I’d like to start this weeks roundup with a bit of fan service. And in doing so, I’m actually taking a big risk. Risen is a German free-roaming RPG, and the new IP from the team behind the Gothic series. The series has a massive following in Germany, but has never really troubled the charts in the UK, and I think that’s because their PC heritage and hardcore slant makes them fairly inaccessible to mainstream gamers. That, and there’s never really been a big push when it came to advertising them. This is the first time the team has ventured outside of PC only development, in this case onto the Xbox 360. If you think about it, that sounds like a similar story to the Elder Scrolls series. Nobody had really heard of Oblivion in the months before its release (Or, at the very least, The Elder Scrolls were not considered a major series), but it was well received and left people hungry for a sequel, despite the fact that it had already been running for ten years previously. The reason it’s such a big risk for me to recommend it is that they’ve been fairly unpolished and buggy up to this point, and have required players to be very forgiving of the awful UI (The first one was, in 2001, almost entirely keyboard-controlled!) If they haven’t got their act together on this front, I could end up with egg on my face if I start singing its praises before it’s released, but fantastic screenshots and setting have certainly got myself, and I’m sure all the other Gothic fans, champing at the bit!
Disney Pixar’s Up is the video game incarnation of the latest Pixar film. The film itself is released next week, but if you want a Pixar fix to see you through till then, Toy Story is being re-released in cinemas from the 2nd in 3D. Aside from that, there’s not a lot to talk about this week.
The Invention of Lying is worthy of a mention despite the fact that a lot of people can’t stand Ricky Gervais, because it’s the first true ‘sequel’ to ‘Extras’ and ‘The Office’, with Gervais back on writing duties.
And of course, how could we not mention Redneck Chicken Riot on the Wii. I don’t even want to discuss the images that spring to mind when considering what the game is entails. I certainly wouldn’t be able to post them here on the Denki web site! It’s actually a standard shooting gallery game, featuring rednecks shooting chickens. Which is… innocent enough?
– Stew (@chicknstu)