Last week I managed to get back into World of Warcraft. I had been on a pretty solid hiatus since fall of ’05 with a very brief return to try doing some raiding this last summer that didn’t pan out to something I enjoyed. I don’t know if it is that I had finally been away for long enough or what, but for some reason I’m hooked again and enjoying it.

That and the traffic here again recently got me thinking though: What MMO’s are people playing these days? Aside from WoW I also am playing Test Drive: Unlimited on my 360 but can’t seem to find anything else that holds my interest.

Check out what the video games of the future will be like! That is, if you lived in 1985.

A Not So New Release
From Russia With Love has been out in stores since late 2005. With more new game consoles being released everyday and the title simply being on the shelves for a year it finally dropped to a price I liked: $19.99. So I picked it up for the Nintendo Game Cube and I have to say I really enjoy it. Bond is animated in the likeness of Sean Connery and the voice work is all done by… Sean Connery. Pop singer Natasha Beddingfield has a role in the game as well. Additionally, all the characters in the likenesses you’ve come to love in Bond films appear: M in the likeness Bernard Lee, Miss Moneypenny in the likeness of Lois Maxwell, Q in the likeness of Desmond Llewelyn, Tatiana Romanova in the likeness of Daniela Bianchi, Rosa Klebb in the likeness of Lotte Lenya and many more. Let me add that the likenesses are amazing. Computer generated characters have come a long way since the good ol’ PS1 days. Still images are one thing but when they’re animated this well you almost forget you’re playing a game–an aspect I’m sure the game programmers probably revel in. Besides the characters we all know they also threw in elements of other Bond films including the jetpack from Thunderball and the Aston Martin DB5 which debuted in Goldfinger. It is also accompanied by a killer Bond soundtrack which really puts you in Connery’s shoes as you sneak around getting the bad guys.

Gameplay
It plays like a Bond movie. You start right in the action and must finish a ‘teaser sequence’ which is followed by the From Russia with Love theme and opening credits. You then follow the story of From Russia with Love from start to finish. The game play is easy to pick up on the wavebird controller and you get a wide aresenal of weaponry including the Walther PPK, Machine Guns, Laser Watch and many other Bond gadgets you’ve come to know. Even the maze sequence from the film is complete with Bond getting whacked at the end of the scene. (Those of you that have seen the movie know what I’m talking about.) It has a driving element–which I’ve not yet made it to. It even has a multiplayer mode for those of you who enjoyed those aspects of the N64 classic GoldenEye.

In Summary
This game has a little of everything for both the Bond fans and gamers who like 1st person shooters, flying games and driving. It’s made by EA and published under MGM Interactive with a Dolby Prologic Soundtrack. From Russia with Love is probably the best movie-to-video game adventure I’ve played since Alien vs. Predator (Sierra Entertainment, Fox Interactive).

Official Website
Wikipedia Entry

As I mentioned in the comments to the xmas post, I received a copy of Viva Pinata but at that time I hadn’t had a lot of time to really dig into it.

Last night I started playing after I got home from work and ended up having one of those classic “How is it suddenly 4am?!” experiences. To put it mildly, this game is incredibly good. The graphics, while somewhat childish, are all very well done. The individual character models have crepe paper “hair” and “fur” that moves in totally astonishing ways. The world itself is also stunningly beautiful, not that you can really see much outside the borders of your little garden plot. As often as that little spot of land changes over the course of the game though there isn’t a whole lot of time for site seeing.

There is a pretty good review available on the XBox Live Forums that sums up a lot of the gameplay, but I have to stress that if you enjoy sandbox strategy games (The Sims, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Civ, etc) this is exactly the game for you.

Merry Christmas, gang! It’s been a good year here we’ve had a lot of posts and I hope to keep growing in the future. Bring on anyone you’d like. If you’d like admin status just ask and I’ll set it up so you can invite friends at will.

The more the merrier as is the case with Christmas and all.