The Christmas games rush

The pre-Christmas splurge of new games is almost upon us. Every year there’s a drought of good games from summer to about November and then a huge number get released all at once as game companies are renowned for Christian piety and consider their works offerings of joy to please Jesus.

Well, either that or they know gamers and relatives/friends of gamers will have money saved and a strong urge to buy lots of stuff to avoid looking like cheapskates come Jesus’ birthday. Ahem.

Aaanyway, I’ll skip over Skyrim as I’ve mentioned it literally some times before now and will be writing a proper preview in early November (it’s released on the 11^th).

So, let’s imagine you have a PS3 but don’t want or have already decided to buy Skyrim. What else is there to tickle your fancy?

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception comes out on 3 November. I liked both previous instalments but opted to wait awhile and get the platinum versions. Great graphics, fun gameplay and good voice-acting previously makes this almost a dead cert good game, and will doubtlessly sell by the bucketload.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations is out on the 15^th. At the risk of being hunted down and pelted with rotting vegetables I’ve got to say I wasn’t a fan of Assassin’s Creed 2. It looked great and the premise seemed promising, but Renaissance parkour was never as fun as I imagined it would be. It kept reminding me of Spiderman…. 2 (I think), for the PS2, in which roaming aimlessly around the city was tremendous fun. The combat wasn’t to my taste either. However, the series is very popular and Revelations will probably sell very well.

Already released is Dark Souls, a sort-of sequel RPG to the famously difficult yet almost universally praised Demons Souls. Skimming the reviews it sounds just as hard as its illustrious predecessor and a great game for people who don’t mind that and have a large quantity of time to kill. Hmm. It’s tempting me actually, not unlike a topless siren calling the good ship Thaddeus onto the rocky shores of procrastination and gaming.

Anyway, for those wanting games either shortly or for a Christmas gift, the above should prove entertaining for most people.

Thaddeus