The Darkness (360, PS3) | Jen's Apartment
This is just a beautiful, heart-warming moment. An unexpected slippers-and-snuggles snapshot of the relationship between goth-headed mobster Jackie Estacado and his doting girlfriend, Jenny Romano. A new apartment, a birthday cake, closing a window, cuddling on the sofa, watching TV, kissing, needing to pee... the whole scene is dramatically mundane and anyone who has ever been in love will be able to relate to the tender interplay between the young couple. It seems such a shame that it all has to turn so totally shit-shaped for Jackie and Jenny...
The Simpsons Game (PS3,360, Wii, PS2) | Mob Rules
Any gamer with a healthy funny gland will surely appreciate this amusingly esoteric sideways snigger at Grand Theft Auto and the highly-charged reactionary fracas it attracts. In terms of gameplay the level is an uninspired old sock (like most of the game), but is well worth a sniff just to sample The Simpsons' own humorous assault on Rockstar's series with its ultra-violent parody, Grand Theft Scratchy. And, of course, we get to see Ned Flanders being carjacked by Martin Prince.
Thief III: Deadly Shadows (PC, Xbox) | Shalebridge Cradle
The Thief games have always been tense, eerie experiences, particularly when they dip into the supernatural. But when thieving, stealth-dependent "hero" Garrett stupidly decides to set foot in the Shalebridge Cradle, a burnt-out orphanage/asylum that's about six times more haunted than that description suggests, all bets are off.
The Cradle isn't scary - it's terrifying. Before you even see it, you're leery of it, as Deadly Shadows spends a fair amount of time and effort building it up as a place of unimaginable danger. You'll stumble across bedtime stories that warn children to stay the hell away from it, read written accounts of strange and horrific events that transpired there, and hear numerous rumors that it's the home of a monstrous hag that creeps through dark alleys and devours children. And when you finally do see it, very near the end of the game, its imposing Gothic façade should be all the reason you'll need to forget your mission and run far, far away.
Everything that happens once you enter the place - the strange sounds, the eerie non-music, the odd interplay of light and shadow - adds up to one big mind game that's been carefully calculated to frighten you as much as a videogame can. And it tends to leave its mark on those who play through it - or at least, it left enough of a mark for PC Gamer UK to devote six pages of its March 2005 issue to this one, single level. Due to the number of spoilers in the PC Gamer article, though, we advise not reading it if you're planning to play through the level yourself.
Timesplitters 2 (PS2) | Siberia
You might not realize it while busily knee-deep disgruntled Russian military types, but TS2’s Siberia level is one of the best-paced stages yet to come out of FPS.
The level’s structure allows you to tackle it as either Rambo or Bond - it’s possible to clear at least half of it with a 100% bodycount without being seen once – and the increasingly hectic tone builds seamlessly, taking you from the silent, snowbound, pistol-and-sniper-rifle opening to a full-scale military seige by way of infiltration, espionage and biohazard outbreak. Massive freedom to experiment with combat makes the experience totally your own despite the level’s linearity, and to top it all off, there are zombies as well.
Tomb Raider (Saturn, PS1, PC) | The Lost Valley
We knew Tomb Raider was a groundbreaking game ten minutes after we first donned Lara's oddly out-of-season khaki shorts. But it was the player's entrance to the Lost Valley that we'll remember above any other level in the game. Exploring a massive cave complex, we slid down from a ledge we couldn’t climb back up, and heard footsteps. Having already killed a bear and enough wolves to make a very cozy coat, we grabbed our pistols and got ready for anything... except for the velociraptor that came trotting around the corner.
But as everyone knows, that wasn't the best part. No, the best part was entering into the lush junglescape seconds later and coming face to scaly, teeth-the-size-of-bananas-filled face with a lumbering Tyrannosaurus Rex, nature's finest human-eating machine. The next 30 seconds are blurry for most gamers, and typically involve wonder, excitement, panic, and (if you're lucky) a small cave just big enough for Lara to slip into. And possibly several reloads of the previous checkpoint.
Twisted Metal 2 (PS1, PC) | Paris: Monumental Disaster
What could possibly be more fun than pretending to utterly demolish national landmarks? Nothing, that's what, so stop trying to come up with answers. Aside from being one of the best car-combat games ever made, Twisted Metal 2 is notable for enabling players to go berserk in a mockup of Paris, complete with a near-life-size Eiffel Tower and a dull-looking gallery that's probably supposed to be the Louvre. Better still, you can blow them all to hell - but for the most spectacular demolition, place a remote-triggered bomb (conveniently located on the Eiffel Tower's observation deck) anywhere on the tower. Trigger it once you're within safe viewing distance, and the Eiffel Tower will be torn apart, leaving the once-pristine city littered with smoldering steel wreckage (that conveniently bridges the gaps between certain buildings).
Sure, the original looks a little hokey now (it's since been remade on PSP and PS2 in Twisted Metal: Head On and TM:HO: Extra Twisted Edition, respectively), with its pastel-colored row houses and jaggy tower, but in 1996, Twisted Metal 2's Parisian arena of death offered us something we'd never seen or done before, and the fact that we could actually do it left us a little shocked. Shocked at how awesome games could be.
Originally posted: Mar 19, 2008
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