This week on the Gamesweasel video version Matt Cuttle talks:

• Silent Hill Origins
• Jenga World Tour
• EA Playground
• Cheggers Party Quiz

In the competition this week we are giving away five copies of Cheggers Party Quiz for the Wii, so download and watch this episode for the question , then head over to the Gamesweasel web site for full details of how to enter. We’re keen to hear what you want to get for Christmas for your console this year, so let us know – our email address is gamesweasel@btpodshow.com

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There are a lot of party games coming out at the moment in time for Christmas, probably to relieve the boredom of watching another Queen’s Speech or episode of Only Fools and Horses on the big day. I’ve played a few recently and the latest one to come through my door is EA Playground. Now let me get straight to the point and tell you this one is just for kids. It’s not even as if adults will find something they like here because the game works on two levels like the Simpson’s. The basic premise is you select your big headed character, then walk around the school playground challenging people to different games. Win, and you collect stickers to go in your sticker book, letting you unlock new special games to play and characters to play as and against.

There are 7 games to play in total and these vary in enjoyment. A quick list of them is slot car racing, dart shootout, dodge ball, wall ball, kicks, paper racers and tetherball.

These games all involve a combination of button presses and shaking your controller about to play the games. Dodge ball is just like you saw in the movie with three players per team trying to hit each other with their balls – tetherball is basically swing ball, kicks plays like volleyball but with the feel and goals at each end of the court and paper racers lets you steer a paper plane round obstacles by tilting the Wii remote.

Up to four players can play at once and like most party games, it’s playing with others that will probably be the most fun, even for the kids. Playing alone lets you walk round the playground and gives you extra tasks and small missions to play out but playing the mini games alone is boring at the best of times. It’s not even like there’s any humour to keep you going like in the Raving Rabbids games.

However, young children will like this game thanks to the big, colourful graphics and marble and stickler collecting to be found in the single player game. I can also see them using the remotes to hit each other on the head if they lose like kids do when they’re being unruly.

The highlight of the game is Dart Shootout, which plays like a lightgun shooting game and this, as well as the paper racers game, is the only time the Wii remote comes into its own. The rest of the time, a simple button press would do for most of the controls.

Still, kids will like it but this is definitely not one adults will enjoy playing too. If they’ve got friends or siblings, great, just don’t get involved if they ask you to join in unless you can stomach it.

EA Playground gets an average 5 out of 10.

Get the game now
New: Buy EA Playground from Buy.com
Preowned: EA Playground – Pre-Played from Gamefly.com
Rental: Rent EA Playground – free rental trial from Gamefly.com

Right now it’s not a preview as such but a rant about a game Atari sent me this week. That game is Jenga World Tour on the DS and I think it takes the crown as the most pointless game ever made.

If you don’t know, Jenga is a game where you remove blocks from the middle of a wooden tower and put them on top, thus making it taller and more unstable as you go. The loser is the person who makes it topple. This is a game based on touch and gravity and unfortunately, despite the touch screen it just doesn’t work on the DS.

You can’t touch the bricks, and even more galling is if you want to play this with another person they need to have a cartridge themselves too for wireless play!! Imagine that in real life “Wanna come round for a game of Jenga? Oh, you need to buy it too and bring it round otherwise the bricks won’t work”.

Could this be a blatant attempt to sell 2 copies of the game instead of 1? Methinks so. What’s next for the DS, Twister? You should be ashamed Atari!!

Get the game now
New: Buy Jenga World Tour from Buy.com
Preowned: Jenga World Tour – Pre-Played from Gamefly.com
Rental: Rent Jenga World Tour – free rental trial from Gamefly.com

I’ve always been a fan of the Silent Hill games as they’re a survival horror game without the corniness of Resident Evil – in a way they tap into some deep fear of mine and leave a bad taste in my mouth well after I’ve put down my controller. This new one on the PSP charts Silent Hill before all the other games and goes to explain some of the reasons why things are like they are in those foggy streets full of oddly shaped creatures.

The game starts off at a cracking pace. You’re a trucker making your way through the town when you have to perform an emergency stop to avoid running someone over in the road. You then end up running into a burning house to rescue a burned child on the floor. Something’s not right about this crispy critter and you suddenly wake up in the streets of Silent Hill on another creepy adventure into insanity.

If you’re used to the games it’s familiar faire. You wander the streets, enter buildings, then explore the dark corridors fighting nasties and solving puzzles. As usual there’s some annoying exploring as you wander round looking for all the items you need to solve a puzzler and you constantly have to refer to the map to get your bearings round the similar looking locations.

New to this one is the ability to switch into the alternate rusty-coloured world by looking into mirrors. Unfortunately, this takes away some of the frights as you always feel in control, whereas in other games it was like being trapped in a nightmare you just had to sit out.

When it comes to fighting you can use your fists or a number of melee weapons like crowbars, drip stands and even TV sets to bash into the faces of your enemies. Ricky Hatton could have done with one of them in the big fight the other day. There are also guns to find but you won’t be using them as much as in Silent Hill 3.

The presentation of this game is once again sky high, with creepy characters, odd camera angles and one of the best soundtracks I’ve heard in a while. They recommend at the start of the game you play this with the lights off and headphones on. I agree with this as if you play it on the bus with no sound you won’t get any of the atmosphere which is integral to enjoying the game.

As with previous games it has its flaws but there’s something that keeps you playing ‘til the end. It gets a very good 7 out of 10.

Buy Silent Hill Origins now
New: Buy Silent Hill Origins from Amazon.com
New: Buy Silent Hill Origins from Buy.com
Preowned: Silent Hill: Origins – Pre-Played from Gamefly.com
Rental: Rent Silent Hill Origins – free rental trial from Gamefly.com

On this weeks Gamesweasel TV we cover:

• Assassins Creed
• Kane and Lynch: Dead Men
• Haze

We want to hear from you, so send those emails over to gamesweasel@btpodshow.com . We also have five promo copies of Assassins Creed for the PS3, to enter then download this episode and watch out for the question. Full instructions of how to enter are on the Gamesweasel web site .

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