It was just a few days after I wrapped up what I thought was my last project of the year, and a package arrived on my doorstep. It was an early build of The Club, a game I had never heard of.
Not an hour later I was laughing like a schoolgirl at the merry mayhem I was causing. The Club will be defined as a genre-bending and blending game that turns the third-person shooter on its ear. There are elements to it that make it feel at times like a racing game. Other times feel almost like a trick-based combo game, a Tony Hawk with guns if you will. And still, other aspects of the game hearken back to Space Invaders, namely the Bonus Enemy's quick flight across the screen. To borrow from an overused 90's axiom, This game had me at Push Start.
As anybody who downloaded the demo on either PSN or Xbox Live can probably attest to, the game could quite possibly be the greatest gift imaginable to Leaderboard hounds. The nearly 50 single player events -- most of which take just 2 to 4 minutes to complete -- each have that unmistakable one-more-game addictive quality to them that makes getting to bed on a worknight an impossible task. And the Leaderboards only make the desire to play even stronger. And then there's the multiplayer mode which is just tremendous fun.
It was still November, 2007 but I already had an idea on what the front-runner for 2008's CHOTY would be -- that's "Cult Hit of the Year" for the acronym-challenged -- and it's beyond a doubt The Club.
Link to Sample Chapter at BradyGames.com (11.56 MB)
Giveaway Rules: At the risk of receiving enormous quantities of mail telling me how "bad" (I'm not) I am at the game, I included a "Beat the Author" feature in the guidebook for every mission in the game. This section reveals my best stats for every mission. The first four people who email me the name of the character I used and the score I earned in the mission covered within the sample chapter will receive a signed copy of the guidebook. As always, this contest has nothing to do with the publisher and is just something I do to release the strain on my bookshelves... err umm, I mean to show my appreciation for reading my blog.
*Note: I didn't think this needed to be said, but these giveaways don't go on forever. I appreciate every set of eyes that glances at this blog, but please stop emailing me requests for guidebooks I wrote in 2005. I don't have anymore. Thank you.
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