It’s decided then: Jade Empire is a keeper, but I’m going to have to turn it off right now otherwise I’ll be playing it all day… Sure enough, I’m sucked into Jade Empire immediately, and it’s immediately apparent that it shares plenty of characteristics with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, another BioWare game that I absolutely loved. I know that once I get into them, I’ll enjoy them both immensely, but the thought of starting something so long and complicated is enough to put me off beginning at all. I’d previously played through the first couple of hours of the game, and another 20 minute session today confirmed what I’d suspected – this is another one for the charity shop bag.ġ0.02am – The reason I haven’t yet played Jade Empire (which I bought over 2 years ago in a charity shop) is the same reason I still haven’t read the 1,500-page novel A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, which has been sitting on my bookshelf for longer than I can remember. The end product is a game with an identity crisis – it doesn’t seem to know whether it wants to be an all-out third-person shooter or an RPG, and when playing I felt oddly disconnected with the character. Whereas Redemption is a pure Rockstar game in the vein of Grand Theft Auto, Revolver is a weird hybrid that’s the result of the game being started by Capcom and finished by Rockstar San Diego. The only thing is, as I found out later, Revolver is absolutely nothing like the critically lauded open-gameworld of Redemption. I’d been reading about the upcoming Red Dead Redemption for Xbox 360, so I thought I’d give myself a taster of what’s to come by playing the prequel. Whatever it is, Metal Arms becomes the first game to go into the charity shop bag.ĩ.32am – Next up is Red Dead Revolver, which I picked up for an absolute pittance (£1.50 I think) on eBay last year. There’s just something about it that’s not quite right – perhaps it’s the awkward, clunky controls or the frustrating level restarts. The environments start to get a bit more interesting, the enemies get a bit more challenging and the weapons suddenly become more plentiful… but after an hour of playing the game still hasn’t grabbed me. Sadly though, the first one or two hours played like an extended tutorial, and the game ended up back on the shelf not long after I’d started playing it.Ĭoming back to it after all this time and picking up where I left off, it’s interesting that the very point I abandoned the game last time is the very point where the “chaos” promised by the review begins to emerge. I’d recently read an Edge magazine Time Extend feature on Metal Arms, so I picked it up with high expectations of the “randomness, lunacy, sadism, idiocy and comedy” promised by the review. Metal Arms: Glitch in the System (Xbox, 2003)Ĩ.40am – I bought this game about two years ago in a secondhand shop in Camden.
It’s raining outside and I’ve got the day off work, so the conditions are perfect for playing through some classic games and deciding which ones are destined for the local charity shop. My shelves are groaning under the weight of games I’ve snapped up for a pittance but have never got round to playing, and it’s got to the point where I can’t justify buying anything new until I’ve got rid of some of the ‘bargains’ that are gathering dust in the corner of the room.
The only trouble is, when it comes to games, I end up buying them quicker than I can finish them. I can’t resist snooping round charity shops on the off chance of finding a rare book or CD that I’ve always wanted, or scouring eBay in the hope of coming across some fantastic old game at a rock bottom price.