Socks. Socks, socks, more socks. Always with the socks.
OK, it’s not as bad as that really, but a good habit is to buy yourself a game that you like for Christmas. Or that dull but stressful bit of pre-Christmas December where you’re waiting for Christmas to arrive.
I was scouring Amazon when I realised that we have got an impressively good lineup ahead. An annoying facet of the games industry is that there are far more sales at Christmas than any other time of year, that the same game released in January will simply not do as well as the same game released in November. If you release in February may god help you. If you release in March god cannot help you.
Did I say annoying? I must have meant for the developers. Surely not for die hard horror fans: this month alone we have Jericho (cross platform) and Hellgate: London (PC only). FEAR Files will finally be bringing the FEAR Extraction Point and FEAR Perseus expansion packs to the Xbox 360. Sci-fi roleplaying games are also going to leave their footprint with Mass Effect.
For something a bit more mainstream, anyone who has played Midway Games’ Blacksite: Area 51 demo will testify that it’s a squad based FPS done really, really well: it looks, plays, and feels like a fantastic example of the genre. If shooting aliens doesn’t appeal as much as gunning down terrorists then Activision’s Call of Duty IV is all set to bring the franchise to an all time high. And what if Assassin’s Creed lives up to the considerable hype surrounding this… first example of a “free runner”? Assassin’s Creed looks like it will combine the best bits of sneaking games with the leaping and climbing associated with the Prince of Persia and Devil May Cry games. If you think that running away after a kill is too wussy then you can ruin their day (and probably their lives) in Eidos’ psychotic squad based combat game Kane and Lynch: Dead Men.
Of course if you want to be a more traditional hero then just strum away in Guitar Hero III.
- John
Play nice. Because it’s Christmas 
