Oh god, what have I done?!

I sit here typing with sweaty palms and a racing heart, for I have just committed the ultimate gaming sin of recent times. I HAVE BOUGHT A GAME I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT. But please hold off rounding up the lynch mob for just a moment and let me explain. As you will have seen if you took the time to watch the above video, I have invested 14.99 of my hard earned pounds (and a good number of GAME reward points) in Fading Shadows for the PSP.

I stumbled across this about an hour ago on t’internet. A thorough Google search turned up no reviews, no play tests, and nooone who’s actually bought or even heard of the game. Developed by a group of Lithuanians, it snuck into stores last week completely under everyone’s radar. And yet I find myself intrigued. In the age of internet, gaming TV and 4 million monthly magazines devioted to the subject, it’s almost unheard of for nobody to know about a game. But the ones nobody notices are usually the good ones. In recent times I have bought Puzzle Quest:Challenge of the Warlords and Crush, both with no outside knowledge or influence. And both were brilliant games.

In my (admittedly worthless) opinion, the big hitters in the gaming world have become so focussed on churning out their cash cow sequels (I’m looking at you, Capcom. And don’t be slouching in the back there Rockstar, I can see you) that the genuinely innovative youngsters with the new ideas get overlooked in favour of the 15th instalment of Metal Gear Evil, Devil May Auto and Resident Raider. It’s not that these games don’t have their place, but it leaves the plucky young Lithuanians relying on chancers like me with a bit of extra cash to risk on an unreviewed, unrated, non Editor’s Choiced title.

So, dear reader (or at least those of you who’ve made it to the end of this rant), here is my love letter to the underdog, and my plea to, next time you see a game that piques your interest but hasn’t been done to death by Gamespot, IGN, Edge et al, pick it up. Take it home. Give it a go. you never know, you might just like it.

(I will post my impressions of Fading Shadows when it arrives in 2-5 working days. Unless it’s shit. In which case I’ll sell it on Ebay, slink back under my rock and pretend this whole thing never happened.)