The Top 10 Games I Never Played – Part 2

In part one I talked about what a shame it is when a game has a great concept and artistic direction, but is so broken it’s unplayable, as well as touching upon my personal unexplained apathy in concern to games I genuinely would like to play. Now i’m going to continue vaguely in the same vein, but with smaller numbers as is seemingly mandatory in these countdown lists.

#5 – Alone in the Dark (The Original, PC)

After playing Alone in the Dark 2 – Jack is Back for the playstation many years ago as a child, I decided I LOVED this series. Unfortunately my endeavors to actually play the other two games in the series have fallen short of technical errors with XP/Vista much to my dismay. (We’re not counting The New Nightmare, because it was shit. I don’t care if you liked it, this isn’t your blog.) After multiple attempts to play Alone in the Dark 3, which I kept in case I could ever find a way to play it without error. I live in hope that the new Alone in the Dark coming next month for PC/Wii and 360 will be as good as it looks. It can’t be any worse than The New Nightmare, or the film, right? If not there is always Alan Wake.

 

#4 - Dungeon Maker: Hunting Ground (PSP)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I first read about this game after stumbling across it by mistake while searching for something else, it’s premise blew my mind. I knew I wanted this game more than almost anything else I could think of at the time. Guess what? Never released in Europe. Thanks whoever is responsible, thanks and fuck you at the same time. I see little reason other than corporate head shaking towards profit figures that the game could not be released here, especially as it was given a north American release in 2007.

However, by the time I found out it had been given an NA release and decided to import, the game had become one of those ‘rare’ games nobody can find. Although I do feel some comfort in the fact that it is genuinely hard to find, presumably due to the fact it was a limited print run, unlike other so called ‘rare’ games (Mega Man X anyone? Or perhaps any of the Final Fantasies.) I continue my search in hopes of finding a sealed copy for a reasonable price, but having never seen one on eBay in my own country, and having only seen a handful from the states, I may have to take what I can find. But on the upside, at least there is a small chance I may actually get to play this one, unlike some of the games on this list.

#3 - Namco X Capcom (Ps2)

Another game who’s premise blew my mind upon first finding out about it. Another sad tale of import woe. After the sheer wonder that was Marvel VS Capcom, seeing Namco and Capcom characters team up to save the universe in an RPG made me want this game. A lot. Especially when I found out about the unique combat system, and inclusion of my favorite Capcom character of all time, Guy. However, realistically, I could not justify spending out on an import PS2 for this one game. So it sits on my shelf unplayable through legal means, and given my aforementioned laziness, I wont be playing it anytime soon, legally or illegally. At least with the previous tale of import woe, should I find a copy, I can rest assured that region lockout is not a problem.

#2 – System Shock (PC)

Xerxes was great, sure. And System Shock 2 might have been every bit better than it’s previous incarnation according to what people have told me. But I don’t care about that, I want to experience the one that started it all. Yet again, such a classic falls victim to todays over protective operating systems, and despite finding more copies than I could shake a stick at in a pound shop (and wishing i’d bought and kept more than a few of them!) I could not get the game to play. Unfortunately, my copy is now nowhere to be found. Things get lost over time and unfortunately, my copy of System Shock was one of them, so I guess i’ll never experience it. At least System Shock 2 runs fine on todays computers (if you fancy paying through the nose for a copy)

#1 – Rock Band

Everyone who lives in America, or is more import savvy than me has been playing this game for almost 7 months. I however, am feverishly counting down the days until it’s European release. 11 days to go before I get to experience what looks to be one of the greatest rhythm games of all time, and possibly the worst European PR handling I’ve ever seen from a large multi-national corporation. Yes, in my personal opinion even worse than Sony’s handling of the Playstation 3 release. While Rock Band might be late, and stupidly expensive, at least it’s not crippled of it’s features. (I hope)

This is by far the game I am most looking forward to playing this year, and it’s a great shame that EA and Harmonix have their heads stuck so far up their arses they decided to treat their loyal European customers like shit. But what can you do? Well, here’s what I did, buy the game from Play.com and give a big fat middle finger to VAT tax, that puts the game at a more reasonable £140. At least then you can enjoy the game for what you had expected to pay, even if like me, you lose yet another notch of respect for EA, and will now be more skeptical about further Harmonix purchases. Seriously guys, if you wanted to give a nice big two fingers to Europe, it shouldn’t have taken 7 months to do so.

 

Well that’s it, those were the top 10 games I never got to play, and some, I never will. Others however I may one day be able to enjoy, while Rock Band remains set to arrive on my doorstep this coming friday, the others may take some more effort to play.