Welcome to the Black List, our regular retrospective on the week in games.

On Monday, we emerged from hibernation to record our first podcast of the new year.

On Tuesday, we were bemused by the announcement that DLC was in the works for the already long overdue Alan Wake.

On Wednesday, we took a look a Naughty Bear, the latest multiplatform outing from the creators of Wet.

On Thursday, our attempts to appreciate the latest Final Fantasy XIII trailer were foiled by a sloppy audio mix.

On Saturday, we stumbled out of a Parisian burlesque club to deliver our final verdict on The Saboteur.

Thanks for reading.

Erin Marcon – Editor

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RECENT FEATURED CONTENT

The Saboteur is an open world action game set in Nazi-occupied Paris during World War II. As hard-drinking, skirt chasing Irishman Sean Devlin, you’re called upon by the French Resistance to assassinate high ranking German officers, compete in motor races, liberate prisoners from the slammer, destroy military equipment and, most importantly, steal an expensive bottle of wine. Your motivations are explored in an impressive flashback sequence. You won’t be forced to endure a lengthy cut scene. Instead, you’ll be thrust into 20-30 minutes of action packed gameplay and by the end you’ll be itching for payback.

The art design makes the game. The near monochrome aesthetic perfectly captures the sense of oppression enveloping Paris. As you complete missions, vibrant colours are restored to the corresponding parts of the city, signifying that you have restored hope to the locals.  When you see this transition taking place you feel just a tiny bit of satisfaction. It certainly inspires you to cause non-mission related havoc as well, that and the fact that you earn contraband for destroying Nazi property, the currency that allows you to buy items such as weapons and ammo.

The immersion you feel as a result of the art design is undermined somewhat by a lack of fluidity in the gameplay. The climbing sequences require you to seek out obscure ledges, leaving you fumbling around in the dark instead of bounding across rooftops. Some of the longer missions are frequently interrupted by short cut scenes. At times you feel like the game is just waiting for the next cinematic, which can be triggered as you attempt to open a door or meet an NPC.

The game encourages you to be inventive when completing missions rather than taking a crash and bash approach. After repeated attempts to shoot, snipe and storm my way through a rescue mission, I decided to take a more subtle approach. I crept into the jail wearing a Nazi uniform and strolled out with the prisoner. Better still, I avoided yet another verbal barrage delivered in an unconvincing German accent.

After watching the game’s opening sequence, an utterly insipid strip tease, you probably won’t have high expectations. Surprisingly though, The Saboteur features some interesting characters, including a pair of genuinely tough broads. Devlin himself is a likeable rogue with a penchant for casual profanity. He’s not alone in this regard, though. Even a well respected priest has occasion to drop the f-bomb.

The Saboteur is a simple, enjoyable game that has an excellent backdrop. It’s one of the more accessible open world games with four difficulty settings and checkpoints in larger missions that don’t punish you by sending you back to the start if you make a mistake. Don’t expect a huge variety of cars or weapons to keep you entertained, but there are enough missions to keep you occupied even after you’ve completed the main storyline. It’s not a revolution in open world gaming, however it is a solid example of the genre.

“…and that’s for your so-called German accent.”

Square Enix has issued a new English language trailer for Final Fantasy XIII. The five minute clip commences with a handful of character studies before transitioning to gameplay footage and concluding with a series of spectacular cut-scenes. Long time fans of the blockbuster RPG franchise will be pleased to note the inclusion of two chocobos, one an wide-eyed hatchling, the other a mature riding bird.

While the clip is aesthetically impressive, the audio mix leaves a lot to be desired. The theme song for the western release of the game, a Leona Lewis ballad entitled My Hands, is showcased throughout. While the song itself is polished and catchy, it constantly competes with the dialogue for your attention. As a result, neither element can be fully appreciated. Given that several key plot points are revealed in the opening moments of the trailer, some may consider this to be a blessing in disguise.

Final Fantasy XIII is due for release in Australia on PS3 and 360 on Tuesday 9 March 2010.

505 Games and Artificial Mind and Movement (A2M) have released a promotional clip for a forthcoming game entitled Naughty Bear. Though details are currently scarce, the game appears to offer third person comedic action. As the title character, you live on an island populated by cuddly and content teddy bears. After missing out on an invitation to another bear’s birthday bash, you deal with it in a practical and mature fashion, i.e. with a machete.

The game is designed from the ground up to encourage violence and mayhem, actually awarding Naughty Points for your most destructive deeds. Though you’ll be dishing out plenty of physical punishment, you’ll also be encouraged to employ psychological warfare in attempt to unnerve the supposedly amiable bears that have been excluding your from all the fun. Who’s laughing now?

Naughty Bear, the first project for A2M since the critically divisive Wet, is due for release on 360 and PS3 in 2010.