Video Game of the Moment

A few weeks ago, I ranted about my disappointment with the video game Dungeon Siege. I finished the game the other day. My contempt for the game became disgust when I saw the ending. You see, with video games, I have two goals. The first is to really enjoy playing through the game. This can happen due to a great story (role playing games), intense action (first person shooters), or the need to use some ingenuity (real time strategy games). Dungeon Siege failed to be extraordinarily enjoyable to play through. I didn't hate it. It was pretty, But there was no story, the action was anything but intense, and there was no need to use any type of strategy. The second goal of playing a video game is to complete the game and be awed by the end-game stuff. In Diablo, there is an amazing computer rendered animation sequence which completes the story for the game. Same with StarCraft, Quake, Half-Life, Command & Conquer, and several other games that I have truly enjoyed. For Dungeon Siege, once I defeated the game, the screen went black. Some text faded in, informing me that I had defeated the evil guy, but that evil remained. Text fades out, credits role. GRRRR! What a cruel ending. Not even a static image of you, the warrior, in the victory pose! Suck Suck Suck! This CD is begging to get microwaved.

Last week I started playing The Simpsons : Hit & Run on the GameCube. I already had the Road Rage, and I enjoyed that one quite a bit. From the reviews that I had read, Hit & Run was to be a lot like the game Grand Theft Auto. I've been pretty jealous that GTA is not available on the Cube, so this was a great deal. I've been playing it all week, and I'm nearly done with it. This is a game I like. There are essentially four basic types of game play: race other vehicles, race against time, destroy vehicles, or collect items. As you drive around the different Springfield locations, you talk to characters who give you the missions. On the side, there are bonus missions to complete, collector cards to find, wasps to destroy, and all sorts of places to explore. The game is slower paced than Road Rage, but I've had a lot of fun playing it. There are 7 levels, and each has at least 7 missions to complete. I'm currently on level five. I am having a lot of trouble finding one wasp in level 1. Other than that, I have 100% completed the other levels. I love this sort of game. If I get bored with the main portion of the game, I can always go looking for the secondary stuff. It keeps the game interesting. The voices are all done by the real Simpsons characters, and the story was by the writers, so at times, the humor is really good. There are also all sorts of references to Simpsons episodes. For instance, in the first level off in the distance, you can see the wold's largest toilet.

So far, I am much happier playing the Simpsons. When I get through with the game, I'll come back and give an update on the ending. I'm pretty sure it is going to beat Dungeon Siege, as I've already seen some cut-scene videos, and the game has a story. More later.