Χ-Play (2003)

LOTR: Battle for Middle Earth, Mercenaries, Tenchu and more! (3x9)

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On tonight's episode of X-Play, we review The Lord of the Rings, which is a great trilogy of movies. On the gaming front we’ve been pretty lucky so far. Many of the games released with the LOTR license have been very good. The Battle for Middle Earth is yet another. Mercenaries are people who, for all intents and purposes, get paid to kill people and/or blow things up. Many gamers, on the other hand, are people who pay other people to make games where they can kill virtual people and blow up digital things. If you’re one of the later, you’ll probably be quite happy playing Mercenaries. We at X-Play are still counting, but this game quite possibly gives you more ways to wreak death and destruction on the surrounding landscape than any other game in history. NRA Varmint Hunter is a brilliant tactical shooter. It’s blistering-yet-pure gameplay single-handedly redefines the genre as we know it. Having a breadth and depth seldom seen in modern video games, NRA Varmint Hunter is the kind of game that makes you embarrassed to be a gamer. After the gutting and subsequent demise of veteran strategy game developer Impressions, the future of city-building games looked grim. These were the people behind the classic Caesar and Pharaoh games. But from the ashes of Impressions comes Tilted Mill Entertainment and its new game, Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile. Being the ninja granddaddy of all stealth-action games, the Tenchu series earned the respect of many, including the crew at X-Play. The latest successor to the series keeps the tradition running like a silent ninja in the night, but it doesn’t move fast enough. Fatal Shadows continues to allow some of the series’ most problematic elements to define its identity, and a few new ninja tricks can’t cover them up. Tune in tonight!