ERAGON

Vivendi Universal, PS2/Xbox $49.99, Xbox 360, $59.99

Based on a movie that’s based on a best-selling book by a 15-year-old kid (little jerk!), Eragon is the tale of a boy and his dragon fighting against the evil king…John Malkovich. The game borrows heavily from the Lord of the Rings action titles with various button mashing combos and also incorporates some of God of War‘s context grappling. While there is a great deal of straightforward hackin’ n’ slashin’, once you discover that you have magic powers and can control dragons courtesy of Jeremy Irons’ character, Brom (who unfortunately almost never shuts up), the game begins to pick up. During certain sequences you are able to call your dragon, Saphira, to take out enemies or obstacles and dragon-riding segments are exhilarating. Your magic powers can be used on objects around you (create bridges, pull levers) as well as on enemies to affect them in different ways from pushing them off a ledge to setting them ablaze and running for the drink. It’s a guilty pleasure. Eragon does have some serious issues, however. Visually, the backgrounds are quite detailed but the character models and color palette used in the game are pretty drab. Odd pacing also makes following the story and what exactly you are supposed to be doing seem a bit confounding. But worst of all is the games fixed camera system, which will often hide enemies and objectives from you leaving you scratching your head more often than not. It ultimately seems extremely lazy and seriously hurts what could have been a fun adventure title. Ryan Rayhill

www.eragongame.com

Love: Dragon Riding

Hate: Fixed Camera, Jeremy Irons’ Constant Yammering

Score: 6.5/10