88 July 2012 BTM downtimecomputergames Game of Thrones (Xbox 360, PS3) RATING: WHAT IS IT? The story of A Game of Thrones takes place during the first book of the saga, at the time when Jon Arryn, the hand of King Robert Baratheon, is found dead at King’s Landing. The game allows players to follow two epic quests — Mors’ and Alester’s. Their original story was canonised by George R R Martin himself and perfectly integrates the one which fans are so familiar with in the series. This is a totally innovative narrative style for an RPG. GRAPHICS: The only difficulty you will face in this 30-hour mess is taking in the almost hideous animations. Even worse is the fact that every single action is on loop, including the music which simply cuts off at random points and repeats. Game of Thrones should be used in studios to prove that the laziness of developers does show in the end product. Faulty animation is all it takes to cripple the overall experience of playing what has the potential to be an amazing game. GAMEPLAY: You can’t be blamed for never completing this one. With the number of ‘loading’ screens we tackled, it is only understandable. It’s a shame that such a beautiful and loved story has been executed so dryly. Things pick up at such a late stage in the game that it isn’t worth those hours of boredom. Worst of all, you needn’t be an awesome gamer to complete Game of Thrones because you only need to master four simple attacks throughout the game. If only sword fights were that easy. Dirt Showdown If you don’t like online transparency, run now. All this game wants is to be talked about and to be in your face, and it’ll keep asking you to do this for them. We see it as a good game that is ruined by pop-up goons. Babel Rising The tale isn’t unheard of; it’s an interesting concept for a game, we admit. However, game developers need to realise there is a line between different markets that are better not crossed, particularly the one between mobile and console platforms. Ubisoft could make this amazing, but they didn’t. Inversion A third-person shooter is just what it is. When you mess up something that could be a game with such prospective for gripping gameplay, it really isn’t worth the money or time spent on it. It’s decent if you aren’t expecting anything more than the usual. GAME OF THE MONTH A World Above We’ve read the books; we’ve watched the show. Now, we’ve played the game. We find out if the pen really is mightier than the sword. VERDICT: The wisest choice is to forget this ever existed.
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