With the end of E3, it is now time for game publishers to do some touring, and I’m looking forward to checking out games when they are demoed in New York. Apparently believing the early bird does indeed catch the worm, Discovery Commerce, the merchandising component of the Discovery Channel, started off the summer demo tour season. I checked out two games based on Discovery Channel series, both in “pre-alpha” (i.e. nowhere close to finished) and both showing in the Xbox 360 version only, meaning I can’t speak to anything Wii specific. Both games are published by Crave Entertainment and are to be released by the end of 2010. Neither game was as cool as Discovery’s plush toys, which include snakes with flashing eyes that wiggle sinuously and creepy giant tarantulas that would give a heart attack to anyone suffering from arachnophobia.
Man vs. Wild was the more promising of the two games. Basically, you control the game’s star, Bear Grylls, who begins each mission by being dropped in some deserted place like a jungle or a desert. Your goal is to find your way to an exit point. Man vs. Wild is being touted as an open world game in which you can explore freely and find your own path to civilization. You can climb mountains and trees, ride a skyline, hang glide and do other cool stuff. The thing I liked the least was the little glowing balls that functioned like coins in a Mario Bros. game; if you’re going to try and create something open world and realistic, why put in something so ridiculously out of place and video gamey? I hope they decide it’s a bad idea somewhere along the design process, because I like the premise and think the game has some potential.
Deadliest Catch: Sea of Chaos looks to be a mix of mild strategy and mini-games. You buy a boat and hire a crew, which allows for some basic strategy in terms of judging cost/benefit ratios, and then you go out on the ocean and catch crabs (are crabs all that deadly? I don’t know; I’ve never seen the show). I tried one mini-game, which involved sorting crabs, and it wasn’t too exciting. The PR flack showing off the game showed me another, equally unimpressive mini-game. I’m not going to make any firm predictions based on a pre-alpha build, but so far I feel a complete lack of enthusiasm for this one.
