My slutty weekend

I managed to get my hands on a very high spec laptop this weekend (just for the weekend, mind you) and have been opening my hard drive and playing with any recent game that took my fancy but I've never been able to pull run.

My orgy included

Doom 3

My first and most enthusiastic download. I couldn't quite run it at top spec, but close enough to just about shed my skin when hell breaks loose in the first chapter. I had to stop playing it; it was just creeping me out way too effectively (although never quite as badly as AvP did). I can see why it got such good press. It's nicely atmospheric and the controls handle beautifully. Not a game I'd buy - since it's too scary to play - but one I'd recommend.

Need for Speed Most Wanted

I've never been that keen on the Need for Speed series, which seems to hover somewhere between the purist driving games like Gran Tourismo and the cheeky, ultra-arcade ones like Breakout Burnout, even. Most Wanted seems to move the franchise towards the Burnout end of the scale, and it's instantly more fun to play as a result. Your car never takes damage; in fact, the physics model in general is a joke. The scenarios, however, are a combination of blistering racing and tongue-in-cheek irreverence. I wouldn't buy this one either, but I would definitely hold on to the demo, just for those 5 minutes to kill between Civ4 and bed.

The Indigo Prophecy

This is such a wonderful idea, I had to play it again, and again, and again, and again. And so on. It's a really simple concept; take the bog-standard adventure game and turn it into a multi-pathed cinematic experience. It seems to beg to be done badly. The demo blows that misconception right into next year. You get to dictate the actions of a young man who comes out of a trance in a men's washroom in a diner with a bleeding body on the floor in front of him and blood over his hands and arms. And a cop in the diner just outside the door. It's addictive to try all the different scenarios, see what could have happened if you forget to wash the blood from your hands before leaving, or had brazenly walked up to the police officer and told him you'd killed someone. And it's not predictable, in that neither of those examples gets you caught, but staying behind to move the body into a stall to hide it and mop up the blood might. The interface is novel as well, with possible actions requiring different combinations of mouse movement or key strokes, and the camera control is marvellously apt, giving you right-click switching between different preset camera points, for that movie-set feel. Clever split-screening heightens tension at moments when you're still frantically scrambling to complete a task and you can see someone approaching or calling in backup. Finally, in a nod to Call of Cthulhu's sanity levelling, your character has a mood meter, which starts in the demo at 'depressed' and can be raised or lowered by your actions. The demo didn't show what happens when you top or bottom out, but I'm looking forward to finding out. I'm so going to own this, even if I can't play it until I get a decent PC!

Lego Star Wars

When I first heard of this, and saw the reviews, I instantly downloaded it and tried to play it on my work PC figuring that, being Lego, it wouldn't be too high spec. Wrong! Now I've been able to play it, although I can see why it would be addictive for Star Wars fans, I'm not one of them, and quickly got tired of the novelty of seeing Anakin killed and falling into hundreds of Lego pieces.

Psychonauts

A platformer for PC, you say? With witty visual references and Daliesque landscapes? Cool dialogue and sparkling characters? I agree. I'll definitely be bargain box hunting for this one come the new year.

Serious Sam 2

Lots of Big Fucking Gun silliness. Forgettable. I almost did!