Click here to listen to the Replay show.

We also took a quick look through some of the games released in 2001 and went through the nominations for March’s Replay (Rainbow Six Vegas, Bully and The Club)

If you’d like to get involved in TGS Replay next month then pop along to The Gamer Scene Forums.

I bought Lost Cities on XBLA last week and have collected a handful achievements from the title so far. It had been hyped by Sierra Online as being a similar sort of title to Carcassonne so I was looking forward to its release. I have to say that I’m really disappointed.

Lost Cities is simply quite dreary and boring.

The problem is that you can win most of the time (against the computer) just by whacking down cards with no real regard to strategy and bonuses. On “normal” level I’ve never found that I need to look at what my opponent is doing. In fact, it comes across as more of a single player solitaire game.

I’ve no doubt that there is some potential for deep strategy but the only reason to use any is either to succeed in online play, beat the computer on hard level or unlock the rather obscure luck-based achievements.

Other arcade points came from Rocky and Bullwinkle and Brain Challenge where I picked up the achievement for tripping over 20% brain usage. This game is hard work as it ranks you on your cumulative performance rather than a single test. There’s nothing to stop you repeating the daily test over and over again but I think that would be incredibly boring. The activities are interesting but just not as fun as Nintendo’s Big Brain Academy.

I’ve been using the swap site Game Share recently. Along with Bully I’ve obtained a few other games that I wouldn’t have otherwise tried. I think I should’ve trusted my natural instincts in these cases, and continued to avoid them.

I really enjoyed Sega Superstars Tennis so I thought I’d see what the more serious tennis-sim Top Spin 2 was like. Unfortunately it’s far too complicated and in depth for me and I’m completely rubbish at the game. I’ve managed to win a handful of matches which was enough to earn me about a quarter of the achievement points and I don’t think I’ll be spending much more time playing it.

Another game that I won’t be revisiting is Project Slypheed.

I used to play an awful lot of space combat games on the PC (such as the Star Wars and Wing Commander titles) so I actually like this genre a lot. However I’m really not enjoying Project Sylpheed. One of the main problems is that most of the time I haven’t got a clue what’s going on.

The screen becomes so cluttered, even in the early missions, that it becomes very difficult to follow the action. With all the lasers, missiles and special effects being churned out it regularly looks like Rainbow Brite and friends have just spewed up on the screen. It’s always tricky to navigate 3D space and track objectives in space shooters but I’ve found it particular difficult in this game.

It may get better if I spend a little more time playing but at the moment nothing about the game is enticing me to do so.

Crossing Harry Potter with Grand Theft Auto, this modern take on the ground covered by the ZX Spectrum’s Skool Daze, was ported to the Xbox 360 from the 2006 PS2 “Canis Canem Edit” original.

Set in the late 90s, you play Jimmy Hopkins, a troubled young gent who is sent off to boarding school by his mother and her new husband.

The game isn’t really about bullying but rather about fighting against the bullies and surviving in the school from hell. To do this you need to win over the various factions, the bullies, the nerds, the jocks, the greasers and the preppies. There’s certainly no subtly in the characterisations with every stereotype you’ve ever seen in any US teen movie included. This can cause cut-scenes to become incredibly annoying on occasions but it’s really easy to skip them.

My initial fears about this title, though, seemed to be justified. I’m not really into juvenile humour. I’ve never been particularly interest in giving wedgies, pulling pranks and running around kissing people (not in a computer game, anyway). The first section of Bully saw me teamed with an incredibly annoying character, carrying out tasks that I had, frankly, no interest in.

Thank goodness for achievements. Without the “stain” on my gamer profile I would’ve taken this out after the first half hour and never put it back in. I’m really glad that I didn’t. Once the annoying character had been removed from the scene, the game, for me, started to get an awful lot better.

The game world is fairly large with new sections of the town unlocking each chapter. It’s not too vast though and you can quickly get around on foot, by skateboard or on one of the many bicycles. Vehicle sections later in the game also see you riding on lawnmowers and in go-karts.

There’s certainly a lot packed into the whole game experience. Unlike some titles, there’s a lot of variety in the missions. You attend lessons, carry out random errands, complete story missions, take part in races, play arcade games, explore for collectables, beat bosses and engage in random combat. There are absolutely tons of mini-games for those who like that sort of thing.

The school lessons are done very well. In English, the word seek activity, despite its apparent simplicity, is actually challenging. The music lessons are great and consist of simple rhythm games where Jimmy plays along with a suitably awful school band. PE sees you competing in wrestling and dodge ball. The art lesson is a bizarre cross between an etch-a-sketch and Tron’s light cycle game. Science involves timed button presses, in chemistry, and careful dissection, in biology.

Control in the game is generally good. It’s easy to move Jimmy around the place, select items and carry out tasks. Combat works well. It is single button fighting but you get an increasing range of moves to use. Weapons such as the slingshot, spud gun, itching powder, stink bombs and fireworks are all available.
Bully is usually quite a forgiving game. A mission failure is never catastrophic and doesn’t require too much back tracking. Save points can be accessed at most times and missions are never too long that they become tedious or boring.

The achievements are well thought out. There is just the right mix of normal play awards, ones that you need to specifically target and a couple of complete and collect everything.

Overall I actually ended up liking the game quite a lot. At the time of writing I’m on the last chapter and I’ve almost overcome my embarrassment of playing it! I still don’t think that I would’ve paid full price for the game but I have enjoyed it. The lack of any online multiplayer component (although there is apparently a local mini-games mode) will mean that most people will probably get better value from Bully Scholarship Edition as a rental.