proportions? No? I have. Enter Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. It’s pretty much the only game ever developed by the now-defunct Headfirst Productions and was published by the mighty Bethesda Softworks in 1995. I’m not sure how well known it was (I was about 6 at the time) but until I dug it up on Lovefilm I’d never heard of it. That’s kind of the point of Digging For Gold, so I whacked it on the list and waited patiently for the powers-that-be to grace me with its shiny goodness. I don’t regret it, but I almost do. I’m getting ahead of myself; let’s start from the beginning.

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DFG: Thief: Deadly Shadows

Oh dear. It’s got bad again. Still riding the mellow high from that Star Wars game, I booted up the 360 and stuck my next game in. Thief; Deadly Shadows is the third game in the legendary Thief series. Apparently the godfather of the stealth genre and precursor to Splinter Cell, I thought I might be onto a winner. How wrong I was. Let me explain…

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DFG: Star Wars Republic Commando

My hopes are rekindled. After the disappointment of Atari: Anthology and the horrifically abysmal monster that was Conker: Live and Reloaded, I was really starting to think this was a lost cause. Never mind though, for now I have that which has brought so many developers so much grief and very few a lot of success; a Star Wars game. Focusing on the Clone Wars period of the almost sacred timeline, Star Wars Republic Commando brings a new FPS to the crop of games already bearing the Star Wars brand. Does it do the lore justice or just skin it and wear it like a coat? We’ll see…

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DFG: Conker Live and Reloaded

So I’m sitting at home on my day off from college, nothing to do. Staring at the ceiling, I listen out for the papery splat of the post hitting my inside doormat. My next ordeal is due and I can’t wait to get into it. So the post comes and out of the envelope I pull Conker: Live and Reloaded, a game I’ve been wanting to play for years. It’s an Xbox update-come-re-envisioning of an N64 ‘gaming nasty’, Conkers Bad Fur Day by Rare. I’ve never been bothered enough to hunt for it in the bargain bins and retro sections of game shops; I’ve just had a curious interest in this apparently adult game about an alcoholic squirrel or something. If that premise sounds a little contrived, that’s because it is. Let me explain…

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DFG: Atari: Anthology

In my pursuit of gaming gold, I expected to be landed with some right awful rubbish to play. When the first shiny Lovefilm envelope graced my doormat and I prised it open with apathetic pessimism, I fully expected to be faced with a travesty of gaming; or something I’d never even heard of. Imagine my surprise when, instead of the sinking feeling we all get when we realise an ordeal is ahead, I found myself taking Atari Anthology for the Xbox from its plastic case.

I’m not a big fan of retro games, but knowing Atari’s legacy and enormous fan base, I was confident I’d enjoy this one. The disc has over 80 games on it so reviewing each one would take an age and serve little real purpose. Instead, I’m going to look at the collection as a whole and decide if it does its job.

Does it allow nostalgic gamers from way-back-when to relive their childhood gaming delights, or just give the kids of today a reason to laugh at the past? Let’s see, shall we?

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Digging For Gold Introduction

Sifting through my bedroom the other day, I came across an ancient artifact… no, not last weeks gym shorts; an original Xbox game. I knew I had a few knocking about, but as my sense of tidiness is similar to that of a gorilla most of them had got lost in the Amazonian jungle that is my room. Tired of killing waves of bandits in Borderlands and cutting a bloody trail through the forces of evil in Oblivion, I popped the aging disc into my Xbox 360. To my horror, an error message appeared. The game I had found, Galleon, was not backwards compatible, part of a crop I’d bought on a whim years ago with no knowledge of the compatibility list. I was saddened, but it got me thinking. Which games will my 360 play?

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