Aliens versus Predator

I aint got time to read (the manual).

There have been (or will be) twelve films that feature the Alien, the Predator or both. Of those twelve, I have seen one, because how can you not have seen Predator? I say this just to make it clear that when it comes to playing Aliens versus Predator, I'm not playing as a die-hard fan of one or both franchises.

First-person shooters can take us to all kinds of places and have us do many different things, and their immersion can make for some great gaming moments. Aliens versus Predator does what it should always have done - give players the ability to immerse themselves into the boots of the Predator, the... feet of the Alien, and the shoes of the unfortunate Colonial Marine caught in the middle in three campaigns of action and suspense.

Knowing what I know, how long will I survive against these off-world foes?

Sega Bass Fishing

Enjoy your fishing.

I live on the coast. I can see the sea from my window. It's been like that for 30 years. How many times have I fished? Once. It sucked. I got the line stuck in a wall and didn't see the point in trying to retrieve it.

I don't care for fishing. I don't get fishing. Fishing for food I get, obviously, but fishing for fun or sport (is it even a sport?) I cannot fathom.

But I do, unfortunately, concede that it can be gamified quite easily, and that's what Sega decided to do, unleashing Sega Bass Fishing onto the world in the late 1990s, complete with fishing reel controllers.

Ugh. Let's get this over with.

Driver

You are the wheelman...

There are some games I really looked forward to on this 1001 list. Be they games I'd really wanted to play and hadn't or games that I haven't played since they first came out, there was also something upcoming that I knew I was going to enjoy.

I was going to enjoy going back to playing Driver for the first time in nearly twenty years, not because of its take on car chases filmed in the 1970s, but because of that driving test.

Infamous in its difficulty, this entry might be over before it starts...

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Hello. I wonder if I could have a moment of your time...

Zelda has never quite fully appealed to me. They've warranted watching them, in part or in whole, at speed or at leisure, across the systems that the series has spanned, but to get me sat down in front of a game of Zelda has been a task.

It wasn't until going through this 1001 list to actually take some time to play them that I've gone "No, actually, I think I get it now" with regards to just how good they are as games. I still need to go back to play A Link to the Past some more. I still want to, which is a little surprising to me.

Will the series' leap into the third dimension result in similar desires? Can The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time live up to the hype and convert me into a Zelda fan? I think it's about time I picked up a controller and found out.

Thief: The Dark Project

Did he see me?

At the time of writing, Emuparadise has announced that while its doors aren't closing, the contents of the house are nowhere to be found. Maybe they've been stolen by a thief, trained to deftly move through the darkness in a thieving simulator like Thief: The Dark Project.

A mostly medieval first person stealth-er dotted with steampunk and horror, Thief drops us into the shoes of Garrett, a thief (as you could have guessed) who will have to use his skills for missions he might not have thought he'd ever take on. Missions that start simply enough, but soon scale towards a plot involving some rather rowdy folks being welcomed into the world - and we're going to have to put a stop to that.

Get your gamma slider at the ready, because we're about to turn the lights off and skulk in the shadows.

StarCraft

You got my attention.

Millions upon millions of copies sold. Spawned an entire gaming culture in South Korea. Is the origins of the term 'Zerg rush'. Have I played StarCraft? Chuh, yuh, of course I've played StarCraft...

Took me twenty years, but I managed it.

The RTS genre has its bastions and mainstays, and while I'm rather familiar with Command & Conquer, I am most definitely not familiar with StarCraft, save for it being sci-fi and full of rushing Zergs. And I suppose it was one of the first e-Sports I knew about before I really knew what an e-Sport was. I don't know. I know it's got a dedicated following for one reason or another, and it's about time I found out what that reason was.

Ridge Racer Type 4

Better luck next time.

This looks a lot different from the original Ridge Racer, doesn't it? That classic kicked off the PlayStation generation, and to my mind, would be left in the dust by Gran Turismo and it's sequel. In fact, my memory of racing games on the PlayStation is so dominated by Gran Turismo that I could not for the life of me have told you that there were three sequels to Ridge Racer before the PlayStation 2 would come along.

Four Ridge Racer titles and the second one of those worthy enough of an entry on the 1001 list was R4: Ridge Racer Type 4.

It's said to be quite the looker, which is blasphemy to the ears of a GT fan, but we'll rev our engines and see how much rubber we can melt to the track to find out.

Space Station Silicon Valley

Oh, Roger indeed...

I'm finding it hard to write an introduction to Space Station Silicon Valley. My reactions to it have been mixed, bordering on the negative, yet I'm intrigued enough about it to stop and question myself. Am I judging it too harshly, like the consumers did back in the late 1990s by not buying it?

It is the future, and you are a microchip taking over robotic animal host bodies in an attempt to navigate three-dimensional levels full of objectives to complete and points to score. If that doesn't sound gripping enough, its sense of humour and style of plot delivery might sway you, but I should really explain what I mean by that with some images.

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron

"I don't know where this ship came from but it is definitely not within legal specifications."

When I grew up with the PlayStation consoles, I thought I had it all. If I wanted to play an aerial combat game set in the Star Wars universe, I'd just fire up something like Jedi Starfighter and get blasting. I completed it a couple of times, I think; it was that good.

It didn't make the 1001 list, though. Instead, along with the two games we've already seen in the form of TIE Fighter and X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter on the PC, we've got two more for Nintendo systems. I've been injured, insulted, and am about to be kicked while I'm down.

Think you've played good Star Wars games? Bah! Fire up Star Wars: Rogue Squadron.

Wetrix

score: 0

Isometric puzzle games. The words don't fill me with hope, but Wetrix is a complete unknown to me and finds itself on the 1001 list despite being an isometric puzzle game, and so we should give it the time to shine and show itself off.

Get your engineering skills all ship shape because you're about to hold some water. I think.