Trauma Centre: Second
Opinion
Wii. Available now, £39.99
“Any similarity to organisations,
persons…or cutting-edge medical
techniques is merely coincidental.” That
disclaimer can only mean one thing −
months after its release as a launch title
for the Wii in the United States, Trauma
Centre: Second Opinion is making a
disgracefully delayed appearance in the
UK. In this wonderful surgical simulator,
adapted from the DS but making exquisite
use of the Wii’s controls, you play Derek
Stiles, a hotshot doctor learning his trade
in an American hospital. However, this
being a Japanese game, it’s not just
about stitches and scalpels: after a few |
missions, a stunned Derek realises he
has Magical Doctor Powers, chiefly the
ability to save his patients by freezing
time, and must use them to thwart a
sinister medical conspiracy.
The plot and dialogue are agreeably
ludicrous, the game play is tight and
increasingly challenging, and the
whole experience makes for one of the
Wii’s best titles.
Robert Colville |
|
BioShock
Xbox 360 (version tested), PC. Available
now, £39.99
Bio Shock starts in the 1960s: you’re in a
plane and it’s crashing into the sea.
Swimming to a tiny island, you find
yourself transported to Rapture, an Art
Deco undersea city built by the crazed
genetic experimentalist Andrew Ryan.
Semi-ruined, it is populated by aggressive
‘splicers’ and scary Little Sisters −
genetically mutated little girls with giant
robotic minders called Big Daddies − and
other deranged and deadly characters. |
There are some good guys, though, such
as Irishman Atlas, who guides you around
at first. Although nominally a first-person
shooter, ammo is at a premium, but
luckily you can inject yourself with
plasmids and gain abilities such as
telekinesis, and firing electricity bolts or
fireballs. These let you defeat seemingly
impregnable enemies by, say, setting
pools of oil on fire.
With incredible graphics, a great story
and really fresh, innovative game play,
this is one of the best games you’ll
find this year. But beware: truly scary
at times.
Steve Boxer |
|
Blue Dragon
Xbox 360. Available now, £44.99
Just as boy bands follow a formula, so do
Japanese role-playing games. (RPGs).
Instead of singer, eye candy, bit of rough
and secretly gay, you’ve got brash,
spunky, brainy and cool-and-mysterious.
All are present and correct in Blue
Dragon, as are the other RPG essentials:
turn-based combat, an intricate levelling
and combat system, and a group of
plucky children out to save the world. But
then that familiarity is hardly surprising. In
order to crack the Japanese market
(which has ignored the Xbox and Xbox
360), Microsoft has recruited some of the
biggest names from mega-hit franchises
such as Final Fantasy to create an epic of
its own. |
The result is a massive, gorgeous
game that caters shamelessly to the
old-school RPG crowd − including
some of the genre’s traditional
drawbacks, most notably clichéd
dialogue and a cuddly mascot playercharacter
unpleasantly reminiscent of
Jar Jar Binks.
Robert Colville |
|