kill.switch - definitely overlooked. While it's a pretty simple third person action game, the cover-fire mechanic is really well done, and remains fun throughout, much like Max Payne's bullet-time effect. It's a short game, with a surprisingly weird and interesting story. Given that it's $10 a lot of places, it's definitely worth picking up.

Second Sight - again, definitely overlooked. Almost a month after its release, it's easy to find at $20 almost anywhere. It has a very distinct "Free Radical" feel, which includes both the controls and the character designs. The voice acting is pretty awful, at least at the beginning, and the graphics and controls, well, if you like Timesplitters, it's not *too* far from that. But the gameplay's quite good. A wide variety of psychic powers complement the solid run & gun action, to create a game where both force and stealth, combined with some forethought, make for a surprisingly fun game. Add to that one of the cleverest plot twists I've seen in a game recently, and you've got one of my favorite recent games. Definitely overlooked, and I wouldn't expect it to really find its fanbase, but worth picking up, for sure.

Yourself!Fitness - wha? Yeah. It's a fitness program for the xbox. Is it overlooked? Well, it's certainly not mainstream, though I understand it's selling better than ResponDesign actually expected. Basically, you undergo a series of diagnostic exercises, then the program generates a series of workouts based on your fitness level, and your responses to some queries throughout the workout. It's consistently interesting, varied, and a good workout, and a hell of a lot better than any workout tape. Both me and my finacee are using it, though not as regularly as either of us should. It also asks what sorts of equipment you have - weights, step, ball, whatever, and incorporates whatever you have into your workout. Great stuff.

Headhunter: Redemption - Just about as generic a third person action game as you can get. Though the targetting mechanic is unique - your target sways back and forth, and timing your shot is as much a rhythm thing as anything else - the game itself is so ... underwhelming in its ambition, that it's really hard to get into with any sort of enthusiasm.

Lord of the Rings: The Third Age - though the story's really weirdly told, though re-narrated cinematic clips from the movie, it's surprisingly ... fun. At least through the 65% mark, which is where I am not. There's a lot of battles where you'll wipe out three guys, to have them replenished over and over until you've basically killed 20+ enemies - those are irritating. But then again, the fight with the Balrog was one of the most compelling battles I've seen in a Japanese-style RPG. Crazy stuff. Strangely compelling - I think part of it is seeing "more" of the locations in the movies. Wandering around Helm's Deep is neat. Wandering around Moria is neat. Not much character development, not a lot of story, so if that's what you're here for, go elsewhere. But I expected to be extraordinarily underwhelmed, and strangely, I wasn't.

Catwoman: One of the worst games I've ever played. Rightfully overlooked, and should remain that way. In this day and age, the right stick is for camera control. If you want to do something else, like control a whip, fine - make it so you have to hold down a trigger and use the right stick, but by default, the right stick controls the camera. Period. You screw that up, and you're not worth playing.

Galleon: Awful graphics, but pretty good animation, and a really excellent sense of scale in the levels. The story is charming, and the general exploration is reasonably fun, but it feels like about a quarter of the necessary animations are simply missing, and the "momentum" aspect of the control is put to use, but it really sort of sucks, and makes moving Rhama around the levels a chore sometimes. If you're *really* interested in what the next Tomb Raider might be like, it's worth picking up, but otherwise, it's a very flawed game, with some pretty excellent ideas.

- posted by Seppo @ 1:07 AM