Game Drought.

Is it just me or are we in the midst of a major game drought? Conventional wisdom would have it that the summer months are typically pretty slow for quality releases, but I don't remember previous years being this bad. I haven't purchased a new game in a couple of months now, and that's unheard of.

So what IS out?

Tenchu Z: What is going on with the Tenchu series? The first game on PS1 was awesome. Each release is worse than the previous however. The latest looks terrible, with poor texture work and even worse animation that renders the game too clunky for my tastes. Tenchu must be cursed as a franchise. Not even having From Software at the helm, (who did the divine Otogi games,) is enough to bring the quality bar back up from the basement. Pass.

Project Sylpheed: I really don't know why I get excited when I hear a new Sylpheed is coming out. I have fond memories of the original SegaCD game I guess, though I don't recall why. The PS2 sequel was brutally difficult and unfun. The demo for the latest iteration on Live is rather unfun too. Pass.

Tomb Raider Anniversary: After mildly enjoying aspects of Legend, I realized I couldn't stand looking at that atrocious character model any longer. That's it: I refuse to play any more Tomb Raider until they step up the art quality. They hired Karima Adibebe to play Lara at the various industry events, why not laser scan her for crissake? She is gorgeous. Hey Eidos, if you need an artist capable of creating a next gen Lara, I'm available. Reasonable rates. Time to bring her look kicking and screaming out of the the early 90's. Pass.

Oh well. Back to Godhand.